Writer and an administrator

IAS officer Suresh Singh won hearts through his simple ways, Arun Kumar Thakur tells us how

And what do you do? If one had to ask the late Suresh Singh, with a very soft smile he might have said: ?Well, I write, I research, I travel and I try to reach out to people and their lives.? And if one were to persist, he might have added: ?Well, I am also an IAS officer.?

That?s the way he was, right to his last days, refusing to let go of his passion for words. That?s what he had lived with, and that?s how he ended it too. For nearly a year before his death he was not able to speak coherently, but in his mind ideas and words were still ticking, and he wrote yet another book, which his stenographer took down as he dictated.

Proving true the words a baba had told him years ago when as a young IAS officer he had gone to Calcutta on some work. He had already written a book The Hanging Mist and Storm Dust, and he was curious and questioning like the young always are, about what lies ahead.

Very quietly, he remained seated at the back, his young mind observing everything. Not for long though, for if he thought that he would remain unnoticed, it was not to be, as was not to be in his later life, either.

The baba asked him to come up to the front row and predicted that Singh would go on to write many books and achieve more fame than he could imagine at that moment.

Singh must have laughed at it, as he had when he later narrated this incident to his friend Sanjay Basu Mallick, saying: ?Look, I have really written so many books and all of them are voluminous.? Sanjay, who knew him for over two decades, and met him a fortnight before his death, says that?s the way he always was. But beneath that scholarly outlook was a person who knew how to get things done and who achieved many laurels in his profession.

A profession which took him places, brought him into contact with all kinds of people, and into the immediate experience of all their problems and triumphs, too.

And he knew how to be one with people when he was with them. ?On the face it he appeared to be serious and unapproachable, as senior IAS officers usually look. But once he opened out, he behaved like a common, simple man, who liked the simple things in life,? recalls Mallick.

And this is perhaps what brought alive his works. His voluminous works on tribals went far beyond the ethnographic works left behind by British officials on them.

Singh had some major weaknesses though, Mallick admits. And they being Mundas, jalebis and samosas.

While his weakness for Mundas is well revealed through his books, his weakness for jalebis and samosas was well known to all his friends. ?I can never forget this. When I went to see him about a fortnight before his death, he was barely able to speak coherently because of the stroke. Still, he asked whether I had brought jalebis and samosas,? says Mallick.

In this too, he had not changed. Whenever they wanted an appointment with him, he would laugh and ask to come with the jalebis, Mallick said.

Singh?s fascination for the Mundas began in the early sixties, when he was the sub-divisional officer at Khunti, where he learnt the story of Birsa Munda. And it?s a fascination which grew into an obsession.

Others, too, have interesting anecdotes about him, which bring him alive as he was, as he went through life, most unassuming in the way he lived. Like the anecdote of Madhukar, a senior journalist.

?In May-June 1981, Singh was secretary of the department of Rural Development. I went to meet him to ask him to come to Bodh Gaya to intervene in the conflict between the mahanth and the villagers over 12,000 acres of land. It was very hot and I asked him for a glass of water. He went and fetched it himself from an earthen pot. Embarrassed, I asked him why he didn?t simply call for the peon. He said ringing for the peon and then waiting for him to come and fetch a glass of water would have taken some time and by that time the thirst would got worse,? recalls Madhukar.

Those who know him have similar tales to tell, apart from his work of course, which is well known. Singh?s work as the deputy commissioner of Palamau in 1967 while dealing with the drought has become a legend among social activists and bureaucrats.

Actually, his list of weaknesses is longer than what Mallick provides. Major ones being collecting documents and books, often going to great lengths to acquire some important documents and data. If he knew that it existed and where, he simply had to acquire it.

That?s the way he built up his impressive collection of rare books and documents. Like the exclusive papers he acquired from a teacher of tribal languages, who he heard had prepared the lineage of Nagavanshi kings. Being the son-in-law of the family of Ratu Maharaja, who are Nagavanshis, he perhaps also had an emotional reasons to be attached to the land, other than his scholarly interest.

It?s the legacy of a lifetime he has left behind. Mallick says Singh?s room in Delhi is full of books, many of which have been shifted to his house in Ashok Nagar. Singh had been very eager that his collection not go waste after he is no more, and his friends want to ensure that his wish is kept.

?It would be a terrible loss if the books and documents in his library remain there, unused,? says Mallick. It is said that Singh greeted visitors from Jharkhand with the question: ?Kya ho raha hai, Jharkhand mein??.

Always curious and eager to know more.