“Which counter do I go to now?” It takes him forever to respond and he gives you this crafty look which would imply that his highness is not to be bothered again with the same query or with any query for that matter! The sweltering heat of the summer in a tropical climate belting out 30-35 degree Celsius toppled with humidity rates of 80-90% makes it very difficult to keep your calm when certain situations demand otherwise. Frequent power cuts is nothing new in India but lack of power back up (generators/inverters) in a Government office that too in an Urban city questions the “development” in a “developing” country. However I am not discussing this here, although it is in every way associated with I have to share.
In the last 2 weeks, this is my 4th trip to the District Transport Office (DTO) for a job that should have taken nothing more than 2 trips in all. My use of the word ”trip” is justified because I have to drive 20Kms (not to mention the hazardous, ill maintained, pothole infected stretch of the so called road)each way to get this job done and eventually waste my entire day hankering after documents, signatures, seals, payments & the ostentatious attitude etc. The bank had issued an “upto 3 months valid” No-due certificate thereby stating that my dad’s car was no longer under their hypothecation. Now the DTO had to issue a new Registration Certificate (RC) waiving off the Hypothecation factor. To save dad from this well-anticipated multiple episodes of persecution, I took up this responsibility and hence my tryst with a Government body.
Your efficiency and loyalty to your job is proven by your service; even a kid would understand & acknowledge that. The person who does the same mundane work day in & day out should by now out of his experience tell you at the first glance that what all paperwork/documents are missing from the submission dossier which besides saving valuable time, could have also saved me from the harassment of climbing the stairs 3 times just to get my dossier correct. My frustration & his ignorance blended with the rising heat wave, the perspiration & the wastage of time pushed my calmness to a chemical outbreak like what is often experienced with Archie in his Chemistry lab. “Could you please tell me once & for all which all documents are required in the submission dossier?” Full marks to the sharpness of the employee who immediately noticed the sarcasm & sudden pitch shift in my voice but failed to be duly complimented by me because of his retort. “Don’t talk to me like that; I don’t like the tone of your voice; even I can talk like that….”To stop him from extending his pompous speech, I had to beg his pardon and oblige to his ways! And as a reprimand for provoking him, I was called after 2 days for the next step in this unfathomable saga to procure the RC. By the way, if you have hung around in government offices before, you would know better than to question the procrastination!
Gloomy weather, drenched in rain & sweat, here I am once again, after 2 days and totally oblivious to today’s turn of events! I am handed over a document which I had filled in with the required details the other day. I noticed, the only things new in that paper were 2 authoritative signatures which perhaps in governmental protocol requires 2 days hence justifying the procrastination; very busy official or a very difficult signature! Anyways, in the midst of public’s disregard for the queue & official’s disregard for the public, I somehow got to the next point; a dusty room filled with thousands of records in paper folders where the person-in-charge would seek and hunt out our file with the aid of some numbers. “Come back after half an hour”. When you are already compelled to devote your entire day to the mercy of a government office, a half an hour delay to search the file is very much negligible. I was instigated to ask him about the kind of backup they had in case this section catches fire which wouldn’t take more than 5 minutes to wipe out all the records but I recalled my previous rendezvous 2 days before and kept mum. Once our folder was found, they pinned our old RC into it and sent the folder back to its hiding. I was given a receipt and asked to come after 2 days. It must have racked the brains of thousands of people before me about the gravity or the magnitude of significance of the reiterated “come after 2days”; did it involve some intensive mind boggling mathematics, some statistical analysis, some physics deductions or some chemical formulation, one would never know!
My 3rd trip was marked by the brisk pace at which that day’s agenda was being met. With the receipt I had in hand, I had to pay a meager amount and apply for the Smart Cardtm RC (a hard plastic card replacing the conventional laminated ones). I was handed another receipt, and was asked to go another window. Compared to the previous visits, today it required me to approach more counters, more up & down the stairs but I marveled at the rate of which the work was getting done and was really looking forward to receiving the RC today. My hopes were crushed by my ignorance to notice the tiny subscript in the bottom of the receipt at hand which was pointed out with such exuberant volunteering by the counter operator which puts me to think that do they actually take some sadistic pleasure out of people’s miseries. The subscript read “The Smart Card will be issued after 4 days from the date of payment for the same”. I had to take another trip!
4 days later, I am close to beaming with joy at the thought of the end to this misadventure and the hope of holding the new RC. I enter the office building, marched right up to the window (all the previous trips taught me better than to ask someone for directions) and gave them my receipt. The counter operator was wearing a cap and his colleague had his head phone on, another listening to songs from her mobile phone, and another yapping away to glory. I paused to mull, about the scenario if these people were to be working under a private firm, their date of joining and date of relieving will be separated by not more than a week. “Server problem” He says it with a momentous sympathetic face and almost immediately gets busy chatting with his colleague about some serious national issue concerning their next lunch break. I wait and I wait and I wait dotted with innumerable enquires to the counter every 10-15 minutes. “Is the Server up & running?” And every time I got a reply in the negative. I had to leave for Delhi next day early morning and I was so looking forward to getting this errand done for my dad but now I guess I will have to pass on the baton to him to pursue this task by himself. So, when the wait became longer, I had to leave. Although 1 person from behind the counter showed some empathy and told me that he doubts the Server problem will be fixed today and suggested I come tomorrow. “Technology giveth & Technology taketh”. In this case, it took away my voice to yell at them since the problem with the Server was not their responsibility. I decided to head back home.
In this memorable encounter with a government office cost me close to 1500 rupees including fuel, petty payments, refreshments etc. But primarily, nothing resulted from all the trips and efforts to compensate the valuable time I had wasted here. When I take back 2 steps and try to view the large canvas of this experience, my thoughts and eyes juxtapose upon a batch of people sitting on the stairs in the main entrance to the office. I have seen these people in my previous visits too. They are, as I correctly understood Brokers/Agents of the DTO office. Not official employees but agents who could get your work done in less than half the time it would devour from you. All this can be obtained for a nominal fee. So it is up to you to uphold your integrity, endure the annoyance, expenditure, repeated visits and its futility or simply pay 1000-1500 to the agent and get the work done in no time minus your harassment. It takes no Einstein’s mind to understand that the agents and the employees work in a nexus to extract maximum remuneration from a person for a work which requires no money at all. Raising a voice or to keep tolerating has been a debatable topic ever since and perhaps will be so forever.
Apurba Das
(07.06.2010)
lol..good one..what a ordeal!!
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