Autobiography by Somi Tandon
It was a pleasure to read the autobiography of Ms. Somi Tandon, my senior colleague and a retired civil servant from the Indian Defence Accounts Service. Like many other accomplished women from various walks of life, she acknowledges that her father, Late Shri Prem Chand Tandon, was her greatest inspiration and constant support during her journey; a long professional and personal journey as a woman of substance in true sense. She had an illustrious civil service career and multiple creative attributes, with multiple and variegated assignments in central ministries and field organizations that included the apex-level assignment of Secretary (Defence Finance). As mentioned by her, she belonged to a traditional middle-class household in a small town (Meerut), now grown into one of the major cities of regional significance, better known for sports goods and musical instruments, besides carrying the historical legacy of being the flashpoint of the 1957 Revolt against the British Raj in India.
Hailing from the same civil service cadre and having crossed our paths at South Block around the mid-nineties, where I served as Director, Budget & Plans and she as Joint Secretary & Additional Financial Advisor, as also in different contexts later on, I had fairly good opportunity to interact with and learn her personal and professional attributes. Later on, she again served as Additional Secretary and Secretary (Defence Finance) in South Block until her retirement on 31 July 2005. As a serving civil servant, Ms. Tandon exemplified an exceptional blend of professional excellence and outstanding personal etiquette, with her innate human charm and integrity, proactive attitude and effective leadership. Demonstrating profound domain expertise and administrative competence, she was better known for her broad, forward-looking perspective and sound judgment in complex assignments. On a personal level, she has been remarkably known for a polite, positive and approachable demeanour, fostering a collaborative and constructive work environment.
Coming to her creative published work “My Journey to the South Block and Beyond: Life Story of a Small-town Girl Who Broke the Glass Ceiling…,” this autobiographical book has been published in 2026 by Munshiram Manoharlal Publishers (ISBN: 978-81-215-1367-8; 272 pp.). Having joined the Indian Defence Accounts Service (IDAS) in 1967, Ms. Tandon traversed through an almost four-decade career, becoming the first woman to head Defence Finance in India’s post-independence history. Her memoir offers a comprehensive insight into India’s bureaucratic system, especially focusing on the financial administration of the three Indian Armed Forces. She has structured and designed her presentation in three distinct categories, viz. an autobiographical archetype depicting the journey of a small-town woman from a conservative Hindu family, conducting herself in a traditionally male-dominated Indian civil service at various echelons; her experiences and anecdotes through a gallery of iconic leaders/civil servants, including Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam; and a study of institutional dynamics within the Controller General of Defence Accounts (CGDA), the Ordnance Factory Board (OFB), the Planning Commission, and finally, the corridors of power in South Block.
The first four chapters relate to her early phase, essentially dealing with roots, mentor figures and early institutional experiences. Chapter 1 largely deals with her transition from a modest small-town upbringing to competing and qualifying for the Civil Services in the first attempt around the mid-1960s, briefly touching upon the contemporary socio-cultural landscape of India, where the higher bureaucracy was overwhelmingly male-dominated, and the personal resolve required to breach those boundaries. Some of the more significant events include her grooming during the Foundation Course at the Mussoorie Academy and acquisition of her first car, a Fiat Premier Padmini prevalent for private use in those days. Coincidentally, this also reminds me of how I had to miss my crucial Academy exposure due to personal difficulties, of course I acquired a car of the same make and model with almost the same length of service at Allahabad.
Chapters 2 & 3 relate to her early mentorship and basic personal foundations that she, like many successful women, largely owes to her esteemed father, who gave unstinted support and instilled a foundational ethical framework, emphasizing integrity, intellectual discipline and public service values. The other significant mentor nonpareil was Dr. Vimla Puri, Head of the Political Science Department and Chief Proctor (later on, Principal too) of RG College, Meerut, whose motivational skills not only shaped her early academic and professional skills but also helped in framing female solidarity and intellectual rigour that served as crucial factors in navigating the complex bureaucratic path, as also careful planning for things well in advance.
