Late A. K. Giri- An Epitome of a Gentleman

-B. B. Subba Ijam

“And now the time has come when we must depart: I to my death, you to go on living. But which of us is going to the better fate is unknown to all except God.” –Socrates

It was only the second day of the New Year (2013) and for those who had indulged heavily in the celebration the day before, the day seemed just perfect to recuperate, relax and reflect. The day was also a state government holiday owing to Barahimizong. However, for the family, friends and well-wishers of Ashok Kumar Giri, the celebratory mood was suddenly eclipsed by a pall of shock and grief as they got the news of his sudden demise. Those who heard the news- mostly the employees and people associated with Energy and Power Department from Gangtok head office and district offices alike - immediately rushed to the Central Referral Hospital, Tadong. But it was too late even for even those who could arrive early at the CRH. They had already lost within a span of an hour or so their beloved boss, friend or “Giri Sa’ab” as he was fondly addressed to by many. He was reportedly declared D.O.A. by the doctors at the CRH. His body was escorted back to his home at Upper Syari the same day afternoon. He is survived by his wife, a son and a daughter.
Officially speaking, the death of AK Giri was a matter of loss and grief for the State Government as well since he was a sitting Secretary of one of its departments. Among many dignitaries, the Chief Secretary of the state called on the same day to pay his respect to the departed soul and to condole the bereaved family.
The father of late AK Giri who is popularly known as Dr (P.S.) Giri was a doctor in the Sikkim government and is a renowned figure among the senior citizens. Dr Giri also has the distinction of having served as the physician to the royal family of the erstwhile kingdom of Sikkim. The late AK Giri attended as many schools - West Point Gangtok, Singtam, Pelling and TNSSS Gangtok- as the places his father was transferred to. He then graduated as an electrical engineer from Bengal Engineering College, Sibpur. He joined Energy and Power Department (called simply Power Department at that time) in January 1978 as an Assistant Engineer. Having served at various places of the state in different positions as engineer, he was ultimately promoted as Principal Chief Engineer cum Secretary of the department in May 2011.
It would not be an overstatement to say that people like AK Giri are very rare to come across in this world.
The persona of a bureaucrat is often defined by his official position and the power and authority he wields. But in the case of Giri Sa’ab, his qualities as a human being transcended his persona as a bureaucrat. He was first a nice human being before he was anything else. “Extremely simple and humble” are perhaps the attributes that come to our mind first when we talk of his nature. He was a calm and composed man and always spoke in a soft voice. During all these years of association with him, this writer never heard him speak in a raised voice or lose his temper even when people were confronting him and intentionally getting on his nerves. And believe me, it is very, very difficult for the person sitting on the chair of ‘Power Secretary’ not to lose his/ her temper and maintain composure all the time. At present Energy and Power department is perhaps the most complex, complicated and challenging of the departments by virtue of its sheer size and the nature of issues it is engaged in.
Executives have their own style and preferred theory / methodology of providing leadership to their organization. Giri Sa’ab liked to persuade and convince his subordinates rather than dictate to them in order to get a job done. He was a very sincere and dedicated technocrat-bureaucrat of the government who worked hard to raise the performance of his department to the level expected by the government and the public. He used to work overtime in his office to avoid files and papers from getting piled up on his table due to his perpetually busy schedule of meetings and conferences. He also used to encourage his colleagues and subordinates to work overtime for disposing of urgent works. He treated everybody who came to him- whether the person was a general public, a contractor / supplier or his own employees- with politeness and compassion. Consequently, even the most skeptic and foul-mouthed persons known to the department always had nice words to say about him. It was impossible to even imagine that he would ever hurt a soul while discharging his duty as a government servant.
In an interesting contrast to his ever benign personality, Giri sa’ab had an amazing sense of humour which often livened up the moment and made it a little easier for the persons involved to face a situation however difficult and unpleasant. I would like to recall two out of many such instances. It was during a meeting with officers who were to accompany him to New Delhi for an important official meeting. He wanted to prepare himself and his officers thoroughly before starting for Delhi. At one point in the course of the meeting, I pointed out to him that the figure of aggregate technical and commercial (AT&C) losses for our state- an all important term in the field of electrical engineering- that he was telling us right then and those available with accounts section and revenue section of the department all differed from each other. It was a serious matter and obviously everybody looked concerned. But before I could gloat over my observation, he responded, “No problem. If the Delhi people ask for our AT&C loss figure then we’ll first ask them whose figure they want- whether that of secretary’s or of accounts section’s or of revenue sections’. Then we’ll give the figure accordingly.” Everybody broke into laughter. He then patiently explained why all had to stick to the figure that he had taken as correct.
The other incident took place when three officers from the department, including me, had accompanied Giri Sa’ab to Delhi to attend the above mentioned meeting. In fact there were a series of meetings due to which we had to stay at Delhi for couple of days. One morning, the officer of a PSU who had accompanied him the previous night informed us that our boss was severely grilled and pulled up the last night (but for lapses he was not directly responsible for) after he was summoned by higher authorities of the state stationed there to prepare for a crucial high level meeting with the central government authorities. So, when we started the next morning for another meeting in the shared vehicle, all of us were tense and kept quiet. After sometime, just to break the ice, one of our senior officers spoke pointing towards a tree standing at a distance from the road that we were driving on- “Look at that tree, do you all know what it is called? It is the famous Ashok tree under which lord Budhha had meditated.”
“Which one, sir?” Enquired one among us.
“Don’t you see there, the one with all its leaves sloping downwards?” Replied our colleague. I found out later from Wikipedia that in fact that tree was called “false Ashoka” which has all its leaves pointing downwards and somewhat resembles a Dhoopi from a distance. Against the wildest of our expectations, Giri sa’ab spoke in his typical calm and soft voice- “Yes, yes, that Ashoka tree with all its leaves pointing downwards. Similar to this “Ashok” here.  My wings too are all pointing downwards with the last night’s thrashings.” All of us broke into a loud laughter.
The atmosphere became light instantaneously and we found ourselves relieved. I could not help marveling at our boss’s courage to laugh at himself and not to take oneself too seriously.
When he was alive, Giri Sa’ab must have won many a hearts and touched many a lives with his kindness and benevolence because of which people from all walks of life spontaneously poured in to pay their last respects to him and participate in his funeral procession which started from his home at Upper Syari and ended at Shantisthal at Ranipool on 4th January 2013. A subtle phenomenon was observed at Shantisthal that day. As per the customs prevalent in Sikkim, it is okay for the malamis to leave the place of cremation once they offer mutti. But even after offering mutti that day, many malamis were seen lingering around there looking at the burning pyre as if they were trying to find some answer to the sense of emptiness and dissatisfaction created in their heart due to the sudden, unexpected and untimely demise of such a fine human being, an epitome of a gentleman that late AK Giri was.