I know this blog isn’t of literary excellence, is not even a attempt at investigative journalism. This is blog is just a simple statement of facts, sans my usual glorified words. This blog doesn’t need that.
The day I met Dr. Kiran Bedi -
And got a chance to "ride" with her
I always felt that there are some things that happen in your life, which change the kind of person you are or influence it greatly. Such opportunities come very few and far.
Meeting Dr. Bedi, would be one of them, but accompanying her from her home to our Office (where she had a lecture) was a break I was lucky to get. It doesn’t get any better than THAT!
Dr. Bedi (yes she has a PhD in Social Science) is a very down to earth, beautiful person. To think, that she actually took time to put me at ease, ask me how do I travel from Delhi to Gurgaon everyday for work in all this traffic – and whether I was safe doing so - was just one of the earnestly asked questions.
At our office, her speech was electric – people literally had Goosebumps – well, also because the AirCon was a little too high that day, but her demeanor was scintillating. She spoke in bits of Hindi and English both, she was funny, and cracked quite a few one liners thru out the one- hour session to a full house – a rarity for such lecture series that we are running.
At end of this session, when my HOD stated that she remembered how they all guffawed at the fact that Dr. Bedi “Ne iski bhi car uthwa li” remembering her Traffic Police days, Dr. Bedi without missing a breath said, “oh yes, that’s right, I had towed away Indira Gandhi’s car also” – much to the amusement of all of us who knew, and to the surprise of those who didn’t.
On the way back, she insisted that she didn’t need to be escorted as I would have to travel back and forth from Delhi to Gurgaon. Then asked me where I lived, was okay if I went straight home as it would reduce my travel time. Such was her motherly and caring attitude towards a total stranger. While travelling with her in the car- with untinted windows- I could see people turning and staring at her. However she was rather composed- to an extent it seemed she didn’t even notice the stares and the glares!
She inquired about my family, and it didn’t seem like one of those small talks that one does. She was genuinely interested in my history, she was very enamored by the fact that my father was also in HR, and that he was a mentor for me. I now understand her inters in this, as she took up tennis because her father played too. In fact at the end of the journey she asked me to “pay my regards to your father”.
Upon reaching her office, she invited me in to met some of her project people, she gave me a few books to read, and she gave me an insight into how Dr. Bedi’s office works. And when it was time to for me to leave, she came out to bid me goodbye as I left and the car backed out onto the road.
I did pay her regards to my father, only to see the biggest smile on his face ever, to think his baby girl got him “the regards” from a PIONEER, and a good citizen and beautiful person.
