May I Help You, Not Really ?

I recently had the misfortune of interacting with our central government again. This time, I went to apply for registering my son at the Bureau of Immigration. It was a hilarious experience to observe the morons that go for government servants, their arrogance in treating those that come to them and finally how there is nothing even remotely close to “Service” in what they do.

The registration rule says that children below 16 need not register, also if you intend to stay more than 180 days then somehow you should predict that need and register for stay above 180 days within the first 14 days. That is it, this rule has tremendous confusion potential and any confusion always comes with “greasing opportunity”. You get the picture. We stood our ground that our son falls in the first category and demanded to know why it should be otherwise. It took them an hour to reason the logic and when the issued the permit it had an expiry date which was three days earlier due to someone making the mistake of entering 2021 as 2012, that is it, this took another 3 hours. With no food and water available my family went through a horrible experience.

They had slides being shown on the tv screens which called out employee of the month, faster throughput in processing, issues resolved etc. I observed those that have gotten the awards and how they treated the public.

Moron #1: He had gotten he award for “Employee of the Month”. He was below a giant “May I help You ?” sign. Ironically though to almost all the 10 or so cases all he was doing was shouting “Nobody can help you?” It would have been totally comic, if it weren’t so pathetic. He is employee of the month, god help our citizens from this government.

Moron #2: Every application that was given to him was literally thrown back at folks with various excuses:

1.       Why did you write the letter, instead of typing it ?

2.       Why are all the forms not attached in order (never mind that there is no guideline requiring either one of the above)

3.       Where is bonafide ? (with the Korean wondering what is Bonafide?)

No wonder this bastard takes only few seconds, increasing throughput, all he does is to throw it back. 

Moron #3: “High Officer”. He looked at me asked “Are you educated ?, why didn’t you register so far ?” When I yelled back asking is he educated about the rules as children under 16 are not required to register. He immediately mellows down. But ordinary folks are busy dancing “Yes Sir, No Sir” tunes in front of these leeches, who live off the taxes we pay and treat us like shit.

The real comedy was when they said “We have to forward the application to Delhi, we will give a temporary registration for three months as Delhi requires three months to process this…”. Such powerless bastards, who are incapable or not even empowered to take decisions which should be logical to begin with are this rude the public. Imagine how the bastards in Delhi would be ?

Compare this with the USA visa renewal experience for my in-laws. I applied online, uploaded online photo entered all the prior visa/passport details and applied for the interview waiver program. Two days later, we got an email asking us to appear in person, as fingerprinting needed to be done. It was given for 3^rd of July on which date they would be out of station. I just replied to the email, asking whether the date can b adjusted, within in 30 mins get a reply back, with the new date and timing with a precise list of docs/proofs that we need… Even if the VISA is denied, it would be with respect and dignity.

Ironically, in one of the TV debates on fertilizer subsidies -- a moron (== leftist intellectual) came on Puthiya Thalaimurai TV waxing eloquent how adopting American government’s culture is totally ruining us. Hmmm… I am not so sure….