Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Bureaucracy but were Afraid to Ask

The book is a light and delightful read, with tons of small incidents, anecdotes, incidents, and personal experiences that collectively portray the Indian Bureaucracy for what it is today. The author, a former civil servant himself, brings to the table several avenues to be taken into consideration while talking about the bureaucracy. Running the world’s largest democracy is not an easy job and the book fairly explains why it is so. Of course not everything that’s talked about is new and the reader might already know stuff since in India, almost everyone experiences an engagement with the bureaucracy, but still, the book does a decent enough job to fill in the gaps that exist within one’s knowledge. I specifically liked the chapters on promotions, corruption within the system, role of Ethics and technology. These are the areas that we sometimes think about but eventually fail to go beyond our limited understanding. I believe this is where the book comes in handy. It’s a recommended book for all those who want to have a nuanced understanding of how our system works and a must-read for all those who aspire to be a part of that very system. After all, it’s good to know things beforehand.