Aryaman applies for a passport

Aryaman is 2.5 months old and wants to take a vacation already, so I had to apply for his passport. The first challenge was taking his passport photo which meets all the requirements of the passport office. So after trying hard 2-3 times, we finally got one shot right. He looked quite surprised to see the camera.

I filled the online passport application and got an appointment for 23rd Feb, 10am. Being a weekday I had to take a day off from office and reach the Thane passport office before 9am at least. This meant leaving Pune at 6am (a tough task considering I usually wake up only by 8am), but having no choice, I managed to leave by 5:45am and drove around 130kms to Vashi, collected all the papers and headed towards the Thane passport office. I was helped by the TomTom navigator to find the directions, without which I had no idea where I had to go.

After paying toll twice, I reached the Thane passport office at around 8:50am. Since it was foolish to expect any parking space inside the passport office, I drove around it and parked my car in the adjoining lane. I reached the entrance of the passport office to find a long line of people. The line extended from the door of the office to the bus stop on the main road. I asked one person whether this is the line for passport applications and indeed it was. So I walked till the end and joined the queue. Gradually people started queuing behind me and at 9am the doors to the office opened. Apparently everyone in the line had an appointment for 10am. The time on the passport form has no meaning, you can go anytime after 10am and upto 5 days from the day of appointment given to you.

The line started moving slowly and the first step was to take a token from a counter inside the office. Within 20 mins I had my token in my hand and all I had to do now was to wait till the 112 people before me finished their passport applications. This system was better than standing for hours in the queue waiting for your turn to come. I could now atleast go and have some breakfast while my turn came. The passport office has a small cafeteria in their premises where you can have minimal fare like idly sambar, samosa and tea. I ordered myself an idly sambar and tea and took a chair in the corner. While having breakfast, I was observing the surroundings.

The passport office had arranged chairs for the people to wait while their turn came. Floor fans were present to provide some relief. The passport office has 2 sections. Counters 1,2,4,5 are for submitting the passport applications for fresh passport/renewals/corrections etc. Rest of the counters are mostly for enquiries. All the main counters have their own waiting areas inside and are air conditioned. Not bad at all. Outside where all the people wait for the turn, the place is like an old building with dust on the walls and a faint toilet stink in some areas. Dont expect the best infrastructure, but things have definitely improved a lot since the last time I was here. Just outside the passport office you will find tens of shops offering xerox, attestation, notory, online form filling services etc. This is quite useful as 90% of the times you would definitely forget some document and would require either a xerox or an affidavit. Thankfully I did not find any passport agents pestering people. The process is now pretty well laid and anyone can do it himself if he follows the instructions given on their website.

It was now 10:30am and the token display showed 32. Things were moving slowly but steadily. It was getting pretty hot in the waiting area. I was walking up and down as all the chairs were full. I must have checked my documents twice to see if everything was in order. You never know for what reason your application might get rejected. It was like waiting outside the exam hall thinking about the question paper which might come. You anticipate the worst but hope for the best. There are butterflies in your stomach and a funny feeling. I took a walk around the office to check if my car was OK. You never know when someone might just tow it away and you would waste half your day trying to get it back. Another hour passed. The token number had reached 82. I found a seat in front of the counter and decided to sit till my turn came. I double checked all the documents and originals.

The clock now showed 12pm and the counter was 102. I hoped they dont close for lunch just when my turn came. But just in about 10 mins I saw 113 flashing and quickly made my way to counter no - 5. While I was waiting to hand over my forms, the old gentleman with token 114 pushed his way in front of me in order to complete his work first. I thought of telling him to come in line, but let the thought pass. Maybe he was in a hurry. Finally I reached the window, handed over my forms and took out the originals for verification. The passport office asked a few questions, removed some unnessary forms I had attached and created a file of the remaining documents. I was asked to go to the next counter to pay the required fees. I paid Rs. 600 at the next counter and got the recipt for the same along with a file reference number which can be used for tracking the status of the application. In around 10 mins I was done and out of the office. Luckily there were no hitches and I hope the passport reaches within the promised 20 days.

Some tips for people applying for a minors passport,

1. You need to fill the application form and attach 2 personal particular forms and 2 copies of all required documents which have to be self attested. There is no need to fill two copies of the application form itself. You passports of both parents, Annexure H and the birth certificate of the child.

2. It will make things easy if the address in the birth certificate is same as the address in parents passport.

3. If the parents passports have the names of their spouses already mentioned in the passports, police verification is not required. This will speed up the process.


