Includes index.

These are the memoirs of a bureaucrat who served at several levels in government – most notably twice as Lt Governor of Delhi, as Chief Secretary of Punjab, and as Secretary of the Ministries of Food and Commerce. Along with the highs and lows of prominent postings, the book provides an insider’s look into the workings of Indian bureaucracy. There are fascinating details about the way government business is transacted, on the ground – the politics, the pressures, the lack of resources – and the constant balance a civil servant must maintain while simultaneously trying to somehow get things done. During his tenure as L-G in Delhi for more than seven years, Tejendra Khanna worked with two chief ministers – Sahib Singh Verma and Sheila Dikshit – and the book delves into the at-times fraught relationship between the LG’s office and that of the CM in Delhi. Khanna was in charge of the Delhi police during this time, which saw law and order problems such as the Delhi serial bomb blasts and the subsequent Batla House encounter in 2008, and the horrific Nirbhaya case in 2012. The Commonwealth Games, held in Delhi in 2010, and the allegations of incompetence and corruption during the time are also dealt with in the book. Tejendra Khanna was a member of the Yoginder K. Alagh Commission on the state of the civil services and recruitment to the Indian Administrative Services. In this book, he has included several of his observations regarding the rot in the services, and the ways in which things can be improved for Indian democracy’s so-called ‘steel frame’.