Attitude 12

"How is your child?" I asked one of our professors. "Still not OK. The reports are not showing much improvement. I showed them to a colleague in private. She did not offer much." "Why don't you show them to our specialist in the hospital?" "I tried. It was weird. I asked my Registrar to get that department head's mobile number. The Head said she would not take any calls on mobile. I had to call on the landline only." "You could have called on the landline." "I was driving at the time. I did not have the landline number." Suddenly I remembered something. "Calling on the landline perhaps would not have helped either" I said. "Her Registrar was batting one of our patients once. Finally I called her in her office on the landline. Her assistant took the call. When I identified myself, she checked and told me that the Boss was busy examining a patient and would call me back after examining the patient. I waited for one and a quarter hour before going home, but she did not call back. I have waited for three more years, but she has not called yet, nor has she expressed regret on meeting me in campus. Getting a call on mobile forces her to take the call, while the landline can be answered by assistants and she can be declared unavailable." "I remembered something else afterwards" said the professor. Twenty years ago there was this person's proposal for my brother!" "Which he rejected?" "Uh...huh!" "That perhaps explains this behavior" I said "though one should not let personal feelings interfere with one's professional work." It did not explain why she would not take my call though. There had been no marriage proposal between our families.