New year and a post finally

Happy New Year.
A day to make new resolutions (so they say) -which will not be achieved even in 365 days and probably will be pushed as next years resolutions. Why do we require the 1st day of the new year for making resolutions?. If one really wants to achieve anything it can be decided upon anyday.
So be it, each one has his/her own ways.
After saying all this the first thought that came to my mind in the morning was to look for a suitable to-do list preferably online. There are many such sites on the web. This review helped me to choose one from the 25 reviewed. So I have a list at backpackit.
I had an idea that I post in my blog everyday--which could include (as I am lazy ) just a simple link, or just a sentence or two about life or my rants and ramblings on life or a full bodied post which makes my point through. This would make 365 posts for the year and maybe my blog would atleast have some ranking on technorati, maybe the most regularly updated blog (with crap).
Ha Ha, Here I am, after a week into the new year, too lazy to just post a link also which is just a copy and paste operation and does not involve any key punch operations to hurt my fingers.
So the first lazy links,news,views and questions
Who or What is a dorkbot? I came across this term in article in Wired which lists top 10 tech towns.
In simple terms dorkbot refers to a group of affiliated organizations that sponsor meetings of artists,engineers and designers who work in the field of Electronic Art.

In the news
The gruesome Noida killings rock the news since last week. I am surprised as to why the proceedings to identify what has exactly happened and who is to be blamed is taking such along time. This episode is in the news for the past 15 days and there has been no conviction against the culprits. This is Incredible India for you.
The Chief Ministers brother Shivpal Yadav quotes these killing of children as
"Choti moti ghatna". This is sheer disgrace. Tomorrow if the ministers kith and kin are kidnapped there will be no inquiries and the culprits traced and punished immediately.
This is again the same incredible india.

Harry Potter and other old comics

Recently I have been reading some fiction. For the last 5 years I had never looked at any fiction book as my sole interest had been technology books and that to only programming and computers. I piled up all types of techie books but never got the time to read, also with these techie books you need to really write programs and practice to get a hang of it which was not possible due to lack of time.
I was an avid reader of fiction during my college days when books were available in libraries only and the computer was a machine to be used in offices and big organisations to improve productivity.
My interests in fiction ranged from Agatha Christie, Perry Mason to Robert Ludlum,Sidney Sheldon etc. I enjoyed Sidney Sheldon the most
Upto the age of 18 I also devoured comic books. Amar Chitra Katha for Indian mythology and Indrajal Comics for other fiction like Phantom and Mandrake. Besides Phantom and Mandrake I devoured TinTin comics most.
Now in the early thirties I have again become interested in witches,wizardy and stories of that kind.
I watched Harry Potters first movie and was interested to find out why Harry Potter has become a phenomenon the world over among young and old alike. I brough the 1st book Harry Potter and the Philosophers stone and started devouring it. Although a little slow read I was overwhelmed by the number of characters presented. To sort out the confusion and avoid looking back and searching about a character I searched for a random charcter for information in Google. I landed at the found hp-lexicon. This site is awesome, detailing the life and times of the author and also detailing to the minutest the whole wizarding world of Harry Potter. Now I have become a true fan of Harry Potter and here I go for the 2nd book.

Google at it once again
Google has always been at the forefront of innovation and has rolled out some great web based tools and software. Be it a spreadsheet,word processor or photo management. Google also has specialized searches for microsoft, linux, bsd, apple and now it has started a patents search for searching US patents. This is just awesome.

Innovative blogging

The internet has become a sort of staple these days without which one(includes myself) cannot function. May be it's just-for-fun surfing without a purpose or surfing with some specific information need. And as you wander around the blogosphere and surf through the labyrinths of the internet you stumble upon some really good links.
Clicking through various links from inside various blogs I found these 2 blogs which I felt is an innovative and even informative way to post to blogs.
Instead of posting your daily happenings or news and links why not post some links or some questions and answers to increase your knowledge and of other readers if any.
My Link List --- posts 2 or 3 links a day but really good links, not the usual news and reviews stuff
Ten Things I Didn't Know Until Last Week----- 10 questions and answers every week, like a General Knowledge quiz. This the blogger says is inspired by BBC's column of the same name but in a different format

Hockey shocker

After the recent debacle in cricket there is another shocking sports debacle China defeat India 3-2 in hockey at the Asian games.

