Tailaktapa Tattvam

The Art of Undiluted Feedback.

Dear Pradhan Sevak,

It is an absolute comfort to have a Pradhan Sevak who is perpetually on broadcast mode, reassuring us with a grand “Mein sun raha hoon.” Though, like Maya Sarabhai smiling through her teeth at a slumdweller, the underlying message is crystal clear: “Karoongi toh main apni man maani.”

Back in the early eighties, my father, a renowned surgeon, asked his young PG resident if the IV drip was running. He wasn’t looking to catch the boy slacking; he needed crucial feedback on the patient’s vitals to make a life-or-death surgical call. The poor lad, paralyzed by the Indian habit of deference, assumed he was being accused of negligence. Before my father could even step up to the bed, the boy hurriedly turned the valve on and blurted, “Yes, sir!” My father wrote him off as an irresponsible fool on the spot. He didn’t need a panicked cover-up to save face; he needed raw, unvarnished facts.

That distinction seems entirely lost on your government. Feedback is objective data pointing at gaps so you can fix them. Criticism is emotional, judgmental noise. Fault-finding is the petty, everyday nitpicking that offers not a shred of a solution.

We all inherit ways to deal with this clutter. My mother handed us an ancient, unyielding rulebook: If someone points out a lack in you, shut up, fill the lack, and step up. But in her own life, her filter was wonderfully cynical:

1. Is it relevant? If not, to hell with it.
2. Can I fix it? How? Put an action plan together.
3. Is it worth my time and effort? If no, move on and don’t give a damn.

Contrast that with the fragile, eggshell-walking world of Toastmasters—a place where no snowflake’s ego may ever be bruised. They assign you an “Evaluator” (God forbid they call them an Eliminator) who feeds you the famous “Sandwich Method.” A slice of buttery praise, a tiny, heavily cushioned suggestion of what could be done “differently” (never, ever use the word wrong), and another thick layer of butter on top.

Look at how this pathetic coddling plays out on the national stage today. From Kangana Ranaut delivering her daily sermon on social media to every wannabe influencer seeking fifteen seconds of outrage, everyone is shouting. The domestic verdict on our cockroach problem is obvious—the Hit spray simply isn’t working anymore and the “Flint” cockroach buster of the 70’s has gone with Clint Eastwood. But look past the kitchen counter at the nationwide swarm: an entire generation of angry, burnt-out kids taking to the streets and clogging the internet.

Strip away the noise, and what is the feedback? The judiciary and the state have failed to reassure them. The young are exhausted, insecure, and deeply disillusioned. The criticism is that governance is slow, arrogant, and entirely out of touch. The fault-finding is that case backlogs pile up like garbage, while grand promises of reform are handed out like cheap political handbills.

Whether it’s angry farmers or hopeless youth, a real leader doesn’t throw a tantrum over the noise—he isolates the feedback, admits where the system is bleeding, and fixes the damn gap.

And while we are discussing round pegs in square holes, a bit of direct feedback on your policy circus: Shamik Ravi is an economist, not a medical savior. Watching her land in Goa to lecture us on healthcare solutions designed for Uttar Pradesh is like watching a butcher attempt cosmetic surgery. Seniority like hers or Nandan Nilekani’s is very impressive on paper, but we don’t need aging tech-evangelists and economists handing out recycled, one-size-fits-all recipes. We need people who actually understand the terrain and can think for tomorrow.

At the end of the day, listening is a farce if the action that follows is just optics. If the drip wasn’t running, lying to the chief surgeon won’t keep the patient alive.

Yours without malice,

Tailaktapa-Amma

For those who are not ‘nationalists’ or sanskari –Tailaktapa amma is cockroach-amma.

Please note this letter has been cc-ed to the Pradhan-pratidwandi.

(Written for the Blogchatter BlogHop collective writing initiative.)