I have been asked by friends to start working on my memoirs.but frankly speaking I do not have an inflated notion of myself to feel such a venture justified.Moreover,I do not think a bureaucrats journey through life would be of interest to anyone unless one is a PNHaksar, or a VP Menon or a BK Nehru. However,I would like to share one incident,a most embarrassing one from my early career.I was serving in the Punjab Govt and had just been promoted as deputy secretary.in 1960.My first day in office. In Corbusiers designed Secretariat Deputy Secretaries also had huge rooms with beautiful granite tables S shaped so that for receiving visitors you could just glide into a different position to be with them.My table was bare - not a file on it - my legs stretched out on the table and my chair swung back with me completely engrossed in a PG Wodehouse novel totally oblivious of everything else.After some time I felt a presence behind me and I nearly fell off the Chair .Whom do I see? Pratap Singh Kairon,Chief Minister of Punjab and a virtual bug bear for all bureaucrats and guess who was with him?Jawaharlal Nehru,Prime minister of India You can imagine my state of mind and what I felt like.Panditji put me at ease and asked in Hindi Kya padh rahe ho (what are you reading .) Very sheepishly I replied Wodehouse Sir.Then to my great surprise and relief he launched on a discussion of Wodehouse and his various characters and how he had met Wodehouse in London.I also got in the mood of discussion and mentioned my favourite characters and books.This continued for about 25 minutes after which in the true Wodehousian spirit he said Carry on young Man and left .Not a word was uttered by Pratap Singh Kairon in the presence of the great man.No chastisement.No nothing How had this happened? The PM was flying to Amrtitsar and bad weather diverted the flight to Chandigarh .The Chief Minister rushed to the airport to receive him. On his way JLN expressed a desire to visit the Secretariat with the planning of which he was emotionally involved with Corbusier.Arriving at the Secretariat they took the lift and at random stopped on the third floor.My room was next to the elevator. But that was not the end .There was an epilogue.Three years later in 1963 I was Officiating as Vice Chancellor of the Punjab Agriculture University in Ludhiana,( the regular VC PN Thapar ICS RELAXING In Hollywood ) Panditji had been invited to inaugurate the University.He arrives and I am introduced by Chief Minister Kairon as the Vice Chancellor.Panditji expresses surprise A very young Vice Chancellor( I was then only 7 years old in service) Then he keeps looking at me and says Young man.havent we met before I just said 2 words PGWodehouse Sir and he gave a big chuckle.
Posted on: Sun, 05 Oct 2014 04:49:41 +0000
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