do away with the 'hazards' of cut and paste
process. The Linotype operator was an apology of a man,
most of the time reeking of a combination of the local
urrak or feni and ghutka. The chief sub sent the page
for spooling and left. Before I signed off from the
office, I just happened to go to the plate making
section to see how my page was shaping up and just
glanced at Page 1 which was spooled and ready for
plate-making. Lo and behold, yesterday's front page was
gloriously laid out on the pasting grid and ready for
plate-making. Even the pasters did not realise the
mistake as the advertisement for that particular day
was the same size as the previous days. Our Linotype
operator spooled yesterday's page and sent it for
plate-making. I gave him a big dressing down but did
not report it to anybody as he begged me not to do so.

Talking of the pasters, Umesh, a big bull of a guy was
my 'best friend' as he always liked to trouble me by
going to sleep just as I finished page 3 and brought it
up for cut pasting on the grid. Somehow, our animosity
made us wary of each other and we developed a mutual
respect. Despite numerous complaints by the chief-subs
about his behaviour, he remained non-chalant as he did
not expect the powers that be to take any action on him.

I guess that this attitude for disregard towards people
in power is all prevalent and all pervasive in society.
It is an universal truth that any law is meant to be
broken. As a corollary, frozen laws are enacted by the
government only in order to freeze some people, though
these laws are hardly taken out of the freezer and
defrosted. A case in point is the anti-smoking and
anti-spitting law decreed in Goa with much fanfare and
welcomed by many quarters. One aspect which was raised
by noted anti-tobacco activist Dr Sharad Vaidya, was
how effectively would the anti-smoking law be enforced
in the State. A valid point which I had raised with the
then Chief Minister Francisco Sardinha. He said on
record that it was difficult to implement. He also
admitted that there are always those who want to defy
the law.

Rules are there on which the government seems to suffer
from selective amnesia, because they are unable to
implement in the right spirit as they have no clue as
to how to go about it. When the High Court gave an
order banning loud music after 10 pm based on a
complaint by the environmentalists, Choppy and me wrote
a series of articles for Insight analys