N. Krishnaswamy

Indian Police Service (Retd.)


Biography My Son Natesan My Police Work My Social Work Awards / Recognitions Extras Photo Gallery

My Writings

During the years 2009 and 2010 I found time to do some serious writing on our ancient scriptural works, that resulted in books on 1) The Bhagavad Gita, 2) The Rig Veda, 3) The Vedangas, and 4) The Lalita Sahasranamam. In these books I attempted to present brief  selections from the original works with simple explanations and perspectives, shorn of  complex and esoteric aspects, for the benefit of the first time reader. I reproduce below copies of my Preface to each of these books as these would provide an adequate perspective and overview, to interest the viewer to consider looking, not for my books but the original works addressed by them.

The Bhagavad Gita Preface The Rig Veda Preface The Vedangas Preface The Lalita Sahasranamam Preface

My Stage Ventures

Few, if any, would have associated me with an involvement with the stage. But my involvement centred always (with one exception by way of direct participation) around organizing children in dance and drama activity. This was as much for the joy it gave me, as for making them powerful and joyous learning experiences for the children. My first venture  was a dance drama woven around the Ramayana story of Lava and Kusa, which I produced for being presented at the All-India Police Cultural Meet at Ootacamund in 1960.  It meant personally mobilizing and training children of constables of the Madras City Police where I was then working as Deputy Commissioner in the Crime Branch. For training the children for the dances, I took the help of C.N.Dandayudhapani Pillai one of the great dance masters of that time. And for composing the lyrics and musical scores for the dance sequences, he enlisted the help of the team of K.V.Mahadevan, one of the stalwarts in the field of cine-music. A pair of little girls, identical twin children of a constable, filled in the role of Lava and Kusa beautifully and they danced through their roles with relish, while other kids, performing as animals in the forest scenes contributed several other delightful dance numbers. The picture below taken on that occasion, shows all the members of that  team. The event simply captivated the audience, who found it hard to believe that it could be produced by a police officer ! The picture also shows the famous actor Sivaji Ganesan – evidence of the support that we had from the film world, organized largely by my great assistant in these activities, V.G.Manoharan.

 

In 1962 again, when was stationed as Superintendent of Police in Tirunelveli District, I organized a children’s troupe to present Rabindranath Tagore’s Bisarjan. My next effort was in 1967 when I was DIG at Coimbatore, and when I trained the six talented children of S.M.A.Aslam, the Conservator of Forests  to put on boards  the hilarious comedy, “The Man Who Married a Dumb Wife” by Anatole France, which had the audience in splits. And finally around 1969, soon after I returned to Chennai (then Madras) from a posting at N.Delhi, when my assignment as DIG in charge of the Railways and Armed Police, left me with a lot of spare time to be able to resume a number of cultural interests. One was to start a Book Club, for which I have another story. My last fling at the stage was with Naveen, a drama troupe that I organized with children of friends of mine, also friends of my daughter Uma. Two  programmes with this group stood out. One was an ambitious reproduction of the scene of Satan’s War Council from Milton’s Paradise Lost. Here the children dressed as devils – with University Convocation Gowns for costumes delivered the tough lines of Satan and his devil advisers so faultlessly and with such panache that the knowledgeable audience were astounded.  But what was really important was that it was a great learning experience for the children in the evocative power of the English language which no school experience would ever be able to give them.

My last essay in this activity was with a presentation of Oscar Wilde’s “The Importance of Being Ernest”. Here the masterly diction with which the delivery of the lines came through in this hilarious situational play, with its phenomenal play on words, drew repeated rounds of applause. The children were themselves so overtaken by the experience that a few days after the event, they trooped into my house  to present me with a citation of their appreciation, which is reproduced below.  What could be more heart-warming ?

 

A last word on the experience of my direct participation in stage activity that I have hinted at above. This was the occasion of a State Police Cultural Meet in 1961, when I and my staff  drawn from all ranks in the Madras City Crime Branch donned the grease paint and full fledged Naga costumes to perform a vigorous Naga dance, true to the Naga tradition. P.Kuppuswamy, the DIG Armed Police, who was running the entire programme came backstage to congratulate the Naga Chief whom led the dance, and he then asked for me so that he could congratulate me as well. He could not contain his astonishment when he was told that the Naga Chief was no other than myself as one may see in the picture below ! Also in the picture is V.G Manoharan, my indefatigable assistant.

Those were great days, even till  the Sixties,  when a moral ethos still prevailed in public life, some of us of the post-Independence generation of the Indian Police Service tried our best to bring decency, culture and sophistication into the Police, But alas, the decades that have followed have demonstrated that the new generation of powers-that-be will have none of this. Their attention would appear to be exclusively concentrated on getting into and remaining  in power – by hook or crook, for which they needed  police forces that would be party to protecting their freedom to  function outside the law – one of the prices we have paid for Freedom with a Government by the people, but not quite of the people or for the people !


At Delhi University

This is a brief recollection of my final years in Delhi University where I took my MSc in Chemistry in the batch of 1944-46. I have a fond memory in particular of my last year’s stay, as one of the first occupants of Gwyer Hall, the new University Hostel named after Sir Maurice Gwyer, the then Vice-Chancellor of the University. It would be interesting to relate this account to the farewell photo shown below taken at the end of that year.

Of the names given up Sir Maurice Gwyer of course, does not have a role in story beyond providing us a place for our happy stay for a year.

M.R.Raman was my classmate and closest friend, a lifelong friendship that ended with his passing away a couple of years ago. We shared the same room in Gwyer Hall. You can also see me on the right in the seated row.  S.P.Mathur was a fellow student at the University, and a hostel-mate at Gwyer Hall. I have changed the name  and I do not point to him in the above photograph  to respect her privacy.  He comes into this story because we were his confidantes in regard to the severe crush he entertained on Asha Rani (named also changed for the same reason), the prettiest girl student of the day in the University. Day after day he would pour out his heart to us, and for want of experience in these matters, could not offer him any advice, beyond words of comfort and encouragement that true love would ultimately prevail.

In due course  our proclivity for leg-pulling got the better of us and so we faked a letter as from a friend of Asha Rani and sent it to Mathur by post. In the letter, he was invited to a rendez-vous at a particular date and time near the University Gate, corresponding to the girl’s usual time of arrival every day at the University.  That was the last time Mathur spoke to us on the subject. It was rumoured that he had attempted a contact, but got ticked off. We felt sorry for Mathur, but realized that these are the hazards of unilaterally falling in love with some one !!

Another hostel mate was Kumar, who was greatly devoted to me as he could always fall back on me for loans to sustain his need for cigarettes. I found to my dismay that My friend Raman was also falling into the cigarette habit, and finally made him kick the habit by threatening to walk out on him -  with a final persuasive blow coming from news of his chain-smoking elder brother Narayanan, succumbing to Tuberculosis. Penicillin was still unknown and TB was generally accepted as the end of the road.