Summers-I 'm Hating it

It's 6 am in the morning of mid April 2012. Sun is yet to remove the darkness fully. Yawning and amidst the chirpings of birds, I am trying to concentrate on my past month happenings and feelings related to it. This blog is special in itself as it is the first blog which is being scripted on my own laptop. Early mornings have never been my cup of tea rather I have always wished to work till late nights. This time I am ready to explore this side of a day also. Freshness in the air is hard to resist. Traffic sounds are also minimum. Whether all these factors will help in bringing out the best out of me or not, we will figure out soon.

Since the summer season is already on, the first requirement for everybody is water. One day without it, would result anger and dissatisfaction in public. This is where my role comes into picture. I cannot even dare to think about not supplying water to the city even if the circumstances demand so. Either I need to ensure the proper supply or I need to keep myself ready for listening to public comments and outcries. In all, I could not even think of doing a mistake even unconsciously and if I had done it then I could not get away with it without bearing its consequences. on the lighter side, I had my first party in the government job. The occasion was SE's retirement and the venue was a five star hotel. A female singer was invited to set the mood with some gazals. She tried her best but everybody wanted to pump up the beats. In the end, the troop put the punjabi music on and we can't resist ourselves to matchup the beats on the dance floor. It was the first time in last 4 months that I had danced and enjoyed myself. Though I was missing my friends and bollywood music still it was a good fun.

But I could not keep the happiness for long due to obvious reasons as explained above. Sirhind canal, the only source of water for main water works in Bathinda, got closed for 25 days and to worsen the situation, the storage in the tanks was already less so it resulted in major crisis of water in Bathinda city that too in hot & humid summers. I had dealt with major structural problems in my professional life but this kind of problem I had never come across. Supply was decreased substantially, water tankers were arranged to smoothen the situation but all in vain and once again I failed to establish myself as a responsible officer.

Regards

Parul Goyal

A Government Officer in the making

Another month passed; now it's been more than 3 months being an SDO. March 2012, the month started with a movement called "Water crisis in Bathinda". After getting instructions from my XEN, I got a work started of a pipe repair. It is a main pipe starting from main water works in Bathinda which controls the water supply in the city. To get it repaired, I needed to cut off the supply. For the pipe repairing, it took our men almost 4 days and for those 4 days, water crisis in the city was spreading like an endemic disease.

For a while I thought, whether I might had taken a wrong decision to get it repaired? To increase the woes, annoyed and frustrated common people started visiting the site with their empty buckets to make me realize the gravity of situation. Moreover, I was bombarded with indefinite number of calls from city residents, political leaders etc. Even the press people interviewed me searching for some hotshots. After the movement, as the situation settled & after many sleepless nights, I realized the sense of responsibility as an SDO towards the public.

It was one of the incidents which made me understood the meaning of a gazetted government post and the responsibilities related to it. Generally people have very different opinion about the government job and with same frame of mind I joined but now I find it absolutely opposite.


Regards
PARUL GOYAL

An Irresponsible Officer

Do you guys believe in the saying that some special kind of jobs are meant for special kind of persons? I am trying to find the answer these days. Whether it is a myth or a reality? As far as I am concerned, as a next edition to my last blog, my answer to this question has also got changed. Now I believe that it is a reality. Earlier it was other way around. I took almost two months to understand the expectations of an officer at a higher rank in government service. No matter how much work you do, no matter how responsibly you handle your staff, seniors are there always to degrade you. It’s just that you need to be an irresponsible officer all the time.


Though I have moulded myself accordingly but I would definitely like to emphasize on the fact that private and government sector are two completely different world. You can not work in a government sector keeping in mind your private sector values & ethics, if any. The moment you are ready to hear insulting comments from your seniors without your mistake and ready not to expect any kind of appreciation, you are perfect for government services. On the other hand, if we talk about the juniors. You will always have to be dissatisfied with their work.


So the chain gets continued till it ends.

I am a changed Man now….

2nd day of joining. A completely new place, new faces as if ignoring me despite my post and besides, totally new environment i.e. from a sophisticated MNC job in NCR to a Government job that too in Punjab. Though I am born and brought up in Punjab but I have never felt like a Punjabi from inside. So it was completely a life changing decision from me.

Those of you all, who have been regularly following me through my blogs, must have got their answer by now of the question which I raised in the last blog. Once again I played with my career by changing job within one year of last job. Hopefully this is the last time I am resigning.

S.D.E.
Punjab Water Supply and Sewerage Sub Div No. 3
Bathinda

That’s what my name plate outside office and stamp reads now. It feels great when around 100 people are under you and you are authorized to make them work the way you want. It feels great when you are responsible for the water supply for whole city and suddenly your signature becomes important for payment to different contractors.

