A couple of days back, we sat glued to the big TV screen in the GBPH…waiting for India to pull off a dramatic victory against the sub-continental rival. Ball by ball we followed the match and inch by inch, our eyes followed the ball, as it pranced on the field. Realizing fully well that if India lost, all would come to a naught…silent prayers resonated the atmosphere, benign curses were made, as each one of us rode on the sine wave of elation and anguish; A few hours later, the gap between the lips and the cup began to increase faster than any Zaheer Khan delivery, as India was bundled out for a mere 185, succumbing to a massive 69 run defeat….Did I say ‘defeat’?
Defeat…after all what is defeat? Why are we often regarded as chokers, ‘the defeated’ ones? Are we Indians of a lesser god or does our blood reflect a different colour? With a population of over a billion people and gargantuan resources poured on cricket – the ‘religion’ of India, we fail to win even qualifying matches, as the ‘chhotu’ Bangladesh snuffs out its neighbour with élan this time. Our performance in other sporting events, may it be hockey or squash or even good old kabaddi, is far from being impressive. A nation like us roars when we win a solitary medal at the Olympics. We are proud of our achievement, no doubt…but then, if it has to be 1 medal for a billion people, then we need only 6 of them to cover the entire globe!!
Despite making a strong mark in the IT sector, it is an unconcealed fact that we have been only the back offices of the West, or putting in the words of the noted journalist, Mr Prashanto, we are simply ‘cyber-coolies’. Our research facilities are indubitably one of the best in the world; we have the added advantage of a well-structured curriculum, a large number of colleges and universities, cheap skilled labour and a huge intellectual pool, still how many Nobel prizes or other international distinctions have we achieved so far, more so in the recent past? There can be ‘n’ number of similar areas where performance didn’t come by, when the world expected most from us. Do we suffer from an inherent performance-phobia? Are we bound by our slavish pre-independence past? Not really, since there have been solitary incidences and marked fields where we have performed remarkably well, far from the run-of-the-mill stuff.
Let us remember and reassure ourselves that we would not have another Moses to guide us or Gandhi to shape the destiny of the country. It is we who have to assert ourselves and be the trailblazers for tomorrow. We are second to none on this planet and beyond…all it needs is to extricate ourselves from the ‘defeatist’ attitude…
Martin Luther King once said:
‘Let us not wallow in the valley of despair. I say to you today, my friends, that in spite of the difficulties and frustrations of the moment, I still have a dream…’
Or as Iqbal says,
‘Mujhe rokega tu ai naaKhuda kya garq hone se,
ki jin ko doobna hai, doob jaate hain safinon mein’
(Dare u stop me O boatman, from drowning,
For those who have to, get drowned even in fleets…!)
Defeat they say, is a state of mind; I add, it should never reside in the mind of the state!
ZUHAIR BIN SAGHIR
Friday, March 30, 2007
Monday, March 19, 2007
LIFE MOVES ON....
I was sitting in my room in the afternoon, with the warm sun making its way through the window…. Just a day before, the Mains results had poured in. I came to know, that many of the guys I knew, had made it…but most didn’t! Jubilation and gloom prevailed. As I turn back the pages, I remember, most of us having gone through a similar feeling a year back…Arms in prayers, nervousness writ large on our faces, an abominable lull prevailing all around…often punctuated by somebody needlessly predicting that the results would be out in a few hours from now, parents excitedly moving around the house, friends waiting with bated breath…and then the D-moment arrives! Lo and behold…there is jubilation or gloom, celebration or despair! That is what life is actually centered around. (I really wonder how many of us can reappear in the exam…and pass through the harrowing process again!)
Taking our success in the stride and not cribbing about the things around, is the magic potion of life. A Greek philosopher once said, joys and sorrows are the two sides of the same coin. Iqbal echoes the same thought as,
Taking our success in the stride and not cribbing about the things around, is the magic potion of life. A Greek philosopher once said, joys and sorrows are the two sides of the same coin. Iqbal echoes the same thought as,
‘Kyun parishaan hai tu…kai jahaan aur bhi hain’
(Why do you despair, there are many more worlds).
Ghalib again reiterates the idea as:
‘Qaid-e-hayaat aur ranj-o-gam asl mein donon ek hain,
Maut se pehle aadmi gam se nijaat paye kyun’
(Life is synonymous with the vicissitudes of happiness and sorrow,
(Life is synonymous with the vicissitudes of happiness and sorrow,
why then should man be dispirited?)
