- Bribe Fighter
- 13 years ago
- 4079 views
For education, I was asked to pay more than just fees
The last time I had a good experience in a government run office was never. Never. I always had to wait for at least 3 – 4 hours and go home frustrated because of the officer’s inefficiency. It irritates me to be in a country where the officers of the Government think that they are doing a favour by doing their jobs.
I still remember the time when I felt so frustrated with the entire situation that I drafted a letter to Dr. Abdul Kalam. It was when I had to pay the fees for my semester examination at Yuvaraja’s college (University of Mysore is a prime example of a government office). I stood in the line to pay my fees for 6 hours. If you don’t know what that feels like, I will gladly explain.
Imagine the stench of 300 students sweating, cursing, chewing areca nut, stinking of tobacco, slightly hung over, glad to miss class and least bothered about it, have no idea what personal space means, grease dripping down their face and making an impromptu painting on the freshly painted walls of the office corridor, listening to the abuse thrown by the admin people who assume that they own the place and last but not least, starving because you didn’t have breakfast that day and thirsty because you cannot leave the line and go for a glass of water. Oh wait, even if you were allowed to go, you cannot do that because there is no potable water in the entire college. For all its’ 1000 odd students, it has exactly 3 bathrooms, unmaintained and the office decided to close when I was the next person to pay.
There were 300 odd students and ONE college administrative staff to collect the fees. They didn’t assign other college staff because they didn’t want any of their money missing. Yes, that is the kind of people I had to deal with. I got a **********education which had the least amount of infrastructure possible; I took stupid commands from the college so that I wouldn’t be targeted as a student and I dealt with many substandard teachers. Not to say that all the teachers were substandard but most were.
If you are still interested, I didn’t send that letter, but I drafted it and contemplated deeply on the situation and the President’s powers. I felt like a kid writing a list of toys to Santa Claus. The then President of India had better things to do than answering a frustrated teenager’s woes. I thought about how India is considered an institution for corruption. I understood what it means to live in a corrupted world when I found out that my uncle’s death certificate was procured by warming the hands of an official. My friend’s birth certificate also procured following the above mentioned routine.