Babudom and Netaland

One thing that I badly missed during my two year stint in UK was books of my taste. Though there were government libraries providing books free of cost, I rarely found books of my liking. Now that I am back in India, I am on a reading spree since past 9 months. Ideally, I should write a review of at least half of them but the reviews are written best if you write them just after you finish the book. So let’s leave them at that.

Currently the book that is featuring on my pillow is a class 'Journeys Through Babudom And Netaland' by retired IAS officer T.S.R Subramanian who last served as cabinet secretary in Government of India. He is someone who has seen and worked with bureaucrats and politicians from close quarters. The book is a real insight and first hand account of the red tapism and the corruption which is prevalent till the roots in public sector. A perfect blend of humour and satire. It portrays the moment of frustrations he had during his 37 years of service most of which were spent as the collector or district magistrate of small districts in UP.

It’s a must read for nonfiction lovers. There are so many anecdotes that I can mention but this one takes the cake :

"Contrast this with K K Dass, who had been chief secretary of UP in 1960's, and retired from service sometime in 70's.When he served as secretary to the Union Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, his minister was the late Uma Shankar Dikshit. Dikshit soon thereafter became the home minister of India, and his staff officer Rajgopal, a dear friend of mine, showed me a file with exchange of correspondence between Dikshit and KK Dass. On his retirement,Dass had written a polite letter thanking Dikshit for all the courtesies extended to him and formally bidding farewell to him.The next letter in the file was the copy of an acknowledgement from the home minister to Dass, with a paragraph added, asking whether Dass would be available for a gubernatorial assignment. It is the home minister who usually initiates the proposals for the post of governor in the various states; and it was not a casual offer. Dikshit had made a mention on the file that he had discussed the matter with prime minister. In his reply, which is on record, Dass said that he was flattered and overwhelmed by the kindness shown by the home minister.Then he went on to add "I have served the Government of India for nearly 40 years. During this time, I have neglected the two true loves of my life -- my wife and my rose garden. Could the home minister excuse me and allow me to spend the few remaining years of my life in the company of my wife and the roses"

Such men existed!

Cheers!

Where are students?

About 5 years back I visited Hyderabad for the first time. One thing that caught my eye was the number of billboards advertising upcoming or ongoing Telugu/Tamil movies. Sheer number took me by surprise. Almost 80% of the billboards were displaying giant images of movies and it seemed as if whole city was painted by them. Cut to Pune, Oct'08. Here, movies were replaced by the advertisements of upcoming residential societies, Villas and and Apartments.


Two weeks back, I visited my hometown, Gwalior. For Geographically challenged (and I am one of them) its one of the city in Madhya Pradesh. Whole city was carrying large hoardings of new and existing colleges and institutes. Education is not new here. Gwalior had become an educational hub even 15 years back when coaching classes for PET, PMT and IIT mushroomed everywhere. This time I saw a number of hoardings attracting students for engineering, BBA, BCA, MBA, nursing, B. Ed, D. Ed etc. When I cleared my engineering entrance exam in 1999, there were 4 engineering colleges there and now I am told there are 25! I wondered who would be their potential students and wont they find it difficult to attract students. The other obvious question was the capability of the owners of these 'self financed' colleges and Institutes to cough up requisite facilities, campus and labs to start them.


I got my answer today when I read ' No students yet for 42 engineering colleges in Tamilnadu' on times website.


Only 27 colleges including Anna University's three constituent departments and government-run institutions have managed to fill up more than 96% of the available seats in various courses. "Less than 15 seats (1 to 10%) have been filled up in 177 engineering colleges, while 8 colleges have recorded an admission rate of 91 to 95%,"


So the situation is same everywhere. Now we have got a number of sub standard colleges owned by the rich and powerful but no students to join them. This too when every 'gali ka chora' is doing engineering and BCA these days. I heard that the same is happening even with the institutes as elite as IITs. With the number of IITs increased to 13 now, there is a dearth of students even there!


This is a glaring example when you start doing something just to showcase progress on paper. Education is the mirror of the society and the country and its high on every government's agenda be it central or state. Just to show that we are making progress permissions are being granted to all kinds of bogus institutes. This is to enable government to take the credit for opening so many colleges and institutes (needless to say these permissions are being granted in the most corrupt way) and we end up having colleges without students.


Soon we will see colleges distributing cash prizes to the student taking admissions in their institute and soon the headline ' Take admission and get two free tickets to Bangkok' wont be a joke!


Cheers!

Legend

I am not sure why a sporting event as gruelling as Tour de France is not covered extensively either in print or in electronic media. I understand that an event which spreads over 23 days does not attract too much attention from public but then then a race which requires participants to cover 3,500 Kms through steep climbs and arduous terrains throughout France and bordering countries and a race which can be termed as the ultimate test of human stamina deserves a bit more respect. Tour de France 2009 concluded two days back and any of the 1000+ news channels hardly covered it. I dont want to write about the winner. The guy is supremely fit 26 year old.

Lance Armstrong, a seven time Tour de France champion, at the age of 37 years stood 3rd. Now thats an achievement. Now consider this. He retired from professional cycling 3 years back after winning the event consecutively between 1999 and 2006 and returned from retirement only this year.

That he battled life threatening cancer disease at the age of 25 ( before winning any of his titles) make him the stuff of a legend. Two years back I got a chance to read his autobiography, Its not about bike and it had a deep impact on me.

Those who are looking for some inspiration from real life heroes, this book is a must read.

PS: Dont read his second book, Every second counts. That was written only to milk the success of his first!

Cheers!

Tears...

...sometimes its good to shed a tear or two...your gender not withstanding...