 Portrait of a District Collector
May 1973 Coimbatore
 District Training is the most important part of the training of an officer of the Indian Administrative Service. I was posted for my district training to Coimbatore District. I arrived in Coimbatore travelling by the Jayanti-Janata Express and was duly lodged in the Circuit House.
Next morning, I was taken to the camp office of the District Collector Mr. Shiva Kumar, with whom I was to be trained. He looked young for his 32 years and was very sincere and intelligent. I found him surrounded by the panchayat presidents from different parts of Coimbatore who had come to him both for help and guidance. (These were the good old days before the panchayats were superceded, and took a lot of interest in village welfare matters. The presidents were like watch dogs and barring those who were selfish, the majority of them came across as very genuine people).
Shiva Kumar always began his day by listening to panchayat presidents who arrived at the break of dawn. It was an open house and there were no appointments required for them. In case of a dispute, we often heard both the parties one after the other, that helped in taking a stand. He always took prompt action in relieving the sufferings of the people. Training with him was my biggest fortune.
The things which I learnt from him were:
Never believe in hearsay.
Never listen to a carry tale.
Do not ever pass an unfavourable order without being 100% sure. Help people liberally and bend rules in the interest of people. Respond to the social needs and change the systems accordingly. Be persistent in changing things if you want to succeed. Lastly, cut the red tape.
He and his wife Charu were Tamilians brought up in Delhi. He had been an outstanding student of the prestigious St. Stephen’s College of Delhi University, while his wife Charu, a Bharat Natyam dancer, studied across the road in Miranda College. Their’s was a match of love and they were truly made for each other. Three of us developed a bond between us as we all had Delhi University as our Alma Mater.
 During the district training, writing the day to day account of the work done in the form of a diary was a compulsory chore. I thoroughly enjoyed my work but putting it into writing and presenting it to the district collector was a pain in the neck and on many a weekend, my diary would not be in a presentable form. Mr. Shiva Kumar was very generous and overlooked these occasional lapses, since I would have already narrated all my acts of omission and commission on the dinner table, to which I was invited everyday. I wonder if such officers still exist who feed their trainees every night. I felt very ashamed eating a free meal day after day. Initially I tried to avoid however, a car would promptly come to fetch me if I did not show up by 7 PM. Eventually I gave up all resistance and enjoyed meals cooked by Ramaswamy and served by his wife Subbulakshmi for the entire sixteen months of my stay. They both were a childless couple. Charu organised special prayers so that Subbulakshmi may conceive apart from getting her the best medical attention. (Last year when I visited Coimbatore, I found that Subbulakshmi did conceive soon after and gave birth to a daughter. I also met her eighteen-year old daughter, who was doing her final year of school).
Shiva Kumar and Charu were simple and honest folks and hence meals were always very frugal. We normally had chapatis with Gariyali vegetables, along with curd rice. We also had salad from the kitchen garden. Normally, myself and Sujay (their young son) would pluck the raddishes, tomatoes and the green chillies that were specially grown for me. Those days, the district administration and the Agricultural University were promoting papayas. In order to practice what we preached, we always had papayas (also from the kitchen garden) for dessert.
They not only gave me food but also gave me immense love and affection. They gave me guidance and protection and an excellent grounding in Tamil culture. That is why I am more Tamil than the Tamilians. They took me to my first concert of M.S. Subbulakshmi, my first Bharat Natyam recital of Kamala Lakshman, and to my first historic play of Manohar and made me hear my first Thyagaraja Kirtana. They were my true teachers in every sense of the term and made me value and love Tamilnadu and its great heritage. They have been greatly instrumental in influencing my later work of promoting and upholding the great cultural heritage of Tamilnadu and have been the inspiration behind the starting of the dance festivals at Chidambaram and Mahabalipuram.
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