siddharth bansal's Reviews > The Kaoboys of R&AW: Down Memory Lane

An excellent memoir direct from the horse's mouth. As one of the founders of RAW, B Raman gives a detailed account of how intelligence agencies work and the limitations or bureaucratic roadblocks they face. His frustration with the bureaucracy and internal fightings with IB and MEA are clearly visible in his account. But at times you get a feeling that he is going overboard in his praise for Indira and Rajiv Gandhi, and attributes almost everything good that happened in those 4 decades to both of them. He also very smartly sidesteps the Bofors issue by claiming he doesn't have any knowledge regarding it which is difficult to digest. Although he has given several little anecdotes, which are times humorous as well, but once you finish the book you are left with the feeling that he could have mentioned some more of RAWs missions which are not known to public. Also, I feel he has failed to give credit to deserving people in a couple of cases such as Operation Black Thunder, where Ajit Doval's name is mentioned nowhere and almost all the credit is given to RAW, kPS Gill and the army, and the role of Rakesh Maria in the Bombay blasts case also finds no mention. B Raman remained a bachelor and dedicated his entire life to national security, even post retirement. One wonders how many sacrifices does a person make while working in such agencies, by living their complete life in anonymity for the nation's cause and expecting nothing in return. Four stars to the book, Five Stars to the man.