The Sky Was Always There :On Ceilings, Crossbeams and the Art of Looking Up

The Sky Was Always There :

On Ceilings, Crossbeams and the Art of Looking Up

It was early morning at New Maharashtra Sadan. The lobby was really quiet, the kind of quiet that is normally there before the beginning of a busy day. I was at peace and seated, my thoughts still unhurried. And then, without quite meaning to, I looked up.

Above me, the ceiling was a lattice of crossed wooden beams , beautiful, geometric, deliberate. And beyond them, framed by every crossing, lay the sky. Blue. Open. Infinite. The crossbeams did not hold the sky back. They simply gave it a frame.

And in that moment, something shifted in me. How often, I thought, do we sit beneath open skies and see only the beams?

We mistake the frame for the cage. We mistake the obstacle for the destination.

The Closed Window That Was Never Locked -

There is a particular kind of pain that comes not from failure, but from the feeling of being pressed against a surface you cannot pass through. A promotion that does not come. A relationship that runs cold. A dream that keeps receding. An ungratefulness we suddenly encounter. You knock and the echo returns hollow. You push and nothing opens.

We have all stood at that closed window,  forehead against the glass, watching life happen on the other side often with regret or envy. What we forget, in those moments, is to step back. To look sideways or to look up or to ignore.

The window was never the only way. It was simply the only thing we had been staring at.

" Open your mind and fly…

Sometimes you feel left out and lonely,

Drifting listless on silent shores,

Stuck or hitting your head at a closed window,

Yearning for something more.

But open your mind, lift your heart,

Free your thoughts, let yourself fly,

Take that leap into the unknown,

Spread your wings and touch the sky.

In the free fall, you'll find your path,

In the silence, you'll hear the call,

All the answers lie within you,

Just trust yourself and break the wall…

Rise and fly high…"

The Free Fall as the Path -

I have spent much of my life in structured spaces , offices, files, protocols, hierarchies. The IAS is not, by nature, a place that celebrates leaps into the unknown. And yet, my own life has been shaped by precisely those moments: the years of waiting, the MPSC after the UPSC, the long decades as Deputy Collector before the elevation into IAS, the PhD begun not in youth but in the fullness of professional life.

Each of those was a free fall. Each felt, at the time, like losing altitude.  I now understand, that each fall was on the path finding and leading me.

The poem says it plainly : "In the free fall, you'll find your path." This is not romanticism. It is the  structural truth. When we relinquish our tight  grip on how things were supposed to go, something else becomes possible. We become available to what is actually happening. Just like  "In the silence, you'll hear the call." The call was always there. We were just too loud with our anxiety to hear it.

The Answers Are Not Out There - They Are In Here , In yourself. 

In my work with deserted women across Ahilyanagar district, I have sat with women whose lives have been stripped to almost nothing. No husband. No home. Often no income. No legal recourse that reaches them easily. And yet, again and again, I have seen something remarkable happen when you simply sit with them, listen to them, trust them with a question: the answer emerges from within.

They knew what they needed. They knew who they were. What they had lacked was not knowledge but a mirror , someone to say: your instinct is right, your strength is real, your sky is there.

This is also what the Self-Help Group model, at its best, does. It does not supply answers from the outside. It creates conditions in which women discover what they already knew. The shakti was always present. The group simply removed the crossbeams from their line of sight.

Yes,  all the answers lie within you - Just trust yourself and break the wall.

Looking Up as a Practice -

That morning in the lobby, I did not look up because I was smart or wise. I looked up because I was still, for once not rushing, not yet engulfed by the day's demands. The stillness is what made it possible.

We rarely look up when we are running. We only  look ahead, scanning for obstacles, calculating distances. Looking up requires a pause , a willingness to not be productive for a moment, to not be solving anything, to simply be.

Sant Tukaram called this vairagya , the gentle loosening of our grip on outcomes. Not indifference. Not passivity. But a kind of interior spaciousness that allows the larger view to enter. He says, 

वैराग्याचें भाग्य । संतसंग हाचि लाग ॥ १॥

संतकृपेचे हे दीप । करी साधका निष्पाप ॥ ध्रु.॥

तोचि देवभक्त । भेदाभेद नाहीं ज्यांत ॥ २॥

तुका प्रेमें नाचे गाई । गाणियांत विरोन जाई ॥ ३॥

It means that the true fortune of detachment is finding the company of saints (Sant Sang). The grace of saints is like a lamp that makes the seeker pure (Nishpap). A devotee who has no differentiation (bhedabhed) in his heart is the true devotee of God. Tukaram says he sings and dances in love, ultimately dissolving (surrendering) himself entirely into that devotion is he who does not differentiate.  

