|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Babudom Bosh + Squibs
of Sweet and Sour Shots
The politician is a master, like Phaedrus, while the bureaucrat is his donkey. When the enemy approached, Phaedrus asked his donkey to run. "Will the enemy load me with double pack saddle?" asked the donkey. "No," answered Phaedrus. "Then what care I," replied the donkey, refusing to even move, "whether you or he is my master". Throughout the book, Joshi weaves in such bits and pieces of stories and doggerels to give us an insight into the working of file-pushers. From his seat in the Secretariat at Shimla, the bureaucrat looks down. "He sees the mist depths below, Where plains and foothills meet, And smiles a wistful smile to know, The world is at his feet". He quotes Nazar Burney to tell us about the office clerk: "Kyon mein ghaate mein rahoon, sood faramosh rahoon, Mauqa mil haaye tau daftar mein hi madhosh rahoon". Then there is a story of the man who was prescribed by his doctor: "Government service or rest". As bureaucrats vend their irresponsible way through the corridors of power, there is much restful activity that they perform. The author tells us of the time when he almost wrote in his ACR that he had done nothing in particular throughout the year and had done it very well. "It is hard we know, In a place so slow, To earn advancement and promotion, DCs in Simla come and go". On one occasion, in Shimla, a hospital tested him to be 3 months pregnant. On being asked how that could be, the lab technician informed that only the Medical Superintendent would be able to answer the query. "Obviously," remarks Joshi, "it is not just bureaucrats who shirk direct responsibility. People in other professions do so too." At times, however, Joshi is far too harsh in his appraisal of the bureaucrat, as when he quotes Sission’s epitaph: "Here lies a civil servant. He was civil to none. And servant to the Devil". On the whole, this is an
interesting book, even though it is bureaucrats who might find it more
engrossing. A few errors though have crept in this otherwise excellently
produced book. Sir Penderel Moon, for example, is written as Pandral. |
THIS
refreshing book containing 71 essays will bring a smile to anyone
familiar with the ways of bureaucracy. Here Shriniwas Joshi tells us of
the complicated relationship between the politician and the bureaucrat.