Look who’s guarding Amma

The only woman inspector in the Z-category security ring guarding the CM, Selva is senior-most among the 12 women in Amma’s security detail. Standing tall, she is well-built and speaks in halting English, breaking into brisk Tamil when she spots a familiar face.

Yet, she’s wary of strangers except in the confines of the Tamil Nadu House, in a room where she is put up with two other female colleagues, who prefer to call her akka, a term of respect reserved for a senior colleague.

With Jayalalithaa on a three-day visit to the Capital, her first after the UPA Government was sworn in, Selva is on her second visit here. ‘‘The first was blurred and I didn’t get to see the city at all,’’ she says.

The three women security guards are all trained in martial arts—karate for Selva—and are expected to be dressed less formally than their male counterparts to make them inconspicuous. ‘‘It is to allow them to mingle with the audience,’’ says another senior security officer.

Running five kilometres every alternate day and a gruelling 10-km night walk thrice a week, combined with rock-climbing over weekends have made these women physically tough. Their handshakes are firm and there is no sign of extra flesh.

After the Andhra blasts and the assassination attempt on former Andhra Pradesh chief minister Chandrababu Naidu, these women guards have been put through a schedule which includes shooting—mainly pistols—and training capsules for anti-sabotage checks and bomb-disposal classes.

‘‘With bombs timed to the exact date and time, our training equips us to know the work of saboteurs a little better,’’ says Selva.

For the Chemistry graduate, who joined the state police and opted for CM security, bombs are exciting as she quickly rattles off her experiences in defusing dummies.

And soaking in the excitement is her junior Ramamrutham who prefers pistols and smiles a lot but refuses to speak. Then, there is Chithra whose husband is away in Dubai. These women from the North Arcot district of Tamil Nadu, a region quite dry and arid, are excited about their day off which they reserve for shopping.

On their agenda: visiting Red Fort, India Gate and quick shopping in Old Delhi. The next day, it’s back to guarding Amma with their lives.