BD Sharma
People of Jammu are generally introvert, withdrawn in themselves and sentimentally attached deeply to their place of birth. So the urge of going out in search of new pastures has always remained minimal in them. Agricultural pursuits, sundry business and soldiery have remained their main vocations. However, with the advancements being made in the fields of education, science and technology, our youth have also started exploring new opportunities in other parts of the country or even of the world. Kashmiri Pandits as a community have stolen the march over all other communities of the UT in this regard and other communities should learn a lesson from them in this regard. Amongst Jammuites this phenomenon has picked up very late, particularly after the onset of liberalization of the economy in the country.
Treading on the line so set up by our elders, people of our generation were more than satisfied if they were able to manage their means of livelihood in Jammu though many of them could not exploit their full potential here. I would count myself as more fortunate than many others as I was able to get entry in the prestigious State Civil Service. Some of our contemporary friends and acquaintances did also manage to get opportunity to make their careers at Delhi.
Delhi for us remained, as the saying goes- Dilli Dhoor Ast, i.e. Delhi still far far away, during much of our youth. After the completion of studies, however, many rounds to the Capital were undertaken to appear in one competitive exam or the other. Thanks to the Yatri Sarai of Birla Mandir and its Manager, late Sh. Jatinder Sharma, who belonged to Hiranagar and was very accommodative to the visitors from Jammu, it used to be the place of stay for many Jammuites. After advancements in the service career when official visits had to be undertaken, the accommodation in the Kashmir House used to become available easily.
While paying visits to Delhi interaction with the old friends who were serving in Delhi became very frequent as many of us belonged to the villages falling in vicinity to each other and had much in common to recapitulate particularly from the days of our stay in the hostel of Brahman Sabha Parade Ground Jammu. Three of them became very intimate and they would feel happy to take me to some of the prestigious places in Delhi for a cup of coffee or for a dinner. Thus the journalist friend, Late Rup Lal Sharma would take to the Press Club of India, Dr BD Sharma of the Central Government Health Service would take to the Central Government Officers Club and Mr Prem Vasisht working in Schlumberger, a prestigious MNC- world leader in oil and gas exploration, took me to the Delhi Golf Club. I felt a lot elated on finding myself graduated from the modest kitchen of Birla Mandir Sarai to these prestigious Clubs.
While interacting with Mr Prem Vasisht I noticed that the perks and privileges provided to the employees by his Company, were very attractive and alluring. For instance his Company was paying Rs five lakh as charges for his temporary membership of Delhi Golf Club per year when my total annual salary was not more than three lakh. Impressed by all these perks I lost no time to ask him to get some of my relatives recruited in his organization as after my posting as Deputy Commissioner Kathua many relatives remained after me to provide their wards some govt. job. I felt that on the one hand the Company provided handsome remuneration and on the other hand unlike the government departments, there was a cushion to exercise discretion for recruitment in the private sector. In order to camouflage and cover up my selfish motives I simultaneously suggested him that if it was not possible for him to help my relatives out, he might seriously think of induction of some of his own relatives into his organization. He, however, politely told me that recommendations and favouritism had no place for recruitment in the prestigious MNCs. Merit and suitability were the only criteria. Secondly the company didn’t require Tehsil office type peons. In his organization, technical hands such as mechanics, electricians, motor mechanics etc. with a working knowledge of English language, were only taken at the lower rungs. In a reflection he pondered that recruitment of some ITI trained technicians from Jammu could, however be thought of.
In this regard he recollected that the Company was in the process of broadening its recruitment base because presently majority of the technicians came from Goa and that too from a particular community. The authorities perceived that their kinship and affinity was acting as a facilitator to weld them to form strong union and consequently they often went on strike over trifles. The authorities were thinking of recruiting the technician level employees from other parts of the country in order to diffuse their unity. So he would try to impress upon the concerned authorities that boys from Jammu might also be considered for entry.
Fortunately his suggestion was agreed to but the Company didn’t want to publicize the details of recruitment through media as they had no elaborate mechanism and wherewithal in place for processing numerous applications likely to be received. For this Mr Vasisht asked me if I could help to call ITI pass outs in Kathua district who had basic knowledge of English language for the interview as also to make arrangements for the accommodation of the recruitment team and for the venue of interview at Kathua. I readily agreed as it was not difficult for a Deputy Commissioner to get such simple arrangements made.
So a day for the interview was fixed and the arrangements for the stay of the team and smooth conduct of the interview were made. The Principal of the Industrial Training Institute was asked to prepare the list of boys who had passed out in the preceding two/ three years and inform them about the visit of the Recruitment team. As is the wont of majority of Govt employees, some of them put spokes in the wheel also. One of them reasoned that how could he work for promoting the interests of a private Company. Principal of ITI showed his inability to send intimation to the trained and passed out boys due to unavailability of any messenger in his office. The tehsildars were roped in for the purpose as they had well oiled machinery for sending/ serving the notices.
