The office is located on the first floor of 66 Connaught place. It is a small room partitioned into two separate spaces, a small reception cum waiting area and an accounts section. I was sitting on an old sofa in the waiting area. There were glass partitions separating, what could have been a drawing room of an apartment. I was to learn later that Col. Gulati occupies the rest of the flat as his residential quarters.

I could see the accountant going over bulky files, through the partition. There were around twenty-five people in both the rooms. The walls of the waiting area were adorned with the logo of the agency, some commendation certificates, a few trophies, two stuffed birds, and a line of hangers, where uniforms, belts and odd cap hung.

I could hear a general murmur in the room, with so many men talking, I heard a group of guards were arguing with a man about the payment of salary near the sofa.. One heavy-set man was talking to someone on a Motorola Walky-Talky. That man was a Marshal. I was to know later that Col. Gulati employs five ex Delhi police inspectors and calls them Marshals; their job is to quell any dissent in the one thousand strong security force. Marshals roam the city checking guards, visiting the mostly one-room homes of security personnel, making inquiries about sudden disappearances of men, liaisoning with the Delhi Police for collecting local intelligence, distributing salaries and occasionally using force to deal with any grudge that a guard or a group of guards might have against the organization or its owner.

A boy of around eighteen years came with a uniformed guard. They went to the accountant's office knocked the glass door, the accountant looked up from the files, nodded at them and motioned them to wait.

After some time a peon opened a door on the right to the account desk and shouted 'Aaaaten Shon'. Suddenly the murmur stopped. Except for myself, every one stood up. After a while Col. Verma Walked in. Everybody saluted the proprietor of Colonel's Security Service Agency. The [Retd] Lt. Col Sohan Gulati. saluted back, inspected the motley crowd and said 'At ease.' The accountant introduced the guard and the boy to the Colonel, who took an impromptu interview of the boy. He asked the boy to salute. Inquired him about his educational qualification, languages known, marital status and reference. He grilled the young man on Metro Quotient, asking him to point towards the computer, the TV and the Cell phone. At the end of the exercise he directed the accountant to recruit the fellow.

I accosted the colonel and reminded him about the appointment. The colonel told me to go to his office and wait.

Soahn Gulati came a few minutes later and we began to talk. He told me that how he was an ambitious crack commando pilot with the Indian army. But due to untimely death of his parents, within six months of each other, forced him to leave a promising career. He started the firm in 1991 with one security guard and now the firm has over thousand personnel. His first major contract was with the Delhi golf club. The firm provides armed guards, bodyguards, unarmed security, electronic equipments like CCTV cameras, motion and heat sensors and detectives. He believed that the role of a guard is primarily psychological in nature. He can only thwart threat. Guards acts as a deterrent for any untoward incident like theft, robbery or loot etc.For some spaces in Delhi a security guard is also a marker of social status and respect. It was interesting to hear him refer the private security industry in Delhi as a 'game', which should be 'played' shrewdly. Private security guards sometimes 'helps' the police in gathering more knowledge about a particular locality.