Hear n’ There

Shall be leaving India tomorrow night for Dubai where I shall be studying engineering at BITS, Pilani- Dubai Campus (BPDC). So I am in full nostalgic gear. I have lived in Delhi for the last two and the half years, it was memorable to say the least. Have learnt a lot all this while.

In short it is the beginning of another beginning. It is going to be a different experience; a new country, new people, away from the security and the cocoon which always protected me. Presently going through feelings of insecurity, opportunity and hope. Hell, I want to do well. The position I am now in is something I am happy to be in, yet it is not something I wanted to be in. This in itself deserves another post. Time to do well. Time to do so, before time gets up.

Thanks to all those who have been with me all this while, supported me in any form. Will miss ya. These few words do no justice to any of them. They shall keep being mentioned in future posts, for the experiences are hard to forget. Keep in touch. It was nice. Nostalgic. Time to cheer up a bit. Nitwit! Oddment! Blubber! Tweak!

PS: Blogging for the next few days may be erratic or completely absent. Hope you understand why.Will update blog as soon as I get hands on a computer.

I had made it a point to not post forwards of any kind on my blog, at the time of its not-so-distant inception. But this is one which does deserve attention.My apologies if you have already received a similar forward in your inbox.

I had received this photo with a description, which I later checked on the internet and found out to be true. The following photo was taken by Kevin Carter, a South African photo-journalist who won the ‘Pulitzer prize for Feature Photography’, for this photograph in 1994. The Photo was taken in Sudan when it was facing a rebel-movement and a famine.

The sound of soft, high-pitched whimpering near the village of Ayod attracted Carter to a young emaciated Sudanese toddler. The girl had stopped to rest while struggling to a United-Nations feeding center, wherein a seemingly well-fed vulture had landed nearby. He said that he waited about 20 minutes, hoping that the vulture would spread its wings. It didn’t. Carter snapped the haunting photograph and chased the vulture away.The photo was published in The New York Times, and a lot of interest was generated. The fate of the girl was unknown.

……and I sit in an air-conditoned room, cribbing relentlessly that I want another iPod after I broke the first one……

Tearless crying, Mirthless Laughter
Ignorant bliss, All to ponder.

Inaudible shouts, Loud whispers
Thinking anew, Nascent views.

Wired Fences, High jump
Asking Oasis, Unending run.

Castigated Self, Unbounded limits
Climbing walls, Aroused within.

Engulfing misery, Surrounding sorrow
Depressing Past, Promising tomorrow.

Infinite wants, Definite needs
Asking attendance, Demanding heed.

Burgeoning burdens, Stinging expectations
Teasing temptations distracting directions.

Relentless taunts, Emotionless support
Silent crucifixion, Need ropes.

Unknown acquaintances, Known foes
Tidying mess, Long to go.

Questionable answers, Unanswered questions
Seeking sense, Any suggestions?

Got my new celphone a few days back. Nokia N-71 that is. Awesome, I say. The previous post was an awfully long one, and am not going to bother you or myself with reviews. You can read how good the phone is here. And you can read how the phone actually is here.

The only thing presently which I am uncomfortable with, is that the weight and the geometry of the flip phone makes it a bit difficult to write messages, especialy if one is writing with one hand. This makes it difficult to message in situations like while one is in class, or pretending that one is sleeping. Last month, I exhausted my quota of 1500 sms in 12 days. Now I hope you understand why I am so concerned about this. Otherwise, I am in love with it.Demonstrated by the fact that I have only managed to drop it once in three days; my poor old Nokia 6630 (Got it the first day it was launched in India) in comparison liked to play more with the laws of gravity, and used to suffer the same fate at least thrice a day. Improvement, heh? Dad, has also sworn not to buy me another phone in the near future. Considering the number of times he has done that and yet given me a phone, I am not going to test my luck or his patience again. Or so I hope. Gravity-gods, have mercy on me. No, more so on the phone.

On a different note, the only thing other than constantly telling my parents how pathetic condition my phone is in, and that everyone will be getting a new phone in college; was to promise that I will get my hair cut. Big deal, I would even swap my hair with Rakesh Roshan’s wig for a few weeks for this. But I wonder what the record for the costliest haircut in human history is. Perhaps my dad now knows. I am not very evil . Am I? *Evil Grin*

Yesterday, my country, India celebrated its fifty-ninth year of independence. I didn’t remember that number, a radio-jockey on AIR mentioned that on Sunday, worth listening were his attempts at striking a conversation with the callers; who were clearly more interested in telling this guy how nice his voice was than what they felt about the fifty ninth independence day. Mind you it was an English show, so it is not uneducated and seemingly less modern we are talking about, but the ones who fluently speak English.

