ARTICLES
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BY A UMAKANTH SARMA
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1)MY EXPERIENCES IN LIFE
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When one describes one’s own life it is difficult to keep aside one’s own ego. On the other hand, one cannot go on an ego trip when presenting life’s experiences to a discerning audience. That would demand a certain measure of humility and modesty in describing one’s own life. Excessive humility and modesty in describing one’s achievements in life, however, can lead to self immolation. Balancing between self-adulation and self-abnegation is a delicate exercise. I will attempt to achieve this balance. There are always many episodes in one’s life that one would not like to expose to public view. I do not think there is any human being who does not have some experience or the other which he would not like to present to public scrutiny. Failures and successes ought to be presented in equal measure; but experiences that are better not relived need not perhaps be spread out on a table for the salacious consumption by those hungry for such material.
I was born in a rural middle class family in Andhra Pradesh. I was an average student weak in mathematics, and perhaps every subject that the teachers in the Middle and High Schools attempted to teach me. I however had the good fortune to have been enrolled in those schools, because they were they were not only well known in the district, but also had the distinction of having tutored boys who were very distinguished later in life. Among them was Mr. Obul Reddy, who was later the Chief Justice of Madras High Court and acting Governor of that State, and Mr. G. Jagathpathi, who was one of the very first to be enrolled into the Indian Administrative Service, as soon as it was constituted in 1948, on the basis of the very first competitive examination held by the Union (then known as Federal) Public Service Commission. Mr. Jagathpathi was later to be the Chief Secretary of Madhya Pradesh. The fact that these predecessor students were there acted as an inspiration to me later in life. After School Final, I joined the V.R. College, Nellore with Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry as optional subjects. This was an unfortunate choice, for it ignored the fact that I was weak in these subjects. But somehow I struggled along, but could not bring myself to write out the practical records of Physics and Chemistry laboratory classes. Therefore, when final examinations approached, I ran away, Ramana Maharshi’s Ashram in Tiruvannamalai. Apart from receiving the grace of that Maharshi, I had the good fortune to see at close hand several eminent personalities, like Duncan Greenlees, M.S. Subbulakshmi, etc. After a few days, I left the ashram and returned to Nellore to become active in youth politics: I joined the Young Socialist League (later renamed Samajwadi Yuvajana Sabha) and became the Joint Secretary of the State unit. In 1952, I was among those who actively campaigned in the general elections against the Congress. In one constituency, Udaipur, where we actively campaigned against Mr. Bezwada Gopal Reddy, Finance Minister of Madras, he lost the election. By 1953, however, my father was able finally to persuade me to return to studies. I joined the Vivekananda College, Madras, and was able to concentrate a little on my studies. As a result, I stood first in the University and was awarded the Gold Medal at the convocation in 1956.
Soon after I passed the exam, I was offered a job in a small college in Tamil Nadu where I spent a few months of exhilarating time interacting with students, who were surprised that there was a fellow who studied at Madras but could not speak Tamil at all. The teachers and the students go together to teach me Tamil. Unfortunately, I learnt only one word, "naarkaali" which meant a chair (that which has four legs). Even today, while I can understand Tamil fairly well, I cannot speak that beautiful language. I then competed for the Indian Administrative Service, emulating my eminent co-villager, Mr. Jagathpathi and was fortunate to be selected. I first opted for the Indian Foreign Service, which was the preferred service in those days for all toppers in the exam. Perhaps everybody thought he would be interacting with Jawaharlal Nehru, then the Prime Minister and Foreign Minister. Anyway, a few months after joining the Foreign Service, I had to leave it and join the Indian Administrative Service. Among my distinguished colleagues in the Foreign Service were Mr. Muchkund Dubey, later Foreign Secretary, Mr. Arjun Asrani, former Ambassador to Japan, Mr.P.P.D’Souza, former High Commissioner to Kenya, (he visited ICC, Sunnyvale, a few days back and Mr. Peter Sinai, a brilliant Rhodes Scholar who served with distinction in Germany, Iraq and several other such places, and Mr. N.N.Jha, High Commissioner to Sri Lanka and later Lt. Governor of Andaman & Nicobar Islands and Pondicherry.
One of my very first jobs, while under training, was to be a Survey and Settlement Officer. I lived in a tent at a place called Lotapahar, near Chakradharpur in Singhbhum district of Bihar. I used to walk from village to village supervising the work of cadastral survey. It was not all very comfortable though, as I occasionally had to come face to face with a leopard, with a family of bears and a pack of wolves. They did not harm me, but I suffered from acute bouts of scare! The plus side of my job was that I could save some money from my salary of Rs.350/- a month. Also I learnt the language of the tribes who lived in that area, Ho. I was able to study the problems of the tribal families who were engaged in the manufacture of beedies on contract basis at home. This was useful much later in life, when I had to deal with this subject as Joint Secretary of the Ministry of Labour.
