New Delhi: A caterer, who fed a prime minister’s entourage in a mofussil town in the early 80s, being denied a Rs 7,000 bill due to mention of chicken in the menu and the administration forgetting to receive a home minister at the railway station on a wintery morning are some of the anecdotes shared in a book written by former Uttar Pradesh DGP O P Singh on his policing experiences.
The 1983-batch Indian Police Service (IPS) officer has come out with a compilation of his “mosaic of experiences” gathered during 37 years of his career — “Through My Eyes: Sketches from A Cop’s Notebook”.
The top officer retired in January 2020 from the post of Uttar Pradesh director general of police (DGP) after heading the CISF and the NDRF at the Centre. Last year, he came out with his memoir — “Crime, Grime and Gumption: Case files of an IPS officer”.
The latest book, in Singh’s words, is “not merely a recounting of events but a mosaic of narratives, each woven with the depth and nuances of storytelling”.
“This book is a collection of such moments and anecdotes from my life, spanning from my childhood to my years in the police service,” he writes in the author’s note.
Reading the book is like “flipping through an old photo album”, he says.
Sharing an incident from the summer of 1985, Singh, then a newly minted IPS officer-under-training in Moradabad district, recounts the day when he, along with the city magistrate and DSP, went to a restaurant near the railway station for a cup of tea.
A man stood before them with “hands folded in greeting, head slightly bowed, his expression a mix of deference and desperation”.
The city magistrate dismissed him “with a quick flick of his eyes” and said “not now”.
A “curious” Singh sought to know who he was.
“The man, as it turned out, was a caterer by profession. Years ago, when Chaudhary Charan Singh was Prime Minister, he had been tasked with providing food for the PM’s entourage during a visit to this district.
“As part of the grand arrangements made by the district administration, he had diligently prepared and served meals to a host of officials, guests and staff,” Singh writes.
He submitted a “modest” bill of ₹7,000 after the visit and mentioned “chicken” among the delicacies served.
“What followed was a textbook case of bureaucratic ping-pong. The bill, innocuous as it seemed, began its long and winding journey through the labyrinth of government officers, file upon file, desk upon desk, the poor carter’s bill travelled far and wide, gathering signatures, queries, objections and eventually dust.”
“Years passed and the bill’s odyssey finally ended in the Prime Minister’s Office where it awaited the ultimate stamp of approval,” Singh writes.
The PMO passed the final order: “The Prime Minister does not eat chicken. Payment denied.”
His money, Singh says, seemed to have been “devoured- not by the diners, but by the system”.
The city magistrate ended the story saying, “The poor fellow has been chasing that payment ever since.”
“Whenever we see him coming, we know it is chicken bill time,” he said.
Singh wonders at the “absurdity” of this incident, saying the caterer’s story was “a masterclass in the peculiar ways of bureaucracy, where logic often took a backseat to red tape”.
In 1986, Singh was posted as the Circle Officer of Mughalsarai in Varanasi district and was doubling up as “CO VIP” on a particular day.
The then Uttar Pradesh home minister Gopi Nath Dixit reached the temple town on a scheduled tour onboard an early morning train but “surprisingly”, Singh found out that there was “no sign” of the VIP car or the protocol magistrate to welcome and escort the minister.
He alone received the minister and drove him in his Gypsy with his gunner climbing into the back.
“This was the home minister of Uttar Pradesh, a cabinet-rank minister- a man of stature and significance- and yet, here we were, with no arrangements in place to honour his position.”
“The chill of the morning air felt heavier now, pressing on my sense of responsibility,” the retired IPS officer recounts.
The “worst” was yet to come, he adds.
The VIP suite at the Circuit House, reserved for the minister, was locked and this was “nothing short of an administrative debacle”.
The caretaker was quickly located by a sentry and a traffic constable on duty and the suite was “hurriedly” opened.
Soon after, the minister’s PA reached the guest house and dialled some of those who mattered in the district. In no time, the Divisional Commissioner, DIG, District Magistrate and Senior Superintendent of Police descended upon the Circuit House as the assistant “unleashed a torrent of reprimands”.
The book, written in a short story format across 42 chapters, mentions some moving incidents involving Singh’s police career including a case of “honour killing” where a man killed his daughter in “cold blood” and buried her body in the courtyard and the “tension” in Kasganj district when a Dalit decided to take this wedding procession through areas dominated by the upper caste.
The author also shares a “softer side” of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, in a chapter named after him, when he “offered” him the services of the state helicopter for conducting field visits across the large central Indian state.
