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Pappu Pass Ho Gayaa! Anand K Bhatt "I was born in 1944 in Lalooland. Did M.A. in Economics (Allahabad University) and later, on a sabbatical, did M.A. in Development Economics from Sussex University (U.K.). After putting in 34 years in the Indian Administrative Service, I put in my papers in 2003 when I was Additional Secretary to Govt. of India (working as Chairman, Forward Markets Commission, Govt. of India). Since 2003 I am Administrative Member in the Mumbai Bench of the Central Administrative Tribunal which is a body to look into the grievances of central government employees. I belonged to Madya Pradesh cadre which is full of forests and wild life. I developed a keen interest in forests, trees and plants, both wild and ornamental. I was Divisional Commissioner in Bastar (now in Chhattisgarh) which has the largest area under forests in entire Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. I occasionally do some birdwatching as a hobby and like to read novels. I do try to write occasionally on anything which comes to my mind."

There is a funny advertisement coming on an Indian TV channel these days where a famous star of Indian screen shown as a shopkeeper is being cheated out of bars after bars of chocolate. All the young people assure him that Pappu will pay for it. Occasion: Pappu at long last has mananged to pass the 12th standard (school graduation). You find a chubby balding man with oily hair overwhelmed with joy at his achievement. This has been lifted from a real life incident mentioned in the autobiography of Harivansh Rai Bachchan. If I am not testing your memory, Harivansh Rai was the father of the film star in question: Amitabh Bachchan. In his memoirs it is Gansi Chacha (Ganesh Prasad) who failed in the 10th class, and unexpectedly passed one year when everybody expected an encore from him. Well, he went on to become a teacher.

There are hardly any aspirants for the civil services from Maharashtra and Gujarat, the businesss centres of the country. It is mostly from the BIMARU states (Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, U.P) and Orissa that send the largest contingent in the civil services. And you find students who appear two or three times before getting through. In my young days same was the case for medical enterance test and to some extent, engineering. Those days these three were the gateway to a successful life. Our family doctor's son went on appearing from his intermediate (12th stanndard) days, and he was successful only when he was an M.Sc. student. One of our neighbour, a lawyer had named his son Doctor. Well, Doctor could get through for medicine only when he was in the final year of his masters course. Another lawyer who used to stay a little away from our place had a son who could get through for Kharagpur I.I.T. entrance exam only when he was doing M.Sc. in Mathematics.

What I am driving at is how India has changed during the last half century. How the avenues for employment have widened in scope and number. You have to select your niche, and many are not even aware of all the avenues open.

Other change is in the armed forces. In our training academy the director who belonged to the snooty I.C.S. had a son who was a lieutenat in the army. It was very common those days for the elite among the service class to send one son into civil services or police, and the other to the army. Gone are those days. Anyway, this phenomenon of changing socio-cultural profile in the armed forces has been dissected thoroughly by at least one newsmagazine. Would this mean that hardier and tougher men are now going to our armed forces? May be yes.

Another point which should be noted 50 years after independence is the clear disticnction between the English speaking elite and the students from the less expensive schools and those from the suburbia and countryside. A much larger population now, both percentage-wise and in absolute numbers know English as their first language. The teenagers who enjoy English movies and English channels on TV form a class which is very different from the product of a typical mofussil. At least the northern Hindi belt started diluting the English education in the school in the sixties. With some justification, no doubt. I have known young boys who failed only in English in the school leaving examination, and could not get through. However, it has the effect of emergence of an entire new generation of fresh graduates who are proficient only in Hindi. The partition is complete, and so is the hiatus between mental make up and thinking pattern of the two groups.

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