Customer Satisfaction!!!

   A fine day to begin with and to add to it, I was feeling pleased as a punch with myself as I was leaving office a whole half a day earlier than i was supposed to be leaving. The feeling of smug self satisfaction was short lived when  I pulled my two wheeler out of the parking lot. The rear Tyre was flat and lifeless and not a single shop in sight to get it repaired. Let me tell you changing the wheel in a car is a piece of cake when compared to the intricacies in removing the wheel of a bike. At a loss for words I begin dragging the vehicle in the sweltering heat and enquiring where a puncture shop could be.
   Suddenly a wizened small old guy came and asked me to follow him. Well I was of two minds whether to follow him or start a search of my own but decided to follow him after all it is better to follow someone who is sure of the direction than search on a random luck favoring basis. The guy asked me to park my chariot under a bridge and follow him and I was like "old man its hot and I don't have time for games". Still with a flat Tyre I did not have many options. So I humored him. Turned out that the guy was a puncture specialist and wanted me to see him get his tools etc etc. Then the guy was back at my bike's side and before I could say supercalifragilisticexpialidocious he had the Tyre out and was rolling it across the street and had the puncture fixed. The guy was thoroughly a professional by the way he worked. He knew exactly what to do. I know it sounds crazy because locating the puncture and patching it up is not exactly mathematical calculus but there was something about his mannerism that made me kind of sit up and give him a lot of attention. He was a past-master at his work that the entire exercise of removing the tube and re-inserting it into the Tyre hardly exerted him.
   I had to respect the guy for the way he worked. He was completely concentrating on the work and keeping side talk minimal, but once he finished the job he started yapping away as if there was no tomorrow asking about where I worked and advertising his shop. This is probably the mark of a true professional. the movie "The Last Samurai" flashed in my mind where Tom Cruise described the ways of a samurai as a set of people who dedicated themselves to their chosen discipline from sun-up to sun-down. That is the sort of impression the little old man had on me. Truth be told the guy demanded me thrice as much as what other people who repair punctures charged and what was even more surprising was I had no regret in coughing up the money.
   I know it seems to far-fetched to write a blog about an old guy who repairs punctured Tyres and even more foolish to write one where I end up paying a whole load of money for something that doesn't quite cost a lot. Still the old man left an impression. On something as mundane as repairing a punctured Tyre the guy displayed a lot of dexterity and single-minded focus. Of course how he uses the money I gave him under the business transaction is questionable and I have this feeling that the money is going to end up in a liquor shop. He had a lesson to teach on how to go about your work which anyone can appreciate. If one can throw a little bit of the effort and bring to force, the experience then it seems like anything is possible without taking too much tension and too much pain. That I suppose is the secret of living a balanced life. We should rule our work and not let the work start dictating terms. A little discipline and sincerity and that will empower you to ask whatever you demand and leave your customers with a smile. That is the power of customer satisfaction. You don't need to be a talkative marketing guy but just a true professional with a great work ethic and a dedication to your work and easy to end up with top pay for even the simplest of work.

The March of Time!!!

   An interesting topic is to analyse the movement of time. Scientifically "what is time" is a question that is beyond my limited abilities to explain but what I do know to explain is the other aspect of time that is more easily understandable by lay people like me.

