'Learner' Day
My day today started at around 7 am when my mom woke me up and said I need to get ready and scram for my LLR issuing appointment at the RTO at 9.15 am. I was to go to the Mandaveli RTO office along with the assistant at the office of tho owner of my old house. I wake up (not without a lot of groaning) eventually at around 7.20 am and then go through all my morning must-do-before-leaving-the-house rituals. By this time my mom has left for work. A quick heads-up, she works at a school which is a 1 hour bus ride out of the city on the Old Mahabalipuram Road (OMR). Yes, it's outside Chennai - it's in - wait for it - Kanchipuram.
So anyway, after I'm done with my breakfast around 8 am, I go back upstairs to my room to pick up whatever documents I necessarily require for the application and realize that I don't know where my passport is. That was my address proof and there's no way I'll be let anywhere near the license issuing dude in that dingy place without the original document stating my address... So I burst into a flurry of activity and suddenly, an epiphany strikes me. I remember my mom mentioning, as she woke me up, to take my passport from her handbag before she left. In a flurried call to my mom who's already halfway out of the city, "Mom! Where's your brown handbag?" "Why it's with me Vish... What happened?" "Mom, you might wanna open it and check if there's something in there that I need in another 15 minutes!!!"
Thus began my day. An elaborate plan was then formulated involving my travelling all the way out of the city in an unknown bus, on an unknown road to an unknown destination for an absolutely necessary article - my passport! So i hurriedly left the house, after taking my iPod, my grandma's phone (cuz it's in a CUG with my mom's and my dad's phones), my phone, my wallet and all the documents I'd require at the RTO, minus my passport, to the bus stand. My mom had texted me the name of the stop to ask for. A short wait at the bus stand yielded an air conditioned bus to my destination.
The bus ride was pretty good! I had Wolfmother, Soundgarden, +Rasika Ts (through texts) and my dad (again through texts) giving me company besides two 3rd year VIT University Computer Science female students studying near me! ;) Of course I eventually got a seat on the other side of the bus and my legs didn't want me practicing ornithology for too long so i relented. My stop came after what seemed like an hour's ride out of the city. As I got off, I got the feeling the Rajnikanth must have got in the movie Chandramukhi when he gets off at the place to dig for information about Jyothika's childhood. So I walk down the sandy, hot road for what seems like ages till i reach a junction where I was told to turn left. So I did and then continued walking for another few eons till I reached my mom's school.
The school is small. Like REALLY small. It's smaller than DAV Gopalapuram itself! (that's something!) So I quickly find my mom, get my passport and walk back for another few eons to get to OMR. The ride back wasn't air conditioned and wasn't accompanied by birds but it seemed shorter :) I hurriedly got off at my stop and got onto another bus that would take me to the RTO. In the mean time, I got a call from the assistant asking me where I was and instructing me to get off at that street and meet him there. I get there soon enough (surprisingly!) and wait there for him to come.
Fast forward to the part where I'm supposed to go meet some sort of licensing officer or something who's apparently a stickler for discipline and is the usual government officer - bossy, lazy, doesn't give a rat's derrière for other people's time. Oh and I forgot to mention this, it's important. I'm wearing my gray Puma shorts and my blue collared adidas t-shirt. In addition to that, I'm listening to my iPod and texting incessantly. A full package for a government officer to call me "undisciplined". The assistant person I'm with tells me to 'straighten up', keep my phone on silent and put it away and look 'disciplined' o.O
I wait in line outside the licensing officer's room with the necessary documents. There, the licensing officer's assistant gives me one look and says, "Don't you know how to dress decently when you're coming to an office? The officer won't see you like this! Please leave!" I'm standing there aghast, lost for words... What nonsense is this? How does this random guy get to dictate my dress code? I'm told, by the house owner's assistant to wait right there. He'll pull some strings and sort this out! He comes back with someone else who gives me one glance and says, "What nonsense is this? Doesn't he know he's coming to a government office? Tell him to go change!" By this time I've completely lost my cool but I somehow manage to keep it low cuz the house owner's assistant person is doing me a favour by speeding up my LLR process.
As they stand there, staring at me like I'm some insolent twat in their midst, they discuss Plan B. "Can he go home and change?" "No, I live too far off and I'm going back to SASTRA tonight!" "Can't you go back a day late?" "No, I've already booked the tickets and I have exams to attend over there!" "Well then it looks like your LLR application will have to be processed the next time you come back!"
That left me distraught and fuming! I turned 18 in July and they're pushing my license to December? Not fair world! Not fair!!! But then house owner's assistant comes to the rescue. We swap shorts for his pants. I'm profusely, yet reservedly, thanking him for saving me. I walk back to the scornful officer's assistant and glare at him. He lets me in with a weird stare (I don't blame him!). The actual licensing process is over quickly. I'm out of that grim building a quick 10 minutes later with the assurance of receiving my LLR on Monday.
Then of course we get back to my house owner's assistant's workplace, change back into our respective costumes and part ways.
