(The following message was written for the Golden Jubilee Reunion of my IAS batch, which entered the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration in July 1976. Unable to attend the reunion, I shared these reflections with my batchmates. While prompted by a very personal occasion, the thoughts themselves seem to me relevant to anyoneContinue reading “What Remains – The Grace of the Years”
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FIFTY YEARS LATER
There are reunions, and then there are IAS reunions. The former involve nostalgia. The latter too involve nostalgia; but also protocol, subtle comparison, and the quiet belief—held with touching sincerity by almost everyone present—that time has treated them with exceptional generosity, and that they have aged distinctly better than most others in the batch. TheContinue reading “FIFTY YEARS LATER”
Service at the Crossroads: Part II
The Test of Our Times—Integrity, Power, and the Demands of Viksit Bharat If Part I is a reflection on what India’s civil services have been, Part II must confront what they are in danger of becoming—and what they must yet strive to be. For all their history and institutional depth, the civil services today standContinue reading “Service at the Crossroads: Part II”
Service at the Crossroads: Part I
The Idea of the Civil Service—From Steel Frame to Living Institution There are institutions that merely administer a nation, and there are those that, in quieter and less visible ways, help shape its destiny. India’s civil services have at their best, belonged to the latter category—an enduring presence through upheaval and change, lending continuity toContinue reading “Service at the Crossroads: Part I”
In Memory of Dr. Shekhar Dutt
The news of Shri Shekhar Dutt’s sudden passing left me utterly disoriented. It came without warning, and for a while, I found myself unable to collect my thoughts or articulate what I was feeling. Even now, days later, I struggle to accept it. There are some people whose presence, even when silent or distant, anchorsContinue reading “In Memory of Dr. Shekhar Dutt”
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