[ Tayi Taggu ]
At the Indira Bhavan, Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration (LBSNAA), Mussoorie, people are warned not to open windows and doors in bold letters to avoid the menace of monkeys. This warning did not register in my mind, and I did not see any monkey during the first three days of my stay, and therefore willfully kept my room’s door open, despite the warning by the Bhavan authority. Perhaps I was overconfident due to my ignorance and felt that, as long as I remained inside, no monkey would ever dare enter my room. That was my perception until the third day; a monkey proved me wrong on the fourth day, and I had to eat my thoughts.
LBSNAA officials warn all room dwellers: ‘To avoid monkey menaces, please keep the balcony’s door and window closed’. This warning is displayed on every table under a glass of Indira Bhavan room in bold letters, and their advice should have been taken seriously. Yet I was careless, so I had to face the intrusion of the rogue monkey in my room. I realized my mistake; wisdom comes from experience, and carelessness was an act of foolhardiness out of ignorance.
On 25 September, 2024, I was reading Beyond Religion, a book written by His Holiness the Dalai Lama, gifted to me by a Buddhist friend. It was placed on my table near the window. While I was engrossed in the book, I heard the sound of a plastic bag, but it was so sudden that thebull monkey fled with my mosambi.
Alas! It happened so suddenly, there was no time for reaction. Before I could understand what actually happened, the rogue monkey was sitting on the balcony fence, munching on the mosambi, as if it truly belonged to him, just two metres away from me.
In the aftermath of the incident, I tried hard to drive him out by whistling and hissing, but the rogue monkey simply did not care. I was annoyed, angry, and surprised. I wondered what else I could do then; the monkey has outclassed me, and I was at my wit’s end. How did the monkey know that the fruits were kept on the safest corner of the table? I guessed he diligently surveyed from the window without making any noise and took away the fruits from the table where I was reading. “Can a monkey be quite tricky in stealing like a man?” I said to myself. I was upset, and then, of course, lost in my thoughts.
Amid the confusion, a wise thought came to me, “Daane daane meh likkha he khane wale ka naam!” It is an adage- the name of a person who shall eat the grain is written on it. And I’m not sure, but it might be true; the rogue monkey’s name was written on the mosambi. Any normal human being would feel awkward in the given circumstances, and I was no different. I came to compromise, soften my thoughts and get sober. And then my feelings knocked me as to why I should feel sad and angry for two mosambis? Yes, there was no reason to feel bitter, so I was happy instantly again. Capturing the rogue monkey in my mobile camera was a better option; he wasa loner and perhaps the king of Indira Bhavan.
The rogue monkey was sitting and munching on the mosambi, hardly two metres away from my window, and my hissing and shouting didn’t affect him. It seems he was immune and did not care about men shouting. From appearances, he acted as if he was the boss, and of course, undoubtedly, he was the rogue king of Indira Bhavan. I realized that man in the real sense is a helpless creature minus his intelligence, weapon, and equipment on hand. The rogue monkey appeared to have known all men’s weaknesses and was ready for a duel, and if there were a fight, he would have won hands down with certainty. He was armed with two big canine teeth, capable of tearing into a man’s body, and a man without weapons on hand cannot fight back any animal’s arms with big canine teeth and claws. A man knows his limitations and powerlessness in the absence of weapons.
After eating the mosambi, the monkey walked away, as if he was the king and certainly, he appeared to be the king of Indira Bhavan. And I wondered how long his regime would last. And it was my first and last encounter with the king.
Mussoorie, the queen of hill stations, is famous for its scenic beauty, and the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration (LBSNAA), is where all Indian Civil Service officers are given raining to make them the most responsive administrators, so that they canprovide the best services to different regions and states of India. Mussoorie is dotted with mesmerizing waterfalls and towering mountain peaks. And when one is in the mountains, one can always feel the presence of god. The beautiful cliffs, panoramic views, variety of flora and fauna, and snow-covered mountains in winter make Mussoorie a special tourist place in India.
