They are certainly nothing to write home about! But Bengali newspapers are full of stories about two railways booking clerks who have — believe it or not — just made it to the coveted Indian Administrative Service (IAS).

Keshbendra Kumar sold tickets at West Bengal's Seuri railway station. He is ranked 45th in the IAS results. Ravi Kant sold tickets at Ukhra railway station in Burdwan district. He is ranked 77th in the list of successful candidates.

The two clerks-turned-bureaucrats have lots in common. Both are originally from Bihar. Kumar and Kant arrived in Bengal for their Higher Secondary education after passing out of schools in Bihar's Aara and Sitamarhi distrits respectively. Both enrolled at Barrackpore's Bholanand School.

Both graduated from the Indira Gandhi Open University. While Kumar did History (Honours), Kant did Hindi (Honours). Both found jobs as railways booking clerks — without paying bribes! Subsequently, they also made it to the defence forces but preferred their railway jobs.

Neither of them could afford civil service coaching centres. Their homes do not have television sets. All they could afford was a newspaper and couple of magazines to keep track of India and the world. Kumar says that he couldn't even afford a wrist watch. “I wrote my IAS exams without a watch.

“I would have fared better if had a watch for time management in the examination centre”, Kumar said.

In the fitness of things, their boss, Asansole Divisional Railway Manager Ramu Dev Singh has told them to stop selling tickets. Before they start packing their bags for the IAS academy in Mussorie, Singh wants them to visit railway schools in the region to motivate students to follow in their footsteps.

Tired Speaker

LOK SABHA Speaker Somnath Chatterjee is so tired of politics that he has decided not to contest the parliamentary elections next year. He wants to call it a day. But will the CPM let him hang his boots?

For the record, Chatterjee is today without a constituency. The Bolpur seat in West Bengal, which he has won several times in a row, is now a reserved seat thanks to the delimitation exercise. But the red party can always find an alternative seat for its big guns.

Chatterjee, who has completed four years as Lok Sabha Speaker, said: “I am grateful to my party for allowing me to become the Speaker. I am also grateful to MPs cutting across party lines. We have worked together since 2004. But my innings is now almost over. I will not contest the 2009 polls.”

When asked if he would review his decision to quit politics if CPM insists on nominating him once again, he replied: “No I will not. There is no possibility of a change of heart. I have been an MP for 35 years. It's a very long tenure. I was the leader of the CPM group in parliament. Then I became the Speaker. But now it's time to retire."

Apparently Sonia Gandhi, Manmohan Singh and several opposition leaders have congratulated Chatterjee for successfully running the House for four long years. But the Speaker says that he is a disappointed man.

"I have tried to convince MPs about the importance of parliamentary democracy and the role they can play in transforming India. But my advice has invariably fallen on deaf ears. The behaviour of MPs inside the House is not exactly exemplary. Before evey parliamentary session, I have sat down with various opposition leaders. But to no avail. One of them recently told me that even their best address to the House gets very little media coverage. But if proceedings are repeatedly disrupted and the House is adjourned, then publicity is assured. This attitude has broken my heart”, the Speaker rued.

Chatterjee's quit call is being linked to the sharp decline in Jyoti Basu's role in the CPM’s organisational matters. I think he is not sure whether CPM leaders like Biman Bose and Buddhadev Bhattacharya will offer him a new seat to contest the next Lok Sabha election. If they had their way, he wouldn’t have probably become the Speaker. There was a big debate in the red party four years ago after Sonia Gandhi and Manmohan Singh requested CPM leaders to let Chatterjee become the Speaker. Although there were ideological misgivings, Basu carried the day. After the CPM’s green signal, Basu reportedly told Chatterjee: “Please show everyone that a communist can be a good Speaker too!”