Coincidence and What not and Entertainment
Dinesh K Kapila
We all have episodes to relate from our lives, personal or otherwise. Or official. Many stay in our memory long after we have moved on to other issues and walks of life. Some such incidents do elicit a warm smile as we recollect them.
Coming to sheer coincidence, confusion and a near arrest, this one is rather too much. In one District in a State known for its sandy dunes and forts, a certain Mr M was the District Development Manager. One day he was informed that a certain Mr X, on promotion to Officer rank, would be attached with him for a fortnight so as to familiarise himself with rural areas and governance. Mr M sighed, Mr X was a rather loquacious and too curious and too complex a guy and he could stretch the most mundane of issues and discussions till eternity. Well, he advised Mr X to stay at a particular hotel on arrival and then to call him. Well Mr X would have none of it and after his own assessment, he decided to stay at a hotel near the railway station.
After checking in and informing Mr M, he decided to explore the neighbourhood. Mr M, already suitably cautious, advised him to move to the other hotel but Mr X tired him out with multiple explanations.
Well, Mr X stepped out of the hotel with his lit cigarette and found a jeweller’s shop nearby. Determined to pass time through the evening somehow, he went in and engaged the owner in a lengthy chat, saw multiple products from earrings to bangles, bargained over the prices and even had tea there. After a rather long time, Mr X decided to have his dinner and left after assuring the shopkeeper he would return soon. It seems the shopkeeper was not really pleased about this. Returning to his hotel, he had his dinner and went to sleep. Next morning Mr M picked him up at 6 am, since they had to go to another district. Mr M also admonished him for staying at that hotel and got him to check out.
Meanwhile next morning the shopkeeper contacted the police to complain that there had been a burglary at his jewellery store. The police swung into action and asked him if he suspected anyone but he said not really but did inform about a certain individual who had stayed for long and had insisted on seeing ਗ his products।
The police while investigating asked about all came over the previous day but all that he could describe was our Mr X and his lengthy stay at his jewellery store just a night ago. Well the police went off asking hotels nearby and sure enough the hotel where he stayed confirmed the match. The police got excited and were rather more suspicious that he had checked out. Their apprehensions about Mr X being high, they intensified their search. Now on his journey to the next district in the morning with Mr X, Mr M got him to check into a better hotel. This hotel now confirmed his registration and were shocked when the police got the room opened and seized the belongings. Returning late evening, Mr M was taken aback that the moment Mr X left his vehicle, two policemen had immediately pounced on him, he immediately intervened. Well, it took the intervention of the Deputy Commissioner to get it sorted out. I am told Mr X was not his usual very voluble self for quite a few days or maybe weeks after that !!
Then in the 1980s, NABARD was just formed (in 1982) and 1984, three officers were deputed for the statutory inspection of a Cooperative Bank in Punjab. All three officers were Sikhs (one of them told me this episode) and this was a rather turbulent time in Punjab then. On a weekend they decided to visit their families at Chandigarh. They went off to the bus stand late evening and were the only travellers at the small bus stand. A police vehicle drove up and the ASI asked them about their identity and destination. From the vehicle. Deciding who would know NABARD as it was just newly formed, after whispered consultations they said the RBI (NABARD was formed by staff from the RBI and ARDC). No problems said the ASI turning away but the Head Constable accompanying him got suspicious and demanded a proof of identity. Now one guy said actually we are from NABARD and proceeded to explain the formation. By now the ASI got suspicious too and demanded rather brusquely to see their identity cards, now our identity cards state the full name of NABARD and not the abbreviation. When the ID proofs were shown, he said show me NABARD. Just what is this confusion and who are you actually. The three cascading explanations had the policemen in a heightened alert mode given the situation in those times. And then it got into a rather complex situation. For the officers. Ultimately the situation was resolved by the Deputy Registrar of Cooperative Societies and by then the last bus had gone too! The weekend was spent in their small hotel over ledgers and notes rather than with their families.
The last one is from a colleague who years back had an uncle at a very senior level in the bureaucracy. Now this uncle was a rather puffed up guy and would not speak to his own family easily, forget the nephews. One day, visiting his ancestral village, this colleague, very young at that time, requested the local revenue official (the Patwari) for a document. The patwari asked for a small monetary incentive as is the custom generally. Our man returning, went straight to his uncle, who was rather busy but took time out for him. Once aware of the requirement, he was rather angry and told just the price of fuel you have spent to see me is much more than the cost of the facilitation and beckoned him to go away !!
That is how it is. I have met some senior bureaucrats who would just try to wrap up their meetings swiftly without even mentioning tea but once posted to insignificant departments, then we would attempt to hide from their sight as then the cup of tea was mandatory and sometimes too prolonged a session !!
Life as it is and will be. But enjoyable as we look back.
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