My JNU years were shaped significantly by my sociology professor Anand Kumar. His insights on equality, freedom and social justice helped shape the way I thought and approached issues. During the debates at JNU in the early 1990s, I learnt how to present ideas clearly and handle opposing views. These interactions helped me in my service, in communicating effectively and resolving disagreements in team discussions.
During my service, I have had to take hard calls—balancing enforcement with sensitivity to public sentiment. My student activism days at JNU taught me how activism takes place, and that experience helped me understand different perspectives. I learnt to stay calm, assess ground reality, and make decisions that maintained law and order while respecting people’s concerns.
My goal of joining the IPS was shaped even before my JNU days. I come from a military family, which instilled in me a strong sense of discipline and service.
The IPS demands real-time decision-making under pressure, emotional resilience and practical judgment—qualities that no university can fully teach but are learned on the ground. During my training, senior IPS officer K.P.S. Gill emphasised that every policing situation demands a unique solution. He also encouraged us to write poetry to build a more flexible and thoughtful mindset.
Students often overvalue immediate outcomes and quick success, while they tend to undervalue consistent hard work and persistence, which truly makes a long-term difference. My academic training in sociology helped me enormously during my UPSC preparation—it was one of my optional subjects and gave me a strong conceptual understanding that made it easier to grasp and answer questions effectively.
If a student from JNU asks me whether they should attempt the UPSC, I would definitely encourage them. It provides a strong foundation for contributing to nation-building and serving society in a meaningful way. One piece of advice I wish someone had given me before joining the service is this: if I had known how rapidly development and change would take place, I could have prepared myself better. Technology is not only to be understood—it has to be imbibed.
—As told to Abhinav Singh
The author is joint commissioner of police, New Delhi Range.