AFVOA Newletter August 2020

Section 5 - Memoirs CV 2 No. 02 / 2020 Page 150 of 237 time at the level of hospitality. At the thanksgiving meet, the DM asked the Nazir : How did you manage the funds? Nazir : Sir, there was an unspent allocation in a budget head and I used it, for this purpose of hospitality for Governor’s entourage. Bemused DM : What is that budget head ? Nazir : Natural calamities, Sir. (This was narrated to me by Shri Anthony Lancelot Dias ICS, Governor of Bengal during one of his visits to Darjeeling where I was Assistant Magistrate and Collector) Humour in East Indian Railways : Station Masters on the East Indian Railways were given strict orders not to do anything out of the ordinary without authority from the Divisional Superintendent. Faced with an extra-ordinary situation, this Station Master had sent the following express telegram: To: Divisional Superintendent, Calcutta. “Tiger on platform eating a gangman . Please wire instructions on what to do . “ Ingenious Railway Man ! What takes the cake for the most ingenious circumvention of the red tape was what an Indian Railways Accounts Service ( IRAS ) officer , R. Srinivasan, did when he was Railways Personnel Manager at Guntakal Junction. As the Railway School did not have a budget provision for buying musical instruments for the school band, he asked the Engineering Department to make a requisition for “ pipes and drums for the Railways ” and used the money to get flutes, clarinets, drums, tablas, etc!