Storm Before the Calm: Part I

(I have just returned from a short trip to the Canals of the Hague followed by a drink at one of the pubs with all batchmates in the course and the faculty.  I am in a hurry to finish this piece and put it on the blog and the damn thing seems to grow pretty lengthy.  So, I do what I think is best - divide the awfully long piece into two! Read on).

Nothing happens without drama. Ever.  Even though I made up my mind to come to Europe to pursue a course way back in 2012, I completely lost track of it during end of 2013.  When it was time to apply.  The Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT in short) announces the DFFT scheme (yet another acronym; stands for Department-Funded Foreign Training) sometime in the month of October every year and asks the officers to submit their applications by end of December (last working day).  Owing to some hectic activity at the office – we were running some Proof of Concept study in Delhi followed by a huge exercise of device certification in Chandigarh for iris-based authentication – and promptly falling ill thereafter, I forgot about the deadline.  On the 29^th evening I suddenly remembered.  It was a mad scramble thereafter.  One, the choices of courses are many and an officer can apply for either a long-term course (lasting 1 year) or a short-term one (anywhere between 3 weeks and 20 weeks).  For some courses, the deadline – I saw to my dismay - was end of November.  A long-term course that was available in Germany hence was out of question now. 

I have already said I wasn’t interested in studying in the US.  One, I was keen on Europe.  Two, I cannot drive which meant I wouldn’t be able to travel around the US and would be completely dependent on someone even for daily chores.  So, Harvard, Duke and Syracuse Universities were shown the door.  Ditto Singapore, the Philippines, Japan and Australia.  I was not keen on the UK either even though my sister (and my lovely niece) lives there.  I’d be greatly inconvenienced in matters of travel in Europe.  No Schengen Visa!  That left only one long-term course to apply for.  At the International Institute of Social Studies, The Hague, the Netherlands.  And, I promptly just did that.  As though filling in the rather long applications were not enough, I had to submit scores of other documents – including No Objection Certificate from the Office, My Annual Performance Appraisal Reports for the past 5 years (to apply, the minimum grading required in all the Reports is 7) and another certificate from the office stating there were no disciplinary cases against me.  I managed to scrape through all this by the deadline! And, just then the DoPT decided to extend the date for submission of forms!  Had they done this earlier they’d have saved a lot of heartburn.

I knew applying to a single institute would greatly affect my chances of getting selected for the training.  Hundreds of officers (may be thousands) from the Central and the State Governments apply each year to study abroad.   And, there are only so many scholarships the Government can offer.  Not all my appraisal ratings were outstanding (a rating of 9) nor did I have 5 reports.  Thankfully self-doubts didn’t stop me from completing the application though they troubled me endlessly until the selection process was over. 

In March the DoPT announced that I was selected. I couldn’t believe it for a while. I was overjoyed.   Two other Officers from the UIDAI were also selected for long-term courses at London (one at the LSE and another at the King’s College).  But the troubles didn’t stop with the announcement.  I learnt from sources that the officer heading the Training Activities (it’s called the Establishment Section) at the UIDAI had written to the DoPT that officers from the UIDAI may not be selected for long-term training and even if selected, the UIDAI may be constrained not to send them owing to workload.  I was also told that the current CMD/DG didn’t favour sending officers on long-term training either. 

The three of us selected conferred over multiple calls on what must be our course of action.  “We must talk to our bosses and seek their help” was a common refrain.  The two of them went ahead and spoke to the bosses and they promised to speak to the DG (and the DDG of Establishment) at an appropriate time.  Even though I agreed to it was difficult for me to seek help.  Never the one to be at loss of words in front of the boss and always known to speak one’s mind, I suddenly was tongue-tied.  My colleagues from Delhi would ask almost dally, “Did you speak to Mr Dalwai?” and I would not answer them with a simple yes or no. Of course I’d shared the news of my selection to the course but nothing more. At last one day in mid-April I blurted out to the boss, “Sir I need help”.  Once this sentence was uttered I was unstoppable.  I went on to relate the entire story, the facts and the rumours.  The boss – Ashok Dalwai - heard me patiently and only said, “Okay! Let me speak to the DG when he comes to Bangalore.  He will be here for the Tech Review in the last week of April”. 

Things went well and the DG agreed to send us all to our respective courses while he was in Bangalore (and it took me two persuasive sessions along with a load of help from Mr Dalwai to nail that).  What however bothered me was how vulnerable the officers are who apply for courses and dependent on their bosses’ goodness to finally go.  The department/ministry can always claim that the officer is ‘indispensable’ and hence cannot be spared for training.  With my luck in getting nominated to any foreign training or conferences, I was quite skeptical in getting the nod of the boss.  In the three years I have been with the UIDAI not once have I been nominated by the UIDAI to attend any training or conference in any foreign land while many if not most of the officers (including those who joined much later) have all visited at least once.  Those either are in close proximity to the HQ or the boss have made such trips multiple times.  While I do not envy their sojourns I wonder what in the world must one do beyond some decent work to be recognized thus.  I of course felt cheated when I was ignored and even wondered if my decision to choose the UIDAI over the Atomic Energy Commission (as Director, Finance) was a wise decision at all!