With a mild chuckle, Quaiser Khalid dismisses the idea of being in an unlikely profession. “My job brings me close to problems, pains and crisis of people everyday. I try to understand them, try to empathise and after work I reflect and write,” says the Sahitya Akademi-award winning poet and additional commissioner of the local armed police of Mumbai city.

Quaiser Khalid (centre) with Naseeruddin Shah