Chapters 4 to 6 delve into Ms. Tandon’s early experiences in office and beyond, such as her time in the crucible of junior bureaucracy and few character vignettes. Chapter 4 provides insight into her early years of field postings in Controllers’ offices at Meerut, Dehradun and Pune, enabling her to learn the intricate mechanics of military accounts, audit, financial advice, and pay/pension administration. The next two chapters include candid character profiles of senior officers like PC Bhattacharyya, Bahadur Murao and K. Shastri, who had considerable influence on Ms. Tandon’s progression during her early years in bureaucracy: Mr. Bhattacharyya appreciated as a strategic visionary, being a man of ideas, lively, focused and business-like; Mr. Bahadur Murao as a benevolent senior—an archetype of composure, practising quiet wisdom amid procedural wisdom; and Mr. K. Shastri (perhaps an ex-cadre officer) for his motivation and assurance.
Although there is a whopping gap in service seniority, with Ms. Tandon joining the civil service in 1967 and me in 1983, yet I find a brief mention of several officers like CV Nagendra, RB Kapoor, Biswajit Banerjee, GC Bhandari, Malkit Singh, Charan Jit Lal, Arun Sedwal, and a host of others, with whom I too had the opportunity to work or brief interactions in some context somewhere. I find Ms. Tandon has been very true and apt while describing them in her autobiography. I believe some people seldom, rather never, change in life experiences with the passage of time. For instance, late Mr. RB Kapoor is mentioned as a stiff-necked officer, whom she apparently first met in Pune posting, and later again in Dehradun while he was still a Joint CDA. Years later, I had the opportunity to see him as CDA during our probationary attachment with the Navy at Bombay (now Mumbai), where his Maharashtrian Group Officer (Admin), handling our schedule, nervously described him – “O baba! He is so fastidious.” Among these luminaries, I had good opportunity to work with Mr. GC Bhandari at Allahabad and New Delhi, whom I still fondly remember as an unparellel leader and “a saint in bureaucracy,” who truly inspired me.
Having known Ms. Tandon personally for over three decades but despite our constant interaction, myself as Director (Budget & Plans) and she as Joint Secretary & Additional Financial Advisor (Navy), it is only through her memoirs that I came to know about her early experiences as Under Secretary (Budget). Needless to mention here that direct involvement with the budget not only offers you an opportunity of having a macro picture of the entire service or organization but also manifold augments your overall vision and clarity in dealing with things. Yet another worth-mentioning point here is that even empowered working women have to face many challenges – professional and personal – when they choose to go out to work in a male-dominated environment. She has candidly recorded unwelcome advances and unsolicited audacity of some people, and her own courage and grit to aptly deal with antics of such men. This also reminds me of how, as CDA and beyond, I too had to personally deal with or intervene in a such cases to safeguard the modesty and dignity of women at the workplace.
From Chapters 7 to 15, Ms. Tandon has explored multiple facets of different personalities with illustrations, including ex-President Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam, and her own working experiences with them. In Chapter 7, she has listed Mr. CV Nagendra as an uncompromising disciplinarian, an adept professional and humane person, who embodied the principle “Better Be Respected Than Liked”. We had the opportunity to see him during our Educational-cum-Training Tour (popularly also known as Bharat Darshan) in Hindustan Aeronautics Limited, Bengaluru, where he was Director (Finance) then, and who played an excellent host during our stay there. Ms. Tandon has listed many other seniors such as BK Banerjee, SK Dasgupta, NVC Sekharaiah, BN Rallan, G Bhattacharyya, PP Nayyar, and BV Adavi, who had, in some way or the other, shaped or influenced her mid-career growth and attributes of leadership and bureaucratic realities.