 When we cultivate that spaciousness,  in a busy lobby,  in the middle of a deadline,  in the depths of a grief that does not lift , we find that the sky has not gone anywhere. It was only our gaze that had dropped.

Rise and Fly High -

The wooden beams at Maharashtra Sadan are not obstacles. They are architecture. They hold the roof that shelters us, they provide light even as they frame the sky we must not forget to see.

Our constraints, our hierarchies, our disappointments, our setbacks, the structures of our lives are also, in this sense, architecture. They hold us even as they frame our view. The question is not how to demolish them but how to use them: to climb higher, to look beyond, to remember that the sky extends infinitely past the frame.

Open your mind. Lift your heart. Free your thoughts. The sky is not something you must reach , it is something you must remember you already belong to.

Rise and fly high.

The sky was always there.

R.Vimala,  IAS,  

Resident Commissioner,  Maharashtra  & Secretary,  Government of Maharashtra,  & 

PhD Scholar at IIT Bombay.  

Saturday morning and the Change of Guard at Rashtrapati Bhavan

Saturday morning and the Change of Guard at Rashtrapati Bhavan....

Two weeks ago, a message appeared on one of the  WhatsApp groups of which I am a member, saying,
" Good afternoon all, it's an open invitation for all officers to
witness the Change of Guard Ceremony at the 
Forecourt of Rashtrapati Bhavan every Saturday.
It comprises of ceremonial drill of guards, Horse spectacle and a Band show. Its a treat to watch."
That last line - its a treat to watch -played on my mind and the follow-up, sealed it.
So on Saturday morning, filled with my usual enthusiasm, I found myself on the forecourt of Rashtrapati Bhavan thanks to Lt.Colonel Shri. Harshavardhan Dhekane. 
The Change of Guard ceremony at Rashtrapati Bhavan is one of those things that many residents in Delhi and outside  may not know.  It happens on Saturday mornings at 7.30 a.m in the great forecourt of the President's House on Raisina Hill. If you have not seen it, you should. Not only as a tourist attraction but also  as a lesson. Yes , the Change of Guard ceremony was not only a treat to watch but also a great lesson in discipline.  

The ceremony-

The Anchors presenting the show gave information about the President's Bodyguard , the oldest regiment of the Indian Army, raised in 1773 , which rides out in full ceremonial dress, alongside them are the ceremonial guards of 1/5 Gorkha Rifles (Frontier Force), raised in 1858, the proud recepients of 26 Battle Honours and 03 Theatre Honours.

The horses, the riders, the lances, the gleaming brass, immaculate and composed are more than military display. They are a living institution presenting themselves, with care and dignity, to its citizens. 

The show begins with the entry of the band , followed by the horses, the commander and the guards addressed as , 'Purana Guard' and 'Naya Guard'. The band in the centre, the horses at the sides and the outgoing guard and the incoming guard stand  across that magnificent courtyard. The band plays martial tunes, patriotic melodies, and occasionally something that surprises you.  The handover happens with a precision that has clearly been rehearsed hundreds of times displays sincerity.

What strikes most is the silence within the sound. The band fills the air, the commands ring out, and each soldier moves with a complete perfection. No shuffling. No looking around. No gestures. Every person entirely present to the single thing they are doing at that particular moment, yet part of the whole.  In a world that has largely forgotten how to be in one place at a time, this is remarkable to witness.

What discipline actually is-
Often, the word discipline is used as a synonym for strictness, for punishment, for the suppression of individual will. But what I watched that morning was the opposite of suppression.
The soldiers have trained with such perfection that the formations become second nature. The drill does not look mechanical but is an expression of  precision which is internalised and  not imposed from outside. That is what real discipline looks like. Not the gritting of teeth but the freeing of the mind to do its best. 
Watching the musicians was a feast for the ears as well as eyes. A military band at full ceremonial play is a fascinating study in simultaneous individuality and unity. Each musician carries his instruments ignoring its weight, reading his own part, playing his own notes with  responsibility so that the sound that emerges is seamless, powerful and one. Nobody is drowning anyone else out. Nobody is rushing ahead or lagging behind. They are listening to each other even while they are performing. That listening is the discipline.
Discipline is not the silencing of the self. It is the alignment of the self with something larger and discovering that in that alignment, the self is not diminished but amplified.

