The indian administration that comprises of all the government departments and offices is really huge and I don't have any idea what so ever about how many people are employed there but I can guess it will not be any less than the population of a small country...or may be a big country like Australia.

It is no surprise, actualy I'd say that it is expected that at such a big size, your speed will be slow. Think about it, I am a few kilos overweight and I feel short of breath if I walk briskly. It is better for me to stroll so that I don't exert myself. Now imagine the administration of this country and its size and the speed at which it can walk. Has to be rellllly slow.

The government has tried to shed some weight by privatising a few things but those are just a drop in the oceans and don't really have much impact. Akthough I have written about the pace of things associated with government but the finest example of speed came to my attention during my last visit to Delhi. My nephew Bharat has moved to class 9 and a little inooportune time. NCERT (National council of Education, research and training) has decided to change the syllabus of class 9. I don't know when that decision was taken but even now NCERT is not able to provide text-books to students.

To people living in some parts of the world this may look absurd and totally unimaginale but the kids in class 9 have to face this reality that their sessions have started, they are going to schools everyday but they are not able to study. Why? because the government body responsible for providing them text books is not capable of doing it. The circus of parents looking for books is nothing short of amusing if you are not a part of it your self. "A book store in Tilak Nagar is supposed to have the books of History and Social Studies, let's go quick." You drop everything you are doing and rush to that book store only to return empty handed. If you are the lucky one, you may get squeezed by other eager parents for half an hour before you can get one book for 25% more than marked price and that also when you hand over the money to the shop keeper before he een shows you the book.

The rush of parents at book stores in madenning and I think there are parents of students of class 8 as well who are there to make sure that their kids don't waste their time next year due to lack of books, they are buying than an year in advance.

This makes think about the concept of accounatability or the lack of it that makes living in India such a challenge. More on it here.