Wednesday, January 31, 2007

the post office

i took a resolution mid last year that i shall do all my application work on my own (which in itself is a long story). part of this new challenge had me walking in and out sarkari offices for attestation and other routine formalities. this adventure today took me to the Post Office, Rajinder Nagar. now um not really proud to admit this, but it was my first visit to a post office.

firstly ever since it became functional the office, the furniture and its employees have not been renovated or changed respectively . the dim tube-lights, plastic wired chairs with wooden frames, the green colored glass, the extra-milky tea transported me to a bygone era. secondly service to the public is not really their first priority, but harassing the public definitely is.

i went there with the same enthusiasm and excitement as is present when i go to the DHL office only to find the lady at the enquiry counter 'not at her seat'! and nobody else in the office was really interested in helping the confused souls like me. so i waited diligently hoping that someone wud help me out. 25 minutes into this ordeal one 'uncle' came out from the inner office and i quickly pushed my envelope into his face asking him (requesting rather) to 'pleeese' tell me the denomination of the stamp. as per the rules, he weighed the package and pondered for some time before muttering 'pandra rupay'. now purchasing stamps dont take much time as its they who r getting the money. with the exact change provided, stamp purchased and stuck and all that jazz, i was told to leave my envelope at one corner table!!!

this is how i posted my acceptance to an offer for a course that um dying to pursue for the last one year. but for that business reply card with a post box address, i wud have couriered it by my trusted DHL. if the particular office receives my acceptance (which i hope and pray it does), i am going to nominate the indian post offer as one of the 'wonders of the world'!!!
this is, to be honest, my fifth attempt to blog. i always signed up, chose the fanciest template and by the time my now-outdated-but-still-trustworthy dial-up connection managed to reach the page for 'creating new post' i lost interest! this time they bugged me more by telling this computer-illiterate soul that they had some new exciting features so 'upgrade now'!!! in other words this time i will have to wait another extra 15 minutes, so that i again lose interest. but this time i decided to be patient as i have nothing else to interest me.

now that i am finally here, my next task is to find out for exactly how long i will stay here. (considering my other endeavours i really dont think it will last long)