• COOMI KAPOOR: You were the first woman IPS officer. When you went into this male bastion that thrives on its macho image, did you think you needed to temper your personality, your lifestyle?

The good thing is that I have remained consistent with who I was. I have only grown in experience and I have used the experience. I have not changed. I remained my original self and held my ground. And had I been a contradiction in my own mind, I would have been a mess. Like, I was never a sari girl to be honest; not because I don’t like saris. But the whole point was that I was not growing up in a sari. Even when there were formal occasions when one was expected to wear a sari, I was in my Pathan suit because I had no patience to wrap six yards around myself. My dress habits did not change, my work habits didn’t change, my sleep and waking timings didn’t change, and my habit of speaking up did not change. Even as a tennis player I was a speaking-up person. I would go to the umpire to say it’s a bad call. If he told me to go back and play, I’d go back but I’d let him know it was a bad call. This internal consistency gave me inner joy in what I did.

• COOMI KAPOOR: But was it not very hard to break into a male bastion?

I’d broken into a male bastion even as a tennis player. I think that’s where playing sports makes such a big difference. Competitive sports of the level I played as a tennis player. Therefore, whenever I go to colleges and schools, I tell them, ‘For God’s sake, make them play outdoor sports, competitive games, because then they really open up and get the physical fitness and mental tenacity they need. For me, men weren’t something that had come from Mars; they were part of Venus and were in fact living on Venus.

... contd.