8216;Salaam Sahib8217;

8216;8216;DG Sahib is in a meeting,8217;8217; he tells another, polite but firm.

The 8216;8216;DG Sahib8217;8217; refrain almost makes one forget that this DG Sahib is no burly, mustachioed supercop.

Some days after Kanchan Choudhry Bhattacharya became the first woman Director General of Police, the waiting room outside her office at the Uttaranchal Police Headquarters in leafy Dehra Dun is packed. The new appointment makes Choudhry the country8217;s highest ranking female police officer ever.

Politicians, officials and the general public throng to felicitate the police chief, who commands the state8217;s 20,000-strong force.

Countless bouquets vie for attention on the crowded mantelpiece and tables. Everyone who comes personally, both well-wishers and supplicants, are entertained. No one is turned away, although they are warned the wait might be long. They wait.

Choudhry8217;s office has the trappings of authority8212;a huge desk piled high with thick files, and police shields and maps on the wall. But there8217;s a decidedly feminine touch in the lavender upholstered chairs paired with cherry pink and lavender striped curtains. DG Sahib herself has carefully styled shoulder-length hair and is coy about revealing her age.

Choudhry has no problem with being referred to as 8216;8216;sahib8217;8217; by her support staff. 8216;8216;I prefer it that way,8217;8217; she says with a smile. 8216;8216;It lends my office a position of neutrality.8217;8217;

In her early years on the force, Choudhry had tough postings in rough areas, including a stint in the badlands of Uttar Pradesh in the late 1970s and early 8217;80s.

The dreaded dacoit, Makhan Singh, who reigned over the Malihabad district for more than a decade, once came incognito to a village mela8212;where Choudhry was present8212;to check out his new foe. He dismissed her as 8216;8216;a chit of a girl, hardly worth worrying about8217;8217;. He would have done well to take the new superintendent of police seriously8212;he was brought to book during Choudhry8217;s tenure.

When asked whether the Malihabad stint was designed as a challenge to her being a woman, Choudhry dismisses the suggestion unequivocally. 8216;8216;I8217;ve never wasted time wondering whether certain decisions had an ulterior motive,8217;8217; she says. 8216;8216;I8217;m here to do a job, so I8217;ve had to be tough. I8217;ve always had a positive attitude and constantly pushed myself.8217;8217;

In her soft-spoken and unassuming way, Choudhry expands on the toughness she8217;s had to exercise in her line of duty. 8216;8216;I8217;ve had to pull the trigger,8217;8217; she says. 8216;8216;I8217;ve been involved in encounters, where we have been under fire and we have had to retaliate. Of course I felt fear, but you realise that you8217;re the team leader and there are lives dependant on you, you have to act, you push the fear away.8217;8217;

She refers often to her sister Kavita Choudhry8217;s television serial Udaan, which is about a woman police officer. 8216;8216;If you remember, the character in the serial asks to be 8216;less protected, please8217;. You could say that was my motto as well.8217;8217;

Kavita, the original Lalitaji from the Surf ads, loosely based her serial on her sister8217;s career. Choudhry grew up in north India, in close touch with grassroot realities8212;quite literally. Her father was an agriculturist. She describes her mother as her greatest role model.

Choudhry decided to join the police force when she realised that everyone, even common citizens, have some contact with the police at some point in their lives. She believed the human touch was sometimes lacking among the force, and was convinced her gender would help her bring more sensitivity to the job.

There have been personal sacrifices and adjustments along the way. Her husband works in the corporate sector in Mumbai. So she has lived together with him and their two daughters Kanika, 21, and Kaveri, 20 for only nine years, while she was posted in Mumbai as an assistant director general.

When they were young, her children followed her moves from city to city; but once they got older, they moved to Mumbai to be with their father. They are currently studying in Canada.

Choudhry makes juggling a successful career and a long-distance marriage sound easy. 8216;8216;We have e-mail. I go to Mumbai for holidays or else he visits me here. We manage.8217;8217;

However, Choudhry is not only about hard-nosed police work. Over the course of her 30-year career, the officer has taken care to round off her qualifications. She has a Master of Arts degree and a Master of Business Administration degree from Woolangong University in Australia.

The new DGP also professes a keen interest in music and the arts. On those increasingly rare occasions when she has free time, Choudhry loves to read a book, preferably poetry Shelley, Yeats and Shakespeare are favourites or philosophy.

The interests might be well-defined, but the demands of the new job are taking their toll. Her regular gym workouts have been the first victim; simple pleasures, such as a quiet walk or a movie, are more infrequent.

Talk of films leads to a discussion about the portrayal of law enforcement in the Indian film industry.

Choudhry stays away from films such as Ab Tak Chappan, a movie about a cold-blooded cop. 8216;8216;I hate violence,8217;8217; she says emphatically. 8216;8216;It upsets me terribly. I sometimes feel that cinema does not take its responsibility seriously. All this gratuitous violence only desensitises society.8217;8217;

Husband Dev Bhattacharya, who works with the Aditya Birla Group, describes his wife as clear-headed, positive and indefatigably energetic. 8216;8216;If she has a fault then it8217;s her tendency to be over-sensitive about other people,8217;8217; he adds.

The phone rings as my time with Choudhry comes to an end. The caller is one of her daughters, lamenting her mother8217;s complete inability to spend time at home.

With a resigned smile, DG Sahib recalls an incident that occurred when she was posted in Bareilly many years ago.

8216;8216;A man came to see me in office and while talking about his problem, broke down and started to cry. My 10-year-old daughter was sitting in a corner of my office doing her homework, when she rushed up and hugged him saying, 8216;Please stop crying. My mother will sort everything out.8217; Her empathy and the complete faith that she had in my commitment and my power really touched me. Suddenly, it made it all worthwhile.8217;8217;