The unison in walking together -
There is a specific moment in the ceremony that  keeps returning to in my mind. The guards march which is something too precise to be human. Every boot lands at the same instant. Every arm swings to the same angle. Every head is held at the same height. Forty individuals moving as  a whole.
How does this happen? Not through coercion, you certainly cannot force forty people into that kind of synchrony. It happens through shared purpose. Through hundreds of hours of practice together. Through each person trusting that the person next to them will do their part, which frees them to do their own. Above all through, a common understanding of what they are doing and why it matters.
This is the crux about marching in step: it requires you to give up the right to your own pace. Your natural stride may be slightly longer, slightly faster, slightly different from the person beside you. To march together, you must surrender that. And the paradox is that  the surrendering does not make you less. It makes you part of something you could never be on your own. A column moving in perfect unison is more powerful, more dignified, more beautiful than any single soldier marching alone, however perfectly. And this was more intriguing when followed by the majestic horses and their equestrian riders. 

I have spent over five years working with Self-Help Groups across Maharashtra, women in villages who have learned exactly this lesson, not on a parade ground but in a circle of seats, pooling their savings, sharing their credit, building enterprises together. The principle is identical. You give up the right to spend your money alone, and in return you gain access to a fund that none of you could have built by yourself. You march in step. And the column moves forward.

Rashtrapati Bhavan: the backdrop that earns its name-
A word about the setting, because to write about this ceremony without writing about the building is to miss half the experience.
Rashtrapati Bhavan is one of those rare buildings that does not merely house power  but embodies it. Edwin Lutyens designed it as a statement of empire, but independent India did something interesting by inheriting it's grandeur and changing  the meaning. The building that was built to overawe colonial subjects is now the residence of the citizen's representative the constitutional head of a republic of 1.4 billion people.

Watching the ceremony against that backdrop this morning, the dome rising behind the courtyard, the symmetry of the colonnades, the Jaipur Column with its Star of India at the very top , I felt the weight of what this country has attempted. The ambition of it. The extraordinary, improbable, ongoing project of democratic governance on this scale, in this diversity, against these odds.
What I carried away -
What I carried away was not a lesson but more of a reminder. That discipline, practiced faithfully and internalised completely, does not diminish you. That moving in step with others, surrendering your individual pace to a shared rhythm, is not a compromise but a multiplication. That institutions are capable of moments of extraordinary grace when the people within them are fully committed to what they are doing.

And that real beauty, the kind that stops you mid-step and makes the day's routine agenda suddenly seem very small  is still findable on an ordinary Saturday morning in Delhi, if you know where to look.
The band played on. The guard was changed. The horses turned and walked back through the great gates. And I stood there for a moment looking  at the dome with a sense of gratitude.
It was a privilege to be a part of the lineage of our country because truly, सारे जहाँ से अच्छा हिन्दुस्तान हमारा and that is what the band was playing as it went back into the President House.

R. Vimala, IAS
Resident Commissioner, Maharashtra
& Secretary, Maharashtra Sadan &
PhD Scholar at IIT Bombay 

Steel Frame and Beating Heart : Governance, Grit and the pathway to Viksit Bharat

Steel Frame and Beating Heart : Governance, Grit and the pathway to Viksit Bharat

The Hon'ble Vice President’s address on the 18^th  Civil Services Day 2026 held at Delhi’s Vigyan Bhavan

“Delhi can plan but the fruitful result in a remote village can come only when it is implemented in its real sense. That is where civil service plays its predominant role.                                                -Sri.C.P.Radhakrishnan, Hon’ble Vice-President of India

On the 18th Civil Services Day 2026, The Hon’ble Vice President delivered an address that not only paid tribute to the civil service but also addressed the challenges faced by them. He also emphasized that they must rededicate themselves to feel more and reach deeper. Marking the 150th birth anniversary of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, the speech wove together history, philosophy, statistics, Tamil poetry and a straightforward message as to what public service must mean in the era of Viksit Bharat. It was not a ceremonial pat on the back. It was a conversation which was direct, pointed and purposeful.

The Steel Frame Must Have a Human Core -

Sardar Patel famously called the Indian Administrative Service the “steel frame” of the nation. Seventy-nine years after that  address to probationers in Delhi, the Hon’bleVice President returned to that metaphor but with a crucial addendum. He said that , a frame that does not feel the weight of those it protects, is similar to a temporary scaffold. “You are the real protectors of the interest of the people. Every batch of officers has proved time and again that they are indeed the steel frame of India, the backbone of the nation in it’s journey towards progress and prosperity.”
 The framing was deliberate. Steel implies strength; backbone implies both structure and sensitivity. The Hon’ble Vice President was asking civil servants to not just be efficient administrators but empathetic architects of change, who understand that governance is ultimately personal and that every scheme is someone’s lifeline.

