This is basically a book about leadership. Leaders basically act as catalysts for positive change. While today leadership in literature is mostly about CEO’s, the magnitude of social change that Kiran Bedi has started is(to me) much more impressive than that. One of her famous postings was as Inspector-General of Tihar Jail in Delhi. Before she arrived, it was known to be a hellhole. Drugs, physical abuse, corruption, disease, prisoner deaths were common.
In the short span of two years, she converted the prison into “virtually an ashram” in the words of the press – which in involved man-management of over 8000 prisoners and hundreds of staff – all of whom were beset by common problems.
The book tells the story of the innovative methods – mostly rehabilitation and correctional efforts managed to change a place like Tihar in such a short span of time.
Another aspect of undaunted leadership is that Kiran Bedi often found huge opposition from politicians and others who didn’t like her making changes to the system – and she manages to accept these realities and still carry on her work at the same time.