A tale of few pities

Governmented

Its not a coincidence that the title sounds like a parody of Charles Dickens' historical novel. While the classic story chronicled the battles between the aristocracy and working class, in my case it was one way oppression by the bureaucracy. 

I woke up this morning hoping to watch the India - England match under the pretext of working from home, oblivious to the fact that fate had other plans. I brushed, bathed and clothed in record time. With a bowl of cornflakes, I was settling in front of the TV when blip went the power. Scheduled load-shedding, only no one knows what the schedule is.

Cursing my luck I set out wanting to wind up the two things I had been postponing for a while. The reluctance was partly due to laziness and mostly due to my skepticism for government run offices. The first was simple. I had to go to the bank, correct my surname, collect my ATM card PIN, update my passbook and request for a second ATM card. Sounded like a 15 minute job to me, but was sure it would be anything but. In fact Amudha was so sure, she made plans to go to office with another colleague despite my promise we'll be only slightly later than normal. I did manage to finish all those chores in 10  minutes !

Feeling smug at this pleasant surprise, I ignored Murphy's law and went about the second task. In my opinion this was the lesser of the two evils. I just had to renew my car's insurance policy. The only complication was that the previous policy had expired a month ago, so the officer would have wanted to see the car first. 

The first signs came when I couldn't find a parking place close to the insurance office. Having parked almost a kilometer away, I trundled in, only to be told that the car needs to be brought in. I tried pleading that their office was in a no parking zone so couldn't keep my car there, but had to finally risk it so that the officer could verify for himself.

Now comes the part which justifies the revulsion people have for government offices. My application was sent to at least 5 different desks and in one case the lady called the office boy at the other end to pass the document to the person sitting right across her. I was determined to finish the job today, but was unprepared for further testing of my resolve.

Having realized that I was short of the premium amount by a thousand and knowing that the ATM was hardly a stone's throw away, I promised the cashier I would be back in a minute. To my horror, a sign board stating that the ATM was shifted to the other end of the road greeted me. I had no option but to trudge up and down in the hot sun for another 2 kms before I could conclude the business.

By now I was sick of running from pillar to post and was yearning for a few creature comforts like my ac office and a sip of cool lime juice. As I sped into my office premises, the parking attendant threw his hands up in the air and declared that the parking is full. Some days ...