The Driving License Story, Part 2

So, finally the day arrived for the written exam. I went again to the RTO Office and to my surprise, the exam was in Hindi. And it was not normal spoken Hindi. It was almost similar to Sanskrit since some of the words; I had difficulty in even pronouncing. When I look back now, the quality of the paper for the written test was worst than toilet paper. I remember, I hardly finished all the questions in the stipulated time. But anyways, the exam ended and I headed back home after checking when the results would come out. I had few hopes of passing the exam but somehow I passed the exam. I got to know it when I went to again to the RTO Office, my fourth time. The next step was the practical exam.

I was asked to bring a car with me to give the practical driving exam on a particular date. Now this seemed a bit strange to me. Ideally, since I don’t have a driving license, it should not possible for me to drive my own car from my house to the RTO Office to give the exam. That would mean that I am driving the car in the city without a driving license. So, after thinking what to do, I asked my cousin sister who is even younger than me and also without a driving license but drives very well to take me to the RTO Office in my dad’s car just to make sure that the examiners don’t suspect anything foul. As proposed, we went to the RTO Office and the examiner asked me to drive the car in a circle in the large free space behind the RTO Office. I was expecting him to accompany me in the car. But on the contrary, he asked me to drive by myself and he will watch me driving sitting in his office through his window and then judge me. I was a bit taken aback by his way of taking the exam but I had to do as asked. I did the same, drove in circles in the open field with my cousin sitting in the back seat. This was my practical test. I did not even drove in the city on real streets. After a while, I was asked to stop and park the car and come to meet the examiner. I went to him and he said I passed the test and on this particular date, I must come and collect my license. I was simply overjoyed by the news. I thanked the officer and drove back home.

That evening, I was thumping my chest with pride, that look at me, I proved my point. I showed the world that governmental work can be done without bribes. Of course on has to take some efforts, sweat himself out and make some trips to the Office but finally it can be done. I told my friends and family how people should behave, how educated people should act. Frankly speaking all of them were surprised and amazed since none of them knew that a license can actually be made legally. Even my father was a bit taken aback but he felt proud of me.

On the designated date, I went to the RTO Office to pick my new, legally made driving license. I was told that due to some malfunctioning in some machine which prints the license, the delivery is delayed and I will have to wait another one week. I said no problem and went back home. After about 10 days, I again went back to the RTO Office (this was my seventh time) to collect my license. This was the moment of truth. This was the day, I never forget in my life. This was the day, the world laid naked in front of me. This was the day, I was refused my driving license. I had stood in the line outside the distribution window for more than an hour again in the sun and when my turn came, the guy distributing them said, saab kuch chai paani to do. I said what chai paani? I had already paid the legal fees and cleared the tests and I could see my license lying on the table. But the guy again insisted that I must pay him some money. I refused it bluntly. He said in that case your license has not yet been made and come after another week. I was furious and went inside to complain to his superiors. No one listened or paid any attention to me. I returned to the guy and politely asked him to please hand over my license. He started showering abuses to me and asked me to get lost. Later did I got to know that this chai paani is distributed in the complete system of the RTO Office. I felt dejected and ridiculed. My family made fun of me, my friends made fun of me. A feeling of remorse took over me, that why did I not listened to them in the first place and get the thing done in the luxury of my house by just paying some guy Rs 500. But I did not gave up. I wrote a complaint letter to the local politicians. Nothing was done. I was further ridiculed for not going the “conventional” way by paying some money and getting the job done. But I was stubborn. I refused. My parents asked me to at least take a lesson from this and go and collect the license by paying the chai pani and move on. I refused again. I was not able to accept the fact that this thing happened. That things work like this in the real world. I never went again the RTO Office in my life again.

After a month, I had to leave India to start my post graduation in Germany. The first thing I did after getting a Job here was to make a driving license. I must tell you that it takes around 3-4 months to make it and enough money has to be spent (as much as it would cost for 2 return trips from Germany to India). But finally I got it.

Now when I got to India, I use my German driving license. I still refuse to go to pick up my license from the RTO Office. Yes, I am stubborn.  

The Driving License Story, Part 1

The current chain of events around the anti corruption drive happening in India reminded me of an incidence. So, I thought of sharing it here.

In the July of 2003, yours truly graduated as an Engineer. Fresh out of college, we had high hopes from the world we were about to face. We knew it would be tough but we had all the energy and the will in the world to give a good fight to achieve our goals. Ethics, morals and the will to change the world kind of emotions were running pretty high inside us. We knew and believed we could change the world. Such novices we were!!

