Memoirs of a lost world -1

It was my first day in Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration (LBSNAA). We were a batch of about 220 probationers joining about 15 different services. And we were to be there for the next three months together in the ‘Queen of the Hill Stations- Mussoorie’. The whole group had been housed in the three hostels over-viewing the Happy Valley. While the other two hostels had the beautiful sight of the Horse Riding Ground, my hostel gave a full view of the football ground (where our morning PT was held at times)

We were being welcomed into what we had ourselves perceived till the other day as the ‘Government’. And in the background of 7 years experience in the services, I should say we deserved that welcome; for most of us were to won those laurels for the ‘Government’ through our public service in future days to come. But that day it was just for the reason that we had cleared the most grueling examination on earth that we were being welcomed in the LBSNAA. And there we were, each one of us raring to prove his or her superior knowledge and skills in the Academics to the other colleagues (as we were already professionals).

But the Academy had different plans for us. As we were told during our welcome, ‘the course will not focus too much on the bookish knowledge or memorizing the volumes or numbers, because that is what (we know) you all are good at’. What we were being prepared at LBSNAA was to handle the stress situations, learning to build teams and leading them, about group dynamics. And we were to be taught those things through the real life activities like the trekking, village visits, visiting NGOs, adventure sports- river rafting and Para-sailing, visits of guest speakers and the case studies. And the galaxy of speakers consisted of officers, politicians, environmentalists, journalists, social workers, artists, authors, industrialists, CEOs, management gurus, and so on and so forth.

What most of the speakers would discuss were situation demanding ‘raw courage’ under high risk situations, make or break decisions, commitment to duty, integrity in the service and dedication to the cause of the public. And often the clouds in the valley would sit next to the windows of the room trying to peek inside and gather a word or two from the lectures. And we used to sit in our Jodhpur Suits to listen to the mesmerizing words of the speakers; which mostly used to come from their hearts as the causes they had fought for were so close to their hearts. We were discovering that most of our ‘teachers’ were amongst the most illustrious officers in the service coming from across the country. People who had proved their mettle against all adversities in public life when all the problems in the society were being branded on a microscopic minority called ‘Bureaucracy’.

In our group of 220 we had some 53 IAS Officers, 15 IFS Officers and 30 IPS Officers. And what those figures meant? That each one of us posted in a district in Uttar Pradesh (UP) alone will not be able to give UP an IAS District Magistrate in all its districts. And we were a much larger country of over 25 states. But it meant some thing more also; that we were the blessed few who had entered "the Corridors of Power". And we were being warned that POWER CORRUPTS AND ABSOLUTE POWER CORRUPTS ABSOLUTELY.

Don’t let this power corrupt you; you are not the master’s of the land but the servants of the public. In the small towns where you will join as the SDOs to begin with, people will trust you like God. Listen to their problems, solve them for you can do that and you will see old people touching your feet, before you can stop them, just as they do to their God. But just don’t be the ‘Mai- Baap’ of the public, be one of them. The problems you faced as the public are now to be handled by you as the Government. There are so many people who criticize the Government, but there are few who would leave their fat salaries for what you all will get for being in Government.

And we were being respected for our commitment for the cause which forced us to take the biggest risk in our lives, to write the Civil Services Examination, to earn those Rs 8000. And we were realizing that the Government thing had begun to sink into us. And regarding salary as one of our faculty told, ‘if you don’t smoke or drink, your salary will be much more than what you will need to lead an honest and respectable life’. Luckily I qualified the constraints.

And our first salary was shear joy. Most of us bought cameras costing from Rs 1500 to Rs 2200, to make our fond memories of the place and time permanent. And our treasure of cassettes grew and for a change after the phase of preparing for the Civil Services Examination, we were again listening to the songs of joy, love and happiness.