One of my Finest Hours (Part 3) by Udhayan Chaudhry
Palki Nehwal was promoted as Under Secretary and posted to a different Ministry. She was the only one with whom I confided. I knew she was fond of me as I was of her. It acted as a balm. Soon she went. I felt demoralized. I went back into my shell and quietly did my work. I was forced to improve my discipline. Hitherto, I used to come to office at 11 a.m., thereafter, I had to be there between 9:00 and 9:30 a.m. The official hours were from 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Soni Lalwani wanted to talk to me. I was in no mood to talk to her. After all, she had written a note against me. Previously, I used to wish her and talked to her informally. Now it all stopped. She felt bad. My humming stopped and so did her singing. I stopped talking to the girls. They too were upset. The atmosphere in the Section became tense. It did not affect Ritu Madan. She took advantage of the situation and started pestering me, as did R.K. Vinayak. This went on for a while until I could take it no more. For the second time in my life, I applied for Voluntary Retirement. It was rejected because a disciplinary proceeding was pending against me. I sought a transfer from the Section, but that too was rejected. I was flummoxed. Never in my service career, did I face such a predicament! I realized I got what I gave to others. It was a form of divine retribution.
Soon an incident happened in the Section, which lifted my spirits. It was an unfortunate one. A peon in the Section suddenly collapsed after meeting K.P. Rajput. It was later found that he had threatened the said peon with expulsion. The peon could not take it. A stretcher and an ambulance were summoned. The peon was hospitalized. K.P. Rajput was summoned by the Secretary. It became a serious matter. Meanwhile, I had come to know about an incident involving Rajput which took place three years back. He had manhandled a Member of Parliament. It was a serious offense. I was told he had to tender an apology in the Parliament. The Secretary, who was supposedly close to him, had come to his rescue. The said Secretary was now retired. The new Secretary of the Ministry did not look kindly towards Rajput. It was a blessing in disguise for me. Soon the peon was discharged from the hospital and was subsequently transferred to another Section.
Altercations between Ritu Madan and me became a regular feature. She was determined to be vindictive. Her hostility against me provoked an equally hostile reaction from my end. Along with R.K.Vinayak, they constantly complained to K.P. Rajput about my attitude. Rajput took it upon himself to take strict action against me. One day, I received a phone call from the Vigilance Department. I was warned about my attitude and was threatened with a charge sheet at the behest of K.P. Rajput. I retaliated in kind. I told the concerned official of the Vigilance Department, that I was ready for the charge sheet and accept whatever predicament was in store for me. I distinctly told him three things, which I remember to this day. First, I would accept my guilt. Second, I would ask for the biometric attendance sheet of every official in the Division. In my opinion, ninety percent of the officials were guilty on grounds of indiscipline. Specific action against me smacked of discrimination. Third, most importantly, I would ask, why no action had been taken against K.P. Rajput for his atrocious behaviour. I went on to say that any official could collapse at any time because of his rude behaviour. I could sense that the said official was stunned by my reply. To the best of my knowledge, no official had talked to a higher-ranking official in Vigilance Department in such a way as I did. I was on the edge, and with my back to the wall. I could not contain my emotions. To my surprise, which I confess, I never anticipated, it had an extraordinary effect. Ritu Madan and R.K. Vinayak became quiet all of a sudden. Rajput went away on leave for a month. Whether he went on leave on the above grounds or for any other reason remained unknown. All the officials in the Division breathed a sigh of relief. I had become a hero in the Division inadvertently.
Whenever I could, I took leave on medical grounds. Soni Lalwani inquired about my well-being from the girls. I was informed about the same when I joined the office. I ignored it.
One day, Kitu said to me in a hushed tone, “Sir, Woh aapkow chahati hai (Sir, she likes you).”
I replied, “Please do not talk rubbish.”
She continued, “Sir, hum aurat hai, hum yeh sab samaj lete hain. Aap aadmi ho, yeh sab aap samaj nahi saktey. Jis tarak se woh aapko dekti hai aor aapsey baat karna chahti hai, hum samaj letey hain (We are women, we know these things. You are a man, you won’t understand all these things. The way she looks at you and wants to talk to you, we understand it).”
Honestly, I did not know what to say and maintained silence. I had heard rumours about her difficult relationship with her husband. Once Palki Nehwal had hinted about the same too. It was supposed to be a personal matter. So, I refrained from talking about it.
One day, for no apparent reason, Soni Lalwani snapped. She summoned me to her room and angrily told me to search for a file concerning her Section.
It made no sense to me, and I asked, “Why am I told to search a file concerning your Section”?
