Corruption calling!

Time to rejoice, we have been certified as numero uno in the nation by the CVC.

Rejoice because we are now the certified number one in atleast one field, how does it matter that it is corruption that we are talking about. We have beaten the PWD’s, State Governments, DDA and many other veterans in this sport and therefore celebration is definitely due.

India being a nation of crabs, many of the spoilsports from amongst us would try to belittle this achievement by citing many flimsy reasons. They would say that the railways treats malafide and violation of rules and procedures on similar footing and hence the high score. Such spoilsports deserve to be shown their rightful place by all of us who through their rightful and not so rightful actions have brought honor to this great organization.

Jokes apart, the fact remains that we have achieved almost the impossible. And therefore it hardly makes a difference that we continue to have our minor follies that make us the butt of jokes almost all the time.

A once great organization brought to its knees by its own masters, how painful and also how pathetic. A classic case of achieving self destruction by non-stop shooting ones own foot.

Are we really that corrupt? Having served the railways for over three decades, I must have been an idiot of the highest order to have been oblivious to this great reality. I always thought that despite all our ills and there are many of them, the railways are still the finest example of dynamic delivery in our nation where every government department, without fail has achieved perfection in the art of often absent and at times inadequate delivery.

A plethora of rules and procedures, almost all of which border on the ridiculous have brought the railways to this pass. I am presently preparing a compendium of idiotic rules and procedures and am almost certain that the compendium in its final form is bound to be as fat as the Britannia Encyclopedia.

Jokes apart, I must confess that concluding railways as the numero uno can at best be called distorted. Being surrounded by a highly motivated team of brilliant and committed youngsters, almost all of whom do not display any symptoms of being on the take whatsoever, I find it a bit difficult to digest the conclusions of the CVC. The CVC is also not wrong as it is only the railways that has classified every minute deviation from its silly rules and procedures as an act of malafide, leading to the high score that we earlier ridiculed.

Our penchant to structure every single triviality has landed us in this soup.