It is
my last day at my present office where I have spent more than five years of my
checkered life with people who have become more than family, family in the
sense of spending so much time together, sharing laughter and tears, working on
assignments- complicated and easy and monotonous. Coming every day and looking
at same faces have never stopped mesmerizing me. They are all sorts of people –fun-loving,
practical, idealistic agnostic, serious, religious, garrulous, reticent, and
what not. They all got skills and personality traits of different kinds. Whatever
be their inclination and preferences, every one of them gives a new insight to
life, a novel perspective to see things and an inspiration to acquire what they
so authoritatively possess. What would be life without their presence, without
their magical touch, without their warmth and without their support! I am what
I am because of those wonderful people whom I met as a stranger and gradually
became inseparable. And still it is moment to part our ways. Seems unbelievable
that we won’t eat together during lunch hours, won’t have tea during dull
moments, won’t laugh over silly stuff, won’t talk on phone incessantly over
some grim matter, won’t argue over what course of action to follow to make our programme
more successful and much more. It has taken some time to dawn on me this
realization and had a tough time reconciling with it.
Environment
has become an easy scapegoat on the name of development and now we as the vanguards
of watershed programme are in a more demanding situation where we have to
strive more vigorously to restore balance between the seemingly two opposite but
actually complimentary wheels of human survival.
An
efficient organization is where knowledge does not flow only horizontally but
also vertically. Suggestions are sought not only from people at upper level of
the hierarchy but also from the ones who are at lower level. This process of
demystification of knowledge has so palpably happened here in our young
organization. I am witness to this process where our MIS coordinators are not
busy only in data crunching but have also intricate understanding of the
programme. Our young lanky and sweet peon knows how to classify files just like
a skilled clerk. Our driver knows which EPA activity is more suited to
watershed programme. We are never tired of sharing a story of one of our
messenger who used to work at one district and he was more capable than many of
us in many areas. A matter of satisfaction and a reflection of the truth that
it is people who make the organization and not vice versa.
We
together have traversed unknown terrains, experimented, piloted and miserably
failed and gloriously triumphed and have scaled new heights. In the end, more
than our triumphs and failures, its journey with all its excitements and
anxiety which remain with us to tickle in the moments of solitude when none is
around, yet we don’t feel lonely.
This
wonderful journey is coming to a halt but it has shaped me to a hopefully
better person and a better professional. However much people tend to criticize
the government, there is no denying the fact that working with it gives us a
chance to understand the age old systems, procedures and processes and people
involved in different capacities. Without letting my sense of judgment getting
blurred, I am now more considerate to its errors and failures. And more aware
of the magnitude of the implications of those errors and failures on public at
large.
It
is time to seek your forgiveness, your blessings and your promise of never
putting the carpet of oblivion over our shared memories.
One
may term it my wishful thinking, but my conviction murmurs me firmly that we
all will cross our paths more often and more pleasantly. After all, world is
such a small place and its getting smaller day by day.
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