Though these national days are events of reflection; people expressing love for their country and going ga-ga over its growth rate; while others merely point to the economic, social, political fracas this country is embroiled in. Or to study the significance of independence. This post does not discuss this, for they have been much thoroughly argued, debated and inspected; by more eloquent and coherent writers. (more…)

As most of the people who have themselves applied for a new passport during rush season would testify, getting a passport is a real pain in you-know-where.I got my passport a couple of months back under the Tatkal scheme. Let me sum up the experience, believe me you are better off reading it than experiencing it.

(1) You reach Bhikaji Cama Place in Delhi.Greeted by jumbled chaos of cars and a diverse crowd.From the communicator wielding ones to those who dream of making it big in Kanaadaa one day.

(2) Soon you will be enquired upon by tens of touts/agents/dalals. Telling you how quickly and easily they can get you a passport. They are quite right, but they charge a fee of course. Somewhere on the outside of the Office Building a black coloured board with white paint reads something like this- “There is no use of touts in this office. Kindly avoid them”. Just the same as saying that Indian babus don’t accept bribes.

(2) Buy the passport form, either from the back of the Passport Office , or from one of the above mentioned for a nominal extra fee.

(3) The passport forms are surprisingly easy to fill thanks to detailed instructions,yet for the odd query there is no one to help, though you may try the agents and get some information for free if you sort of convince then that you are sincerely interested in being their client.

(4) Get all sorts of documents. Get them photocopied then attested. Considering the number of documents one is asked, I was surprised they didn’t ask for an attested certificate on stamp paper from a legal notary confirming my shoe-size.

(5) Then get the form stamped with ‘tickets’ which mention a queue number for inside the office after standing in a queue outside the office for this.

(6) Simply get an agent, pay the money and jump to step number 12 or keep reading.

(7) Stand in the queue inside the Passport building, only one person is allowed per person. I strongly recommend getting someone along too, it is not hard to fool the guard. I recommend this as while crawling along the queue, you may find even the activity of watching your nails grow to be interesting. Also the queues are typical of most Indian queues, meaning that the ticket-number allotted to you is completely useless. A companion further ensures your safety when fighting for positions in the lines.

(8 )Wait.

(9) Wait.

(10)Wait.

(11) Reach the Passport Officer’s room, where he tells you that so and so document is missing or so and so thing is wrong. Even though you are sure that they were never mentioned in the forms. Repeat steps 5-10.The number of times you do so depends on your luck (or rather the lack of it), perhaps also on the mood of the Passport officer’s wife before he left for office in the morning. It is worth noting that if once you are told to get some document back, you should count your whole day wasted as they do not let you in after a specified time, which is quite early (I am not sure, but I think it is about 1:30 pm.)

A person who was almost dancing after he got his passport approved, told me that he was into this thing since the last three weeks. For the first time in my life I went through two different emotions of jealousy and sympathy simultaneously.Though, I am not sure it was wholly him to which my feelings of sympathy were attributed to.

(12) Finally you do get everything approved and pay at the deposit counter.This queue is relatively smaller as most of the applicants are still going through steps 6-11.

(13) You are given a date mentioning when you will be posted the passport, or to receive it in person. If you have directly come from step 6 you will probably be asked very courteously if he could be of any further help, after all the agent is just a broker, the officers are the ones who squeeze in most of the dough. Someone please advise him to taste Cyanide.I’ll give you most of the things I posses,the passport not being one of them though. Meanwhile the the ones who have been following all the above mentioned steps, plot how to kill the officers.Can’t blame the poor applicant, when the choice while standing in the lines is between watching your nails grow and the thought of sweet vengeance. Whether you want to subsequently roast him and then eat or grind him and feed the vultures, is a matter of personal taste. But I recommend to wait, it ain’t finished yet.

(14) You receive the passport. Only to realise that some or the other information is wrongly printed. If lucky it may be a very small mistake, else you may find that your mother and father share the same name.Go through steps similar to 5-13 again.

(15) Now with everything in order, you set out to murder the passport authorities. Sadly to reach them you need to go through steps 1-11 again, and quite understandably one prefers to stay at home.

Finally I do have a blog of mine. Finally.

This being my first post on the blogosphere will just be that, a first post.So if you are looking for something less mundane to read ,kindly visit my blog after sometime.I promise better.

In case you wish to know anything, refer to the About section or you may post so in the comments. Meanwhile, thank you all for visiting my blog and also the ones who have given permission to let me add their links on the Blogroll.

Comments shall be appreciated, as long as they do not advertise overly priced erection pills.