Update: Aryaman received his passport within the promised 3 weeks. He is now waiting to go for his first trip

Oh James, when will you ever learn

I have grown up reading Amar Chitra Katha stories, Aesops fables, Hitopadesh etc. I even had most of those comics in my collection. All stories had a moral at the end which somehow stays with you even when you have outgrown the comics. One such story I remember is about 2 monkeys fighting over a peice of meat and a cunning fox who offers to divide the meat equally between the two. Let me give you a refresher...

Two monkeys were fighting amongst themselves to divide a peice of meat into two equal parts. Along came a fox. So, He offered the monkeys to divide the meat for them and they let him do it. But, the two pieces of meat were not equal so the wise fox nibbled and nibbled to try to make them the same for each monkey. Suddenly, the meat was gone and the monkeys were left whining while the fox ran away laughing. Those monkeys had learned a lesson - Dont let others take advantage of your internal quarrels.

This was just a story, but the moral still applies to real life. If we think of Pakistan as the wily fox, there should be no prizes for guessing who the monkeys were and what the meat is. Nevertheless, lets thank the deserving people of India for everything that we have achieved so far.

Dear Politicians,
Thank you for putting Pune on the International map. We couldn't have done this without you.

Regards,
Common man

Have we learnt the lesson yet?

Mohan Kumar Vs James Cameroon

Around 1994 James Cameroon got the idea to make Avtaar, but the idea was put on hold because he had to wait until the technology necessary to create his project was advanced enough. Finally around 2007 they began filming Avtaar and after 2 long years it is now running to packed houses in theatres across the world. Sometimes I really feel these hollywood directors have no vision. How can they wait 15 yrs to make a movie and that too at a budget of over $400M. We Indians are far more futuristic when it comes to making movies. Almost 10 yrs before James Cameroon even thought of making Avtaar, an Indian director by the name of Mohan Kumar had already released his version of Avtaar.

The year was 1983 when a family social drama called Avtaar was released. The film starred Rajesh Khanna in an award winning role, Shabana Azmi and AK Hangal. Rajesh Khanna playes Avtaar Kishan who lives with his wife Radha, two sons Ramesh and Chander and servant Sevak. They lead a poor lifestyle and Rajesh Khanna toils hard in order to earn money so that their children can get good education. One day while working at the factory he meets with an accident and permanently hurts his hand which renders him helpless. They get more and more dependent on their children who are now aspiring to lead a good lifestyle and find their parents a burden on them. As fate would have it, Avtaar, his wife and servant Sevak are forced to leave the house since one of his son has transferred the house to his wife’s name without informing Avtaar. Now the homeless Avtaar Kissan and family are dependent on their servant Sevak for survival. What happens next is quite inspiring and tells us how Avtaar kishan works hard and becomes a rich man and teaches his children a lesson which they will never forget. Its a classic tale of good begets evil shown in full family drama style. Who can forget Rajesh Khanna going to his favourite pan shop and extending his hand for getting the pan. Rajesh Khanna was nominated for best actor that year which he failed to win, however the film remains a classic nevertheless. Hats off to Mohan Kumar the visionary. He didnt need technology to create the masterpeice called Avtaar.

Having seen our own original version of Avtaar, I am waiting to see what different James Cameroon has to offer. I have heard he has made some changes to the script and replaced Rajesh Khanna with some blue coloured aliens. The new movie is made in 3D so that you feel as if you are into the movie, but frankly the original Avtaar was so heart warming that you didnt need to be into the movie, the movie would get into you by the time you finished watching it. So next time you have Avtaar playing on TV, dont miss it.

On a lazy sunday...

Woke up on a lazy sunday morning. The clock struck 10am. 1/4th of my day was over without even doing anything. After performing all the early morning rites, I finally settled down on my sofa only to find out that there was no electricity and my house was running on an inverter. What a way to start. Me and my wife had plans to watch a movie on saturday, but my lazy self refused to move out of the house and so today I had to make efforts to get out of the house and entertain the wife. So we had breakfast, got ready and were ready to go out by 1pm.