The District Collector at the Centre of Everything -

In perhaps the most practically grounded section of the speech, the Vice President brought the spotlight down from policy corridors to the district headquarters and specifically to the District Collector’s role. Two flagship programmes received special mention: the Aspirational Districts Programme and the One District One Product initiative.

They may have been designed in Delhi but must be lived, adapted, and implemented by someone who knows the soil literally and figuratively. “One product, one district programme also cannot be implemented from Delhi. That has to be implemented at the district level. By whom? Again, by the Collector, He said.”

Aspirational Districts- Even within developed states, pockets of deep underdevelopment persist. The programme targets these gaps but can only be successful with ground-sensitive leadership.	One District One Product- Local economic identity cannot be imposed from the top. It requires the collector to map, champion, and catalyse what each district does best.
Last-Mile Governance- The Hon’ble Vice President  urged collectors to personally visit Block Development Offices at least once a quarter to listen, motivate, and understand barriers.	Team over Hierarchy- When seniors engage with subordinates, confidence flows downward. That confidence is what converts schemes into outcomes.

 

A Decade That Changed India’s Weight in the World-

The speech placed civil servants work within a sweeping national narrative of transformation citing figures that would have seemed ambitious targets just ten years ago, but which had  now been accomplished as milestones.

But the Hon’ble Vice President was careful not to let pride become complacency. “We should not get satisfied with what we have achieved,” he said, “but we have the room to keep ourselves moving forward.” Progress is not a destination; it is the direction. He spoke about the 25 Crore people who had been lifted out of poverty in a decade, 4 Crore Houses built for the poor under the Pradhan Mantri Awaas Yojana and India’s rise in global GDP rankings.

Nari Shakti in Khaki and Khadi-

One of the most heartfelt thoughts in the address highlighted the growing presence of women in the civil services. The numbers  women’s representation rising from 21% to 31% in UPSC selections over the last decade were shared not as statistics but as a shift in the soul of governance.

“It is just not a change in numbers, but a shift in mindset that is the most welcoming trend. When women are given equal opportunities, they do not just succeed. They redefine the meaning of success itself.”
The Hon’ble Vice President spoke of meeting women officers serving as Police Commissioners, Collectors, and Superintendent of Police, across states and a particular quality they bring to public service: a “mother’s touch” that is not sentimentality but profound attentiveness. He expressed hope that this transformation would soon mirror itself in Parliament and State legislatures a clear nod to the Women’s Reservation Act coming into full effect.

Team Spirit versus Group Spirit - A Critical Distinction

Among the conceptual contributions of the speech, the distinction between team spirit and group spirit stood out in  particular. Team spirit is goal-directed where individual talents complement each other, differences are channelised towards a shared outcome and the target is always larger than any individual ego.

Group spirit, by contrast, is identity-directed, includes likes and dislikes, personal loyalties and internal politics which override the mission. Transforming from the former into the latter is easy  whereas resisting that drift requires conscious leadership.

“Individual efficiency and team efficiency should complement each other rather than contradict each other. Real success lies therein.”

Obeying the Boss versus Obeying Pressure-

Perhaps the most morally charged moment of the address came when the Hon’ble Vice President spoke about integrity under pressure. In a system where postings, transfers, and promotions are levers that can be pulled by the powerful, he drew a firm line.

“Obeying the boss is different. Obeying the pressures is different. I am not against obeying the boss. But I am always against obeying pressure.” He was speaking to a hall full of officers who know precisely what that pressure looks and feels like and he was not pretending it doesn’t exist. He was asking them to be stronger than it.

Quoting from the Tirukkural (31)  of Thiruvalluvar, he said, “Sirappu Eenum Selvamum Eenum, Araththinooungu Aakkam, Evano Uyirkku”  meaning "Righteousness (Aram/Virtue) is the highest form of wealth. It brings both fame and fortune, It brings material prosperity, inner growth, dignity, and everlasting anand.

Viksit Bharat 2047,  A Countdown, Not a Slogan –

The Hon’ble Vice President returned repeatedly to the 2047 horizon, India’s centenary of independence and the vision of a developed Bharat. But he was insistent that this remains an aspiration, not an entitlement. It requires the steady, unglamorous work of implementation at every level: district, block, panchayat, household.

In a quietly powerful observation, he noted that nearly 12 to 15 lakh students appear for the UPSC examination each year, and only around 1,000 are selected. “God has blessed you,” he said  not as flattery but as a call to account. Along with the privilege of that selection comes an obligation to the 140 crore citizens.

