One Day as Taxpayer.....

When a mountaineer looses his way he has his compass and expertise to navigate him in his plight......a hunter relies on the foliages,dirt tracks and zillions of other signs in the madmaze of trees....madmaze....alright I made that up....but I think the point has been made.........however, with all the technical knowledge one has( considering he is fancy enough to call himself an engineer....or an 'almost engineer').....paying a bill in a government office is not at all easy and is not even slightly less difficult than any of the dares that so proudly ornament an adventure novel......it never is......So today I braved the onslaught of May in Kolkata and decided to be a helping hand by paying the bill for something in a major government building somewhere in Esplanade........okay how do youdescribe a building which seem to cradle almost all varieties of living and non-living beings found in this city......imposing to say the least..........yellow canines with one leg crippled by some ruthless driver.........ambling cops overcoming their boredom by throwing pebbles at the dogs.......petty cons manipulating their maneuvers under the rather lenient supervisions of the cops.......and people...lots and lots of people .....with business I can hardly surmise................it is a fanfare indeed......So for some prehistoric lacuna in the prehistoric system the bill was not posted to us.....and I had to make a duplicate bill by showing them the previous bill and pay the cash........but first I had to find the counter........I found a counter which was rather empty and in which the person was willing to talk.....and I found that I had to go to a completely other section of the building for myjob to be done............it was in the bowels of the great building of smelly teak reeking of old papers and acrid smoke upon inferior quality tea.........and what I saw was a soothing picture of harmony in rapture.........it is Saturday and end of a 'busy' week.......and most of the responsibledrivers of the city had taken a break.....the few 'workaholics' by the bric-a-brac desks was engaged in a number of widely interesting discussions..........receeding hemlines in modern day movies........overnight cricket scores......recipe at the famous food court......probable cure for arthritis......cause of nearsightedness........infirmity of the drainage system.....even mass of the newest satellite.....it is an educated world indeed.......so I had to widen my knowledge in many of the areas by the litany of these fine gentlemen before I got my voice heard....only to be herded for "counter number 6"......which was .....unfortunately unlabelled and beyond locked doors due to be opened at 11.00 a.m..........what can I say ...its just Murphy's Law........for after a rather smooth migration between counters ,it was my fate to be ,after scores of jabbing of shoulders and choosen expletives, facing a queue of fifty other men...and women like me........and here I was.......clad in a loosely held jeans and T-shirt behind the full fraternity of smelly armpits,prickly beard and faded blouse with the underwear peeking by the sides....much to my dismal............and after two hours of rather epileptic movements when I emerged victorious from the counter,with the bill in hand with the 'paid' stamp upon it........I was never so proud to be the taxpayer