Primer for a Small-time Bureaucrat
As I baby -step into the world of blogging, I prefer to share with my readers the memory-based anecdotes that had me and my colleagues giggling and laughing during my days in rural as well as small towns as a government officer. It is better to leave more serious topics for deliberation in coming days when I would probably be closer to my readers for more candid exchange of views and ideas.
Here it may not be out of place to mention that I joined the State Civil Service more or less as a hesitant intruder under circumstantial duress. It was sort of catching the last bus leaving the terminus. I could just ward off the upper-age bar fixed for the recruitment examination by a few months then.
As for its background, I was not accustomed to the living conditions that greeted me in my previous places of employment. The summer( despite a month-long holiday ) seemed to have no ending. Sitting outdoor for a better part of the hot sultry nights in padmasan posture on a bench/chair ( to avoid the unintentional blockade to the nocturnal serpentine visitors on the ground) did not appear to be all that romantic despite the blessings of a pollution-free air of rural Bengal. What teased me more was the fact that I had a growing feeling in me that my passion for teaching would take me nowhere. It seemed like tilling a barren land for a handsome harvest.As otherwise that would have compensated all my earthly discomforts.But every year the annual class examinations for the upper classes would invariably present a sorry picture of having the highest number of failed students in the subject I taught( of course in tandem with another colleague).It was immaterial then that after decades ,during my re-visit to the same place, I fathomed that many things had changed for better. In fact, I gathered from different sources subsequently that quite a few ex-students of that locality were doing well in their respective careers. The happiest moment in this regard struck me when I was about to write my pending papers for departmental examinations, a mandatory requirement in the Civil Service, in Kolkata,and one of my ex-students greeted me in the examination hall ,who too had come for the same purpose, probably as a fresher.
First two years in the State civil service were days spent undergoing training-- institutional,field as well as on-job in the district headquarters. My earlier perception of the government officers and their system of working was at best sarcastic in nature. Much of it was borne out of my lack of adequate knowledge how things moved in the governments. I may recall one such instance of my misplaced hypothesis.
Once there was a flood-like situation in the village, where I lived then as a teacher,due to heavy rainfall. It brought about immense misery for a large section of the population. There were political demonstrations day in and day out before the B.D.O office.But like any other natural disaster, situation improved as the rainy season receded. After a few months,we often got used to find many government functionaries moving about in that area in a Jeep bearing the insignia, "OPERATION FLOOD". I along with many of my colleagues related that activity of the government to the flood that the area had seen nearly a year ego. We discussed among ourselves and enjoyed a good laughter at the expense of "the heartless and idle government". Later I was ashamed of myself as I came to know that "Operation Flood" was the name given to a government programme with the mission to organise the local milkmen to form a co-operative for boosting milk production."Little knowledge is a dangerous thing"-- we often utter not without reason!
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P.S.
শব্দ নিয়ে আমার প্রায়ই নানা চিন্তা মাথায় আসে। শব্দের আঁকি-বুকি কেটে যে সৃষ্টি কবি /সাহিতিক হাতে হয়, তার অর্থ হয়ত সর্বদা সবটুকু বুঝতে পারি না। তবে এ কথা তো সবার জানা, সবাই কবি হয় না, কেউ কেউ হয়।
জীবনের প্রথম চরণে, অনেকের মতো আমিও দু-এক কলম লিখে ফেলেছিলাম। তার মধ্যে কিছু লাইন মনে পড়ে গেল। ব্লগ পাঠকের কাছে স-কুন্ঠিত নিবেদন:
Here it may not be out of place to mention that I joined the State Civil Service more or less as a hesitant intruder under circumstantial duress. It was sort of catching the last bus leaving the terminus. I could just ward off the upper-age bar fixed for the recruitment examination by a few months then.
As for its background, I was not accustomed to the living conditions that greeted me in my previous places of employment. The summer( despite a month-long holiday ) seemed to have no ending. Sitting outdoor for a better part of the hot sultry nights in padmasan posture on a bench/chair ( to avoid the unintentional blockade to the nocturnal serpentine visitors on the ground) did not appear to be all that romantic despite the blessings of a pollution-free air of rural Bengal. What teased me more was the fact that I had a growing feeling in me that my passion for teaching would take me nowhere. It seemed like tilling a barren land for a handsome harvest.As otherwise that would have compensated all my earthly discomforts.But every year the annual class examinations for the upper classes would invariably present a sorry picture of having the highest number of failed students in the subject I taught( of course in tandem with another colleague).It was immaterial then that after decades ,during my re-visit to the same place, I fathomed that many things had changed for better. In fact, I gathered from different sources subsequently that quite a few ex-students of that locality were doing well in their respective careers. The happiest moment in this regard struck me when I was about to write my pending papers for departmental examinations, a mandatory requirement in the Civil Service, in Kolkata,and one of my ex-students greeted me in the examination hall ,who too had come for the same purpose, probably as a fresher.
First two years in the State civil service were days spent undergoing training-- institutional,field as well as on-job in the district headquarters. My earlier perception of the government officers and their system of working was at best sarcastic in nature. Much of it was borne out of my lack of adequate knowledge how things moved in the governments. I may recall one such instance of my misplaced hypothesis.
Once there was a flood-like situation in the village, where I lived then as a teacher,due to heavy rainfall. It brought about immense misery for a large section of the population. There were political demonstrations day in and day out before the B.D.O office.But like any other natural disaster, situation improved as the rainy season receded. After a few months,we often got used to find many government functionaries moving about in that area in a Jeep bearing the insignia, "OPERATION FLOOD". I along with many of my colleagues related that activity of the government to the flood that the area had seen nearly a year ego. We discussed among ourselves and enjoyed a good laughter at the expense of "the heartless and idle government". Later I was ashamed of myself as I came to know that "Operation Flood" was the name given to a government programme with the mission to organise the local milkmen to form a co-operative for boosting milk production."Little knowledge is a dangerous thing"-- we often utter not without reason!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
P.S.
শব্দ নিয়ে আমার প্রায়ই নানা চিন্তা মাথায় আসে। শব্দের আঁকি-বুকি কেটে যে সৃষ্টি কবি /সাহিতিক হাতে হয়, তার অর্থ হয়ত সর্বদা সবটুকু বুঝতে পারি না। তবে এ কথা তো সবার জানা, সবাই কবি হয় না, কেউ কেউ হয়।
জীবনের প্রথম চরণে, অনেকের মতো আমিও দু-এক কলম লিখে ফেলেছিলাম। তার মধ্যে কিছু লাইন মনে পড়ে গেল। ব্লগ পাঠকের কাছে স-কুন্ঠিত নিবেদন:
শব্দ-প্রহরী
এক -একটা শব্দ যেন
অ-পরিচয়ের গন্ধ বয়ে আনে
যে ভাবে বিশ-বছর-করা বধূ
আচম্বিতে
নিজ গৃহে অচেনা অতিথি হয়ে।
চুক-চুক ...চুক-চুক ...চুক-চুক .........
সোনার জিয়ন-কাঠি লালা সিক্ত হয়,
রূপকথার রাজকন্যা নিদ্রিতাই থাকে।
সাহসের কারণ-বারি ভেল্কি দেখায় কভু,
তবু নৈশ অভিযান ব্যার্থ হয়ে যায়--
যে মুহুর্তে শব্দের খাজাঞ্চি-খানা থেকে
প্রহরী গর্জে ওঠে --
"হুকুমদার"
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