“As the Vice President of India, can I increase your salary? No. But you have something no salary can buy, the opportunity to serve, to reach the poorest and to shape the nation. The power you hold must flow to the common man.”

Six Imperatives for the Civil Servant Today

1.   Target the truly needy- Benefits must reach the poorest among the poor. Inclusion without focus dilutes impact and drains resources.	2.   Stay connected downward- Visit BDOs. Talk to subordinates. Confidence flows from the top , if you don’t build it, no one will.
3.   Uphold integrity always- Resist pressure. Distinguish between a legitimate direction and an illegitimate one. The willpower must live inside.	4.   Build on what works- Acknowledge your seniors. Learn from peers. Small, steady improvements create lasting transformation.
5.   Create impact, not just output- Measure not just delivery but transformation in the communities you serve.	6.   Be an ambassador of unity- Your posting outside your home state is not inconvenience,  it is nation-building.

 

Civil Services Day is, at its best, a moment of honest reckoning  not just a celebration of the bureaucracy but a recommitment to what it must become. The Vice President’s 2026 address did not offer comfort. It offered something rarer : a mirror, a map, and a call. "Let it be remembered that in the villages which have been reached, the rights are secured, and the citizens empowered. This is what will define this generation of civil servants when history writes its account."

R.Vimala, IAS

Resident Commissioner & Secretary,  

Government of Maharashtra, Maharashtra Sadan & 

PhD Scholar at IIT Bombay 

NARI SHAKTI : A 360-Degree Journey, From Basic Dignity to Broken Glass Ceilings

NARI SHAKTI : A 360-Degree Journey, From Basic Dignity to Broken Glass Ceilings

"Days of seeing women only as homemakers have gone; we have to see them as nation-builders." - Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi

Picture a woman from most Indian villages in her thirties. Till a decade ago, she woke up before dawn, to walk away from her house, in the dark for her morning ablutions, despite being afraid and exposed. She carried water from a distant well or river for all members of her home. She cooked on wood fire that stung her lungs and lived in a house that was devoid of her name. She had no bank account, no insurance, no voice. Today, each one of those realities has changed. That change has a name : “Nari Shakti”, the result of eleven years of tireless efforts made under the dynamic leadership of a Prime Minister who refused to treat any dimension of a woman's life as separable from the rest.

Dignity First -

Our Hon’ble Prime Minister Shri. Narendra Modi ensured that empowerment began with what dignity demanded first, a toilet. The Swachh Bharat Mission (2014) built over 10 crore household toilets, declaring rural India Open Defecation Free by 2019, eleven years ahead of the UN target. This resulted in ninety-three per cent of women feeling safer. The increase in the percentage of toilets in girls schools from 37% to 91% led to decrease in the drop out rate of girls in the school. The Jal Jeevan Mission connected over 15 crore rural homes to tap water, ending women’s burden of the long walk  to rivers or wells to bring water for the home. PM Ujjwala Yojana added over ten crore LPG connections each in the woman's name. PM Awas Yojana-Gramin ensured that over two crore houses constructed under the scheme included the woman as it's owner, ensuring her a place of her own with legal proof of existence and collateral for loans. Toilet, water, fuel, home - these were not four schemes, but one unbroken act of restoring dignity.

Health from the First Breath -

A woman's empowerment was initiated even before her birth. Mission POSHAN 2.0, with a budget of over ₹1.81 lakh crore between 2021 and 2026 targets the critical first 1,000 days of life. The Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana (PMMVY)  has paid over ₹20,000 crore in maternity benefits to over four crore mothers as of 31st March 2026, directly into bank accounts. Over 90,015 Surakshit Matritva Aashwasan ( SUMAN)  health facilities guarantee free, dignified maternal care. PM Suraksha Bima Yojana and PM Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana extend an insurance safety net to millions who had none. Beti Bachao Beti Padhao has improved the sex ratio at birth from 918 to 930; Sukanya Samriddhi Yojana has secured daughters' futures through crores of savings accounts.

 From Survival to Aspiration - 

Financial independence is the spine of empowerment. 57.93 crore Jan Dhan accounts, of which 55.7% are held by women, exist as of March 2026. making them direct recipients of government transfers. Similarly, PM MUDRA Yojana has sanctioned over 57 crore loans worth ₹40+ lakh crore, of which 66% were women. DAY-NRLM has organised over 10 crore women, into over 90 lakh self-help groups, the world's largest women's collective, with lakhs of lakhpati didis crossing ₹1 lakh annual income. NaMo Drone Didi trains SHG women as agricultural drone operators. Such aspiration had been waiting only for an opportunity.

