Some interesting experiences I have had when I was living in Mumbai. Its normal to pay a bribe to get your work done, what is important is to be sure that your work will be done. For ex: If you have to get a name transferred to your Ration Card, all you have to do is go the BMC (Municipality) dominated by Maharashtrians (Than God for small favors) give the "Saab" Rs 50 (that was maybe 10 years ago) and in the evening the guy would have the work done. Same goes for Birth Registration. Now, lets talk abt MTNL (dominated by UP/Bihar/MP folks... no disrespect). Bribe to submit form, Bribe to move it, Bribe to get it approved, Bribe to activate it, Bribe on all festivals and it goes on. Maybe my Grandchild will continue bribing for the phone line we installed. And in one particular incident I refused a linesman, next day phone goes dead. No exaggeration but 3 months and no phone line active. So finally I approached the Prabhadevi office, the Area Manager was... guess... a Maharashtrian and in 2 days the line is back. Most recent experience, I had to sell some property, papers had some issue, Collector office, Mumbai is dominated by all kinds of chor agents. I was given a list of names, I looked at the list and looked for a Maharashtrian name. I went to the guy. He heard my case, and honest enough he said it was near imposible.
