Between Posts and A Government Farewell

By Government employee standards it was not an unusual venue for hosting a farewell but it sure took me by surprise. I did not even imagine in my wildest dreams that I would be getting a farewell at, of all the places, an Udupi restaurant. The Shanbagh Restaurant at Liberty had the privilege of hosting my farewell last week. If you had been one of the lunchers at Shanbagh last Saturday you would have seen my embarrassed self accepting a bouquet from fellow employees appearing glad that I had been promoted at last.

I was a tad disappointed with the venue of my farewell but I was also happy that the venue eliminated the necessity of giving farewell speeches. I am embarrassed to give such speeches where I have to say so many lies praising my fellow workers and also be the subject of similar untruthful praises. I was greatly relieved for I had been dreading the prospect of the speech and had been having jitters just thinking of the opening lines. Not that I am a very bad speaker but I have the tendency of going off tangent and talking something entirely different.

I must have been the only government servant on whose promotion the main course at lunch was, surprise, surprise, a South Indian thali. It shows how imaginative we government folks are in such matters. If the food was a big letdown then the farewell gifts that I got were quite surprising. One of my assistants who presents himself before me with an expression of awe every time I summon him gave me a nice Parker Vector fountain pen, a red one, that came with a free ink bottle. Another colleague, a lady, also presented me a nice Pierre Cardin fountain pen. It wouldn’t have taken much time or effort for them to think of a suitable gift for me since I always use a fountain pen at office.

So right now I am between postings. I have a week’s time to join at my new posting which happens to be very far away from Hyderabad. With just a few days left for me before I become a weekend Hyderabadi I am indulging in all those small pleasures that I had taken for granted all these days- Irani chai at least once a day, browsing at second hand bookstores and the occasional late afternoon walk. Next week onwards I can only dream of doing these things during office hours. But then one cannot have too much of a good thing for too long. All good things must come to an end. It doesn’t mean that I won’t be doing this blog. In fact I am glad I will have another topic to write about even if it means there will be less of Hyderabad. Keep reading for the new posts about the new place.