Cursed Land of the Eternally Incompetent
Getting a passport is a ridiculously difficult task in this fucked up country.
Went to the passport office on Wednesday. Stood in the queue for 45 minutes. Came back since they didn’t accept my Airtel landline bill for address proof.
Went to the passport office today. Stood in the first queue for 30 minutes. Finally they tell me it’s the wrong queue. Stood in the second queue for 30 minutes. They close down for lunch. So I go back home and then head over there in the afternoon. I stand in the queue again but some policeman guy comes and asks me to get a sign from Deputy Passport Office. Stood in third queue for 30 minutes and got the sign. Then went to the fourth queue and waited there for 2 hours 15 minutes. They closed the counter down just as I got to it. I was the last person in the queue but the fat bald asshole at the counter refused to process my application. Even if I had managed to reach this counter in time the cash counter had been closed.
Queues everywhere. People wandering around clueless resorting to asking other applicants for help. Security personnel walking around and chatting without helping anyone. Indifferent government employees more interested in gossiping than processing the damn applications.
Add to this the traffic, the unbearable heat of Chennai and the lack of information or guidelines in the passport form or the passport office makes this one horrible experience I would not force upon my worst enemy. Well maybe Tamilselvan, Viswanathan and Narendra Modi but no one else.
All you people who say you like India, you’re just dumb. No one can like this dirty overpopulated disorganised place knowing everything people have to endure here. Me, I’ll get out first chance I get.
May 30th, 2008 at 7:21 pm
I went to the passport office in March with all documents and waited in queue for more than 2 hours but it was over before lunch. I went there morning 8 AM
I got my passport today… Hehehe. So when are you planning to go again to get the passport???
May 30th, 2008 at 7:35 pm
Bloody g*********t employees…. No sincerity, no interest in their work, getting bribes for every thing, eating several times a day, building up their belly instead of this country and so on…. Its hard to get it finished from them…
May 30th, 2008 at 8:27 pm
I think you would’ve noticed that the queue starts at the counter and ends in the ground floor.
The funny part would be the chair shifting thing, oh gosh. 2Yrs back i went to passport office for some thing ( don’t remember it properly ), the funny part was that photo in my passport was 4th std photo and one of the officer gave me one weird look and asked me, is it you? I felt good question man.
After all this inquiry he said you were standing in the wrong queue, damn it! It was like snake and ladder game, where if they say your wrong, like snake bites in the game and your pushed all the way down. It would take nearly more than an hour to come up the ladder.
Thank god am heading out soon
May 30th, 2008 at 9:56 pm
Police is suppose to come to our home and check the address, in my case it was different and i went to police station and showed myself and he was asking me some money and i said i have only 100 and gave it.
The one good thing in it was, i told my dad i gave 200 rs and got 100 from my dad.
May 31st, 2008 at 2:27 am
Fucker up country ours!!
I still haven’t applied for one. I am going to be dead when I do.
I heard from someone that we can submit our applications in Adyar Police station. Whether that’s true, I am not sure. Will have to find out.
But then, I thought the passport guys had a decent website.
You know what’s worse ? Driving Licence!!!! RTO is a cursed place.
May 31st, 2008 at 7:45 am
Even when I went to apply for passport, I felt the same way. They should have try to have Help Desks at the entrance of the office! Only then there won’t be any confusion!
May 31st, 2008 at 11:39 am
Shastri Bhavan is one hades.. Everyone there will behave uncouth.. Damn them.. And as you said, the police bhaskar who is supposed to control and coordinate the crowd will be chatting with someone else, huh. The best way is to apply thru post office, avoid going to shastri bhavan at the max.
May 31st, 2008 at 12:51 pm
@Visu
But for change of address and photo and all, we need to go in person and apply.
May 31st, 2008 at 4:27 pm
Where is my comment ?
May 31st, 2008 at 4:44 pm
For the last time, use the shoutbox if your comment goes in the queue.
May 31st, 2008 at 7:43 pm
You see all kind of drama in the Passport office. One guy claiming that he’s got all documents right and abusing them while the policeman whisks him off, two or three men fighting over a seat and a woman pleading the security that it was her seat they usurped and plenty more. The Shastri Bhavan authorities complain that they don’t have enough space to accommodate such huge crowd and go to claim that there wouldn’t be so much hassle if people went through the FAQs section on the department’s website.
And, of course I went through similar stages to get mine too.
June 2nd, 2008 at 1:26 pm
Vinod, you got your passport quickly cause you are a gatherer. They identified you as soon as you went in and gave you special treatment.
Siva, this is because there is no one to supervise them. They cooly say ‘Go complain to the officer. Why are you yelling at me?’ and the officer is another fat fucker who’ll support them. They are Central government exployees which means that they can throw your papers in your face and you still can’t do anything.
Rachel, there were about 13 different queues in just two floors. I didn’t see other floors. We had to stand, no chairs at all. Even the railway reservation counter is better than this. ROFL you gave them a 4th standard photo?! Why? How did they even accept it? You are right, it is exactly like a Snakes & Ladders game.
Hari, interesting way to speed up the process. How did you know which police station to go to? And who did you talk to there?
Karthik, man you have so much suffering waiting for you when you apply. And no, getting a driving licenses is not worse. The procedure is known and you can get it done in a few hours.
Praveen, they have some differently abled people outside the office serving as the help desk. The actual help desk consists of two people chatting with the cop on duty.
Visu, even by applying with the post office you have to go to the passport office for something, I heard.
Arun, those are lame excuses. The Central government has the authority and influence to get as much space as they want.
June 2nd, 2008 at 11:19 pm
Oh that 4th std story. Actually i had passport when i was doing my 4th std ( like i was dependent of my mom ), i resided at different addr on that time.
So while doing my 2nd yr, went for change of addr. Bullshit, i was standing in the queue for more than one hour or so, then one officer came there to help out in my queue. He asked me i told him the reason, he said your standing in wrong queue. He asked for my passport and when he saw the page with my photo he asked ” what ma, is it you? i said “yes sir”.
He gave me one weird look and asked again” are you sure it is you” phew! i said “yes sir”. Then my dad entered the scene and he told “Sir, it’s her only” and he said okay change the photo as soon as possible, okay. Okay sir.
June 3rd, 2008 at 7:11 am
I had lots of trouble too, finally had to use the ultimate weapon: cell phone.
Anyway, we stay in this country not because we want to, it’s because we can’t get a passport to leave
Well, actually no. Leaving or staying, it’s not simple decision pa. You must be thinking of other people also.
June 3rd, 2008 at 2:07 pm
What exactly did you do with the cell phone?
Anyway, we stay in this country not because we want to, it’s because we can’t get a passport to leave
Funny!
June 3rd, 2008 at 8:37 pm
I called. Evil, no?
June 4th, 2008 at 12:23 am
@Marc
I didn’t give them 4th std photo. I got my passport while i was in 4th std. As years went, i forgot to change the photo. So 2 yrs back when i went for change of addr ( i guess), the officer saw my photo and asked ” is it you?” I said “Yes sir”. Again he asked ” are you sure?”
Then my dad came for my rescue and somehow i escaped