 Safety, Justice and the Breaking of Silence - 

Mission Shakti with 819 Sakhi One Stop Centres offers legal aid, shelter, medical help, and counselling under one roof and has assisted almost 11 lakh women. The Women Helpline has handled 214.78 lakh calls. Childline, Working Women's Hostels, the Nirbhaya Fund, and the SHe-Box portal complete a safety net from village to boardroom. The abolition of instant triple talaq in 2019, making it a criminal offence, changed the lives of millions of Muslim women overnight. This was not merely a legal reform but a declaration that every Indian woman is a citizen of a constitutional republic, entitled to equal dignity and equal protection.

Breaking Glass Ceilings - 

When ambition met opportunity, India's women guided Chandrayaan-3 to the moon, graduated from the National Defence Academy for the first time and produced India's first woman Rafale pilot in Squadron Leader Shivangi Singh. India leads the world in women STEM graduates. The Women's Cricket World Cup was won in 2025, and all these are the headlines of a new India.

 The Constitutional Moment - 

The Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam, passed unanimously by both Houses of Parliament in September 2023, reserves one-third of Lok Sabha and State Assembly seats for women ,and  was the first legislation of India's new Parliament building. As of 24th March 2026, almost 49.75% that is 12,14,885 of India's 24,41,781 panchayat representatives are women. When women govern, water flows, sanitation improves then girls stay in school. With the implementation of the Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam, that lesson would soon travel to Parliament. 

360 Degrees : Interconnected, indivisible- 

Toilet, water, fuel, home, health, livelihood, safety, representation : each is a link in a chain. Remove one and the chain breaks. This is the 360-degree vision, not a collection of schemes, but one indivisible commitment to every Indian woman's complete life : from her first breath nourished by POSHAN, to the day she takes the oath of office in a legislature or the parliament thanks to the Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam. Much has been accomplished but the work continues.

"From welfare to women-led development, India's Nari Shakti marches forward. The nation must leave no woman behind." 

R.Vimala, IAS,

Resident Commissioner & Secretary,

Government of Maharashtra ,

Maharashtra Sadan, Delhi   

PhD Scholar at IIT  Bombay 

 

 

The Evening our Hon’ble Vice President Took Us Back in Time...

The Evening our Hon’ble Vice President Took Us Back in Time...

It has been a little over a year since I was posted to Delhi as Resident Commissioner, Maharashtra and Secretary, Maharashtra Sadan. From the very first day, I was driven by the  desire to present the culture,food, festivals, textiles and the living traditions of Maharashtra at Delhi in the best way possible.

And so we got to work together as a team.

The Mango Festival came first , a riot of colour and fragrance that brought Maharashtra's legendary alphonso to the capital. Then the Ganesh Utsav, where the blessings of Shri Ganesha found its way to New Delhi along with art , craft and the famous , modak, coconut and jaggery dumplings in steamed rice flour made by the ladies of the self-help groups from Maharashtra. 

The Food Festival, the Hurda Party, the Saree Mahotsav which followed were a celebration and a present of love from Maharashtra to the city that hosts us.

Every event was planned with care, executed with sincerity, and received with warmth. And slowly, word spread. Maharashtra Sadan was not just an administrative outpost. It was becoming a cultural home.

It was against this backdrop that, Shri Leshpal Jawalge of Sarhad, Pune walked into my office , one day with an idea. He spoke of women officers across India  IAS, IPS, IFS, State and Allied services  who were not just administrators but writers and poets. Women who drafted policy papers by day and wrote about their feelings, experience and grace by night. Women who had stories to tell, essays to write, poems to share, voices worth listening to but who never had a platform specifically created for them.

He proposed the first-ever, Akhil Bhartiya Mahila Prashaskiya Adhikari Sahitya Sammelan, a literary conference for women officers across India. I had seen creativity quietly living inside me and in many of my colleagues, waiting for a moment to breathe so I said yes immediately. 

And then, as these things go, the detailed preparations began.

Delegates to be identified and invited from across the country. Speakers to be confirmed. Articles and interviews to be solicited, written, edited. And a souvenir, a proper publication to mark the occasion  to be compiled and printed in time. We named it 'Soudamini' Lightning, brilliant and  illuminating. It felt exactly right.

It was also important that this souvenir should be released by someone truly worthy of the occasion.

When we requested the Honourable Vice President of India, Shri C. P. Radhakrishnan , he was gracious enough to give us an appointment despite his busy schedule. Having  served as the Hon'ble Governor of Maharashtra, he knew our state, our people, our culture and it added to the glory. 