   Humans tend to live for around 70 years on an average, sometimes more than 100. The best years are always yet to come for the homo sapiens and that makes our lives that much more interesting to study. Initial years are spent in unknowing innocence and mischief without attaching any importance to the time flowing by beyond the approaching festivals or the annual birthday and some sweaty moments with respect to exams and results. The initial years are the most carefree moments that we ever live. Once you get out of school starts the journey from innocent child to the gray areas of becoming an adult. This is also the point where "Time" instead of moving at normal speed seems to start moving at the speed of light.
   From a personal experience I had a great time during my school days, however life was that much better after school. Unfortunately this also turned out to be the time when things began to speed up. People often say that when you are having a good time, hours turn into seconds and when you are in deep sh*@ seconds can stretch. The crazy thing is it turns out to be right for the most part. When you are stuck in a place that you do not like but have to stay there for a certain duration of time then not even the power of the lord almighty can make the time go fast. In retrospect one might agree that the time moved very fast but there in the eye of the storm of that situation, the general emotions range from frustration to sheer boredom. Imagine yourself alone in a place far from home and not even the company of your friends to pass the time. This is the time when you get the actual feeling of being a prisoner. The only thought glaring at the back of your head is GIVE ME FREEDOM!!! At the same time you see your entire life flashing by in the moments of intense nostalgia and you realize with a start that the years have passed by so fast. It feels like only yesterday when you were being chased by your mom with this crazy instrument that is supposed to be used for making chappathis and the next instant your grown up and fending for yourself away from home.
   It sure is a weird feeling thinking that I am an adult and am no longer tied to my home. That whole adult and grown up idea is not exactly fitting into my juvenile brain which keeps my life full of video games and cartoons. So in such a situation the concept of the rapid march of time is not exactly appreciated. The fact of the matter is I would love for time to slow down and let me savor the good times and when things are not so great time should ideally speed up so I can look back and laugh it off. If only this sort of manipulation could be done, then I would just breeze through the tough times and extend the nice ones.
  All said and done the movement of time is something that  is a figment of imagination dreamed out by an idle mind to explain the flow of emotions and thoughts that are an every day occurrence. However this does not mean the passage of time does not actually happen. We live and love only through our minds and hearts and if there is a concept that has been cooked up by our mind or felt by our heart then there is some truth to it. The march of time is relentless and the speeding of time and its slowing is a topic of discussion during times of extreme idleness. So the corollary would be that reading this blog must also be done ideally when there is a lot of free time. Unfortunately by this time the blog would have been read and completed and I can only apologize for the few minutes of time that I have taken up from your life.

