Government Offices - A new face ?

What's your idea of going in to a government office in India ?

In continuation with my writings on the 'in between' phase of my life, here are some observations from my end.

My idea of a government office in India (read Kerala - my home state) has been mostly fed in by friends, peers, media, TV and Cinema and so on. And my interaction with them in some remote form or the other during my school and college days to get some certificates issued. I had never been to any Govt office to actually get something done, because it was never the norm. There was / is a middleman to do everything you want from a Govt office. I had also been freshly updated of the gory rituals by the movie " Sivaji", which I had seen some months before I left US.

When I returned back home, and started my adventures of going to various Govt offices for setting up my enterprise I found some remarkable differences from the stereotypes I had in mind.

I had been to Kerala State Electricity Board for getting some certification for my CTs ( I am yet to figure out what that really means ). According to them this was the first time a real end customer had gone to this facility ( which excels in testing transformers ) with the request of testing 3 CTs. Our CTs fit in to the Jeans' pockets and the engineers were wondering how they would test such a small CT (the transformers which were in the yard there were as big a room). But after half an hour of analysis they told us to pay Rs 60 and leave the CTs there, they would be tested and given in a day's time. Do you know how much a 'consultant' estimated this job to cost ? Rs 25,000.

My observation in this incident is as follows.

-- Firstly I refused to pay the middle man that amount of money , who was waiting to rip off this guy who just landed from the US and for whom money is not supposed to a big issue. I mustered the courage to go and explain the necessity to the concerned officials.

-- Secondly, the officials were willing to listen to my particular case and earnestly wanted to help me out, even though they did not know the process of testing such small pieces of equipment. These things never come to them for testing it seems, and I was to take them to a different center at least 60 KMs away.

It can be two things. The officials really feel a genuine interest to promote the country's vision, or they did not want to take the hassle of asking any bribe to two youngsters who seemed determined and were very straight forward with their request. I would love to believe the former, I will support it with another incident I came across.

I had to finish off some property tax related stuff in the Taluk Office. I could not understand half of what was being said in those forms, and promptly my family had arranged for a consultant. His fee was 7500 to get all things "ready" plus the tax I had to pay to the Taluk Office. I again said I am not going to pay this guy and thought I would do it myself. Everyone was the opinion that there is no way I am going to meet the Thahsildar and get this done in one day's time. I had gone anyways, met the Thahsildar ( I could not have done this in the US with out an appointment) got the taxation issues sorted out, got the order to pay the tax......all done in ten minutes time. he was even kid enough to ask if I needed an installment scheme to pay the tax.........some experience I would have never got if I went through these middle men, who wanted to rip me)

But where I had an expected experience was at the DMV / RTO Office when I purchased my Car. I just could not get my vehicle registered by going alone with the required forms, the clerk there sent me again and again in want of so many different forms.......I did not want to give up, but due to the lack of time and energy, and having other higher priorities I gave this one out to a consultant, who charged me a nominal Rs 500 and got the registration done for me.

So I guess, though my observations may be disjointed, but being an optimist, I see a changing trend.....a changing trend towards the better way of doing things. I am happy to see that the Govt systems have not completely gone out of whack and that there is definitely hope for a better tomorrow.

My experiments with truce

They say 80% of professionals repatriated quit their job ! learnt it somewhere during my decade old career in Human Resources. And they say that repatriation should be given the same importance as overseas deputation. Well ! I dont know if anyone is listening. It happened to me ,as I came back from the United States and quit from the "Global" MNC I was working with. But it was more for satiating my need to do business on my own, so be it ! my justification for not falling in the 80% , but hell , at the end of the day everyone of the 80% has a theory on why they quit.

Now I go through the "In Between" phase. In between a Corporate World and an entrepreneurial world....a world where you have hundred different processes to do a simple task, and another hundred different processes which are not written anywhere to make what ever simple thing you do to be politically correct ; and my world where you have hundred different things to do and no processes to tell you how to do it.

There is no room for political correctness, nor any "Non Conformance Reports" if you forgot to mention the designation of the internal assessor in Form 1-Z of the last form in the process assets library.

A between phase, where on one world you work for a performance appraisal and hope for that distinct pay rise.....and to find out that, that distinctness is not all that distinct; and the other world where the performance appraisals from the market can be as harsh as putting you out on the streets.

Loving every moment of leaving my plush office, and the leather couches and the expense accounts. My (wise) friend once told me that the difference between a Business Development guy and a criminal is that the criminal has to pay for his own drink ! Well, now my drink bill definitely goes up. The one thing I miss of my corporate life are the golf games on weekdays. It always used to give me a kick of the classes I used to bunk when I was a school boy in Ooty.

While I go through these distinct feelings, I also experience the distinctness of living and working in India vis a vis the US of A.

The difference of having the social support system here in India versus the obvious absence of it in the US. The difference of finding "Culture Nests" in the US of A (where birds of the same feather try to flock together only to figure out in a while that there are more crow eggs in these cuckoo nests)

The apathy you find here in India on sticking to deadlines, and to honor one's word on delivery schedules. The apathy in making even a well scheduled appointment in time. Where time has its own connotation, and words related to time form their own meanings.......where meetings are got so easily and the meeting conversations forgotten even before the coffee cup is taken away !

Lots of it, so that even now after running two months late on schedule I dont have a clear word on when my new facility is going to be up and running !

But there is a heart in everything that is being done here, the Indian Style of doing things do resonate with me. And I am sure, in my search of making the best of me with a blend of India and the West I would keenly take in the Indian style of doing things (not sure on the timeliness part though, I would like to keep that western)

So in between, my experiences and my waiting , and my life in the chasm of the two cultures.....many a time I try and bring about a truce.....may not be one which resonates with me (like saying "No problem" to a person who comes in one hour late for an appointment) , and here I am at it again.....waiting to strike another truce with what life has to offer in the chasm I am experiencing, in between the 'worlds' and the 'professions'.