A Kashmiri Clerk
Kashyap Bandhu
[Translated from Desh files By Prof. M. L. Koul, Published in the Kashmir
Sentinel Dec. 1999]
If the mask of coat and pantloon is just
removed, you at once find a long structure which appears to have been
requisioned from a medical hospital to be put up as an exhibit in a museum.
Official tidiness and bureaucratic fanfare do have cumulatively given him
dizzying airs and limited amounts of monthly salary have extremely circumscribed
the dimensions of his heart. His life is an apt presentation of a scenario
of light and shade. With the commencement of Sanskarasa sunny and balmy
period of comforts and ease is ushered in his life. For some it is as
transient as a day. For others it is as short-lived as a couple of days.
It is estimated that in the life of a clerk this season is a ten days wonder'
when the son of comforts glitters with its sweet and lustrous rays. The
glow-worm of' pomposity also flickers and vanishes in this shortlived period.
After this period is over, the shady period of poverty and wretchedness starts.
It is a period of frigidity and economic adversity of limited means and
earnings, more frightening than the dark days in the regions of hell. This
dark period does not overwhelm him only but also wraps his wife and his entire
family.
The precious life of a clerk is lost in jaded files of his office.
Though an expert in the eddies of official redtape, his own life is extremely
ephemeral in the total scenario of the office. Despite it, he exerts a
full command over the administrative set-up including his superintendent,
secretary and head of department. Even as an ephemerality he casts an
effective shadow over numerous people who are salaried. Generally they are
a pawn in his hands and the path that he determines for them they are obliged to
take to it and the conduct he sets for them they have to cling to it. How
he determines their path and conduct can find an apt analogy in 'bear and his
master'. In the deep ocean of administration he is a boatman who steers
the boat and saves it from going adrift. His life as a whole is devoid of
engrossing interests and elegant tastes. He is looked upon as a low being
for the cultivated life of servility. Instead of rummaging through the
volumes of Kalidas, Philosophy, Shakespeare, Milton, Homer and epics of Ramayana
and Mahabarta, he busies himself in knowing about the trivial details of his
foreign officers, their dresses, relations and especially their sons-in-law and
also those who had recommended their appointments in the state services and
their tastes for foreign brands of tea or local varieties, petty details about
their wives especially their likings for dresses, saris, and their time for
going about for a stroll in the company of their maid-servants. The person
called a clerk whiles away most of the time of his life in this research which
turns multilateral with the advent of a new officer.
The narrow confines of his office have metamorphosed him into a rebel against
the present existing system. His whole psyche is rebellious. But his
deep sense of servility has reduced him to the position of a coward. What
rankles his mind that he cannot speak out. Fear permeates his whole being.
His servility has turned him into a short-sighted person. Except the jaded
files in his office he cannot find safe shelter any where else. He firmly
clings to them and conceals his overwhehning sense of rebelliousness from his
friends and foes too. This mode of praxis has rendered him a slave of any
Tom, Dick and Harry who assures him of getting him glued to the dusty files in
his office. He can lead the flanks of a coming revolution but he requires
surgery for purposes of transforming his narrowmindedness into a broadminded
frame.
A clerk has a number of interesting hobbies. In imitation of his high
degree officers, he takes to the playing of tennis and badminton.
Sometimes impelled by the great leaders of this country he forms associations
and groups. As per Pt Zind Koul he has a great love lost for potatoes and
tomatoes. But his over-towering hobby is red-tape within the premises of his
office. With a view to lecture his friends and contemporaries he goes for
a Dal Voyage which inflates his ego. To disseminate his personal pomp and
glory he invites his near and distant relatives to accompany him on a Dalvoyage.
He over-loads the boat with all the invitees. Despite the cries and din of
children and the cramped space of the boat, he casts a glance on the blue
mountains surrounding the lake and in a sway of mood softly murmurs. This
is another aspect of Kashmir scenario.
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