Walking Into the Enclave - 

For every officer and writer who was part of our delegation that evening, walking into the Vice President's enclave was a great moment. There is a quiet grandeur to the place  unhurried, gracious, carrying the weight of the office with a certain lightness.But what overwhelmed us was not the grandeur. It was the warmth.

The Hon'ble Vice President received us not with the stiffness of ceremony but with the ease of someone genuinely interested in who we were and what we were doing. He appreciated our efforts in taking lead to organise the first Akhil Bhartiya Mahila Prashaskiya Adhikari Sahitya Sammelan. He looked at  'Soudamini' with care. He asked questions. He listened.

"Maharashtra," he said with a smile, "is like my second home."

The Hon'ble Vice President spoke of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj with a reverence that transcended region and religion. He reminded us that Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj is not merely Maharashtra's hero ,he is a civilisational icon, a guardian of an entire way of life. His campaigns reached as far south as Jinji in Tamil Nadu, weaving a thread of sovereignty and cultural confidence across the subcontinent.

Had Chatrapati Shivaji Maharaj not risen when he did, the course of India's history , its cultural continuity, its civilisational self-respect  would have been unrecognisable.

He recalled an encounter with scholar  who had never read Chatrapati Shivaji Maharaj's history in full and therefore had parochial views. The Hon'ble Vice President shared that he had been reading about Chatrapati Shivaji Maharaj's greatness since he was in school. He knew about Chatrapati Shivaji Maharaj's great respect for women and for all religions. The Chatrapati had never demolished any structure unlike other perpetrators who came from outside. "Those who do not know this history cannot truly know India." He said. 

He spoke with reverence of Maharani Tararani, Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj's daughter-in-law, the warrior queen who held the Maratha empire together in its darkest hour. She did not let it collapse but endured, fought, negotiated, governed and prevailed. Her story belongs to all of India and to all of humanity.

Not many people outside Maharashtra know her greatness therefore, her biography, should be translated into every Indian language, he said. 

Maharashtra's literary inheritance found a proud champion in the Vice President's address. He spoke of the Saraswati Mahal Library in Thanjavur, an extraordinary repository of manuscripts, ancient texts, and rare collections  as a testament to the intellectual grandeur that has always flowed from the soil of Maharashtra. The Maratha kings who wielded the sword also built the library. Power and scholarship were never in opposition; they were, in the Maratha tradition, expressions of the same civilised wholeness.

Perhaps the most stirring note of his address came from a recent personal experience. During a visit to Jammu and Kashmir, the Hon'ble Vice President had witnessed something that moved him : girls from Muslim families, from communities often associated in the popular imagination with resistance to girls' education, were outperforming their peers in examinations. They were topping charts, filling classrooms, writing futures. He said that  "No religion prevents women from excelling in education. 

Girls , from Muslim families, from communities about whom certain assumptions of restriction persist  were not merely attending university. They were leading it, winning gold medals. Daughters, the first-generation scholars, young women were sitting in those classrooms with a quiet, fierce determination.

He was clear and firm about what this meant: "Islam does not prevent women from excelling in education. These girls are the proof."

This was not just a general observation. He was sharing something that had genuinely moved him as a human being. The real story unfolding in Kashmir  which rarely finds its way into our newspapers or our conversations is this. Girls choosing knowledge. Families choosing futures. 

His thoughts also went to Punyashlok Ahilyadevi  Holkar, the beacon of Maharashtra's women's tradition in the same breath. Her legacy of governance, compassion, and temple-rebuilding lives on as proof that women in power have always elevated not just institutions, but civilisation itself.

His call was clear and urgent: we must seek out positive stories, nurture them, amplify them and share them. In a world saturated with narratives of conflict, the administrator's truest duty should  be highlight what is quietly, stubbornly, beautifully working.

The souvenir 'Soudamini' ,means lightning, brilliance, the sudden illumination of a dark sky and holds within its pages the essays, reflections, and interviews of women IAS, IPS, IFS, State and Allied service officers from across India. It's release by the Hon'ble Vice President was a recognition that the officer and the writer are one person, and that both deserve to stand in the light. As we bid adieu, his emphasis that this laudable event be replicated in all parts of the country remains with me. 

R.Vimala, IAS,  

Resident Commissioner, Maharashtra, & Secretary, 

Maharashtra Sadan,  & Phd Scholar at IIT Bombay 

On the wrong side of 50 : Andamans, A Journey of beauty and Realisation

On the wrong side of 50 : Andamans, A Journey of beauty and Realisation

There are moments in life when you suddenly pause and wonder where the years went. I recently experienced one such moment when I was finally able to travel to the enchanting Andamans,  a destination that had lived quietly on my wish list for years.

