On the last day of 2016, sitting at the office on a Saturday, I am trying to analyze the past year.
After many eventful periods in last couple of years starting
from the year 2011, 2016 seemed to be quite dull and straightforward. There
were no ups and downs to make me cry. I started the year with a government
consultant job in Delhi; I am ending the year exactly in the same way- same
place, same job, same thought!
I don’t know how to structure this blog. Let me start with
writing about office works because that was quite predominant throughout the
year.
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| My office workstation |
At NeGD: If I look back my professional role since
joining on 29th December 2015, it’s been quite fulfilling. I hardly have
anything to complain. The ‘121 University Workshops on Digital India’ project
would top the list, followed by DigiSevak. First time I was handling a
nationwide project with multiple stakeholders. The video conferences, solving
website issues with Saahil and Krishna, receiving 60-70 telephone calls per
day, solving the SeMT issues, understanding NSS (not to forget the award
ceremony at Rashtrapati Bhawan), organizing Mantri’s visits, and the awesome free
official travels – Pune, Guwahati, Rohtak, Dibrugarh, Agra, Meerut and Kargil- wow!
Reviving DI Volunteering policy and launching
digisevak.gov.in was certainly one achievement. Right after my volunteering experience,
I was quite excited when I first heard about this project. Clearing the
confusion with myGov, engaging UN Volunteering team, the magic of the word
‘gamification’, endless discussions with NetCreative and OmLogic team, and
finally launch by minister on 18th November –oh, I had a fantastic journey.
Apart from the above two, the recruitment and management of
interns was very interesting. In fact, the only scholarly output of this year
came from one intern, when our paper ‘Digital India and Women: Bridging the
digital gender divide’ got selected for ICEGOV-2017. The Kakinada trip (with
shameless person like Shilhou), Destination Northeast at Pragati Maidan, IITF
at Pragati Maidan, my talks at NICT, DU etc, the KPMG PMU were some other
interesting works I did at NeGD. IITF was noteworthy as I did my first panel
discussion moderation & storytelling which were showing live on Facebook
page. The end of the year was fantastic as well with the launch of DigiShala
and the craziness with cashless transaction.
My love for the work
can also be supported by the fact that I was given ‘Most punctual employee of
the month’ award thrice. I, however must mention three bad aspects: the randomness/adhoc
nature of work which has also made my work and thought shallow sometimes, the crap
HR of NeGD during reimbursing my relocation expense and completing performance
review 8 months late, and lastly, the absence of big thought with the presence
of ‘typical middle class’ crowd in and around myself.
However, forgetting the above para, maybe this is first time
I am writing about office works in year review blog. This speaks by itself, I
hope. The A&C team members and the two great managers - Sunil Sir and
Premjit Sir have made my work enjoyable.
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| Assam Uddhar partners |
On Aspiration: Whereas the contented professional
life described above ensured the middle class stability, there are big failures
in my aspiration zone. The biggest of all was the Assam Uddhar Abhiyan with
Himalay, Satyakam and Ibu. Despite meeting Sarbananda Sonowal twice, making
multiple reports, visiting RSS HQ in Assam, we could not achieve even 1% of
what we aspired. I also met Badaruddin Ajmal by luck, but see how crap- I lost his
contacts. I made efforts to get an appointment with Gaura Gogoi; that also didn’t
happen in the year. In political aspiration front, the year was a big zero. Maybe,
I need a mentor/godfather in this domain, something that I have never had until
now. Politics is not about a single person's journey. Anyway, thus I buried my
plan of returning to Assam, don’t know until when.
I applied for two jobs – Deputy Country Representative at UN Women
and Consultant at NITI Aayog. Both came as failed attempts. For the PhD
decision and the IT Secretary office position, I have written two blogs
already. In summary, this year has made me think I have become a simple middle
class office-goer whose only objective in life is to earn a living. If there is
anything to improve in the coming year, it has to be any progress on my
aspiration space. Let me not mention what I did on the job anniversary day.
My thought process: I have realised human thoughts
get matured with every passing years and I am thankful for being able to
nurture the new thoughts. I am learning to make a fine balance between theory
and practicality, right and left, conservatives and liberals, truth and false,
moral and immoral. Of course, however, I need to improve a lot.
