It was the year 1989.A visibly tense Nayaki accompanied by her father entered the C wing on the third floor of Periyar EVR building Nandanam.It was her first day at work,the day 26th June 1989.Since then she has come a long way thanks to the superiors who encouraged her and motivated her to work to the best of her ability .
But for family commitments and other priorities which were more important than her job she would have been a gazetted officer today and obliged many of you with her prized signature.Alas ! That was not to be.Anyway for those who really care now and because she cares too she intends signing autograph books right away..Haha :-)
Nevertheless ! jokes apart ,let me straight away get to what I wish to express in this post..
It was the year 2000.We had recently shifted to our own new building within the existing AG campus on Mount Road.Just a couple of years back I had begun to work on the computer.I was posted in the Administrative section and when we shifted to the new Lekha Pariksha Bhavan we had a new officer too.
Mr Chandran was a workaholic and a gentleman with a great sense of humour.But work came first and he meant serious business.Slowly we started realising that he was not as stern as he appeared to be.Yet ! when he blew his top the entire wing trembled.
I was young and very enthusiastic about my work.It could be my attitude or the lessons that my mom taught me..I always keep a cool head and I try my best to work to the satisfaction of my colleagues and superiors,The ulterior motive is always to impress and make it to the list of the officials who are felicitated for their meritorious work.
I was responsible for maintaining the Service books and drawal of pay and allowances of Group A officers.
Every year on the first of July a return is due to Headquarters office New Delhi, intimating the men in position along with several other details such as age,date of appointment,date of completion of probation,dates of increment,promotion and place of posting etc..
I was new to computers and I was slowly learning to use the short cuts.Mr Chandran was particular about using the key board rather than the mouse.He would personally oversee our work while typing and suggest short cuts..That's how I learnt to use the control keys.
It was June end and I was aware about this return.It had to reach Headquarters positively on the first of July.Mr Chandran was a stickler for rules and also stuck to deadlines.We were stiff scared of him and we never dared to stray away from the stipulated dates.
The return was ready.I took a print out ,drafted a note and a covering letter,filed the letter on the correspondence side on the right,filed the note on the left side,numbered the pages,marked the key pages on the note and the letter,affixed flags on the relevant pages and put it up to my immediate officer ,a young woman.She was blindly in love with me I guess.She did not bother to read it,put her initials and sent it to Mr Chandran for his approval.
I was very pleased with myself.I heaved a sigh of relief and took out the crossword section of the newspaper.It was playtime for me...
As I concentrated on the grids,I never realised that somebody was behind me...I was in for a shock when Mr Chandran shouted at the top of his voice and I got up startled.His eyes were blood red and fuming with anger he placed the file on my table.In a gruff voice he said,please check it and put it up again.Realising that he was speaking to a woman,he had mellowed down.Yet the anger was writ largely on his face,I could sense that.He walked away in a huff..
By then the other staff members had also got up from their seats wondering what had happened..I was misty eyed too.I opened the file and checked the contents.The note was perfect,the draft was excellent.What could have gone wrong I wondered ? Pondering over my bad stars thinking that he was in a bad mood and had vented out some other pending pressures on me,I went through the annexure that contained the details of the officers..
Whoa ! What a blunder I had committed I realised !....It was an old return dated 1998.Most of the officers mentioned therein had been transferred out of Tamilnadu. Here was a clear case of a cut, a copy and a paste without edition.I hung my head down in shame,went to his room and apologised...
Realising my folly was enough to cool matters down.It was a lesson and all for my good because I know that I can never commit such a mistake again.
The officer. smiled and said " I have recommended your name for this year's Merit Award.Please live up to it."....The stars were in my favour.....
