surpassed yet again
I thought yesterday was frustrating. Perhaps that's why today had to surpass it!
I don't think it's worth relating the whole story. Suffice to say that in our trip to the post office, we got a post-office clerk who for some reason had a vendetta against me. He did everything he possibly could to make it drag on and be difficult. He would answer one question and then take two more customers before even turning back to me and Ravi. Can you imagine how infuriating it is to be stuck with someone that knows they can ignore you, because you need them to send your package?
And after we had finally gotten the packages packed and sealed -- he told us that we had to open the package of books so that he could verify it was really all just printed material. And inside one of the books he found -- *gasp* -- a scrap piece of paper I had taken some notes on. So now I was trying to "cheat the rules", and he proceeded to take two customers, flip through one of my books to verify nothing "illegal" was in there (like an envelope), take a few more customers, etc. After more than 3 hours I was finally able to leave the post office.
You know, maybe this equanimity thing isn't all it's cracked up to be. I could go for just moving back to a country where this shit happen less.
Too bad I forgot to bring my camera to record the incident for posterity! But I was able to snap a couple low-quality photos with my phone camera. Hmm, they're not bad actually.
First they sew a cloth cover over your box or package...
More sewing.
Then they melt wax over a candle flame and dab it on the seams they sewed.
After dabbing the wax, they sloppily stamp it with a seal.
The part that's really amusing (er... depending on how you look at it), is that as usual in India this "security" is pointless. The clerk forced me to tear off the packing so that he could rifle through the books (and generally waste time). Did they re-pack it? No, they just pulled the old packing over it without re-sealing or anything.
I don't think it's worth relating the whole story. Suffice to say that in our trip to the post office, we got a post-office clerk who for some reason had a vendetta against me. He did everything he possibly could to make it drag on and be difficult. He would answer one question and then take two more customers before even turning back to me and Ravi. Can you imagine how infuriating it is to be stuck with someone that knows they can ignore you, because you need them to send your package?
And after we had finally gotten the packages packed and sealed -- he told us that we had to open the package of books so that he could verify it was really all just printed material. And inside one of the books he found -- *gasp* -- a scrap piece of paper I had taken some notes on. So now I was trying to "cheat the rules", and he proceeded to take two customers, flip through one of my books to verify nothing "illegal" was in there (like an envelope), take a few more customers, etc. After more than 3 hours I was finally able to leave the post office.
You know, maybe this equanimity thing isn't all it's cracked up to be. I could go for just moving back to a country where this shit happen less.
Too bad I forgot to bring my camera to record the incident for posterity! But I was able to snap a couple low-quality photos with my phone camera. Hmm, they're not bad actually.
First they sew a cloth cover over your box or package...
More sewing.
Then they melt wax over a candle flame and dab it on the seams they sewed.
After dabbing the wax, they sloppily stamp it with a seal.
The part that's really amusing (er... depending on how you look at it), is that as usual in India this "security" is pointless. The clerk forced me to tear off the packing so that he could rifle through the books (and generally waste time). Did they re-pack it? No, they just pulled the old packing over it without re-sealing or anything.