Compassionate Grounds

I thought of sharing some of my experiences with red-tapism.

Encounter 1:

Directorate of Medical Education – Kilpauk

At the age of 24 I was introduced to forms / applications /approvals / rejections that are outside my college. I was taken by shock to experience few things which we all know that exists in Indian government offices.

Here, the story is to get an approval for an interview (a clearance for transplant) for my father’s surgery. Let’s get direct to the subject. The approval has to come from the helmsman of DME. I was asked to go and ask for updates from the DME boss frequently as things won’t move until personal presence and request are done in that office.

I went to him continuously for 4 weeks. Below is the sequence that happened every time I met him. He will always be alone in that room – no one waiting to see him. I will be the only one and I just enter the room and convey the file number and other details and ask for the approval of the interview. He just asks me to “come next week”. Still, I went eight times in 4 weeks to just hear these three words. The problem is my dad’s health is deteriorating and the surgery was to be done at the earliest.

The next time I visited him, I had to wait for my turn. There was another man for the very reason I was visiting for 4 weeks. He was in tears standing in front of the DME boss and holding his hands the way prayers are done in Hindu temples. I was able to hear what he was trying to say in between his sobbing. He was asking for an update of the interview clearance which I was also doing. Gosh! Can I just do what that person did?

I entered his room – did not utter a single word. He recognized me and said “Thambi, this is what happens. Any rule in India can be broken under compassionate grounds. I do not see your applications genuine – So I can’t sign it with my conscious. I can only sign it because I feel compassionate with your gesture of pleading (!) me repeatedly. ” blown away!

Next - friends.  I got in touch with the lowest party cadre of the union health minister of that day (he was from Tamil Nadu) through my friend. Then I and my friend climbed up the ladder to reach maximum height and get some help. Within three days we made our way to meet the PA (part side) of the minister. We were asked to wait in a lobby and asked not to move out. This is because the only way to meet him is when he walks out of the room. We waited for seven hours without break and finally we were called in. It was just 40 minutes ahead of my dad’s fifth interview. My friend’s caste came into help and the PA called DME immediately and asked to clear the application for zero rupees. The interview was cleared and then we went ahead with the surgery.

In India -Honest or dishonest - Money, power, caste, contacts make them “can can”.