It was my first visit to an Indian mission abroad. I had heard from many of my friends who had been there in the past about the work culture but was really amused to see when it happened to me. Incidentally, I have been watching Pankaj Kapoor’s’Office Office’ and I can relate few things happened there to what I have watched on the show.
I had to go there since I needed an affidavit notarized by Indian mission in order to apply for my daughter’s passport who was in India. I tried to gather information with regards to documents, formalities etc from the DC’s Indian consulate website but I found that the information provided on the website was not enough. Later, I thought of calling the telephone number mentioned on the website but to my horror, no one picked up the phone for next 10 days. I kept calling the number multiple times in a day, thinking that someone would pick it up sometime, but it proved a waste of time.
Since, I didn’t wanted to waste time going back and fro to consulate in case if any of the required document is missed, I called up NY’s consulate. People there picked up phone promptly and answered to my queries. At last, I asked the lady on phone that’I hope the formalities should be same if I go to NY or DC’. She replied, ’you call them or go to there website and find out’. I was OK with the conversation I had and thought of going to consulate in DC.
The opening time of the consulate is 9:30 AM, and the doors opened at 9:30 AM sharp. There were some 10-12 people who were there to get one or the other thing done. People among us did some RnD to get the token out of the machine since it was a manual one. I took one token and sat on the comfortable chairs thinking how people seating inside would know which is the first token of the day since the process of dispensing token and calling sequence didn’t seem to be automated(I put some extra logic here). Consulate people were prompt to open doors at 9:30 but no one appeared at the counter till 10:05 AM. Many people seating over there were NRI’s and were cursing India government offices and officers for there work culture. At 10:05 AM, curtain of one of the window opened and an officer came admonishing the person who is supposed to report at the counter at 9:30 AM. But this person didn’t had any sign of regret or shame and was chewing a gum. Finally he switched on the PC and asked’Who is the first one?’. Man, I knew this is bound to happen and it happened. Every one looked around and person standing first in the line went to the counter. There after he called next 3 tokens and asked them something and made them sit again. He anounced the next number which happened to be mine. I gently got up and went straight to the counter and the person asked me the purpose. Before I could finish, the person said, ’Can I start the numbers again from scratch since the PC is ON now?’. I din’t had any choice either and said OK. Finally, I finished and came out of the consulate at 11 AM.
Very next day, I had to again go there to collect the documents and passport. I must say I had a very different experience this time. The other day while submitting the documents, I forgot to put my signature on the affidavit. The lady on the delivery counter asked me’You didn’t put your signature’. I was about to ask her why the other guy seating here didn’t noticed this when I came here to submit my documents? But I didn’t do so and which saved my valuable time. That lady then asked me to put my signature and then asked to wait. Finally, she came out in 10 minutes and gave my documents stamped. I thanked the lady since she could have asked me to come again later to collect it but she dint do it and just helped me. Next time, I went to Indian Consulate in Washington DC to get POA attested. I was told to come any day after today to collect the same. I took 2 days before going out to collect the documents thinking that I will get the documents. I met the lady on counter with a question’when are you supposed to come?’. I said I was told that it would get ready in a day. Then she asked me that the person who have the document has left for the day early and she doesn’t have keys to open his chamber and if I can come again tomorrow to collect the same. She also said’SORRY’ for this and she called another number.
In two days, I have seen two face of the same coin and few questions pops up my mind:
- Why can’t we behave in a professional manner, at least at such places where we represent our country? By saying so, I should not be misinterpreted as biased towards India mission abroad and not thinking of small towns/villages in India. For me, it should happen across the board. 2. If a help line number is mentioned on the website, why can’t we have a dedicated person who can help people on phone before they come to the consulate? Since one consulate serves many states, people travel from distant places to get their work done. 3. Mission’s website should be made more user friendly and informative to aid people. 4. Fee for the services provided at the consulate had to be given in CASH(not sure of MO). Why can’t we have CC payment facility since people carry very minimal cash in pocket in US. This would just provide people an additional options in case they do not have cash in hand. 5. They should have some tier of responsibilities where in if a person has not showed up, someone else can perform his or her task and I am sure that they would have all these, but it is just that no one wants to follow it.
There could be many other things which other people would have noticed or experienced and would like to be reformed. People working at such high profile places will have to be utter professional, co-operative if they really want to live up to the name: Indian Mission.