In one of the review meetings by the minister when the new Secretary was also participating, all went well. In the end the Secretary started making observations. I was vocal to accept his suggestions, as I was having a report about his direct approach to work and appreciation of good performance. This irritated him as customarily none responded directly to a Secretary in the meeting, which was considered demeaning of his position and he assumed himself as supreme boss after the minister, and many times more important than minister, who acted on his advice most of the time. Later I was told by my Jt Secretary, "How could you reply directly to the Secretary when we also think twice to do so and he considers it dishonorable to his position? You are very daring and he may take it otherwise." "I didn't dishonor him and I hope he understands this well as a senior bureaucrat, and my information is that he is business minded and believes in effective working. He doesn't take these small matters to his heart. Perhaps my talking was interfering his flow of thought and I stopped after one or two nods" I replied to which the Jt Secretary was dumb founded. Of course I took a precaution in next few meetings as the Secretary changed within a few months and transferred to Water Resources Ministry on demand from the other minister, as revealed by other bureaucrat friend of mine from my school, and interestingly many schoolmates seniors and juniors were well placed in different important ministries, and we used to meet in Old Boys Association of our school at least twice a year. One on School Day's Celebration and another on Holi festival occasion. Genuine interest of us was protected by these school mates if requested but no undue favor was entertained as taught to us by our respected scholarly teachers, whom we even today respect by bowing to their feet whenever we meet, and we owe a lot to them for any success in our lives, particularly me from a very humble background of a village with bare means to survive in early days "Teachers are in carnation of GOD in the living world for disciples who obey their teachings unflinchingly".
One day when I was on tour to Mumbai to look into a troublesome project from the Maharashtra Government which was getting unduly delayed due to mischief of a contractor, half way I received a message from the minister to see the Railway Minister the same day in the evening. I reviewed the project in one small restaurant where the contractor was asked to come and have a tea- meeting near the airport while the ticket was booked. Fortunately it materialized and I could discuss all related problems and suggested some steps to progress the project to avoid cancellation. This surprised the contractor as no chairman in his memory could hold a discussion in such small place and arrive on conclusions so fast, and also giving assurance to resolve several related issues, some of these connected with government officials, which I started immediately after completing the meeting over contact numbers provided by my centre in-charge while waiting to catch flight back to Delhi to meet Railway Minister. My officer was equally fazed at the fast speed of deciding actions and follow up. He was given responsibility to meet the concerned government official with my personal greeting and request to help, so that they also saved their face and we completed the project without much delay, and the contractor was happy as he had no penalty levied which could have made his business stuck up for long.
Back in Delhi I went to the Ministry where my appointment was fixed by my representative in Delhi. I had to wait for long as the Minister was meeting his party men in late evening hours and I was the last person before he got up to leave. I introduced myself to the minister belonging to my home state Bihar and explained the purpose of my visit and in turn he promised to direct the Railway Board to look into our case in the most favorable way. It resulted into many crores worth of orders and my tiring day ultimately brought some favorable results, and this gave me immense happiness, and this was against all adverse feedback from my officers working long in the organization, and they said that my higher qualification and talking skill were responsible for such results. After some time once again my Minister advised me to get orders from the Water Resource Ministry where the previous Secretary was posted and I went to see him and sent my visiting card through PS, but couldn't meet him as he became busy with his minister in a meeting. Later a man met me in the corridor of the ministry who proposed, "You invite the Secretary for a dinner in your guest house, arrange for a good drink and discuss the matter, which I could arrange." I was confused about the truthfulness of the person and whether such expense would be worth it, which I didn't indulge till date, although it was not uncommon, but it used to be a five star hotel and not a guest house, and I smelled fishy. However, I never attempted to go with the idea, but the person again contacted with a proposal to arrange some high value dam construction order in Assam, in which payments were to be released to the tune of ten percent of the total value to be distributed among the minister, secretary and middleman responsible for deciding on orders. This was beyond my imagination and dropped the idea which was against my ethics, and there was a likelihood that the project may not be allotted after making all grafts. But this was revealing how projects were made unviable and in perennial problems of never getting completed in time, and also how a systematic corruption was in place involving senior bureaucrats along with politicians, looting the country in all forms to increase their personal wealth shamelessly through brokers.