Rightly reported by The Afternoon despatch and courier as
India plunged to the depths of despair after being made to eat humble pie by an unfancied China
Seriously, I have never followed or tracked hockey as much like cricket or tennis.
Even football arouses my interests during the world cup. This news certainly shocked me and kept me wondering why our national sport is Hockey.
Cricket is a religion in India and in Mumbai atleast, there is no other recognised ground sport.
India is already in the dumps with hockey with other nations Netherlands and Germany and even Australia mastering the game.
The recent debacle in cricket raised a furore in the parliament which even Farmers suicide or bad infrastructure could not raise.

The daily grind

Back in India after a very good first trip to the USA, I find myself settling down cozily in the daily grind that is life, so much so that a post to this blog requires some stimulation or rather inspiration.

Finally I dragged myself from the run of the mill (which will exist anyway) to just write a post which may seem like unorganized and written at the spur of the moment.

Now what do I write, the much delayed Chicago and Niagara tour posts, current affairs with links pointing to the web, personal happenings -which is the never ending loop--family-office-family and nothing more, or something spontaneous which would be a mixture of everything above.
Yes, it has to be spontaneous. So here goes.

Reading a friend, Sanjeev's blog I came to know of 100words.net which coaxes you to write about something in not more than hundred words everyday. It is difficult to put your thoughts through in just 100 words but it is worth giving a try maybe I can manage a shade above 100 words, maybe I can try to write about my Chicago or Niagara trip in 100 words.

It was my first visit abroad and I found the United States to be really neat and clean with all the conveniences. I just put this at the back of my mind as I found that the Indianness with all its religious and cultural fervour was absent. My colleagues working in the USA have kids born in the USA and although they understand their mother tongue they reply or talk in American English. The real difference was felt when I returned back to India and was towing my baggage while exiting the airport, I felt a trickle on my temple, it was a drop of sweat (which leaks out of your pores just like that without any effort-in India) and I realized that I had landed in India.
I had not sweat for a whole month!!!
After 2 days in India and travelling for daily chores within Mumbai I found my own country to be hot and dirty and it was as if on my first trip abroad I had tasted first blood.

I went to Pune the next weekend. Pune has had a soft corner in my mind mainly because it is an IT destination and it has a very good climate. This visit proved to me that the craters on the moon were no different from the roads in Pune. A main thoroughfare like Karve road was like riding a boat (maybe the boat in the rough seas was nuch smoother). I kept wondering how it became an IT destination. The climate and the laid back lifestyle is still a plus factor.

Amidst writing this blog I almost forgot that my other blog remains unupdated for a long time and I need to update it.
Also need to mention that I am the proud owner of a Canon A630 and a Sony Ericsson K750i

Last 2 days in Dayton

It is 10/28 and 12.00noon here in Dayton. I am going back to India tom
These are the last 2 days of my stay in Dayton. Guess what i just took a kishore kumar cd from a friend, thought I would listen to it as I had a day free as it was weekend and I started to this song from Aap ki kasam
Zindagi ke safar me guzar jate hai jo makam woh phir nahi aate..... woh phir nahi aate"
Is it pure coincidence, that I started to listen to this song at this time when I am leaving back for India?. I do not know but the opening music makes my mind go into a trance and maybe hallucinate, feels weird, eerie but soothing. Only the opening lines have some relevance to my situation here not the full song. I kept on listening to this number again and again thru the night. Any way its Kishore Kumar and its a great number.
Going home, Going home, Really long to meet Mrudula and Anish. Play with Anish and talk to him..................Going home,Going home........................
Reminds me also of the Simon and Garfunkel number "Homeward Bound"

Freezing cold-Dozing off

I have not updated for the last 15 days. I am still in the USA and it's been very cold here in Dayton. I decide to update my blog and really doze off in few minutes and really dont want to get off the bed.
There is lots to write about My Chicago trip, My Buffalo/Niagara trip and meeting old friends.
Will do it sooner or later I hope.
Till then those of you who really follow this blog( I hope someone does!!!:)) hold on....

