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on his line inspection visits .

I had a wonderful friend in John Standen working as Inspector
of Post Offices,Kollegal He taught me scooter riding. Once in
the initial stages of my learning the scooter with Standen on the
pillion I thoughtlessly applied both front and foot brake with
the result the scooter suddenly stood up on its front wheel only
to invite a loud exclamation from Standen ,”Oh my bucking
bronco” in the cowboy style! Standen was full of wit and

humour. Another colourful person working in the Head Office
was Harold Watsa who always had a Wodehouse book in his
hand. He could not speak without provoking you to laughter!

After a brief period of my stay in the first floor of office I
finding accommodation to the office not sufficient vacated the
first floor and asked some sections and staff to move up. I
found an alternate accommodation in Lakshmipuram quite close
to the office. My wife liked the house and soon busied herself
in raising a nice flower garden. She exerted herself to make our
life comfortable. She neatly budgeted the expenses of our
household requirements within the salary I earned. Not a visitor
to our house would take our leave without enjoying a bit of her
hospitality and a hot cup of coffee. The two brothers had
nothing to quarrel about. Every inspection trip I would
undertake would be complete with provision for our lunch ,
mine and that of my steno grapher, Mr.Lakshmana Rao.It will
be either uppuma, Adai – a kind of pancake made with toor dal
dough or chappathi and potatoes.This way I was safe from any
complaint of corruption in the matter of outsourcing my food!

Lessons of life learned the bitter way:

I have to confess that being an inexperienced beginner in
administration I took certain decisions the intensity of which
was disproportionate to the cause. For instance I viewed far
more seriously instances of staff keeping cash short .Because

there were too many instances reported of shortage of cash
while closing accounts of the concerned offices I conducted

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