My first week in ICF

ICF was set up in 1950s as a part of the then Prime Minister Jawahar Lal Nehru’s vision to make India self-reliant in manufacture of current-technology railway coaches. It had since then crossed many milestones and it had gone through many expansions. It had served well to turn out numbers, if not variety, and had the distinction of a world record in terms of cumulative number of coaches manufactured. In addition to manufacturing facilities for all types of railway trains, including self-propelled vehicles, It has a comprehensive Design centre. It had a unique place among the PUs of IR, which depended almost entirely on ICF for new initiatives in the field of railway coaches in preference to the other two more modern rail coach factories, Rail Coach Factory (RCF), Kapurthala and Modern Coach Factory(MCF), Rae Bareli.

Integral Coach Factory, Chennai, in 1950s and now

But the dream of Nehru for ICF never graduated into even an effectual vision, let alone matching action, to prepare and develop it as a world-class manufacturer of trains. In 1950s the Chinese Premier, Chou En Lai had visited ICF and wrote in the visitors’ book that this factory was a pride of Orient and that he would like Chinese engineers to visit and learn from ICF. And where were we some sixty years hence? China has left us far behind in all aspects of railway technology; why railways alone, in most of the fields. It is the manufacturing hub of the world and has now revamped itself into designing new products by thousands. Today, we make a beeline to visit China to learn from them. 

Visit of Chinese Premier, Chou En Lai to ICF & his comments 

Eric Hoffer, the American social philosopher has said that, “It is the awareness of unfulfilled desires which gives a nation the feeling that it has a mission and a destiny.” So the Chinese understood it and we did not? It is a serious question and I would not venture to examine it here. But what I would definitely state is that out of the two railway systems, ours and theirs, ours was a more advanced one in 1950s. Whereas, the comparison does not even start today due to the colossal progress their railways has made in infrastructure as well as trains.

Guildenstern says to Hamlet, “Dreams indeed are ambition, for the very substance of the ambition is merely the shadow of a dream”. Whither and what price your dream, Mr. Nehru? The shadows of your dream were lost, or disfigured, by worthies of the great Indian Railways and the path to your dream now passes through China!

I landed in ICF some three days after I received the order but, as only the GMs of IR are permitted, I took over charge while still at Bangalore. I needed to send a message even before I arrived. I asked K.N. Babu, the Secretary to GM (who I soon learnt was a very mature, efficient and know-all officer), a junior administrative level post, to circulate a series of notes. the notes basically conveyed that their GM did not believe in petty protocol and dishonesty in reporting, covering some simple diktats; it had to be diktats as years of feudal mindsets among senior officers, and distrust towards any new thinking among lower levels, do not mutate simply by persuasion. These diktats were:

 

·  No ICF officer or staff to wait in Secy’s room or outside to meet the GM, unless the red light was on (which I rarely used) ; he or she would simply walk in and make sure not to stand but take a seat ·   No officer of ICF, including the GM, to made a chief guest in any of ICF’s functions; attempt should be to invite a luminary from the relevant field

·   No officer of ICF, including the GM, to be ever thanked (for whatever) and presented with a bouquet in any of ICF’s functions

·     No inauguration/dedication plaques to have the name of any railway officer, including the GM; all inauguration to be done by the untainted senior most staff of the relevant area or by a well-known personality from the relevant field

·  Photos and names of officers not to be included in any banner or poster made for functions and gatherings

·      Do not rise unnecessarily whenever a senior enters a meeting, a gathering

· Use simple form of address (avoid expressions like “Respected **** sir/madam, or even worse “Beloved **** sir/madam)

·     Nobody to wait outside any function hall/area to receive any ICF officer, one can do that as a mark of respect for outside guests ·    Graded or sectioned seating order may be OK but do away with the “sofas in front” or “larger chairs in meeting rooms” culture; it’s so odd

· Do away with unnecessary Vote of Thanks ritual, at least, in internal functions and meetings

·  Occasional absence  is no issue but officers should try to attend all ICF Club/Staff Institute social functions; Encourage social interaction freely but, however, the GM not to be invited to any religious functions

·  Any ICF member can call the GM on his cell or SMS text anytime (not Whatsapp) and if the GM does respond, he would certainly call back

·      No dishonesty in any data/information

·   Follow instructions of the GM and if they were the impractical, let the GM know

·      No ref. to be made to Railway Board/RDSO without the GM’s knowledge

·     Your GM is poor when it comes to delegation and time-management, so all of you to make allowance for that and react as you think were correct.

·  All team ICF members to speak your mind freely; it’s your GM’s solemn assurance that it would never cause you any harm in ICF. ·   Never, please, get carried away with your own importance in the set up (teeth and tail!!); all departments, everyone is equally important ·     Show all the patience with dissenters but, do not tolerate indiscipline; nip it in the bud. I am sure we all understand the difference between genuine dissent/difference in opinion and indiscipline ·      Encourage humour at the workplace but avoid flippancy

·   There are defined or even fused departmental functions but, at the end of the day, we have only one department, ICF/Indian Railways ·   All visitors wishing to see the GM, including representatives of vendors, to be treated with respect and seated in a visitors’ room till they can be called for a meeting

·   Respect for women employees was not a matter of lip service for the GM; any defaulter to be treated harshly

·   No one should fall in love with his or her chair; the chair is there but for a limited time (now, this may sound like a platitude and at times, platitudes are needed.)

I knew that my note would be treated with a great deal of scepticism and cynicism unless I make it clear, through examples, that I meant business. In the very first meeting with officers, I reiterated all this. I ended by saying, “We are told that we have to land in 21^st Century and rightly so. Do you think we can with such a stifling feudal system of hierarchy and shallow bondage protocol? We need a makeover of minds and behaviour. One of the important components of this makeover must include elimination of the archaic elements in our organizational culture.  Let us begin with some token measures; symbolism may not achieve much but it can always be a good starting point.”