An Economic Affair

   This blog is probably way out of my league but with all this depression in the moods of the people regarding a looming recession and depression that is tearing away at the world's economic creation, I must say I feel responsible to step up and say stop the oppression and compression of the economic situation and also that T R's rhyme and rhythm style add a new dimension to the whole thing.
   Closer home things are going pretty much in a low way. The latest Industrial output growth was negative and Ruppee is way above any safe level. I mean it took years to come down from Rs.55 and now it is back in that level. The FDI move was shot down. It could have bolstered some of those lagging figures right out of the chart but I guess it just wasn't the time or place for it to happen. The inflation is slightly coming down, however it is not actually enough of a cheer to chase the blues away. The top side to this entire story is that all the IT majors have been hiring like crazy and news keeps floating about how optimistic they are of the long term prospects. That ladies and gentlemen is probably something that does scare me because most of these IT majors have their roots deep in European countries and those bad boys are not in a great situation to keep spending on software. Other than these it is business as usual in India full of stock market tamasha. All the rating agencies need to do is downgrade a few stocks and the stocks for the entire industry start a downward slope and if they feel they like painting things pink for some other stock and poof we are in the rosy side for the entire industry belonging to that particular stock. The hot tidbits of Veena Malik disappearing and Vidya Balan's oomph factor in the Dirty Picture are a toast to the unfailing Indian spirit of gossip which plays the center-stage in everyone's life. There are somethings I love about our country and the varied opinions to any particular issue under the sun is the highlight of it all. Anna Hazare the latest rockstar although a hugely popular guy was accosted by a handful of people protesting that he was anti-democratic as he was against reservation in the Lok Pal!!!!!! I mean democracy is equality for everyone but it can be interpreted in the above fashion as well I guess. In all this we have a censorship and moral policing effort to stay in the limelight by none other than Mr Sibal who wanted social networks to turn into filtered content sharing sites with a conscience (like they don't have anything better to do). The king of good times being in trouble is also a hot topic with the airlines hoping for government subsidies after all the king Mallya does a little bit of agriculture too with growing grapes and all. So this is the situation we have in our country. May have overlooked plenty stuff but this is India so no matter how many days you sit summarizing there is always gonna be a whole load more.
   On the world stage some interesting things have happened. Osama is no more and the USA is saying bye to Iraq not to mention a hike in the number of fights with the favored nation of the USA namely our neighbor. Though the US economy was downgraded and was supposed to be heading towards depression some amount of rally has been made and they are out of the brink. The dollar rate is up everywhere and though there is unemployment over there, the guys there are no longer that worried about their jobs getting "Bangalooored". The real crazy situation has been in the E.U. It is with a bit of grief I say that the Bunga Bunga party guy Berlusconni has been given the boot. Apparently partying with the State's cash is a strict no no when that cash has become scarce. Greece has not partied much yet it is not in a great position either. So it is upto Germany and France to help Europe out of the troubled waters amid talks that Euro might go for a toss although Merkel is a staunch support of it. Japan is doing all right after the quake so nothing much to say (although the quake really quaked the Kudandkalam reactor closer home).
   In the end it is the other big heavyweight that has caught the attention of the world is good old biggest neighbor dragon dude. This guy has been making quite a few investments across the world not to mention a possible crucial role in the E U crisis. Although it seems to be a huge heavyweight, there might be signs of weathering internally. The people over there hardly seem to be spending money on internal consumption so  China is increasingly dependent on exports. If the world decided to favor internal consumption due to rising costs of imports as in the case of India then that country might just be producing without consumers. The nation is a mystery at best with conflicting reports and a high degree of "I am a strong guy and do you want to take on me" attitude. Well that is something that either the strongest do or even the weakest. With all the veil surrounding the Chinese banks and generally its economy there might be something cooking rotten under the carpet. In the famous words "Building strong aana basement weak".
   Ultimately this is not an economic blog but just a few of my ramblings on a bit of economy and politics. Anything written above which bears any resemblance to the facts is unintentional as this is a work of fiction. (winking smiley) The direction the economy has taken is probably owing to ever growing smartness and a passion for intricacy of the people living in this age. No one wants to keep it simple anymore. Money which used to be backed by gold standard would have meant something and been easier to understand. In this day and this age when I hold Rs.500 in my hand I have my doubts whether it is really worth the value or is it just paper? Ultimately it is a lot of things happening in too short a time to make any sense of anything else. The banks are money creating agencies that just keep making one ruppee into one lakh. Ultimately the globe is one big stock market that runs on what most of the credit rating agencies, "experts" say not to mention the sentiments of the populace and the actual value of the investment is inflated by so many thousands of times with no one able to actually understand what is happening. So when you don't really understand what is happening just raise your voice and talk like an expert, divert the topic to either Veena Malik or Vidya Balan or start taking sides in the never ending battle of the political parties. This way you are part of the never ending saga of the soap opera called the world where everyone is smart, which by the way is said to get over by 2012, so for the coming year 2012 cheerios and happy living.

"HEADS" OFF for this Unforgettable Experience!!!