But there is other side of coin also which can’t be ignored. With big status comes big responsibility. It becomes a trouble when your cell rings 15 times in an hour and everyone complaints about their water issues. It feels terrible when all 57 MC’s of a city have your number saved in their contact list as water supply and leakage complaint box. It feels horrible when workers union goes for a rally against you.

Today it’s been a month since joining. Still I have mixed feelings about this change. I share the responsibility for the decision equally with my parents. It was basically their choice to see their son as SDO. The only way I could counteract them by having a MS call with scholarship which I could not get. The final status of the applications was 5 reject and 1 accept that too without funding. Other option was to continue my job as a structural engineer for which even I was not ready because of stagnant life. I wanted a change; I got the change also but not of my choice.

Space and words will fall short if I start comparing both jobs. In short and sweet, I have not shifted job rather I have changed myself.

Regards
Parul Goyal

A Difficult Call to take …..

These days I am bound to think about the feeing which keeps on banging the doors of my mind, helplessly. The thinking, I have been running away from but it too has been following me up very curiously. The whole scenario got changed when I received a call from my friend Vikas informing me about the list which have been uploaded by Punjab Water supply and sewerage Board on their website which includes the names of short listed candidates for SDO post on merit basis. It was an alarming bell for me. I could not react at the particular moment for the reason I was in sleeping mode. But next day when I realized that I have been short listed and have been invited by the department for document verification, a mixed reaction ran through my mind.

I was happy for the fact that my hard work during college have paid off finally and CGPA earned is getting recognized in some way or the other. On the other hand as I was already in mid way of my MS career and waiting for universities decisions hence was not so excited about the opportunity. I already had invested 9 months and 50,000 bugs in order to get an admission call from some reputed university in United States. Moreover, somewhere down the line I knew that my parents are going to take this decision at some other level as they are obsessed with Government job (that too) in Punjab. I thought, “It’s going to be difficult for me to handle the forthcoming situation.”

As soon as I explained my parents about the list published, they burst into joy and their happiness could not be expressed into words. I was numb. I too faked my consent on the deliberation we had over phone, just to make them feel happy. Some days passed, I started getting results from the universities. Status was 2 reject and one accept. Not bad at all. I was still hopeful for my first choice. I wanted an admission with funding which I had not got it yet. It was the only way in which I could debate with them citing the positives of higher studies and negatives of a job in Punjab.

I was desperately waiting for other universities results and keeping my fingers crossed. In the mean time I started getting calls from my relatives congratulating me. Irony is that “SDO” thing happened by luck and sheer chance and was getting applauded for it but. Then happened another reject and I was shattered as I was expecting a call from no one congratulated me in getting 1300 in GRE through my 5 months of hard work and dedication it. I kind of lost my confidence and could see the forthcoming future. I left it to GOD as normally people do while they are out of options.

“Yesterday is a history, tomorrow is a mystery, and today is a gift that’s why it is called present”, are the lines which have inspired me in latest days. I heard those watching “Kung Fu Panda” and felt astonished at its usage which is so simple yet so beautiful. As they, “whatever happens, it happens for a reason.” This was the time last year when I was gearing up to take GRE and today a year later, I find myself at the opposite pole.

In the past three years since my graduation, I have never been serious about my career while I could have used this time in paving my way to future. As a fresher I was satisfied with my first company and was busy doing official work only whole heartedly. But nothing came out fruitful. When I shifted to a new firm, I devoted my time preparing for IES along with company work. That did not work out. In my third year I shifted my job once again and started looking out for MS options which again seems to have disappointed me. Had I restricted myself to one field, I could have created a niche. At this point of time, again I am in dilemma of whether to join SDO or continue my job as a Structural Design Engineer.

Keep Reading to know.

Regards
Parul Goyal

Bhangra Rockers Rocked it….

It all started when I got a mail from organizing committee asking for volunteers for the Technip Annual Day 2011. As one of the organizers was in the same project in which I was working so I contacted her and told her to include my name in Bhangra. I had done lots of Bhangras and other dances at school level. Though I had not performed any stage show in last 7 years including 4 yrs of college but I have been an active dancer in many parties that I have attended in these years. So there has always been a sense of rhythm in me. This time as soon as I got the mail, instantaneously I decided to take benefit from the opportunity and got my name included in the participants. Annual day was scheduled for 23rd Sep, 2011. We started practicing almost one month ago. We were total 8 members including 4 boys and 4 girls. Total duration for the performance was 5 min assigned by organizers. One of the engineers who joined Technip recently as trainees took the responsibility to choreograph the dance.