However, some time before the day of the interview a militancy related incident in Bani area of Kathua district took place and when the team members heard that the incident had taken place in Kathua, they thought it was the same place where they were going to conduct interviews and started showing disinclination to visit Kathua. The plea that Bani was located more than a hundred kilometers away from Kathua fell on deaf ears. Subsequently, Mr Vasisht was able to bring them round to hold the camp at Jammu instead of Kathua. He got the accommodation for stay of the team and conduct of interview arranged at a prestigious hotel for the purpose. The tehsildars were again activated to send the revised program of the interview to the boys. Twenty boys ultimately appeared and six of them were selected. The terms and conditions of the service were explained to them that the Company was engaged in oilfield services and they would have to work at offshore drilling sites in the Bombay High for two weeks or so in a month and then given an adequate break and brought back to Mumbai where they would stay at the expenses of the company. To and fro journey would be on helicopter and they would also be entitled to airfare twice a year for visit to their home towns. They would be paid salary which was about three times to what was paid to the same level of employees by the State government.
The Company found that the boys from Jammu were efficient and took keen interest in their work. So the Company decided to recruit more technicians from Jammu area. Mr Vasisht coordinated this task also though it was not in the mandate of his duty. For this he put his brother, an employee working in Food Corporation of India and a relative, DN Dubey, who had retired as Executive Engineer from State Power Development Department for coordinating the interview of the pass outs from the ITIs of Jammu, Samba etc. and even from Polytechnics. They made all the arrangements for three, four visits of the Team one after the other. Though Mr Vasisht didn’t form part of the team and neither was he accompanying them during their visits to Jammu yet he was the spirit behind this move and was spending much of his time in coordinating the operation from Delhi. The multinational company ultimately engaged about fifty six boys from Jammu due to the singular efforts made and keen interest taken by Mr Vasisht.
Though the recruitment thus made can not be taken as something extraordinary as many Companies of late are organising recruitments every year at the Engineering Colleges and the University Campuses and hundreds of youngsters are being recruited. But it needs to be borne in mind that these Companies and the Institutes have evolved an elaborate mechanism for Campus recruitment. Our friend’s efforts were unique in the way that nothing of this sort had been tried earlier and that too for recruitment of lower rung technicians. Moreover, he had to make a lot of effort to persuade the authorities for taking up the recruitment from Jammu overstepping many areas along the way from Mumbai. Then he took personal pains to get the arrangements made for the purpose by not involving only himself but his relatives who didn’t get anything in return out of it. It was not part of his duty to take up recruitment of employees for his organization nor was he going to get any of his relatives or acquaintances recruited out of this process. People take interest only if some benefit is got by his relatives or acquaintances. The recruitment in the initial stage had been considered from Kathua district only which was far away from his ancestral village, Majua Uttami of tehsil Bishana. Still he took lot of interest in getting recruitment conducted as he thought that it would be beneficial if boys from Jammu got an opportunity to enter a new field, a new arena of employment. Mr Vasisht’s thinking reminds me of the spirit expressed by poet Allama Iqbal in his verse from Qoumi Taraana “Ghurbat mein hon agar hum, rehta hai dil watan mein”. ‘Thoughts of our people, of our place always remain with us even if we are far away from our land’. Fellow feeling is a boon and should always be exercised provided it doesn’t deprive any other fellow of his rightful claims.
Since Mr Prem Vasisht was based at Delhi and since he was not associated with the recruitment so he had no occasion to interact with the boys nor the boys knew that they got the opportunity to enter in the Company through his efforts. Once when he chanced upon to visit the company’s hostel at Mumbai, he nostalgically recollected with me that he felt enormously happy on hearing his sweet Dogri being spoken by so many people in the Company premises. He felt happy to have a hearty interaction with these boys in the adorable mother tongue.
Mr Vasisht left the Company some years afterwards to take up job in some other organization as is the practice in the private sector. When he was on one of his frequent visits to Jammu, we happened to broach this subject and he was magnanimous and humble enough to shower some credit upon me also for throwing this idea of recruiting the technicians from Jammu, to him. In the heart of my heart, though
I felt embarrassed because I had conceived the idea to help out my relatives only. And here was a man who looked beyond his relatives and selflessly got inducted many persons unknown to him in an organization, in an arena and in a field about which many people from Jammu didn’t know.
I hope this story leaves a lesson for the Jammuites who are working outside Jammu to ponder whether they can also be of some help to their people back home. Many of them may be doing something similar for their people in their own ways. Others may not be in a position to influence the policy matters in their respective organizations or may not be able to enjoy the resources at their command to carry out such tasks. But if they happen to have propensity and inclination on similar lines then opportunity would definitely come across and this would stir them up to grab the opportunity for their Jammuites. As I pass on this story to them I hope it leaves them with a word of inspiration. I further wish that it moves them a bit and they derive a little smile out of it. I hope they take it home and keep it alive in their breast and snatch any opportunity coming their way where they can be of some help to the people back in Jammu. There is a lot of room where their nears and dears, their alma maters and their places of birth need their help. People of Jammu have remained confined mainly to traditional vocations and it is here that the Jammuites working outside can prove a boon to the people at home to help them to enter a new arena, a new field.
(The author is a former civil servant.)
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