Untold Truths

Chinnaswamy Srinivas Tamarindulu in short --- CST looks like a C grade South Indian film hero. Every morning he gets up sharp at 5 AM. Takes bath exactly within 8 minutes. Drapes himself in a white dhoti. Bare bodied, he stands in front of the different idols and chants hymns in a rhythm. Applies the sandal wood paste horizontally over his forehead and arms. After finishing of all the religious rituals he goes to the kitchen to make some “filter coffee”. Prepares two steel glasses of “filter coffee”. One he gives it to his widowed mother and then enjoys the coffee with the vernacular morning newspaper. After finishing off the political headlines he heads for the color pages where the newspaper supplement is filled up with film gossips. He stares at the buxom,navel showing actresses with lots of flesh. CST wakes up from his imaginative world. 

CST is preparing for the Civil Services Examination. He is already 27 years old and had already flunked twice, now he has to clear the examinations this time, otherwise what will his maternal uncle think about him. His uncle is the Home Secretary of a North Indian State. He is quite popular in the corridors of power. CST doesn’t get distracted by anything else except he often leafs through the pages of different girlie magazines in the middle of his “studies”. This not only “rejuvenates” him but also brings back his “concentration” and focus in studies.

CST gets a very low position in the examination. He was offered a post in the Rural Development department.  His maternal uncle helped him out. CST gets into a “sensational department” of Government of India in a “sensitive post”. CST joins the department. CST starts his “nine” moths training. After “nine “months he will blossom into a full grown “Government Bureaucrat”. His mother started looking for a “well educated Brahmin” bride for him. At last the bride was found. She was from the IPS cadre (Indian Postal Cadre). CST couldn’t control his emotions and hormones. He was desperate to be in touch with his fiancée. CST used to make a queue outside the “ISD - STD, Local Telephone Booth” after 10 PM as the tariff rates were much lower.  After many a “sweet nothings” he used come home with a lesser purse and a sense of accomplishment. What accomplishment? Getting into a good department using the backdoor and having a girl in his life.

The junior staff used to call CST --- megalomaniac, which was more than appropriate. His weird ways of working had completely put off the staff. He was not popular and created divisions. He was in a habit of bullying his staff which later turned to terrorizing the poor fellows. Not allowing any sort of leave to the staff during an emergency which would have been in the form of “death of parents” or wedding of a staff or it could be birth of a child. CST had a “greater vision ahead for the country” which the common people could not “foresee”. As a head of an office he refused to give the staff a “Pay Certificate” to enable them to get a house building loan from the banks. The reason being they would be “exposed” to the outside world and thus could be easily “purchased” by the enemy. CST believed as he and his staff worked in a sensitive department they have to attain maximum restrain in “exposing” themselves unnecessarily to the “general public”. Though Mr. CST himself took a house building loan of Rs. 35 Lakhs from a private bank.  

The day of the great “rejoicing” came in his life when he was called to undergo a three year stint at Berlin. He immediately took the flight leaving behind his “Postal” wife and daughter. The same type of tyrant attitude towards the staff continued in Berlin also. He used to torment his personal secretary Mr. Hada.  His personal secretary was a soft spoken man and wanted to enjoy his foreign posting at Berlin with his family members. It’s a dream of every, well almost every Indian to “live” in a “foren” country and “enjoy” the magnificence  and bring back home the much wanted “US Dollars” and the stories to be told and retold to all, including strangers.

Unable to bear the constant “torture” and humiliation from CST, Mr. Hada committed suicide leaving behind a suicide note blaming CST for taking this ultimate step. A case for “abetment to suicide” was registered against CST. He was in a big trouble. CST rang up his Godfather – maternal uncle. Mrs. Hada came back to India with her eight year old daughter. Mrs. Hada approached her husband’s office for any compensation in the form of Gratuity, Provident Fund, and Exigency Fund but to no avail. She ran pillar to post for her genuine rights but the senior officers, clerks were not honest in their approach. It was difficult for her to maintain her family and dignity. How she would continue her life and educate her daughter?

Someone advised Mrs. Hada to go to the media and tell them to flash the news of how a perverted murderer in the form of CST has destroyed a family. Mrs. Hada acted accordingly. The media got “sensational news” of a “sensitive department” of Government of India. CST felt the time has come for him to go to the prison.

The time has come for Home Secretary maternal uncle to become active. A troupe of senior officers came regularly to negotiate with Mrs. Hada. She was given a deal. A job in the same sensitive department as per her qualifications and also give her a lump sum of 50 lakhs rupees plus all her husband’s dues would be released within three days. For all these she has to write a simple statement which would run like this --- “My husband Mr. Hada was always a mentally unstable man and had suicidal tendencies. Even when there were fights between my husband and me he used to threaten me that he will commit suicide………….”

Mrs. Hada accepted the deal. CST’s wife left him for good. The junior staffs are still suffering.

Note: 

CST is a fictional character created entirely out of imagination by the author. There is no malicious intention of the author to show a particular individual, sect or community in a derogatory manner. This has been done intentionally to justify the main character. Readers are advised to make their own assumptions about the particular department which CST is working for. Some of the events as depicted may be found  a little bit disturbing for the readers but this is life and most of us do not learn lessons from it…………

 

Sitendu De is the author of this story.