First day of Practice: I met with other patrons and got to know little about them. As most of them had been in Technip for more time than me hence I could feel a bonding among all of them. I also tried my level best to mingle with everybody in the coming days. The most tedious task was to select the songs. Everyone gave their inputs which ultimately created lots of chaos. Finally what we though that for some portion alone girls will be performing and for some portions alone boys; then in the end, whole group will cover the stage. But the first song we rehearsed together was including both the parties. We kept on rehearsing after office hours regularly and even on weekends. Finally after the hard work of about 15 days we finalized our combined portion with bits and pieces of individual ones also.

First Screening: Then the day came when our first screening was going to happen in front of the organizers. We all decided to showcase out combined portion which was well rehearsed. It was around 4 minutes. It went well as feedback was nice to hear except some minor comments like energy level, duration of the song and non-complete performance. From then onwards we all were really charged up and continued to work had to make it better. With in next few days we prepared our full song and the total duration of the song got extended up to 7.30 minutes. None of the parties was ready to cut their portion at all. Neither we were ready to shorten our combined portion as it was well rehearsed.

Final Rehearsal: After some clashes rather discussions we all decided to keep the same track and named our group as “Bhangra Rockers”. 3 days were left and we all were called for the final rehearsal. As soon as we were finished with the performance, all appreciated it. We saw other performances also. All were good and within 5 minutes range. Only Bhangra crossed it with quite a high margin. After all the performances, judges gave a comment that we must shorten the duration of the song as it was not fitting in their schedule. We all were really in tension. After listening to the song carefully we had some portions which can be cut without affecting much on the choreography part. Some rest pieces were there which were included between two songs to change the positions and regain energy level. Those pieces were cut eventually to make our performance duration to 6.15 minutes. We rehearsed on it and now it was more tiring & energetic. So everyone was keeping their fingers crossed about the final performance.

The Big Day: Finally the day came and Bhagra Rockers were 5th on the itinerary. We all were really excited and nervous. Bhangra was announced as soon as fourth performance completed. We took our positions. Dance was to be started with girls’ solo performance to be followed by boys and then combined portion to create the impact in the last. It got started with the bang, girls performed really well and it was time when boys needed to enter the stage. Initially I was bit nervous and anxious due to which I forgot some steps also but I think I managed it pretty well. Soon I got over with my nervousness and was completely enjoying the performance. After some time girls again entered the stage and we were heading towards the end. About 5 minutes were over when suddenly music stopped and lights were off. WTF…Power was gone. We were standing in middle of the stage looking at each other. Everyone in the audience was cheering and shouting. Crowd was chanting, “Once more! Once more!” We as performers were overwhelmed by audience response and hall was echoed with clapping and hooting. Soon the power was back. We all too tired to perform again but looking at the response we decided to perform from the scratch once again. Girls started the performance once again with same grace and energy. We all ended it beautifully this time.

So now I can tell proudly that I am a Bhangra Dancer.

Regards
PARUL GOYAL

Lucky to Get there....

The scene was terrible when I reached ISBT, Delhi at around 10pm on 12th August, 2011. I was cursing Delhi Metro for it’s under designed capacity, less number of trains in festive days and mis-management by authority. But that entire curse turned into blessings once I got to know about the traffic problems other patrons had faced in reaching ISBT that night. 13th, 14th & 15th August, three holidays had come together which was a boon for employees like us who always remain in search of these occasions to pay visit to their respective hometowns or to plan out some trip. Thanks to Raksha Bandhan, Sunday and Independence Day Anniversary this time. About 8 pm, I got a call from my friend (Gobind) to confirm that we were finally going and I had to reach ISBT as soon as possible. The plan was to go to Katra and offer our prayers to Goddess “VAISHNO DEVI”. All excited, I packed my bag and left for the holy journey. Without much trouble, I reached Sector 15 Metro station to board a metro going towards Rajiv Chowk. An already overloaded metro reached the station; very few people including me opted to wait for the next one while majority of people boarded the train to meet their respective schedules. After 4 minutes when a new 6 coach metro arrived, I took a sigh of relief being among lesser number of passengers to board the train. I managed to find a place to stand comfortably near the door and occupy an envelope of around 1 ft radius around me. “Thank God, I didn’t board earlier one”, were the lines which everybody was chanting. As soon as the next station arrived & metro gates were opened, a flood of people headed towards my coach and I also got carried away with the flow. Within seconds, I ft radius area got converted into a small rectangle of ½ ft by ½ ft where I could place only one of my feet and helplessly second foot above it, I was squeezed like a soft toy to infinity. Even “to quit” option was not available. As slowly and steadily I recovered from the situation and adjusted myself to make a space for my second foot to rest on the floor , I got to see the same persons who were waiting with me at 15 sector metro station and boarded that overloaded metro. Upon talking with them, it was clear that I was still in better situation because they had to bear the same circumstances three times within last 7 minutes; One while boarding at 15 sector, second while deboarding at next station and thirdly while boarding the next metro.