Mysterious, beautiful and surrounded by endless shades of blue, also known as Kaalaa Paani , the Andamans had always fascinated me. Yet, like many dreams, my visit there kept getting postponed , first because of work, then because of responsibilities and sometimes simply because life got busy.

This time, I finally made the journey with my son, using the Leave Travel Concession that government servants are entitled to, once every two years. Ironically, though the opportunity was always there, I had rarely used it. There was always something more “urgent” , files to clear, commitments to meet, family matters to attend to.

And before I knew it, decades had flown by.

Standing on those pristine beaches, watching the waves roll endlessly to the shore, I felt something shift within me. A realisation, that time, once gone, never returns. We often assume there will always be another tomorrow to travel, to rest, to enjoy, to simply live.

But life does not always wait.

Reaching fifty in your life is a milestone which adds to your wisdom. It brings a realisation that life is not only about responsibilities and achievements but also about experiences, relationships and memories nourishing your soul.

So the travel to Andamans with my son was not just a holiday. It was an opportunity to spend time together and also a reminder that life must be lived in the present moment. The laughter shared, the quiet walks by the sea, the feeling of wonder while watching nature’s beauty and sunsets are the things that will truly stay with us.

Yes, stepping into the Andamans was like stepping into many worlds at once , history, adventure, geography, nature and serenity all rolled into one.

Our visit to the historic Cellular Jail made us re-experirnce patriotism. Walking through its silent corridors, we bowed our heads to the immense sacrifices made by the freedom fighters. We could sense the patriotic zeal of Vinayak Damodar Savarkar and Sachindranath Sanyal . The sound and light show at night was a powerful reminder of the price paid for India’s freedom.

Nearby, the ruins of Ross Island narrated another chapter of history , the colourful lives of the British who once inhabited these islands. Ironically, today, the place is in ruins and engulfed by ficus trees, making it look haunted but also telling us about the lifestyle of the British and their families. 

The true star of the Andamans is nature with its green hills, blue-green seas and clear skies. 

The peaceful Neil island is home to the stunning natural coral arch known as the Coral Bridge which has beautiful living corals as well as cute sea animals. The scuba diving there was full of adventure and wonder. Neil  island’s beaches are quiet, pristine and deeply calming.

On the other hand, Havelock Island has some of the most famous beaches in India. Radhanagar Beach with it's white sand is among the best beaches in the world.  The Kala Patthar Beach with waves lashing against it's black rocks was mesmerising. Adventure seekers go  to the Elephanta Beach for water sports like sea walking, snorkelling and scuba diving which was enjoyed by us too.  

But the Andamans offers much more  beyond beaches. We explored Baratang Island, which has  fascinating limestone caves filled with intricate stalactite and stalagmite  formations.  These are living lessons in geology reflecting thousands of years. The island also has the unusual mud volcanoe, a rare natural phenomenon igniting geological curiosity.

Another unforgettable experience was the trip to Parrot Island. We had gone there hoping to watch thousands of parrots and parakeets returning to the mangroves at sunset.  But that  evening the parrots chose to stay away  but the experience was magical nonetheless. Sitting in the quiet boat, watching the sun melt into the endless , listening to the gentle lapping of waves against the boat was a moment of pure serenity.

The Andaman Islands truly offer a rare combination of hills, forests and beaches something few destinations can claim.

And yet, the journey also brought a small realisation. Many of the adventure activities here require good physical fitness and have an age barrier of fifty. I had to procure a medical certificate to undertake activities like scuba diving and sea walk etc. That made me realise how important it is to travel and experience such adventures while one is still comfortably on the right side of fifty.

Perhaps , that is why the message of the Bollywood film "Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara" resonates so deeply.

Life is not meant to be endlessly postponed. Being on the wrong side of fifty is not about slowing down. It is about choosing wisely how we spend the time we have. It is not only about planning work with dedication, but also planning holidays, journeys and moments of joy.

Because life is not a rehearsal.

So if there is a place you have always wanted to visit, a friend you have been meaning to meet, or a dream you have been postponing , do not wait endlessly for the perfect time.

Time has a way of slipping through our fingers.

Plan your work but also plan your holidays.

Live fully.

After all, You live only once and Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara....

R.Vimala,  IAS,

Resident Commissioner & Secretary, 

Government of Maharashtra & 

PhD Scholar at IIT Bombay