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| Sree Mandiram, Thiruvananthapuram |
Within one year of joining the State Transport Department, N.Krishna Panikkar cleared the Account Test (Lower), a test on office rules and procedures that is mandatory for Government employees. The very next year he cleared the Higher part of it, much to the surprise of many of his senior colleagues, who were still struggling to cope with it.
Slowly many aspirants started approaching him to help them wade through the labyrinthine rules and procedures that govern Government functions. And one such request was to teach nuns in a convent in Chengannur.
On the final day of the tuition, Sr.Dorothy presented him a gift-wrapped notebook in which the contents of his tutorial was written in beautiful calligraphy.
It was this divinely gifted notebook that formed the essence of the book on Service Rules of Government Servants that he was to author later. The first edition of the book was brought out by Vidyarthi Mitram publishers.
Now into the 46th edition, the book has sold over 1 lakh copies and is perhaps the highest selling non-literary work in Kerala. If the first edition of 1978 contained 191 pages, the latest edition contains 512 pages, thanks to the alterations and additions in rules that have occurred over the years.
‘Sree Mandiram’ – that is his nom de plume – is a busy man even at 78, engaging classes at Institute of Management in Government, handling column in newspaper, clearing doubts of government employees in legal matters involving rules and procedures etc.
As complexity increases in all walks of life, the services of simplifiers like Sree Mandiram assume significance.
Courtesy:
Sisy Jacob (text), Mathrubhumi, February 1, 2008
Contributed by: Administrator
