The common man 2017

BJP won a landslide majority; does that mean you are not the common man anymore, who got pissed off the long ques to withdraw limited cash as govt. just hijacked everyone's finance for more than a month leaving people in pittance.

What about a reasonable scope for secure investment option?  

FD payout < 7% plus taxable interest, post taxes, chess & bank charges there's a little currency leftover.

The common man is just concerned for his next meal or the next days meal, you my friend, are just the (lower/middle/upper) overindulged middle class who's greatest concern on most days is how to loose weight?

Batman, sahayak & the buddy system. The traditional malaise!

Lower ranks in army, are breaking out of the mold. Internet is pretentious or maybe the condition deserves the accord. I believe Army cannot be a democratic institution with freedom of choice on most aspects within, but it needs to beef up its grievances redressal system, to begin with!

Army is not just the nation’s fighting force; it’s also among the biggest employer and it’s the latter that’s the concern. In modern warfare; how much do the numbers actually add to its efficiency and credibility? Can such an expensive force (…or a part of it) be doing cheap stuff?

Unless I’m talking of the larger problem, for me to talk about my own personal experience with it feels obnoxious.  I didn’t write up to create or inflame controversy. I hope my feelings are in line with my peers, colleagues, my naval fraternity and our forces in general. I have read and appreciate many of the comments whether I liked it or not. I appreciate that people took time to comment and share their honest opinion or feelings. I do not want to embarrass me or yours constrain of thoughts. It’s just to share my experience and how I dealt it.

I got enlisted in Navy in 1992, though I had been involved and fascinated with military since childhood. With my military schooling, I’d expect myself to be an officer but as luck would have it, the same year I joined college, Ayodhya Babri mandir/masjid issue flared up causing the college to close. I ‘in my impatience got myself recruitment into Navy. It was not that I’d fancy Navy, just that it was the first opening once I made up my mind to get a job.

Unlike the notion largely promoted, it's almost pretentious; joining forces was not my idea of serving the country, but my desperation for job in view of what I randomly witnessed – unrest and unemployment among the educated lot.

I started out as an Electrical mechanic at the bottom of the pecking order. I’ve been a military instructor for technical courses in the highly reputed National Hydrographic School, Vasco da Gama, Goa.

I my attempts, I didn’t get lucky with SS Board though one thing constant through my services has been my endeavor. I also had a good fortune to have some excellent peers and colleagues.

I must emphasize that the men join the forces at quite a young age. Many young lads join the other ranks not for their lack of capacity, but lack of opportunity and resources. There's a huge potential and talent within the forces and services must encourage its men realize their capabilities. Not to mention that all services have certain provisions to promote it's talent yet there's a lot more is left to be desired.

Navy doesn’t have the sahayak system though the captain has a coxswain to assist him. I can’t believe if coxswains do what we have been watching, people in olives doing odd house hold jobs. I won’t either be hippocratic to state that chamchas and nepotism is nonexistent. Man Fridays were very much in flavor as Chamchagiri is the refuge of the inefficient.

Once my deputy officer who was assigned the duty to depute a coxswain called me and said, “You are smart enough to be a coxswain”. “I told him, “I’d prefer not being that smart”.  He never as such, complimented me again. I believe it’s not only deplorable but a sheer waste of human resource. Each job must be left to professionals and stewards must be the coxswain. Must we also respect the dignity of labor!

In another instance, my division officer asked me to get to a bank for a personal cheque deposit. I straight forwardly and almost politely declined to his disappointment while he fell out of temper. I won’t contest, if that displayed attitude. It was quite a scene at that instance but he never took a grudge. When everyone has a task and a role to play, we realize where we overstep our authority. Army probably requires rationalizing its manpower.

Moreover I trust we in service in all earnestness are inclined to follow fair practices. At times though, some odd practices so much imbibe the culture that we don't even realize that such misuse of (man) power is a moral corruption. I trust questioning such practice is very quite fair.

One humor doing rounds... During a Van utsav a sapling was planted by a dignitary in the premises of the official residence of a Flag office commanding. To shoo off pets; who in their playful frenzy would raze the plant, a sentry was placed. Twenty years hence - though it’s a prominent big tree there’s yet a sentry on watch. Various Flag officers commanding have resided and gone by while ..the tree sentry duty, is now customary!

It would however do well if a senior officer is spared of the task of polishing or ironing for himself as he would have significant other tasks at hand. To spare its fighting force from inordinate tasks the army must have enough stewards to its cadre. An army with a sahayak mentality will eventually be a demoralized and crippled fighting force. Even if it has a tradition of sahayaks, that must be relegated to history, for good!

I trust we would see correction in our personal administration as new demographics are evolving due to (….your guess?) technology. Like Army most traditional organizations imbibe pyramidal structure, so we have abundant manpower at the bottom that’s usually unskilled or semi-skilled. Technology is about to transform the pyramidal manpower structure to somewhat resembling a diamond shape. There will be a rapid expansion at the middle while the bottom shrinks. It would be a technically able army and like all technical establishments there would be a lot more manpower at the middle level that would include engineers, technicians, managers, executives and administrators.

All such embarrassment by tradition, would be history. For now, I suppose the issue needs to be addressed in its proper perspective. It doesn't need any campaign, but readiness to embrace change and technology.

(These are the personal opinions of the writer, feel free to comment…)

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