In the last month of August, for various reasons and at different times, I had to access the national websites. Gosh, most of these websites were a nightmare, even to login; leave alone upload or download anything worthwhile!
One of them is the one that foreign nationals need to use to register (or allied services) when they land in India and are to stay for anything other than tourist purposes. I spent half a day (more than 6 hours!!) just to complete and upload an application, while assisting a youngster from Germany, who is here as a volunteer. It was not about the internet speed, but everything about the website itself that just drags you on without helping you get on with it. Logging in required an OTP. That never came through. So I had to register myself with all my Indian details - just to get an OTP. Once we were able to sign in, uploading documents was another nightmare. Clicking the browse and selecting file was one game of cat and mouse. And when we did manage to bell the cat, the 'upload' button would be hidden behind the file preview!! To access the 'upload' icon, we had to get rid of the file!! Imagine doing this for a dozen documents.
Then the instructions all along are nothing but a bunch of jokes!! Of course, at that moment of frustration, jokes don't go down well! At one point, the guidelines say, if a particular document is uploaded, then this letter is not to be uploaded. But when you complete the process and reach the submit threshold, the submit icon does not get activated till that file which was earlier stated as redundant is uploaded! And so begins the whole process, all over again!!
The comedy of the matter is when some documents are totally unavailable and explicitly stated as not needed and yet one has to upload those files. Well, Indian as I am, got around this, by uploading a random pdf file!! Just a blank while page, saved as a pdf. That got accepted and I could proceed to the next level!
The same website had a scrolling banner which stated that a new website has been launched. Clicking on that link led to a bit more decent looking website. But my hopes for a faster and easier task were dashed when the whole website, which explains things in detail, but has no links or icons to actually do the work of uploading and submitting the application!
As I struggled with this particular website, I could not but wonder what on earth would foreigners be thinking of our 'advanced IT claims' when they land in India and have to wade through such horrific websites, just to register themselves.
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