Vishwas Nangre Patil - Head Held High

Head Held High is the story of a simple village boy who made good. Born in rural Maharashtra, where the pinnacle of ambition is to become a police sub-inspector, Vishwasrao Nangre Patil, the protagonist of the tale, was selected for the prestigious Indian Police Service, where probationers begin life as assistant superintendents of police and at the end of their careers retire at the very top, if all goes well!

Vishwas had the brains. He needed opportunity, besides hard work and application of mind. Considering that his parents had hardly crossed the barrier of primary school, there was no one at home to mentor him. The closest to have had the fortune of a decent education was his fathers brother, who studied basic engineering and was employed in an engineering company in a mid-level job.

Vishwasrao did get shelter and support at his uncles home in a neighbouring town when he entered middle school, but after that he had to find his own way to continue his studies in high school. This final school lap he completed in Kolhapur, the big city closest to his village, Kokrud.

The life of a young boy growing up in a village is described in minute detail in this book. To say the least, it is fascinating. The simple pleasures one experiences, and the not-so-pleasant experience of being rammed and thrown into the air by a rampaging bull are detailed in this book. Fortunately, Vishwasraos physique, agility and presence of mindwhich served him well during the ordeal of 26/11 at the Taj hotel in 2008saved him from being actually gored by that bull!

At a very early age, our hero acquired the intellectual habit of reading. When he was engrossed in reading, neither hunger nor thirst could affect his concentration! The habit must have stood him in good stead in his plans for a future career. A shot at the UPSCs All-India and Civil Services examinations requires not only above-average intelligence but vast knowledge, based on wide reading, and the ability to analyze and take positions. After my commerce degree I studied law. As soon as I cleared the LLB, I joined the National Standard, now renamed the Indian Express, as a sub-editor to expose myself to all that was happening in India and the world beyond. Vishwasraos preparations five decades later were more elaborate and much better planned!

I had the advantage of an English education in a big city (Mumbai), and exposure to teachers and mentors who were always around to solve doubts. Finally, I spent four months at my maternal grandmothers home in her village in Goa, revising my stuff under the light of a petromax since there was no electricity in Goas villages in 1952, when I appeared for the competitive examination.

Vishwasrao had to shift from hostel to hostel with numerous distractions to overcome, including, at times, rowdy visitors from the village. He had to make the most of his opportunities. He was lucky to meet some very successful and serious-minded personalities, like the IAS officer Bushan Gagrani; Dr S.N. Patil, whom he refers to as Doctor Uncle in this book; and also two friends, Vikas Kharge and Prakash Pote, who, like him, were students at the governments pre-IAS training centre in Mumbai.

Kharge and Pote dissuaded him from wasting his time fruitlessly with rowdy rural boys who came to meet him at the hostel. Doctor Uncle inculcated in him good and healthy habits of hygiene and daily exercise, which stood him in good stead throughout his career. Vikas Kharge went on to top the IAS exam a couple of years before Vishwasrao himself got selected.

In his account of his efforts and struggles to achieve success, Vishwasrao speaks to young men and women of rural background, egging them on to emulate him and march determinedly to the goal of becoming sahebs and madams. It is, as I said earlier, a fascinating account of the life of a young man growing up in a village, whose steely determination and extraordinary courage aided him to become an IPS officer, despite the odds stacked against him.

That same village ladnow a joint commissioner of police in Mumbaion 26 November 2008, at Mumbais iconic Taj Mahal Palace hotel, led his team of the Mumbai Police against the Pakistani terrorists who had sneaked in and caused untold havoc and mayhem never before experienced. All his cognitive senses, developed from infancy in his native village, were in play at that critical time, when out-of-the-box thinking, quick decision-making, cautious but determined action and, above all, extraordinary leadership qualities were required. Vishwasrao had all those qualities. They won him the Presidents Police Medal for Gallantry.

Some of my ex-colleagues, now retired, tell me that they have read another account in Hindi, written by a Maharashtra-cadre IPS officer hailing from the BhindMorena dacoit-infested area of Madhya Pradesh. I have not read that account, but I was happy to learn that IPS officers from rural backgrounds are writing their stories. It will encourage boys and girls from the hinterland to enter the Class I services and thus introduce a measure of egalitarianism in our society.

Before I end, I wish to record my deep appreciation of the skills displayed by Vinita Deshmukh and Prasannakumar Keskar in translating Vishwasraos book from Marathi into English. It was a pleasure to read the translated version. At no time did I feel bored! The narrative was almost racy, like an action movie!

And to my friend Vishwas, I say this: Now that you have shown your brothers and sisters of rural Maharashtra the way to advance in life, spend the rest of your life in the service of the people and guide future IPS officers on the path of truth, justice and integrity, for that is why the IPS was constituted by Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, that great son of India.