'Uspe bhel puri serve ho rahi hogi': Netizens after entrepreneur says he couldn't get book released from Delhi Customs

Harshdeep Rapal, co-founder and CEO of end-to-end sales enablement and contract lifecycle management software Legitt, recently took to X (previously Twitter) to share his experience with the Delhi Customs Department. Rapal said that the incident occurred 3 years back when an author sent him a book as a gift from the Netherlands. 

"I got a call from Customs (Delhi) asking me the amount I paid for the book. I told them it's a gift/free from the author himself - they asked me to send the name of the author and the book's name. I did. Then someone from their team called me and said that the online price of the book is X USD, and I'll have to pay Y amount and fill in some forms (don't remember which ones) and collect the package in person," he said. 

He added that he told the official that he could get the author on email to confirm that the book was indeed a gift, but to no avail.

"No. He said you'll have to pay to get the package 'released'. Needless to say, I did not collect the package. Instead told the author to send me a PDF of the book, which he did. The author felt bad for me. And, I felt bad for him. His beautiful book, for which he paid from his own pocket to ship over to me, is lying in some customs warehouse."

Soon after his ordeal went viral, netizens were quick to share their takes. Social media users said that the customs official must've sold the book as scrap, while some others said that receiving stuff in India is impossible. 

"Uspe bhel puri serve ho rahi hogi after the custom official would have sold it in raddi," a user wrote. 

A second user commented: "Receiving stuff in India is impossible. Customs asks for fee and strange documents for everything. And the fees make it 10x more expensive than the cost itself. Its a joke in corporate administration that don't send us any stuff thru shipping we will never get it."

A third user wrote: "Makes my blood boil to hear such stories. I miss life from 20-25yrs ago when people could send us stuff anytime, anywhere. I wrote to a publisher (in the late 90s) about an error in a book and they sent me a new copy and some merch. It came via India post - no charge." 

"Only in India can a gift turn into a penalty. Customs manages to tax kindness while the book gathers dust in a warehouse," another user said.