In a certain work place, the wife of the Boss man was very unpopular. She was disliked by many of her husband’s subordinates and their spouses. She was allegedly pompous, proud and self serving. She had a little puppy. And the canine was as tempestuous and temperamental as she, which would often bite anybody that it could lay its teeth on, indiscriminately. It often bit guests when they would sometime pat the pup in front of its fond mistress, pretending to admire its highbrow origin. Sweetie gained notoriety and became very much disliked like her mistress.
All went well in till one fine day. Around midnight, people were woken up by the distraught Lady who was almost in tears that Sweetie was in such an unbearable pain for some strange reasons and so curiously in the night.
Sycophants went into an overdrive. Strings were pulled, favours due were asked to be returned through phone calls made in the dead of the night and an ambulance was procured. They fell over one another in their hurry to please the over-powerful Boss man. Boss men are indeed powerful, with a stroke of a pen careers can come to a standstill. Or maybe you could get shunted to Timbucktoo or some island in some obscure sea. A cursing departmental driver was woken up abruptly from the arms of his wife and dispatched to the Boss’s residence accompanied by an assistant trailing along to act as the co-driver of the Ambulance.
Meanwhile, words spread that bad times had befallen the Boss. ‘A dear relative of their first Lady’ was in a situation of life and death. Some minions didn’t know Sweetie was in fact a poor spoilt puppy. They were genuinely sorrowful and worried what other bad times would come their benefactor’s way. They cited that the spate of bad tidings were there as evidence of some displeasure of some powerful God.
The family’s Panditji went to the Dharmshtal and prayed till dawn. Fearing that the current shower of bad fortune pouring down on the family was somehow an omen of more inauspicious future, the Panditji prayed for his own absolution too.
Meanwhile, Sweetie reached a hospital and her pain was relieved by amused staffs and returned to its kennel before the evening was over. And all was well. None would have known the genesis of Sweetie’s illness. It remained one of the world’s best kept secrets how a well fed, adored, cared for and pampered highbrow pup like Sweetie could develop some illness and be admitted in the hospital.
A few weeks later, the truth about the whole episode was revealed. It was not unexpected. The Lady had crossed all limits of decency by being overbearing and rude to her husband’s subordinates that one of the minions, bitter about having been rubbed the wrong way constantly by her took it out on the spoilt puppy. The man gave the pup such a strong kick that Sweetie didn’t eat or sleep or for that matter didn’t allow its master and mistress any sleep that particular night.
It is one fine example of the occupational hazards of our profession. Existence we realise could be one hell of a dog’s life!
Best Novels of all times
Reading the HT, one lazy Sunday morning, I come across a full page article in the supplement where the so called greatest novels of all times are listed courtesy the Guardian, London, UK.
I do not know the criteria on which the greatness of a book is decided upon. It could be the way the prose is written, the use of language, the plot of the story or plain popularity. However, I know it would not only be me that would be surprised at the books listed among the best novels of all time.
Forgive me if I make you think that I have airs of being an intellectual or call it ‘Pseudo Intellectualism’. I have no pretensions of having any literary knowledge nor have anything to boast of in terms of work to show off as any sign of a latent literary talent or output on my part. I have not read many classics so as to exhibit superficial knowledge when I get together with friends at parties. I know the articles that I write are worth nothing and the lines I try to pass off to you all as poems are nothing but crude musings that doesn’t even hold together for more than a stanza.
Topping the list in HT was Don Quixote written by Cervantes. Interestingly the only time I ever come across that story was when I was in the fourth grade. I remembered once having looked for stories to read, picked up the English textbook of an elder sister who was in 8th grade. It was a version adapted for publication in text- books for high school kids. Interestingly I never came across that novel in any of the many libraries that I as a college undergrad and later as an employee of the GOI frequented wherever and whenever I could. So it was a surprise though I never doubted the quality of books that Cervantes wrote.
In a list compiled for national dailies the list has to be exhaustive. And it was. You have to include Camus, Salinger etc etc. Current authors however did not feature much in the list maybe they are too contemporary and thus their inclusion might have smacked of personal bias. Else Coelho is one such writer who deserves mention if not for use of the English language then at least for the gift of story -telling.
Public Services Bill 2006 A reform that should have seen the light of day a long time ago is the proposed Public Services Bill 2006. The bureaucracy in this country was never without its demerits. Many bureaucrats while in service or once retired often crib about the ways the system functions with all its ills but never in their time contribute to do away with the ills.
The different establishments vary only in degrees. The overall picture is the same whichever branch of the government we may look at. Some may differ from the rest.
Babudom has never been threatened like it is now with the advent of this bill. Attrition rate will shoot up but the consolation is that nepotism, sycophancy and the ilk would not ensure undue favour to certain individuals more privileged than the rest. It wouldn’t be practical to ever believe that a system with no drawback can be brought into effect. However it would not be too bad to be optimistic that at least governance and accountability would increase.
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