Once I got over the tiredness and the jet lag, I even forgot the hassle of the queue at the airport.Ī week after landing in Delhi, I was back at the airport for a domestic flight to Pune. I thought that the system did work in its own slipshod and lumbering manner. The promised results did show up the next day. The only saving grace was that we were not required to wait for the results at the airport. Test results were promised within 8-12 hours. I was handed a very official looking piece of paper from Genestrings, the company doing the testing. If no one was going to accept the pre-flight results, why make such a song and dance about it?Īfter much grousing and jostling on the weary passengers’ part, samples were taken for a fee.
No explanation was forthcoming, except “ upar se order hain” (“these are orders from the top”). Instead, we were herded into a hall, made to stand in a long line for another test. No one asked for it, no one looked at it. I landed in New Delhi confident that I would have the green light.Īlas, the self-declaration form turned out to be worthless. I got a PCR test for COVID-19 done within 72 hours of my date of departure, dutifully uploaded the test results on the self-declaration form on Air Suvidha, printed out a copy of the Government of India’s acknowledgement of my uploaded information. Obtaining a fake result was the only option I was left with.īefore setting out for Delhi, I did everything that I was asked to do. Every link in the chain, beginning with the Government of India’s own travel guidelines, failed and failed spectacularly. The “laboratory report” bore the insignia of Krsna Diagnostics, a prominent diagnostic laboratory with branches all over the country, with “Achievement Awards” oozing out of its website and with an uplifting slogan of “Let’s Do Good.”īut to be fair to this “world-class,” do-gooding laboratory – most likely its documentation is being forged by unscrupulous touts – the rot that led me to it began the moment I landed at the Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi from the United States early in July. All I had to do was to give my name and Aadhaar number to the intermediary, and in less than five minutes I had a very official looking ‘Medical Laboratory Report’ declaring me to be virus-free in my WhatsApp inbox.
The smooth efficiency of the ‘test’ left me dumbfounded. On the contrary, I felt that the chaotic, money-grubbing and utterly opaque system that we have put in place in the name of COVID-19 prevention and control deserved the contempt I was buying with my bribe.
And yet, I felt no remorse, no twinge of conscience at what I had just done. I have always prided myself for never ever greasing a palm to get anything done. I paid a sum of Rs 500 to get a fake negative PCR result for COVID-19.Īfter it was all done, I was surprised at how calm I was. Last week, I paid a bribe for the first time in my 60-plus years of life.
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