It was quite a long day today. Actually, it wasn’t so much as long as it was tiring. All my stuff from the US has finally arrived in India and I had to go finish all the paperwork so that I can collect the shipment from the container depo.
To get the release documents I had to make the final payments by DD (Demand Drafts) so the first job of the day was to go to the bank and get the DD’s made and I also needed to have some documents attested because the shipping company needed copies. The DD’s were no problem as the staff at the Oriental bank is quite helpful and fast.
Normally unless its specified that a document has to be attested by a gazetted officer a bank manager has the authority to attest a document. So I went to the manager of the local branch and asked him to attest the document copies for me. BTW, I know the manager because a couple of weeks ago I had a long talk with him and he had attested other documents for me. He told me that he is not a gazetted officer so can’t attest the docs, so I told him that it wasn’t an issue because the shipping company hadn’t specified that a gazetted officer had to attest the document.
He flat out refused to attest the document, telling me that unless I showed him written proof that a manager’s attestation was valid he wouldn’t attest it. So I told him not to worry about it because convincing the shipping company was my hassle and if he went ahead and attested the document his part was done and I would deal with the company if there were any further issues. Still he refused. In fact he was actually quite rude and told me to stop wasting his time and leave. I then asked if I called the shipping company and have them confirm over the phone that it was ok for him to attest the document would he do it. He still refused and told me it had to be a written email/letter/document.
It would make sense to follow this rule if he had to log this proof somewhere or maintain a log. He just wanted to see the email/letter before attesting the documents and the email/letter would then be returned to me (I have done this before but that time I had a brochure that said that it was ok. He had looked at it and then given it back).
This is what I call petty bureaucracy because he has this ‘power’ to attest and is following some rule that has no bases in reality and you can’t question him because if he doesn’t do that then how can he show others how important his position (he) is. He has done this in plenty of other items but that’s a story for another day. For now I just have to deal with him but seriously… I can’t wait for him to transfer out.
Once the bank stuff was done (I spoke to the shipper and they told me I could self attest the document as long as I showed them the originals) I took the metro to Dwarka which is on the other side of Delhi. If I had driven there I would have had to deal with all the traffic so it was easier and less stressful to take the metro, especially since the shipper’s office was near the station.
Once I got to Dwarka which took I called them up and asked for directions to their office. I was told to take a rickshaw and go to Ramphal Chowk and their office was located there. I took the rickshaw and got all the way to Ramphal chowk (In Sector 7, and I had started from Sec 11) but when I got there no one knew the building they were supposed to be in so I called them again and asked for directions to the building from Ramphal Chowk, that’s when they told me that they were not located at Ramphal Chowk but were at another Chowk (I forget its name now) which was back in Sector 11 about 10 mins from where I had started. So I had to go all the way back.
In all because of this screwup it took about 1 hour 45 mins to get to the office instead of the 10-15 mins it should have. Plus I got to enjoy Delhi’s 40 Dec C heat at noon.
Once I got there the paperwork didn’t take much time and I got out quite fast. Now I had to take the documents these guy’s gave me to another office in Nehru place. So I went back to the metro station and took the metro to Rajeev Chowk (Connaught Place) because the metro doesn’t service Nehru place yet. Once I got there I took an auto to Nehru place which took almost an hour to get there thanks to the traffic and the fact that the top speed of the auto was probably about 40 kmph.
That office took processed my paperwork and gave me another set of docs that I need to take to the shipping depo tomorrow to get the actual stuff released. Once all this was done I took a bus back to Noida. Thankfully I got a seat in the bus ’cause it was jam packed. Think all sardines from two cans stuffed in one can.
I literally didn’t have space to even move one step forward to get out of the bus. But it was a quick journey. Thankfully.
So, now I am back at home after having spent almost 9 hours bouncing around Delhi/Dwarka/Noida and tomorrow I get to do another marathon session to pick up the stuff and get it back home.
I need sleep. (I was up till 5 am working on a project and slept for about 4 hours before leaving home in the morning).
Well this is all for now. Will post more later.
– Suramya