When one lives in a remote area, he has always a dream to see and experience the life of a City. Port Blair was a small city, so there was lot of anxiety in my mind when I was to join Ministry of Communications in the year 1985. I was perhaps the first to qualify any competitive examination conducted by Union Public Service Commission and therefore I had already got a lot of publicity. Since population was less in Port Blair and most of the people know each other, every day I had to face the question as when I was going to join a Ministry. I was already working in Indian Oil and was getting handsome salary with many perks, so at one point of time, I thought to stay back because in 1985, the pay scale of an Assistant Rs. 425-800/- and many were of the opinion that with the salary of an Assistant, it would be difficult manage the expenses. It was only the pursuation of my College Principal, Dr. A.V.V. Iyer who was my Guru and Mentor and even worked under him for about 18 months as a Lower Grade Clerk, I finally decided to join CSS and resigned my job of Indian Oil.
I had earlier visited Chennai and Kolkata so I knew the complexity of life in Metro, I was cheated by the Auto driver on the day I landed in Delhi. I knew no one in Delhi. One of my senior in college wrote a letter for Mr. Hemraj Bahadur who was also my senior and posted here as Public Relation Officer in Andaman House. He was kind enough to give me a room for few days. On 14th of October, 2010 I had join my new assignment, so Mr. Pritam who works in Andaman House dropped me at Sanchar Bhavan. I went to Administration Section of the Ministry. I found one person sitting at the back of a hall. I approached him and told him that I have come here to report for my duties. He asked me to sit and offered me a cup of coffee. I thought, he might be an Assistant too but subsequently he told me that he was the Section Officer. It was little surprising for me because officers in small places like Andaman are provided with a separate room. After few minutes, my counter-part also came and after completing some formalities, I was alloted to Department of Posts.
Next was the Administration Section of Department of Posts. I was posted to a Staff Section(Administration). The Section Officer there told me to occupy a seat full of dusts, files and many bundle of papers. Though I had already worked in a Government office, I could not understand how to start with. The Section was dealing personnel matters of Group C employess of Postal Department. I consulted my neighbour who without seing the papers advised me to call for reports from Circle offices and issue reminders in all pending files. Where ever, I sent a reminder, I got a reply that report has already already been sent. The next problem was as to how to locate the earlier papers? I asked the Diarist to see whether the letter has been received it. He promptly searched the Diary Register and informed me that the letter is marked to "VS". I asked him what is this VS and he replied that it is "Vacant Seat". In fact due to heavy work load on the seat where I was posted, no other Assistants were willing to join and the post remained vacant for more than six months. The Section Officer had perhaps no option but to keep the some receipts pending. I had already understood the job of Assistants so quietly started making efforts to linking papers in respective files but my four other colleages started giving me some files which they had dealt with during the vacancy. It took about three months to sort out all backlog. I started enjoying the work too because Assistant had a liberty to suggest and express his view points on many issues for consideration by the Seniors in the hieararchy. I found that one good suggestion from an Assistant can have much wider impact and can bring changes in the life of many. It was really a enjoyable to number the receipts and notes, put flags in a file. When a particular file is fully ready, I use to feel pride that I have done something and once my suggestions or proposals were approved, it gave me immense pleasure and satisfaction. Even during the time when I worked as an Lower Grade Clerk in Andamans, I had realized that even if a Clerk has will to initiate something new, many things can happen. During our College days we had submitted a number of demands to Administration like repairing of hostels, increase of hostel stipend and grant of concessional travel fares etc. When I joined as Clerk I found all those memorandums lying in a file. But when I started putting up every such cases to concerned authorities, many of the proposals were accepted.
There is a set language pattern in the Secretariat. Being a Post Graduate in English, initially I had too literary bent to mind but after working for few years, it was no more. The words like "PUC", "FR" and "DFA" may be something like new formula for new comers to Secretariat. Many new comer often write "DFA" submitted for approval". They have to be told that "DFA itself means draft submitted for approval". Flagging is another artistic feature of a file. Once, I asked a newly appointed peon to bring some flags. After sometime, he came with "F shape flags". I told him this is not the flags we require and he insited "Sahab flag to aisa hi hota hai".
I had earlier visited Chennai and Kolkata so I knew the complexity of life in Metro, I was cheated by the Auto driver on the day I landed in Delhi. I knew no one in Delhi. One of my senior in college wrote a letter for Mr. Hemraj Bahadur who was also my senior and posted here as Public Relation Officer in Andaman House. He was kind enough to give me a room for few days. On 14th of October, 2010 I had join my new assignment, so Mr. Pritam who works in Andaman House dropped me at Sanchar Bhavan. I went to Administration Section of the Ministry. I found one person sitting at the back of a hall. I approached him and told him that I have come here to report for my duties. He asked me to sit and offered me a cup of coffee. I thought, he might be an Assistant too but subsequently he told me that he was the Section Officer. It was little surprising for me because officers in small places like Andaman are provided with a separate room. After few minutes, my counter-part also came and after completing some formalities, I was alloted to Department of Posts.
Next was the Administration Section of Department of Posts. I was posted to a Staff Section(Administration). The Section Officer there told me to occupy a seat full of dusts, files and many bundle of papers. Though I had already worked in a Government office, I could not understand how to start with. The Section was dealing personnel matters of Group C employess of Postal Department. I consulted my neighbour who without seing the papers advised me to call for reports from Circle offices and issue reminders in all pending files. Where ever, I sent a reminder, I got a reply that report has already already been sent. The next problem was as to how to locate the earlier papers? I asked the Diarist to see whether the letter has been received it. He promptly searched the Diary Register and informed me that the letter is marked to "VS". I asked him what is this VS and he replied that it is "Vacant Seat". In fact due to heavy work load on the seat where I was posted, no other Assistants were willing to join and the post remained vacant for more than six months. The Section Officer had perhaps no option but to keep the some receipts pending. I had already understood the job of Assistants so quietly started making efforts to linking papers in respective files but my four other colleages started giving me some files which they had dealt with during the vacancy. It took about three months to sort out all backlog. I started enjoying the work too because Assistant had a liberty to suggest and express his view points on many issues for consideration by the Seniors in the hieararchy. I found that one good suggestion from an Assistant can have much wider impact and can bring changes in the life of many. It was really a enjoyable to number the receipts and notes, put flags in a file. When a particular file is fully ready, I use to feel pride that I have done something and once my suggestions or proposals were approved, it gave me immense pleasure and satisfaction. Even during the time when I worked as an Lower Grade Clerk in Andamans, I had realized that even if a Clerk has will to initiate something new, many things can happen. During our College days we had submitted a number of demands to Administration like repairing of hostels, increase of hostel stipend and grant of concessional travel fares etc. When I joined as Clerk I found all those memorandums lying in a file. But when I started putting up every such cases to concerned authorities, many of the proposals were accepted.
There is a set language pattern in the Secretariat. Being a Post Graduate in English, initially I had too literary bent to mind but after working for few years, it was no more. The words like "PUC", "FR" and "DFA" may be something like new formula for new comers to Secretariat. Many new comer often write "DFA" submitted for approval". They have to be told that "DFA itself means draft submitted for approval". Flagging is another artistic feature of a file. Once, I asked a newly appointed peon to bring some flags. After sometime, he came with "F shape flags". I told him this is not the flags we require and he insited "Sahab flag to aisa hi hota hai".
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