After my graduate studies, I returned to my hometown and the first thing on my mind was to make a driving license. I told my father that I would go to the RTO Office the next day to get started with the “official” procedure. My father gave me a smile and wished me good luck. When other members of my family including my cousins got to know about it, most of them suggested me to take the other route. They casually and bluntly asked me to go meet a particular Juicewala in XYZ market with 2 photos and Rs 500 to get the thing done. I taunted them by saying that if educated people like us take up such ways, then how we can expect things to change in India where one third of us live on less than 2 dollars a day. There was silence for a second and then everyone burst out laughing. I was the butt of many jokes after that.

But next morning with my head held high and my chest beating with pride and honour and the Sun God gracing us with over 40 degrees, I reached the RTO office, sweating, for the first time in my life. It was total chaos. I had not expected it that way. There was no sign board etc to guide people from where to start the process. The reception desk was empty. After waiting for half and hour, I started asking people how and what to do to make a driving license. After running here and there for another half an hour, I finally understood the drill. We had to register first, then appear for a written test and finally take a practical driving test.  

Great, I thought to myself. Immediately, I went to the registration counter which was just a window and the applicants had to stand out of the building under the sun in a line to pay the fees and register. The usual way of breaking the line and getting their work done style was working for many people. I did not loose my calm and waited for my turn patiently. Finally, when my turn arrived, the guy behind the window turned away and prepared to leave the room. I asked him hurriedly with much concern that I wanted to register and pay the fees. The guy again casually said, it is lunch time now and come back tomorrow. I told him that we still have 15 minutes before 12, which is the official closing time. He totally ignored me and left the room. I was still standing there staring at the empty window and trying to understand what had happened. By this time my light blue T-shirt had changed its colour to another shade of blue due to all the sweating. I bit disappointed, I went back home.

The next day, I reached the RTO Office before the official opening time at registration window, thinking that I would be the first person there. I would do my job and go back home in no time. But, I found that things don’t work that way at governmental offices. The guy came half and hour late and there was already a big line behind me with people cursing and swearing at the window. As his majesty arrived casually and totally disinterested, I quickly forwarded my application through the rusted iron grill of the window with the money. I was given an appointment for my written test. I was happy to clear the first stage. Enthusiastically, I asked the guy how can I prepare for the written test. He frowned and said better ask somebody inside the building. I tried to ask few people there but no one actually had my answer. Without wasting much time there, I returned home thinking I would ask my friends or my family. They have been driving cars and bikes since ages, they must surely know. Unfortunately and to my surprise, no one actually knew how to prepare for the written test as it seemed very alien to them, the concept of giving a written test for a driving license. Finally, I thought I will just go there and give the test. How hard could it be since I had been already driving since the age of 15? So, I finally waited for the day of the written test to arrive.

The rest of the story in the next part ....

Stop Pause Think

I am deeply impressed by the solidarity Indians are showing all over the world against the issue of corruption in India. I won’t call myself a cynic but yes I am having my doubts at this stage specially seeing how things are slowly unfolding.

I would totally agree that corruption is a menace for the society in India. I would also agree that someone somewhere has to take a stand and start working towards eradicating it. So, I was initially very pleased to see that this time some people without a political background and motive were trying hard to do something for the cause. I was initially criticizing people who were not coming forward to support the efforts. I was telling them no matter what their personal agenda is, we should at least not discourage their efforts. What if a bunch of people get some credit and more powers in their hand at the end but at least if they are successful, all of us might be benefited from it. Since everything is going peacefully, all is good.

But I see a sudden change in the air. Things are getting hot. People are getting impatient and specially after the leader of the moment put behind bars there is a rage among the public. From law and order point of view this could lead to dangerous circumstances. Some anti social elements could take advantage of the situation and things could go out of control. At the end, I would not be pleased to hear what once the prominent leader of the party now in power in early 80s (also then in power) said after the Delhi riots. The explanation he gave was: jab ek bada ped girta hai to chote mote ghar to toot te hi hain. I don’t want to see that. So things have to be controlled and taken forward in a meaningful way which could be tough as more and more people take to the streets. So I am a little concerned since yesterday a friend of mine had to postpone an urgent surgery because of road blocks in many parts of Delhi.