Dayton update-upto Day 8

It is cold here in Dayton and there is a freeze watch for Thursday night going upto Friday morning. Now what is a freeze watch. According to Weather.com
A FREEZE WATCH MEANS TEMPERATURES AT OR BELOW 32 DEGREES FAHRENHEIT ARE IMMINENT OR HIGHLY LIKELY IN AND CLOSE TO THE WATCH AREA.
This means temperatures could dip below 0 degrees celsius. Fortunately or unfortunately maybe i could see some snow.
What have i been doing all these days in America?
I have been visiting various places of shopping interest during the last few days and climate has been good. I have made it a point not to eat at the same place and try out a different places. Surely there are many more eating joints and restaurants than my number of days stay(27).
I have tried Arby's, McD(thats McDonalds), Chipotle(Mexican), Gyros(Greek/Mediterannean), Bahn Mai(thai), PF Chang(Chinese-Chinese not Indian-Chinese), Tacho bell, Subby's, Donatos pizza, and Amar India(Indian)
I ate subs(sandwiches),french fries,vegeterian pita, Ragin cajun chicken, Spicy chicken burrito,
Dang Dang noodles with chicken,salsa,etc.....................
I am guzzling lots of soft drinks -more that what I drink in a year in India.
It seems Americans have more ice cold drinks as it gets cooler and they dont drink tea and/or coffee. Coffee yes but it is black and bitter with little milk and sugar.

I visited the Dayton Mall which is the reason why Dayton exists at the first place as told to me by few people. This is a huge mall with loads and loads of shops for clothing and womens accessories. There are gaming zones and seperate shops for games stocking games for the regular pc to the Xbox/360,PS2,nintendo,gameboy etc.
I also visited a book store of Barnes and Noble. The area of that store was as big as our office
(Cap Gemini). I wasnt interested in buying any book as all these books are available in India with the local raddi wala(used books and newspaper reseller) for dirt cheap prices and I just wanted to have a look at it. This shop allows you to read any book sitting there and having coffee from Starbucks. It has books on any subject you can think of. Do you think coin collecting seems to be a weird topic to have books on, not at all this shop has more that 30 books on that subject. Books were arranged according to subjects obviously which included literature/fiction,
mystery,science fiction, new age(included spirituality, wicca and witchcraft), cooking,sports,
biographies, gay/lesbian,sexuality, crosswords/puzzles, references and on and on.
As expected in the computer section I found more Microsoft Technology books and many books for the Mac(u will not find them in India).
I was amazed with there periodicals and magazines section again divided into 12 sections (womens interest,mens interest,business,current affairs,sports,arts. etc). There must be around a 1000 magazines.
I watched 4 movies in the last few days Forrest Gump, Castaway, Red eye, The Island.
All were good movies except maybe Castaway which i felt dragged along and I myself felt like a Castaway- not on an island but in the hotel.
I have been fequently visiting sites which I would rarely visit when in India.
dealstobuy amazon, travelocity, Hbo, Google Maps, greyhound

Blogging from Dayton, Ohio USA

I am writing this from a hotel room in Dayton,Ohio in USA on a Ibm T41 on a fast wireless connection. To be precise i am staying at the Hampton Inn on Old Yankee street in Centerville, Dayton, Ohio, USA.
Landed here on Oct 3 2006 @8.oopm.
First impressions-Very neat and clean, everything automated and online, Americans live life to the fullest with all the conveniences.
Dayton is very small and does not have a public transport system and you need to have a car to go anywhere and everywhere. That is a disadvantage for me and have to depend on someone always.
The hotel room is spacious unlike what u find in India. All toilets have hot and cold water with one system of taps (faucet as they call it in USA) everywhere. It is fully equipped big bed which can easily accomodate 3, 29 inch TV sets a iron and iron table a coffee maker with some coffee filters, fridge and microwave. Every floor has a softdrink dispenser and ice vending machine.
It is cold here as compared to Mumbai and for an indian specie like me coming out of a tropical climate it is sort of bad. The temperatures have been 20-22 deg celsius max to 4-8 deg celsius min.
This is my first international trip and as usual when u travel anywhere u forget something.
Yes I forgot to pack some books which i intended to read here and have to rely on my laptop and a cd which I burned with my online book collection.
Lets see if i can buy some here.
Now I have some time here so will try to hone my skills further.
I have been eating variety food for the last few days
Pizzas,McChicken,Veg Sub(sub is a sandwich), Dang Dang noodles, Chicken fried rice(not the Indian one), Vegeterian Pita, Gyros(Greek), Spicy chicken Burrito(Mexican).
I flew to the USA ---Mumbai-Milan-Atlanta-Dayton
In Milan I could see a confluence of various European ethnicities. Italian, Greek,Spanish,Czech Romanian etc. There are flights to everywhere in Europe, USA and Africa.
All in all agood experience lets say.

