Government offices are ugh!

Have you ever been to a government office to get your work done? Here are some things that may happen to you when you go there.

The false hope: You have this hope that your day is going to be good in the morning. You think that you are going to the government office to get the work done in an hour or two. You may also think that maybe you can get the work done early and visit the mall or the cinema hall and spend the next half of the day chilling. But sadly, the hope gets crumpled soon.

Wastage of paper: You walk into the government office and the first thing you notice are huge piles of paper/files everywhere; piles as high as a ten-storey building. You wonder why! Didn’t India go digital? Shouldn’t every task be done online?

Circle of counters: You ask for directions to the department you have to report to and you receive a reply “It’s on the third floor, then you take a right and then the first left and then look for the water cooler and hidden behind that is the department that you want.” And then, you are thrown out from one counter to another in an attempt to get your work done.

Unending queues: When you finally manage to find where you have to be, huge queues greet you. When you actually get to the counter the man says, “It’s the same line.” But because it is so long, it feels like there are multiple lines. Now the task is finding the end of that line. By the time you take to find it out, the line is almost three km long.

Multiple forms: Behind that counter is the man who will bombard you with silly questions and name a number of forms you haven’t filled. You stand right at the counter and fill in those forms while the people in the queue grumble at you for taking their time up. Even after you submit the forms, the official at the counter will still find faults and consume more time. You are finally shoved out of the line and you go to a bench to sit and refill those forms.

Lunch break: You fill every detail and somehow make it to the counter again. And just when you reach it, the clerk behind the counter puts up an old wooden signboard which bears the legend ‘Lunch Break'.

Last attempt: After lunch, you hurry back to the counter only to see that they have stopped accepting forms for the day.

Finally, you are left with no other option but to return the next day and be subject to the same ordeal.

Jubel D'Cruz, Mumbai