It came as a big shock to the entire army when that General accepted that he had tampered with his public birth records at the time of his first appointment. He had changed his date of birth so as to show himself to be 3 years younger by tampering with the figures very carefully. It was not noticeable on a cursory glance, but on detailed examination it was clearly evident. At the time of enrolment, the maximum age limit was 23 years. Because he had exceeded the age limit, he altered his birth certificate in order to qualify.
He was considered to be an upright and tough General, who was a hard task master. He took no nonsense and loved to train his command with a firm hand. He always set a personal example and was himself very tough physically. Except for this single error, his professional record was untarnished. John was a dedicated employee. He was always on time to office. He worked diligently and stayed back after hours to complete his work so that there is nothing postponed for the next day. All of his co-workers admired and liked him, yet they were unaware of how miserable his private life was.
It was the result of a mismatched marriage. His wife was very dominating and demanding. She expected him to take her out every day. She would call him while he was at the office with numerous threats of retreating to her parent’s house if he was not home early. She would even ring up his boss every second day and tell him to send John home early on some pretext or the other. One day his wife rang him up and threatened to take him to court. She said that their marriage records were missing and she was certain that he had destroyed them to get rid of her.
The tale I’m about to share occurred a couple years ago. A friend and I had attended a party and were just returning home. I was driving my car and he was riding in the passenger seat. When we were almost to his house, I saw the unmistakable flashing lights of a police car behind us. I pulled over and waited for the officer. To our surprise, the officer pulled his firearm and yelled at us to get out of the car slowly while showing our hands during the process. We were extremely surprised, but we complied with the officer’s wants. I was surprised because my name is nowhere in the public police records of our city.
As it turned out, the cops mistook me for a dope dealer. Afterwards, they informed me my vehicle fit the description of a dealer’s car to a ‘T’. We enjoyed a good chuckle later as we proceeded to where my friend lived.