In spite of a raft of challenges, Gagan Luddu remained focussed on her goal of becoming a police officer year after year until she finally made it in July of 2006.
Now the 27-year-old Vancouver Police Department constable, a picture of confidence, courage and determination, is reaching out to Indo-Canadian female youth to go for a career in policing.
Luddu told The VOICE: "I would say this is the best career anyone can ask for. The reason I say that is because it's very diverse. Every day is different … every five minutes is different."
She added: "If you are a social person and you want to work with people, you want to make a difference in people's lives, this is the job for you. And if you want to do it, go for it."
She said she has spoken to many girls about policing and added: "The response I get is 'I really want to do it, but I don't think I can do it because you really have to be tough to be a police officer.' Basically what I want to tell those girls is 'never doubt yourself. If you can make up your mind to do something, you can do it.'"
She added: "Never set limits for yourself - there are no boundaries. You can do anything and everything. Because the worst thing all of us do is we set boundaries for ourselves. We tell ourselves we can only do this; we can't do that.
"I went through this police training and they push you above your limits. And then I understood there are no limits. I thought I had limits, but, no, you don't."
She also noted that those days when one felt discriminated against were gone and said she felt very welcome in the police force both as a woman and as an Indo-Canadian.
Luddu's own inspiring and fascinating story graphically bears out the sincerity and practicality of her advice to Indo-Canadian female youth.
NEW LIFE IN CANADA
Luddu was born in Punjab's Hoshiarpur district in a village named Dohlron. She immigrated to Canada with her parents and two of her sisters in 1996 after completing her Grade 10 in India.
She has four elder sisters. The eldest is a teacher's assistant in England. The second eldest, who sponsored the family, works in the medical sector of the Department of National Defence in Victoria. The third eldest is a paralegal in Vancouver and the fourth eldest is a residential care attendant in the Lower Mainland.
Luddu gushes with affection for her parents as she declares with palpable pride: "My parents have done a great job in raising us."
In Canada, Luddu was mighty upset when the school authorities at Surrey's William Beagle put her in Grade 9 because of her young age. However, they allowed her to complete Grades 9 and 10 in just a year, after which she moved to Queen Elizabeth secondary school from where she graduated.
Luddu went on to earn a diploma in accounting management from Douglas College and then enrolled for a Bachelor's course in Business Administration with the B.C. Open University. She still has three courses to complete.
Luddu told The VOICE she always wanted to be in policing, but wouldn't have pursued it in India because of the negative male-dominated image it has there. However, here in Canada, she was attracted to the style of policing because she found females being given the same consideration as males.
She said: "When I graduated, I told my dad 'I want to go into criminology.' My dad knew that I wanted to go into policing, so he's like 'no, you're not going into policing.' He had (negative) ideas about police from India. I'm like 'dad, I will do office work, I won't go into (actual) police work.' He was like 'I know that you're going to go into policing.'"
Because her dad, who works as a truss assembler, started his life all over again in Canada just to give his daughters a better education and a better life, Luddu didn't want to put any more pressure on him. So she told him that she would pursue accounting instead because she loved numbers.
DETERMINATION AND MENTORSHIP
She said: "But I always had policing in the back of my mind, so I talked to my counsellors at school and other people - any police officers I came across at that time - just to make sure that going into accounting wasn't going to close my doors for policing. They said I could have any background to go into policing - as long as I stayed focussed. So I did that and started my accounting management diploma."
She did her coop at KPMG, one of the biggest accounting firms. While sitting in her office doing data entries one day, it suddenly hit her that "this is not me. I can't sit in the office and be in a closed environment for eight hours a day, five days a week. No, this is not me! I can't do this."
She told herself: "You know what, I'm going to pursue policing because I am very active, I like socializing and I like to work with people." But she also decided to complete her accounting course.
Just how she went about trying to get into policing is an amazing story of sheer drive and determination.
Actually, she first wrote the RCMP exam. She was then only 18 or 19 and didn't make it. So she figured she was still too young for policing and focussed on her studies for a while.
She said: "And then I started looking at Vancouver Police because I had a few friends who were in the police. I started volunteering because I was told that I needed to have volunteering experience. I started with the Delta Police."
She joined Virsa's SAFE (South Asian Frontline Education) where they were recruiting kids to come into a school gym and play basketball. They would mentor the kids, telling them how they should stay focussed.
She wanted to work with kids because she knew from her own experience how valuable mentorship was.
