With the lights out, its less dangerous

It’s our fault really. I mean having to make a couple of updates on our national identity card has caused everyone so much trouble. And just when we’ve decided that things are going smoothly today, the lights go out. As we retire back to the waiting bench and the NADRA center staff gets out the snacks and assumes their daily lights-gone party huddle, no body’s complaining. Nobody’s complaining that the center should get a power generator. Nobody’s complaining that there a million things that they’d rather be doing than sitting in the dark fanning themselves till the lights come back on two hours later. Everybody’s sitting patiently, waiting, even appreciatively, including my wife and I. That’s because the not-so-distant-past had dark stinking dilapidated buildings with red-stains in every corner from tobacco spit, and crabby officials who’d like to make it as hard for you as possible so they could earn a bribe. Now at least the surroundings were clean and computers did most of the administrative work instead of runners fetching and filing dusty papers. We even spent some quality time having a conversation till the lights came back on.

Spread the SMEDA

Here in Pakistan, there’s not much value for a small fry. Neither do most organizations have the slightest clue about what good customer service is.

Thank god for SMEDA (Small and Medium Enterprises Development Authority) then. I could almost spend the afternoon doing that, because these guys actually mean well. That’s saying a lot these days. Sure, they don’t always decide to go ahead and finally pick up the phone, and then it sounds more like the you mistakenly dialed someone’s home number, but when you do get down to business, they’re really quite friendly.

And that’s because they’d really like to help you. They give you the information you need, and even try to get some extra information into your thick skull that’s useful to you in a really nice polite way.

Well, this country depends on SMEs. I won’t miss a beat in recommending SMEDA to anyone who’d like to find out about starting their own business. They even have a great website with well documented helpful information that’s a real gem in my favorites list. You can also call them on 111-111-456.

Feroz in legal services is definitely one of the good guys here, even if he speaks too fast.