Now, I can understand that we need strict laws and better vigilance but somehow I feel making a new body to perform that might not really solve the complete problem. Human beings are opportunists by nature. Who will govern or keep an eye on the people elected to form the committee if at all the bill is passed? What if they themselves become corrupt? Were agencies like the CBI etc not formed to do the precise things? If they can fail to deliver then it is tough to believe other such institutions will not fall prey to the same disease. Because at the end of the day, it is normal people like us who would be working there. I have yet to see a country and/or its politicians totally devoid of corruption. It would be too idealistic to even imagine that. I personally feel that laws should definitely be strict but we must also take some responsibilities in out own hands.

The long term solution for all this in my opinion is to create a more equal society. Of course it is not easy in a huge country like India but we must force our politicians to work more towards achieving that. I find this a more stable solution. It can not be mere coincidence that the Nordic countries considered to be the best places to live in the world also have the least corruption. The reason is a flat society in which even the poor have the basic amenities of life. The rich are taxed more to pay for the more unfortunate. This automatically leads to a stable society with low crime since people don’t have to struggle.

It is no surprise that the police officer in India who works hard an even in odd hours risking his life and paid less than half of what an IT Engineer gets take bribes. He also wishes to provide the best to his family. The same argument holds for other governmental employees. But this is not the case in the Nordic countries or even in central Europe. In Germany, the starting salary for a police officer is almost same as that of a fresh engineer directly out of university.

I have doubts when I see people blindly following something. Many people I know personally who actually have no morals in life, always acted on the chalta hai attitude and made fun of people who acted honestly and morally, are aggressively showing their support for the bill. Some of them have not even read the proposal of the bill or don’t even know where and how it will end if and when the bill is passed. I find people online and on streets with flags and all but somewhere I feel it is like a hollow effort where the finish line is pretty blurred. It appears to me more like a herd mentality where anyone who questions them is considered being not with them and labelled unpatriotic. I hope it is not like Egypt where now after the uprising; life had gone from bad to worse. I personally know a person there who told me that the media does not report the current situation. At the moment there is no law and order in the country. Kidnappings are on a roll. People are scared and life is not yet back to normal.

I just hope and wish that people should stop, pause and think before deciding on their actions.      

The "Business" of News

I was born in the early 80s. As a child or maybe as a teenager, my first dose of international news was in the form of a TV program on Doordarshan by Prannoy Roy’s The World This Week. I remember I used to wait eagerly for the weekly program even though it used to air pretty late around 9.30 or 10 in the night. In those times, I think this was the only source of world news (and in English) for me apart from the one page international in The Hindustan Times or Times of India newspapers. I used to be utterly impressed by the news and the way it was presented. It always had the most interesting and knowledgeable pieces of information of the world which I hardly knew anything about. It used to leave me fascinated about the world which existed beyond my surroundings and everyday life in India.      

I think it was a time of purist television for me. Simple, thought provoking and truly entertaining programs aired on television, courtesy the Doordarshan. Who can forget Master Haveliram of Buniyaad, Basesar Ram, Nanhe, Chutki of Nukkad, comedy of Yeh Jo Hai Zindagi, the suspense and thrill of Byomkesh Bakshi and Karamchand, the Quiz Show by Siddarth Basu etc. Okay, so before I get lost in the nostalgia of the yesteryears, let me fast forward to the current times. The simplicity and modesty of the Doordarshan was literally stripped and raped by cable/satellite TV. Doordarshan got lost in the dark somewhere and private channels popped up by dozens. I remember when we first got a cable connection, we had around 15-16 channels, maybe even less. Today, we have more TV channels than a TV actually supports. Of course, to some extent it brought us close to the outside world. We started understanding the bigger picture. But I am not sure whether the tradeoffs were balanced enough.

Coming back to where I started, i.e. world news on TV. Now, either the world was a relatively better place a couple of decades back or either the news reporting has changed over all these years. The reason I feel this is because these days all I see is depressing and violent news on TV. Of course there were not so very happy moments around the world being presented by Prannoy Roy back then but in half an hour or so of news, their impact were not so significant. But at the same time we were rightly made aware of what was happening. All this changed over the years. Talking first about the news channels in India, I feel that except a couple of them, most of them are total trash and should be banned asap. They are nothing but a bunch of people trying to tantalize and sensationalize normal things happening around us. And on top of that I sometimes wonder that have we become so dumb to see news like Ravan’s grave found in Sri Lanka or a hill in the shape of Nandi, the bull. How is it possible for such channels to survive if there were no viewers? This simply means that the supply exists because there is a demand. Do we really need such repetitive feed of titillating news? Even the more decent ones trying to deliver sensible news are made to bow to such cheap and low levels in order to compete. These relatively better English speaking but Indian news channels hardly focus on international news. When I visit India these days, sometimes I feel totally cut off from the world if I don’t connect online or see BBC or CNN on TV. The expansion of the news “business” has gone wrong somewhere and at the same time the taste of its viewers.

