AFVOA Newletter August 2020

Section 5 - Memoirs CV 2 No. 02 / 2020 Page 149 of 237 Director’s Special! 12 IAS Officers from the Bengal Cadre assembled at a Calcutta Club on a cool evening to meet Shri D.D.Sathe ICS, former Director of the IAS Academy who was on a visit to the city. As we waited and waited, after a long time a tiresome looking Sathe Sahib entered with a beaming smile and expressed his regret for the delay. Then, he pulled out the prized gift from inside his jacket. The prized gift for his former trainees was not easily available as he had to hunt from counter to counter and hence the delay. What was the item ? Beautifully gift wrapped whiskey bottle of that famous brand: “ DIRECTOR’s SPECIAL ” What a heart ! And what a “Spirit” ! ! ! Bad-At-Law Mr. K.M.S. Reddy, who was Income Tax Commissioner in Bangalore, was a Bar-At Law. Once his steno Menon misspelt his letterhead with the legend — “K.M.S. Reddy, Bad-At-Law .” The sporting Mr. Reddy caught the error (or was it?!) and admonished the steno: “I say Menon, I know and you know about my knowledge of law. But should you broadcast it to the entire world?” Poor Menon, he did not know where to hide his face. Wise and Otherwise : Shri J.P.Singh, an Income Tax Commissioner in Madras had two PAs — one an over- clever person and the other, a less intellectually endowed but pleasant guy who had come through the sports quota. Mr. Singh would always introduce them together to visitors, saying “One is wise and the other one is otherwise.” The discerning visitors could always make out which attribute referred to whom! Humour at Governor’s expense : Visit to Nainital was so frequent by this Governor of U.P. And, every time, the exasperated District Magistrate ( DM ) / Collector had to scrounge for funds towards hospitality expenses. This one time, he told his Nazir (DM’s man Friday ) to mend it by himself and not to bother him with fund paucity till the Governor’s visit is over. Everything went tickety-boo and the Governor’s caboodle was more than happy this