A SECRETARY’S WOES
Long
long ago (everyone knows how long ago ) , I was also a Soc-Sec. As any new
elect, I was in peak enthu . Had a hazaar list of things that I wanted to do. To speak frankly, I
didn’t have RG and soapbox as I was unanimous . So I did not know what exactly
non-sensical , illogical arguments would be like. Well I had my first taste of
it right in the first GBM. One main disgusting thing about Alak is the poor
response to GBMs. The only people who turn up are those already there reading
mags or those who come to show their decibel level . There were these , lets
call , “Three Musketeers” of Alak who considered themselves as the only
concerned Alakites ‘living’ in Alak. Hey being the first generation of Smart Alaks
, thought they were really smart. Moreover these three musketeers unfortunately
(for me) , being final-yearites were completely jobless and being the most
responsible inmates of the hostel, joblessly sat in the first row in the GBM.
My first point was to get a new carpet . The moment I said carpet , they jumped
into the air , made all those illogical arguments and finally packed the
carpets. Most of the others didn’t know what’s going on and even if some
understood , they couldn’t argue with these seniormost seniors. Thus my first
point was scrapped. This continued and somehow I managed to get my budgets
passed with common points. The same was the scene with Golu. They pained for
half an hour about getting extra spoons and made him pack the spoons. The show
was over for the day . You should have seen the sense of triumph in their
faces. Man, what a victory.
My
first problem as soc-sec ( and probably the only problem) was that “Neighbours’
laugh and Owner’s pain”…ONIDA TV. I wont go into the details of what exactly
happened but finally I ended up getting it repaired for 7 times. Four times by
the service center and three times by three different repair shops. In fact
this lucky TV roamed to all parts of Chennai – Nungambakkam, Adyar , Mylapore
etc. and took me along with it for the rides. Am not I lucky to have such a
sweet and heavy girlfriend ??
The
situation of the CR was horrible . Every time it used to take 1 week to send
the TV , 1 week for repairing and one week for getting it back and exactly one
week for water to be poured again. I am sometimes amazed as how patient I was
at that time. First of all getting it repaired by service-centre was pain as
they took lots of time and a lot of pushing. Above all, the three musketeers
were unbearable with their frivolous remarks. It was really the worst part of
my stay in Alak.
If this was the case with TV, the music system’s was much worse. When I first took it for repairing, I saw fevicol, paper, etc., stuffed into the player. Even the repairer gave up seeing them. After hajaar fight, I somehow got it repaired. Yet, it gave a good competition to TV in giving troubles and raw materials to the musketeers. That’s not all, we, secretaries had one more pain to take of – our own lovable Warden. Macha, he tests your patience like anything. When we decided to get a box for TV, he told me “You are in mech. Get an isometric view of TV box and show it to me in the evening!!! I had to pack lab report and draw an isometric view of the box for which Raja Rao would have given me 3/10 even if I talked to him in gult
To
get permission from the warden used to be really painful. This standard
approach was “write a letter to me requesting me to write a letter to CCW
requesting him to write a letter to …… “.
In
spite of all these, I enjoyed quite a bit of my tenure. Be it conducting events
(I conducted about 8 events) or buying things like chairs net-Lon. I also
learnt a lot of things especially how crazily junta behave with you when you
are soft. But the best part of my tenure was the hostel nite.
Thanx
to chari and co., we put 4 night outs amd finished the sexiest setting ever
made in any of the hostel nites. The Arabian Nite was a wonderful experience.
Only then, whether you believe it or
not, did I feel a sense of relief after 9 months of my tenure. It had always
been tense and always embarrassing.
But
I am really happy to have ended my tenure on a happy note- “The Arabian nite”.
So, this was the story of what it takes to work with painful senior. Now I will
tell you a different story.
After
finishing our tenures, golu and I strictly decided not to pain the new secs so
that they can work freely. So when Sid told me that he is buying a new carpet,
I was very happy. I specifically told my year junta not to oppose it and made
sure that it was passed in the new GBM.
The same was the case with most of the other secs budgets. It’s true
that our year junta did not put much enthu in these things. But if we wanted to
pain, we too might have become the musketeers.
We
thought we did a good thing. But the present situation is completely different
from what we thought. I do not know what’s taking Sid this much time to buy the
carpet. He seems to be a better IP sec than a soc-sec. Isn’t it bad to have
paid the money and haven’t even seen the carpet, forget about using it.?(with
just a month to leave alak ). Is it the secretary’s fault or the seniors’ fault
for keeping quiet? As I told you before
three guys are enough to pain the secs.
I don’t want to target just Sid, I really feel sad to see the behavior
of few other secs. It might look useless criticizing them now at the end of the
tenure but I think there is one point to look into.
My
point is that only if junta feel the responsibility and respond to the GBMs,
the situation will change. The problem was not with junta not attending GBM and
let these guys play around. Similarly the problem is not entirely of the
secretaries, but is of junta. So I sincerely feel that only if there is a
sincerely proper GBM, we can see some improvement in the hostel.
-
POLE DADA.