Ani
was overjoyed when he cleared the PSC examination for the post of an LD Clerk,
the dream of millions of unemployed in the State. It had been a tough grind. Though
the eligibility to appear in the examination was a pass in the 12th Standard,
Ani was a Post Graduate in Commerce. It was the third year since he acquired the PG degree. As the jobless in
the state were quite large in numbers, landing a job had been a difficult
proposition.
Ani
received the appointment letter after a year of hibernation. He was posted to a Government Department as an LD Clerk. He was very
happy to report for duty as advised.
After
settling into the job routine he learned the office procedure. Files were
created on each issue. The LD Clerk puts up the file to the superior. It goes
up to the top for orders passing through different layers. Each of the officials
would be initialing the file as it goes up. Finally it reaches the top. Then it
travels back to the initiator the same way it went up.
Ani
was sad no one ever bothered to read what had been put up. He wanted an
overhaul in the procedure.
He
created a file himself. He wrote, ‘The Secretary is an Ass.’ He initialled it
and forwarded it upwards for orders. It took
sometime as it went up to the top initialled by different layers.
Finally it came back to Ani. When he scrutinised it he found that the Secretary had scribbled ‘Seen’ and ‘File’ and had affixed his initials beneath it.
It was the order.
Ani
to his consternation understood the system could never be overhauled.
This is a story that had been published in a Malayalam newspaper's weekend edition more than four decades back. I do not remember where it was published. It stayed in memory.
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