Bureaucratic bungle develops into a juicy international issue

Lovers' PlightLove is a tender plant, and it must be nurtured with care and affection. Sometimes refresh however, harsh winds can blight the sapling almost to death; recently, just such an ill wind disguised as the Post and Telegraph Department blew to cause a rift between a lover and his beloved.A young lady residing in Kurnool decided to felicitate her fiance on the occasion of Ramzan. Accordingly, she made up a parcel of clothes, and addressing it to her loved one cash in Hyderabad, consigned it to the mercies of the Indian postal service. The loved one received the parcel five days later, and rushed with fevered hands and blushing cheek to open it.Strange and terrible things happened in the sorting office, and when the parcel got to the fiance, the clothes had metamorphosed into two stones wrapped in a shabby piece of cloth. Needless to say, the loved one was quite annoyed, and the love-light in his eyes had dimmed considerably when, the following day, he picked up the telephone and prepared to speak in a very reproachful toneto his fiancee at the other end of the line.She was not at home however, and that made matters worse; the loved one continued to ruminate on the cruel prank. Eventually, the young lady called him, probably to inquire after the present. When the flood of reproaches had abated somewhat, she managed to convince him that it was not her fault at all, and that she had a postal receipt to prove it. The young man simmered down, love recovered its bloom. But the clothes, when reports last came in, were still missing.Taming BacchusImphal, the beautiful capital of Manipur state had acquired quite a reputation for itself, thanks to its young men. They had apparently succumbed to the lure of the drink that cheers, and illicit liquor bars and other shrines to Bacchus mushroomed swiftly in the town: the result was that parts of Imphal especially in the balmy evenings, took on the aspect of Rome at the height of its decline and fall.For the past few weeks, the magistrates of the town were doing brisk business, handing down fines to groups of reeling, hiccuping youths hauled before them after an evening of revelling not wisely but too well. The fines ranged from Rs 30 to Rs 50, but that was small beer - quite literally - for the youths, who, to the magistrates' chagrin, kept coming back for more. The young men's boisterous spirits often led to confused battles fought in the taverns and on the streets.After a particularly rousing episode recently, the police decided that something had to be done. So, Bacchus' disciples are now made to hand over their names and addresses, and those of their parents, to the law men, who then release the list to the press for publication. Young men who hang about on street corners are also rounded up and sent home. All this belated zeal has had some effect: attendance at the bars has fallen, and although boys still buy bottles of brew to drink in the privacy of hostel rooms, the streets had sobered up.Bureaucratic BungleNot many prople are likely to have heard about Suriya Lanka, and the Indian Air Force (IAF) would like to keep it that way, because Suriya Lanka is an IAF station in Andhra Pradesh. Some time ago, the fly boys decided to hold a series of air exercises which would take a large part of south India in their sweep.As the roar and the clamour of jets staging mock battles would alarm the fishermen - and possibly also the fish - the assistant director of fisheries, Rameswaram, Tamil Nadu, issued a warning circular to the fisher men, advising them to keep away from the area during the period. Unfortunately, with typical bureaucratic flair, the name Suriya Lanka became Sri Lanka in the circular. While the fishermen wondered why the air force of a neighbour had to flex its muscles in Indian air space, they nevertheless took the precaution of despatching a memorandum to the Government, in which they asked it to take up the matter with the Sri Lanka Government. The whole thing had begun to develop into a juicy international issue when someone discovered that Sri Lanka had nothing to do with it all, and that the bureaucracy had bungled once again.Polyester PoliticianIn a country that swears by Mohandas Karamchand Gandhiad nauseam, it is refreshing to come across somebody who marches to a different drummer. That somebody is none other than R. Gundu Rao, the go-getting chief minister of Karnataka.Last fortnight Rao turned up at the first fraternity gathering of the All-India Vijaya Bank Employees Union nattily dressed in a suit and flashing his dark glasses at the massed collection of accountants and cashiers. So dazzling was his get-up that D. Venkatesh, general secretary, Indian National Trade Union Congress. Karnataka, could not help remarking with admiration on the chief minister's sartorial perfectionUpon this, Rao, possibly preening himself like a peacock, proclaimed to the hushed gathering that he, as a young man, would want to dress himself in different styles of apparel. Keeping up with the latest in fashion obviously does not leave much time to spin the charkha and the humble home-spun khadi cannot but give way before the sleek shimmer of polyester and silk.And so, Rao asserted that he could not be a hypocrite and call himself a Gandhian; he could think of following the precepts of the Mahatma only when he turned 70.As Rao is only 44, he can indulge in his youthful passion for clothes for a long time. However, he is being less than modest: he is a Gandhian following the leader in 1 Safdarajung Road, New Delhi.Published By: AtMigration Published On: Nov 12, 2013 15:45 IST--- ENDS ---

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Bureaucratic bungle develops into a juicy international issue

Not many prople are likely to have heard about Suriya Lanka, and the Indian Air Force would like to keep it that way, because Suriya Lanka is an IAF station in Andhra Pradesh.

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