By Gregory Shullai
This should have come much earlier – nevertheless better late than never. Let us not be gloomy just because I have decided to comment on what I think reemployment is all about – if not the subject at least the individuals who seek after it and get it – and those that grant it – because in the particular manner in which I aim to go about this subject there is plenty to mitigate and offset the word “reemployment” – even something to laugh about it, if not scorn it. But first, above all else we should not underestimate the fact that only a chosen few get reemployed and that those who do not, they find a source of amusement in discussing the nature of those that suddenly appear skewered and hypocritical in spirit, as when they were employed they vociferously condemned Governments’ mode of functioning and then a few months later they debase themselves, reaching out with arms and legs to the powers that be just to get a few more years of full salary without doing anything in the interest of “Public Service” and the people. While it would be wrong to say that they embarrass themselves, there is every likelihood that they stooped and did what might be called highly questionable things to get money from doing nothing but a “Yes Minister.” This was certainly not the OLQ (Officer Like Qualities) that these officers were taught when they were undergoing training in the All-India Service Institutes.
There is yet another angle to the matter which is far more damning to the character of the reemployed individuals and that is, that according to many, those that seek reemployment in a government that is known to be corrupt and which is deservedly criticized and condemned by many, even by none other than the Home Minister of the country, whose caustic remarks can never be erased from the memory of the majority ascetic population of the State, who portray themselves as God fearing humble men and women, and yet in order to get reemployed they set aside every righteous precept to do things for a couple of a hundred thousand rupees that any normal individual would only do for nothing less than five or ten hundred thousand rupees. And therefore, it is not surprising that everyone looks upon those that are reemployed as hypocrites who are basically concerned only with transactional interactions between themselves and their political bosses; even against their basic finer principles. They are the sweet smiling type that readily offer a compliment before they ask for a favour, and basically any thinking politician with a little common sense would know that a compliment paid for is of no value at all.
I am in no way treating reemployed individuals as my enemies, but I definitely feel a need to be confronted with a few of them in order to keep myself in good spirits. After all – when one retires, one needs to have an object to criticize and condemn just for the sake of it. The compelling strength that one possessed when one was in service will not let a retiree rest in any aloofness even for a short spell immediately after retirement. The isolation that suddenly develops is normally misunderstood as if it were an unreal flight from everything normal till then – while in reality it is the period during which the retiree is absorbed, immersed, and given the opportunity to penetrate into the reality of who he/she actually is, so that in course of time he/she will emerge again into the light a different person bringing home to self and society the redemption from an unreal situation in which he/she was bound in – the redemption from the false image that hitherto dominated his/her physical and mental being. But why am I raising all this guilt laden feeling against my reemployed friends? Enough, what I’ve stated above is more than enough. Let me be silent on these matters of the spirit for now before it becomes too clear that I have usurped the right that normally is the proud prerogative of those that are stronger than I – namely the clergy and the pundits. Instead let me focus on those that do not get reemployed. What about them?
Those who do not get reemployed, regardless of how much they might have wanted it, initially become pessimists, not realizing the good fortune they have landed into, because in the bargain they are now deprived of any enemies, deprived of back biting officer colleagues, deprived of smiling faces that hide a scornful heart and in time they suddenly come to realize that without these kind of people during their service days, they would not have been able to build up that thick skinned nature that is the armour of the bureaucrat that helps them last as long as they do, and lasting still – one can wager on that. Let me be clear, before one can get their head around being retired, they, one and all, come to realize that the grand purpose of life as an employee was not devised by any righteous morality: life as an employee demands for deception, it lives on deception – didn’t they already know that? “Know it my friends” because when the end is near, there will be those that deem it necessary to resort to desperate measures in order to offset the losses that come with retirement. But there are others, others who counsel on how to face the future as a retiree; these are the noble spirits, the ones who have retired and still move around as if they have never yet come to know that they are retired. These are the cheerfully retired, self-made men and women…they are the balm, the reward, the refreshment against the disgust of life as it is these days, in short, these are the ones that represent the true way to happiness – independent, free, upright and honest men and women who set the example to those on the verge of retirement. And the example they set is a comfort, especially when the newly retired review the various occupations of those that have gone before them, the ones who chose to utilize their inherent strengths to face the future without wishing to say anything of the employment of others, thinking all the while of what they can do instead of continuing to try to find employment in what they already were engaged in. From here on they know that only the truth provides the satisfaction to challenge this new situation that confronts them and that there is nothing sweeter or more innocent to be found in this life than the truth. According to them, every day they discover something new which is uniquely important, and not known to the reemployed man, and this they say gives them the joy that all else seems to be of no account. This is the feeling as regards those that do not seek reemployment, but here is where the problem actually lies, there are those that do not look into life as an opportunity to discover one’s inherent strength and for them, when the State reemploys some and not all they unquestionably develop a peculiar irritation at, and a rancour against the reemployed.
What is it that binds Govt employees most firmly? What are those cords that almost cannot be torn? It is the regular salary which is foremost in compelling the employees’ obedience to the dictates of the controlling officers and leaders, even if the officers and leaders are of a lower intellect. And because of this fact it may be conjectured that who we truly are is a decisive event that is intricately linked with retirement and that regardless of what happens, or doesn’t happen, the kind of person we are is certain to emerge after we are able to free ourselves from “the rules.” One could humorously advocate for Dante’s inscription over the gates of hell at the gate of every Public Service Commission – “abandon all hope ye who enter.” It is ‘salary’ that binds one most firmly and obliges one most lastingly. And that is why when retirement comes, it is like the shock and fear that one gets from an earthquake: all at once the spirit of the person is devastated – shaken to its core, released from the security that it was blindly and slavishly tied to, it itself does not know what is happening and how to go about dealing with this new compelled freedom, because the homely feeling it had settled in to was everything that it had loved until then.
Under these circumstances’ retirement represents, figuratively, the dawn of the beginning of who we truly are. Hitherto we were considerably influenced in our outlook and dealings, if not in our actual thoughts, but most certainly in the way we got things done…we were not allowed to be influenced by who we actually were – there were rules. And so, retirement, at least for the first few years, belongs to a period of transition. After my rupture from the rules and the business of “yes sir no sir” I began standing on my own two feet and tried, unknowingly, to regain that freedom, mental and physical, to see and feel things in my way…in my own way. No one was there to guide me through these unfamiliar situations. I began to realize that unlike my earlier days the subordinates in the Deptt I worked in had their way of getting things done and I had mine. Now they were least bothered with the rank I held and that took some adjusting. They functioned according to their inherent morality and wisdom and I realized, not too soon, that submitting to rules is not about morality or wisdom, it is a form of slavishness, egoism, resignation and most certainly thoughtlessness, if not vanity as well. In a way submitting to the rules was (and still is) an act of despair, and therefore there is nothing moral about it per se, circumstances and innate wisdom should dictate how to handle things – not rules. Therefore, with what I have stated above I can boldly say, as you can see, that I have finally become myself.
The spirit doesn’t weigh the pros and cons like the brain does and to those who allow the brain to dominate the spirit, the freedom of the spirit is what is at stake. “Better to die than to lose the safety of the means to an income” says the brain for the simple reason that what is being lost is a horrible thought, a horrible suspicion of everything natural and normal, a sudden hatred for everything new grows in the individual perhaps even a desperate attempt at reaching backward for what it had because anything without the old job is suspicious. These days it is very clear that people are calmly proceeding on their way to the extreme opposite of everything that was good in government service. Public servants no longer revolt against the way things are going on, they have become modern-day slaves, slaves who have no strength left.
