Hoping against hope!

Railways never ceases to amaze me. Just when I think that everything is lost, out of the blue comes a tremendous performance that defies all norms of conventional expectations. The tremendous performance however remains confined to the youngsters only with the old foggies, and I consider myself one, hardly having any say or contribution in its deliverance.

Believe me that the above comments have originated out of the brilliant performance of my officers, cutting across departments in the restoration work in the aftermath of the Kalka Mail accident of the 28th instant.

The senior echelons of the management also contribute by way of advises almost always delivered with the wisdom of hindsight in hand. Period. That is the contribution of the higher management levels when its role infact should be supportive and visionary. Is it not unfortunate that the 1.4 million strong organization is generally led by a group of people who are not leaders of men, but who on the other hand leave no stone unturned in castigating their team whenever things go sour.

Reactive management is perhaps an ideal term. A management that reacts on almost everything under the sun, a reaction that causes more damage to the system than the incident itself. Time established systems and conventions are distorted with impunity by pigmies who wish to leave their mark, even if by assisting in the sheer destruction of the organization.

And we have almost arrived. An organization that fails in the satisfactory completion of even low level mundane assignments is what we have become.

Yet, the brilliance of youngsters gives hope, a hope that all is not lost yet.

Insha-allah.