“Because at one time, it was your Section too,” she replied and handed me the number of the file. I left the room quietly and went to my previous Section where I worked three years ago. The file was not in the Section. I searched an earlier register and found the subject matter related to the number. It was opened by me, then. Memories of that day with Palki Nehwal in the records room came to me. At that time, I had helped her to keep that file in the said room. It was practical and of no importance. I took out the file from the shelf and gave it to Soni Lalwani.
She inquired, “From where did you get this file?”
“From the records room,” I replied.
“It’s your entire fault,” she said.
I kept quiet and went back to my room. I was dazed. The girls looked at me. It all had happened before them. I could sense what they wanted to say to me. “Sir, hell has no fury than woman who is scorned.”
A week later, another incident took place which shook me to the core. On that day, I was working up until 6 p.m. The room was empty. I was engrossed in a work with a matter related to the information being sought under RTI. The phone on Ritu Madan’s table rang. It was at some distance from my seat. I did not pick up the phone. Suddenly a peon came and told me that Soni Lalwani had called me into her room. Normally, she used to leave the office at 5:30 p.m. I did not know, that she was in her room.
I entered her room and she glared at me and asked “Why did you not respond to my phone in the Section?
I was aghast. I replied, “I was not expecting any call at this hour.”
She said, “Don’t you realize why I have called you?”
I did not know what to say and neither knew what to do. Luckily for me, the peon entered her room She gestured for me to go. I left her room hurriedly. My hands were trembling. I closed my computer and went away. I was dazed and dumbfounded. Kitu Chandana’s words echoed in my mind while going back to my home. The next day, I went to the office as if nothing had happened. Soni Lalwani came. I could sense, she was gazing at me before entering her room. The girls gazed at me in return. I kept quiet with my head bowed.
I had decided to leave the Section once and for all. Things were becoming too difficult for me to handle. I approached the Administration Division of the Ministry directly. Luckily an Under Secretary who was known to me was posted in the Administration Division. I requested a transfer. It was promptly accepted. Three days later, the transfer order to the Section. It took the entire Section by surprise. Ritu Madan could not believe it. She made a vain attempt to stop my transfer. In this regard, she dared to talk to K.P. Rajput, while he was on leave. But to no avail. Despite her best efforts, I had escaped her clutches. I joined the new department in the autumn of the year 2016. Subsequently, I came to know that my substitute posted in that Section had not joined. Ms. Ritu Madan had to handle my share of the work. Her workload doubled. My baser instinct had the pleasure of having had the last laugh.
I was told by Kitu Chandana that Soni Lalwani looked disturbed.
She inquired, “How could he leave the Section without the relieving order?”
She was told that no relieving order was needed if an official was transferred from one department to another in the same Ministry. One day in my new section, Shrishti Gupta told me Soni Lalwani wanted to talk to me. I refused politely. I told Shrishti to relay the following lines to her, “Woh afsana jisko anjaam dena na ho, mumkin, usey ek khoobsoorat maur pe chhor dena aachaa hai”. (Roughly translated it meant, that journey which has commenced, but does not have any destination, should be discontinued, and one should move away from it gracefully). She went away smilingly. A few months later, Soni Lalwani was promoted as Deputy Secretary to another Ministry.
Cometh 1st January 2017, I went to meet my old friends at the Ministry of Commerce and Industry at Udyog Bhavan, New Delhi.
Lo and behold, there, I met Soni Lalwani by chance. Both of us were taken by surprise. She was posted in that Ministry. I wished her a happy new year and enquired about her well-being. She asked whether I was posted in the said Ministry.
I said I had come to greet my old friends.
“Have you worked here before”? she inquired.
“Yes,” I replied.
“I worked here for 22 years before working under you six years ago,” I continued.
“I hope you are fine here.”
She replied smilingly, “Thank you so much, Udhayan.”
This time, I took leave from her gracefully. That was the last time I saw her. Two years later, in 2019, I was promoted as Section Officer. I decided to take voluntary retirement to start a new journey. I was told, she had also taken voluntary retirement in the same year. What a coincidence it was!
Epilogue
Thus ended my 32 years of journey as a Government Servant. I thanked God for letting me retire gracefully. I had survived the ordeal. Since my retirement, I have been in touch with Palki Nehwal through WhatsApp. We continue to wish each other on important religious occasions. I wrote to her, that I gave my best performance under her and Soni Lalwani. I could not replicate that performance under any other officer in my service career.
“Your performance was phenomenal under us,” she replied. That acknowledgment, apart from other related emotions, probably, was one of the finest hours in my service career.
(I have changed the name of the officers and the department I worked under for personal reasons. I have taken a writer’s artistic license to dramatize the said story a bit. However, the essence of the story remains intact to the best of my belief, memory, and knowledge.)
