Requisition

I’ve been working from a new office since I returned to Delhi. When I arrived on the first day it was clear they were still doing work to get it ready for full occupancy, but the area I was assigned to didn’t seem to bad (aside from the fact that it was seriously over crowded – to the point that if you don’t arrive early enough you won’t get a seat. But since we tend to get here at 9:30 and some of the others don’t arrive till 11:00 isn’t much of an issue so far.) It was when after a couple of hours I stood up and asked a colleague where the facilities/bathroom/WC was. She pointed it out and handed me a small roll of toilet paper. I gave her a strange look and she said trust me, you’ll need it.

Not only is there no TP in the bathroom, there are no holders for a roll and there are no paper towels to dry your hands on, which means there is a lot of hand shaking going on.

Yesterday I asked if there was a place to get a drink of water. A colleague handed me their bottle of water and said something about not having a chance to requisition more yet. It didn’t make much sense to me at the time and I didn’t have time to question it, I just remembered to grab a bottle and bring it with me this morning.

I finally got to the bottom of the mystery this morning. Turns out for any item needed such as water, TP, Kleenex for a runny nose, pens or any such item, you have to fill out a full requisition form and get it approved by a supervisor.

Since I can’t quite bring myself to fill in a requisition form for TP, guess I’ll be bringing it from home from now on and carefully guarding my precious supply.

UPDATE: It seems I’ve stumbled over a cultural difference. I’d noticed that in each of the bathroom stalls there was a tap coming out of the wall with a measuring cup sitting under it. Turns out, rather than using TP, the water is used to rinse off. Now, I can see where this would be a “greener” practice than using TP – but it seems to me you’d still be a bit damp. I think this is one of those times when I’m not going to follow the “When in Rome” philosophy.

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