#100sareepact #sareesin2016
A Spring morning in Delhi is very special . Crisp and fresh mornings with a promise of mild sun later in the day and cool nights that will rival those in a hill station .
I think I struck real lucky for I heard it had been warm just a couple of days ago. Which was why I had packed cottons for this trip . Two important meetings in the Health and Finance Ministries.
That morning in the charming garden of my Guest House , Lutyen’s Bungalow, truly Spring was in celebration mode with the resident parrots screeching and flying around the trees and thick, verdant foliage of the hedges around the lawns.
The daughter of the house obliged by taking the Pact Pictures , even asking me to be bold and pose on the trunk of the tree that had been blown down by a storm a few years ago.
The Saree , an Ikkat from a Nallis outlet in a mall in Thane.
Pictures taken, break fast eaten I set out for my meeting of the day.
I was in the Visitor’s Room in North Block , Ministry of Finance for my appointment with the Revenue Secretary . A gamut of Indescribable feelings rushed through my mind . I was inside this building last maybe around 45 years ago when it was our father’s “Office” . Ministry of Home Affairs , North Block .
I found everyone there so courteous and polite . The Security , the staff at the Reception , the Private Secretary and his team ; all of them so quietly efficient. Babuji would be so proud to see the qualities he believed in still valued and practiced .
Truly , we are so quick to criticise, find fault and judge or condemn . How come we never stop to acknowledge and vocalise the positive experiences . It’s become the fashion to dismiss all service providers, especially the “Sarkari” variety .
I don’t think we ever stop and put ourselves in another’s place and understand the challenges others face in order to provide us the best service . I have noticed this in airports , hospitals , restaurants , stores …how is it we carry so much of a sense of entitlement .
One smile , a grateful acknowledgment of the service , remembering and thanking using the name of the person who serves you , stamps your pass, or does one of those tens of dozens actions that ease your path forward .
To go back to what I have always thought of the corridors of power, the grand edifices that house the ministries ; as I climbed up the red , carpeted stairs that brought me in front of the Finance Minister’s chambers and the kind attention of every one who helped me navigate my way to the waiting room I realised that it is I who hold an incredible kind of power. That of a citizen whose needs are taken care of by people who do their job to the best of their abilities no matter the magnitude of the stress and challenges and the paucity of resources at hand . The power to help those who serve us and making it easier for them to serve us.