Visit to Lakshdweep :heady memories of a cocktail

Being an individualistic and self oriented person a  three day outing to an exotic   Island in group of nine persons with different backgrounds and different linguistic styles,  is not  my perception of  a dream holiday.  At a particular stage in life an outing is meaningful if it helps you in unwinding yourself. An isolated beach bed under the umbrella with periodical dips in the sea and your glass of beer by the side build up the true atmosphere for this kind of experience on an island. Long back when kids were small and we had a great eagerness to see every waterfall and mountain, sunset and sunrise point on the guide map then the outings used to be very hectic and different. But with passage of time we (meaning me and my wife) realised the importance of companion ship and solitude as the sole driving force for a relaxed holiday. But this time the chain of events was just beyond my control so this excursion to Lakshdweep group of Islands  happened to be different.

This  group of Islands located on West Coast of Indian Penisula are scattered in a rather haphazard fashion unlike other islands all over the world which are laid out from North to South. After an hours’ flight in a ten seater Dornier aircraft from Cochin we landed at Island of Agatti  which with presence of Air India and Kingfisher Airlines is  the only Airport in the Islands.  The Island also has a Govt Guest House with AC Rooms and excellent dining    facilities.

Agatti is a linear land mass of about 9 Km length and so narrow that one can see  sea waters on   both sides. One side has clear water and calm sea and the other side has uneven sea bed with     corals scattered all along. An enterprising  member of the group soon discovered the hotspots on Agatti which included a private beach with water sport facilities and boat ride for discovering corals on the sea bed. On this discovery everyone promptly marched to the destination. It was sunset time now and as the sun went down in the sea the skyline was painted with myriad shades of red and blue .Next morning was reserved for the boat ride to watch Corals through the fibber glass bottom of the boat . The half hour  bumpy ride in the   choppy sea was not without thrills. At one stage the motor boat engine stopped  and the operator appeared to be confused. His efforts in comforting us through the  information  that we shall not drown due to life jackets was in fact more frightening. Crisis situation was  however soon blown over and forgotten.

The Island of Kavaratti which has the Secretariat and District level offices and can be accessed through  a Pawan Hans chopper in a matter of 15 minutes was our next destination. Here we understood a bit of history and sociology. The Lakshadweep Islands are said to have been discovered when courtiers of Kerala king named Cherman Perumal ruler of Cannore came in search of the king who had suddenly disappeared from his kingdom. While the king remained untraced the incident opened up the Islands to the rest of the world, at a time even perpetuating an intense struggle for domination between Kings of various ruling dynasties. The Islands had a matrilineal system known as Maru Makkhatayam  for long and were ruled by Queen Arrakkal Bibi  for a long time with a firm hand.  The queen is understood to have prevented domination of other Kings and East India Company The Islands still seemed to have   spirit of the Queen hanging in the atmosphere since we had opportunity to interact with a fair number of dominant personalities from the fair sex. Kavaratti also has an aquarium with exotic fishes and a good fish museum showing collection of some fishes caught over the islands from time to time and some species are really interesting. The island has also started a new initiative for processing the sea water in order to make it fit for drinking by boiling it at low pressure.

Bangaram Island which is a great favourite with foreigners were not in our schedule. The Island is sought after due to water sports facilities and due to the solitude which it offers-the resort with six rooms is beyond the reach of upper end Indian tourists and the facilities for snorkelling and scuba diving are the same way too .Kadmat Island was our destination on the last day. A two and half hour ride in speed boat was a smooth experience in comparison to some disturbing predictions of sea sickness made earlier in anticipation of rough sea. The island does not have a jetty so we had to hop in another motor boat for reaching the destination. Kadmat has some air-conditioned tourist huts and inviting blue waters .However the option of swimming did not appear to be very attractive since there was only one more swimmer in sight and the sand appeared to be sinking below your feet all the time. Weather was really hot and an hours outing appeared to be enough for giving a tanned look even to the fairest members of the group.We returned to Kavaratti in late evening. Next day was our departure to hustle and bustle of city life. In the evening the beach was cool and the sunset was tantalizingly beautiful.

I dipped my feet in cool water and laid down on the sand with closed eyes .I seemed to have dozed off a bit while thinking of the islands past and the divine surroundings. It appeared that the pages of ancient history unfolded to my memory as I found myself with the courtiers looking for their lost king and then the ruler Arrakal Bibi charming but merciless ruling the small kingdom. The colourful pages of history dancing in kaleidoscope of natural beauty had a heady feeling. A once in  lifetime experience definitely.

Public Services Bill 2007: Magna Carta for public servants in India

The Public Services Bill 2007 which is expected to be taken up by the Indian Parliament in the current session is a manifestation of the struggle of the Indian bureaucracy for devising a mechanism which could ensure efficiency and efficacy of public services . The proposed legislation attempts to set up a regulatory and protective framework for making the civil and police officers perform in a competitive atmosphere without interference and without fear of persecution for being upright and impartial. It covers All India Services namely the IAS, IPS and Indian Forest Services. State Govts. have the option to extend it to respective state public services.

