Train 18 series, part IX...Cultural transformation of ICF

The Train 18 project was making a good progress in the latter part of 2017. At the same time, many changes were sweeping ICF. It would be in fitness of things if I look back at these cultural revisions which benefitted ICF directly, not collaterally, in its all-round efforts towards enhanced production, development of new variants, carbon neutrality, empowerment of women, waste management, revival of greenery, sporting accomplishments and of course, Train 18 and other new innovative and modernistic products and projects.

Love your organization. That’s my simple mantra before you begin anything in any organization. If you do not, or if you are unable to, quit, unless of course, it’s a bread and butter issue. If you do not, you are doing a great disservice to the organization you work for and, more than that, to yourself. It is of course a bit difficult if your job is to sell the unspeakable, but then, it can be and must be done. But if you work for Indian Railways, you are in all probability already there.

How can you not love an organization which has assisted and sustained, over the last 165 years or so, India’s awakening, unity, freedom and growth?

What a transporter of people! Nearly nine billion passengers in a year; everyone on the planet travels IR at least once a year. 

Can you lie unmoved by the unmatched romance of Indian railways? unmatched. Chugging by the day, whistling through the night, tunnelling through mountains or gently caressing the plains, stringing somnolent villages & bustling towns, stapling sprawling vistas ranging from esoteric to banal…the images of trains streaming on ribbons of steel coursing through the length and breadth of the country, halting momentarily at stations. Travel experiences on IR are forged in popular psyche

Can you forget your train journeys as a child? Leave the aisle, a train fenestra beckons! The fight for the window seat as the whole world drifted and streamed past your mesmerized eyes. Or even as an adult, the purpose of travelling on IR may well be to get to a certain place but you enjoy each step along the way...the journey becomes the objective, not the destination. Looking out at the unfolding drama in vast fields, village roads, wayside stations and so on, with the repetitive sound of the train in background, what strikes you is not merely the magnificence of the machine or the romance of the moving train but how IR could afford you numerous blicks and peeps into  the magic of the Indian way of life.

Can you wipe out from your memory the snaking train and the great Indian drama? Not the staid scenes one would see in some other countries country but fascinating scenes of great excitement. Little joys. Pathos and poignancy. Trite and trivial but at once moving. Desolate here and crowded there. Tender and robust. Struggle, exertion and sloth. Simple yet complex. 

Can you ever fail to recall and revel in the settings of some of the most poignant love stories, nail biting suspense thrillers, rib tickling comedies and dulcet melodies, inextricably linked to, trains and railway stations?

Railway stations and trains, indeed! Stations which are lent a sense of universality: the yellow board calling out the name and confirming the identity of a place, a melange of colours in the sartorial preferences of cross sections of people, the humdrum of the trains and the cacophony of the vendors and recorded announcements broken occasionally by the shrill honks of locomotives, the wafting aroma of delectable local treats, and the porters donning the red shirts and brass buckles scurrying about their permanent habitat which they share with the ubiquitous Railway officials like the Train Ticket Examiners and the Station Masters. These unique sights, sounds, colours and flavours at a station reflect the quintessential microcosm of our nation.

Shakespeare says through Antonio in Tempest, “Travellers never did lie though fools at home condemn them”. Yes, the IR travellers witness a fantastical and wondrous spectacle. And I indeed have no qualm in saying say that those who did not appreciate these wonders are perhaps blunted by a reality that cannot see beyond their narrow confines and conflicts

The purpose of writing down all this romanticism and passion is simple; if you work for Indian Railways, you need no persuasion to love your organization. I have done so all my life. And my message to everyone in ICF was precisely this; love your organization. People of Tamil Nadu are passionate and emotional; most of them, like me, did not need any persuasion. They already loved Indian Railways and our very own, the Integral Coach Factory; after all they were the train-makers. They worked at the very fountainhead of the IR legacy

Love your men. Love them in the spirit of what the poet Jigar Moradabadi said, incidentally, quoted by me in my very first memo issued to all of ICF for shedding the malaise of petty protocol and feudal politesse so prevalent on Indian Railways and indeed all government organizations:

Is lafz-e-mohabbat  ka adna  sa fasana hai,

Simte to dil-e-aashiq, phaile to zamana hai

(This word love has a very trifling story, if it shrinks, it’s the heart of a lover, but stretch it and it’s the world)

It helped that most of the ICF executives agreed with the dismantling of the regime of nauseating courtliness. No lining up to meet the boss as he arrived, no bouquets, no standing up in the middle of a meeting to greet your seniors, no waiting outside the chambers of higher ups...just plain and simple business, albeit with some pleasantries and even occasional banter. A hierarchy is necessary for management but it should not double up as a pettifogging pecking order, a pyramid should be designed for chain of command and not for self-aggrandizement and higher echelons are be there to lead, not to indulge in false glorification, reflected from the chair and not one’s deeds. A sense of amour proper at every level of hierarchy is vital for progress and it obviously calls for dignified ways of handling your seniors, colleagues and juniors.

