If you ever have to go to BMC for a meeting, never make it on time... unless staring at the plaster-free chunk of the ceiling is your idea of scenic beauty. For the second time I had to go to the BMC office in Grant Road for a meeting with the Asst Engineer, Environment, to get a permission for cleanliness drive post Ganpati Visarjan at Chowpatty. The first time we were called for a meeting and made to wait for an hour and a half in the control room.

Now, one thing, the BMC workers' time punctuality when it comes to leaving office is admirable! Though the wall clock there had no seconds hand, I'm sure one of the clerks said bye bye to his workstation at 5:00:00 on the dot. And he didn't even have to glance at the clock to know it was time to go. He just upped and left. Anyway, he was an old timer so I'm sure by now his body clock is set so that he knows when to get up, just like waking up in the morning without the help of an alarm.

Anyway, that was then... This time my colleage and I were called at 2:30 pm for the meeting. And I confirmed it at 1:00 pm and the assistant engg's assistant confidently said we wouldn't be fools if we came on time. Apparently, we were. The Asst Engg wasn't in and we were asked to wait for 30 mins to an hour. Thankfully we got to chairs to sit, even if we risked looking like the chapraasis. It was interesting to have an uncle look at a bolted door and still ask us if the concerned person was inside. Damn! We really did look like chaprasis.

Then the AE came after 30 mins. Thank heavens for small mercies. When we wanted to go to his cabin, one guy told us that someone was already waiting for the AE inside. After about 20 mins was our turn. The AE asked us to please have a seat, and 'I'll just be back'. The just be back made us think 10 mins and he'll be with us again. The wait began in his room and we had absolutely nothing to do there but sit and faff. We were twiddling our thumbs and toes and looking around, mulling over the beautiful rusted rods peeking at us from behind the white washed ceiling.

We did everything, curse the BMC, curse the weather, just generally vent our frustration. Then we ask a worker (giving him the benefit of the doubt because he seemed buys on his PC, unless he was playing Solitaire) there who had been sitting in the same room since morning perhaps where had Mr. AE gone. The guy hasn't a clue, and he suggests we call the operator who tells us that Mr. AE was in a meeting and would be back in 5 mins. The BMC have an interesting calculation of time, where 5 mins can by anything between 5-20 mins, unfortunately for us it was 20 mins. Then finally Mr AE came and our meeting was over in 10 mins. It was 4.45 pm.

I get a feeling that Asst Engg's assistant didn't even inform him that we were going to be there. Because AE's day seemed quite organized and we just popped in. So, whether you go there for your own work or with an intention to help teh BMC, you have to wait. Period.