Okay, so I know that Zach and I have had our run ins with the police in various forms over the years (mostly in the form of being caught for speeding…) but this interaction with the most inefficient police I’ve ever seen was truly unique, tiring, and most of all, frustrating. According to our visa requirements anyone staying in India longer than 180 days (us) must register with the state police within 10 days of arriving in India. So we began that process last week with the copying of our passports, which was unbeknownst to us. This wonderful Thursday morning we were called over to the registrar’s office around 9 o’clock. No big deal since we had already been up a few hours and were looking for something to do. But today upon arriving in the registrar’s office we were told that we were heading to Machilipatnam (3 hours away) to register with the state police. The registrar, Robert Franklin gave us 10 minutes to get our things ready to leave and then we were going to be leaving. We rushed over to get water and a book and some food and came right back. We could have taken all the time in the world because we ended up leave about an hour later… That’s just India though!
Once we got under way, we stopped for snacks and diesel for our super small car. This car is called an “Ambassador” and looks like something straight out of Fidel Castro’s Cuba. Mr. Franklin explained to us that this car was a great design and had been largely unchanged since about the 1950’s. It’s kinda like the VW beetle; if people still want it and it works, why change it? As it turns out this car was quite uncomfortable to ride in for 3 hours with 3 large guys crammed in the back seat…We found that out almost immediately. But it was good to be back to the crazy driving in India and we set off for the police headquarters.
Once we got there we went into the offices for registration, which were extremely dilapidated with geckos crawling around on the walls and plaster crumbling off the walls. The guys working there weren’t in police uniform but acted as if they were kings of the world. This is the general vibe you always get with people who are given even a little bit of power in India, at least with government people. It is a delicate task dealing with these guys as we soon figured out. The normally confident Mr. Franklin changed into a very humble person, showing these police employees they were indeed as important as they thought they were. This went on for quite some time before we left even though nothing had been accomplished. Evidently we needed the signature of the commandant who wasn’t there at the time so we would come back in a few hours. We also needed to fill out some forms online, unbeknownst to us, and so we headed to the nearest Adventist school to use their internet. We spent about an hour and a half trying to fill out the forms online but this didn’t work. Apparently there are several government officials who want to split the state we are in, Andhra Pradesh, into two separate states and they were all on strike right now to get that accomplished. Because of that the government sites weren’t working. Since this wasn’t working we headed off to eat.
We left and went to eat at this restaurant that was quite nice and had air conditioning! It was dimly lit and there were about 20 servers in the restaurant for about 40 patrons, so needless the say the service was very good, almost too good. =) We ate rice and curry and had ice cold bottled water which was really nice after being hot all day. When we finished eating we headed back to the police headquarters and another round of groveling at the feet of the almighty, mid level, authorities. Evidently the commandant was still not there so after an hour or so we left to waste a few hours until we could come back and get stuff taken care of.
We drove about 45 minutes away to the beach. It was nice to see the Indian Ocean for the first time but the beach wasn’t much to look at. Like most of India it was littered with trash and the water was nice chocolaty brown color. There were some people swimming but most were just walking the beach and standing around talking. It’s funny that everywhere we go there are usually several people, mostly guys, who run up to us and want to talk or take a picture with the two white foreigners. I’m sure many of you reading this have experienced the same thing while traveling abroad but for us it’s still quite strange. It’s fun being the extreme minority but I’m sure in a few weeks it will be a little annoying. =)
After the beach we headed to see the Adventist boarding school that used to be open just a quarter mile from the beach. It’s fairly run down now and no one uses it anymore but according to Mr. Franklin this used to be a big destination for Pathfinder campouts and Adventist Youth outings. This property would be really nice if it was taken care of but sadly it has fallen prey to neglect and disrepair.
Mr. Sam Moses, the vice president for academics was also with us and he wanted to find the fish market in town and buy some fish. Evidently the fish here is amazing and he is a big fan of it so he insisted on going. We headed back to town but never found the fish market, I’m not really sure why. They talked back and forth about it in Telegu, the regional dialect, and then we headed back to the police headquarters.
Once back at the police headquarters we went into the main building that was guarded by bored looking guards who were leisurely carrying Kalashnikovs. We went inside and waited for about 10 minutes before being ushered into a small courtroom looking room with several rows of seats and a large wooden desk. At the desk sat the commandant in all his regalia. The room was air conditioned and completely quiet. We sat down and Mr. Moses went forward and explained what we were trying to do with the registration. The commandant looked over our papers for no longer than 10 seconds, quickly signed the top document. We stood up, bowed slightly to him with our hands in the traditional “praying” way and he gave us head bobble and that was it! We spent no more than 1 min in with the commandant and everything was good to go! The efficiency was explained to us later by Mr. Franklin by telling us the higher up you go the more educated the individual and therefore the easier they are to work with. Makes sense, I guess!
We then headed back to the first office where the previous police officers were more than willing to help us now that we had the commandant’s signature. It still took us 2 hours or more to process all the paperwork but it did get done. I’m sure there were several bribes along the way by Mr. Franklin. That tends to be the norm here when dealing with government agencies.
After the documents were all taken care of it was almost 7:45 so we headed back to the same restaurant for dinner. This time we had Chinese noodles, which was a great change from rice and curry! Following dinner crammed back into our “Ambassador” and started the 3-hour drive back to Nuzvid. It was a long drive and I’m glad we only had to do it once, but it was quite the interesting day and I’m thankful for that!
This day made me thankful that we don’t have the high level of open corruption that India has back home in the States. It’s amazing the differences that are seen between here and there. Next time I’m standing in line at the DOL to renew my driver’s license I’ll be a little bit more patient knowing I won’t have to bribe “Frank” or whatever the guys name will be! :P
Blessings!
I love the head bobble!! Haha. You'll pick it up so fast and you won't even be able to stop yourselves ;)
ReplyDeleteI'm about ready to walk around with a box of neck braces and start slapping them on people who bobble when I ask a yes or no question! But I think you're right, my neck is getting looser day by day :P
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