The LBSNAA was established in 1959 in Mussoorie and has gained global recognition as a world-class institution for training civil servants in India and many other Southeast Asian countries. It also provides induction civil training to members of All India Services and Central Services (Group A) through a common foundation course. It is a well-known fact that Mussoorie and the LBSNAA are a dream destination for all aspirants preparing themselves as future civil servants of India. It is a premier training institution for all civil servants of India. Incidentally, Mussoorie is said to have been officially discovered by Captain Fredrick Young in 1827. However, thousands of years before him, nameless sages and hunters frequented the place, and their names were never recorded. Garhwali is the main language spoken by the people there.
It is worthwhile to say that while enjoying the salubrious climate of Mussoorie, one feels like one is living in god’s land, and it’s so tempting, promising, and mesmerizing that god must have given his hand to create such an enduring scenic beauty.
Pasighat’s temperature was extremely hot and virtually everyone felt they were cooking under a big oven, before I left Pasighat for Mussoorie for a weeklong training at the LBSNAA. While I was in Mussoorie, one person WhatsApped to me: Pasighat’s temperature on that day was 38°C but felt like 48°C, and Ruksin’s temperature was 41°C and felt like 51°C. That was disturbing and troubling news, and the whole of Arunachal Pradesh was boiling under fire in September this year. This is unprecedented and never experienced by the older generation, and now climate change is hitting us veryhard. In contrast to Pasighat, the daytime temperature of Mussoorie ranges from 19°C to 22°C, and the nighttime temperatures of 15°C to 16°C are so comfortable and very pleasant, capturing my heart and mind. The excitement and ecstasy overwhelmed me, and there was a feeling of joy in escaping from the ordeal of undergoing the oven-hot temperature of Pasighat in Arunachal Pradesh.
Humankind must realize, the sooner the better, that Earth is sending out distress signals and ultimately, it appears that climate change is catching us in different ways, affecting our health and agricultural production negatively, and lessening the working hours of our people. People seek answers and want to fix responsibilities to take action to reduce climate change. Can we make them regret their action and ask them to pay? The answer is likely to take time; therefore, instead of waiting for the answer, and blaming who did what, if all of us can plant a sapling, it would be the best thing to happen for our future generation. The reason is obvious. We don’t need any help from the government to plant a sapling; we only need our will to do and that’s a powerful action that can save Mother Earth.
Our training was conducted on ‘Municipal finance on urban local bodies for urban administrators’ by experts from the World Bank. The World Bank feels it’s the right time for India to relook and inject a new lease of life into old, crumbling urban infrastructures of towns and cities to make them liveable and vibrant to generate more revenue. Urban areas occupy only 3% of the total land surface area of India, but the urban areas contribute 60% of the country’s revenues. To rejuvenate our urban towns and cities, Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT) to create sustainable infrastructure, water supply and robust sewage networks, and the Smart Cities Mission (SCM) aims to develop 100 cities as smart, sustainable, and citizen-friendly urban spaces to improve the quality of life by providing efficient services.
Our young civil servants in Arunachal are regularly trained at the LBSNAA to make them better and responsive administrators for future challenges of our state. This is a good opportunity for all of us to hone our skills, and the kind of exposure we get today is far beyond the imagination of our seniors who went on superannuation some years ago. The credit goes to our young and proactive Chief Minister Pema Khandu, under whose leadership and initiative our civil services officers of the state get a chance to be trained at all-India levels to have a broader perspective and understanding of our country. In addition, we civil servants of the state are tremendously grateful to him for upgrading our skills and making us better equipped to face tomorrow’s challenges.
The journey that began with an encounter with a rogue monkey ended on a fruitful note when I met Amit Yadav Sir (1991 IAS), now secretary of the social justice and empowerment, government of India, who came to the LBSNAA to deliver a talk on ‘Challenges for financing urban infrastructure and services in India’. He was my deputy commissioner at C Sector, Itanagar, three decades ago; he was a very handsome young man then, and now age is catching all of us in more than one way, and this is the truth of life.
The lessons learnt at Indira Bhavan, and the LBSNAA, Mussoorie, will forever remain engrain in my heart. (The author is Deputy Commissioner, East Siang district.)
