Absurd Bureaucracy at every step!

That is a mild term to use considering my experience in the past 2 days. I have been battling bureaucracy all along. First it was the police, then came the RTO and finally the Insurance people. They made me feel so miserable that I actually started to think 'Why the hell did I come to the police?'

After my yesterday's post, I was again called to the police station. Just because the 'Inspector' had come. That SOB had no clue of what had happened. He started giving us nonsense gyan. I already had a headache. Then FINALLY he decided to file the FIR. Since the break inspection was yet to be done, I was to go there today at 9 AM and get it done. Well I was in for a ride through hell!

I went to the police station at 9:30 AM (thinking of IST ;-)) Not a soul to be found. After 15 mins of inquiring bystanders, we finally managed to get hold of a Constable. That fellow told us to go to the RTO for a signature from ARTO, and that we weren't supposed to touch our vehicle. So we walked to the RTO. There that bloody ARTO who was supposed to come in at 9AM shows up at 10:30 AM. After all this he acts like a dictator of his own country (read RTO) and throws back our sheet after singing it. I felt like giving him a tight slap after that. Next we were told to go to another floor (7th) to meet the brake inspector. No surprise, there were no inspectors to be found anywhere! After coming back, and inquiring a bit more, we managed to get hold of a Inspectors number. That fucking asshole was doing pooja at 11 AM. He told that he would come to office from Uttarahalli after pooja and breakfast and slammed his phone. So we waited for that SOB. He does not even turn up at 12 Noon. So we inquire more about his whereabouts. This stupid person, has forgotten us totally and is doing 'paisa vasool' with people who were getting their DL. We walked about a 1 KM to meet this guy. He has no regret, and asks us to wait in the police station! He royally comes there 15mins later and writes a couple of sentences and leaves. So for fucking 2 lines, we waited for 3 hours in that shit hole.

After getting the FIR, we went to Maruti Service station. I was fed up by this time, and thought it was the end of bureaucracy for the day. Boy, was I wrong. These insurance people act like leeches when it comes for making policies. But when it actually comes for claiming them, they are worse than the government people. This person almost wanted me to recreate the scenario, so that he can 'release' the money. The estimate had come up to 18K and I was in for another surprise. These people had lots of *Conditions Apply which no one bothers to read.
1. For every claim big or small, we had to compulsorily pay 1000/-
2. There would be a 20% depreciation in terms of my No-Claim bonus. So I would be losing 5000/-
3. The body parts like plastic and glass are only covered for 50%. So the rest 50% should be paid by us!

Taking this into account, I would be shelling out 9K from my pocket even after getting the Insurance amount. I mean, this is ridiculous. I pay 25K every year to end up paying more to get 18K. This does not make any fucking sense to me! After fighting with that insurance person for almost an hour, I am still not sure whether I'll get my insurance for this. So for no fault of my own, I have to spend approx 10K and have already wasted 2 days.

Life is cruel!

PS : please pardon my abusive language. this just reflects my state of mind.

Damn! Another Accident!

Which side of the bed did I wake up on today? What is wrong with this world? Why does bad things happen to good people like me? Depressing to read these questions right? Well that reflects my mood for the day!

Morning was as usual pretty boring. I was constantly thinking of a problem which has been bugging me for sometime now at work. I left my house at 10:30. I slowly backed out my SX4 out of the garage. The road was clear and the weather was pleasant. The sun was barely visible and all the light filtered out of the thick clouds. There was a cool breeze blowing, making me forget all about summer and my problems, but just for a moment. With some soulful music added, this looked like the perfect day. But everything perfect about it ended right about there.

As soon as I backed out, I saw a white Tata Sumo cab approaching me from behind. He seemed to be in bit of a hurry, and that dint seem odd to me. All cab drivers seem to be in a hurry, as though the world hangs on them being on time. I had to take a right turn immediately after my house. Not even 20 meters from my house. Knowing this cab driver's urgency I had put my signal well before hand, and true to his colors he was trying to overtake me, but seeing my signal to the right he swerved suddenly to the left. It was a rash and a negligent shifting of lanes from him. I was a spectator to all this and my rear view mirror acted as a show screen. The moment I started to turn right, this person wanted to pass me on my left. Well he could have done so, had he been slower and maintained a little more distance to maneuver. But the impatient bastard was unfortunately not in that position. End result was a completely disfigured rear end of my SX4.

I immediately got down my vehicle to inspect the damage. And seeing my new car in that condition, my rage shot up. It was like a vent for all my frustrations. I was so angry with him, if not for a public place, that driver would have got it from me today. Well I fought with him 'verbally'. At first he was unapologetic. He started blaming me. As it had happened virtually in front of my house, my dad and brother came out for my support. By this time he realized it would be foolish to fight and acceded his fault. That cooled me down considerably.

What followed was even more frustrating process of negotiation and some amount of dealing with the police. At first, I immediately called up the Maruti Mandovi workshop, and asked a known mechanic about the cost of the rear bumper. He plainly told it would cost us 20K. 20 fucking K for a mistake of a stupid, careless driver. He also explained to me about the insurance policies. He said that the insurance people would end up paying only 80% of the end bill and rest of it would have to be paid from my own pocket. Also there would a great deal of depreciation in my insurance claims. So the next time I had to get something done, instead of 80%, they would give me 50%. There is a very good chance that insurance people, in this market scenario, black mark vehicles that claim insurance for a big amount. I was pissed off to say the least. So it was natural that I wanted all the money from this person. By this time the owner of the vehicle had come. He was a rude, mannerless person, with no ethics and decency. His language was brash to say the least. He dint want to choke up the 20K we demanded of him. So the next option was Police. There is no other department that I despise so much as the Traffic Police. They are brute, and highly corrupt. Also today being a holiday on account of Eid, we had to go all the way to Jayanagar to lodge a complaint. After thinking a lot about taking off an acknowledgement for a insurance claim we wanted to teach a lesson to that owner. So we lodged a FIR. So this person had to keep his vehicle there in the police station. The drivers documents were seized. And a case was booked under IPC (forgot the section). I'll also have to take my vehicle there tomorrow for a inspection from the RTO Brake Inspector. So after 3 hours of constant complaint writing, getting documents in order and deliberating on a court case, we finally hope to get our justice.

After this, we have to fight in the court on getting the third party insurance. So our insurance wont be affected and every penny will be taken from that vehicle's insurance. Yipee! Also the driver will pay a heavier fine now. So for now I'm back to work thinking about the same thing as the day had started.