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| C.O.Gireesan, L.D.Clerk, Chief Electrical Inspectorate, Thiruvananthapuram |
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What C.O.Gireesan, L.D.Clerk in Chief Electrical Inspectorate, Thiruvananthapuram made was to take a small step towards making the language of governance more citizen-friendly. But today his effort at communicating in Malayalam has been hailed at official level by conferring on him the first Official Language Award.
As an officer of the Electrical Inspectorate, the people he had to interact with were wiremen and would be cinema operators who had no background in English. And yet the arcane forms of governance were loaded against such simple folks. Gireesan put forward the proposal to demystify governance by employing Malayalam.
There were doubts and pessimism all around. The first doubt was the difficulty in translation and the second, the acceptability of a letter written in Malayalam. Gireesan countered such doubts with his work. To his friends who wanted to know what he would gain by drafting in Malayalam, he replied that not himself but the recipients of his words would be the beneficiaries.
Today he does not write even one file in English. During last calendar year, he drafted just one letter in English, and that too since it was a reply to the Central Government. Even the note file of that correspondence was prepared in Malayalam.
He however, attests to the fact that even when the officials are ready to use Malayalam, the people at large would like to continue with the use of English.
Long before the Government formulated the award, his superior officers, Rajagopalan Achary and Uma Shankar used to comment Gireesan’s effort and say that such a good work would one day be appreciated. And that ‘prophesy’ came true when he won the award.
During the award-giving function graced by Chief Minister and another Minister, he was given the opportunity to light the last wick of the ceremonial lamp, which the dignitaries had lighted. Perhaps by that act he had lighted a new path in the style of citizen-conscious governance.
Courtesy: George Varghese (text), Rijo Joseph (photo), Sree, Malayala Manorama, November 16, 2003
Contributed by: Administrator