My next job was as a Sub-divisional Officer at Giridih, a centre for processing and export of mica. A much remembered event during my stay was the capture of a full grown male leopard which strayed into a village and its escape from confinement at Hazaribagh. A photograph of the leopard still hangs in the drawing room of the Canary Hills Forest Guest House at Hazaribagh, with a reference to my association with the animal. Another event was my declining to discuss a case with the Chief Minister, Bihar Kesari Dr. Sri Krishna Sinha, who was visiting Giridih, on the ground that it was a judicial record and that I was not at liberty to discuss it outside the court. The Chief Minister was generous enough not to be offended by my reply. I can never forget the farewell I received from the people of Giridih town after I was transferred; the townspeople lined the streets with garlands to see me off. Many years later, when Giridih became a district, the locals published a little leaflet identifying the important things about the district and were kind enough to remember me as the most remembered Sub divisional Officer of that place.
It would be foolhardy for me to describe each and every job I held and the experiences therein. Mine was a "Snakes and Ladder" experience, sometimes hoisted to high and prestigious positions and sometimes confined to the doghouse. It would not be proper for me to discuss all these in detail. I spent nearly 35 years in service at the end of which I took voluntary retirement. Among the distinguished people I worked with I should count Mr. N. Sanjiva Reddy, later President of India, Mr. L.K. Advani, later Deputy Prime Minister of India, all the Chief Ministers of Bihar from the very first, Dr. Sri Krishna Sinha to the very last Mr. Laloo Prasad Yadav. My son has joined the Indian Foreign Service and is now a very senior officer posted in Pakistan. My other child, a daughter, has been quite successful in the IT industry in this country. I live a satisfied life of ease now in this country.
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2)A ROSE BY ANY NAME
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Naming a new born child is a big exercise in India and perhaps equally so in other countries too. The usual requirements are (i) it should be auspicious, having the name of a God or Goddess; (ii) it should conform to the conjunction of the stars under which it is born; (iii) it should be satisfactory to the grandmother and grandfather and other seniors in the family; (iv) it should ward off evils by its very name; (v) it should be convenient to be used and should not be amenable to abbreviations that may be very very embarrassing; (iv) it should be modern; if possible either it should be an imitation of a successful film star’s name or should be capable of being adopted by a film star, present or future; (v) it should rhyme with the names of the siblings; thus Ramakant would be followed by Srikanth and next will be Shyamakant; (vi) the family guru should approve of it; (vii) it should be unique, etc. etc. The requirements are not necessarily in this order. Sometimes, when new born infants repeatedly die, a bad name is given so that no evil eyes fall on the newborn again.
Persons with knowledge of Sanskrit go to great lengths to select a name which would be a living example of the erudition of the person, parent or near relative or older friend with influence. A friend of mine named his daughter Saikatotpala and his son Ranendra Nilabha. It took us several hours to break the sandhi and imagine that we had understood the meaning of the name. Sometimes these names land one in awkward positions. A friend of mine named his daughter ‘gajagamini’. Unfortunately the girl grew up to be a fairly corpulent person, and when the parents called her in public, with the shortened version of her name, ‘gajam’ the whole neighbourhood laughed. The girl did not like it and I am sure hated her parents forever. Names like Aristotle and Plato have found a permanent place among Indian Hindu names. Bengali names like Subhash Chandra Bose and Rabindranath Tagore have been adopted wholesale, names, surnames and the whole lot. I had a boss named Mr. Chakravarti who was a Telugu, but the Bengalis always thought that he was a Bengali and would launch into rather fast and colloquial Bengali when they met him. He did not understand a single word, but would sagely nod his head giving the impression that he did understand every word.
In the classic play Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare, Juliet speaks the immortal lines - that which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet. Yes, it does. But some names of persons or entities may be loathsome burdens to carry. In Romeo and Juliet:
The issue is that Romeo is a Montague - the hated enemies of Juliet's family, the Capulet. Juliet has just seen Romeo at a party and fallen in love with him. He would be perfect for her - if only he wasn't part of the Montague family.
Her sad pondering says:

O Romeo, Romeo! wherefore art thou Romeo?
Deny thy father, and refuse thy name;
Or, if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love,
And I’ll no longer be a Capulet.
...
’Tis but thy name that is my enemy;
Thou art thyself though, not a Montague.
What’s Montague? It is nor hand, nor foot,
Nor arm, nor face, nor any other part
Belonging to a man. O! be some other name:
What’s in a name? that which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet;
So Romeo would, were he not Romeo call’d,
Retain that dear perfection which he owes
Without that title. Romeo, doff thy name;
And for that name, which is no part of thee,
Take all myself.
Juliet is offering herself to Romeo, and saying that if Romeo gives up his own name, he will have her love in return.
