Deception

Mr. X is not a friend of mine, we have so very damn different perspectives on life, but he is colleague, and he is about to retire. In the government business retirement is a tricky affair. The amount of paper work is huge. They have to be done right, other wise the poor slob would have to leg it around to various offices after his active service is over. And that is pure hell in this blessed country, for, the moment one retires one’s value dramatically diminishes among the still working. I do not know why it should be like that, but that is the case.

I am in charge of his papers and though I do not like the guy myself I have to do it right. The man has done several things to get under my skin in the years I have worked with him and he is a little doubtful about my interest in his case. Yet he is as evil in his approach to me as ever he was. I can guess why. The poor man is small time leader of a service organization and is looking for an opportunity to rub it in. I do not mind that, for I know him inside out. Like all small time freaks he has a big opinion of himself and he derives great pleasure in showing it off.

The panic of retirement has not yet stuck in.

What irked me when I was going through his papers was the dissembling that went into making him an officer. He belongs to a converted community, or at least I gather as much from his papers. He had given a different community name and has marked his descent from a tribal clan. He was quite shameless in admitting that the thing was done to get him the benefit of reservation in the selections to the services. Now the deception was a quarter century old, and there is nothing to be done about it.

I got through the paper work with a very uncomfortable feeling. I have no ill will towards the guy as such, being aware of his financial position. But yet a bad taste lingered.