Mission Accomplished

Seven years after a failed attempt to make it to the Indo-China Border at the Nathula Pass, Sikkim (I was still a Bachelor then), myself and Deepu made a touch down on the Chinese soil at Nathula last week.

But before I begin describing the seven days of fun we had on this holiday to the North East last week, there's a lot to be told about the four months that I failed to put up a post here. Once I was out of the district grind, I thought, I'd have more time to myself to indulge in leisure's like blogging. Somehow it wasn't to be. While I did regain the peace-of-mind, that I was longing for... since the last six years...work in the Internal Security Division started to get so Interesting that I was carrying files home everyday and work on them. The division was not only young but also neglected for long, for various reasons. So here I found an opportunity to create systems from scratch, for a young and upcoming organisation. I had an equally energetic and encouraging boss that work became enjoyable after a long long time. So most of the last four months were spent in drafting proposals after proposals and pushing them for sanctions. It has been one of the most creative parts of my career. To my satisfaction, today I see this organisation totally re-organised and working in a very systematic way. There's still a lot to be done though.... I dont know for how long I would continue in this organisation.

Though I kept myself busy with the office and Deepu was with her studies, we did manage to salvage as much fun as possible with the weekends being totally free. Most sunday's we'd spend the mornings preparing breakfast and then cleaning up the house. We'd just drive out in the evenings meeting friends or watching a movie etc. In the first week of June, I was deputed for an Anti-Naxal operation in Chikmagalur. So me and Deepu decided to go there together. She would meet up with her friends there while I am busy with official work and once I am done with the work we decided to overstay and spend some time among the western ghats. We left Bangalore on Monday the 6th and the operation lasted for two days on the 7th and 8th... I left Deepu at Chikmagalur at the Kadur Club, and I had to stay put at Shringeri for those couple of days. Deepu spent the time meeting her friend, the lady wife of the SP Chikmagalur and made a few new friends too. They seemed to have had some fun visiting the peaks and the waterfalls.

That was around the time I was in Shringeri overseeing the Operation and along with a couple of other officers we went up the Manikya Parvatha on a trek. It was raining all along and what a memorable day it was. The western ghats are perhaps one of the worlds most beautiful spots one has to experience, especially during the monsoon.

Once I was done with my Shringeri job, i returned back to Chikmagalur to meet up with Deepu. We had dinner that night at the Sarai resort... perhaps one of the most expensive resorts I have been to so far, and offcourse we were hosted by the SP there. The next day he had arranged for an outing at the Eagle eye resort and also accompanied us with his family. We stayed at the pool villa on the top, overseeing the beautiful lush green valley. The SP from Shimoga also joined us with family for the evening and it was an unforgettable evening with a dinner around camp fire, endless gossip, followed by a game of cards in the room till 2 am. The next morning we left the resort by 12pm and reached Chikmagalur again. Deepu and her friends did some shopping and then left towards Bangalore. On the way we made a visit to an water sports place on the backwaters of a dam and then visited the Belur temple.

We were invited to dinner at the SP's residence in Hassan who are also good friends of ours. So we decided to halt in Hassan for the night after the dinner. Deepu actually suggested we make it to the Gomateshwara statue the next morning, but when morning came somehow none of us were in mood for it. So we decided to hit the road early and make it to Bangalore by lunch. We did reach Bangalore by about 2pm, had lunch at a Chinese restaurant on Cunningham Road and reached home by 4. That was one hell of a week !

These last four months have also been the period of waiting for my Deputation to the CBI. The deputation file that was kept pending for reasons of absence of the CVC, finally got cleared with the CVC getting appointed in the last week of June. Now with the Union Home Ministry also sending letters to the Government of Karnataka to relieve me, it just seems to be a matter of time before I have to leave the Internal Security Division and join the CBI. But I should still say that my stay in the ISD though short has been a very productive and memorable one. At some stage I did in fact, feel that even if the CBI deputation doesn't come through, I would prefer to continue in the ISD for some time, till I see it really function as a professional Anti-Terrorist Unit. After those recent bomb blasts in Mumbai on the 13th of July, all chiefs of the Anti-Terrorist cells in the country were called to the National Investigation Agency, New Delhi, for brain storming on the Investigation. I had this unique opportunity to represent Karnataka and got a taste of discussing issues of National Importance with the best brains in the field. I would forever miss this organisation.

The one more thing that we did during the last four months was to postpone our vacation to North East... on several occasions to ensure that other family members could join us... and on some occasions coz.. work at the ISD just got interesting. But with Deepu finally booking her tickets to the US for her three month long vacation from 17th Aug to Nov... it was like a now or never situation. So the first thing I did was to book the tickets to the North East immediately and then applied for my leave the next day. Accordingly our vacation to the North East was planned from Saturday the 6th of August to the 13th. Deepu would still have three days after return to unpack and pack for her overseas voyage.