Milk vs Cola

The Cola banning wars continue as each day some state in India gets ready to ban sale of cola.
The CSE report states that colas contain pesticide content. Why are we worried more with the cola's containing pesticide issue. Does everyone India really get potable water?. Cola does not even quench your thirst. Nimbu paani tastes even much better is really a refresher during summer.
This article in the TOI brought another point to the fore. Milk and other food vegetables contain more pesticides than in cola.
Swaminathan Iyer argues that milk and other food products which are recommended by nutritionists contain more pesticide than in cola and the as recommended are given to children who are in danger of contracting diabetes, anaemia in the future. He also points out that
" Humans are the only species to drink milk after being weaned from the breast. How do they achieve this feat? By drinking the milk of other creatures, something no other species does. Not surprisingly, drinking alien milk produces allergies and a host of other health problems."
I agree to this but India has an ancient connection with milk. Mothers have always coaxed children to drink milk due to its nutritional content.
Can milk be banned and can we resort to drink cola instead of milk?
Can the god drink cola instead of milk?
This will not happen atleast in the near future. Till then I will have my cola mixed with my favorite drink and hot milk with horlicks or drinking chocolate tastes yummy.

Seven point something(7.)

Recently finished "Five point someone" by Chetan Bhagat. I would rate it at 7.1/2/3 hence the title of this post. I found the book a good read and as it is by an Indian author and I could easily relate to the story although I am no IITian. Also it is the first book I have read by an Indian Author as far as I can remember.
The next book on the block is "The Search" about Google. The are many books though (7 to be exact) -non techie i.e fiction and biographical lying in my house to be devoured when I get time.
I found these Amazon reviews for 5.someone where the book is ranked 1,007,629 in sales as of today.
Mediocre, like a hindi potboiler,abysmal
Interesting,Fun to read (agree with these).
The writing is surely school story book style but that is why it is readable and yes there is no backtracking(going back several pages while reading a book and tracing a character or event who has been sidetracked in the plot/story-I might have coined the term myself). Backtracking has some other connotations also.
I havent read any other Indian authors and surely need to try some others like Vikram Seth/Chandra,R.K.Narayan....etc
I found this link through the kitabkhana blog which mentions a book reading and signing event by Dr. Manjiri Prabhu who has written 2 books named
The Cosmic Clues and The Astral Alibi. The books are unique in the sense that "Scientific Indian Vedic Astrology" is coupled with investigative techniques in the stories.
Should be a good read I believe

Wikimapia

Just marked my building on wikimapia a tool like google earth but was a wee bit faster.
It has some limited tools for magnification etc

Bad month July

Well July it seems is a bad month for Mumbai. Last year it was the havoc caused by 5-6 hrs of rains and this year also it rained for 5 continuous days evoking the memories of 26/7/05-cloudburst.
Then came the desecration of a politico's wife statue and a bandh call for some hours. Luckily it was a Sunday.
Then the deadly 8 bomb blasts in the local trains on the Western Railway routes.
Local trains are the lifeline of Mumbai and are also an easy target.
I completed 1 year at my current job.

