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By Vijay Kumar

Our piece on the Seventh Sense received tremendous response, not all complimentary of course. A netizen even wondered why it evoked so much response. And another one sent in a hilarious incident. In government there is an unwritten rule that when one officer calls up another officer on phone, the junior officer has to wait before the senior one come on line. The phone conversation would go like this.

PA1: Hello!, I am PS to Chief Commissioner xxx; he is 1971 batch. Wants to speak to your Chief Commissioner; which batch is he?

PA2: He is 1970 batch; ask your Chief Commissioner to come on line.

PA1: on intercom to his boss: Sir, you wanted to speak to Chief Commissioner xxxx; his PS is on line.

This protocol took a nice twist when a senior Chief Commissioner wanted to speak to his junior colleague who had been just promoted as Member.

PA1: Hello I am PS to CC XXX. He wants to speak to your Chief Commissioner.

PA2: Ask your CC to come on line.

PA1: No, ask your CC to come on line, my CC is senior.

PA2: He was senior till yesterday, but today my CC is promoted as Board member and so he is senior.

PA1: I don’t think my boss would like to come on line and wait; let me find out.

The PA goes in and tells his boss that the other PA informs that his boss is senior and so his boss will not come in line. The big boss says, “Forget it I will not talk to him”

(This is a true incident and not fiction.)