Frustration might be one word that springs to mind when thinking about how today turned out. Instead of making headway with work as I had intended (with a brief break to pick up my Indian Visa), the whole thing was ‘flip reversed’ to use colloquial ‘street-speak’.
I had hoped a mid-morning excursion into the Jewellery Quarter would mean I could nip in and out (maybe with a small queue) then come back to send off some work to print and get my teeth into some other bundles of work. Unfortunately after my 30 minute drive in, and a another 30 minute wait I finally got to the front of the queue where the lady behind the counter dissappeared with my tombola ticket and came back five minutes later to let me know it hadn’t been done yet. I wasn’t a happy bunny.
After being told to return at 3pm (when the consulate reopens after lunch) I decided a head start was in order, and at 2.30pm got into the queue behind the other 30 people. At 3pm they let us in and we streamed in in crocodile fashion like a rather bloated Chinese dragon, only to discover at this point that the doors had been open the whole time and the queue actually had extended up the stairs to the top floor meaning there were at least another 30 people in the queue ahead of us.
Thankfully sanity came from conversation with the people around and for the next hour and a half we talked about travel, the fantastic experience we were all having and making suggestions about ways to improve the system. And just to assure you that this wasn’t just a load of pallid Britons moaning, the Indians in the queue were just as irritated, including the blokes in front and behind me who had both sent in postal applications then discover their passports had ‘gone missing’.
The system had many faults, but it’s best by far was the lack of complaints procedure. See, not only were there long delays, but also after lunch half the staff go home and then only a solitary window is left open to deal with all visa requests. There were at least 300 people in the queue by the time I left, and with only half an hour left until closing time (and that means the shutter comes down and you have no choice but to go home). That means only 80 would have had their application processed today. There are no other staff on hand to deal with enquiries, take suggestions or advise that you aren’t likely to get served today, which means that you just have to wait and put up with it like everyone else. It’s that that makes the experience complete.
Such was the build up and my genuine fear for just over an hour that I would be back there tomorrow that I felt genuinely ecstatic when the girl passed me back my complete visa with all my names had been spelt right and they’d even taken the time to stick it in the right way.
In truth, the waiting didn’t bother me. Nor did the long queues. Nor did it trouble me the number of journeys. I’ve met some interesting people and had some good conversations, just one thing still really bugs me, and that is that I have lost two full days work. My advice to anyone else self-employed trying to get an Indian visa in Brum – just pay an agency to do it for you.