Tags
driving licence, govt office, india, licence, mobile phone, nokia, office
Yeah I am serious and I am sure you have all experienced such days when everything just seems to go wrong and nothing seems to work and by the end of the day all you need is a stiff drink or may be two. Yesterday was one such day.
Sometime back I lost my driving licence somewhere and the sad part is that I don’t even know where (I think I left it at airport check in counter while showing for age proof but not sure, but that is besides the point). It was made in Delhi and when I made inquiries I was told that it can’t be issued duplicate as I don’t stay in Delhi anymore and hence I had only one option left to apply for a new one and to go through the whole procedure of it…. yes yes first we go for learners… so yesterday morning at 9:30 am I promptly reached the RTO office to get my learners licence, I thought it would be easy to get a learners… I mean anyone can get a learners right as long as we have all documents in place whether to convert into a permanent licence may be a more difficult task but damn I was wrong.
I was at the f^&ing RTO office for the next 5 hours, standing and waiting for my work to be done which should have ideally taken 10 minutes. The whole process is so funny and ridiculous that I can’t even explain. Once you reach the office you have to submit a particular fee, fill up a form and stand in the queue for getting a token. I submitted the fee and thought So far so good… but than one look at the queue for token and my heart began to sink…. it was almost half a km long and no I am not kidding… Taking a deep breadth I went to the end of the queue and stood there waiting for my number to come, after some 30 minutes of wait and the queue moving a little came a person who told no no this is not the way to make a queue, all of you move that side and a minute the people in the end were running and became the starting of the queue at that side… and all my wait was washed away as once again I saw myself standing towards the end (and think of the people who were actually ahead of me, I pity them). Anyhow I figured there is no point cribbing now as there is hardly anything that can be done so I waited another 45 minutes before I reach the counter… and just when I reach there, a guy comes from the opposite direction, smiles at the counter guy, exchange some words in kannada and the counter person starts taking his form… WTF??? I tell him politely sir we have been waiting in the line for so long and can you please ask this gentleman to come in the queue and that man behind the counter… u know what he told me “Madam do u want the token or not?” Can u beat that and when I start saying something he replies in Kannada and when I tell him I dont know kannada well, he shouts at me saying that you have to learn kannada else don’t expect your work to get done here WTF????????????????? Anyways got my token no 58 after that guy got his 
I am wondering why does it take 1 hr and 15 mins to give token to 58 people????
The next step was to wait for my token number to be called and when I see the number on the display my heart sinks further… it was just 14 There was nothing else than waiting to be done and I started fiddling with my phone and went on twitter chatting with a few people and I see that the person who has to see our papers when the number arrives has been happily chatting on the phone for past 15 minutes and when he is working people without token who know him arrive at their own convenience, get their papers checked and go…. After a little more than 2 hours of wait finally my number is called…. yippe I almost shout and the minute I enter one person shouts to other “You can go back, todays time is over, come tmrw” Can u beat that? Those people who have been waiting for the past 3 hours since morning… why give them the token than?
After that we were supposed to go to one more person who takes your test on road signs etc and that took another 1.5 hrs so and all this while standing… I was almost dead at the end of it, 5 hours in total and it made me think why can’t we work more efficiently???
I came back home tired and realised I am dizzy, checked my BP and it was predictably low…. drank a lemon juice and decided to rest for sometime when Ojas dropped my phone thak and the slider – the only way of unlocking my Nokia x6 broke and I couldn’t do anything with the phone.
I took the phone to the service station and another wait began. I waited at their centre for about 2 hours for it to be fixed and it costed me 1100 bucks??? Can u beat that? Sigh
So what does one do at the end of such a day… have a drink and order out what else 
Monika's World 
that sounds like a terrible day! the inefficiency at any of the govt orgs leaves me speechless. i had same harrowing experience when i had got my passport and marriage certificate done!! dreadful!
i hope the drink helped!
actually I got my passport so easily, just went there submitted the form in under an hour and it came home in 15 days… its was an address change and inclusion of N’s name
I dont think all of them suck but some really do
Big hugs babe!
Karnataka sucks wherein we are trying to go the Chennai-route where we only service the Kannada speaking folks.. It bugs me to no end even tho’ I speak the language. In fact, when we went to transfer the car to our name, the dude at the counter overheard me and the DH speaking rapid-fire Kannada & he finished our job in 10 mins.. We assumed that we were the only one’s with proper docs but when we were heading out people told us because we were the only one’s who had Karnataka registration and spoke Kannada.
Its a sad situation and honestly, it needs to be changed. When we try to change, they insult us!
I think we are soon going to beat marathi manoos so sad
Government offices are the pits. Really bad day! Hugs
Horrible Day… You know what if you would have given money to an agent you could have easily got a duplicate license in Delhi (I know its unethical, but seriously its not worth it to go through all this)
Regarding the biased attitude of Karnataka I agree its the worst of the lot… I have lived in Chennai too, you know at least educated people there respond properly if you talk in English.