The essence of our existence lies in moving on, as Raj Kapoor once said: The show must go on. If we reminisce a little bit, as youngsters, the earliest challenge before us, was to score well in our High School exams, then came the mighty Twelfth Standard exams….Thereafter, life suddenly threw us out of our slumber, forcing upon us the arduous task of choosing our career. Our decisions were followed by competitive exams or beelines before Delhi University colleges or endless struggles to get into premier institutions of the country. Life moved on.. We then decided to appear for the civil services examinations. (More often by compulsion than by default !)…certainly, the rest is history. But did life stop there for us? It moved on….the hopes against hopes to get a rank good enough to be in the top echelons, the silent yet desperate prayers for a suitable cadre, the heap of assignments and reports in the academy and so on….But then, all of us know, life…
More struggles are to follow ahead for each one of us. Even if we follow the law of averages, the best has been mostly on our side so far! Its akin to catching the right train to reach our destination…but the destination is still in the wilderness…yet to come. Our job is challenging, no doubt. It requires a mix of intelligence, smart work, innovativeness and commitment. It is a balancing act, but that doesn’t suggest we fall into the dungeons of mediocrity. Its while we perform our entrusted duties, we need to enjoy every moment. (pata nahin kal ho na ho!) Jubilation and despair are human tendencies. Or as Kahlil Gibran says, these two demons shall remain with us…
-ZUHAIR BIN SAGHIR
Monday, March 12, 2007
The IAS Officer...
Dear friends,
If we were asked, what is happening to the role of the IAS in contemporary times?
a) Growing
b) Status quo
c) Diminishing
d) I don’t care
Most of us are going to put our bet on ‘c’ or‘d’. And if it is so, then certainly we need to ask ourselves, why we chose to join this prestigious service at all (as most visiting guests ask us…!).Indubitably, the powers, scope and prestige of an IAS officer has declined when compared to the days of the Raj or even until the initial years after independence. Sometimes we do feel nostalgic, wondering: ‘Jaane wo kaise log they…?’ After the amendments in the Criminal procedure code in 1973, a substantial amount of magisterial powers have vanished from the IAS kitty, the 73rd amendment act has also taken away a considerable amount of the developmental authority of the IAS and passed onto the local bodies and elected representatives. In states like Gujarat and Maharashtra, the task of development has conveniently been handed to what is called the CEO, Zila Parishad.
With the influx of multinationals and surge in globalization, the role of IAS has further come under the scanner. NGOs and media men are continuously hovering around the bureaucrat’s head (remember, the newspaper we visited in Delhi, felt pride in addressing us as babus, right into our faces !) and further, in terms of diminishing powers, the perfect icing on the cake is made by what we know as, political interference.
However, this is just one side of the story…let me put it this way, the authority and prestige an IAS commands, has hardly dwindled in the mind of the common Indian. In states lying inside the cow belt, he is an iconic figure. The mai-baap cult still pervades the lifestyle of the IAS. The cult comes with its own set of lacunae, but that’s a different issue altogether. We are witnessing a paradigm shift in the role of the IAS. He is increasingly getting attuned to the democratic system that runs in the veins of our country. Empowerment of people, particularly the downtrodden sections of the society, implies greater accountability and transparency in working…but then that’s what good governance is all about !
The Right to Information Act, as a section of the IAS says, has introduced an element of answerability and accountability on the part of public servants and thus keeps them on their toes. Decision making has become easier, since the onus of responsibility has become localized. While scanning through the RTI procedure, one can easily find who was at fault. Far from our powers being diminished, our workload has increased. On an average, an IAS has to put in 11 hours of work everyday…(Ah! our energy gets sapped in just 6-7 hours of classroom study!). With globalization, the task has further increased. India is in the take off mode today. Soon it will be airborne…and it is we, who are going to pilot it. (Don’t worry, we have an air force guy with us..!) Nothing has come down…powers, functions or prestige. It is only a transformation that we are undergoing….a transformation that is inevitable and has happened after every few decades.
As far as the political executive is concerned, we are just advisors and counselors to them. If only, both the wings of the executive realize their respective functions and scope of working, they can join hands and work together to produce results. Nothing stops us from thinking out of the box; nothing forces us to be prisoners of dilatory procedures alone. It is while maintaining the rule of law, adhering to the principles enshrined in the Constitution and committed to the common man, we can innovate and streamline delivery systems. The common man still regards us in high esteem more than other functionaries. He expects from us and let us not fall short of it. The iceberg could be melting, but certainly another iceberg is being formed somewhere….ultimately, it is change which remains constant always. Sardar Patel envisioned the IAS as the steel pillars of India. Today the pillars are even more entrenched and stronger than ever. The powers and scope of work of the IAS is certainly not diminishing….and that is perhaps why, all of us are here…!
