IT Odyssey on May 25

At last… all’s well that ends well. Probably am calling shots too early. Never the less, let me tell you this day’s saga:

The Deliberation
I was wondering about the IT returns cheque from April beginning. It was dated Jan 13 and was valid till April 13th. The cheque had a small print which stated valid for 3 months. Though it was deposited on April 6th, it bounced back stating it was out of date. I started bugging Chandra sir and ICICI bank and at last managed to retrieve the returned cheque on Saturday from jayanagar 3rd block. Because of cheque, I was late to office by 3 hours. Mean while I was also trying to hunt down the person in IT department. I spoke the finance team in Biocon who directed me to one Giri whose routine job was to hang around HMT office for Biocon’s tax affairs. He gave me a list of documents, that I was supposed to give to the IT department which included a letter stating why the cheque was not deposited in time, my last IT returns acknowledgement form, some XXX A form, id proof etc. I listened flabbergasted to Giri sir. He asked which ward? I was clueless. Ward??? He said, I might have to go twice to collect the cheque. Once to give the letter and two – three days later to collect the cheque.

HMT Bhavan Rendezvous
Meanwhile I had also sent a reply to the email, which was sent by IT department for tax receipt for my TIME GDPI classes. There was no reply. I went to the nsdl website and wrote a issue/query. Luckily they replied stating, that they are not the concerned party and gave me one strange number to contact, which I didn’t. I had looked up for IT offices in Bangalore and found the HMT office numbers. I asked mom to fax me the letter which she did this morning. One Mr. Sathyanarayana Bhat of ward 14(8) had issued the cheque. From morning, I kept on trying the numbers displayed in the website with no luck. I thought, today is pratmai, why waste time when dinapalan said efforts will go waste? But tomorrow was Tuesday and my chandrastama was starting on Wednesday, so I had to hurry.

Anyway pratmai was getting over at 14:25. To get over the post lunch soporific state, I kept on trying the number and suddenly Mr. Bhat himself answered the phone. He sounded timid or too conscientious I should say with madams pouring out profusely. He said this was his last week and that he was getting transferred to some other place and that I need to get the new cheque within this week. I was elated on first being able to speak to him, and second on his saying that he would reissue a cheque. Suddenly, I was wondering about speed post and all that. Then I decided, why not go to HMT office in person. My cab to main road from SEZ was at 14:30 and it was already 14:25. It was a good 12 minutes walk for me on normal days to reach the gate. I went there, the cab was still waiting. Once we reached the main road, I saw a bmtc bus and asked the cabbie to stop and I boarded the majestic bus just in time. After more than an hour, I reached majestic and I had yelahanka buses waiting, which dropped me at stop walk able from HMT bhavan. It took me around 20 minutes to cross the road to reach HMT bhavan. Suddenly I lost patience with the never ending stream of vehicles generously depositing smoke on me and I stretched my hand and crossed while the drivers loudmouthed.

I put on my smile after 2 and half hours of tiring journey and went to 3rd floor as I was instructed over phone and asked for Bhat. After asking 3 persons and after another 2 persons guided me without my asking them, they said go to 4th floor opposite wing and there he was. He was going through one big bunch of envelopes manually for another person sitting in one of the 3 chairs. He motioned for me to sit. After that was done, I gave my cheque to him. He didn’t ask for any reasons. Neither on phone nor in person. After a moment’s deliberation, he picked up the phone and asked for a cheque for < 25k. the small guy who came few moments later got a cheque for > 25k. So the small guy went to the drawer in Bhats room and took a <25 cheque, wrote down the details as I dictated my account number.

At Kumara Park ICICI bank
That was it. It got over in a jiffy. The boy was apparently from Kanchipuram and there was another guy from Madurai and so TN association worked. He quickly got it stamped, gave me a water bottle to quench my thirst and I was out with a new cheque. Near the lift, I asked a complete stranger as to where the nearest ICICI bank was. He said there is one near RT nagar and one near sadashiv nagar and if I didn’t mind, he could drop me near the nearest ICICI bank. I just wanted to deposit the cheque at the earliest and I agreed. He asked if it was IT returns cheque. He asked did he give the cheque? I said, yes, surprisingly fast. He said, earlier, they would not give the IT returns cheque without money. Now because of Lokayuktha, everyone was afraid it seems. Whoever is Lokayuktha, I will surely vote for them next time. His scooter was a dilapidated grey one which looked as old as he was. I sat behind him and he dropped me near Kumara Park ICICI. I had stayed in Palace Guttahalli for 4 months and used to spend my weekends staring at paintings in Chitra kala parishad and used to go for morning walks in Golf course. But when he asked me if I knew the place well, I said no on impulse (I don’t know why) and he went to describe, this is Asoka, this is golf course etc. I listened gratefully for his lift. He dropped me off at Kumara park and at bank, I realized when my turn came, I had not filled in the challan, nor I had a pen. I borrowed a pen from one guy and made the counter lady wait till I filled it up. Once I gave the cheque, I breathed a sigh of relief on having completed a month long pending task. Now I remember the nagalinga flowers on the busstop next to Kumara park ICICI bank. But I missed seeing them. I boarded the bus after waiting for less than a minute and boarded another bus from majestic and reached campus at 7:30 p.m. 5 hours saga in all. But am glad, Mr. Bhat didn’t ask for bribe, nor a reason for not depositing in time. He was a good guy. Chennai IT department didn’t return my 2K something in 2004, but Blore IT department returned and to top it all reissued a cheque without much hassles. Now I have to wait for 2 more days before the cheque gets cleared, which I hope, it will.