Timeframe : 1st week of December 2008
Place : Lucknow, Ministers' office in the legislative assembly.Actors :
To -> Education Minister of a state, Secretary for higher Education
From -> Managing committee members of a College
Story :
The college planned to start two new post-graduate courses and filed an application with higher education ministry in mid of 2008. There was no response till November end (even on followups).
Sometime in December we went to the Secretary (had to grease palms to arrange meetings).
The officer there was a typical example of 'Sarkaari afsar' , old, sluggish, yawny, frowny, full of excuses.. in all hard to move to work.
The first reaction was, I dont remember we got a request for approval. Then it was, come some other day, we will see if we have the file. On persisting further, it changed to wait-for-a-while-and-I-will-call-you kind of response. We kept sitting in front of him. After some time, the file was brought. There was a 5 word response from the minister
"अगले सत्र में विचार हेतु" (To be discussed in next session) !!
Why ??
Do you understand what next session would mean ?
Do you know that next session means 60 odd students will study the subject they did not plan to ?? They will loose the battle before they enter it...
He simply re-read the note and gave us a now-we-are-talking look. We understood the look within fraction of a second. Why wont we ? We are so used to this. However we knew we need to build the story forward. Here is the conversation..
"सर, बच्चों के भविष्य का सवाल है, आप इसी सत्र में देख लीजिये "(Sir, this is question of career for the children। Please see if it can be done within this session)। We pleaded।
"देखा नही आपने, मंत्री जी ने क्या लिखा है" ( You dont see that it is final now). That meant it would be a bigger amount. (Saala bada muh phadega).
"Its you who can make this happen sir, please let us know if we can do some 'sewa'. You are the only one who can talk to mantriji and move this for this session." We came to the point, early.
"देखिये काम थोड़ा टेढा है, बहुत सा urgent files बचा है", he said, without raising his head. We knew its just a routine act, just to raise the price.
"आप सेवा तो बोलिए सर" (you just tell us the amount)
"Let me see", he said, went inside and came back after a while. "1.25", spat the pro.
"ठीक है, कब तक ?" (by when should we get the money)
"जितना जल्दी हो सके" (as soon as you can)
"आप फाइल आगे चलाइये, हम अगले हफ्ते आते हैं" (you move the file, we will arrange the money next week).
Story :
The college planned to start two new post-graduate courses and filed an application with higher education ministry in mid of 2008. There was no response till November end (even on followups).
Sometime in December we went to the Secretary (had to grease palms to arrange meetings).
The officer there was a typical example of 'Sarkaari afsar' , old, sluggish, yawny, frowny, full of excuses.. in all hard to move to work.
The first reaction was, I dont remember we got a request for approval. Then it was, come some other day, we will see if we have the file. On persisting further, it changed to wait-for-a-while-and-I-will-call-you kind of response. We kept sitting in front of him. After some time, the file was brought. There was a 5 word response from the minister
"अगले सत्र में विचार हेतु" (To be discussed in next session) !!
Why ??
Do you understand what next session would mean ?
Do you know that next session means 60 odd students will study the subject they did not plan to ?? They will loose the battle before they enter it...
He simply re-read the note and gave us a now-we-are-talking look. We understood the look within fraction of a second. Why wont we ? We are so used to this. However we knew we need to build the story forward. Here is the conversation..
"सर, बच्चों के भविष्य का सवाल है, आप इसी सत्र में देख लीजिये "(Sir, this is question of career for the children। Please see if it can be done within this session)। We pleaded।
"देखा नही आपने, मंत्री जी ने क्या लिखा है" ( You dont see that it is final now). That meant it would be a bigger amount. (Saala bada muh phadega).
"Its you who can make this happen sir, please let us know if we can do some 'sewa'. You are the only one who can talk to mantriji and move this for this session." We came to the point, early.
"देखिये काम थोड़ा टेढा है, बहुत सा urgent files बचा है", he said, without raising his head. We knew its just a routine act, just to raise the price.
"आप सेवा तो बोलिए सर" (you just tell us the amount)
"Let me see", he said, went inside and came back after a while. "1.25", spat the pro.
"ठीक है, कब तक ?" (by when should we get the money)
"जितना जल्दी हो सके" (as soon as you can)
"आप फाइल आगे चलाइये, हम अगले हफ्ते आते हैं" (you move the file, we will arrange the money next week).
