August 16, 2009
A stage comes in a bureaucratâs life when creativity gets buried under the dunes of monotonous official and domestic chores. The tragedy of beingâ inÂconsequential angelsâ is writ large on the faces of those who once solemnly resolved to act as the catalysts of change. The idealistic individual gets haplessly sucked into the gutter of […]
Read MoreAugust 12, 2009
I had named it âGood Morningâ. A Gurkha family living in the servant quarters of my neighbourâs house had reared it. Meticulously punctual in waking me up at the first sign of twilight, it crowed deafeningly to throw me out of bed. The early morning alarm was at times very irritating, particularly after the late […]
Read MoreJuly 29, 2009
It is a fashion amongst the naive to wrongly perceive and lambast civil servants as guardians of secrecy. The hush hush image of senior civil servants is the result of the historical gag order enforced through the AIS Conduct Rules. Divulging information, expect in an impossibly rare scenario, renders a civil servant liable to disciplinary […]
Read MoreJuly 25, 2009
Annual confidential reports, with the passage of time, are no longer annual or confidential, or true evaluation reports. A number of All-India officers find their annual reports recorded after a delay of years and years while the service and political superiors sit over them to hold extra-legal strings vis-Ă -vis the officer reported upon. Confidential they […]
Read MoreMay 6, 2009
Rather than striking at the roots of the problem, there is of late an increasing trend to render superficial legal remedies and lip service to deep rooted socio-economic challenges. Instead of embarking upon an effective systemic correction, knee jerk responses to the tragic reality of female feticide are akin to applying cosmetic remedies to a […]
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