The Cup that Never Finished

 

                The Cup that Never Finished

Once K Diesh was settled in the Inspection Quarters (IQ), I started attending to my routine work. When Ved Kumar was in charge of the Circle, the Circle Office was located in a hired building belonging to the Auqaf at the foothills of Shankaracharya. Gradually, the situation started changing. Huge processions were seen on the streets carrying flags of different organisations and chanting slogans against India and in favour of freedom. Most of them passed by the side of our Office. In the meantime, a series of abductions and killings of many Central Government Officers were reported, which prompted me to stop going to the office. I organised the shifting of the office records to the GPO and reopened the office in the GPO premises. 

Another major development had taken place in the valley. On the intervening night of 19 and 20 January 1990, there was a massive uprising organised by the extremists on instructions from across the border. You could hear slogans on the loudspeakers of the mosques, which, besides seeking freedom, also threatened Kashmiri Pandits. Kashmiri Pandits were also dragged out of their homes to head the processions to provide human shields to the armed processions. This made them nervous, and almost instantly, they decided to leave the valley, abandoning their houses and material possessions. Our staff also left without seeking permission and took shelter in Jammu. Administrative Offices and Operative Offices, i.e. the Post Offices, wore a deserted look. 

The State Government imposed a curfew in the valley continuously for several months. Nobody was allowed to move, though some processions defied the curfew orders in the peripheral areas. During that period, I managed the office alone and had to issue transfer orders without any staff from the Circle Office (C.O.). No files were moved. I had recorded the names and current postings of all the staff whose postings were handled by the C.O. Some staff members took advantage of the situation, while others suffered due to the abnormal circumstances. However, things remained under control.  

Shockingly, the takeover by K Diesh as the Circle Head was more of a liability than an asset. I virtually shouldered all the responsibility myself. He had a penchant for flitting between Srinagar and Delhi, where his family resided. Meanwhile, in Kashmir, the postal operations had come to a halt, yet he would send false reports to the Directorate and inform them that the services were normal. A copy was also sent unauthorisedly to a fellow in the PMO named George, who was very close to the PM and was known to him. The ground reality was that only our mail vehicle used to ply between Srinagar Airport and GPO, and the suburban mail accumulated in the RMS and the GPO. However, during the hours the curfew was relaxed, some banking transactions were permitted to be carried out to mitigate the sufferings of the general public. Since many of our Town Sub-Offices had been closed for security reasons, some of them were restarted functioning as single counters in Offices like GPO Srinagar, HPO Anantnag, HPO Baramulla and SO Pulwama, where adequate security was available. 

Diesh was short in stature, agile and persuasive. He used to relate tales of his bravery when we sat together in the verandah of the IQ, as there was nothing much to do. During such casual conversation, he once remarked that Ved Kumar, his predecessor, was a timid clerk and not an officer at all. I could not bear it because I had learnt a lot from Ved Kumar when he was my boss. Anyway, I chose to remain silent and did not respond. He insisted I give my opinion. In a lighter mood, I said, “Sir, I cannot afford to deny what you said because I believe we bureaucrats are like prostitutes who are forced to say yes to the customer’s mannerisms till such time they foot the bill. Later, he is shown the door with disdain on their faces. Similarly, we bureaucrats agree with whatever our bosses say until they write our annual confidential report. And once it has been written, we can afford to speak the truth thereafter. He was tipsy, so he laughed and said, “Deepak, you are naughty.” He was a person who loved alcohol. I was not aware of this aspect of his personality. One day, I observed that while sitting and talking, he had a cup in front of him, apparently filled with tea. He called out to the caretaker and ordered tea for me as well. Periodically, he would get up and take his cup into his room and refill it. I thought over it and ultimately found that he would fill it with liquor in his room, though for strangers it looked as if it were tea. The cup remained on his table during office hours and was never finished. 

He decided to call on the Governor, Jagmohan, along with the Chief General Manager, Telecommunications. I beseeched him not to take the CGMT along with him, as we would get overshadowed by his presence but he did not listen. An appointment was granted. It so happened that the Governor complained about his personal telephones which often went dead, besides many other complaints from the public regarding telephone services. At the close, he asked us if we had a brief about our departmental problems which he needs to look into. I had fortunately prepared one and handed it over to Ved Marwah, the Governor’s Adviser. With that, we left the office. Back in GPO, some union members were standing there by chance. The Union Leader greeted the PMG, who reciprocated. Then he started bragging about his visit to the Governor. He told them that he apprised the Governor of how our postal staff are facing the situation bravely. He said, “I told him if bullets come our way, I will be the first person to take them on my chest.” Then he asked me to confirm what he said. I had no option but to affirm it with a smile on my face.

One day, when the GPO was open during the curfew relaxation hours, he saw a destitute woman begging in front of the rear gate on the bund side. He quickly rushed down, taking me along with him. He talked to the beggar woman and asked her in Hindi, “How much do you earn per day?” She replied, ‘By the grace of Allah, about ten rupees.” He took out a twenty-rupee note, gave it to her, and told her to go away. But she would not budge an inch. So he got annoyed and asked the CRPF jawan on duty to ensure she does not sit there in future. On our return to the IQ, he said to me, “Deepak, you don’t know. She is an ISI agent and works for the enemy country.” I simply kept quiet and did not reply. On another day, he saw two stout Iranian youth moving around in the GPO complex. He approached them and said in a loud voice, “What are you doing here, you terrorists?” They had come to collect their poste restante mail from the GPO, so it annoyed them and they were ready to fight. Before they could react, I called out a few staff members of RMS and asked them to take them away and give them their mail, if there was any. Things would have worsened but for my timely intervention. On another occasion, he called me from my residence late at night and took me to the RMS office. He started checking some mailbags and ordered the staff standing there to open them and show their contents. He suspected that the bags contained Charas (Drug), which was going out of the valley in connivance with the post office staff. The RMS staff was reluctant to obey as they had not closed the bags, but were only transit offices. Anyway, I convinced them that you may open and write in the error book the reasons for opening such bags while the PMG and DPS were present. 

One day, we were sitting in the verandah enjoying different teas, and an aeroplane flew by. He stood up and told me that he was informed by IGP (Security) that the terrorists had planted a bomb in its tail and it would be blown off at any time. I again did not answer and simply kept quiet. But I was wondering which IGP would be foolish enough to tell him, even if he were his friend and supposing the story was true, would the IGP let the aeroplane fly? Would he not stop it and get it evacuated? I had to bear his idiosyncrasies for so long he stayed as PMG J&K. Fortunately, he managed his transfer out of the Circle after a few months. He made one of his close friends in the Postal Service a scapegoat as the latter agreed to be posted as PMG J&K. (to be continued)