We Indians are pros at waiting in queues. While some of us will quietly play Candy Crush while waiting patiently, others will find a jugaad to smartly ?cut? the line to get ahead. Here’s a look at 13 places that have long, serpentine queues that play ‘aap kataar mein hain, kripiya prateeksha karein’ on loop.
With 50,000 to 100,000 pilgrims visiting daily, Tirupati Balaji is the world?s most visited temple. There are different queues for darshan, where the pilgrims wait for hours to get a glimpse of Lord Venkateswara. There are complexes built to organise the pilgrim rush, where they also charge Rs. 50 to get you through the shorter queue.
Thank your stars that the passport renewal procedure in India happens after every 10 years! Because once it?s done it feels like an achievement. That?s because we endure an exhausting queue which takes up the entire day. Passport offices are a nightmare; however with the organised queue system today, the process is now a bit tolerable.
Shirdi Sai Baba Temple in Nashik has devotees crowding the temple from 4 AM. The temple sansthan has also organised an ‘online darshan’ where the devotees have to shell out Rs. 500 which will take them to a queue, which will take less than an hour for the darshan. However, the online darshan queue stretches longer than the normal one at times.
Railway ticket windows test patience. Apart from overcrowded trains, passengers first have to go through an overcrowded ticket window, where the employee takes his own sweet time to issue a ticket. And if there is a lunch break, the ticket window pulls down the shutter and you will have to form a new queue.
You’re a lucky person if you find a Sulabh Shauchalaya without a queue. It?s unfortunate for people with an overactive bladder to stand in the queue for 10-15 minutes to reach the filthy doors of a nauseating public toilet.
Once in a year, for ten days, Mumbaikars wait in a queue to get a glimpse of their beloved Lalbaughcha Raja. The Ganesh pandal has over 1.5 million people visiting during the ten day festival. Around 300-400 organisers manage a massive crowd that waits in queues for over 18 hours. The pandal also organises breakfast and snacks for the devotees who patiently wait for their turn to touch the feet of the famous Ganesh idol.
The queue in front of ration shops to get subsidised food items stretches far too long. People below the poverty line wait for hours to get a few kilos of rice, dal and wheat. Sometimes, there are fights in the queue because people try to dodge the line and move forward.
Even if most bank work is digital, there will always be a long queue in front of the teller. From depositing money to withdrawing it, ?bank work? takes a lot of time and is cause enough for an office leave.
There will always be a long queue between you and your aloo tikki burger. Ordering food at McD?s takes time because there is always one person from a family of six to order six burgers, six fries and six softies. Moreover, it takes a lot of time just to explain the order to the person at the counter and his oh-so-fake smile.
Flash sales at malls generate crazy queues on the day of the sale. Since everything has slashed discounts, people shop till they drop. From the trial rooms to the cash counters, people impatiently wait to try on outfits, swipe cards and get out of and into stores.
Once the results are out, students and parents climb the steps of colleges and universities in the hopes of getting admitted. Students wait with their admission forms in the serpentine lines only to discover that they have been ousted due to high cut-offs.
The Independence day sale is the most awaited sale in India, as there are big discounts on clothes, crockery, gadgets and food items. The three-day sale has bill counters packed with customers who take more than 15 minutes to get their bills done.
There is no dearth of talent in India, which is why people from all over the country come together to try their luck at talent shows. Everybody wants their 60 seconds of fame, and they get it by being thrashed by judges who criticise them and have fun at their expense.
