o-Office o-Office

तेरे इश्क़ ने बना दिया सरकारी दफ़्तर मुझको,

ना किसी की बात सुनता हूँ, ना कोई काम करता हूँ !!!

My dear Ghalib-fanatics, lovesick, infatuated ishaqzaado, please come out of your reverie of your last date with your beloved and focus not on ishaq but on the sarkaari daftar.

How many of you remember Musaddilal ? He was the protagonist of this fabulous serial called office office.

I have always been a great fan of this serial.The plot revolves around the plight of a common man and his fight with the corrupt employees of governement departments...a perfect satire on the scenario in a sarkaari daftar...

My personal experience with DU taught me the same about the government employees. Whenever I had to renew my DTC student pass- 

Monday, KMC Admin Dept, DU 

               10 am - nobody has arrived in the office yet.

               11 am - the official sips his tea while the students wait 

(there is no line...wake up dude, this is DU...I mean it's Delhi...I mean it's India...we don't have any lines here because His Highness Amitabh Bachchan taught us ages back that  hum jahan khade hote hain, line wahin se shuru hoti hai)

               12 noon - I am still waiting...trying to get my form signed.

               12:30 pm - I am right next to the window and WHAM !

He shuts the window saying "lunch time"..."but it is 12:30 and lunch timings are 1-2pm", I try to reason with him but in vain.

               2:30pm - the window is still shut (lunch timings : 1-2pm, just saying)

               3 pm- Form signed but the battle has just begun.

Tuesday, DTC office, DU

               10 am- I am waiting.

               12 noon- I am waiting

                3 pm- I give up and return.

Wednesday, DTC office, DU

(repeat the above procedure.)

Thursday, DTC office, DU

               10am- I am waiting.

               12:30 pm- I submit my form

               1 pm - I get my renewed bus pass.

So with such experiences during three years of my graduation at DU and my years of watching the show Office Office, when I was recently sent to audit a Government company, I had in my mind the image of lethargic people trying to harass the common people to vent out their personal frustrations. Plus my friends placed in government companies tell me their stories about how the whole department tries to procrastinate the work, never listen to any reason or logic whatsoever and spend the lunch time (official lunch timings 1-2pm, actual lunch timings12-3pm) talking about desh mei hai kitna bhrashtachaar, ab ki bar modi sarkaar :D

And so I reached the office of National Insurance Company, DRO- II...Little did I know that a huge surprise awaited me.

Expectation : A boring office full of files and irritated government employees.

Reality : A clean, nice office full of files and cheerful employees.

I asked for Mr T.C. Gupta...The manager...

Expectation : a fat aged man with loads of quintessential government-official-attitude.

Reality : a lean and extremely humble person who knows his work.

He told me about the company...about his own experiences...that this was his first and last job...he began at a mere Rs600 and how paved his way to the top with his patience and perseverance.

He then introduced me to his staff - 

         

 (left to right)
Mr T.C. Gupta, Radhika Sabharwal
The girl in saffron kurti is a great CA in making who would conquer the whole world
Just kidding, that's me. :D
Mr Gaurav Dixit (My Sir),Varun Bansal (a fellow article), Mr P.K. Singh.










Mr Sunil Dua, Mr Bhupinder Kumar and the lady standing behind me is Mrs Sunita Mittal.







Expectation : lazy and uncaring people whiling away their time in gossips.
Reality : Warm- hearted, caring people actually concerned about their company's growth and the associated people. 
(Dua Sir is by far the most jovial person I ever came across. He has the capability to guffaw at anything and everything. Sunita Ma'am ensured that I ate my lunch and got tea/juice on time)  


And so I began my work...I started studying the last year reports...I was supposed to audit the regional office which had 19 branches under it...the data from the branches was consolidated at the regional level...I read the CAG report, the audit report, the tax audit report...It was hell boring (Shh, as a CA I am supposed to love this work so please don't blurt this out.)

Apart from the swivel chair, when everybody calls you Ma'am, it feels good too :P

 To prevent my mind from constantly drifting away to thoughts of shahi paneer and naan (yes, you guessed it right I am a hardcore Punjabi) that I was going to order for my lunch, I looked around the office.
My observations - 

1. Files...FILES...F.I.L.E.S...

nothing new, that's normal if you are doing CA.

2. Everybody, EVERYBODY [except me] was working.

(Though it is unnecessary to point out but I hope you noticed the files.)

3. Each person seemed so polite, helpful, humble and cooperative.

( Am I still in Delhi?)

4. Lunch timings 1:30- 2pm and people follow it. No plus one hour  each to the lower and upper limit.

 (Is this really a government office?)

5. There is a constant sound buzzing through the office whole day as the old dot matrix printer keeps churning out paper.

The NIC staff has been given Samsung Galaxy smartphones (ain't it so cool?) and the best of PCs to work on but the printer remains the one that my great-grandfather used after he borrowed it from his father. (who on earth uses the dot matrix printer nowadays?!).

6. Talking about printing, one thing that greatly bothers me is the fact that there is absolutely no regard for the paper that is wasted in mindless printing of vouchers, bills, debit notes blah blah.

 The signed balance sheet along with annexures and other schedules comprised almost of 100 pages and there were 8 sets prepared for the same. And the final set was printed after making a hundred thousand changes as asked by the auditors (read surbhi makkar and jay) so roughly we printed about 1000 pages today (the day the balance sheet got signed).

7. Tea is to government employees as cricket is to India. 

Need I say more?

Thank God, the canteen had this saviour that I sipped away daily - 










 (Don't miss the files)

8. The Ramacharitramanas.

Gupta Sir has been following this routine since 1980 (I asked him this specifically). During the 30mins lunch break, he reads out aloud to the whole staff two chaupaai of The Ramacharitramanas.Daily.Without fail.
I have never seen such a thing in any office. It was something novel in a very inexplicable way, if I am making any sense !
When I started the audit, Lord Rama was leaving for his 14years long exile...when I wrapped up the audit, almost after a month, it was time for bharat-milaap.
I am not a religious person at all. I hardly go to temples. But I felt that there was always an atmosphere of utmost serenity in the office during these 15mins.

Oh I almost forgot to mention that the government audit enhanced my knowledge as well as exposed me to an entirely different domain. Since CAG audits the government companies as well, I got to learn quite a lot...esp about the section 619(3) of the Companies Act. :P

NIC totally changed my notions about a government company...oh by the way, the company achieved its target of 10,000 crore premium in this fiscal year...highest ever by any company in India...I think it's really really commendable.
See you next year, NIC :D

Yours sincerely
Statutory Auditor



P.S.

I would like to thank Jay for helping me click these pictures, for eating whatever I ordered, for answering all my stupid doubts and queries, for lending me his phone to play fruit ninja when I got bored of all the files surrounding me and last but not the least for waiting for me at the metro station daily because I got (unintentionally!) late almost everyday :P