You had to wake up early in the morning in order to wash yourself: at 8.30 everything went down, no more water, no more power, until about 5 or 6 in the afternoon. My work place was somewhere central, it enjoyed a special status that allowed running water while there was none in the regular blocks of flats. Yet there was not much heating. Once, one of our colleagues, a beautician, had to warm the depilation wax for a client, so she plugged in the electric stove. Someone came to check, a young man with a torn rumpled coat, a piteous sight! He saw the electric stove and went into a frenzy about it. To calm him down, we collected whatever money we had and put together some 100-150 lei to give the man ? which was quite a sum in those times. ?Come on, there?s no need to raise hell, take the money and go!? But he wouldn?t, no, sir. So my colleagues started to call him names: ?Screw you, penniless, worthless, brainless no-good of a beggar! That?s why you look like that, you?re nuts!? He wrote a penalty report and sent it to the cooperative. They summoned us all there and blamed us? and we said: ?What was there to do? The client was there, lying on the couch! We had to warm the wax, how were we to depilate her otherwise?? And they said: ?Yes, we understand, but we have to penalize you somehow, these are the orders. What can we do??  (A. M., 115)

No one could avoid illegality completely, not even the beneficiaries of the regime, the small and the big nomenclature. Its members had to make discrete use of their benefices, lest they should become too visible and compete with the ?leader?. (87)

The sly guys and smooth talkers could easily make it to jobs of UCY secretaries; then party secretaries for some institution, and it was good enough. They had access to more things, more privileges, but everything had to be kept a secret. If someone bought themselves, say, a pneumatic boat, they kept in the wardrobe and only took it out when there was no one around. (A. M., 115)

INDICATION

Refers to any piece of advice or guidance that a person may give in order to help somebody else. The true national climax of this word?s career was under the Ceausescus? regime. Indications became ?precious?. Actually, the name served as camouflage for downright orders. No one dared reject complete and immediate fulfillment of them. (51)