Sarkaari Office-Office

It has been almost two years since I started working in a government department. Belonging to a business family, I had only heard about the inefficiencies of sarkaari daftars, but had no first-hand experience as such to comment on it. Though I was let down many a times and felt like giving up when I visited any public sector bank or even my D.U offices for that matter.

But my past few years’ experience with these offices has actually amazed me of its peculiar functioning. It is these peculiarities that I would like to share in this post-

First is the rampant use of ‘shudh’ hindi in sarkaari daftars. I had to pay for this when one of the babus incharge of our joining asked me for a favour in return for sending me directly to “prashikshan”. And I being unaware at that time of what technical thing this “prashikshan”  might be and that I might lose out on such an important thing in the initial phases of my career, succumbed to it. And ofcourse! I was not sent for “prashikshan” as promised.

Another peculiarity is the novel use of dustbins in these daftars. As per my general understanding, I only knew that a dustbin is used for throwing discarded things, but thanks to sarkaari daftars , I now realize that it can be used for spitting, throwing chewed paan/masala ,washing hands post lunch. And trust me it takes at least a week for this fully loaded bin to be emptied for the same ordeal.

Movement of files from one table to another is also work done. Most of the cases take eternity to be resolved. Only the files keep moving from a higher rung to the lower and then back again to the higher one. Even the mritya(dead), sevanivrita(retired) person’s files keep moving for ages. Even the dead cannot rest in peace here.When I joined my department, a senior officer told me “jitna mushkil sarkaari naukari paana hai, usse kahin mushkil usse peecha chudana hai”. And I cannot agree more with him now.

Sarkaari daftar is one place where gender discrimination is non-existent ( not literally , ofcourse). Here both ‘mahila adhikaris’ and their male couterparts are referred to as ‘sir’! I made blunders during my initial days at office when I never responded to when I was referred to as ‘sir’ , only to later realize that I was the one who was being referred to!

Another peculiarity is the way officers call their seniors ‘sir..sir..sir..sir…….’ breathlessly so much so that I am often reminded of the Centre Fresh ad. Sometimes I wonder when does the other person get a chance to speak in between this long -implausible –unending- repetetive  ‘sir’!

Also the way festivals are celebrated here is unique.Festival celebrations start a day or two prior to the festival and continue post festival too.These are the most relaxing days when there would not be much work and juniors are supposed to meet every senior at the workplace.This is also the time of the year when karamcharis would come and ask for chai-paani, and some like me would literally order chai-paani for them. I realized only after one year of experience that we should not take things literally here, and that the reference to chai-pani can mean other things too.

This is my experience with a sarkaari daftar. Though I am yet to explore many more aspects of it, it certainly is a wonderful and challenging place to work in!