Talking about major international news providers like BBC or CNN who offer much less biased information are reasonably good but still not perfect. One must be open to read from different resources to get a fair piece of news. But the point I am trying to make is that has the world changed so much in just a couple of decades that there is hardly any positive news available anymore? Pick up any news website and check its front page for the last 7 days. I am sure that 99% of it would be negative and depressing news. So, has the world changed itself and is really deteriorating itself or are the news people changed their style of reporting? Does it really help knowing every bit of detail around you? Should we really be so concerned about things which are beyond our controls? Should we really get influenced by it? Is the society becoming too voyeuristic in nature? Have we started mixing entertainment with things which are more serious in nature? There are hell lot of questions popping in my head right now and I am still trying to find my answers.  

Honesty is for Losers

Most of us would agree that honesty is a virtue which we try to search in every person with whom we want any relation, personal or professional. Yet, there are times when we ourselves twist things around just to get some petty gains from certain situations. We ourselves don’t stick to those virtues but still expect it from others to maintain all the time. I would call it double standards. I thought of sharing an incidence along the same lines.

A few years back when I was studying in Germany, I took up an internship for a semester. So, I had to move to a place which was close to the countryside. Sometimes on weekends when the weather was good, my German colleagues and I used to plan for cycling trips to the mountains. To start the hike we had to pass through a village.  I often used to notice there some open garages with a shelves facing the road. It used to have few selected vegetables and fruits on it but no one actually was present there. I used to find it funny that why someone would decorate his garage with vegetables and fruits. Then this one time, I also noticed a small weight balance with a small box kept there and no other soul in sight except us who were just passing by. Out of curiosity I asked one of my colleagues that what is all this. He explained me that it is a small shop to buy locally grown fruits and vegetables. I was a bit surprised and asked back that where the shopkeeper is then. He further explained that it is not supposed to work like that. Here a person can pick himself what he wants to buy, then weigh it on the balance himself, then calculate the price according with the price tags kept there and finally put the money in that box all by himself. I laughed at him and said Yeah Right!

My colleague said in a serious tone that he was not joking. I was a bit stunned and shocked that he was really serious and that shop really worked that way. Instantly I bombarded him with my questions that how is this possible, why is anyone not stealing the vegetables since no one is looking, why is that money box still there and why is that weight balance also there? It was tough for me to accept the fact that such a kind of system can actually exist. Can I imagine this working in India? Of course it’s a small village where this is working but still my brain was rejecting any argument I was throwing at it. It was hard to believe that honesty at such levels still exist in today’s times.     

Fast forward a few years and this colleague with his wife came to visit India for the first time. Amongst other touristic places in Delhi, I also went with them to Jama Masjid, Birla Temple etc. But, it was at Gurudwara Bangla Sahib while sitting outside on the marble floor my colleague seemed a bit puzzled. I asked him what was troubling him. He politely asked me all these are holy places? I said, yes. He asked me that all the people who come here, come with pure heart and mind and to pray? I said, yes. He asked that all the money collected here is for the poor? I had to finally ask him what his point was. He confusedly asked that why do all these places have locks on their donation boxes? It hit me quite hard since I did not had a convincing reply for him and immediately the incidence of that German village came to my mind. Of course, I could have said that there are all kind of people in this world but I was not convinced myself whether any person in his sane mind steal from the house of God. I used to brag about, feeling proud about India rich with all its cultures, religions and spirituality but at that moment I was dumbfounded. Because a straight answer would be that if there were no locks there, those big boxes of money would be empty at the end of each day not because people would not donate but because people would not mind sneaking out a few currency notes from there. But how could I have told him the straight answer since then all my bragging about India being a land of spirituality and all would have hit the wall, and pretty hard.

So, my point is that if we cannot have enough honesty at places of worship then how we can expect honesty in our everyday life. Something, somewhere in all this is not going right and maybe over these years in India we have lost the essence and the main virtue by which we stood apart from others. I feel we have rooted ourselves out and are drifting away in the wrong direction. And all this India shining would not last long if things continue to happen in the way they are happening.