Nandan's Chronicles- from an INFOSCION to a POLITICION - 4 - the AADHAAR side of the story!!!!

Hello All
The last couple of months were a kind of a working solitude for me. So much had to be done and that too in so little time.

Well, after the last updates that I gave you about my induction into the Government services- the machinery began to move very quickly and efficiently. A cabin with all the latest gizmos was made available in just 1 week, a team at my beck and call in the next two.

Wow!!!! I texted Murthy once more – "for all the rounds and circles that we used to make around these corridors to get things approved- things have come to a full circle and the Government machinery moves fast now!!!"

Now, to update you all with all the arduous tasks that I had to manage and execute- there were just too many to explain but I will pick up some of the more interesting ones that I was challenged with!!!
Getting the team set up was the most challenging job. There were so many applications from so many ministers’ so many relatives’ so many acquaintances….

I had planned to recruit some top brains from my earlier company but that was turned down by the Government as it would amount to favouring my earlier company. I was given a directive that all recruitments should be under the guidelines and directives of the Government Authorized Department of Human Asset Suppliers (GADHAS).
I set off making a team of best that I was offered. To be honest- I was initially skeptical but that cynicism changed to admiration when I saw the talent that was provided to me!!!!!

2. The next biggest challenge was to know the scope of the work and the number of my potential customers. I was trying to give an identity to x number of people where X itself was unidentified!!!!

3. Even as I just began work – there were widespread criticisms on this project (that it was a white elephant that India could not afford) and the media bytes made the work just as tough. I had to spend so much time in news studios explaining this again and again (somehow I wished if I could have got so much media space when I was in Infosys!!!! It would have been wonderful!!!).

4. Another issue was a court litigation filed by Idea Cellular accusing us of plagiarism. Their point was – giving numbers to people instead of names was an IDEA propagated in their advertisement and that it was a copyright infringement!!! Fortunately, at almost the same time- D Raja was facing the heat and Idea was subtly advised to withdraw the case else be ready for limited spectrum!!!! I was not a part of this but I came to know about this when suddenly the lawsuit was withdrawn!!!

5. Another exciting time was when we had to christen this project. So many names came up from so many quarters!!! ASTITVA was one name that was suggested but we got into a copyright issue with Mahesh Manjrekar who holds the name rights. We tried to buy him out but he came up with a demand that could not have been met by any ministry – he wanted to be given the best actor award for any of his films that would come up in this fiscal!!!! My government colleague and an actor par excellence – Govinda tried to intervene and politely explain that what he did on screen could not, by any standards be considered as acting!!! Mr. Manrekar did not relent so we sought other options finally hitting upon AADHAAR!!!!

AADHAAR is a conjunction of two thoughts

AAM AADMI + AADHA AAHAR culminating into a solution for both into AADHAAR!!!!

6. When the blue print was ready – the politics started trickling in. Each minister wanted his or her constituency to be the first to receive the Unique Identification numbers!!!

The following were the constituencies that came up for the contention:-
Patna – Laloo Prasad (rationale being UIAI should be launched first in Patna where cows and buffaloes have more identity than humans!!!!)

Chennai – K Karunanidhi (the rationale document was written in Tamil with no translation and hence was technically rejected!!)

Baramati – Sharad Pawar (there was an immediate need to know the number of people in Baramati who may have defaulted on Cooperative bank loans held by Mr. Pawar and his family- this would be a windfall information for him)

Amethi – Madamji (In Rome, speak like the Romans!!!!) (rationale being – 3 generations of Gandhi family have won from that place and the place is still in shambles so it would do some good by giving the vast majority of the population there with a number and get some more hype)

I was also asked to pick up one place. I was clueless till somebody came up with the idea of NANDurbar as it went well with my name and that place had just been given electricity a week ago!!!!
I said ok.

There was a lucky draw and to everybody’s surprise!!!!!! My nomination got selected!!!! I thought this was a celestial blessing and a good omen that the project will be truly successful!!!!

NANDURBAR
29th Sept 2010
The moment of truth has arrived!!! It is the delivery day for the first release of my project!!! We all reached there with the CM- Mr. Ashok Chawan.

People by hordes had gathered there (there was a lunch session organized by the local MLA!!!).
There were speeches by Manmohan, Madamji , Ashok and then finally I got a chance!!!!
We all spoke at length on how this number is going to change their lives!!! How they can now be known by numbers for all official purposes!!!!
Manmohan then distributed 10 cards to the locals there and there was a lot of media coverage and lots of applause!!!!

I was on top of the world!!!!!!

We all had lunch after the event!!! I was receiving congratulatory calls and messages all through the day!!!!
We all left happy and satisfied!!!!

I later came to know that some souvenir hungry media personnel actually bought each of these 10 cards for INR 100,000 !!!!!

The purpose of AADHAAR was thus finally achieved!!!! By getting the Unique Identification Number – 10 people rose from Below Poverty Line to lakhpatis!!!!!!

Murthy would be so proud of me today – I have achieved for once- which I never did in my IT career – provide some measureable gains to my end customers and not some bug plagued application which is more debugged and updated than used!!!!!

Sriky