Mehbub Gulley : Short Stories from India by Thanksy Francis

Author:Thanksy Francis
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub
ISBN: 9781646508549
Publisher: Notion Press
Published: 2019-11-28T00:00:00+00:00

Samuel was agreeably surprised one morning to see that the Department of Personnel had sent him a lovely young girl as his Under Secretary. Preeti walked into his room, her transfer order in hand. The fragrance of jasmine flowers wafted into the room from the flowers entwined in her hair. She was neatly dressed in a sky-blue chanderi cotton sari with a design of tiny dark blue paisleys. ‘I’ve just joined today, sir,’ she said gravely. Samuel gave her an outline of her responsibilities and a few tasks for the day. He was again surprised when she reported to him at the end of the day, all the jobs but one done and the reason why she would only be able to complete the undone task the next day.

He discovered in time that she was a Hindu Punjabi and also that she was a post graduate in Nuclear Physics. She had joined the Central Secretariat service as a Section Officer and had come on her first promotion to the Ministry of Forests. She always wore starched cotton saris and a string of white jasmine coiled into her hair. He was pleased to find that she was not silly but knowledgeable and efficient. He did not have to spend hours correcting her drafts painstakingly as he had to do with the other officers. He just told her what he wanted and she had it all done and ready for his signature. She soon made herself indispensable. On the days she was absent, the office seemed out of gear and everyone knew that they were bound to have a rough time, as Samuel saab would then be in a bad temper. Nobody else seemed to know where anything was kept.

There was a special presentation coming up. It was on the initiatives taken by the Ministry to stop the depletion of forest cover in the country. The UN envoy would be in attendance and the World Wildlife Fund authorities were also invited. They were considering a special project for the Ministry. Preeti devised a perfect presentation on her computer. Samuel only had to make one or two small corrections. She did all the work and then retired quietly into the background. He made the presentation and received fulsome praise from the Secretary himself. The Secretary, Misra, did not know that it was the new Under Secretary in the Ministry, Preeti, who had worked on the project. Samuel was thankful that he was lucky enough to have an assistant who did not want to reap the rich harvest of applause for herself and wangle an out-of-turn promotion or at least a nomination for a trip to Washington or London. It had taken all of his ingenuity to see that he was not dislodged by the Joint Secretary (Wildlife) from the trip to Johannesburg for the crucial meeting on Forest Wealth convened by the UN.

Samuel came home in high spirits, filled with the success of the presentation. Preeti had skilfully inserted a photograph of Misra

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.