Typical ‘babusaahi'(bureaucracy) ! Did he pay for the bills?
Read this letter by a foreign visitor to India, as published in The Tribune on Jan 31,07.

All for a bureaucrat!

During a visit to Punjab recently, I had been to ‘Boat Club-Pincasia’, a tourist complex, near Ropar, for dinner. Surprisingly, the dinner service was suddenly suspended for all ordinary people like us after a local bureaucrat arrived there to dine with his friends!
Having seen the bureaucrat, the hotel manager was tense and panic-stricken. He diverted the hotel staff to the place where this bureaucrat settled for the dinner. This is not the way in which tourists should be treated. In principle, bureaucrats should not visit public places if their visits are likely to disrupt the normal functioning of the hotels and cause inconvenience to the general public.
I hope the authorities concerned will understand this writer’s deep anguish and act accordingly. This letter should not be viewed as an individual complaint but as a general suggestion to the Punjab government to have concern for all customers and to treat all humans equally.

ROBERT SMITH, 25, Broadway, New York (USA)