There were many questions and situations but I distinctly remember three. The first, from a senior Personnel officer was, “This open door policy for staff to meet the GM in his chamber without any appointment or formality is impractical. We are nearly 12000 employees and you would be submerged”. I simply replied that I had heard that the people of the Personnel branch were doing such great HR work at ICF that not many grievances existed and that most of the staff would not have a reason to meet the GM. He was not convinced but time would have convinced him as that is what actually happened and I never had a stream of staff visitors coming to meet me, except at times for work matters.

Then there was Ramayan, the second in command of Civil works who asked if this concern about inauguration plaques was serious. To convince him, I asked him for a survey of all inaugural plaques in ICF premises, a survey of all 500 acres including the factories, offices, colonies, facilities, institutes etc. I added that all such plaques be extracted and thrown away as scrap, barring those which carried the name of a politician, for politicians are public representatives and must glorify their presence through these displays. Ramayan promptly completed the survey by next day and happily declared that the casualty figure was 85 plaques. Within days, I found many plaques still adorning, or rather defiling, the walls of ICF. I called Ramayan and told him a story. As a young officer, I was once rebuffed rudely by a GM on Eastern Railway when I had invited him for an inauguration and requested him to unveil a plaque with his name (and my name to boot). He later explained that he never let his name to be put on any plaque as the facility being inaugurated was built with government funds and that he was a servant of government, not a king; and if after leading and commanding all of us in service, if he did not find a place in our hearts, his name on a slab of stone was meaningless. I told Ramayan that, since then, barring one or two occasions which I could not control, I never agreed to my name being put on a plaque. It also helped me avoid being ridiculed later; ridiculed because I had seen so many officers happy to see their names on plaques for all kinds of stupid occasions, functions, achievements and so on but that was a matter of banter among junior officers. I concluded by telling him that I did want to see a single plaque after two days. Ramayan complied and the casualty figure increased to 155 and many plaques with names of ex GMs bit the dust.

Sorry all you worthies, no disrespect, you were expecting to be immortalized but there lies your good name abandoned, literally, in grime and dust!

Socha tha dega naam mera, tareekh ko nikhar,

Supurd-e-khak ho gaya  mere  naam  ka mazar

(I believed my name would render beauty to the history but the edifice with my name is buried in ground today)

In another incident during my fourth day in office, I walked into the office of Babu, as would be my wont for the rest of my tenure, and found a senior officer, with five or six others, waiting on the sofas. “What’s up?”, I asked. “Waiting to meet you, sir.”, this senior worthy replied. I lost my shirt and shouted loudly and threateningly at him, “You think I am bloody effing inside. Why are you wasting your and everyone else’s time.” That did it. No one ever waited in the Secy’s room to meet the GM after that.

Then there was a simple matter of the brief case. The day I joined office, I was given a guard of honour by ICF Railway protection Force. God knows why? I thought it was something reserved for high dignitaries. Perhaps some Chief Security Commissioner started it to ingratiate himself with the GM and well, everyone liked it. Anyway, after the guard of honour, as I walked towards the foyer, I noticed a caboodle of uniformed peons, or attenders, standing there, led by one smart young man who I would soon know as Suresh, one of the attenders of GM. Suresh lunged forward to grab my shoulder bag. The struggle ensued for a couple of moments and then I told him, “Hello. Do not ever try to take my bag and do not ever wait here in the portico to take my bag. I will be glad to exchange pleasantries with you in the morning everyday at my office door.” Suresh complied, smiling sheepishly. Behind this shoulder bag drama rests a story going back to the days when I had just joined as a young officer. I was given a brief case and I visited the head office carrying it. In the chamber of a senior officer, a rare maverick of sorts, I placed it on the table, trying to start my business when the officer asked me, “Mr. Briefcase. Have you seen a railway officer carrying a briefcase?’’. I looked puzzled, wondering what was so peculiar about that. He continued, “You haven’t because an officer never carries his brief case, his attender does. But if the attender vanishes for tea or something and the officer has to carry it, he is a funny spectacle. He does it very awkwardly as he thinks that the whole world is watching him do something infra dig, and more he thinks this, more of a spectacle he makes of himself. That is why I always carry a bag”. He smilingly showed his cloth sling bag, rather a jhola. What a pearl of wisdom thrown at a young officer! I gratefully collected it, gifted the briefcase to my attender and purchased a shoulder bag. I never carried a briefcase again but since you keep getting these briefcases every three years, my attenders were surprised recipients of briefcases over the years.

My first day in ICF & shoulder bag drama,  a govt. officer with a briefcase

Wondering about the blue beacon light on my official car? This beacon light used to be a sign of the importance of a bureaucrat and a source of reflected power and authority. An absolutely feudal concept, I was wondering what to do about it. Within days, however, Modi ji, the Prime Minister of India, did what I was merely thinking about. In one stroke, all beacon lights were banned and removed and so was the one on my official car. Thank God for small mercies.

All the instances I have talked about may seem rather trivial or venial to someone not familiar with the culture of government officialdom in India. Believe me, however, when I say that these little elements sowed the seeds of some change, if not a radical transformation.

These days wore on easily. You would think that, what with getting to know the ropes and taking care of personal issues, there would be some respite without much time to reflect on my mission. The thought, however, was there, lurking all the time and coming to fore frequently and making me impatient, as it did make the poet Taban Abdul Hai.

Dekh  us  ko khwab  mein  jab  aankh  khul jaati  hai subah

kya kahoon main kya qayamat mujh pe tab laati hai subah

(I see her in the dream and wake up, how can I describe what restlessness she brings to me)

(to be continued...)