While in the car, I realised that I had forgotten to check the movie schedules and had no idea whether there would be a show running. Ofcourse I never thought about the tickets as I firmly believe that when you want to see a movie with all your heart, the whole universe stands behind you to ensure that you succeed in doing so. This is a line I have been using for quite some time, but later I learnt that it has been used in a contorted fashion in one of Shahrukh khan's movies. No issues, I have used his dialogues many times too. Anyway, we reached the multiplex and I told my wife to go check if tickets are available, I will be waiting outside and wont park the car if we dont get the tickets. So I parked in front of a mechanics workshop while she went to check. Poor mechanic kept hoping there was something wrong with my car and kept looking eagerly in my direction. I could sense that, but I kept looking straight. Then I got a call. No, it wasn't the call from GOD like it happens in the movie 'Hello', but it was from my wife. She told me that for the movie 'Fashion', only the first row tockets were available, so should she take them. I'm the sort of person who can watch a movie standing if the need arises, so I told her in a most reluctant tone, that if thats all thats available, lets take it, no point going back home after coming so far. Since she had managed to get the tickets, I decided to go and park the car in the multiplex parking lot. They charged me a whopping 40 bucks, thats daylight robbery. Anyway, after parking the car, I came out and my wife told me that she had managed to get front row tickets to 'Golmaal Returns'. I couldnt believe the horror. Why 'Golmaal Returns'?? and that too front row seats? She said she got confused at the ticket window as people all around her were murmuring 'Golmaal Returns' and 'Fashion' and when the person at the counter asked her, she blurted out "Two tickets for Golmaal Returns please". Damn, I was hoping to see 'Fashion' and here I was standing with 2 tickets of 'Golmaal Returns'. I was hoping none of my friends saw me watching that movie. But I consoled myself thinking that since they were front row tickets, the hall is full, so the movie must be good. At the back of my mind, I knew the movie is crap from all the reviews I had read last week. But what about 'Fashion'? I convinced my wife that we should watch that as well and so she got back into line and bought 2 tickets for the 6:15 show. Now I was happy, we were finally on the way to doing something useful today.


We had about 45 mins before the show started. We decided to do what most people do to kill time. We walked into the mall next to the multiplex. There is a big Odyssey book store inside. We walked around in the store for 15-20 mins and then came out after buying cello tape :) Thats right, cello tape, the thin strip of sticky plastic that is used when wrapping fancy paper on gifts. I would say it was a good buy. Next is what? Here I am not referring to the samsung ad by aamir khan, but it was a self answering question which meant, what do we do for lunch? The unanimous vote was that we have one vada pav at the roadside tapri on the other side of the mall. The food there is better than the one we get inside the mall, and cheaper too. After eating we headed straight for Hall No. 5, the biggest one among the 5 screens. There was a huge crowd waiting to get in. I was just hoping the movie was half as good as I didnt want a headache before the start of the next movie. Clock struck 2:30, the gates to heaven opened and we walked in. There was no problem in finding the seats as we had the best seats of all, front row seats.


Movie started with a song. I would have sung it if there was some way to add voice to the blog, but for now please excuse me. There was one gag after another and thats all there was in the movie. I was just waiting to understand the plot or the basic premise of the movie, sadly I failed. But I must admit, there was some laughing moments and to tell the truth (I know its hard to digest), I didnt get bored. It was an average movie. I had not liked the first 'Golmaal' and I kept wondering why did this 'Golmaal Return'. Movie ended, we got out and had masala dosas for lunch. Still 40 mins to kill, so what do we do? We walk into the mall next door again. My wife is tempted to go inside the stores, but I hold her back and convince her to window shop instead. Those of you who are married, will agree with me that this is not an easy thing to do. After a short while we were back in the multiplex waiting for the gates of hall No. 3 to open. I was hoping someone wasnt keeping tabs on me. They would have found me suspicious, after all who in his sane mind watches 'Golmaal Return' and then actually returns to watch another movie. But I am a patient man. We took our seats, this time in the 7th row. This was a 3 hour movie, but I didnt mind as it was supposed to be good. The movie turned out to be good and it was paisa vasool as I would term it in my bambaiya hindi. It was 9:15pm when we came out of the multiplex.

The grand finale of the evening was still left. What about dinner? we looked at each other. We had to decide between chinese and pizza and so we decided to have a sizzler instead. Walked into Kobe Sizzlers and ordered the sizzling chicken with pepper sauce. Service was not that great and so after eating we left without tipping the sad looking waiter. Maybe he had seen 'Golmaal Returns' earlier in the day. After a 15 min drive we reached home, ready to crash into bed. It was going to be a monday morning the next day and I would actually have to go to office, and work too. I would much rather watch 'Karzzz'. Zzzzzzzzz

Put on your hiking shoes, lets go...

