Skip to main content

The Blind Telephone Operator

 




We had in our employ a blind telephone operator.  


The Ministry of Human Resource had been requested to find employment opportunities for the handicapped. Our blind telephone operator was a result of their initiatives. We had no confidence in placing him in other occupations like clerks as  we felt his disability would pose difficulties for him to carry out clerical duties that required movement of physical files. 


However as time went on we  discovered he  had other skills besides operating the switchboard. For one he had a formidable memory. He could remember file numbers, telephone numbers, names of callers and such with relative ease. Even when the file searcher could not locate a file, the telephone operator could remember who was the last person who handled the file and direct the file searcher to that person’s table and sure enough the file would be found among the bundle of files on his table. Despite his disability, his skills were found to be very useful to the Department but unfortunately, that could not translate into higher wages or a higher post as the Department was bound by the Schemes of Service which  stipulated the qualifications for each job and the telephone operator lacked the qualifications for such jobs. 


The Director took it upon himself to write to the authorities detailing the skills that the operator had and recommended him for upgrading to a higher job which he was already handling despite his lack of educational qualifications The Federal Establishment Office the forerunner of the current Public Services Department sent one of their officers to the Department to interview the incumbent and the Director to check if the operator indeed had the skills and whether a case could be made out for his promotion to a higher grade despite his lack of educational qualiifications. After waiting for a few days  an affirmative  reply was received by us. As it was past office hours when I saw the reply; I was happy for the blind operator and wished to convey the good news to him.  He had gone home and since the operator lived  close to where I lived I wanted to surprise him with the good news. I had my bath, changed into informal gear and set out to convey the news to him. 


But when I was heading to his home, I saw a familiar figure riding  a bicycle and heading towards me. I stepped aside as the rider passed me and came to a halt a few yards away. It was the telephone operator. I went over to him  asked him, if it was not dangerous for a blind person to be on a bike. He told me he was only partially  blind and could see things and sense movement if they were close to him. When I conveyed the good news to him, he was happy with joy and invited me to his house for a drink.


He introduced me to his wife and two cheerful boys as his boss. I was glad they were not disabled like my colleague.



All contents (c) Ganapathy Ramasamy, mynameisgana@blogspot.com


Images are for illustrative purposes only, and are sourced from the web. Please drop us a note if you are the owner and wish to be credited. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

My first car

  After my Higher School Certificate examination, I was appointed as a labour officer. This job paid well enough that I could finally afford a car for work. It involved a fair amount of travelling, the allowances for which could well cover my petrol bills. This first car was a second hand Volkswagen 1200, reg. AF 1085 in white. However I had just learnt driving and was not confident in taking out the car for my duties. So for the first few weeks, a friend of mine agreed to be a co-driver while I learnt to drive in my neighbourhood.  Once I gained confidence, I told my friend that I was confident and he need not assist me while I drove around. The first day of independent driving, I reversed into a child’s tricycle. Fortunately the child had abandoned the bike in my driveway and went away to look for other pursuits that drew her attention. There was a dent to the rear of my vehicle    that would require some money to have it fixed back into its original shape.  ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Pigeons always look for variety

One of my female pigeons left her nest and moved over to my neighbors pigeon Coop where she had taken a fancy for a male pigeon. I spoke to my neighbor and told him I shall trap my pigeon later that evening. But my neighbor like a budding lawyer told me “possession is 9/10th” of the law and since the pigeon was in his coop it is rightfully his. Now when I feed my pigeons I usually give a loud whistle for them to attend to their food. I told my brother to spray some green peas on the ground. My house was about 5 houses away from my neighbors where my pigeon had sought refuge with her boyfriend. When I gave a whistle my pigeon with 3 other pigeons left my neighbors coop to peck food at my coop. The neighbor was stunned seeing his 3 pigeons heading to my house. He mellowed and asked me to allow him to go over to my coop later in the evening to trap his birds. I used his same words and turned down his pleas despite his apologies. In the evening when the birds got into the coop I caught hol...
Post a Comment
Read more

SENIOR CITIZENS AND THE QR CODE

Age is certainly catching up for me and my friends of my generation. Technology is moving fast and I find we are no longer able to fit into the fast paced modern age. The other day Ben, my friend and I set out to Bukit Damansara to meet up with an Investment banker. Both of us are retirees. I am in the 80's while Ben is a lot younger. We have been residents of KL for a long time, used to Pusat Bandar Damansara area as we had worked in that area many years ago. We decided to take a Grab to go to Bukit Damansara. As we got into the car and buckled up with the safety belt, the driver told us to scan the QR code a small piece of plastic stuck to each side of the window. It took some effort as the sticker was slightly bigger than a postage stamp while we are used to a big placard attached to the back of the front seat. It was quite a challenge to scan it as the car was in motion through some humps and bumps. To our surprise Pusat Bandar Damansara wasn't the place we knew. Our office...
1 comment
Read more