My first step into Indian Administrative Service

Forty-four years to the week I became a member of the Indian Administrative Service. The examinations were in October- November the previous year, and the personality test in February 1964. The results were announced on April 4. I had a date at the Trivandrum Medical College and therefore did not hear the announcement over the All India Radio: the practice those days was to announce the first 15 names over the AIR and it certainly would have been thrilling to hear one’s name being aired but I missed it. It was usual for the results to be announced some Saturday evening in April those days, but we expected it only by mid April and perhaps that is why I did not bother to tune in. Or may be it was the date at the Medical College where a young lady had just become a House Surgeon(or Internist, I am not sure, one of the two, those days one had to do two years after MBBS before being declared graduated and that made it impossible for medicos to try their hand at IAS which examination had to be taken before one was 24; of course there were people like Jayaram Padikkal who went to Medical College after a basic degree, took the exam and quit the medical school on being selected to IPS). The next morning was uneventful until after we came back from church. I got to read Manorama in my Uncle Dr. C. A. Abraham’s house around ten or eleven that morning. And as I was about to throw away that least useful thing in the world, namely a daily newspaper which had been read, a news tucked away in some insignificant corner caught my eye: the list of Malayalee looking names from the IAS/IFS list of 1964 which had just been announced the previous day in Delhi. And, lo and behold, there it was, my name given as two names, Babu Paul comma Daniel. The surname had to be shown at the end while applying. I had taken that to mean expanding “D”. This led to some confusion when I reached Mussorie and announced myself as Babu Paul. Nobody with that name had qualified for appointment! When I said I had arrived they said that I had not “arrived”. Many moments of confusion later it dawned on the peony UP Tahsildar on deputation to the Academy that may be they could look up under “D”, and there my name was – as BABU PAUL DANIEL, abbreviated to B. P. Daniel. A few days later a Malayalee arrived. He had taken the exam but could not make it to the top, and so finally landed up in some service not particularly sought after. When he saw me he wanted to know what I was doing in that magic mountain. He was sure that my name was not in the list! And then there was Balmiki, my good friend, who later on helped me out to found the Samskriti Bhawan in Trivandrum when he was the culture commissar of India, and who went on to become India’s Home Secretary, and finally India’s Director on the World Bank. Balmiki declared that I was a tribal Christian from Chhotanagpur. When I protested that I was from Kerala he guessed that I had migrated to Kerala. When that was also challenged he said that I cannot be correct because the person who had told him about my domicile status “never goes wrong”. I had to say that in that case I was perhaps wrong!! Who am I anyway? Where have I come from and where do I go? God knows. And of course Balmiki’s friend also.

There were not as many Malayalees that year as in the previous. Mohankumar, Padmanabha Vijay, CKK Panicker, KPFabian, Chandrachoodan, Nalini Menon, CAChaly,VPB Nair, APRajappan Pillay,Sunderarajan , MMCheriyan and KJ Pappachen: Vijay and Fabian opted for IFS, Vijay choosing to resign after being manhandled by the culture revolutionaries in China and Fabian retiring as Ambassador somewhere. Nalini and Cheriyan were in the Income Tax Service, Pappachen in IOFS(NT) and the others in the IPS. Sunderarajan resigned after his ASP days, which in the West Bengal of the 60s would not have been particularly comfortable, and is today a leading lawyer in Trivandrum minting money(he successfully prosecuted the Minister who tried to be friendly with the lady in the IAS) and the others in the IPS went on to become DGPs, Chaly in Kerala and Bahuleyan(VPB) and Rajan in Andhra Pradesh. In the previous batch there were as many Malayalees in IAS/IFS itself.

Every old man has this weakness: to reminisce over the distant past. I am reminded of those happy days of youth when we wandered the streets and hillsides of that beautiful Himalayan town. The evenings we spent in WHISPERING WINDOWS watching the distant lights in the Doon Valley, occasionally hidden by the flying clouds which flew below our eye level. The lazy hours on the Charleville Officers’ Mess balcony looking at the Himalayan peaks on the other side. The frightening memories of horse riding. The amusing thoughts on Newal Singh the Riding Instructor who was famous for statements like “Who asked you to get off? Jump up right back” and “ Hope my horse is not hurt” when we were thrown off by the recalcitrant horse which had already discovered that the IAS Probationer atop was not in control! Needless to say that I failed in riding. However as “luck” would have it NKSingh, who retired as Member, Planning Commission also failed. I suppose it was his right connections that made the Government of India decide that when India was under attack from Pakistan(1965) it would be unpatriotic and disastrous to recall half a dozen Assistant Collectors to take the riding test again!

I bow my head before the memory of all those who were in Mussorie during that year(1964-65) who are no longer visibly present in this world today. Among the Malayalees CK and Choodan passed away while in service. All our Professors must have passed away by now unless they are living as nonagenarians or centenarians. I salute Prof Ramaswamy, who claimed that whatever he taught right was his, and whatever he taught wrong he had been taught by Laski at the London School. Ramaswamy used to say that the surefire answer to the population trend in India was to discourage the copulation trend by resorting to rural electrification in the absence of which people had no access to any recreation except procreation since sex was the only thing which was always good, fantastic when good, and “sort of okay” even when it was not so good. Then Sadasivan the Malayalee scholar whose marital status was a matter of perpetual debate among the Probationers, one group arguing that he was a misogynist and another saying he was already married and divorced, no third explanation being acceptable to either group for the indifferent manner in which he treated the pretty mademoiselles in the Academy, to woo whom middle level IAS officers came to the Academy as Tutors!! And the others: Raman Nair, the South Indian cook who made the insipid academy Dosas and flavorless coconut chutney, and his niece who was a clerk, Raghunath who besides being an Office Superintendent was a voracious reader and an excellent host, Antony who was PA to the Deputy Director et al. Destiny had brought us all together in the Siwalik Hills and the same Destiny has scattered us all, far and wide, this side and the other of Jordan. I went back to Mussorie twice for some conference or seminar, once in April 1970 and again in June 1977, and Mussorie had already changed. When we were there we had to walk seven kilometers one way to reach Landour and have a good Masala Dosa, in 1977 there were Dosa joints every hundred metres between Library point and Kulri, all owned by Sirdarjies! Remember the VKN story of a Malayali thriving in Pathankot as Sirdarji?
Pathak and Murti, Kiran and Asha, national figures like RBI Governor Venu and Interlocutor Lambah and UPA Advisor Saxena: I have referred to these and more in my service story KATHA ITU VARE. In this column it is only Malayalees and animals!!

If an anniversary that has lost all significance can bring back so many memories does it mean that I have reached a stage where I have nothing to look forward to? Well, it is no good sign. Do I not always sermonize that we should all strive to be excited every day about the prospect of a better tomorrow (even if you are 65, retired and lonely)? Advice of course is always for others I suppose!