ZUHAIR BIN SAGHIR
If we were asked, what is happening to the role of the IAS in contemporary times?
a) Growing
b) Status quo
c) Diminishing
d) I don’t care
Most of us are going to put our bet on ‘c’ or‘d’. And if it is so, then certainly we need to ask ourselves, why we chose to join this prestigious service at all (as most visiting guests ask us…!).Indubitably, the powers, scope and prestige of an IAS officer has declined when compared to the days of the Raj or even until the initial years after independence. Sometimes we do feel nostalgic, wondering: ‘Jaane wo kaise log they…?’ After the amendments in the Criminal procedure code in 1973, a substantial amount of magisterial powers have vanished from the IAS kitty, the 73rd amendment act has also taken away a considerable amount of the developmental authority of the IAS and passed onto the local bodies and elected representatives. In states like Gujarat and Maharashtra, the task of development has conveniently been handed to what is called the CEO, Zila Parishad.
With the influx of multinationals and surge in globalization, the role of IAS has further come under the scanner. NGOs and media men are continuously hovering around the bureaucrat’s head (remember, the newspaper we visited in Delhi, felt pride in addressing us as babus, right into our faces !) and further, in terms of diminishing powers, the perfect icing on the cake is made by what we know as, political interference.
However, this is just one side of the story…let me put it this way, the authority and prestige an IAS commands, has hardly dwindled in the mind of the common Indian. In states lying inside the cow belt, he is an iconic figure. The mai-baap cult still pervades the lifestyle of the IAS. The cult comes with its own set of lacunae, but that’s a different issue altogether. We are witnessing a paradigm shift in the role of the IAS. He is increasingly getting attuned to the democratic system that runs in the veins of our country. Empowerment of people, particularly the downtrodden sections of the society, implies greater accountability and transparency in working…but then that’s what good governance is all about !
The Right to Information Act, as a section of the IAS says, has introduced an element of answerability and accountability on the part of public servants and thus keeps them on their toes. Decision making has become easier, since the onus of responsibility has become localized. While scanning through the RTI procedure, one can easily find who was at fault. Far from our powers being diminished, our workload has increased. On an average, an IAS has to put in 11 hours of work everyday…(Ah! our energy gets sapped in just 6-7 hours of classroom study!). With globalization, the task has further increased. India is in the take off mode today. Soon it will be airborne…and it is we, who are going to pilot it. (Don’t worry, we have an air force guy with us..!) Nothing has come down…powers, functions or prestige. It is only a transformation that we are undergoing….a transformation that is inevitable and has happened after every few decades.
As far as the political executive is concerned, we are just advisors and counselors to them. If only, both the wings of the executive realize their respective functions and scope of working, they can join hands and work together to produce results. Nothing stops us from thinking out of the box; nothing forces us to be prisoners of dilatory procedures alone. It is while maintaining the rule of law, adhering to the principles enshrined in the Constitution and committed to the common man, we can innovate and streamline delivery systems. The common man still regards us in high esteem more than other functionaries. He expects from us and let us not fall short of it. The iceberg could be melting, but certainly another iceberg is being formed somewhere….ultimately, it is change which remains constant always. Sardar Patel envisioned the IAS as the steel pillars of India. Today the pillars are even more entrenched and stronger than ever. The powers and scope of work of the IAS is certainly not diminishing….and that is perhaps why, all of us are here…!
ZUHAIR BIN SAGHIR
Friday, March 2, 2007
A few lines....feel the touch....
Apne chehre se jo zaahir hai chhupaayen kaise...
Apne chehre se jo zaahir hai chhupaayen kaise,
Terii marzii ke mutaabiq nazar aayen kaise
Ghar sajaane kaa tasavvur to bahot baad ka hai,
Pehle ye tay ho ke, is ghar ko bachaayen kaise
Qahqahaa aankh ka bartaav badal detaa hai
Hansne waale tujhe aansuu nazar aayen kaise
Wasim Barelvi
(Tasavvur-idea, Qahqahaa-laughter)
Apne chehre se jo zaahir hai chhupaayen kaise,
Terii marzii ke mutaabiq nazar aayen kaise
Ghar sajaane kaa tasavvur to bahot baad ka hai,
Pehle ye tay ho ke, is ghar ko bachaayen kaise
Qahqahaa aankh ka bartaav badal detaa hai
Hansne waale tujhe aansuu nazar aayen kaise
Wasim Barelvi
(Tasavvur-idea, Qahqahaa-laughter)
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