I really want to help you, but ...

O Dear, I understand your problem and I really wish I could do something for you. After all, I am here to serve the people of India. Am I not a public servant, appointed just for this? 

Your problem seems genuine and your grievance authentic. I can't tell you how pained I am at the insensitivity of the system of which I am a part. This problem should not have arisen in the first place if my colleagues in that department and the rules of this other department had been a bit more accommodative. I must now solve your problem. Let me see .. .. Let me see .. ..

Hmm .. Umm .. Uh .. Oh ..

Ah .. There you are. Here is your file. Let me see .. Let me see .. Oh my God! Look at this clerk of my office and see what he has written. There is no rule to do this! How can the rascal write that? I truly want to help you out here and this lowly clerk write here that it can't be done!

Sorry, my Friend! The rules don't permit. Or else I could have done it in no time at all. I know what your are thinking. You are shocked that this great bureaucrat of the government of India, this guy selected out of lakhs and lakhs of bright candidates by the UPSC through the toughest selection process on the planet can't help you!

You see, my Friend, I may have been the brightest, the most educated and the smartest of all. But, my mind is pawned to that clerk sitting in that corner at the end of this dingy corridor. Yes, he is only high school pass, but he does all the thinking for me. He interprets the rules, links precedents, brings out perils of decision making and predicts the outcomes of my decisions on my behalf! He verily tells me what I should do sitting in my chair. In most cases he even drafts my orders and tells me where to sign. If he tells me to just sit there and twiddle my thumbs, I would do that too for I have outsourced my thinking to a high school pass clerk.

He thinks for me. The junior clerk runs this office. Why don't you sit with him and explain your case to him? Maybe I can help you then, provided he writes a favourable noting. But, that is between you and him now .. .. I really wish I could do something for you. After all, ain't I here to help you?