Tax officer, she said. After she graduated, the first in her family, she was lucky to that the government was recruiting civil servants, and she managed to get through the difficult exam. And within a month or so, she began her career. She wanted to interact with taxpayers and educate people about the importance of paying taxes, because back then people were (and are even now) very resistant to the government taking money away from them. But little did people understand that raising taxes is necessary for a country to develop, to provide public goods and services that we take for granted.
Throughout her career, she said she advised many people, many low income people and families, how to reduce their taxable amounts and get reductions. It's all part of her job, she said, part of serving the public, and doing so within confines of the law.
The most memorable day was about thirty year ago. I wasn't even born yet, and my brother was only one or so. A middle aged man walked into her office, sat down and began to cry. He didn't make much money, and he complained the government was taking a lot of it away. "I don't even have money to pay my son's tuition..." (at the time, education was not free).
Mum, seeing the poor man cry, and moved by his story, took out whatever she had in her purse at the time and gave it to the man. "Not really thinking much", mum said. Not really because she consciously wanted to do "good", but because it was and felt like the right thing to do. She was purely driven by a sense of compassion and charity.
"I don't know if that man just made up a story to get sympathy, but it doesn't matter..."
No, it didn't matter. But the story revealed to me a side of my mum that I am grateful for having inherited.
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