A 'Serif' existence!

Thought of sharing three real life stories from the world of bureaucracy. Story 1 : July 26, 2013: Today I read an interesting story in the Times of India fontpage. "Jawans on loo break still on national duty". The story is about a jawan- Sepoy Lakshman Kumar, who was on his way to a toilet while on duty when he suffered a fall along the Indo-China border in Ladakh on August 15, 2009. He died four days later. His wife was denied all compensations by PCDA - Principal controller of defence accounts, saying the soldier was not on duty when he got injured. His widow challenged the decision to deny compensation. Yesterday, the Armed Forces Tribunal in Chandigarh said that 'A soldier taking a loo break during working hours should be deemed on duty for the nation" and ordered Rs 10 Lakh compensation with an additional 10% interest. The widow asked in her review petition:  "It seems strange that the office of the PCDA is suggesting that a person should not eve...

I have a humble request to people who call me on my cellphone: Ask these simple questions to yourself before calling. 1. Is this call really important? Can my questions be answered through text (SMS or Email) ? 2. Is this call so urgent and important that I cannot wait for a few hours to get a reply? 3. is there a possibility that the receiver of the call may find it inconvenient to answer the call? 4. Are the topics of discussion of a specific nature that we cannot leave any record in text form ? I was experiencing a reduction in hearing ability on my left ear for a few years. Meanwhile, my wife happened to mention about Prof Girish Kumar from IIT Bombay who is doing a lot of research on health hazards of mobile phones and mobile towers. The most important conclusion was that mobile phones have an impact on our health! As the hearing problems increased, my awareness about mobile phones also improved a little bit. I started observing the calls I make and the calls I ge...