Mr. BK Banerjee is listed as a “credit-hogging boss”, which we so often encounter at workplaces in a hierarchical set-up. He has been particularly remembered in the context of workplace dysfunction and credit appropriation, lack of empathy, and political manoeuvrings inside organizations. Mr. SK Dasgupta, to her retrospective assessment, was a gentleman, budget wizard and perfectionist, who explored professional data and information with technical precision and clarity. Naturally, such people prove to be role model too in the grooming of junior colleagues. Though I would not name or share personal experiences in bureaucracy here, credit-hogging officers do exist at workplaces, who are capable of turning an organization into a theatre of politics rather than a culture of collective achievement. By appropriating the contributions of junior colleagues and withholding recognition where it is due, such a superior erodes trust, discourages initiative and creates an unspoken hierarchy of the “favoured” and the “overlooked.” Besides, when a leader (superior executive) lacks the empathy to recognise the effort, aspirations and dignity of those working under him, even a technically competent team can become lacklustre and dysfunctional.
She worked with Mr. Shekharaiah, the CDA (Southern Command), Pune, where she was posted in 1978-79 following her tenure in South Block as Dy Financial Advisor (Navy) in South Block, and worked as Deputy CDA and Joint CDA. She remembers him for his multi-faceted personality, management by exception, welfare approach, fostering the spirit of justice, equity and camaraderie, and effective administration. Mr. BN Rallan, her CDA in Central Command, Meerut, where she joined as Joint CDA on transfer from Pune, is remembered as a discerning senior with a broad outlook, fond of discipline and sobriety, and a solution-finder with his natural grace and generosity in appreciating good work. Chapters 12-14 are apt experiences and commentaries too on command dynamics and strategic mentorship at the middle level. Suffice to describe the persona, nature and temperament of Mr. G. Bhattacharyya (Chapter 12) in one apt phrase: “You came and took over like Napoleon”; after all, such bosses indeed exist in bureaucratic organizations. Ms. Tandon has so candidly described Mr. PP Nayyar’s leadership ability to instil confidence among junior colleagues and Mr. BV Adavi as a rare example of stoicism, high ethics, gentlemanly conduct, and for being true to his words.
Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam, who later became the 11th elected President of India (July 2002 – July 2007), is described as “The Gentle Colossus” in Chapter 14 of her memoirs. More popularly remembered as “The Missile Man” of India, I too remember Dr. Kalam was Secretary (R&D) and Director General R&D, with his office located on the first floor of South Block, just three rooms away from Ms. Tandon’s. Next to him was the office of the Financial Advisor (Defence Services), frequently visited by me as Director, Budget & Plans. Of course, Dr. Kalam is widely acknowledged for his egalitarian leadership, visionary approach to indigenous defence R&D, and his unique ability to align technical, financial, and strategic mandates. Ms. Tandon has aptly highlighted other noble attributes of his personality, such as his quest for details, phenomenal memory and intellect, humanism and humility even during his highest office in Rashtrapati Bhavan for five years.
In the following chapters (Chapters 16-29), Ms. Tandon chronicles her ordinary (conventional) and extraordinary experiences, detailing the challenges, constraints, contributions, and achievements of her career across various field offices and central ministries. These chapters reflect, in a way, on her diverse career, navigating through the highs and lows of her professional journey vis-à-vis seniors, contemporaries and subordinates, besides capturing her unique professional constraints and contributions across field offices and central ministries, involving her joint secretary-level and above appointments, when a bureaucrat has more opportunity and liberty to work with own wisdom, vision and mission, and, in the final leg, as Secretary Defence Finance, to the corridors of power in South Block. I must admit that had I not read her autobiographical account, I would have missed the fact that she was so closely associated with the dynamics of budget, something so close to my heart till retirement, ever since I had a long stint at the middle level in South Block handling Budget, Plans & Systems (both MOD Defence & Civil).
