Peril and pride

Police sub-inspector Balkrishna Ghadigaonkar and his wife Bhakti have an unspoken understanding between them: she mutters a silent prayer

Police sub-inspector Balkrishna Ghadigaonkar and his wife Bhakti have an unspoken understanding between them: she mutters a silent prayer when he leaves home and he doesnt discuss his days work when he returns. Thirty seven-year-old Ghadigaonkar is part of the Mumbai Polices Bomb Detection and Disposal Squad BDDS,a job where peril and pride go hand-in-hand.

Ghadigaonkar,who joined the force as a constable in 1994,became a police sub-inspector after passing his Maharashtra Public Service Exams in 2005. In 2008,he joined the BDDS.

My decision to join the squad was obviously met with opposition from my family,especially my mother who was against my joining the force in the first place. Both my father and elder brother were police constables,and my brother died in 2005. When I joined the force and became a sub-inspector,she was wary but accepted it. However when I joined BDDS,her opposition was more intense as this job entailed a daily threat to life, says Ghadigaonkar.

Seated in his home at Naigaons BDD chawl,which serves as a police housing colony,Ghadigaonkar played with his toddler son Vishnu and eight-year-old daughter Udita while his wife Bhakti pottered around in the kitchen.

November 26,2008,was the day when the actual implications of being a BDDS cop hit me full force. That was the first time I came face-to-face with a live bomb. Incidentally,that night I had just returned from my shift when my sister who works in Prasar Bharti called to say something serious had struck the city. I switched on the television and saw that it was a terror attack and without even waiting for my senior inspector to summon me,I was on my way to the field, he says,casting a glance at his mother Sunandabai.

To this day,my mother scolds my sister for making that call to me, he says with a grin. I dont discuss work at home but just to give them an idea,I recently took them to see The Hurt Locker, he says.

He had told me about his work at the time of our marriage in 2002 and since then,he has prepared me for the worst. He doesnt call me every time he goes on field and I dont ask him how many bomb calls he went for during the day. He takes pride in his job and I am proud that he does his work so professionally, said Bhakti.

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The BDDS,which has 13 units,receives around five-six calls a day,besides which the personnel have to perform routine daily checks.

We treat each call with the same importance,though a majority of them are about abandoned bags which arouse suspicion. Even though we may not find any bombs to defuse,we follow the procedure as it also helps us practice our skills. In this job,there is no scope for a second chance if we make a mistake and hence,besides our instruments,team-work and practice,the sniffer dog is our God! he says,adding that they had always been cautioned against being dead heroes.

Ghadigaonkar has hopes for his childrenhe wants both of them to be gazetted officersand for himself too. In my next posting,if given a choice,I would like to be posted at a police station,where I can use my training to train others in the basic aspects of what to do when a bomb is reported, he says.