Nota bene

Here is an up-close-and-personal account of a "public-private partnership" negotiation. A senior government official was offered money to close a deal, and once the negotiations were through, he duly wrote "approved" on the file concerned. But before the file could be passed on, there was a glitch in the deal, so the official added the word "not" in front of the original word "approved". This being India, everything can be had for a price, and the deal was finally closed to everyone's satisfaction after further negotiations. So what would happen to the "not approved" noting on the file? Easy, all that was needed was to add an "e" at the end of the word "not". No doubt, the approval was duly noted.