   I should have started on this blog a lot sooner. Just imagine a sardine can, no cancel that i haven't exactly seen one but just imagine you are in a place which is so packed people that it is impossible to raise your arms if you have them at your sides due to the teeming multitude surrounding you. Believe me the people surrounding you sure could give any Indian movie villain the best situation to subdue a hero without the use of ropes. The apt image would be like grains of rice in a sack of rice. The place I am talking about is surprisingly not any government office in India but a scene unfolding at the 1st concert that the Gods of Metal "Metallica" performed in India at our very own "Bengaluru".
   I will start at the very beginning when my metal (not the element but genre of music) loving cousin had the idea of hitting the concert. I said yes without a second of hesitation. Just imagine the results of CA (one of the craziest courses in the world whose results hang by the same threads of fate that a lottery ticket hangs by) were not out yet and after that job and stuff etc were pretty much the next concern, yet i had no hesitation. The only thought that ran through our minds was "we might not get any other chance for Metallica!". The preparation for the concert began a month before the date of the actual concert. Four of us cousins had decided we were hitting the concert. Three of us from Chennai and one from Bengaluru. My bro, the one who handled the booking of the concert ticket handled the logistics with the one in Bengaluru, who was ready to pick us up at the station and also extended the hospitality of his house and I must add his mom's cooking was pretty awesome. Guess we owe him big time especially the way the guy kept flagging down cars and autos after the concert which ended at 10:30 and left us with few options to get home. An uphill task that ended with him successfully getting us to the safety and comfort of his home (Kudos bro and I will not forget that one). The preparation for all three of us in Chennai was trying to get an appropriate beard style to look like a metalhead. After a month of no shave and a bristly beard that i styled to get a reasonable look which i ruined and ended up with a little more than a french beard which gave me the look of an intellectual rather than a metalhead!!!!!! Still I must say I had a beard style which was more than that could be said for one of my bros.
   Before we knew it D-day arrived with a bang and I had actually managed to keep myself unemployed for the whole wait. Before we knew it we were in Bengaluru and enjoying a great meal before the concert courtesy our Bangalorean cousin who decided it was his treat (Thanks loads bro). As soon as we entered palace grounds there were signs of metalheaded fans all around. The signature dress code of black t-shirts (actually metalica t-shirts but none of us had them so we decided black) was all around. The beards and the hairdos left us with no doubt that this was the greatest congregation paying tribute to the gods of Metal. There was no surprise that there were plenty of girls around considering that my cousin sister is an even bigger fan than all of us combined and thought us pretty much pigs as we left her out of it. Then the journey to the actual entrance began with around a thousand of us trying to get in through a single entrance at the same time. Sure was a nightmare and if your hands were above you, they could not be bought down and vice versa. Finally we were through and the fresh air was like a tonic. 
   The inner entrance was pretty much less hassling but the downside was the time it took us to get through the 1st entrance cost us chances to get into the front prime seats. We settled down for the second partition. An Indian band "Gulliton" was playing and pretty much sounded terrible. Everybody started shouting "U Suck!!". When they left, a Scottish band came to perform and except for one song were pretty much forgettable. We had to go through all this with rain pouring on us. By 8:00 Metallica had begun their preparations and the entertainment was provided in the crowd by a guy I like to call "the Punjabi from Bengaluru". This guy was stoned and was trying to barrel through the crowd. Was pretty much picking fights through the crowd. No one responded because, one he was huge, and two we were here for Music with a capital "M" standing for "Metallica". The guy actually made another guy roll the weed he had in a paper and genially offered my bro a chance to do pot. My cousin politely turned the offer down. Though he did provide some laughs as he was a goof it couldn't change the fact that he was a foul mouthed, jostling jerk. At this time I was pretty much tired, I had been squashed, pushed, pulled and had to suffer through some crappy music and also the "ghaaliyas"  that some of the more "elite" were giving. A rational mind was soaking in and thinking about the 2750 bucks spent on the ticket. Then poof it all disappeared.
   The band trooped out with their signature tribute "Ecstasy of Gold" with Clint Eastwood on the screen and the crowd was already humming to the music. It was "CLASSIC". Then the GODS began with an enthusiastic drum beat for Creeping Death followed by the guitar bit for the same song. Everyone of us went nuts. All traces of tiredness had disappeared and James had all the strings controlling the crowd. Then they moved on to one of my favorites "For whom the bell tolls". The iconic starting drum beats raised a storm of cheers from the crowd who were totally wild. We all had our hands in \m/ shape and were nodding our heads, correction, banging our heads to the beat of the drums. The song "Fuel" and "Blackened" had impressive flames on the stage and raised a roar of approval from the crowd. I was fortunate to have recorded the song blackened to an extent on my phone. I think "Cyanide" was the intro for Trujillo. the guy was wearing knee lengths and was literally climbing on the guitar and was amazing us with the sounds he coaxed out of the base guitar. The intro for Kirk Hammett is the song "Nothing Else Matters"(i think, Forgive my memory that is why I should have started this blog a while back). The song literally moved the crowd. Everyone was singing along with James, his voice, the guitars and the drum beats were, I must insist a thousand times better than when you hear the songs at home. Sanitarium raised the crowd's tempo and there was one repeated demand from the crowd for "Master of Puppets". I must confess at this point of time, although I sang along from time to time, I had about 5 songs of the entire 18 to memory while the rest of the crowd was amazing with all 18. Those guys on stage obliged with Master and "wow!!!!" is all i can say, but it pretty much sums it up. After 15 songs and the question from James "Are you Alive???!!" those guys were pretty much ready to say "bye Bangalore". We obliged them with an enthusiastic "We want more!!!!!". They got back for an encore and James had pretty much the crowd to his whims when he playfully removed the guitar and put it back on after a sad "NO!!" three times over. The encore was with three songs!!!!! I mean they loved the crowd too and decided to belt out three whole songs. A portion of the crowd close to us created some space for themselves and were head banging in a kinda cool way that bought out the essence of the music on stage. "Heads" Off for you guys. In the end Lars pretty much summed it up saying Bangalore was fucking great and James included us in the Metallica family.