My take on marriage is slightly changing after the marriage
of Satyakam, Pranjal, Kailash etc. I think I should take a liberal position on
this. But is this because I am not doing anything on my aspiration space and my
middle class office job does not really need be remain single?
I have observed legislative and executives from very close
this year. How a minister’s program happen, how minister’s office interact with
secretary’s office and spend taxpayer’s money to fund lunches of own party men,
the created fear factor and how the wow factor is created by the subordinates about these
human being. The summary - nothing is rocket science and minor corruption is the new normal.
The ‘New’: Everything we do on everyday basis is a ‘new’
thing. With that logic, the heading is wrong. However, let me write a few
mention worthy ones.
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Experiencing Delhi summer, OMG! I have to devise
strategies to tackle this in 2017
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Being part of an international event in Saal
Tree festival at Rampur. I am glad that I was able to attend this, give
multiple interviews etc. Particularly after being part of the first brainstorming
session, it has been long due.
·
First time any alumni institution featured me
when Emily published my article as BSG alumni
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Bought a phone for me after the HTC P3400, that I bought in
2007
·
First time, I have started questioning the diary
writing process. Read my diary on 6th Oct; after that, I have become
very occasional in writing diary. However, I have not been able to make up my
mind still. Maybe I should continue as my autobiography blog gets posts rarely.
·
New people that I met/got close last year –
dhurjyoti da, Priyanka, Kailash, AshokDa, Ritu, Munmi, Nandita, Megha, Himalay,
Ibu, Shilhou, Ishan & office people, Surjeet Singh and so on.
Family: All
going well in family affairs. Some memorable facts:
·
Initiated the talk with Moina and Maa for Moina’s
marriage. I even talked with Tapan; however, I am not getting positive vibe at
all. Tapan is not settled, as well his family - is the biggest obstacle. 2017
would be critical. God bless!
·
Moina’s job hunt and initial days at Bhubaneswar
gave lot of trouble to the whole family. Things are still in bubble and the
bubble might burst anytime.
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| Home Construction 2.0 |
·
The home construction 2.0 work took lot of
money and time away. I invested INR 10,85,560/- until now, around INR 3,30,560.00 in
this year alone. Still lot of work pending, God knows when we would be able to
complete, no need also as such.
·
Maa’s health was good throughout. The
publication of her book was another satisfactory event. With the 7th
state pay commission coming into affect from 2017, she is optimistic from all
fronts.
·
Dada and his family are doing well. He is trying
for transfer desperately, not happening. BD and Junma are growing up; both
coming up sharp.
Others:
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I hosted multiple people at my room, including
Rafi, Trishna and Wasil; even made a photo album too.
·
The Xomidhan work has been revived. Although
Satyakam and Buljit da left the organization, we got Nabanita and Manjil;
Anshuman’s new avatar as graphic designer is praiseworthy.
·
I believe four big events of last year: Kanhaiya
Kumar of JNU, Donald Trump in US, BJP winning Assam election, scrapping of old
notes of higher denomination.
Some unforgettable days: 3 Jan- first food & night
stay at Q-15-A Jangpura Extension; 26 Jan- watching republic day parade live; 7
Feb- visiting auto expo and seeing hot babes standing; 2 April- TJY Group-G
reunion; 25 April- first Twitter fiasco with Tarek Fateh; 30 May-Moina’s
convocation at Anand; 24 July- library anniversary; 23 Aug- first call from Secretary’s
office; 2 Sept- NICT talk in Guwahati; 12 Sept- my effort to connect back with
NITD. Also, take a peep into my diary pages on the dates- 11 Feb, 28 Feb, 15
Aug, 27 Aug, 6 Oct, 19 Oct, 18 Nov.
Conclusion:
Let me end this post by writing a few lines how I see 2017: maybe I will shift to a new job, some serious discussions on Moina's marriage, do more writing stuff (asking myself)...ahh, I am not able to imagine anything, God! Maybe I am scared of dreaming as lot of dreams have already been shattered. Anyway, does not matter! I will make 2017 great and memorable again! On that optimistic note, let me say goodbye to 2016.
Stay happy, Stay healthy !
