Kafka in a Government Job
I spent months inside government offices watching files move in circles, people disappear behind procedure, and entire systems survive on tea, signatures, and emotional exhaustion.
Somewhere during that, I realized Indian bureaucracy often feels deeply Kafkaesque.
So I wrote a dark satire novel called Kafka in a Government Job.
It’s about a sincere new employee who enters government service believing systems are rational — and slowly discovers that nothing really moves except paperwork.
There are missing chairs, immortal files, contradictory circulars, biometric failures, transfer rumors, and lunch breaks treated with religious seriousness.
The book isn’t anti-government employees. If anything, it’s sympathetic toward people trapped inside systems too large to remain human for long.
A few lines from the book:
“The system admired these beliefs deeply. Then it began removing them one by one.”
“Lunch was not inefficiency. It was survival.”
“In government offices, uncertainty itself was a permanent employee.”
I wanted to write something absurd, funny, uncomfortable, and painfully familiar to anyone who has stood in an office holding a file while hearing “come tomorrow.”
Would genuinely love thoughts from people here — especially anyone who has worked in or dealt with Indian bureaucracy.
(It's available on Amazon if anyone wants to read it.)