Struggles with the RTO

I repaired my old scooter (a 2000 Bajaj Saffire, automatic trans, 100 cc engine, 6 hp) for general use in Bangalore. I will of course continue to commute to work by bus, but I wanted to have something else for mobility than my car which is both expensive and cumbersome to use in city conditions.

But before I could start riding it, I need a driver's license. My current driver's license is only for a car. So I decided to metaphorically kill two birds with one stone by taking the opportunity and obtaining a license for a geared motorcycle (Indian driver's licenses are valid for some ridiculously long time like 20 years!) which I could also use for my automatic transmission scooter. But I need to get a learner's permit first with which I would have to wait a month before taking the road test.

So I decided to go to the RTO (a Road Transport Office, our version of the DMV). Let me explain what this process entailed. First of all, the RTO is holed up in a building which is well, let's say weathered. As soon as you walk in, touts and middlemen of all sorts run up to you saying phrases like "Yes, boss, RTO?", "LL / DL?", "License, boss?", etc. My friend joked that someone would come up to you and ask "Yes, boss, LL / DL / fake passport?"

Who knows, if there was a Gujarati among them, they would even possibly ask you if you wanted a fake US visa. Apparently, Gujaratis are notorious for fake visa rackets (why am I not surprised), but that's for a different entry.

Anyway, after ignoring or brusquely pushing aside these middlemen, we went up to the RTO office. You have this teeming mass of humanity that is moving every which direction, I mean, there was at least one person moving for every one of the 360 degrees in a circle! I took with me all the documents and ascertained the correct line in which to stand. I am exempted from taking the oral / written test since I already have a driver's license for a car. But they still made both the people who were taking the tests as well as people like me in the same line.

About 15 minutes of standing in the line and moving forward, someone comes up asking each of our circumstances. Myself and two other people already had driver's licenses, so he sent us to a different desk. I was thinking, not bad, this thing is going to get done fairly quickly after all. Of course, before we could get to that desk, a middleman cut in line carrying some dozen license application forms in his hand. These were promptly attended to by the "public servant," knowing that the middleman would pay him a separate "commission" at a later juncture. When we did get to the desk, we were told we were in the wrong section and told to go back to the line we had just come from!

So anyway, we went back to the line grumbling at the person who had told us to leave in the first place and since we had no idea of where we had originally stood, we went to the back of the line. Anyway, another half an hour later, we finally got up to the desk where we had to give our forms and the same person who had originally sent us out of our line collected our forms and gave it to the official to sign! This was ridiculous. I still as yet do not know why he sent us to the line and I didn't ask him why lest he find some minor detail with which to deny my application (and since the application section of the RTO is only open on weekdays between 10 a.m. and
12 noon, I had to leave work to go there).

So I gave my application and they told me to come back the following evening between 4 and 5 p.m. That's a ridiculously long time to enter my application form info into the computer, print out a license, affix a photograph and stamp and seal across it, but whatever ...

The following evening when I did return, there was a large crowd of people around the desk, but I did get my license. However, despite taking a day and a half, all the optional information I had bothered to write down (blood type, etc) was omitted from the actual license. But regardless, I did get my learner's license and I got it the honest way without going through a middleman and thus paying bribes. And I guess India has improved somewhat (a lot actually) since six or seven years ago, it wasn't possible to do this. They would find some reason or another to deny you a license unless you went through a middleman. Now it is possible to do this, even if it takes ridiculously long and they quite literally make you run around in circles. So yes, that's something that's improving and that's good.

Now all I have to do is go back in a month for my road test. Once again, I plan to do it the honest and ethical way. However, that is even more of an obstacle because it is only conducted some once a week or something and at an equally inconvenient time. They are also equally eager to fail you, so you have to ensure that you don't make any mistakes. But anyway, more on that when it happens.