Top Civil Servant And MI6 Boss Quit All-Male Club
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Newsflash⚡ writes fictional stories inspired by global headlines.
Estimated read time: 1.8 minutes.
Read the original article (Sam Francis - BBC News) ⚡⚡⚡
Top civil servant and MI6 boss quit all-male club - BBC News
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I stepped into the room. I was nervous - of course I was. Deep inside, I was out of place. But that’s nothing new, not to someone like me. I have learned to blend in; something we all do, no matter how loudly we talk to ourselves.
“Ah, Mr. Das, how wonderful of you to have come.” The elderly man stood and gestured from behind his desk. It was the size of my great-grandmother’s bedroom. “Please come in, close the door behind you.”
The door closed with the soft thud of quality workmanship. The corridor behind it seemed to disappear into another world. Everything in the room was like this; not ornate - simply of absolute and unquestionable quality. On the man’s desk was an inkwell and a sleek fountain pen. A small section of its surface was covered in leather, for the writing of letters. Oil paintings hung on the wall, the ceilings were high, and the carpet sank ever so slightly beneath the soles of your shoes. I could not see a single speck of dust, though I tried to find one. The man looked up at me, smiling as he turned towards a drinks cabinet which shone with the coolness of crystal.
“Would you care for a drink?” he asked me, removing the bottle-stop with a gentle clink.
“Certainly.” (You do not refuse their drinks.)
“Jolly good,” he said, and took out a pair of glasses. I spent some time wondering if he was going to ask what I would like. In the end, I was presented with a small glass of velvet-red brandy. Its sweet and sickly flavour coated and stuck to the lips.
“So, I understand you are looking to become a member of The Garrick, old chap.” The man’s tone was friendly, but somehow metallic - like part of a machine that had not yet worn down.
“That’s right. I feel that, after my application several years ago, I am finally in a position to be of assistance to your already esteemed group of members.”
“Quite, quite,” the old man said, sitting back down silently in his chair and picking up a sheet of beige paper. “I have both of your applications on file. I have to say, you have come some way, Mr. Das.”
For a moment, the man faltered, although almost imperceptibly. He suddenly appeared to be thinking about something else altogether. It was the kind of adjustment one could only detect if one knew where to look for it, and I am quite trained. Besides, he was a consummate professional, and un-hitched his voice so that he might ask: “… it is Mr. Das, though, isn’t it?”
“Yes, sir.”
”Quite a name - do you know, I don’t think I’ve ever known a Mr. Das, and I’ve had plenty of dealings, over my life, with people and families from the Orient.”
“Well,” I said, “it is a name I am quite familiar with.” The man let out a short laugh. “It was my father’s, you see.”
“Oh yes? Does it have any particular meaning?”
“It means ‘servant.’”
At this remark, the man was caught once again - again his face took on that oddly vacant, dazed, almost uninterested expression. A very small twitch of the upper eyelid. It was as though he had only seen me, sitting there in his office, engaged in conversation with him, in that moment. I had witnessed these reactions before, and let the man sit in his half-second of guilt and confusion. Not a bad trade, for all of those centuries, considering that it is happening now. But he was a consummate professional, and smoothed things over easily with the question:
“Ah? And who do you serve, Mr. Das?”
“I serve my name.”
The man let out a laugh, and his eyes twinkled with the possibility of challenge. “You are what they’ve been telling me about... and it is becoming quite a name, too, I might add. You are doing a remarkable job.”
I said nothing. (You do not refute their praise.)
It continued in much the same vein. I left the majority of talking to the elderly man, not least because he seemed fond of it, but also because there were very few things I wanted to say. I could not disclose my ambitions at such an early stage - you cannot change something like The Garrick unless you are part of it, and until you are part of it, you have to accept that very little will change. It is like a waiting game - I am happy to play by the rules now only if I can re-write them later.
(That was the deal when I started, and I’m still fine with it. There’s still time.)
Behind the double-arch first-floor windows, the roof of a double-decker bus skimmed past. It had been about an hour.
“It’s been a pleasure today, Mr. Das, and we look forward to welcoming you back on your next visit.”
“Thank you, sir. I’m excited to be here as a member of The Garrick. I only hope that I can be of service.”
I had not said anything funny, but the man laughed like a child. Then he said, in a fatherly, re-assuring tone:
“You will be, son, I’m sure you will be.”
the original BBC article (Sam Francis)⚡
further articles & sources:
The Garrick Club’s notable members - The Guardian
This list has only recently become publicly available, thanks to the brilliant work of Amelia Gentleman, Jason Rodrigues and Richard Nelsson at Guardian Research.
Case defends membership of all-male Garrick Club - Civil Service World
also on topic/in this style:
disclaimer:
The views expressed in this publication do not reflect the views of the author. The stories themselves are based on imagined events. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is fictitious and should not be taken as representative.
(Read the full disclaimer.)
I thought dinosaurs were extinct.
GENTLEMENS CLUBS------Nothing knew and always been sordid places where the royals/rich/establishment/church ministers hung out!? Famous members of such clubs being BURNS/WALTER SCOTT/DUNDAS and many more and that is just Scotland. Most famous 2 being the BEGGARS BENISON and EDINBURGH WIG CLUB and when the BENISON club wound up they tried to get rid of all recorded of names etc!? Ones that still exist such as the EDINBURGH NEW CLUB allowed women entry but that was not til the late 1970s etc! Would be interesting to know all the members of such clubs today and should add many have MASONIC STAMPED ALL OVER THEM!?-----The new clubhouse opened for lunch on Monday 15 December 1969. Ladies were first admitted as Associate Members to the club on 25 March 1970 (Lady Day). Only wives of Members could be elected until October 2010, when ladies were permitted full membership and their husbands could join as Associate Members.