Chapters 16-17 illustrate her exposure to institutional financial operations: initially, as Under Secretary in the Ministry of Finance, with high-stakes balancing acts inside the Defence Budget Division, and then as Dy Financial Advisor (Navy), navigating maritime procurement, fleet maintenance budgets, and naval strategic priorities. When you deal with the budget, you simultaneously also get a first-hand opportunity to learn the intricacies of macro-level economics, financial planning and procurement in the service or organization. Chapter 18 is a testimony to her middle-level leadership skills at the CDA (Southern Command) in Pune, managing a heritage institution overseeing a vast geographical jurisdiction.
Chapters 19-22 illustrate at length Ms. Tandon’s challenging experiences in organizational restructuring and training in Controllers’ organizations and National Institute of Management & Accounts (NIMA) at Meerut, and non-finance deputation in the Ministry of Surface and Transport (MOST), New Delhi. Basically, the first two chapters are attestations of her middle-level role and contribution to addressing institutional inertia, office unionization challenges, administrative resilience in between frequent transfers and visits to subordinate Pay Accounting Offices. The next chapter on NIMA provides her insights and mentoring role in training and capacity building for young IDAS probationary officers. She had joined MOST in January 1983 as Dy Secretary, soon upgraded as Director, and joined back the parent cadre as CDA (Hqrs) on promotion to the Senior Administrative Grade in August 1987; during this stint, she navigated mostly through general administration, enriching her operational perspective beyond traditional finance (Chapter 22).
Chapters 23-29 contain annals of Ms. Tandon’s journey from the Senior Administrative Grade (Joint Secretary or equivalent) to the ultimate power and apex assignment of Secretary to the Government of India. Chapter 23 contains her experiences and records as an organizational head (CDA Hqrs), August 1987 onwards, transitioning from supporting administrator to final decision-maker that, inter alia, details the psychological and structural shifts required when holding apex responsibility. After two years, in August 1989, she was posted as Controller of Finance to the Ordnance Factory Board (OFB), Kolkata, where she had a successful and satisfying tenure of about four and a half years, working for modernizing state-owned defence industrial units, cost-accounting reforms, and balancing civil workforce expectations with military production demands. I am not going into the nitty-gritty of detail but would like to cite here her own observations: “In retrospect, I do feel had I not worked as Controller of Finance at OFB, I would have missed a very important part of my learning the Finance job, which is particularly challenging when one is associated with a manufacturing organization.”
Chapter 25 details her journey of fruitful work and interpersonal experience as Joint Secretary & Additional Financial Advisor back in South Block from January 1994 onwards, after a gap of sixteen years. She had core exposure and experiences initially dealing with the OFB and Defence Production and later on Navy, and a few other tasks. Her account aptly captures the environment of South Block (housing the Ministry of Defence and External Affairs: Prime Minister’s Office also located there), focusing on civil-military relations, inter-ministerial coordination, and high-value strategic acquisitions. On completion of her tenure, she took one year’s study leave to work on Programme Budgeting in Defence Services. This was a period when I had the opportunity to interact and learn more about her, as my tenure in South Block was almost coterminous with hers.
Chapters 26-27 deal with her posting as Advisor in the Planning Commission in January 2000 for a short stint of about a year before moving to South Block again as an Additional Secretary. As an Advisor, Planning Commission, she had a role in evaluating macro-economic allocations and long-term national development plans, while as the first lady officer in the capacity of Additional Secretary, she had to deal with all administrative work related to Air Force, Military Engineering Service, Land and Cantonment, Ex-Servicemen matters and all Ceremonial Functions. In her multifarious role and functions as an administrative Additional Secretary, here I would only refer to her significant role and contribution in decision-making that led to CCS approval of the much-needed ECHS scheme, setting up of ECHS clinics, and commensurate payment and accounting system. As the representative of CGDA, I had attended such meetings, and I can say with conviction that such schemes of greater magnitude see the light of day only if the officer(s) handling them at the apex level is visionary, with a positive mindset and welfare orientation.