We kept walking. It seemed like the trail ahead had no end. Turning back was not an option. We had to keep going in order to reach anywhere near civilization. Every now and then someone cracked a joke which created ripples of laughter amongst us. Our tired legs begged us to stop for a while, but we had to keep going. It would be sunset soon and we did not want to be stuck in the middle of nowhere. Our legs were getting heavier. Then three of us stopped and sat down. They were exhausted. The rest of us kept going. After some time two more gave up and stopped to catch their breath. The two of us kept waking. After some time we couldn’t take it any more. We lied down on our backs. The sun shone on our faces. Sweat trickled down my forehead. I closed my eyes and smiled. My mind was drifting into an empty abyss…

The alarm rang sharply at 6 in the morning. I woke up and rubbed my eyes. Didn’t really feel like waking up this early on a Sunday morning. We were supposed to go hiking; our destination was Gatineau Park, a large 360 sq km camping and hiking area located in Quebec. We planned to leave home by 8 am, but as usual we got late and left by 9 am. We reached Rideau center and then decided to have breakfast before leaving (One of the best decisions that day). After having a nice cup of French vanilla and a bagel with butter, my stomach felt relieved. We packed 7 bagels for lunch. We were ready to leave. There were seven of us. We took 2 taxis and reached our destination in about 20 minutes. We were at the edge of the park near the parking lot. We walked about a kilometer to look for a trail map, which could give us directions. We finally found one and decided to take the trail leading to pink lake. It was some 7 km long.

With backpacks on our shoulder and camera in hand we started out. It was a concrete trail with dry grass and weeds on both sides. A lot of cyclists and joggers could be seen on the trail. We kept walking, cracking jokes, taking pictures and generally having fun. The trail seemed to be very long. Every now and then a cyclist would cross us or a jogger would run past us. After walking for about 2-3 km’s we reached a sign which said pink lake was 4.5 km away by the concrete trail and about 3.5 km by the forest trail. We decided to play smart and took the forest trail. The trail led us through muddy roads and fallen trees. Occasionally we came across a pond with turtles or water snakes. There was pin drop silence apart from the sound of the wood peckers. The trail didn’t seem too end. We were going up an incline and it was getting difficult. It was 2 hrs since we were walking and pink lake was nowhere in sight. We were getting frustrated. After walking another half hr we saw a parking lot in the distance. We were shocked, had we taken a wrong turn somewhere? We were supposed to reach the lake by this time. As we neared the parking lot, we spotted a huge water body glistening in the sun. We had reached pink lake at last.

Pink lake was not pink really. It inherited its name from a family who settled in the region in 1826. The lake was surrounded by steep cliffs on all sides with lots of greenery surrounding it. A hiking trail ran all the way round the lake. We didn’t have the energy to explore that. It was almost noon and we were very hungry. We found a nice spot in the shade and started eating the bagels we had carried along. We were glad we had carried enough drinking water as there wasn’t a single water fountain along the trail. We spent almost an hour near the lake. It was very quite and serene. We took a lot of pictures too. After sometime we decided to leave but couldn’t figure out the way out of the park. We didn’t have a map with us. After asking a few people we concluded that the only way out of the park was going back to the place we had started from. This meant walking back 7-8 km’s. Our legs were too tired for another long walk. But we had no choice. We kept walking for another 2 hours, but the exit was nowhere in sight. We were really exhausted by that time.

…I opened my eyes and looked around me. The other people in our group had reached near us. We got up and started walking again. We kept walking for another half hr when we spotted a lot of buildings on the horizon. We were close to the exit now. We felt rejuvenated and started walking faster. Finally after some time we reached the place we had started from. Now the question was how we get a taxi to take us to the place where we could take a bus to go home. Since there was nothing around we had to walk another 1 km on the highway to reach a food mall from where we could call a taxi. But before doing that we decided to eat something. Everyone was feeling starved. I had a juicy chicken burger with fries and a large cola. It tasted like heaven. After sometime our taxi arrived and we left for home.

This is how our hiking expedition ended. We reached home extremely tired and barely able to move. After taking a hot shower and having some food and a tablet of crocin, I slept off. Sleep came easily that day and was very sweet. I had to wake up at 6 am next morning. It was going to be a tiring Monday morning. If you have managed to read this blog till here, your effort is by no means less than my hiking experience.

The Big Fat Bollywood Wedding

*whew* It's finally over. The whole country was waiting for this wedding to happen since so many months. It must be a matter of national pride that Abhishek Bachchan decided to marry Aishwarya Rai, or maybe it was the other way round. Mark 20th April in your calenders. It's a pretty historic day. Who knows, our great Indian government might even declare a holiday on this date next year onwards. The media is celebrating, the people are celebrating and of course I am too. But not because it has happened, but because it is finally over. All websites and news channels worth their salt have been covering the wedding. All other national and international news has taken a backseat. So what if some people have been killed in Kashmir or some bus has collapsed in the river, it is more important to cover the wedding proceedings of the most eligible bachelor in town with the most beautiful woman in the world.