Waiting for rains and a new job

Rains have not yet started. Rains came early this year i.e. on 30/5/06 and there was rain in the evening for 2 days and then its a dry spell. It is hot and humid. I have to search for a new job where i can get maximum exposure to oracle apps

Happenings-first 3 months of 2006

Updating my blog after a long time. Did not find time (an excuse) or rather did not have anything to write about that would interest anyone.
On 14/2/06 finally I received my passport. This is the major event upto today. My brother is getting married on 26/3/06 and hence major part of these 3 months have been spent in preparations and gearing up for the same. Attending functions,purchasing etc,etc...........
I have bought lot of books recently especially fiction and have started reading it. The progress is a bit slow but atleast the interest has developed in fiction.
I also decide not to buy any further books till the time I complete reading atleast 2 books bought earlier whether techinical or fiction, but this seems impossible. Whenever I see a book which is a recommended read I buy it outright never thinking of my earlier resolution.
The next few days starting from 23/3/06 to 28/3/06 I may not have access to a computer.
The current job does not have anymore implementations which I want to do and as such I have to rethink and decide for a change.
The stock markets are booming and little bit patience in holding to stocks would have reaped huge profits. But as usual when there is considerable rise and I have some notional profit I lose my patience to hold and sell the stock and thereafter the stock rises even more. Now I am stocked up with stocks whose prices have reduced and my loss would be upto Rs.5000/-.
Need to do some fundamental analysis and invest in stocks with good potential for appreciation within 6 months.

Reflections -2005

This is the first post for 2006. Happy New Year!!!
It is just a synopsis of the year gone by and to do things for 2006
2005-A synopsis(personally)
All in all a good year.

• A job and also career change is the major event. Its almost 6 months that I am working as a Oracle Apps Functional Consultant and of course am enjoying it.
• Applied for a passport (after many days of just thinking to do it) a direct result of the change in job, although havent received it yet and hopefully will receive it in 2006.
• Travelled more than in 2004 officially as well as personally (Bglore,Nagpur,Raipur,Ganpatipule)
• Oracle, Oracle and only Oracle that is what I am doing for the last 5 months.
• Started reading and developing interest for fiction/non-fiction and sci-fi which was something different form the usual computer books that I have been accumulating and partly reading for the last 6 years.
• Spent Rs.4000/-approx on computer books only during the year mostly new. Havent read a single book fully.
• Blogged reasonably frequently. Did not let my blog die.
• Opened a gmail account and also a del.icio.us account and now cannot even work without del.icio.us.

2006-To do

• Renovate house
• Open a bank account and make investments in my sons name
• Complete lot of personal work (filing returns,personal investments,etc)
• Concentrate on one programming language and learn it for the whole year.
• Do some worthy course (OCA/OCP/ISA/CISA)
• Read as many non-techie books as possible
• Buy a new house(at least start the process)
• Buy and digital camera,new mobile,DVD player)
• Try to make full use of both the pcs (old pc is lying idle accumulating dust)
• Reduce my tummy and become fit, maybe join the Gym, do yoga etc
• learn to Meditate
• Keep accumulating and learning Oracle Applications.
• apply passports for spouse and son.

Well these are some of the to do's which I can remember now.
Cheers and starting the new year with a happy note.
-:)

• 
  

Visit to Raipur and Bhilai

I visited Raipur and Bhilai from 24/11/05 to 28/11/05. The idea was to attend a wedding of Mrudulas cousin and also in turn get the chance to visit a new place. Otherwise we would never have planned to visit these places.
Started from Mumbai at 20.35 by boarding the Samrasta Express at Kurla terminus.
We were 6 (3 of us and my sister in laws family). It was Anish's first long distance train journey.
Earlier whenever we have travelled long distance it was in a Sumo.
As expected Anish troubled us a lot. We reached Raipur on 24/11/05 at 16. Myself,Mrudula and Anish stayed in Hotel J.K. Raj. The hotel was very good for the price we paid.
There was the wedding reception on the same day(24/11) and we attended it. We reached for the next days wedding at 11.30am and stayed in the hall upto 20.30pm all tired especially Anish.
Next days plan was to reach Bhilai which is just 30-40Km from Raipur by 12.00pm, but we got delayed due to the post wedding ceremonies and also delay in getting transport.
Raipur the way I saw it is a quiet but dusty place. Surprisingly the 2 days we stayed in Raipur it was not cold and felt almost like Mumbai, maybe a shade cooler. We had expected bitter cold with temperatures below 14 degrees.
Bhilai is quaint little town and much cleaner and well planned than Raipur maybe due to the influence of the Bhilai Steel Plant. I was also very cold with climate remaining cool throughou the day.
The relatives whom we visited in Bhilai had a well furnished bungalow very much like the ones they show in TV serials and hindi movies. We reached there house on 26/11/05 at 14.00pm.
I had to go to the railway station to cancell my tickets for 28/11 as I was supposed to return 1 day earlier. Mrudula and others told me to stay on but I told them that it was crucial for me to reach Office on 28/11(Monday). I had to board the train at 11.40am from Raipur and would have to leave home at least by 10.15am. So there was not enough time to stay in this beautiful house. I offered to change my plans by cancelling all tickets and booking a ticket from Durg to Nagpur by bus and Nagpur to Mumbai by flight. Everyone agreed and I reached Chembur at 11.00am on 28/11/05. I travelled by Alliance Air. I landed at Nagpur at 4.30am and it was very very cold. I spent 3 hours at the airport.
Mrudula and Anish came back on the next day morning and both fell ill.
I am not getting much time to pursue my interests.

