A Rendezvous with Kiran Bedi ................

well yesterday 7th of august was one such fine day of my life which i may never forget a few things really changed my this usual day to an extraordinary day  a day which one See's in a blue moon only if you get lucky enough for that ................well i done need to make prelude for the event to be described but just one thing i really got to say before i begin " this is been one of the biggest days of my life which I LOVED IT!!!!!.................At 5’2’, Kirin Bedi is not an imposing figure. Yet her iron will and deep sense of spirituality made her more formidable than her physical presence would suggest. In India, a land where women struggle against the second-class status rooted in an ancient culture that has not caught up with the equal rights laws of its young government, Bedi’s achievements have made her a role model and hero to other Indian women.

Kiran Bedi is truly an icon of heroism. She was the first Indian woman to join the Indian Police Services.As she drew us back to have a glance over her past and her childhood and her days of youth i realized that today even in this tech era we did nothing as compared to her in her times.being born in  1949 and at present with a age if 61 she looks as of any late 40s and early 50s.She did her schooling from the Sacred Heart Convent School in Amritsar. She completed her graduation in the English language from the Government College for Women in Amritsar. She received her Masters degree in Political Science from Punjab University, Chandigarh. She continued her studies, even when she joined the Indian Police force. In the year 1988, she obtained a degree in Law (LLB) from Delhi University.

In the year 1993, the Department of Social Sciences, the Indian Institute of Technology in New Delhi awarded her with a Ph.D. degree. Her topic of research was Drug Abuse and Domestic Violence.  

She has won a number of awards both in India and abroad. The prominent ones among include the President's Gallantry Award in 1979, the Asia Region Award for Drug Prevention and Control in 1991, the Magsaysay Award in 1994 for Government Service, the Joseph Beuys Award in 1997, the Mother Teresa Memorial National Award for Social Justice in 2005 and the Serge Soitiroff Memorial Award for drug abuse prevention by the United Nations.

Kiran excelled at sports particularly tennis. She won the inter-University women's team title and bagged the national title as well as the Asian title in tennis. Bedi says the game taught her the value of hard work, the importance of staying fit and built in her the qualities of fair play, team work, concentration, and the ability to give in that extra bit under stress.

Kiran fell in love with Brij Bedi a fellow student and married him in 1972. This was also the year when Kiran was selected for the Indian Police Service (IPS).

Kiran Bedi has won the championship of all-India and all-Asian tennis competition. When she was 22 years old, she won the Asian Ladies Title.i remember her telling ,like when she gave her UPCS exam which she was quite confident of cracking which she did,and her telling "my batch mates had studied about me in g.k books and tthey were astonished to find her in the academy with them"..........and her friends saying " ki agar yehladki ho ke inta kar sakti hai to tum ladke kyun nahi"     she actually raised the bars for all due to her never ending stamina...Her career started in the year 1970, when she took the job of a lecturer at Khalsa College for Women in Amritsar. Two years later, she joined the Indian Police Services. All the way through her career, she has taken up a number of challenging assignments. She has served as the Traffic Commissioner of New Delhi, Deputy Inspector General of Police in the insurgency prone area of Mizoram.

She has also been the Lieutenant Governor of Chandigarh and Director General of Narcotics Control Bureau. An interesting thing about Kiran Bedi is that, sometimes, she is referred to as Crane Bedi. The reason behind calling her by this name is that, she dragged the car of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi due to violation of parking rules.  to this she said that people used to say "gadi thik se nahi park karoge to crane bedi ka challan fat jaegachahe koi bhi ho ristedar ya prime minister indra gandhi........ 

Kiran Bedi made the Indian Police Service change its decision in matters related to traffic management, control over narcotics and VIP security.

 The greatest challenge to her philosophy came in 1994 when she was promoted to the rank of Inspector General of Prisons and given the responsibility of managing the largest and most notorious prison in the Asia Pacific area. Tihar Prison held approximately 8,500 prisoners, mostly male. Rife with corruption, where prisoners were denied basic human rights and lived in fear of prison officials, Tihar’s unofficial title of “hellhole” was well deserved. Bedi’s approach was, in her typical fashion, hands on. She visited the prisoners. She talked to them and learned of the horrible living conditions they endured at the hands of callous and cruel guards. She also learned that the drug trade was alive and well inside the prison.

During her tenure as the Inspector General of Tiharredressal of complaints made by the prisoners etc.she said that tihar jail would turn onto school from 9  to 1 and this beautiful innovative thought of teaching the criminals become a revolution and today it has become a law......... 

One of her first official acts was to maintain a complaint box. Prisoners could lodge complaints about treatment or express concerns on paper. They would then place the paper into a box that was locked until Bedi unlocked it. She personally read these complaints every day and acted upon them. Unethical and illegal power of guards over prisoners dissipated. Prisoners began to believe that they would at least get fair treatment.

As per Bedi’s orders, sanitation problems were corrected and proper nutrition was provided. Bedi introduced drug treatment programs and created an atmosphere that encouraged prayer and meditation. Literacy programs were instituted wherein educated prisoners put their skills to good use teaching their fellow prisoners. Legal advocacy by inmates who were lawyers was encouraged. Bedi had trees planted in a central area of the prison to put a tangible expression to the environment she planned to create.

Bedi then took a bold step to reinforce the positive behavioral changes resulting from the many programs she had instituted. She began a course in Vipassana, an ancient technique of self-purification, which has experienced a public revival in India after having been all but lost for centuries. Participants spend a rigorous ten days of meditation and prayer, learning to observe themselves. Talking, reading, drinking, smoking, and sexual activity are forbidden during this period of confinement. No one may leave once the course has begun and the periods to eat, rest, and meditate are strictly scheduled. As the course progresses, the participant is brought face to face with himself. This reality check has had a positive impact on many of the prisoners. Many prisoners feel the course rehabilitated them as it forced them to look directly and without excuses into their dark sides. More than a 1,000 prisoners signed up for the second offering of the course. Today, two courses per month are offered at the prison. 

Yet her greatest achievement may be the effect her achievements have had on Indian women who see KiranBedi as a role model and a hero. Bedi has shown them that with hard work and determination, they can overcome ancient stereotyping and make their dreams come true. 

as all this Rendezvous witrh her was more than enough this fair lady or madam bedi showed emense courtesy of taking her dinner with all of us present over there .....

i must admit that the dinner was way far more interactive and inspiring as compared to the conference .we all had this fair chance of dining with her and having our selves piced with her   which i will soon upload it..........well it gets endless describing about any this kind of personality  but one thing which she stressed on more was that"  LEARN TO DESERVE BEFORE YOU DEMAND!!!!!"

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