Civil Servants

Subhash Mathur was born and brought up in small towns in Rajasthan. During his school and college education at Jaipur, he was keenly involved in sports, journalism and public speaking. His civil services career has given him a platform for spreading his ideas about modernising tax administration to benefit the commmon man. Post retirement he is devoting his energies, along with his wife Tilak, to public and humane causes.

It’s Jolly [The Good Fellow Again].

Just as I was troubled while joining at various places of posting, farewells were equally difficult on several occasions.

Thus the transfer of Jolly to another north Indian Commissionerate and his farewell became embroiled in a controversy of humungous proportions. As it was, Jolly was not such a popular Commissioner. [They rarely are.] And his transfer got shrouded in mystery from day one.

Subhash Mathur was born and brought up in small towns in Rajasthan. During his school and college education at Jaipur, he was keenly involved in sports, journalism and public speaking. His civil services career has given him a platform for spreading his ideas about modernising tax administration to benefit the commmon man. Post retirement he is devoting his energies, along with his wife Tilak, to public and humane causes.

My flirtations with problems in joining my place of postings began from day one. Upon completion of Probation I was posted to Calcutta Custom House. I was one of the ‘privileged’ three who were denied the first posting of choice. And on top of that Calcutta!! [as then] I felt truly blessed???

I reported for duty on that glorious cool November day to begin my journey as an officer [no longer Officer-Probationer]. I was on top of the world - which came crashing down pretty fast to my horror!

A few other batch mates who were also posted to Calcutta Custom House [CCH in short] had already joined and were already fully functional.

Subhash Mathur was born and brought up in small towns in Rajasthan. During his school and college education at Jaipur, he was keenly involved in sports, journalism and public speaking. His civil services career has given him a platform for spreading his ideas about modernising tax administration to benefit the commmon man. Post retirement he is devoting his energies, along with his wife Tilak, to public and humane causes.

In August 1980 I sought a transfer to Jaipur Collectorate from Delhi DRI. Keeping my difficult family situation in view, the Board obliged fairly quickly.

And so, I landed up in Jaipur in August. My arrival set off a chain of events which took place with regularity throughout my stay at Jaipur. Usually the issues were petty but the drama was high octane.

I simply couldn’t believe the kind of bizarre situations which engulfed me and my family from time to time. From the series of ‘mishaps’ I narrate the most innocuous one.

Subhash Mathur was born and brought up in small towns in Rajasthan. During his school and college education at Jaipur, he was keenly involved in sports, journalism and public speaking. His civil services career has given him a platform for spreading his ideas about modernising tax administration to benefit the commmon man. Post retirement he is devoting his energies, along with his wife Tilak, to public and humane causes.

King Pasha! That was the name of the strongman operating in and around Delhi, Punjab, Haryana, and parts of Rajasthan. Largely a shadowy figure - rarely seen - but his footprints were in evidence in most big crimes. His exploits were folklore. Smuggling, cross border trafficking and prostitution were his forte. He was also Robinhood-esque in his approach.

This is the late 70s when I was working with DRI. 15th and 16th floor of Atmaram House on Barakhamba Road was where DZU (Delhi Zonal Unit) and OSD (Nepal) were located.

And I was some sort of a Nepal expert! (In those DRI was full of experts: gold /diamond / Pakistan/ Nepal and so on. Some were singleton experts say, on Hazi Mastan or Wallahbhi brothers etc.)

Both the wings of DRI were overstaffed and underutilized till a dynamic DD (DZU) entered the scene. Things began to change rapidly.