A neighbour looked glum the other evening. He said he had a bad day in the office. “It was much ado about some vadas,” he grumbled. “You better pour out your woes so that your heart will become lighter,” I advised.He said, “We had a customers meeting in the morning in my office. Unfortunately, only a few turned up and 14 people were in the conference including our officers. If a meeting ends before lunch time, we serve coffee with a snack. Accordingly, a single vada was served with a cup of coffee after one hour of the meeting. After everybody dispersed, I was sitting peacefully in my chair.
An attendant walked in with a bill for the vadas and coffee. He said the Public Relations Officer had sent the bill to me to certify and pass on to the accounts department for reimbursing the expenditure to the PRO. Normally, the PRO arranges food from a restaurant for our office meetings. But, he had never sent any bill to me to certify earlier. When I asked him why he had sent the bill to me, he said that the financial head asked all sorts of questions to him on such bills at a later date and he thought if the concerned section certified the bill and forwarded, it would be easily sanctioned. It was known in the office that the financial head was a stingy and querulous person.
I took a look at the bill from the restaurant. It was for 42 vadas and 21 cups of coffee. Only 14 people attended the meeting and each was served one vada and coffee. The accountant who was also present in the meeting would rate me dishonest if I sent the bill to him for sanction. I considered it best to talk to the man. I went to him and explained that the PRO had sent the bill to me to certify and forward and showed the paper to him.
He questioned the PRO on the intercom as to why 42 vadas were procured when only 14 were served in the meeting. Shortly thereafter, a peon and an attendant walked in to show that some vadas were intact in a polythene cover. The accountant asked them what would they do with the vadas. The peon said they would eat them with their lunch. The accountant told the PRO that he would pass the bill only for snacks served in the meeting.
The PRO later chided me for making a fuss about the bill for vadas. He explained that attendants and peons who served them and the chief’s personal staff would sink their teeth on crisp vadas after the meeting. And I was branded a spoilsport by the vada-deprived staff.”