The Farthest District
It was the second last day of our induction programme and we were sitting in the conference hall of Haryana Niwas, Chandigarh. It was actually ‘the D-day’, that is, the day of districts allotment. The cohort had started to discuss about it from the past 4–5 days. “Who do you think will get Nuh?” had become a hot topic for discussion. I only lived away from home for 3–4 months in my college hostel, in Dwarka which was 1.15 hours away from my home. I would come back to home if I faced the slightest inconvenience and was always pampered by my parents (perks of being a single child!). Even during the induction, my mother visited me twice with home-made laddus. Yet, I was not hoping to get or to not get any particular district or so I thought.
Back in the conference hall, Dr. Gupta began announcing the districts that were alloted to each associate. Jind was allotted first and then Charkhi Dadri. I felt a sigh of relief as I wasn’t eager to go to any of these districts. Meanwhile, I had opened the Haryana map on my mobile phone to get an idea of the distance of all the districts from Ghaziabad. After few minutes, all the G.T. Karnal road districts were given away. I felt a little disappointed as these are districts which are close to my home. However, Gurugram, Faridabad, Jhajjar and Sonepat were still left.
Shortly after, my name was announced and I was allotted to Sirsa. I was taken aback. Sirsa had never crossed my mind. It was only then that I realized that I indeed had, not a single preferred district but districts. These were all, the districts that were close to home. I had an apparent expression of surprise on my face which I was not able to hide. I had never thought that I’d feel sad about going away from home and felt extremely immature for feeling so as I was sitting with a group of people, none of whom were staying with their families. Moreover, the district was far from both Sonepat and Chandigarh.
After a while, as everyone got their districts, I started to smile and shared my feelings with everyone when Aditya asked us to share our thoughts on district allotment. Dr. Gupta assured me that his in-laws who live in Sirsa will call me once I reach there. My friends from the cohort began joking about my plans of going back home every Saturday evening and welcomed me to the ‘real’ world. I too laughed it off. We reached Ashoka quite late in the night and by the time I reached my bed, I was sad again. My mother was a little worried for she will not be able to give me home-made laddus every week.
After completing the induction programme on the next day, we left for our respective districts and I was the last one to reach the farthest district of Haryana. The race against time (since we have got only a year for this) began from the very next morning. The previous associate had informed all the officers in Sirsa about my background and I didn’t find it difficult to settle down. One week down the line I found myself so immersed in the work that I didn’t have the time to think about being at home. I also received a call from Dr. Gupta’s in-laws welcoming me to Sirsa which further gave me a sense of comfort. By the end of the first week, I, along with CMGGA Fatehabad, had started to work on our district initiative which is ‘Tackling Drugs Menace’. As we went deeper into this issue, we started developing a sense of ownership with respect to it. As our work-plan proceeded, I felt I was growing with it. I realized that the programme has been designed in such a way that it will make you confront your insecurities and will also show you a way to overcome those.
Sirsa wasn’t just a workplace for me anymore. It felt like I belonged to this place. It didn’t seem so far from home then.
