• Download mobile app
28 Mar 2024, Edition - 3180, Thursday

Trending Now

  • IPL 2024 begins with a bang. First contest between CSK and RCB.
  • Election commission allots mike symbol to Naam Thamizhar Katchi
  • AIADMK promises to urge for AIIMS in Coimbatore, in its election manifesto.
  • Ponmudi becomes higher education minister.

Columns

Reminiscence of a Government Retiree – Part I

Covai Post Network

Share

Dear Friends, through this column I would like to share some of my experiences as a Central Government servant of over three and a half decades. Some will be amusing and interesting anecdotes and some will be on some serious topics governing the society.

I have tried to make it as lucid and as interesting to the readers. Please read along.

Typical leave letter:- A staff member working under me sought two days leave to dispose off his land. I reproduce his leave letter ‘verbatim’

“Since I have to go my native place to sell my land along with my wife, I need two days leave which may be granted”. After reading the letter, with a grin on my face I told him, “You can sell off the land, but why do you want to sell your wife?” The man blinked and went through his leave letter. He hesitantly gave a smile becoming aware of his own stupidity.

Very shocking noting:- While wading through the files sent by the subordinates I was aghast to find a shocking noting by a staff member. The grammar was poor and I could not decipher what he wanted to convey. Immediately I wrote below his note ‘Please speak with the file”, indicating that the chap should meet me with the file to clarify the note made by him.

For one full day there was no response from him and therefore, the next day I called him to ask why he did not speak to me regarding the notes he made. Without batting an eyelid he said, “Sir I have made a further note in the file yesterday itself and send it to you”.

Then he pulled out the file from the rack and showed me his extraordinary note. It was under as follows: “Spoken with the file, no response”. Controlling my anger, and to ease the tension of the situation, I jocularly told him that I wanted him to bring the file and then speak to me whereas he had communicated with an inanimate object. “You must be really an intelligent man”. The man blinked for a moment and left my room with a wide smile.

I am the General Manager:- Two managers were indulging in verbal fight, throwing abuses at each other. The first manager told the other person, “You are an idiot’. The other manager retorted, “You are a dunce and a fool”. Because of the furore, the General Manager appeared from nowhere and said in Tamil “Naan Oruththan irukkarathaiye maranthuteenga pola iruku”.

Encounter with the Peon:- In an office, the manager and his peon were engaged in an argument, when out of sheer frustration, the manager asked the peon in Tamil “Inga nee Manager ah? Aallthu naan Manager ah?” The peon replied “Neenga than Sir Manager”. Now the Manager said “Pinne, nee aen madathanama pesara!” The Manager unwittingly confessed that it was his prerogative to talk ‘Madathanama’’.

(The author is E. P.Anathanarayanan, former Additional Commissioner , Income Tax )

Subscribe To Our Newsletter

COIMBATORE WEATHER