A classic case of a rose by any other name smelling as sweet is that of the most well known chain of sweet shops in Hyderabad called G. Pulla Reddy. Pulla in Telugu means sour and not sweet. Notwithstanding his name denoting the exact opposite of ‘sweet’, Mr. Reddy managed to run the chain of a very successful and much admired sweet shops. A wonderful and philanthropic gentleman of no mean virtues. I do not think he ever reflected on the inappropriateness of his name or of his profession.
Another such case was that of Mr. O. Pulla Reddy, an eminent I.C.S. officer, who after years of successful tenures in several jobs in Tamil Nadu and Andhra, became the Defence Secretary of India. Unfortunately for him, he was the Defence Secretary during 1962 when the Chinese invaded India and Indian armed forces had to face a humiliating debacle. Mr. V. K. Krishna Menon, who was then the Defence Minister, was criticized for his handling of the war. Mr. Menon is supposed to have replied, “What could I do? I had a Defence Secretary who had zero pull and was never ready!” In fact, it is said that Mr. Pulla Reddy, failed in his first attempt in the ICS examination. The story has it that he was asked at the interview what his name meant or what it denoted. He did not know the answer and returned home to his mother and asked her why he was named so. We need not go into further details of this.
Naming persons is always a well reasoned exercise; so also naming organizations. These days whenever a new organization is set up its name is carefully devised to see that the acronym of its initials can function as a convenient name in itself. Like the various U.N. or American organizations: NATO, ECAFE, ESCAP, UNESCO etc. It is said that in some cases, the acronym would be first decided and then expanded into an acceptable name. These are called backronyms. The theory is called nominative determinism and the creations, aptonyms. The Steel Authority of India Ltd., became SAIL. When Gas Authority of India was to be set up, at first the Ministry wanted to name it Fuel Authority of India; but soon enough they realized that the acronym would be FAIL!! Hastily the Government reconsidered their options and named it Gas Authority of India Ltd. or Gail. Thankfully they did not name it Gas Authority Organisation Ltd. or GAOL!
Acronyms can be funny in popular parlance too. An MBA can be an acronym for Mediocre But Arrogant. IBM is I Blame Microsoft. WWW is World Wide Wait. IDEAL can be Identify, Define, Explore, Action, Look Back. The last one is a useful tool in recognizing how to approach problems. BATA (shoes) Buy and Throw Away. BEER : Beginning Enjoy, Ending Regret. FIAT: Failure in Automobile Technology.
When we were considering the Akash Bharati report of the Verghese Committee, various names were considered for the new organization. Finally, when the note for the Cabinet was prepared, the suggestion was to call it Broadcasting Authority of India. When the Cabinet considered it there was not much of a discussion and it was decided that a small committee of the two Deputy Prime Ministers and the I&B Minister would consider the entire bill. The only discussion was the proposed name. And the only point raised was that the acronym would be ‘BAI” or ‘BAIL’. Mr. George Fernandes felt that BAI had some unsavoury connotation in some areas, particularly Bombay. BAIL, of course, could only follow jail and was therefore unacceptable.
Recently, I was in Dallas, Texas. On the way to the airport, I saw a big hospital called DMM Hospital. I was told the original name was Dedman Memorial Hospital. But due to its unfortunate name, though it was spelled as DED and not DEAD, nobody was going to the hospital. Therefore they renamed it as DMM Hospital. Dedman, while alive, would have regretted his name; the hospital, after his death, would have equally regretted it, while cheerfully accepting his philanthropy.
Names can be very embarrassing. There is the case of a person who was called “Boo Ali”. Boo in at least two languages carries odious meanings: in Urdu, it means smell, usually considered bad smell. Boo in English would denote derisive heckling of an actor or speaker or player in a sports field. Poor Boo Ali would resort to all sorts of stratagems to avoid his name being called. Another person I met was a very sophisticated gentleman, very erudite. Unfortunately, he was called Pentaiah; Penta in Telugu means garbage dump, that too of the non-recyclable variety. Imagine his mortification every time he was addressed as Pentaiah or Mr. Garbage!
I do not know if our former President, Mr. Zail Singh, ever felt that his name was inappropriate. He never gave an indication that he was unhappy at being named after a jail. In fact, once when he was asked by the surgeon, if he was ready for an operation, thinking that the doctor was asking if he was ‘Reddy’, his predecessor in office, he is reported to have said he was not Reddy but Zail Singh. An apocryphal anecdote.
There was a senior officer whose last name was an offensive malodorous four letter word in English. The poor man carried on with his name with stoic nonchalance till the much revered Calcutta newspaper, The Statesman, felt the name deserved a mention in its editorial column. The paper’s third editorial played on his name so much that within a fortnight, he hastened to change his last name to one with a more fragrant connotation.
(Writer is a Retired officer from Indian Administrative Service and had hold very Senior positions in the Government of India including the position of Former Chief Secretary of Bihar State, India)
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