Mumbai musings - 3... Bureaucracy...

On my first day at work, I was given a rude awakening of the bureaucracy which is prevalent throughout India. I was surprised to find this even in well known hi-tech companies for small things like getting an entry badge. For my 2 weeks of work at this site, I had to get a temporary badge to have access to the buildings. For this, I was asked to get 2 photographs by a good-hearted colleague who was here before me without which, this experience would have been even worse.
So to begin the process I was given a form to be filled which I had to sign and date it first. That form then had to be signed by a department head and a HR person and I had to take this form to a security office at one corner of the campus(10 mins walk one way to this office). The guy at the security office takes one look at the form and said, you need to get one more signature and make sure the department head puts down in writing which building you need access too. So I take this form back to the department head and he puts down the building I need access to but did not know who the 3rd person was to sign that form. So he calls the security person to inquire about it. I was then told that there was no one to sign in that third column and so I have to turn in this form and get another form in order to validate that there was no third person to sign my form. So I go back to the security office and the guy hands me a second form.
I bring back the second form, fill it up and that had to be again signed by the department head and a HR person to confirm that the first form did not need a third signature. I then had to take both these forms back to the security office with 2 photographs. The officer then goes over my 2 forms and instructs me to sign in 2 places in the form and another one in a ledger. He finally took out a badge and started writing my name on it. It was surely a sight for my sore eyes and my tired soul. He pasted one photograph on the form and another on the badge. Just when I thought that the ordeal was over, the officer handed over the badge and the first form and asked me to proceed to an adjacent building(5 mins away) and have it activated by the security control room and bring that badge and form back to him. So there I go again in search of another office and another officer. I managed to find both, got my badge activated and walk back to the first security office. The officer takes the form and the badge, goes over it one more time and hands me the badge and I was finally given a 2 weeks temporary access to one building.
This brought back some vivid memories of my college days where I had to go from one department to another with a sheet of paper and get a signature from every department head and dorm wardens to make sure that I had no dues before I could be issued my final transcripts. Nothing had changed in these 10 years.