Sir!
I knew the armed forces officers said ‘Sir!’ whenever their bosses told them to do something and the wanted to convey that they had understood the instructions absolutely and they would obey them completely. It probably saves energy for combat, when they say one word (Sir!) instead of two words (Yes, Sir). It also saves time for action, when they spend less time talking. Recently there was that Hindi movie ‘Mausam’, in which the hero keeps checking his aircraft prior to take off on a mission by running his hand on the fan, undercarriage and whatever he can reach (like a mother does before her young one takes off for nursery school). The other impressive thing he does in that movie to show that he is truly an airforce officer of substance is to say ‘Sir!’ whenever his boss tells him something. When I heard that, I knew I had heard it before too. It soon came to me, because it had struck me as something different at those times too.
It was my House officer who later became my Registrar a few years ago. She used to say ‘Sir!’ in the same tone whenever I told her to do something in patient care. Then I heard it from an additional civic chief, when she interrupted our meeting to talk to her boss, the civic chief himself. That time I recalled what my old Registrar had been doing, and I happened to remember that she had been daughter of the civic chief of that time. She must have heard others speak to her father that way. Finally I heard our boss say it the same way to the civic chief on phone the other day. Now I am educated that the IAS cadre officers are like armed forces officers, at least in this respect. A couple of weeks ago I heard the head clerk of the tender-equipment department speak to me (!) the same way. I was flattered. I was also convinced that he had a bright future, like the armed forces officers and IAS officers.
