There is a charming legend about
how the Zoroastrians who arrived in Sanjan in south Gujarat from Persia,
nearly a thousand years ago got permission to settle down in our country.
The local ruler sent a bowl of milk filled to the brim to indicate that
there was no space in his country. The leader of the Zoroastrians added
sugar and sent the bowl back indicating that like the sugar sweetening
the milk the refugees would merge with the local society and add value
to it. The Parsees have been true to this spirit over the centuries.
I wonder whether there is any other community in the world where so
much contribution in so many spheres of human activity have come from
so few.
This 84
page booklet by Feroza H. Seervai, who was married to the late H. M.
Seervai, former Advocate General of Maharashtra, is a delightful example
of the Zoroastrians’ spirit of holding high values and displaying
the never say die spirit. Corruption in public life is a sad reality
of India today, but so long as there are people like Feroza H Seervai,
there is hope. This booklet is very elegantly written, full of anecdotes
but with a common serious thread. The entire message of the booklet
has been spelt out in the Epilogue. In short, this book is a distilled
essence of the wisdom of Feroza who for 60 years has been a voluntary
social worker and who have been winning without leading to corruption.
Her advice for action is clear. To list a few:
1. Be prepared
to give time and effort.
2. Do intensive
homework, i.e. study the matter thoroughly
3. Persist,
persist and persist. Don’t give up and don’t give
in when obstacles appear ( almost a flow back to
Churchill’s advice to the students of his alma
mater, never give up, never give up, never never give up!)
4. Seek
transparency, for the citizen has the right to know; exercise your right to
information.
5. Recognize
different types of corruption, and don’t offer to do a favour if or when your work is done, for the
official has done no more than he or she is there to do
- but at the same time be sure you are not asking
for more than what ought to be done.
6. Argue with
facts and figures - in this your homework is crucial.
7. See the top
person concerned with the business in hand; do not be fobbed off
by underlings, who are naturally not authorized to make necessary decisions:
8. Whenever you
suspect that unauthorized work is being carried out somewhere,
apply to the relevant authorities, to know whether the
requisite sanction was sought, is pending or was
granted.”
Feroza’s
never say die spirit and commitment to be on the side of good against
evil comes through, even though she underlines the fact that she is
an atheist. One charming aspect of this book is the anecdotes
sprinkled across with interesting insights. Take her encounter with
the redoubtable Morarji Desai. Ata party, attended by the then Chief
Minister, Morarji Desai, she introduced her husband Homi Seervai, who
had till then not met him. “I said to Mr. Desai, “Would you like
me to introduce to you our new Advocate General?” Mr. Desai turned
to (or should I say turned on?) Homi and said, “Earlier this year,
your wife gave me a threat!” Homi with his customary calmness, replied,
“Well, Sir, I quite agreed with the view she took”.
On a much
earlier occasion, ‘when the Mantralaya building was yet to be the
seat of the state government, and Morarji Desai then Finance Minister,sat
in the old Secretariat (now the City Civil Court Building), Feroza had
occasion to meet him a few times’- “I can’t remember for what
purpose. I kept arguing with him. Then he asked me, ‘Did you teach
your husband to argue, or did he teach you?’ I answered, ‘We both
had Professor D’ Andrade as teacher, and I also had Dr. Lawande as
my professor”
Above
all, this is a very timely and effective actionpacked book. It has a
message of optimism and explodes many of the pessimistic myths hleld
by many people in the country today. For example after her successful
defence of Princess Victoria Mary Gymkhana’s land, she sums up: “This
is how at every step, we dispelled the superstitions that there could
not be a successful outcome in Government matters without inducements;
that the long arm of the Government and Municipal Machinery can squeeze
its citizens - in particular, elderly ladies - and that Government and
the Municipal Corporation can have it their way at every turn”.
Right
through this little booklet, the charming doughty personality of Feroza
Seervai shines through and leaves the reader in a spirit of cheerful
optimism and greater determination in fighting corruption.
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