Mystery Woman

BHAVNA Paliwal is all smiles as she leans back on her black leather executive chair. She hasn’t slept in 24 hours, having tracked a suspect across the hills near Delhi. “That’s the nature of a private detective’s job—one minute you are having chaat with the family, the next you’re chasing a man whose wife suspects him of having an affair,” she says. Despite the complaint, Paliwal loves her job. This is evident from the ease with which she occupies her chair in her office, the gusto with which she laughs at the stories she tells.

- Avantika Mehta

The sign outside her two-room office in Pitampura says ‘astrologer.’ She prefers the mystery. “Ours isn’t a profession in which we tell people what we do. It suits me that everyone in this place thinks I’m an astrologer; it’s best if they don’t know I am a detective,” she explains.

Starting in the field was not easy though. Paliwal always knew she wanted to do something different with her life. That is all she was sure of when she moved to Delhi as a 21-year-old. After studying journalism, she began working in the newspaper, These Days, but that was only a month-and a-half stint. She didn’t enjoy working under an editor. Then she spotted an advertisement saying the Times Detective Agency was looking for female and male detectives.

Why did she pick such an unusual profession? “I was always inspired by Kiran Bedi, the first woman to join the Indian Police Service (IPS). I’d see her on television and in the news as a child. I wanted to be like her. I wanted people to take notice of me,” she replies.