The actual circus was a 3 day affair which started on 18th April. They started with the traditional sangeet or music ceremony where the relatives of the couple sing and dance and make merry. I'm sure it must have been a bollywood style event. Then on the 19th they had the mehendi ceremony which I don't have much details about. Not that I care, but just for your information. and lastly on the 20th April happened the grand finale with all the circus performers gathering at Amitabh Bachchan's big bungalow where the wedding etc took place. And yes, the circus had a huge audience which consisted of the jobless Indian public and the spineless Indian media. Only some exclusive people were invited for the wedding. The wedding card was pretty fancy itself consisting of some white gold embossed stuff. I did not receive an invite so I cant give more details. Of course Amar singh was there along with a host of bollywood stars and directors. I wonder why Salman khan was not invited. He was such a good friend of Aishwariya rai. And Vivek Oberoi was nowhere to be seen too. Maybe they were busy with their shoots.

I don't blame the Indian public for taking so much interest in their wedding. After all an event like this does not happen everyday. Those people will be proud to tell their grand children that they had attended the Abhiash wedding. Well almost. So what if they were not allowed to see their favourite stars taking the saat pheras, so what if they were not allowed to be a part of the sangeet, so what if they were not invited for the reception. Some poor fellows came all the way from allahabad saying that they were going to attend the wedding of their own brother/son etc. We Indians are such emotional fools. The media did their job beautifully. They covered every aspect of the wedding, from the time aishwariya started buying her wedding clothes, their engagement, the preparation for the sangeet, the baaraat etc. They kept us up to date with who had arrived for the wedding, who was leaving and even what each guest was wearing. I came to know that everyone was in an orange turban but Anil ambani was in a red one. I wish they would cover their honeymoon with the same enthusiasm. I'm sure the whole of India will be glued to their TV sets and the TRP of the channels will hit roof top. Too bad I'm not in India. AajTak is sabse tez. who knows, the AajTak camera is already covering it live.

Now the whole country will be waiting for their child to be born. Will he look like Abhishek or Aishwariya or maybe Amitabh? Indian people just need something to keep their idle minds occupied. Now they will be looking to crown the next most eligible bachelor in town. Who can it be? Salman Khan? tushar kapoor? Anyway let then look around, I'm going to browse through the Internet for some more masala on the Abhiash wedding. I'm so excited !!!

...Aur irani chai

I was in my 12th standard then. Me and my friend took off towards Bombay Central on a weekend. Our destination was lamington road, a mecca for computer accessories in Bombay. As we alighted from the bus (Number 66) near opera house, it was nearly lunch time. We decided to have lunch and then continue. My friend recommended that we eat at an Irani cafe. Now I was really hungry and in no mood to experiment. I had never been to an Irani cafe before. But he promised me a good meal at a throwaway price. That changed my mind as I never had enough money those days. Whatever money I had saved was going to be spent on buying some computer accessories. So I agreed and started searching for one.

We found one Irani cafe located in an old building complex. Looking at the place, I had second thoughts about eating there. It looked quite ancient. Perhaps the mughals had their breakfast there. But hunger made us walk inside. Inside the ambiance was quite and serene, with people eating and generally minding their own business (A quality of Bombay). We ordered Keema pav (Minced meat with bread) as it seemed to be the cheapest and most filling lunch item we could find on the menu. Our stomachs were rumbling as we waited. But the wait was worth it. It was probably the tastiest keema pav I had ever eaten. After that we had a cup of Irani tea. It was then that I fell in love with Irani cafe's. After that day, whenever I was in town side, I would make it a point to drop in to an Irani cafe if there was one in the vicinity.

Most of these cafes are concentrated in and around Mahim, Byculla, Colaba, Dadar and Bandra and are run by Parsis. All of them have similar interiors and furniture. There will be small tables with red checked tablecloths or marble tops. The waiters will not be smartly dressed, but the service will be fast and hassle free. The food will taste almost the same everywhere. There is nothing fancy about the place, but it makes you come back again. These cafes are mostly frequented by the working class people who drop in for some quick and cheap food. Some of the popular cafes are, Kyani and Co, Cafe Mondegar, Cafe Leopold, Brittania cafe etc. As you enter the cafe, the smell of fresh baked mawa cakes and other baked products will greet you. Another hot selling item is Bun-Maska (bread-butter) and Chai.

These cafes were frequented by film stars many years ago. Many of them are over a century old. These days they are losing their charm in front of the more westernized and modern eateries. The newer generation probably don't even know of their existance. If things continue this way, a part of Bombay's culture and heritage will slowly be lost in time. I however hold fond memories of the place.