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Welfare and Farewell!
When I was about to join the IAS, a retired officer told me something I didn’t quite understand back then:
Most of your career will be about welfare and farewell.
While sitting on the chair, your job is the welfare of others. You’ll take decisions for people you may never meet. You’ll work for outcomes that may not be visible immediately. You’ll try your best—and most of the time, you’ll succeed. But don’t be afraid of the occasional mistake. It’s always going to be a mix of hits and misses.
And then comes the farewell. That’s when the report card is out—your hits and misses reflected not in files, but in faces.
If you really want to know how you did, look around at the best officers who worked with you: the honest, the efficient, the committed. There is no better appraisal of tenures than the eyes of these officers at your farewell.
In just one week, I lived through three farewells—at the Block, District, and State ATI level. Each goodbye felt heavier than the last.
Leaving behind an amazing team of 50+ in the Block, sitting down for one final dinner with the DM and ADMs... I thought I’d be ready. I expected kind words as a matter of formality. But each word spoken made it harder to leave.
And that’s when I understood what that retired officer really meant.
Welfare is your duty. Farewell is your feedback. And the service is a cycle of both.
No matter how much you prepare yourself, some moments still catch you off guard. But that’s life. For something new to begin, something else must be “farewelled”!
Signing off,
Priyansha Garg
BDO, Uluberia-II
Assistant Magistrate & Assistant Collector, Howrah
