For someone who has had a demanding schedule all through the past three years or so after being appointed the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the National Games Secretariat in 2012, the striking feature of Jacob Punnoose, the former State Police Chief, has been his amiable approach. This tough taskmaster has guided a small team and helped Kerala get ready for the 35{+t}{+h}National Games in record time. Excerpts from a chat with The Hindu:
Q. What are the hard lessons you learned in the past three years or so?
A. A few, but those were never irritating. What was hard was to work with different stakeholders who never took us seriously and thus failed to keep up the expected pace. But that is the way of life and you have to be a sport.
Q. Are you satisfied that all is set for the Games?
A. Yes, very much so. But I think the hard work starts now. The competitions will keep us busy through the next fortnight and then there is the winding-up operations which could take some time. Ensuring thorough maintenance of all the new stadia is certain to be another challenge.
Q. How was this innings different from the one as the State Police Chief?
A. In a disciplined force, everything has a set pattern. But here things were different as we had to start from scratch and with a small team. However, being CEO of the National Games Secretariat too has been immensely satisfying.