Finally, Chapter 28 chronicles her last-leg assignment and experiences as Secretary Defence Finance – an ambition many civil servants nurture but few are able to achieve, subject to their length of civil service, career progression through accumulated experiences and contributions, and lastly, prarabdha (destiny), as I call it. The chapter broadly covers structural reforms in defence financial management, streamlining capital acquisitions, balancing operating versus capital expenditures, and breaking gender norms at the highest levels of national security governance. Chapter 29 largely reflects on her post-retirement transition in 2005, emphasizing public policy engagements, mentoring underrepresented demographics, and broader civic commitments.
Instead of going into further greater detail, I would like to summarize her own admission of two most crucial achievements, among many feathers in her cap, that she shared with President Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam in Rashtrapati Bhavan. She stated her significant role in 1) compilation of a Defence Procurement Manual uniformly applicable to the three Indian Armed Forces; and 2) the system of preparing the price list of all products produced in Ordnance Factories, facilitating DGOS to place their indents in time and, in turn, enabling Ordnance Factories to plan and manufacture needed products. She has named Chapter 29 “Retired – With Promises to Keep”, to highlight her post-retirement interests in search for self-actualization, so aptly concluding with Robert Frost’s lines:
The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep
And miles to go before I sleep
And miles to go before I sleep.
My review of her memoirs would remain incomplete if I do not share my general perceptions and appreciation of her autobiographical account. Ms. Somi Tandon’s narrative style indeed balances rigorous official precision with an engaging and storytelling warmth. She transforms what could have been a dry record of budgets, audits and defence allocations, etc., into a lively, human-centred narrative. Her storytelling is articulate, measured and reflective, seamlessly bridging the gap between high-level policy discussions and intimate personal anecdotes. By structuring her chapters around key mentors, workplace dynamics, and pivotal assignments, she has actually created a steady chronological flow that keeps the reader anchored in her evolving professional perspective.
The book’s descriptive strength lies in its insider view of India’s national security bureaucracy. Ms. Tandon brings so meticulously the formal and high-stakes corridors of South Block, the sprawling operations of the Ordnance Factory Board, and the field command accounts offices to life. Rather than unduly relying on complex administrative jargon, she uses character sketches and situational case studies to explain how decision-making actually unfolds behind closed doors. Then, her portrayal of colossus figures like Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam offers rare qualitative depth, showing how personal leadership styles directly influence organizational culture and policy outcomes.
If there is any pitfall in the work, it stems from its sheer breadth and occasional institutional granularity. Readers seeking a dramatic, conflict-heavy tell-all may find her tone more cautious or diplomatic, as she prioritizes systemic analysis and institutional propriety over personal grievances. Furthermore, the detailed breakdowns of accounting frameworks, budget divisions, and organizational mechanics, while invaluable to professionals like me, can occasionally slow the narrative momentum for a general audience. Nearly one-third (10 chapters) of the memoir is devoted more or less to sequential portraiture dedicated to individual senior officers (i.e. character vignettes); while this offers an excellent “gallery of leadership” for insiders, it tends to slow down the main narrative arc for a significant stretch in the first half of the book. Of course, this is not a criticism but merely a professional observation.
For aspiring and junior civil servants, however, her memoirs serve as a masterclass in administrative integrity and quiet leadership. Ms. Tandon demonstrates how a young officer, woman or man alike, from a small town can navigate deeply entrenched hierarchies, break gender barriers without compromising own values, and master complex financial domains through rigorous discipline. Her career highlights that true influence in public service comes not from loud assertion or publicity, but from domain knowledge and expertise, emotional resilience, and an unyielding commitment to the public trust. In that sense, the memoir is not merely a record of a distinguished career; it is a testament to the enduring power of integrity, competence and quiet perseverance. It leaves the reader with a simple but powerful message: ceilings may be made of glass, but they can be broken without losing one’s grace.
Note: Book is available on Amazon
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