I'm absolutely amazed at the amount of paper work that you have to fill out in order to get anything done here in India. To get a pay-as-you-go SIM card for your phone, you need your passport, two photographs, your Indian address and your Indian phone number (or something equally ridiculous, catch-22 anyone?!). After having crawled through all this procedure, which by the way takes half a day, the assholes don't even bother to send in your enrollment form, so the phone company promptly disconnects your services and recommends that you contact the seller, which in my case is a tiny shitty little shop in Delhi. Which is not really helping when I am in Jodhpur, 1000 and 1000 of kms away. AAARRRGGGGHHHHH!
Today I decided to be a brave woman and visit a bank in order to exchange some USD to Rupees. First I had to walk 45 minutes to the less "quaint" areas of town, then I filled in some paperwork regarding my passport, my address, my favourite colour, my shoe size and who I last slept with. (well, it wasn't far off). Then I sat there watching these two stone faced gentlemen shuffling my papers back and forth between them for about 30 minutes. At one point I tried to catch their attention by asking if this would take long, just to recieve a glare and a "no", followed by another 20 minutes of paper shuffling, interrupted by the occasional thud of a determined stamp.
Then the bankman took me to a third person, who also had to sign the papers, and then a FOURTH person who finally gave me the actual money.
"This is for your protection", the bankman said. "It is to make sure there is no corruption"
Ehhh, yeeesss... Well, here's a thought: since India is one of the most corrupt countries in the world, it obviously isn't working. I think I from here on will use the ATM's. If and when I happen to find one. But that will be a different story.
No comments:
Post a Comment