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KUTTYMULLA OR JASMINE
Sunday, April 5, 2026
WALK WITH THE PEOPLE D. SUBBARAO
WALK WITH THE PEOPLE, WOULD YOU, COLLECTOR SAB?
Duvvuri Subbarao, former RBI Governor
(Sub Collector, IAS, Parvathipuram - North - Coastal Andhra, 46 years ago)
writes:
Unless you experience people's lives, as they live them, your understanding will remain secondhand. Fieldwork taught me that experiencing a problem face to face is a lot different from reading about it in a file. Seeing is believing. With this in mind the Telengana CM, RevanthReddy has urged distrct collectors to spend at least ten days every month on field visits. The CM held that if collectors actually "dirtied their hands," welfare impact could well exceed that of hundreds of crores spent on development schemes. The CM is absolutely right in his initiative as it would be the most valuable investment of a district collector's time.
Early in my IAS career, as sub collector of Parvathipuram in north coastal Andhra, I was on a village tour. I had arrived on my first posting with more enthusiasm than experience. The learning curve was steep. The only way to climb it was by touring villages, by jeep when possible, and on foot when that was the only option. As I sat under a neem tree, the headman was explaining why a breach in the irrigation tank, sanctioned months earlier, had still not been repaired. The file in my office recorded the scheme as "under implementation." Villagers laughed when I mentioned that. They said the contractor had disappeared after taking measurements.. The irrigation tank existed only in govt. paperwork.
That was my first exposure to the difference between administration on paper and reality on the ground.
Nearly five decades later, I returned to Parvathipuram on a quiet private visit to see how things had changed. Towards the end of the trip I called on Bhawna, a young IAS officer who was the sub collector, my successor 46 years apart.
As we chatted, I asked how often she toured outside HQ, her reply was candid. "Sir, I'd like to go out more., but I am always on call. But never mind. Administration today is far different from your time. I get to know what's happening from videos my staff send me. I can check any situation, in real time, and confer with all my staff at once. It's more efficient than visiting village by village."
Though she had a point there that Tech has transformed governance, Tech is no substitute for real experience. Observing a situation with your eyes brings context, nuance and empathy that no video clip can convey. When you sit in a village home, walk along a breached irrigation canal or visit a school unannounced you notice things that reports cannot capture.
Wisdom from field experience is the unique value proposition of IAS. It gives the service an edge in senior policy roles over technocrats who have imited field exposure. It is imperative that policies discussed in conference rooms must not be devoid of the human face. If IAS officers retreat into offices, meetings and dashboards they would never have a better sense of what needs fixing.
Development schemes may be designed in secretariats and sanctioned in budgets. But their success or failure is decided on the front lines.
A collector who sits in the office may run an efficient administration.
A clollector who walks the fields, talks to people and sees problems firsthand, will run a meaningful administration.
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Excerpts from The Times of India of 27 March 2026
Vijay Amritraj on when he began and the role of his mother in his life
Vijay Amritraj on when he began and the role of his mother in his life
Vijay begins with an anecdote.
I was playing a tournament in New Hampshire (New England) in 1973. Rod Laver and Jimmy Connors were playing too. First, tennis was a white sport (back then). Second, the entire hotel, where the tournament was held, was full of elderly white Americans. Dinner at night was a coat and tie event. I was 19. I wasn't able to wear coats and ties constantly. So, I would come down for dinner in a Madras shirt, jeans and Kolhapuri Chappals. As I walked across, I felt the eyes of the room pierce the back of my head.
Then I won on Monday, Tuesday and in the quarters I beat Laver after being down several match points. In the final, I ended up playing Connors, who had me 2-5 in the third set, with two match points. There were about 8000 people in that beautiful setting, all white, and I would say only two in the crowd were for Connors. I ended up winning and when I came for dinner that evening, several of the people in the room were wearing chappals.
I draw the analogy for the simple reason that there are lots of things that can be overcome by the way you are and the way you are able to get into the minds of people and what they like to believe.
Coat and tie was the expectation. It was my fault that I didn't have it. It was nothing but economics for me at that point in time.
You know where you come from, the way you are and the belief you have in yourself and the dreams that get you this far.You are coming from the late 60s, early 70s Madras to a world that you are not exposed to at all. Then to go there and compete with the best without having anything of what they had or what they grew up with .........That's what sports taught me, that you can compete at the highest level and win, because I'm good enough to do that. It wasn't a question of whether I was black or white, Christian, Muslim or Hindu, but whether I was good enough.
My mother was a wonderfully ordinary person, who did extraordinary things with my life. She used to always tell us, don't ever complain, just make sure you're the best. So, in 1972 on Christmas day when I won the Nationals for the first time beating Ramanathan Krishnan in Kolkata, and Anand (Amritraj) and I won the doubles and my younger brother, Ashok, won the juniors all on the same day, it didn't matter what colour or religion or language you spoke. I think mom's words are very relevant.
She ensured we were focussed on being the best in what we were doing.
When people like that get the opportunity to tell a child who wasn't good enough that you have to be good enough to be able to do this, the transformation they evoke in the child is just unbelievable.
The child reaches for the stars.
The child reaches the stars.
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Excerpts from The Times of india of 5 April 2026
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