Today I had a routine bad experience at a government office, and I searched the AIB videos to find one on government offices, and it was so true.
Any official papers that need to be sanctioned or formatted through a government office, take repeated visits and the papers are usually fraught with misdemeanours, which in turn need corrections, although the fault may have been committed by the government agents who processed the papers. Where can one complain? If you are foolish enough to do so, then you have jumped from the frying pan into the fire.
Opposite Central Plaza, at Opera House, voter IDs are prepared, and verified and then handed over , a process across 6 months or more. As expected, there was some bungling and repeated visits were warranted. The officials think that they are doing a great favour to the public and that everyone should pay obeisance to them. The impression given, is that, no matter what your condition or job requirements, you are expected to wait and wait and wait, in silence, and suffer your turn. These officials are rude and mostly intolerant, and condescending.
It seems there is no fixed timing for the office staff to report, So, having waited for almost 2 hours, I needed to use the loo. I requested to use the ladies' washroom and they could not find the key for the first floor WC. The ground floor ladies' WC was in disrepair and so locked. I was instructed to climb to the third floor, and try my luck, whether that one would be unlocked. This episode was embarrassing because I had to request multiple persons for the toilet keys, from one room, to the other, with lots of people waitng in lines, all witness to my suffering. I spent about 20 minutes of this and then I used the gents' loo. It was a gateway to hell. Stinking, full of red spit splashes in the basins and the open gents' loos. The closet had broken window slats and nothing to hang my bag. I was so demoralised. Before leaving the office, I spoke my mind to the 'adhikari of all adhikaris' that I would buy a lock and lock up the gents' loo too.
As I walked towards the bus stop at Opera House, I read the ad of a bakery, at Blue Diamond, which sold cakes, one being a PLUMP CAKE. So I could smile for a while. And then near Cafe Darayush, I witnessed the most incredible sight, of intermingled wires between buildings, and entirely covered with years and years of cobwebs.....ouch.
The next sight to catch my eye, was all shapes and sizes of males, spitting randomly, while they walked along the road. It was more irritating than otherwise, because the road is narrow, and to avoid the traffic, you have to walk in close proximity to these spitters and be in extra danger of getting yourself in their range. On the left side of the road, there is a narrow footpath, but shopkeepers have displayed signboards and encroached onto the walking space. So if you decide to use the footpath, you are expected to dodge the drips from overhead A Cs, avoid dashing into oncoming males, who walk without a thought for others in the range of their swinging arms and bruising satchels, or their protruding elbows, as they hold their mobiles to their ears and chatter away as they walk.
Then I reached the turn, under the railway overbridge. The footpath which begins on the right, is a mess of broken tiles and accumulated gutter water. The rest of the path is blocked by a family of squatters, whose naked kids are enjoying the squalor by making a mud tower. And add to this the incessant honking. It should be a silence zone for Saifee Hospital, in the vicinity, but who cares.
And so, I was grateful when I came across the AIB spoof on government offices, at least. All government staff should have workshops and be made to watch the "AIB government office/ the bossturds". Maybe then things will improve.
Any official papers that need to be sanctioned or formatted through a government office, take repeated visits and the papers are usually fraught with misdemeanours, which in turn need corrections, although the fault may have been committed by the government agents who processed the papers. Where can one complain? If you are foolish enough to do so, then you have jumped from the frying pan into the fire.
Opposite Central Plaza, at Opera House, voter IDs are prepared, and verified and then handed over , a process across 6 months or more. As expected, there was some bungling and repeated visits were warranted. The officials think that they are doing a great favour to the public and that everyone should pay obeisance to them. The impression given, is that, no matter what your condition or job requirements, you are expected to wait and wait and wait, in silence, and suffer your turn. These officials are rude and mostly intolerant, and condescending.
It seems there is no fixed timing for the office staff to report, So, having waited for almost 2 hours, I needed to use the loo. I requested to use the ladies' washroom and they could not find the key for the first floor WC. The ground floor ladies' WC was in disrepair and so locked. I was instructed to climb to the third floor, and try my luck, whether that one would be unlocked. This episode was embarrassing because I had to request multiple persons for the toilet keys, from one room, to the other, with lots of people waitng in lines, all witness to my suffering. I spent about 20 minutes of this and then I used the gents' loo. It was a gateway to hell. Stinking, full of red spit splashes in the basins and the open gents' loos. The closet had broken window slats and nothing to hang my bag. I was so demoralised. Before leaving the office, I spoke my mind to the 'adhikari of all adhikaris' that I would buy a lock and lock up the gents' loo too.
As I walked towards the bus stop at Opera House, I read the ad of a bakery, at Blue Diamond, which sold cakes, one being a PLUMP CAKE. So I could smile for a while. And then near Cafe Darayush, I witnessed the most incredible sight, of intermingled wires between buildings, and entirely covered with years and years of cobwebs.....ouch.
The next sight to catch my eye, was all shapes and sizes of males, spitting randomly, while they walked along the road. It was more irritating than otherwise, because the road is narrow, and to avoid the traffic, you have to walk in close proximity to these spitters and be in extra danger of getting yourself in their range. On the left side of the road, there is a narrow footpath, but shopkeepers have displayed signboards and encroached onto the walking space. So if you decide to use the footpath, you are expected to dodge the drips from overhead A Cs, avoid dashing into oncoming males, who walk without a thought for others in the range of their swinging arms and bruising satchels, or their protruding elbows, as they hold their mobiles to their ears and chatter away as they walk.
Then I reached the turn, under the railway overbridge. The footpath which begins on the right, is a mess of broken tiles and accumulated gutter water. The rest of the path is blocked by a family of squatters, whose naked kids are enjoying the squalor by making a mud tower. And add to this the incessant honking. It should be a silence zone for Saifee Hospital, in the vicinity, but who cares.
And so, I was grateful when I came across the AIB spoof on government offices, at least. All government staff should have workshops and be made to watch the "AIB government office/ the bossturds". Maybe then things will improve.
No comments:
Post a Comment