Visas - India Part 2

I returned solo this time, because Jesse was at Yoga, fighting Chicago traffic (horrible by the way) to pick up our Indian Visas. Miraculously, I found street parking near the consulate and made my way back up to the 11th floor of the NBC building. This time I was early, because I wanted to get a jump on the "line" that I thought would form outside the closed Consulate. All signs at the consulate indicated that the waiting area was closed from noon until 3:30pm. I figured that if I lined up early, (15 minutes) I'd be close to the front of the line and get out of there early.

I arrived on the 11th floor to realize that the consulate was not closed at all. The waiting room was again full of people (most who I'd seen earlier in the day). I went to take a number and realized that there were NO numbers available. Did they run out? I asked two very surly businessmen that I had ridden the elevator with (doing their best not to make eye contact - why is that?) So anyways, I took a seat close to where the number were supposed to be. At 3:35 this man comes out of the back room (where you could hear the workers SCREAMING at each other in another language) and walks towards the device that held the numbers. I watched a couple people, who looked like they knew what they were doing, get up immediately when they saw this guy, so I jumped up too. He put the numbers in the dispensing device and ran to avoid the grab fest that was about to ensue. Because I was one of the first 5 to grab a number, I got trapped in the mob of people grabbing for numbers - they didn't care how many numbers they were taking, they were just grabbing. It was hysterical. I wasn't able to get out, so I just stood in the way thinking that if no one was able to get a number, they'd surely let me out. Not so.

Is this a lesson I should learn for India? Is this behavior indicative of a culture where 1 Billion people exist in one country? Get what you're looking for and get the hell out of the way!

The same gentleman who had waited on us in the morning was still working in the afternoon session, but his behavior was more akin to the Soup Nazi than in the morning. You'd hand him your receipt, tell him your last name, and he'd give you your passports and move onto the next number. A couple of people tried to ask him questions - he'd have none of it and moved onto other customers. I took this to heart, handed him my receipt, told him my last name and said "Thanks" as he handed me my passports. I split, checking to see whether we got Visas in the elevator on the way down.

We were successful - one down, one to go!