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leaders. This happened around the time when Iwas about to retire.Life is a continuous process of learning; onecontinues to learn literally till his last breath.Mr. Rajeswar was a man of great contacts, Mr.Narayanan an officer of nuts and bolts, a down toearth man, and Mr. Vaidya was a visionary, a manof great imagination. I learnt extensively from allthree of them. However, about imagining theimpossible and making it possible, I learnt onlyfrom Mr. Vaidya. Hats-off to all three of them.Till the late 70’s, women were not represented inthe Indian Intelligence. It was then that Renukamoved in as my Assistant Director. And when Ibecame Additional Director and Establishmentwas added to my charge for a brief period, Irecruited three girls who had just then finishedtheir Masters from Bombay University. Theywere desperate to join the Intelligence Bureau asthey wanted to do something for the nation, thenpassing through a difficult phase on the law andorder front. The Board, during interview, madethem aware of the difficult living conditionswithin the Intelligence Bureau, and still moredifficult postings. They were, however, firedwith patriotic zeal and were ready to savourany hardship for the sake of the nation. They leftthe Board with no option but to take them in asACIOs-Il, and what amazing results they producedwhile working in the Intelligence Bureau. OneACIO-Il, I used to call her ‘KK’, was utilized byme in the ULFA operations and there was nostopping her from producing results to an extentthat she received more than 30 rewards, bothcash and commendations, from a DIB as toughand as legendary as Mr. Narayanan. I am surethat even today, women officers can do wondersin the field of intelligence, provided the middlelevel leadership in the lB shows no hesitation inexposing them to risks which is the bread andbutter of any good intelligence officer.While having a lot of contacts in the field assuresone of the ability of on the spot verification andof being forewarned, a lot can be achieved inthe field of intelligence mainly through goodteam work. I am convinced no intelligenceorganization can flourish in officer-subordinatesyndrome. In intelligence organizations, youshould not be giving orders but you should bejoining shoulders with subordinates, in meetingan objective. Excellent results can be achievedonly when the lowest in the team has confidencethat all laurels would necessarily visit him,and that the senior most in the team wouldaccept responsibility for all failures. I am sure, Isucceeded in generating that level of confidencein my teams. Consequently, they ended up doingall the leg work and all the unpleasant work andI just shared their achievements.The Intelligence Bureau is an excellentorganization to live and work in. It is also awonderful organization in retirement, since itcontinues to treat you as a family member tillyour last breath. It contains excellent officers,for some of whom the word impossible does notexist. I personally knew two such ADs, includingthe one who is presently the DIB and Doval, theformer DIB. To both of them, no obstacle wasinsurmountable. Both Doval and Nehchal raisedexcellent teams of intelligence officers and I usedthem to the organisation’s advantage at the oddestof places. Twice we missed out on contact withthe underground leaders inside a foreign countryand twice the ACIOs-Il in our teams took a coverwhich took them deep inside, and contact wasre-established. It was a feat all the same, hiddensecurely from publicity and media glare-like mostof the Intelligence Bureau operations are.I am now retired for 20 years, of which 11years I have spent in Bhopal. I can’t envisageIntelligence Bureau not being around me. Theyhave looked after me in my happiness and in mygrief. I remember and deeply mourn the deathof Mr. Trikha who did spend some years in theIntelligence Bureau, though he finally retired fromthe State Police. What I remember most about hisillness were the last few days and nights that hespent in a nursing home in Bhopal. During thosedays and nights, it was only the lB officials whohelped Mrs Trikha by spending the nights anddays with him in the hospital. Even his funeralwas an exclusive lB affair.It has been 25 years since the IntelligenceBureau celebrated its centenary. For organizingthe centenary celebrations a committee wasconstituted at the lB headquarters, nicknamedC.O.C.K (Committee for Organsation ofCentenary Karyakram) and I was entrusted theThe Indian Police Journal, October - December, 2012, Special Issue 71