Man of My Heart

2 The collector

Part 2 The collector

Khushi was stunned to see the same man as a collector. She was delighted by his quick action. If he took action in the dark street, he must be a sincere collector. It seemed their district got a good lead. She didn't know what to do...! Being a social worker, she wanted to celebrate his arrival grandly.

She saw Shashi entering with a face full of smiles. Khushi rushed to him and hugged him.

"Babuji... the dark street became a bright street..." she shouted joyfully.

"Yes... it's because of our new collector. No one knows how he got to know about the dark street..."

Khushi got stuck. She didn't know if she should tell Shashi about their meeting.

"Do you know what he did?" Shashi asked.

She shook her head from left to right.

"After joining duty, he went to the SP (superintendent of police) office directly. As per the custom, it must be SP who should meet the collector but keeping the custom aside, he (stressing) went to the SP office and made it shiver. He stayed there for just five minutes... everything came under his control" Shashi said proudly.

Khushi smiled inwardly. She liked the new collector so much.

"His way of handling problems is amazing... do you know, he fixed a VC with VAOs tomorrow morning"

"With VAOs? But why? Many superior officers are working under him. They will carry out his orders... I have not heard a collector having a meeting with grassroots officials..." Garima said wondering.

"That's it... he knows the knack...! If any problem should be rooted out, we should know its root cause. Only grassroots officials like VAOs could do that. If they made a mistake, all the other officers would follow that"

"Well done," Garima said.

"But, I sensed a kind of disappointment in his speech"

"About what?"

"He was expecting to be posted in a well-developed district, it seems. He didn't like this backward district I suppose"

"Did he say that?" Asked Khushi.

"He didn't say that directly but I could sense it. He was a batch topper after all. So, it's obvious if he expected his posting in a front-line district. Our district is a small one with just four TALUK. Of course, he can rule a big district. I suppose"

Khushi became thoughtful. Job satisfaction is an important factor in anyone's life. Any job should be done with satisfaction... just like, she was planting trees in her district. The collector was a nice man, no doubt in that but he was dissatisfied. What could wipe it out?

"How is he moving with others?" Garima asked.

"Nicely but strictly..."

Garima frowned.

"He said he would be nice if we completed the given task. Or else, he would be an arrogant man and we should not feel bad if he shouted at us" Shashi chuckled.

"Will he shout?" Garima asked unbelievably.

"Yeah, he declared it openly..."

"That means, many of your colleagues are going to be scolded" Khushi laughed.

"No doubt. You know, as no one expected, he asked about pending petitions. It was only me who had no pending petitions"

"That means, you got a place in his good book..." Khushi asked excitedly.