Status Updates From Journeys Through Babudom an...

The centripetal tendency in the bureaucrats has something to do with the quality of job satisfaction one gets in posts dealing with public affairs. In British times, field officers used to refuse postings to Lucknow or to Delhi; since they had the satisfaction of getting things done on the field. There was one collector who was based in Mirzapur for eighteen years and refused to move, even on promotion.