   To sum it up, it was mindf******ng blowing. In the end, all the hours of waiting, braving the elements and the occasional unruly ghaali giving Metallica fan, not to mention the weed smoke all around us, the conclusion was unanimous, METALLICA is worth everything and more. The only regret was that I was not able to get my hands on even one of the guitar picks that they threw into the crowd. As we made our way out the pain that had been blotted out by the Gods of Metal returned with a vengeance. We came away from Bengaluru with our appetites full and an unforgettable day of an incredible experience. I had sort of diverted from Metallica for a while but after this concert I am back to them. As i write this blog I have "Master of Puppets" in the background and am paying a silent tribute to these guys. I guess music is the most amazing thing in life next to love. Sure my parents would describe this as noise, but to me this is, as aptly described by Metallica themselves, the Music of the Goddess Kali. Metallica are truly the Gods of Metal!!

The Usual Philosophical Question - Life?!

   No matter how many people examine what life is and no matter how many references and stories written about life, its a never ending topic for the answer always seems so near yet so far. Well I would say it is probably the best topic to blog about as this is one place where no one is an expert in and I can get away with whatever I say as I am entitled to my opinion. Not to mention that I am as yet unemployed and so I have plenty of free time to keep wandering along this line of thinking.

   Now getting right to the topic, what do we define life as? Scientifically or biologically I would say life is the existence of a cellular organism that converts energy from a latent state to a more usable form to achieve some predetermined or non predetermined objective and along the way enables the replication or creation of other organisms such as itself. Those who agree to the above are probably the enlightened souls who think there is nothing more to life other than existence and multiplication. To the ones who are a lot less enlightened the definition above would probably give raise to the question "is that all??!!!".
    When people like us can create millions of lines of codes to create a software that can think with a limited amount of artificial intelligence, then I guess the great guy upstairs can create new versions of us everyday. Ultimately that is what is happening. The programming takes the 10 months or so required for us to be born and from a computer software point of view that would probably be enough coding for the seventy years of life that we are all supposed to lead. When we came into this world we did not have anything and when we leave, we leave empty handed. Sure we would say we leave behind goodwill and a good name but once you reach heaven or the after life these qualifications are ripped away and you start over from scratch. It is like the software is reformatted and put into a new hardware to create version 2.0.
   I am a simple minded creature and I am not the type driven by my career. Probably my soul had no business getting reborn at this time and I should have stopped rebirth and attained nirvana during the stone age. To me a beautiful thing is to ride along a road which has a canopy of trees and the visual  treat of greenery around you and the drop in temperature and the kind of coolness that makes you feel fresh. This feeling makes me feel like I am really alive and hands out almost a zen like tranquility. I am no "PO" from Kung Fu Panda to achieve inner piece (Although i could be a panda in size). Still this peace makes me feel like I am living. Other instances of really living life is to be surrounded by people who care. Now that is something most will agree. There is nothing like joking around with a friend over some awesome food and the best part is your friend is the one paying the bill! So I guess life is actually much more simple than I imagined. Sure there will be hundreds of things that crop up when you least expect it to and each time some thing comes up it will feel like the "end of the World as you know it" but ultimately we get to keep going and living.
