Reflections in Time

The writer, a former Director of LBS National Academy of Administration, is currently a historian, policy analyst and columnist, and serves as the Festival Director of Valley of Words—a festival of arts and literature

- Sanjeev Chopra

I write this book review with a sense of deep personal regret. Smita Shah, the author, presented me a copy of her book ‘Leaves From A Bureaucrat’s Diary: Memoirs of an IAS Wife’ on the occasion of the Sardar Patel Memorial Lecture at Teen Murti (Prime Minister’s Memorial and Library) on February 12, and I promised her (as well as her publisher Sanjay Arya) that I will review the book in my weekly column, and place a copy at the LBSNAA, IIC and VoW libraries. As I normally like to read three to four books at any point in time, and also devote two to three days on the background work for my fortnightly column ‘state of the state,’ I could not complete this beautifully penned and elegantly produced 264-page book offering by Shubhi Publications. Last evening, at about 5 pm, Rashmi got the message on her IASOWA (Indian Administrative Service Officers’ Wives Association) group that she had breathed her last. We were both shell-shocked, and I picked up her book again, even as we shared remembrances about her. Before we discuss her book, let me mention that Rajeeva Ratan Shah’s autobiographical offering ‘Footprints on the Sand’ was featured in an online session of Valley of Words’ (VoW) ‘Afternoons with an Author’ during the difficult times of Covid.

The book under reference stands out for four distinct reasons. First and foremost, for adding a new word to the lexicon, bureaucat (the cat in the bureaucrat)—the power behind the IAS husband who slogs it out, day in and day out, in such a wide range of postings, from towns in the mofussil to the high table in the World Bank and economic ministries.