Rules For Rules Sake...

... drive me crazy. Absolutely CRAZY! So you can only imagine with just 5 ish weeks left how "Coo Coo for Cocoa Puffs" I'm going with the Indian bureaucracy. I have never been in any place that had so many rules. Rules that are ... arcane ... outdated ... flat out ridiculous. So many backwards ways of doing things. So many people afraid to think outside of the box.

I have a healthy respect for guidelines. For the understanding that life is not black and white, but rather many different shades of gray. Over the years I have come to expect rules that I don't understand or respect to be explained. And when they're not, I challenge them. Every. Single. Time.

Selling my car has been an extremely frustrating experience. I advertised it about six weeks ago and actually sold it quite quickly (probably due to it's very low sales price). But the process by which I have to follow in order to transfer the car is bureaucracy at its finest.

Here's how I see it. I have a car. I want to sell it, so I advertise. A potential buyer calls me and expresses interest in the car. We meet. He sees it. He tells me he wants it. Then in a normal world, he gives me the money, I sign over the car to him, and it gets registered in his name. We all live happily ever after.

That's not how it works here. See, once we get to the point where the buyer wants to purchase the car, I am at the mercy of the Ministry to hopefully get everything cleared and approved prior to our departure. A process that takes anywhere from 3 - 4 months. A step-by-step system that must be thought out well in advance. Think it'll happen? Along with the five identical sets of paperwork that Matt had to sign in order to sell our car, they then need to be sent to Chennai, Delhi, and probably Timbuktu too in order for someone, somewhere, to make a decision as to whether or not the buyer is good enough to buy my 4000 pound hunk of junk.

Forgive me for thinking he was good enough because he was able to "Show Me The Money".

And if this paperwork doesn't come through before we leave ... well ... then we're stuck signing over a Power of Attorney to some other poor schmo at the Consulate to handle in our absence. Um, who do you think is standing in line, waiting to sign up for that gig?

As frustrated as I am, I'm still playing by the stupid rules (shhh.... don't tell my girls I just said the "S" word). Aside from my irreverence for the system, and the reasons for the way they do things, I'm stuck. I can't roll back time and purchase another car ... one that was only half as much of a lemon as this one. As much as I'd like to. I can just point out the obvious... that despite always doing things a certain way or because it's just the way things are done, doesn't make them right.

But it does make me a diplomat ... at a time when I really want to be undiplomatic.