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Here is an anecdote that adds to the previous post:
http://gpsastry.blogspot.in/2012/12/secretary-birds.html
By the time my friend NP became the Deputy Director of IIT KGP, I was a pretty senior Professor with a telephone on my office table...when a visitor entered my new office in C-236, he was stunned by the size of my table and said:
"You have a Secretary Table!" (meaning a table the size of the IAS Secretaries' in Writers Buildings at Cal).
My friend's DD-Table in his huge plush office with sofas and cushioned chairs was thrice the size of mine.
And the DD's door was always shut (his office was air-conditioned). And he had an all-powerful Secretary Bird sitting by his Secretary Table just outside the DD's door. All the power the Sec Bird had was to deny entry into his Boss's Office to all and sundry, saying:
"DD is busy!"
except to those who took from him a telephone-appointment. Remember Bernard Levin's Theorem?:
http://gpsastry.blogspot.in/2010/07/bernard-levins-theorem.html
I rarely had to go to the DD's Office, except when my HoD, MLM, wanted some favor for our Dept like air-conditioners for our nascent Computer Lab.
And my friend NP gave standing instructions to his Sec Bird that gps should be ushered into his office without any questions asked whenever he showed up. So, the Sec Bird was all smiles whenever I landed there and was getting up and opening the door for me.
After NP's three-year term as DD was over and he became the MD of STEP, Prof B took charge as the new DD.
And then I bought an apartment in Nellore and had to perform the default Grihapravesham Function whose Muhurat fell in mid-August right during the Autumn Semester. And I needed a full week's Earned Leave for travel.
By then the Leave Rules got tightened and my HoD, Prof MLM, told me that it was out of his hands, he could only forward and recommend it to the DD who could screw it all up if he was in a bad mood.
So, I decided to walk into the new DD's Office. And I played a small prank. I didn't take the telephone-appointment of the good old DD-Sec Bird but just tried to barge in.
As I approached him, the Sec Bird, who was all smiles earlier on whenever he saw me, barred my way and told me politely:
"DD is busy!"
I then asked him to kindly buzz his new Boss and tell him that Prof GPS of Phy Dept was asking to see him.
Which he reluctantly did.
And in one second, the new DD came out, took me by my arm and led me inside...he was all alone.
And rebuked me for taking all the trouble of a visit...instead of just ringing up. My EL was granted in two seconds.
As I left the DD's Office, I smiled at the Sec Bird who was looking rather silly.
For, he didn't know that I was a great matrimonial help to his new Boss three decades earlier when both of us were naughty boys living in the Faculty Hostel:
http://gpsastry.blogspot.in/2010/03/fish-n-chips.html
***********************************************************************************************************
Here is an anecdote that adds to the previous post:
http://gpsastry.blogspot.in/2012/12/secretary-birds.html
By the time my friend NP became the Deputy Director of IIT KGP, I was a pretty senior Professor with a telephone on my office table...when a visitor entered my new office in C-236, he was stunned by the size of my table and said:
"You have a Secretary Table!" (meaning a table the size of the IAS Secretaries' in Writers Buildings at Cal).
My friend's DD-Table in his huge plush office with sofas and cushioned chairs was thrice the size of mine.
And the DD's door was always shut (his office was air-conditioned). And he had an all-powerful Secretary Bird sitting by his Secretary Table just outside the DD's door. All the power the Sec Bird had was to deny entry into his Boss's Office to all and sundry, saying:
"DD is busy!"
except to those who took from him a telephone-appointment. Remember Bernard Levin's Theorem?:
http://gpsastry.blogspot.in/2010/07/bernard-levins-theorem.html
I rarely had to go to the DD's Office, except when my HoD, MLM, wanted some favor for our Dept like air-conditioners for our nascent Computer Lab.
And my friend NP gave standing instructions to his Sec Bird that gps should be ushered into his office without any questions asked whenever he showed up. So, the Sec Bird was all smiles whenever I landed there and was getting up and opening the door for me.
After NP's three-year term as DD was over and he became the MD of STEP, Prof B took charge as the new DD.
And then I bought an apartment in Nellore and had to perform the default Grihapravesham Function whose Muhurat fell in mid-August right during the Autumn Semester. And I needed a full week's Earned Leave for travel.
By then the Leave Rules got tightened and my HoD, Prof MLM, told me that it was out of his hands, he could only forward and recommend it to the DD who could screw it all up if he was in a bad mood.
So, I decided to walk into the new DD's Office. And I played a small prank. I didn't take the telephone-appointment of the good old DD-Sec Bird but just tried to barge in.
As I approached him, the Sec Bird, who was all smiles earlier on whenever he saw me, barred my way and told me politely:
"DD is busy!"
I then asked him to kindly buzz his new Boss and tell him that Prof GPS of Phy Dept was asking to see him.
Which he reluctantly did.
And in one second, the new DD came out, took me by my arm and led me inside...he was all alone.
And rebuked me for taking all the trouble of a visit...instead of just ringing up. My EL was granted in two seconds.
As I left the DD's Office, I smiled at the Sec Bird who was looking rather silly.
For, he didn't know that I was a great matrimonial help to his new Boss three decades earlier when both of us were naughty boys living in the Faculty Hostel:
http://gpsastry.blogspot.in/2010/03/fish-n-chips.html
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