During my UPSC interview (described in an earlier blog), one question that was asked, did bother me for a while. ‘Was I not wasting a seat in IIT by getting into the civil service?’
Today, this is a non-issue given the large number of IITians (IIM background added!) getting into the Civil Service. But back in 1980, when entry of the Engineering and Medical stream was facilitated, following the Kothari Commission recommendations, this was not so.
My doubts soon disappeared in my first posting itself, as sub-collector Jajpur, in Odisha. In particular, it happened after I handled an annual event – the chariot festival of Goddess Biraja. Her temple was an important Shakti-peeth and known as ‘Nabhi-Gaya’.
How did I get into this event as Sub-collector, Jajpur? Well, as the sub-collector (Jajpur was not yet a district then) I was ex-officio President of the Temple Trust which was entrusted with the task of managing this event.
What was a big deal in it? It was after all a routine, annual event. That precisely is the point. In my first meeting of the Trust Committee itself, everybody lamented that the ceremony used to take enormously long time, and the final ritual that was expected to get over at the crack of the dawn, always got delayed by many hours. “I have never seen it happening by the sunrise except during the Emergency” – was the lament of a senior priest. The delay was of course cumulative. Various steps would get delayed individually and add to the overall delay.
I was surprised myself. Was it not a routine codified annual event? Yes, it was. Were the steps taken not known? Yes, these were. Why can’t we use the PERT – CPM technique then, if the steps were known? PERT – CPM? Was I coming from Mars? This was Jajpur! It was an age-old ritual! Just because I was from IIT, I can not tinker with the process. I was unfazed. Did we have a list of all the steps and their sequence? Yes, but not everyone will know all the steps.
During such emotive discussions, specially while tinkering with the status quo, one needs to be a good listener. I did that. I asked if there were one or two knowledgeable persons who knew the entire ritual and could list out all the steps for me. Luckly, one senior Lawyer, Shri Naba Satpathy, did fit the bill. He was quite respected, used to appear in my ‘court’, when I would hear cases under Cr PC or other quasi-judicial proceedings and had been in the management committee for some years now. It was agreed that he will share with me all the details and then I could take a call.
Upon getting the relevant details, I found that the exercise was not very complex. One just needed to arrange all the steps in series and in parallel, identify available slack, find out who was responsible for ensuring that the step get completed in time. I sat with Naba Babu and couple of other members of the temple management committee and made a chart, outlining how we could complete the final ritual 5 minutes before the scheduled muhurta!
But Jajpur was not a simple place to operate in. Those from Odisha, are quite familiar with its ‘reputation’. Highly conscious population, quite litigant as well. Upon hearing that I was posted as Sub-Collector Jajpur, reactions among various senior colleagues was ‘Hmm…’, ‘Good training ground’, ‘I see, Jajpur!’ But more about this in some other blog.
The short point was that the procedural confusion or chaos, and the consequent delay, was a result of mutual recriminations, lack of trust, and more importantly, ineffective monitoring. A good anti-dote for such a situation was to give every stakeholder complete information, ensure complete transparency and a provision for immediate intervention wherever any delay occurs in the first place. Additionally, I had kept a backup for each ‘failure’. Whenever a given person, assigned a certain task was to be absent or unavailable or not able to do his task on time, the backup would step in, and someone will ensure this.
Even after this, if there was a delay of more than 5 minutes in completion of any task, my 2nd Officer would be informed and could step in. I could be kept informed. As this was not the era of mobiles, we brought in the wireless network from the Police, since they were to be present for doing crowd management in any case. In addition, 2-3 staff from the SDM’s office, armed with the information sheet, would keep an eye on the time lines.
But my impressive template was prepared only in English. I realized that it was no good since many of the players would not be well versed with English. I instantly decided to render the information sheets in Odiya. In addition, each person and his back up, would have a copy of their portion of the task and the time window. Upon completion of their task, they were to inform my second officer before leaving their position.
A PERT-CPM chart in Odiya! That too at my behest! This created a buzz and also conveyed a signal about my seriousness. Jajpur being Jajpur, the information sheet got quietly and quickly copied (through cyclostyling machine – it was not the xerox era yet!). Half the town now knew who was responsible for which task, who was the backup and by what time was a particular part of the ritual was expected to get over. Everybody felt well informed!
By this time my reputation as a tough ‘boy’ – ‘Tanua Toka’ had already spread. That did help. My posting as a young, ‘direct recruit’ IAS officer at Jajpur, after a gap of 14 odd years had already made the Jajpur-walaas quite proud. Mr R M Senapati, who was then posted at Jajpur was quite a legend as a ‘Tanua Toka’, and there was a curiosity if I measure up to that ‘legend’.
The ceremony did begin on time. I stayed there on the spot till nearly the midnight. The smoothness of the process surprised the members of the temple trust, and me as well. I decided to call it a day after the midnight. The second officer was told to wake me up without any hesitation if any problem arose. He was determined to stay put. The elderly priest, who was lamenting that the rituals did not end on time, was tasked to come to my residence after sunrise to inform me as to when did the final ritual get completed.
When I was woken up, rather hesitantly, by Shambhu, my orderly, I was annoyed. Why was he waking me up so early. Then I remembered. Oh yes, the priest!
I came to the verandah! There he was. The old man. He raised his palms in the ‘blessings’ mode, grinned from ear to ear and said ‘Let the Thakurani bless you’ – for the first time he found the ritual to happen when it was to. Right at the crack of the dawn !
It was sweet music to my ears. Learning at the IIT did not go in vain!