Stepping Beyond Khaki: Revelations of a Real-Life Singham

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Stepping Beyond Khaki: Revelations of a Real-Life Singham is a tell-all memoir by celebrated former police officer K. Annamalai. With a career spanning a decade in the state of Karnataka, he earned the respect of the people with his humanistic action and his style of leadership focusing on empowering subordinates. Further, Annamalai pitches significant questions that rarely get discussed are politicians bad? And is politics a place where good people fear to tread?

By stepping away from the spotlight and bringing out the real heroes whom he had encountered in his policing journey, this is unlike any other policing memoir. Truthfully told with a dash of idealism, it also prescribes changes that are much needed in politics, policing and in our daily governance mechanisms. It brings out the inherent goodness of the common man and the role the general public play in keeping this democracy functioning.

K. Annamalai is a former IPS officer and currently the Vice President of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Tamil Nadu. He is also the founder and chief servant of 'We The Leaders', a grassroots change-focused initiative, based in Tamil Nadu. He farms at his home town on weekends and travels widely.

The author had a brief but brilliant innings with the Indian Police Service, blazing a trail wherever he served. The reasons for his successes as well as the triggers for his quitting a service that he dearly loved, come out clearly through this book. Each chapter is unique and worth reading. The narration is very simple, interesting and the flow takes us easily from his school days to his last official position as Superintendent of Police, gradually maturing from an unknown to a respected police officer. His empathy is self-evident in the simple but gripping anecdotes that dot this book. In simple prose, he takes the reader on a guided tour of policing-a world whose gamut, naturally, spans all of society's echelons, from scum to the elite, encompassing within it all citizens who crave fairness and justice. How the author balances all these with dignity and self-esteem, is edifying. That the emotional quotient clearly counts more than the intelligence quotient is another key takeaway. He touches upon almost all aspects of policing-from dealing with rules and regulations, the public, subordinates, seniors, politicians and last but not least, with the self (as a police officer and as a human being, and the struggle between these two in deciding the right and wrong in a holistic manner).