That’s Not My Job, Sir

            This one was a real eye opener.

I had gone to Sydney for a week long visit to Australian Military Establishments in April. I had taken the family along as an Australian Officer Ian Stuart (whom I had met in Wellington (Nilgiris) where he was doing his staff course the previous year) had invited us to stay with him.

            On the morning of the first day, I was to be picked up from the Stuarts’ residence at 0800 for a visit to the Artillery School at North Heads. I got ready in my uniform at 0745, had a quick break fast and started waiting for the door bell to chime heralding the pick up car’s arrival. When there was no chime till 0810, I opened the door and glanced outside. To my surprise, there was an Army staff car parked outside with the driver (a pretty female sergeant) chewing gum and looking through the pages of a glossy magazine. So I approached her and asked, “Are you here to pick me up?”

            She stopped chewing her gum, glanced at a paper slip kept at the dashboard; looked at me and asked in return, “Are you Maijor (Major) Kooshwaha?”

            I confirmed with an authoritative tone that yes that was me indeed, and asked her as to why she did not ring the door bell. She resumed her gum-chewing act and replied, “Sir, that’s not part of my job.”

            So I asked, “What is your job then?”

            She said, “My task sheet says to report at the given address at 0800 which I did and pick up and drop one Maijor Kooshwaha to Arty School at North Heads which I would do.”

            I retorted, “That’s great but how would I know that you have arrived?”

            She replied, “That’s your problem sir. If you did not show in another five minutes, I would drive off and report “No Show” by the passenger.”

            I got completely unnerved by this ‘matter of fact’ discourse of hers and before she could drive off without me, I took my seat in the back. She drove me like a professional and dropped me after half an hour at the Artillery School in North Heads. (The Artillery School has since been re-located to Puckapunyal in Victoria.)

(P.S. - The return trip from the Artillery School was equally interesting which I will write about in the next post)