The Brown Sahibs of India

The building I live in houses senior officers of Government of India. What I am unable to fathom is as to how so many of them continue to display the most primitive and totally self-centered behavior day in and day out.

I see instances of officers of Indian Police Service having as many as six 'orderlies' doing menial chores (including polishing the entire family's shoes, cleaning up and ironing, etc.) at their residences every day, all at public expense. And of course no one bats an eyelid.

The 'gentlemen' in fact not only feel proud of their display of 'power' but also persuade themselves of being a superior breed than the non-police officers around them who cannot boast of even a single such 'official' help.

The other super-spoiled category is that of the breed of Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officers, who feel they actually OWN the whole country, or the Government at any rate. Having seen them at close quarters for over three decades, I sincerely believe the earlier the country gets rid of them the better it would be for the Indian society and governance. Over the last sixty years these parasites have eaten up the entire canvas of administration by their feudal and spoiled mindset.

The nexus between corrupt (not only in monetary sense) politicians and bureaucrats has reached unprecedented proportions. The IAS has by now honed to perfection their manipulative ways, and the rise of weak coalition governments has further enhanced their wicked powers. They are like the proverbial banyan tree under which NOTHING else can grow. They have sowed the seeds of disillusionment amongst all other sections of government by their endless greed for posts, perks, foreign trips and closeness to centres of power (read politicians).

They 'manage', despite many protestations by the government from time to time to the contrary, to cling on to offices of profit even after retirement. Obviously there is a price paid. But by whom? You bet, not by these limpets at any rate!

When will India get its true freedom from these brown babus???

Why This Blog???

In the cacophony of millions of bloggers, let this one also find its own space and grow. The purpose, as seemingly of most creation, is external visible expression of the unmanifested is.

To be a bit more personal, I am an Indian who was born in the northern part of the country less than three years after India attained independence in 1947.

Having been born in that simple era when idealism was rather in fashion than out of it, I have had the singular (mis?)fortune to have not been able to throw off this yoke to date, despite advancing age and mounting frustration.

Every day I live, I partake of the varied experiences, that life in India's busy officious capital city of New Delhi offers thousands like me. The difference probably is that my sensitivities have still not died away and numerous questions nag me every day as to the direction India, and Indians, are heading towards.....

Sharing these thoughts will, hopefully, allow me to connect with a few kindred souls who think alike and who may be materially, and energywise, more favorably disposed than I, to also do something about it!!!

So, here goes...