      It would be cool to know how our future will turn out but then again there is this paradox that once you know what your future is you will change it no matter how comfortable it may seem. Either you get reassured that you will have a good life and become complacent or you see yourself in a bad way and work harder so there is no point in seeing the future. The past is a nice place with loads of memories and experiences that may be good as well as bad and it fills you up with nostalgia. Hold on to these because they show that "you have been there and done that" etc etc. Ultimately it is how we live today that matters. The gift of the present. Sometimes it boggles my mind to know that each second I have lived is in the past. Still I guess that is how we have to live. Take each day as it comes and watch the day go by as we work, play, love and ultimately live. On a conclusive point I would say please keep life simple. Be alive for each second for it fades into the past and above all there is no one specific way to live life. To each his/her own preference. Just live on along the lines that you usually do but spare a thought to be grateful that you breathe, appreciate the food you eat, lose yourself in the music of your soul, rejoice and love the company of your loved ones, to put it in a nutshell just LIVE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A Friend!!

Today we study the curious mannerisms of the homo sapiens relating particularly to their interactions with other homo sapiens who share a bright relation with each other that enables them to help each other survive in this blood thirsty world.

Well I am just trying to form a definition for the word friendship that sounds complicated enough to stick in the annuls of scientific study and will eventually get published so that in future people would say "Friendship as defined by Alse" (winking smiley). Anyways on this friendship day it is appropriate to discuss who exactly is a friend.

Making new friends is pretty easy. I mean we are all creatures of habit and do have an innate sense of goodness and the need for people around us (hopefully!!). So just any place from a movie theater to a government office we can make acquaintances and have a nice time chatting up with them. By all means they are friends too. It is finding ones that last forever which is a little more tricky. A friend is a person who by strict habit makes fun of you when you are in the worst situation of your life and the fact that you don't take it as an offense is what makes the bond so special. The weird part about the whole scenario is that you actually feel better after this inhuman teasing session and you are actually ready to take on the world if this person is with you. Such characteristics have been displayed by none of the other species in the animal kingdom which makes us the insane ones when we depart from a rational way of thinking.

Sure a dog is a man's best friend but have to yet hear of a dog being a dog's best friend. The insanity does not stop there. The distinct nature of humans is to discuss all sorts of secrets with friends and not parents really baffles me. The person who is responsible for you existence comes second to the persons whom you meet at various points in your life and they end up being more trust worthy. We would prefer spending more time with friends and actually end up having the best times of our lives.

Friendship is actually a beautiful bond that is like an imperfect heart. Curios about why i put that one up? It reminds me of a story of a guy who had such a perfect looking heart that he was proud of it and grew vain because everyone admired its perfection. Then along came an old man with a heart that was jagged and imperfect but what the guy could not understand was how the heart was so bright and it was actually more beautiful than his own perfect heart. When he asked the old man for the secret of the bright heart, the old dude said it was because he had given a piece of his heart to all his friends who in turn had given him a piece of their hearts. The guy realised somethings are worth way more than perfection and ripped a chunk of his heart to give to the old man.

It is the smaller things in life that are the important things. So in that aspect friendship is the smallest big thing in our life without which there is no way life is going to be beautiful. The times that are forever fixed in our memories are the good times with friends - a birthday cake cutting, a crying shoulder, sharing that samosa when your budget is stretched thin, an adventurous outing, that Vijay movie where you went with friends and bought the theater down with your laughter, times when you were down and your friend comes over and says "machi same pinch". Well all the above are priceless.

