Once I was sitting in a Government department. The then chief was a very strict officer. But he was very soft at heart, sometimes being in a demanding position, the same people have a second face. I was leading a project and he was the in-charge. One day I went to him with the files. He was surrounded by many other engineers. There came an engineer and gave him two big Tirupathi Laddus - a sweet ball, it is called Prasadam. Hindus will not reject a Prasadam when offered as it is from a sacred place. He asked an attender to distribute it among the ten other engineers in the room. Everyone was happy to take the Prasadam with great reverence, they were munching it from their hands. In between, the Chief made a comment - ‘these days almost I am getting Tirupathi Prasadam from someone every day.’ I was sitting across his table and was immersed in the file to be approved by him. Without lifting my head I said that this is because ‘by praying there and requesting you here their wishes will be fulfilled.’ It means by praying the lord at the temple and requesting you for a transfer or promotion or another thing, which they want will be accomplished. Everyone in the hall was surprised by listening to the simple fact and they laughed at once. There is a lot to understand in this conversation. He looked at me and gave a smile.
There was a Principal Secretary to the Government, I knew him and met him on several occasions. There were many commissioners working under him. Whenever I visited, his office during the meetings, all his subordinate staff and officers gave great respect to him. Standing at the entrance to welcome him, escorting to the meeting hall, sitting only when he sits, no questions were asked, mostly the talk was one-sided and rarely he gives scope to listen to the subordinate officers, the discipline and posture of every officer was very submissive - the person bends maximum and never stands straight before him, laughs even for a simple joke which is not worthy of laughing, do clap for even a slightly better statement, offer tea before anyone is given, his attender makes more fuss about the boss with animated gestures making him even less approachable and fearsome - there is no human being in him only the hype and position.
One day he retired. After three days he was invited for a meeting in an institute as one of the speakers. All his earlier subordinates also attended. I could see the drastic difference now. He was given minimum ‘respect’ and almost the majority of the above submissive gestures were not seen. He wanted to leave a bit early from the meeting on that day. I along with another colleague who knew him was standing in the corridor. He came out alone and was walking towards his car. None of his officers escorted him. Otherwise at least three to four officers would have escorted him, and called the vehicle ahead, close to the venue. He walked himself to the vehicle parked at a distance, no one is there to open the door and see him off. Limelight and hype through positions are temporary, especially as experienced by many government staff, one should discount all these gestures.
A real person in a government department is the one with the highest integrity and humbleness. For them, there is no position as ‘Punishment Position’ or ‘Honorable Position’ or ‘Money making position.’ They would never encourage fake respect and sycophancy. They try to be a human being all the time, so there is nothing lost even when they are walking alone in their life even after their retirement. The suffering of the ‘ego’ for the people who’s ego is high, is the cause of stress, stress takes away happiness in one’s life.
Usually, officers get promoted very fast and get transferred to different positions. But the attender in a department stays longer as the promotions are few and transfer is rare. In one of the departments with the engineers, once I saw an attender rushing towards the toilet along with a contractor. Someone explained to me they are the source of information regarding the officer’s movements and the mood of the officer. Many people consult these attender’s before approaching for getting their work done. So there is a relationship and respect between the contractor and the attender in an office. The attender’s show the least ego outside, it is their profession to be too humble, inside they may have the highest ego too. Therefore, they wear a typical white dress (appear no less than a local politician), wear sometimes gold jewellery and may have some religious symbols. They get to eat, almonds and cashew nuts and other things which sometimes they often serve their boss. A boss rarely confronts with an attender they know that the attender could do harm to them if they think, by not giving some information.
For all the field office positions, a common answer to the visitors by the attender or personal assistant is that ‘Sir has gone to the field, don’t know when he will come.’ Probably the officer is having his own private time at that moment or having booze in his quarter alone with his friends as his family is staying in a bigger town and children are getting educated in some of the top schools. During the office hours, the officer drinks as per the limits to be conscious, as he needs to attend the phone calls on his mobile phone too.
Once one of the secretaries of a senior officer should put up a file for our travel to attend a conference abroad. He was not putting up the file and the officer should not do the secretary work, as there is a clear job description. We were stuck, I went several times and met the secretary, with the government servant humbleness made request for the file. He was adamant for no reason. Sometimes in the state secretariat files move only when the interest of that person is taken care. In this regard, I was very fed up and wanted to know what are his intentions. One of my friends told me the code language to discuss such matters in the secretariat, one of the code is - invite the person for a cup of tea outside. I went in the morning and the status was the same, so this time I invited for a cup of tea behind the building. The tea and snacks selling points in the state secretariat are very famous always with many kinds of people and appears that the majority of the people are here due to the use of the code language and probably more work and deals are also done here. I was waiting there for two hours, I called him several times over the phone, he said he is coming. I was a new person and he was doubtful that I might have complained to the anti-corruption bureau and was waiting there to be caught by them. Good, he got to his senses and the very next day the file was ready for submission.
Even an officer cannot insist the respective subordinates do their duty, because the majority of the officers are also in the chain of a corrupt system, based on the position the corruption levels are different and everyone knows that. They sometimes say, ‘Do you think the Minister is not eating money?’
There are nice religious places in the secretariat compound, where some people pray before they approach the respective chain of officers for getting their work done with the least suffering and delays.
Some of the staff of governments, large corporations and public sectors have the highest ego. They are not in a hurry for the development of something without their personal interest. Their behaviour with visitors to various services is the worst. Expect too much respect and humbleness from the clients. Confuse and make people stay longer. Never value the time of others. Come late to the office and leave early. Discuss their family things during the office timings. Show favour to the people who are related them or for some personal benefit.
Once in one of the most corrupt offices before several officers, I was explaining that a particular donor does not like Corruption in any form in the project. Suddenly all of the officers became alert as though the deer get alerted with the sense of a tiger approaching them. The term ‘corrupt’ they don’t want to hear, but actually, it is like the lifeline for the functioning of the system every day. Otherwise there would have been least development, otherwise what interest people with accountability will have?
