The question is - What can i do about it ?

The scenes are ones that are often seen in movies - at least indian or tamil movies. A small village taluk office, a creaky old fan, employees happily gossiping their day away and the VO the head of the gang sitting on his chair as if it were a throne and he the king.

We approach with papers of a ground/plot the govt is confiscating from us. If we submit the papers before a d-day the govt shall pay us rs.2 lacs we are told. "These papers arent right , there are joint owners for the property, you have to produce legal documents ascertaining the sole ownership i.e the other owner should say he aint interested in the property" - a henchman (i really dont know what his role is) says. "But my brother is dead" my uncle retorts.

"Oh i see , thats a problem , you are from district X and this is Y district. So you need to get so and so documents from the X district VAO" - the henchmen offers a friendly advice.

A few minutes of tiring travel and search later - "oh ok ok six thousandddu " another friendly henchman at the X office says. Me - "is that for the papers". "dont talk like u dont know the papers are Rs.400 but it will take ages to process, had u gotten the papers ready as soon as the person died it would have been cheaper but now we need Rs.6000 to ready them genereally we charge only 500 for these documents but u are getting 2lacs what is 6k, also this needs quick work" .

We drive back to the Y office and narrate what just happened and pat comes the reply "Yes pay them what they want i think they are being very considerate given the current rates, after that give us the papers and another 6K and we will get your job done."

Now thats the essence of what happened. there was more drama to it that i have narrated. A very rough kind of talking from the employees "give as much as we ask or get lost " kind of dialogues and abuse of a fellow petitioner by way of tearing his papers in anger.

Things that came up in my mind and solutions to the problem

i) Contact media for help
ii) Record the conversation approach anti corruption bureau
iii) Approach police or anti corruption bureau
iv) Threaten the officers
v) Muscle power
vi) Pay what they are asking for
vii) Negotiate over drinks
viii)Take MLA MP help

now considering the situation time available and the praticality of it option vi) seems the most appropriate to do. But my heart aches at the state of my country and doesnt want to contribute to the deterioration. On the other side its 2lacs vs 12k . Now i have to be either for it, against it or keep quite. The thing is i dont want to keep quite nor do i want to support it so The question is - What can i do about it ?

cheers,
--Badri--