MY TRUTH WITH EXPERIMENTS

NADT is a great place for learning! Many people fail to learn that though. During my posting at Allahabad (now Prayagraj) bafflement became my constant companion. Supplied, as at that point of time in my career, with a negligible quantity of bureaucratic intellect, I wondered as to why my ‘satisfaction’ note always failed to satisfy my bosses. I earnestly prayed my boss to enlighten me in this regard. He tried to satisfy me by telling me that it was his boss who was generally a stranger to satisfaction. Now it was I who was not satisfied. Such an explanation, strange according to my understanding, as it then was, was not a great help in the matter. Rather it further reinforced my companionship with bafflement which was now fast acquiring the status of friendship. How to handle a boss! ‘Boss is always right’ my boss frequently informed me about the most important bureaucratic truth with all humility at his command. I never agreed, as my wont then was – never to accept anything without having a first hand experience. But I never uttered a word. Still my expression never failed to betray my true feelings. However, I saw no harm in passing on, at least, this hugely important information to my subordinates at the earliest opportunity, with my humility further added to it! Their expressions resembled mine when such enlightenment was first made to devolve on me. I spent a lot of time wondering as to what was there in my satisfaction notes which the super boss at Kanpur repeatedly and steadfastly failed to like. In order to impress my seniors, I tried many things – all the tricks in the book, and outside it – mostly latter, as I had not read many books. I switched over from using blue ink to black ink in my satisfaction notes thinking that it would match the colour of income I was proceeding to detect and he may appreciate my ingenuity. No luck! Changed file covers. No luck! Submitted files at different times of the day after consulting almanac about rahu kaaI. No luck! I tried to improve my handwriting thinking that it was poor. Still no luck! ‘Now this is limit’ I screamed internally. After all there is a limit to anything! I can not be expected to improve my handwriting beyond a limit! I was exhausted. ‘What is the way out?’ ‘What is the way out!’ And then it struck me : OUT was the way! The more I meditated over my ‘problem’, the more I was convinced by my inexperienced brain that ‘out’ was the only way indeed! The dawn of this new realization was followed by hectic exploring endeavours on my part for the way out. Kuntal, always a helpful friend, told about an opening at NADT, if I was willing. ‘Willing?’ No second thought was required. In fact the exasperation I was experiencing at that time, no thought was required at all. I gave my willingness forthwith. Another helping hand was extended by Mr. MN Bajpai for a post in RTI Lucknow. Promptly my willingness was on its way to RTI Lucknow as well! As I did not think at all before taking such steps, I didn’t realize that my letters of willingness were to be routed through proper channel! I also came to know subsequently that the NADT was also headed by a tough (and therefore not popular) DG and that is why no officer in the entire country except me, had expressed his/her willingness for NADT posting! This made me slightly repent my hasty action. But I couldn’t do anything about it. The die was already cast. ‘You want to run away from me!’ said my super boss over telephone from Kanpur. ‘No sir.. I mean.. sir!..’ I fumbled at the unexpected call and at the speaker’s tone. I mumbled something of the sort ‘training institutes..errr… are great places to work in…errr…will give new insight… a good opportunity..’ without actually understanding the import of my utterances. A veteran of two stints at NADT, that he was, he could actually gather how fast I was trying to run away from him. Somehow he forwarded my application. By the time my transfer order came, the NADT boss was promoted and had gone to CBDT. The NADT officers were happy more because of his departure from NADT rather than for his promotion and were readying themselves to welcome the new DG who was coming from Bhopal. An officer from NADT rang up Bhopal to know about the joining of the DG designate. He couldn’t hide the glee in his voice and told the Bhopal officer that the NADT officers were very happy (referring to departure of earlier DG) and were celebrating. ‘We are also celebrating!’ quipped Deepak from Bhopal, referring to departure of his boss. The new DG at NADT (even for Kuntal he was new) addressed us (me and Kuntal) as ‘two Johnies’. The reason for such salutation was beyond our comprehension. It was only after a few months of intensive research and no clue being in sight that we abandoned our efforts to unravel this mystery. We accepted it as fait accompli thinking that it was one of innumerous components of the universal bureaucratic gospel ‘boss is always right’. The ‘two Johnies’ became so popular that we were mostly spoken of in conjunction with each other so much so that in a skit staged at a cultural function at NADT the probationers had created two characters by names of KK Pandey and VK Sen! The DG had a very compelling style of functioning. It compelled me to discover the true meaning of ‘boss is always right’! Now I had really understood that it meant ‘all the bosses are same’! As all the bosses are always right, I argued with myself, they must all be the same. I also realized that ‘out’ was not a way anymore, rather it was ‘out of question’. I was back to my original conundrum: How to handle a boss! At NADT ‘man management’ was also an in-thing for trainers as well as trainees. The ‘two Johnies’ decided to give it a try. We embarked on an ambitious experiment of managing our boss! The NADT was supposed to monitor the functioning of four RTIs (yes, there were only four at that time). We contemplated that if DG ‘goes to inspect’ one RTI in each quarter, we will be able to keep him away for few days and will enjoy his absence. Thus some relief would be available to ‘two Johnies’ and to other silent relief seekers (there were many!). The experiment preceded lot of serious deliberations and good amount of preparation. It was decided that initially the DG would be convinced through personal discussions to ‘visit’ RTIs and then at appropriate time a note would be put up for his approval. After a few rounds of discussion in which the ‘two Johnies’ also employed the ‘auto suggestion’ management technique, the boss in his inimitable style and with enigmatic nod uttered :‘Hmm..! put up a note.’ ‘Half the battle won!’ we thought. Kuntal was in possession of an excellent drafting skill – much superior to that of the other ‘Johny’, though inputs were jointly provided for the note. A detailed note was prepared mentioning: • how DG’s personal presence at each RTI will be a motivation; • how it will lead to better control; • how the RTI heads in their environment can better explain their requirements etc. The emphasis definitely was on DG’s visiting the RTIs. We had also thought of a calendar of visits. The file was put up for DG’s approval. We waited with bated breath. After two days the file came back with DG’s observations/comments: ‘Personal meeting with RTI heads is a good idea. Call them to NADT.’ Many Hindi speaking friends would appreciate our predicament much better : ‘chaube gaye chhabbe banane, dube ban kar laut aaye’. (rough translation : tried to be over smart, lost even the present standing). Our experiment failed miserably. And we learnt our lesson. NADT is a great place for learning!