Like any other final year engineering student, I found myself reluctantly filling the monotonous passport forms. As usual i took a lifetime to make everything ready, and thats when they opened passport office in my city ! They said only online registration is allowed, no hand-filled forms. (WTH!) annoyed yet badly in need of a passport , I started with online registration n stuff, and got the date of submission as feb 2nd '09.
The time slot alloted was 11.15 am, but some "experienced" people told me '7 will be fine i guess.. Go there at 7 am da kanna'. I actually laughed at their ignorance... later realised that i was the ignorant ass ! Being the 'D' day today .. I got up at 6am (btw slept at 1 .. what was i doing? - Arranging all the documents - yeah procrastination is my childhood friend ;-)) Got ready and before i knew.. i was standing in a queue .. With almost 15 people in front of me! (Man.. when do these people get up? Do they even sleep?)
Well.. tell me what do you think is the worst thing in life.. that you hope you ll never want to go through ? Death ? Failure ? being alone ? Trust me there is nothin worse than standing in a 'God knows how long' queue.. for 31/2 hours . And yeah the most important thing - I ll be incomplete if i dont mention this. A queue, very much close to the toilet. Wow what a romantic location to stand for hours together.
And so I waited, and waited and waited. The queue started growing behind me. A dull looking old man was standing behind me.. Was wondering Where is he gonna go.. why does he need a passport in this age..okie. I know that’s so mean of me to think like that.. but hey.. even you would think that if u were there! Then saw a family coming towards my part in the line.. They came to the man, stood there and asked him to go. He was the driver. Poor soul. This is how people take advantage of their servants.
The family included a school girl, in her uniform.. probably hoping to finish it and go to school by noon I guess :-p
As time passed.. the queue became longer.. and the toilet odour.. (I mean the phenol smell! :P) became intense. Though I am thin and kinda appear to be a‘not so healthy’ person.., I was mentally strong enough to stand patiently next to the toilet n not complain.
Suddenly, peace was disturbed by people behind me, I turned back to see what happened.. ( well, was too bored in the queue.. would love to see any thing interesting ;P) The girl in uniform was about to faint.. it seems she is allergic to phenol smell (WTH!)!!!
After that and another long hour in the queue.. I noticed that the queue ended in front of me.. !! :D it has taken a turn :P the queue became a ‘U’ :P :P
The sentry came running , throwing out commands.. sent people in, after checking them ofcourse .. (you know.. people may really want to keep bombs in that long, god forsaken building!)
My turn came.. God .. I thought I’ll have to spend half of my lifetime there!(quarter of which , I ve already spent , STUDYING!) After some really anger provoking conversations with restless people at the office.. I came out with the bill.. yaayy..!! submitted my passport application!! Felt as if I achieved something big! Really… standing near that toilet was a great achievement indeed!!
INDIA has become advanced.. INDIA is modern.. I hear these atleast 5 times a day.. I wonder why they cannot arrange atleast a token system at the passport office, so that we need not stand from 7am (for the office that’s opening at 9.30am) .. And please.. Shift that toilet or change the queue place !!!
Passport experience was an ‘experience’ indeed.. but it failed to amuse me!!!
The time slot alloted was 11.15 am, but some "experienced" people told me '7 will be fine i guess.. Go there at 7 am da kanna'. I actually laughed at their ignorance... later realised that i was the ignorant ass ! Being the 'D' day today .. I got up at 6am (btw slept at 1 .. what was i doing? - Arranging all the documents - yeah procrastination is my childhood friend ;-)) Got ready and before i knew.. i was standing in a queue .. With almost 15 people in front of me! (Man.. when do these people get up? Do they even sleep?)
Well.. tell me what do you think is the worst thing in life.. that you hope you ll never want to go through ? Death ? Failure ? being alone ? Trust me there is nothin worse than standing in a 'God knows how long' queue.. for 31/2 hours . And yeah the most important thing - I ll be incomplete if i dont mention this. A queue, very much close to the toilet. Wow what a romantic location to stand for hours together.
And so I waited, and waited and waited. The queue started growing behind me. A dull looking old man was standing behind me.. Was wondering Where is he gonna go.. why does he need a passport in this age..okie. I know that’s so mean of me to think like that.. but hey.. even you would think that if u were there! Then saw a family coming towards my part in the line.. They came to the man, stood there and asked him to go. He was the driver. Poor soul. This is how people take advantage of their servants.
The family included a school girl, in her uniform.. probably hoping to finish it and go to school by noon I guess :-p
As time passed.. the queue became longer.. and the toilet odour.. (I mean the phenol smell! :P) became intense. Though I am thin and kinda appear to be a‘not so healthy’ person.., I was mentally strong enough to stand patiently next to the toilet n not complain.
Suddenly, peace was disturbed by people behind me, I turned back to see what happened.. ( well, was too bored in the queue.. would love to see any thing interesting ;P) The girl in uniform was about to faint.. it seems she is allergic to phenol smell (WTH!)!!!
After that and another long hour in the queue.. I noticed that the queue ended in front of me.. !! :D it has taken a turn :P the queue became a ‘U’ :P :P
The sentry came running , throwing out commands.. sent people in, after checking them ofcourse .. (you know.. people may really want to keep bombs in that long, god forsaken building!)
My turn came.. God .. I thought I’ll have to spend half of my lifetime there!(quarter of which , I ve already spent , STUDYING!) After some really anger provoking conversations with restless people at the office.. I came out with the bill.. yaayy..!! submitted my passport application!! Felt as if I achieved something big! Really… standing near that toilet was a great achievement indeed!!
INDIA has become advanced.. INDIA is modern.. I hear these atleast 5 times a day.. I wonder why they cannot arrange atleast a token system at the passport office, so that we need not stand from 7am (for the office that’s opening at 9.30am) .. And please.. Shift that toilet or change the queue place !!!
Passport experience was an ‘experience’ indeed.. but it failed to amuse me!!!
nice . u 've come across jus a small phase of indian administration process.was it a western/indian style toilet ? u dint mention anywhere abt it :P
ReplyDeletehehe.. well din care to peep in n check out!! :P btw i was forced to stand near gents toilet :P :P
ReplyDelete