Well, if there's anything I learnt today, it was to never go to a government office with anyone's help cuz if u did, you can't give them a piece of ur mind! If I didn't go in there with Mr. Saviour Assistant, I would have almost surely raged at Mr. Scornful Assistant and stormed out of that building! :P
Anyway, I'll be able to drive when I get back here for my first semester holidays! Whooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :D :D :D
So anyway, after I'm done with my breakfast around 8 am, I go back upstairs to my room to pick up whatever documents I necessarily require for the application and realize that I don't know where my passport is. That was my address proof and there's no way I'll be let anywhere near the license issuing dude in that dingy place without the original document stating my address... So I burst into a flurry of activity and suddenly, an epiphany strikes me. I remember my mom mentioning, as she woke me up, to take my passport from her handbag before she left. In a flurried call to my mom who's already halfway out of the city, "Mom! Where's your brown handbag?" "Why it's with me Vish... What happened?" "Mom, you might wanna open it and check if there's something in there that I need in another 15 minutes!!!"
Thus began my day. An elaborate plan was then formulated involving my travelling all the way out of the city in an unknown bus, on an unknown road to an unknown destination for an absolutely necessary article - my passport! So i hurriedly left the house, after taking my iPod, my grandma's phone (cuz it's in a CUG with my mom's and my dad's phones), my phone, my wallet and all the documents I'd require at the RTO, minus my passport, to the bus stand. My mom had texted me the name of the stop to ask for. A short wait at the bus stand yielded an air conditioned bus to my destination.
The bus ride was pretty good! I had Wolfmother, Soundgarden, +Rasika Ts (through texts) and my dad (again through texts) giving me company besides two 3rd year VIT University Computer Science female students studying near me! ;) Of course I eventually got a seat on the other side of the bus and my legs didn't want me practicing ornithology for too long so i relented. My stop came after what seemed like an hour's ride out of the city. As I got off, I got the feeling the Rajnikanth must have got in the movie Chandramukhi when he gets off at the place to dig for information about Jyothika's childhood. So I walk down the sandy, hot road for what seems like ages till i reach a junction where I was told to turn left. So I did and then continued walking for another few eons till I reached my mom's school.
The school is small. Like REALLY small. It's smaller than DAV Gopalapuram itself! (that's something!) So I quickly find my mom, get my passport and walk back for another few eons to get to OMR. The ride back wasn't air conditioned and wasn't accompanied by birds but it seemed shorter :) I hurriedly got off at my stop and got onto another bus that would take me to the RTO. In the mean time, I got a call from the assistant asking me where I was and instructing me to get off at that street and meet him there. I get there soon enough (surprisingly!) and wait there for him to come.
Fast forward to the part where I'm supposed to go meet some sort of licensing officer or something who's apparently a stickler for discipline and is the usual government officer - bossy, lazy, doesn't give a rat's derrière for other people's time. Oh and I forgot to mention this, it's important. I'm wearing my gray Puma shorts and my blue collared adidas t-shirt. In addition to that, I'm listening to my iPod and texting incessantly. A full package for a government officer to call me "undisciplined". The assistant person I'm with tells me to 'straighten up', keep my phone on silent and put it away and look 'disciplined' o.O
I wait in line outside the licensing officer's room with the necessary documents. There, the licensing officer's assistant gives me one look and says, "Don't you know how to dress decently when you're coming to an office? The officer won't see you like this! Please leave!" I'm standing there aghast, lost for words... What nonsense is this? How does this random guy get to dictate my dress code? I'm told, by the house owner's assistant to wait right there. He'll pull some strings and sort this out! He comes back with someone else who gives me one glance and says, "What nonsense is this? Doesn't he know he's coming to a government office? Tell him to go change!" By this time I've completely lost my cool but I somehow manage to keep it low cuz the house owner's assistant person is doing me a favour by speeding up my LLR process.
As they stand there, staring at me like I'm some insolent twat in their midst, they discuss Plan B. "Can he go home and change?" "No, I live too far off and I'm going back to SASTRA tonight!" "Can't you go back a day late?" "No, I've already booked the tickets and I have exams to attend over there!" "Well then it looks like your LLR application will have to be processed the next time you come back!"
That left me distraught and fuming! I turned 18 in July and they're pushing my license to December? Not fair world! Not fair!!! But then house owner's assistant comes to the rescue. We swap shorts for his pants. I'm profusely, yet reservedly, thanking him for saving me. I walk back to the scornful officer's assistant and glare at him. He lets me in with a weird stare (I don't blame him!). The actual licensing process is over quickly. I'm out of that grim building a quick 10 minutes later with the assurance of receiving my LLR on Monday.
Then of course we get back to my house owner's assistant's workplace, change back into our respective costumes and part ways.
Well, if there's anything I learnt today, it was to never go to a government office with anyone's help cuz if u did, you can't give them a piece of ur mind! If I didn't go in there with Mr. Saviour Assistant, I would have almost surely raged at Mr. Scornful Assistant and stormed out of that building! :P
Anyway, I'll be able to drive when I get back here for my first semester holidays! Whooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :D :D :D
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