The bill visualizes setting up of a Central Public Service Authority as the apex agency responsible for coordination, control and monitoring of various structural changes visualized in the proposed enactment. The matters relating to the constitution of the Central Public Authority are dealt in Chapter VI of the Bill.

The Authority is to be headed by a person of eminence with at least 25 years expertise in dealing with public service matters. However the bill prohibhits appointment of a MP or MLA or a person connected to any office in a political pand India's arty to this post. The authority shall have between 3 to 5 members in addition to the Chairperson.

The appointment of Chairperson and members is to be done with approval of the President of India based on recommendations of a selection committee comprising of the Indian Prime Minister , Leader of Opposition, and India's  Home Minister with  the Cabinet Secretary in the Govt. Of India as the convener. The salary and conditions of service of the Chairperson  and the members shall be at par with the Chief Election Commissioner of India and Indian Election Commissioners respectively. The tenure of appointment is proposed as five years or till attaining of age of 65 years.

The Central Govt shall have to compulsorily consult this Central authority on various matters of public services including evolution and monitoring of a Public Service Code and matters relating to ethics in public service as well as the performance management startegy for public services.

The Public Services which shall be covered by the scheme visualized in the Bill have been defined as below:

Public Services” means the All India Services, the Central Services and any other Service and posts in connection with the affairs of the Union notified by the Central Government;

The principles to be followed in the matter of recruitment to public services are contained in Chapter II which highlights that such appointments shall be on basis of merit and open and fair competition.

Chapter II of the bill deals with certain idealistic concepts such as Public Service values and Public Service Codes. Central Services and All India Services have been so far covered by Conduct Rules which have over the years become a patch work quilt of instructions related to behaviour expected of public servants and need restructuring. The bill proposes to reformulate the approach to these matters .

The Public Service Values projected in the new legislation are coined in more poetic language referring to patriotism, and allegiance to law of the nation while simultaneously making reference to other practical aspects such as integrity, honesty,  transparency etc. for the public services.

The bill seeks to ensure preparation of a Public Service Code with the objective of setting standards of good governance for ensuring that public services are carried out with integrity and efficiency. Any breach of public service ethics shall be subject to punishment as per sanctions prescribed in the law.

Chapter IV of the Bill concerns Performance Management and Accountability for the public services .For this purpose a Performance Management Code is to be evolved by the Central Authority .This code will help ensure that the Public Services function as per developmental and management requirements of the State and objective evaluation of performance is facilitated. The code is expected to inject elements of accountability, neutrality , integrity and professionalism of approach in public services.

Chapter V concerns the conditions of service and protection offered to public servants.

The bill proposes to retain the existing jurisdiction and functions of statutory bodies like Union Public Service Commission, Central Vigilance Commission and assigns several responsibilities to cadre controlling authority which include formulation of service rules and a grievance redressal mechanism for public servants.

In course of discharge of it's mandated functions , the Central Authority can seek public opinion on policy matters . It has to also submit an annual report to Govt. on various functional  issues including cases of non consultation or non compliance of it's directions.

The scheme of governance conceived in the bill if accepted and sincerely implemented could metamorphose the picture of public services . Besides offering protection and performance based encouragement it could create a mechanism which is committed to deliver while taking away the interference and pressure tactics which reduce the bureaucratic performance. This will mean depriving the politicians of the unfair advantage which they enjoy today. It is to be seen whether the lawmakers would approve of the suggested changes. Let us keep our fingers crossed.

Do all human beings survive on opiates

Recently one of the leading magazines in India published an article which brought out the fact that gossiping was a favourite pastime of most of us human beings and it added to social networking abilities of human race. While social networking may be one the fallouts of this activity the reason for the indulgence into gossip seems to be something beyond this analysis. Close analysis of day to day human behaviour appears to lead to the inference that human brains appear to need regular dose of stimulation in order to keep us in a state of positive thinking and survive against ups and downs of our struggle for survival in a harsh world. Different members of human species have in the process developed our respective opiates on which we depend for doses of happiness   or excitement .

Take the case of cricket lovers. Nowadays since the game is on round the year in one or another part of the world and innovations like the T20 format of  cricket offer instant results, the cricket lovers seem to have  evolved a continous source of stimulation in shape of ball to ball commentary,  accompanying fanfare and analysis . Other joys and sorrows of day to day life have secondary importance in life of a genuine cricket fan whose brain cells are regularly  tickling with the details on tumbling  records and updates on fluctuations in fortunes of teams and the men who toil between the performance of cheerleaders.When it comes to minute to minute account , another breed of human beings are those interested in ups and downs of share market index. Far too many of us keep track of online tradings without having any worthwhile stakes in the share market.The thrill of being a part of speculation keeps a good proprtion of us glued to laptops when life becomes less exciting for a while.