Book mania

One fine day (precisely 4 days before writing this) I got suddenly interested in reading fiction/non-fiction books rather than the usual computer stuff which I am more interested nowadays.
This interest was aroused when going through the books in the office library which although predominantly is stacked up with techno software books also has some management/leadership stuff. I was with a colleague who is exactly opposite and is only interested in general books (more of non-fiction). I am a good reader of books and have read many fiction books in my college days.
To list-Agatha Christie, Sidney Sheldon, Frederick Forsyth,Robert Ludlum,Jeffery Archer, Arthur Hailey etc... This list also included some stray authors of whom I have read only 1/2 books.
This is all total fiction. This was during 1985-91 my college days. Slowly lack of time and also loss of interest took its toll and I did not read much fiction from 92-present. Infact I shunned biographies/autobiographies/management etc. My interest was in software from 99. I have a good collection of some 45-50 books(I havent counted) on software and computers.

These days it is possible to get a book from the local bookseller(raddi) for Rs.150-200/-. This is the deposit and you get back Rs.120-180 on return. The return has no time limit. I have already read "Da Vinci Code", "Are you afraid of the dark", 2 popular novels through the above method. There was some little interest which had already aroused but it was just a spark and 4 days back it turned into fire.
Now the question was which are the really good books which should be read. I vaguely remembered that I had visited a site called pagalguy a premier MBA resource site. I had come across the url in the newspaper when the CAT results were leaked. It was a good site and I found a link on quizzing very interesting. I decided to visit this same site and find whether they have something realted to books. Yes, my hunch was correct I found a long discussion on books recommendations. It runs into 75 pages and I have gone through only 30 of them. I also started making a list of the books recommended even though I had not heard of the title nor the author.
From the 30 pages I read the following can be summarized

Ayn Rand-Fountainhead,Atlas Shrugged------------------Highly recommended read
also rated high by everyone-I had read Ayn Rand in college and everything went above my head as I found it boring. I read Anthem, We the living etc. Should try again especially Fountainhead
John Grisham-Partner,Juror etc--------------------------Highly recommended read
but many people complained about his latest novels being boring.
Akio Morita-Made in Japan-------------------------------Recommended
Paolo Coelho-The Alchemist,Veronika dies...--------------Recommended. I just Alchemist today and found it boring. The initial part was good then it really needed my will to finish the book.
Catch-22-------------------------------------------------Recommended
Sidney Sheldon-------------------------------------------Good read but new titles have lost the old charm

Above mentioned summary is solely of the pagalguy list posters.
I will refine it yet further as i go through other pages.
I read The Alchemist in the last 4 days when the book mania caught me.
Lets see now much I am able to read

Harrowing experience obtaining a passport

Finally I applied for a passport. This should have been done a lot earlier but I was lazy enough not to even think about it. I should have though "I am a professional and would need a passport sometime in my life"
The rules in India for obtaining a passport seem to be evolving but at a snails pace. Obtaining a passport being a prerogative of the government it runs according to the whims and fancies of the babus at the helm.There seem to be different rules at different places and nobody is well versed with these.India is a global economy or rather is fast becoming a globalised economy but the bureaucracy still persists. Yes, I have seen some changes in this bureaucratic state of affairs which is a whiff of fresh air,but these changes are really to a certain part of the monolith and it appears spreading in the govt wee bit slowly. I am not aware what procedure is followed for obtaining a passport in other countries but it should be somewhat similar less the bureaucracy.
So why is obtaining a passport so difficult. Here is an account of the same which includes my own application for a pasport (still waiting as of this writing).

