You don't mess with the .. Govt.

Oh yeah, it's the third or fourth time I learnt the lesson, but clearly, I can't seem to be getting enough of these 'lessons'. Well, it all started off with a weird request for clearance from the police to be allowed to work on my project. Sounds a bit 'I-am-not-letting-you-do-this-so-easily' type. Surprisingly, my group of friends/project mates and I did not complain much, though it was a shocker when we first heard of it. All we could manage was, "I understand, sir".

Ok, so all that was left was getting the clearance from the police. Sounds like a piece of cake? Sounds like a piece of rock actually. Oh, we called a guy we knew and asked, he gave us an at some other PS (police station). But then turned out that the procedure he was talking about is for verification and not clearance. So we were again asked to go to a local PS. When we went there, they asked us to pay 500 bucks at an e-seva centre (eSC), and get a receipt along with all the documents needed for identification. So we traveled a few KM and got to the eSC. There the lady sitting at the counter bugged us for about 10 min that they can't give us the receipt, and behaved as if we were irritating her, and in a more frustrated voice asked another lady to tend to this matter. In all this, they made us (my mom and me) look like a bunch of dudders from a rural area. Surprisingly, this lady, whose cabin is just a metre away from the former, had an entirely different story to tell. Now how is it that 100 cm can make such a big difference? Well, it actually did. We were asked to take a token and soon were at a counter taking the receipt. Wow, Weird!!

Then we go back to the PS. The situation is grim again. There were a group of athletes who came to lodge a complaint about a lost wallet. The tempers were flying, and voices were on a competition to be the loudest. In between all we had to squeeze through to find the right person and submit the docs. The startling fact though, was that these people were a lot more friendly and soothing than those eSC ladies. However, there was a glitch. Or can we call it trick? The man incharge told us that the clearance would take a week! My project was way behind schedule and I couldn't afford an hour's delay. However, when we requested them to process it by Monday, they agreed. There was a special mention about us going back to the PS on Sunday. We went 3 times today, and there's one more to go. Now why would that be? Oh yeah! It's as easy as looking at a black circle and saying, "It's a black circle". There's some 'under the table' stuff to be done tomorrow which would ensure that I get the clearance by Monday. Wow, Weird!!

So with all, this I learnt the lesson that I have been learning all my life. You don't wanna mess with the Zohan. Sorry, what did I say? Govt. I meant... they'll take you for a ride, a hell of a ride. But what can we do? It's the only ride we have.