Fitting in...

Its been nearly a month since i landed here in Bangalore, after taking up a new job. Kinda difficult fitting in to the new place, language, people blah blah. Beginning with my vehicle, which bears the licence plates of Tamil Nadu, it's an easy prey to the bumbling traffic cops of Bengaluru (here i guess the cops are John Wayne fans, they wear cowboy hats !!). Already pulled over couple of times by cops with tummies bigger than my bike's tank, i decided to pay up the Karnataka State road tax and bail myself out of all the irritating John Wayne.. er .. traffic police troubles...

But that aint as simple as it sounds... heres my tale of filing the road tax in Bengaluru RTO.

Day 1: I found the place on google maps, and drove to the RTO office without any good samaritan help. Yeah, it seemed more like a fish market than a RTO, anyways always optimistic, i walked in with my documents(RC book and insurance).MAYHEM. It was a Kannada only zone... even the forms were in kannada !! Somehow i understood where to pay the tax... the fatso behind the desk said i needed to pay 12% of my vehicle's cost as Tax !! that comes close to Rs.6000 !! I went out to an ATM and withdrew the amount and came back to the fatso's place... now he says he wants a Demand Draft as they dont accept cash above 5000 bucks... grrrrrrr wanted to stuff the 6000 bucks wads of notes into his mouth !!! It was pretty clear that the fatso wanted some under the table financial transactions.. i gave up and headed back home.

Day 2: My dad went to the same place. He found an "agent" outside the RTO office who demanded 500 bucks (his fees + the bribe to be paid to the RTO officer).Dad returned home half an hour later with the Road Tax bill .. Voila!! Thanks to corruption in India i could pay the Tax !!

Thats just a trailer of what happens in Indian government offices.Things havent been very smooth so far for me here. Yesterday some shithead-tuna-brained thief stole my helmet from the parking lot of a high profile shopping mall... Sigh dunno whats yet to come for dear old moi... :(