The below conversation is from the book “Unusual People do things differently”. (It is a good read!)
A father who has been a government servant for more than thirty years, pushing files and keeping his integrity, encouraged his son to prepare for the civil services examination.
Son: what is the point of working in the government, taking bribes and pushing files?
Father: Everyday, scores of students like you got to schools and colleges, because thousands of people like me, government servants, push files to keep this country moving. If you remove the machinery and the files and what we do, the country’s governance and development framework will collapse. People in this country have opportunities because somewhere in some dusty office, a government servant has dedicated his entire life pushing files!
This is a true conversation, and the son didn’t go for civil services, though he never forgot the conversation., he made it into films, and he is the script writer for Chak De India! and many other movies. Stories like these really inspire the inner ambitions out of us. They also show the direction what these inner directions are aiming for, clearing most of the confusions we have while taking the important decisions.
The idea in bringing the above story is to remind that we carry a lot of perceptions, for and against the government jobs and the general working of the government staff. Most of these perceptions definitely go into the not-good sections, that’s the reality, at least a part of it. But we also need to understand how much silent work, the steel work it performs. To give a perspective, the upcoming elections in the entire country would involve around two crore people overall! Just to conduct the elections. That’s more than the population of many countries. My district itself needs ten thousand people (excluding police) for the conduct of elections. Exams are conducted, elections are conducted, evacuations are conducted (at the time of disasters), just to mention the three big and tough processes. The collectors that I interacted with so far, really sweat out like donkeys doing a hell lot of work, even at the cost of losing the balance between their personal and professional life. There is no difference between a Sunday and a Monday, forget about a weekend (we don’t even have a holiday/leave opportunity till the elections are done), such are the efforts put in. It is very surprising how the output does not show all of these, in the eyes of the public. There is still a lot to be done, though. Lots.
On a different perspective, with great many experiences and learnings all through the day, constant change is brought upon the perceptions of an individual regarding the services, the governance and the spirit of commitment to the society as a whole. For a person like me who came from a private MNC job, there is a definite struggle between the perceptions I carry from my old job and the events that happen in front of me. And I feel it is important to ‘protect’ the perceptions that we carry, it is these perceptions that can make the difference and bring the change that we all want to see. The ‘baptism’ into the civil services does ensure the breaking of some tough perceptions and it is exactly this process that the perceptions need to be protected from.
Nevertheless, we are here to do what we are here to do. We need to put efforts, irrespective of the outcomes. Sincere efforts. Good efforts. It is one thing to fight the bad things, corruption and stuff, but it is, for me, more important to do good things, effectively and efficiently. The job of good is not to fight bad , its job is to do good.
Ending with this poem reminded by APJ Abdul Kalam:
Where there is righteousness in the heart
There is beauty in the character.
When there is beauty in the character,
there is harmony in the home.
When there is harmony in the home.
There is an order in the nation.
When there is order in the nation,
There is peace in the world.
“Unusual People do things differently” book is available online at Flipkart and also at Amazon
Really, reading this reaffirms my view that many govt officials, esp Babus and Police officers, despite the bad portrayal, just go on doing their work because they work day in and day out without gaining any recognition for something that benefits the country in some way or the other. Reminds me of a short story by Hindi writer Rambriksh Benipuri’s ‘Neev ki Eet’ (Foundation stone)…it says the foundation stone of a mosque or a temple lies underground without any recognition but it gives all the strength reqd to support the building. However, upon completion, its the minaret/ topmost structure that gets all the admiration. Applies aptly to govt employees too I believe.
“The job of good is not to fight bad , its job is to do good.” — Well said!