Head of the Institute, said to him, ‘At the end of this research you would basically end up being a professor. But the job of a top civil servant is more important than that of a professor. Ultimately the task of implementing policies is in the hands of the civil servants. Civil service is an important medium of changing society. Be a civil servant and be a part of that process of transformation.’ Joshi was convinced or perhaps he himself after further thought felt it was better to join the civil service. He formally joined the Postal Service in August 1958. His eldest sister Nirmala told this writer, ‘A friend of my father called Marathe phoned and gave us this news. My father was elated. We all felt very proud of Sharad.’ Joshi himself said, ‘In a way I was not keen on this job. But my father was very happy that I got it. He had started as an ordinary clerk in a post office and after so many years had reached the level of a superintendent. And here was his son occupying that same post at the time of joining itself! When I saw the joy on his face I decided to accept this posting.’ As per the standard practice in civil service then, for the first two years Joshi was on probation. During that time he worked at Baroda and Surendranagar in Gujarat, at Saharanpur in UP and at Ratnagiri and Mumbai in Maharashtra. In each place he worked for four to five months getting thoroughly acquainted with the work. Delivery of the mail is the job of Post Office known to everyone. But that is only one part of that huge setup. There are many other aspects such as transfer of money through Money Orders, small savings, saving accounts, huge staff, properties to be maintained in every nook and corner of the country. Even Telegraph department was part of that set-up. In those days when there were very few banks and they too were largely in cities, and there was no Internet, the work of Post 40
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Sharad Joshi : Leading Farmers to the Centre Stage