She noted: "I always had great people in my life to tell me 'do this, do this, and you'll be fine.'"
Tajinder Sandhu, who she refers to as her brother, encouraged her tremendously.
She said: "When I was saying to myself I can't do this sitting in the office, I was very confused about whether I should go into accounting or into policing, then I went and talked to him and he said listen to your heart. If you want to do policing, go for it. Don't think about anybody else because in the long run, it's you. It's going to be you dealing with what you do and you don't want to be coming home stressed out, not liking your job. It's a long-term commitment."
She decided to pursue policing.
Later, another close friend, Bali Singh, helped her to remain focussed on her goal.
And then she got another boost.
She said: "As my father saw me training myself for the job, he realized how much I wanted to this. One day he told me 'you know Vancouver Police is hiring.' I was like 'wow!' That was the best day of my life. I told him 'dad, I've already applied. I am sorry but you know I just wanted to see if I have a chance or not.'"
DISAPPOINTMENT AND CHALLENGE
She recalled that one of her greatest mentors was an Indo-Canadian police officer in Vancouver Police who told her what things she needed to focus on. If she had any questions, she would always approach him.
She said: "The police process is a long process, and especially being an Indo-Canadian female - I wanted to do it, but at the same time I didn't know if I could do it or not. So he always taught me 'no, you can do it, because if you always have that in your mind, you can do anything you want to.' He would tell me 'these are the things you need to do. Make sure you are focussed, do volunteer work and have a clean record.' Throughout the process, he just guided me."
He helped her in the physical training and explained to her about what she should focus on in her interview.
She went through all of that and the polygraph (lie detector) test. And then she had to go to the assessment centre at the Justice Institute for a day where potential police officers are put through different scenarios to test their skills, abilities, knowledge, assertiveness and so on.
In 2004, she went through this entire process, but much to her disappointment she was deferred at the assessment centre.
She explained: "There is an automatic deferral of two years at that stage which means that you can't apply at any other municipal police force for two years, though you can apply with the RCMP." At the end of the two years you could try again.
She said: "I was kind of choked that I was deferred because I thought I had everything that I needed to go into policing. So I didn't know what to do."
They told her that she was deferred because of her "life's experience." She asked them what exactly that term meant and what she needed to do.
She said: "The day I went for my course assessment interview, I had already applied for the VPD's civilian operations side. They said 'that's a good thing because life's experience is we just want to make sure that you're ready when you are going for this job because you have to make instant decisions and you need to have wider knowledge.'"
Her job in the civilian operations at the VPD where she handled transcriptions was quite an eye-opener.
She said: "Reading those reports gave me a better understanding of the job and I can say that for sure now that I wasn't ready at that time. Reading those reports, I was like 'Oh my God, this happens! I didn't know this happens!'
"… Those two years gave me a better perspective of my job. So then I was like 'You know what, I can do this job. I know what it takes.' Because at the time I went for my first interview, the detective who interviewed me asked me 'do you know what our average age of hiring is?' I knew this question was going to come up but I didn't expect it to be the first question. So I said '24-25' and she said 'no, it's actually 27-28.' And I was only 23 at the time. So I told her 'if I come back in two years' time I'll still be 24-25, so does that mean you are going to defer me again or should I not waste my time coming back to your department or what should I do?' They said 'no, you're going to have more things to put on your resume, so come back again and we'll assess it again.'"
SUCCESS AT LAST!
Luddu knew she had to remain focussed.
She said: "I made the best out of those two years. Basically, more volunteer experience at Delta Police and working with Virsa's SAFE at the time. Then I started working with the non-emergency call centre at Delta Police while working full-time at the VPD's civilian department. I was doing all these four things.
"So basically for two years no one knew I existed because I was always at work. I never made it to social gatherings. If my family saw me at one, they were like 'this is amazing. You're here!' But I wanted to make sure that this time I don't give them any chance to say no to me because I wanted this job very badly."
So she tried again and this time she made it all the way through.
Luddu recalled how the police contacted her dad while doing her background check.
She said: "My dad was like 'okay, you have to promise me that you will finish your school. You're not going to stop just because you get in. I want you to finish school and that's the only reason I am going to go see your background investigator.' I'm like 'dad, I will do it. You know me. I am going to finish my school. … Accounting will be my background.'
"And it is. I have done my diploma and if I need a desk job for any reason in the future, I'll always have it. I can always use those skills in my policing career as well."
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