I Dare

Amazing account from one of the top cops of India. The book leaves you with a feeling of great determination, but also with a great deal of thought on how difficult is it to rock the cradle of such a hypocrite system...

The entire story is something of the sorts of a realistic Wonder Women, where she does amazing things, shows amazing will power and never ever gives up: but still unlike the superhero Wonder Women, here she is not the one who wins all the time. More often than not, evil has it's way...

From Delhi to Goa to Mizo to Tihar to Chandigarh to UN to being denied the post of Delhi Police Commissioner: I Dare is an intense account of what prestigious civil services really should be, and what has been made of it, the (political) pressure that one has to face, how hard is it to hold on to your values and that it can be done, how the support of one's family forms the backbone of doing great things in life and that what being zealous is all about.

There are a few thoughts, inspired from the book, which I find worth mentioning:

1. Women become empowered when they become givers rather than receivers.
   
   
2. One of the biggest problem in doing great work is that there are always envious people. People who are plagued by their sense of insecurity. And these are the people who put all their energy, not to raise standards of their own work, but to ensure the downfall of the great work which is being done, and the one who's doing it.
   
   
3. People get attached to their status quo. We all are attached to our status quo. Aren't we? We all like the way things are. We don't want them to change (and change them for good!). Change brings uncertainty. And those who have comfortably settled in their nests find this discomforting - for change is all about that. But the bad part is that people don't want to accept that. They want to cling. No one wants to surf on the tide. Those who do - rule!
   
   
4. The only way to achieve larger than life goals for community improvement is by making community a part of the work being done for them.
   
   
5. If system becomes transparent, it automatically becomes accountable.
   
   
6. Things get done through favors. This is true for several things, in almost all the countries. If you know the right person you can get your work done. True. However, the problem with India is that such things have to be done at even the most meager levels of living. That is to say 100% of the population has to do it. While in several developed places in the world: 99% of population can go living on their own: because all the basic infrastructure is smooth. There is corruption at higher level, let that be - for with greatest power comes greatest blackness in hearts, but let things be smooth for the common man.
   
   
7. True leadership is about selflessness.
   
   
8. Sustenance of an initiative is THE most difficult thing to achieve. By sustenance I mean that even when the champion for the issue is gone - the issue stays. That is to say even if Gandhi Ji were to die before we got our independence, we would have got it. Sustenance is difficult because people are moved by the champion for the issue (problem) not the issue itself. And the champion does a lot to conquer the problem but does little to grow leaders who can take over after him.
   
   
9. Mind which is not purposefully engaged is the hub of devil.
   
   
10. And finally in her own words: "Those who do not take charge of their time are lathicharged (caned) by time"
    

Kiran Bedi did dare.

More: www.kiranbedi.org