23rd Nov

Today was the Police Day. Puru went, now that he holds this supposedly important post. I remember he had given it a miss for the last two years. Yes it was odd to see him get up so early (7:30 a.m.). Once he got used to the fact that he didn’t have to attend office any more; Puru had taken to waking up at nine in the morning and going for his stroll at eleven. He pottered around pretending to read or call up old friends till it was time for his afternoon nap. He seems to catch up on all his lost sleep.
Then in the evening he would go off to play cards with some old hanger-ons. I often wondered as to why these creatures still persisted. Till I realized that Puru still had some utility for these men. The present senior cops were once Puru’s subordinates and some of them still respected him enough to give him a hearing.

Puru in civilian clothes for the Police Divas? My heart ached as the memories of yester year flooded by. Puru looked the perfect picture of a handsome aging general with his salt and pepper hair. All the medals on his chest seemed to gleam with a special glow of courage and duty making Puru in his uniform haughty and regal.

I would also hurry up and wrapped in chiffon and dark glasses take my seat in the first row. As I watched the DG’s wife waddle up to me I dreamt of the time when I would do the honours. Mrs. Every-thing-is-fine sat down with a thump on the red coloured sofa kept for the VIP. She smiled at all the rest of the wives of other officers with a certain amount of disdain. I know she noted that Anupama hadn’t come. Her husband was the Intelligence Chief. A frown appeared on her brow.

“Dikshita, she called in her surprising Marwari inflection. Where is Anu?”

“No idea Madam. Even the other Anu-Anuradha has not come.”

“Anu senior has gone to the US to visit her son.”

A thin worried woman came to the defense of Anupama. She or rather her husband Mr.Sharma was close to the Intelligence Chief. May be she felt that the DG’s wife –the ‘Burra memsahib’ must be kept appeased. Even though the Intelligence Chief was rumoured to be close to the Chief Minister, it was better if the DG was happy as well or (rather didn’t think that the Intelligence Chief’s- wife Anu) was not deliberately snubbing the Big memsaheb.

I knew Bhanti sahib – Anuradha’s husband would receive a dressing down tomorrow. Probably be penalized for some small mistake, just because his wife didn’t or couldn’t come; specially when the top cop’s wife had arrived.

Police Divas is important for all of us who are married to the cops. The awards and prizes for outstanding work through the year are given by the Chief Guest who is normally the Chief Minister. Then he gives a speech in which he promises more jobs and better equipment for the forces. Some of them even promised generous amount of lands for housing the cops. Or lands at a cheaper rates for personal homes- depending on how close the election year was.

How much of it is translated into reality depends on the pursuing capacity of the cops and the mulish finance ministry underlings!

I was sipping my mid-morning coffee when Puru returned. He looked gray in the morning sun. Tired, defeated? I held my tongue. Just asked, “How was the Parade?”
“Terrible. It gets worse with each passing year. The CM didn’t turn up. Some shoddy deputy CM –Bir Singh did the honours. You know he stammers and lisps. I could hear the titters from the audience quite clearly. Most of the retired officers didn’t come. Nor did the serving officers’ wives.”

My face must have mirrored shocked disappointment. I just stuttered, “Why? Was there some sort of a conspiracy?”
He gave me the look that said You-are-so-tiresome.
“You know the officers have become too slack. There is no sense of involvement with the men, the constables.”

The evening paper arrived with a thump on the verandah. The front page had photos of the parade and mug shots of all the wives who attended to add glamour. Glamour did you say? They all looked so uniformly bored and fat.

Puru peering over my shoulder remarked, “Is that Neetu? She is unrecognizable under the layers of fat!”

“But the parade must have been good. You can’t possibly spoil that,” I commented.

“Well there was a contingent that passed by me and the parade commander barked ‘Eyes Right’. ‘ Daayeene dekh’ and my eyes met the cross-eyed cop trying hard to keep it right!