DGP is 'Dabang', SSP 'Don' at IPS Week finale

LUCKNOW: Director general of police Arvind Kumar Jain is Dabang and senior superintendent of police (SSP) Yashasvi Yadav is Don. If not by character, at least by the titles they were given on the Mess Night on Sunday evening to mark the end of the three-day IPS week celebrations.
Though most of the IPS officers called the titles a Mess Night tradition, one of the them said: “Actually, it’s the only time we can say whatever we want about our colleagues without the fear of being transferred or facing an inquiry, obviously in a lighter vein.” Since the titles were based on popular film songs, IG Navniet Sikera got the title ‘Aage Peechhe Hamari Sarkar’ while DG Fire Services Pravin Singh was tagged with ‘Fire Brigade Mangawade Re’.
Directed by senior superintendent of police (SSP) of the special task force (STF) Amit Pathak, a comic skit showed two IPS officers buying vegetables from two vendors and how one of vendors grabs away a pumpkin he had already sold to the local DIG’s wife from, when the IG sah’b’s wife walks in and asks for one. The skit also showed a get together of the officers’ wife and their conversation left the audience in splits. The depiction of a senior officer’s wife who returns to India after a three-year study leave and finds it difficult to speak and understand Hindi, a language she had spoken for 30 years, was a class act. In another scene the play showed to a comic effect the dilemma of another IPS officer’s wife, whose husband had just been removed from the post of SSP of an important district and how she struggles to keep up with the customs of a kitty party in the changed scenario.
The other highlight of the evening was a skit titled Dil Cheez Kya Hai Aap Meri Jaan Lijiye in which two IPS officers SP Chitrakoot Pawan Kumar and Commandant 30th Battallion PAC Atul Sharma played vegetable vendors by the roadside. The skit was based on what the IPS officers’ wives do while their husbands are in associated with the police services. The characters were played by the wife of IG Ranjan Dwivedi's wife Suchitra Dwivedi, Mahendra Modi's wife Seema Modi, DIG Chitrakoot Ghanshyam Tewari's wife Aradhana Tewari, SP Basti Amit Verma’s wife Aarti Verma, SP GRP Anand Kulkarni's wife Kamiya Kulkarni, IG Anand Swaroop's wife Yogita Swaroop and ADG BL Ratnam's daughter Alekhya.
There were also performances by IPS officer’s children including Devansh who played a guitar, dance recital and solo performances by Supriyanshi, Yashasvi and Shreya. Events lined up earlier in the day including a cricket match between the IPS and the IAS and art exhibition by IPS officers’ wives had to be postponed because of rains.