Talking of self-aggrandizement, this malaise among government executives, particularly those in senior positions, is almost epidemic. And I do not find that things have changed much in spite of even a directive from Board to shun the practice of petty protocol. Senior railway officers seem to get pleased when they see their king-sized photos on posters and banners as if they were politicians trying to woo a constituency. They either cannot see through the flattery or perhaps revel in it. Abject display of toady behaviour and plain subservient obsequiousness is not rejected but embraced. I have always found it very pathetic and wonder why, like the King Richard III, their conscience does not speak to them, "O coward conscience, why dost thou not afflict me!" (my apologies, dear bard). I hope someday it would and IR would be the better for it.

I have many inadequacies as a leader-manager but I am sure one cannot fault me on this issue. And do I have many inadequacies? For sure. I am unable to contain my angst and control my temper in certain situations, which is very-counterproductive. I am sure I have lost many opportunities to do better because of this. Anyway, about that some other time. But I would absolutely lose my shirt when someone from ICF holding a function would print a card listing me or my wife as the chief guest. I remember tearing apart one or two such card, exclaiming loudly, “Can I be a guest in my own home? Can you not find someone who has done something in this field, seek her or his blessings as a guest, honour her or him and in the process, honour yourself?” thankfully the practice of in-house guests stopped and we benefitted from the wisdom of great people who had achieved something in life.

One of the first measures to build a sense of belonging and a feeling of a being a part of a family to reverse the ugly practice of inaugurations of new /renovated facilities in the factory, colonies and otherwise in the premises by senior officers. In the fashion of what I had practiced earlier with satisfying results, we decided that all inaugurations of new facilities, say for those above an expenditure of Rs 10 lacs, would always be formally inaugurated/launched by a senior member of staff; of course, if it involved a very big facility like a new sports ground or an auditorium, we would invite retired greats of ICF/IR or celebrities from the concerned field. In all these inaugurations, however, there would be no mention of any officer by name. The idea was to convey that we officers were already fortunate to be in lead of a devoted team of supervisors and staff and it was our job to get the best out of them and not to seek stupid immortality through one’s name of a stone. But the name of the staff on the stone signified a token of gratitude towards an old member of staff who had perhaps devoted all his life nurturing the area in question. The response to this simple act was overwhelming. The ritual, if I may call it that, was simple; pleasantries with the nominated staff and her or his family, if they were present, wrapping a shawl, presentation of a book & a model of a coach manufactured by ICF. The nominated staff would usually come for their inauguration day with family and proudly show them around the new facility. By the time I signed off in Dec 18, we had had nearly 550 such functions. Counting the friends and family of those so honoured, we had won over a large chunk of the working hands of ICF. There we were,  a simple decision with immediate implementation but  very affirmative and complimentary results within months.

Some of these 550 inaugurations captured here!

Another simple exercise was to connect with the workers directly. Notices were put up that anyone could walk into the chamber of the GM, the PCME and other senior officers. Of course, thanks to efficient working by the Personnel department and numerous welfare measures, there were hardly any grievances. Not many workers did show up, in any case; years of ingrained beliefs about the ivory towers in which senior officers were entrenched in, particularly the GM, could not be changed so quickly. I, therefore, started taking rounds in the middle of the busiest working time and talked to whoever I could spot. Once again, some bear hugs, some handshakes, vanakkams and namaskarams later, we did not actually collect a plethora of grievances but simply spread a message of goodwill. Personally, I enjoyed connecting with a multitude of fellow workers, albeit for a very short while.

But that does not mean that you love the shirkers, the uncouth, the undisciplined and the proxy-users. We came down heavily on all such staff. The process of disciplinary action was monitored by me personally and no dilly-dallying was tolerated. The unwritten message was clear that all such delinquent people had no place in ICF and it was of no use to give them some seemingly harsh punishment; all suchlike had to sacked, or if they volunteered, sent on premature retirement. One junior Personnel officer told me that propriety demanded that the DA (Disciplinary Authority) should be free from pressures of unwritten directives from top and that the DA should exercise his judgement totally on his own. I told him that his sense of natural justice was good in law but unfortunately, I was not an esteemed judge; I was an administrator and given our way of working, this was the right way to go. I remember an instance when Sri Trivedi, the PCME, himself a hard taskmaster and a disciplinarian, walked into my room rather bemused. He told me he wished that a case be dealt with leniently but the concerned clerk told him, “Sir, if you do that, nothing will happen to you. But I will bear the brunt of GM’s anger.” The case of course was settled the way Sri Trivedi wanted but the missive to all concerned was unequivocal.

Then there were those male employees who harassed women employees or showed gender-based disrespect. There were some who indulged in gross misbehaviour a work place affecting the overall work culture. We used our empowerment of summary sacking in such cases after satisfying ourselves that an enquiry in the case would be impractical. In the 29 months I spent at ICF, some 165 employees were sacked. Many of them after thorough review by the Personnel officers and on recommendation of senior officers were taken back but the issue of a disciplined work force was settled.

I have some anecdotal posts for you in the next article concerning Train 18. But at some stage I must come back once again to this theme of cultural changes in ICF and tell you about Biometrics.

“Things won are done but the joy’s soul lies in the doing” said Cressida in Shakespeare’s Troilus and Cressida. The thing is won, well, almost so here I am trying to get some vicarious joy in recounting.

(to be continued…)