Not close behind in the reliance on stimulants are the human species practising the avocation which is branded as last refuge of scoundrels. Sheltered behind dignified terminology of politicians these men and women need continuos injection of ego inflating monuments and statues which give  them a temporary impression of towering over ordinary mortals. Take away the stonelaying ceremonies and public felicitations from a politician and the person sinks into depression , becomes  social anarchist and tends to attack everything within sight whether it is a railway budget or a photographer taking snaps.

Religion -another widely used source of stimulation offers allurement  of having higher quality of life after death or in rebirth. That keeps so many of us professing different religious beliefs, busy in continous process of offering our prayers to whichever power we consider to be supreme. In practical terms it gets translated to sporting prominenetly one  religious symbol or other and considering religious duties as something which should take precedence over our professional commitments and social responsibilities. But it does surely keep a large chunk of humanity in state of contentment and sometimes also busy in dreams of conquering all other religions to establish a supremacy of our own religion.

This discussion cannot be complete unless we think of those for whom pay revisions , promtions and transfers are the opiates which keep their minds and hearts preoccupied on 24X7 basis. The Govt. servants  of all hue survive   on calculation of pay benefits,  discussion over supremacy of respective service over others  and the unfair treatment meted out to them by the employer . Hoping for a better posting, anticipating release of next installment of DA or awiting the meeting of Departmental Promotion Committee keeps our brother hood in a state of intoxication which makes them tick in a otherwise treachorous environment.

Bloggers have their own galvanising force.When I statred blogging, the first thing which I usd to do in the morning was to check the hit counter and accordingly would feel happy or depressed if hits were too many or too few during the night. For months together I kept analysing the statistical details to find out as to which readers came from where and read which posts. Thank god I ultimately  realised the absurdity of all this analysis and gave up blog writing for a long time in order to become deaddicted to hit counter.Things are back to normal now i.e. I am more preoccupied with routine addictions of Govt. servants mentioned above.

While  opiates certainly seem to have taken a firm grip over our intellectual behaviour, this situation  has thrown up  some complications and  challenges too.  The recent tragic end of a famous Pop star has exposed the risks involved in  taking of too many anti depressants  since the combination produces unpredictable outcomes.The same complication sometimes occurs when a peron gets addicted to more than one  opiate like a govt servant getting interested in politics or a politician becoming deeply religious .The system and society has to then put in extra efforts to survive the mutants.

Some hazards of blogging

Writing a blog appeared to be a simple and harmless activity when I decided to take a plunge about a year back. My son who has some encouraging views on my writing skills goaded  me to continue writing with some regularity so that I could give vent to emotions which sometimes build up on incosequential issues. This exercise I expected would also build up a network of like minded persons and give us a platform for experience sharing .

My wife has been writing a blog for a longer period (in Hindi) and has cultivated a circle of friends over various cities. Her circle includes people of various age groups who share  an enthusiasm for narrating day to day experiences in simple language. I found some narrations of such bloggers , specially those relating to an old friend or a departed family member quite moving . Off course the number of such  blog writers is  less as compared to number of writers merely trying to impress with sentimental and emotional outbursts still they are a close community who share joys and sorrows and sometimes also meet each other while visiting another town where a known blogger resides.

My experience was however quite different on this wordpress blog .While I had started this as a  hobby for writing on any topic of immeadiate relevance to me , the report of Sixth Central Pay Commission became available on CPC website. Every week I used to go through one or two chapters and prepare short notes just for personal record and information .I started posting these short notes on my blog also along with other writings. Since at that time everyone around was also calculating  benefits expected out of CPC recommendations therefore I also made some calculations on Excel sheet and later worked out through the same sheet the benefits expected for others.

As the feverpitch for Sixth CPC report built up this blog also started receiving large number of hits, peaking to eight thousand hits on a day in August 2008. (So far this blog has generated  more than 1.78 Lakh hits). But thereafter a new class of readers completely overtook this blog asking for individual information on pay and pension related matters. I tried to periodically explain to readers that I did not have any intention of running a helpline service .This was also beyond my capabilities and being a working person I had no time for any further resarch on service matters. Moreover I also wanted someone to read and appreciate my so called literary pieces on other matters. In fact in my view popularity of pay commission related writings was  expected to be a temporary phenomenon. However things failed to change , the stream of queries continued . I found that more than 95%  readers came via CPC related writings only. In my frustration over lack of interest in my creative pieces I almost gave up this blog with the hope that my abondenment would discourage the visitors for pay related readings and queries.

After a few months I opened this blogsite and saw some disturbing trends. Some of the readers were quarelling between themeselves over profession related matters in less than acceptable fashion. Some comments were not in good taste.I realised that even blogging needs some policing. If things are left to indisciplined readers the consequences can be disastorous. I have put some regulatory mechanism in place now to restict comments and would be monitoring regularly.My apologies to readers who had a free run in recent months and to those who were at the receiving end . I would also continue to take this blog out of the CPC mania and try to  develop it on originally conceived lines. Let us see how far this  endeavour  succeeds.