First stand in a long queue and apply for the passport. This is just the first step. You are given a date on which you are required to submit/verify the originals. There is only one office where all the applications for Mumbai are accepted. Considering Mumbai is the financial capital there should be multiple cells for passport clearances. Here your graduation counts and not your professional degrees. I am a CA myself and this has no worth in the passport application.
Then comes the Police verification.

Firstly keep in your mind that you are a fraud/criminal. Yes this is the way the Police looks at you even though you may be the most honest citizen of India. So before going for the Police verification consider yourself as the most dreaded criminal or fraud and then go to the Police station. (Agreed the Police are doing their duty and they have every right to suspect you, but you could suspect one and still be helpful enough and not arrogant)

The trouble for me started here. A hawaldar came to my house verified my ration card/birth certificate and purposefully found some error on my ration card (which is not an error at all)
after almost 15 minutes he gave me a letter which stated that I was to report to the police station on 25/9/05 a Sunday. This document is barely readable. In this document is mentioned the timings when police verification is carried out. In this also it is mentioned that Monday is a holiday for passport police verification. This is not readable at all. I was happy till this moment. I could not make it to the Police station on Sunday and so I went on monday where I was told that it was closed on Monday and that my application was sent back as I had not reported on Sunday.

This was the most frustrating moment I had faced in my life. This is totally unacceptable. It is always possible that due to unavoidable circumstances one may not report for verification and a period of 3-4 days grace should be given. This is mentioned on the unreadable document given to me but this rule is not followed due to increasing volume of work.
Now I have to apply again and the whole thing will take another month. I have reapplied again on 11/10 and am still waiting for a call from the police station. Wonder of wonders you do not get an acknowledgement for the reapplication so I do not have any proof.
Another wonder if any documents are misplaced by passport office they are not at fault you are the one who are unlucky and at fault as you want to travel abroad

One really good experience I had was with the Police helpline. Well, i could not imagine such a service can exist in this bureaucratic jungle. They answered all my queries and that too in Marathi? Great stuff Police

One thing I was surprised was that every person (friend/relative etc) whom I inquired with about the passport process and what had happened with me told me a different story. So the rules are as per the whims and fancies of each police station at each locality. I stay in a suburb in Mumbai. In my locality it takes at least 35-40min to for a police verification as they agin check your originals.
Also there is another rule that you have to sign before the saaheb i.e the inspector. So if the saaheb is not there it is further delayed.

Why do we need such a cumbersome and lengthy process.
Some suggestions.

1. Establish a set of standard rules and guidelines to be followed by each one of the persons involved in the passport application process. In framing these take help of experts.
2. Reduce the amount of paperwork involved.
3. Set timeframes for completion of each process.
4. Establish independent cells preferably manned by Police at various locations in the suburbs to ease the rush
5. Ensure transperancy of the full passport issuing process.
6. Establish set rules and regulations to be followed for non availability of documents to be submitted.
   

With the above in place I would not mind if my passport got delayed and I am given reasons for the delay.
Maybe I will get the passport in 2006 or never at all...................
Maybe someday somebody will read this and change will take place..........

Maybe, Maybe ...................................................................................

Still more rains

After the down pour on 26/7/05 it has been raining off and on and sometimes heavily enough to bring back the memories of 26/7/05.
Life has become a little better than what it was earlier, as I am getting some time to meet my personal and family obligations.
I have started making a list of work to be done on Monday for the week. I could achieve atleast 50% of what I had listed. From this week I have decided that 1/2hr of exercise to reduce my tummy and 1/2hr of pooja would be a standard activity daily. I have to arrange all other activities keeping in mind these 2.