BANGALORE: Outgoing Additional Chief Secretary to state government K Jairaj, on Sunday, said he was lucky for getting an opportunity to serve Karnataka. The senior IAS officer, who is due for retirement on May 31, was speaking at the launch of his debut book ‘Jaithra Yatre.’ “One should feel lucky to render service in Karnataka. Our culture, our tradition, our system of governance - all this makes the state special,” Jairaj said. He said that the Nobel prize winner Sir Arthur Lewis, who was his teacher at the University of Princeton (USA), showed him the path when he was in a dilemma about joining civil services. “He (Lewis) told me that it was better to be a first class citizen of the Third World country than an ordinary citizen in a developed country. That is when I returned to India and joined the civil services,” said Jairaj. ‘Jaithra Yatre’ is a chronicle of Jairaj’s experiences as an administrator, spanning over a period of 30 years. After formally launching the book, Chief Minister D V Sadananda Gowda said, “It is not enough to merely learn. It is important to put it into practice. Jairaj has recorded his experiences of practice, which will be a guide to all.”He added that he can only assure that he would read the book, and not guarantee to implement what he learns from the book. Noted playwright and Jnanpith awardee Girish Karnad hailed Jairaj for providing a new insight into the process of urbanisation of Bangalore. He said, “In Kannada literature, we hardly find Bangalore-based stories, as most writers are from outside the city. In this book, we can see the growth of Bangalore through the eyes of an administrator who was in the thick of things.”“My book does not have political talk nor any analysis of government programmes. I have written from a common man’s point-of-view. It is my life story, and I feel I am rejuvenated having written about the seminal events of my life,” said Jairaj.Infosys mentor N R Narayana Murthy, former Chief Justice of India M N Venkatachalaiah, Dharmasthala Dharmadhikari Veerendra Heggade and Editor of Kannada Prabha Vishweshwar Bhat, were present during the book launch.
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