One can keep going on and on about friends who are this bunch of foolhardy fellows are ever ready to follow you into the river of styx if need be to make sure you are unhurt and in turn you would also be ready to follow them to the ends of the world if they needed you to do so. The beauty cannot be described properly even by the best penmanship. All I will say is Friend is always without an end and it is like the imperfection of a circle. Bet that you will have a hard time trying to find an imperfection on a circle. TO FRIENDS THE LIGHT OF LIFE CHEERIO!!!

The madness of a Govt Office!!!!

Just imagine yourself standing shoulder to shoulder with about three hundred to five hundred people jostling each other and you are in a room like area which i guess would measure hardly three hundred square feet. To top it of as an icing to the cake we are in Chennai one of the hottest places in the world and i don't mean the "hottest" in the other way but literally 100 degrees level. Factor all of this and you probably can imagine that you are trapped in a prison. I mean there are at least two people standing in a single square feet. To make matters worse the queue is moving like a snail that is moving on chewing gum. Wondering where this place is? Well it was at a wait and see hollywood hottie megan fox program!

Just kidding it was at our very own Chennai regional passport office at Shastri Bhavan. Stands out as an exemplary example of a government office. I count myself lucky to crib only about the five hour long wait unlike others who had to reenter the queue even after their turns were over owing to faulty documents.

The top side to this long wait is that it is a lesson in character building and a means of improving the patience and also it is the easiest way to reach into the zen in you and experience inner peace. If you have not gotten angry or uncomfortable then i salute thee "sensei of the yin and yang". Standing in the queue so long also made me realize exactly what kind of a life a watchman or a security guard would have. My standing duration was just for five hours but the security guard is on his feet for at least ten hours a day to top it he has to deal with all the pestering people. The other job that is a standing one would be that of a traffic policemen but the "PERKS" of the job offset any of the discomfort so no comparison to the life of a security guard.

The cherry to top the icing is lunch time. The punctuality of a government office has got to be admired. On the dot when the clock strikes one they are off no matter how many people are standing in the queue. Food does come before everything but the ones standing in the queue skip their lunch for the fear that their improved position will be lost by mundane things such as lunch. Oh!! The sacrifices we have to make to call ourselves citizens of India.

What could be worse than a queue where you are waiting for your turn? The answer is that the other queue in which you were about to join earlier is moving much faster than the one you are in and you can see the people smirking and smiling with satisfaction that you are still stuck in the same position that you were in while they have moved significantly forward. The sadistic nature of these things were never ending. To add more to my woes there were a couple of people ahead who managed to get their friends behind them cutting the waiting time of their friends unfazed by the booing and jeering of the people behind them. I guess we have another lesson to learn about facing adversity without being perturbed by your surroundings with a single focus.

The lines above may have been sarcastic but this one para hasn't got any sarcasm. This one is about the genuine highlight of a government office. It is a place that actually unites people regardless of their colour, caste etc etc as the multitude standing in the queue share a common grief - "how they have been standing for quite a while". This gives people the perfect conversation opener and before long you end up chatting about the purpose of your passport, your family, your hopes and your aspirations to complete strangers. You may not exactly be making friends for life but in those few hours you are united and the differences of colour, race, language and religion don't mean much as you share small anecdotes or make fun of our efficient red tape bureaucrats. When your journey is over, that is when you have finished paying the requisite fee there is a round of congrats that would hearten you as if your best friend had told them.

Well these kind of experiences are priceless. Folks next time you go to a government office just remember that it is a place that symbolizes communal harmony and pay homage to these temples of oneness. To those who consider the government offices mad houses just remember the above line and it will bring a smile to your face and the waiting time will seem less excruciating when you open your mind to your fellow queue members. Signing out by saying the Government office is an oxymoron like SWEET AGONY.