I can surely believe that Nokia service center would have charged such a huge fee they generally do 😦 been there done that.
Since I do not condone drinking I would rather say have a thick chocolate shake or may be a Chocolate Avalanche at Mocha 🙂
yeah I know sometimes we have to pay for trying to do things the right way
Well without being a snob, this is when you find someone who will take a 500 ka patta and get one made from the side just as the guy speaing in kannada probably did …
a bad day .. hats off to you for stnading all that time I would have lost it when they asked ot make a new que, wud have either gone home or ened in a prison block…
and then there are some people who say oh india is advancing yes it is but the basic things are still the same .. My dad passed away 3 years ago and i had to get a F*&^% stupid STAMP from the estate office to get a few things sorted and for a PROXY stamp i ended up in a sector 17 chandigarh police station… cause the so called educated lawyers , the young blood of our country did not have the idea of a QUE, they ahd to come from sides and i got agitated , so i spoke and in the end it was a lawyer on the floor with my fist on his eye..
and this is same everywehre any Govt bank i went to for things to be sorted it was same , One bank ONE DAY… i had leave for 2 weeks thinking it shud be sorted i ended up staying for 6 weeks …
oh yes each day ended in harassment and lots of RC ke small ones chako chako 🙂
I know bikram but I just can’t get myself to do it… I hate it
and that is one horrible story I dont know when will it change
*hugs*
All DMVs are the same, I had to wait in America also for 3 hours 😦
Ohh that was such a terrible day….
Govt offices, we really can’t expect anything from them…. Hope you get your licence soon and your phone too….
That is stuff that nightmares are made of! Yes, you cetainly need a stiff drink at the end of a day like this! Hugs!
That’s horrible Mons..hope you are better now..
Hugssssss Mons!
DMV is same world wide I guess. At least in India, you can get things done if you do not want to go in an ethical way . Best way to get the driving license is through agents/driving schools. Of course you will pay more but the entire process will be completed in 10 min. I know, it is not right . But, that’s how things work . If one feels like taking a straight path , all the above things are inevitable:-( sad, but true.
In US, you do not even have any other option . Only difference I see is , you get the token immediately using self service box and there is a waiting period displayed ..always greater than 5 hrs:() On top of it, change the state, and you need new driving license. 😦
sigh u and avanti make me feel a tad better 🙂
Ouch..that sure was a horrible day! Hugggsss!!
Better luck next time 🙂 yeh hai india 🙂
one of those really bad days when every thing goes wrong 😦 It doesn’t stay either 🙂
Hugs Hugs Hugs! all RTOs are the same..its so bugging! hugs again and just rest today 🙂
Oh dear, thats terrible…these Govt offices suck high times. I am having difficult times with them over here, for the change of name from my dad to my mom in many things….They dont want to work efficiently, becos they’ll miss out on the bribes….
Hugs…..I hope u had that stiff drink….and take care of ur BP, my dear….. Always carry lemonade with you in hand…I always do that. 🙂
yeah I think I will start doing that now
Hey that’s kind of expected from govt office now . It took me almost a year and 10 trips to passport office to get my passport done 😦 .
like I said above my passport got done so easily and quickly and without any trouble both in delhi and in Bangalore
Ouch!!! 😐 Just one of those days eh?? Hugs!! U certainly have my sympathies…
And yes…regionalism always comes into play during circumstances like these. Truly sad… They don’t have to be mean just because you don’t belong to that state!
Ouch! That really sounds like one terrible day!
I hate the processes at the government offices too – went through that when we got our house and marriage registration done. No wonder people go the unethical way! 😦 It’s sad really…
Hugs babe. Dreading getting the passport done for my son…been putting it off. and yeah, like another commenter said, it’s better, tho more costly, to get a driving school to do it for you. Outsource the agony, so to speak 😦
yeah I have to do ojas’s passport too….
I’ve stopped turning to anything but stiff drinks for solutions. It helps every time :d
Hugs help too. here’s one for you. 🙂
Oh that’s terrible. And what makes me so bl**dy angry is that people all over India, assume they are Lords and Masters of their office. They don’t realise they are ‘public servants’ whose primary objective (officially, that is) is to provide a good level of customer service. Its pathetic and frustrating. On another note though, these people are usually paid pittance, so that is probably why they are so disinterested in their work. If they too, like Bankers or IT folks, earned in lakhs per annum, then perhaps they will show more enthusiasm?!! Just wondering….
I know what u are saying Pal but than a clerk in an IT office or a bank is not payed too much too… I dont think right now they are underpayed… I was speaking to my mum and she was telling me about the kind of salaries they get and yes its not very high but its not less too
Awww… that sucked! Take care.
What is most bothersome is the attitude of the officials.
A friend’s Mom was a Dr for a govt. hospital too..on those days, she slacked the most. Shameful, innit?