25 minutes passed, Rajiv Chowk arrived and without maintaining gap (which is always announced in metro) we got off the train. I was not alone anymore, a bunch of people were always with me. I was a part of a crowd in which everybody was heading towards the yellow line. Unfortunately, Railway Station and ISBT put up on the same metro line (a known fact) and hence the row of people hoping to get into the coming metro looked like endless. As metro arrived, the crowd went uncontrolled and everyone was trying to get into the coach by hook or by crook. I wonder how ladies and children had managed to keep breathing while even some of the men were also struggling. The cue was so long that I got a chance in the third attempt. 4 stations from Rajiv Chowk, about 10 minutes ride seemed unending. I doubt if all the people were standing on their own feet including me. After my co passenger gave me a rough look then only I removed my feet and placed on some other person. While almost everyone was frustrated, even then some of the people were enjoying the scene. 10 minutes passed and Kashmiri Gate Station came. While getting down, the situation was worse. I was constantly cursing Delhi metro for its inefficiency until I reached ISBT. The sight was horrible. Fully crowded, filled with mud all around, most of the area under construction, it was a pity on our national capital to own such a low graded bus stop.

Gobind already booked a taxi till Jalandhar from where onwards we planned to drive his own car. Around midnight we started from Delhi and reached Jalandhar around 11am next day. The journey time got doubled, thanks to traffic jam, heavy rains and water logged roads. As we were already lagging in schedule and tired like hell, we decided to take rest for some time and departed for KATRA near about 5pm. We were accompanied by his cousin (Jolly). So we three and his Ford Figo, all in high spirits and excited, left for the holy journey. Around 1 am we reached KATRA and despite of being tired of driving (off course not me, but the other two; credit goes to my non-driving skills), we though to start YATRA but then we got to know about the non-issuance of registration slip between timings 10 pm to 6 am. We were left with no option but to take rest hence booked a hotel room and took a short nap.

In morning around 5.15 am, I and Jolly went to have the registration slip. A long queue had already been made by other pilgrims. Jolly opted to lengthen the queue while I went to checkout some shortcuts. After trying for about 2 hours, helplessly I went to see Jolly again but the queue was bigger and area was fully crowded. After searching for about half an hour I went to room and told Gobind about whole scenario. We both left to see Jolly hoping that he should have got the ticket by now. As we arrived at the venue what we saw was a bigger queue and we were unable to find him. It was already more than 3 hours since he joined the queue. We were worried and could not contact him because only I had postpaid connection which was working. After about an hour, all of a sudden Jolly came to me and asked did I get the slip. “Wholly sh** ” I muttered. It meant still he could not get the slip. He explained that queue was much bigger than we thought in the morning and since morning he has been able to cover only half the way. Gobind joined us and we all decided that now Gobind will stand in the queue with my mobile feeded with hotel room contact number. Frustrated and tired, rest both of us went to room to wait. Still we were relaxing that he called us to come there. Now it was my turn. Fully geared up, I took Gobind’s place. It was 10’o clock. Chit-chatting with fellow patrons and chanting the name of Goddess, I was able to get the slip by 12 noon. Finally, after 7 hours of hardships and dedication, we were happy to register ourselves for “Darshan”.

Around 2.30pm we started our journey and without much trouble we were able to reach the top by 6’0 clock. Most of the people who were standing along with me in queue, met on the way. And we were happy to cross them but were unaware about the strength of people who already managed to reach the top. After settling for some time, we got to know that from 6.30pm to 9.00pm, the temple remains closed due to evening AARTI. Hence we had about 2 hours with us to get ready for the DARSHAN. We hired a locker, had something to eat and took bath under iced cold water. In the mean time, queue got longer and again we tried some shortcut but in vain. Finally we settled in the queue and managed to meet the GODDESS personally by 11pm. As they both need to take some rest and save their energy for tomorrow driving hence they decided to take the way down to KATRA while I alone went for BHAIRON NATH temple. Within one hour I reached at the top and was lucky to get the blessings. Then I spent some time there outside the temple to thank GODDESS to give me opportunity to pay a visit to her. After some time I started getting down. As I was coming down with speed as almost running, I managed to meet both of them near BAN GANGA. It was 4.00 am when we reached our room.

We started from KATRA near about 8.00am and reached JALANDHAR by 2.00pm and they dropped at bus stand. Thereafter I took a bus to Delhi reached Delhi by 2.00am. Then as they say, is history……


Parul Goyal