Bangladesh....part 1- the good part

Consulting is a strange profession - you crib about doing things- and when those things are over you like them...the last couple of projects have been different - i enjoyed doing them as well, and the last of these took me to Dhaka in Bangladesh - so it was good work plus some travel that I so wanted to do ( the other bit being Pakistan where I really want to go - to know the other people)


Well, Dhaka !! just an extension of Calcutta... is the first thing that hits you the moment u get out of the airport - same graffiti on the wall, same people, just this that the cars are very different - no yellow ambassadors :) the car for the hotel pickup was a Toyota Land cruiser!!! in fact- Dhaka is full of Japanese cars - Toyota, Honda and Mitsubishi - all large saloons- too much for a poor country :) (almost all cars are refurbished as told to me later by locals, and its a matter of pride to have a large car - and that s why smaller refurbished car has not takers, new small cars have no takers, and well no other small cars have no takers) - the government is even worse than India- politics overwhelmingly omnipresent in everything, and yet Dhaka has managed to complete feats which we have always backtracked on - Dhaka is a no polythene city - YES - it is maintained as such - and for all the crap heard in Delhi against it remains such - veggies and all stuff is given out in paper bags or nice sweet thread bags...(Too much of democracy of pittance in India - we can not even impress this upon ourself) - the other really nice thing - Dhaka has all private vehicles running on CNG- all autos, cars et all....

rumblings over the weekend

Well....some time since i actually wrote something....the passport outing did go out miserably.....some wise head in the passport office decided that a bank statement with the last entry from 22-Feb is not current enough and so needs updation.....leaving me with a couple of choices...take another appointment and get back with the documents updated, or race against time- get a entry made in the passbook within an hour....so there i was, thanks to some wonderful friends that i have, doing a round trip to Karol bagh...well over 11 km, in an auto, withdraw cash from bank, get passbook updated, and go back in time before the office closes....whew...the bad part- i was traveling in an auto after ages, and they travel like at a snail's pace, and the good part- I MANAGED TO BE BACK IN 60 minutes....despite a little help(??) from my friends.....someone named Paritosh aka PK da could throw more light on it.... OK, the weekend was like real cool....was in office on Saturday, went to Om sweets twice- somehow the masala dosa was better than the signature matar kulcha and cholle bhature , and then watched multiple movies back to back...was to get some cash deposited to my PPF account for the current financial year, but had to drop the idea, so there's more work already lined up for next year...getting my PPF account normalised. Well, here's my take on the movies for the weekend.. 1. Gulaal - Great movie, amazing songs and most amazing lyrics...the movie somehow looked similar to Omkara....both movies were about deceiptful women, and good women, deceitful men, student and larger politics, and semi urban backgrounds...loads of undercurrents and khadi boli.....i kinda liked the girl who played Kiran in the movie, not sure who was the actress.....she was good as the cool seductress, real devilish eye manouvres, all in all a good and intense watch, a good film from Anurag Kashyap after a not so good Dev-D 2. Aloo Chaat - Again a decently light watchable movie, only a one time movie, too many loose ends, but a feel good sort of movie 3. Finding Nemo - Well, watched it for the zillionth time, somehow the movie always makes me feel good, and makes me nostalgic about a big ocean and friends who help you cross it when it matters the most....the forgetful dorry and then nostalgia led me to finding songs, there's this album from Vangelis called Conquest of paradise(well its and OST for the movie by the same name), and it is just amazing...the title track somehow makes me feel all charged up, and there's this piece, entering twin falls by Nicholas Gunn.....no matter how low you may be feeling, these songs could life your spirits....entering twin falls again comes from a dear friend who (rightly) pointed out the mood swings within the song.....would request everyone who comes to this blog to try and listen to these tracks... the week ahead promises to be hectic, and i m not used to working hard anymore.....so not sure when i come back to the blog

The fear for Passport

start of another new week....had a lazy weekend, in fact so much so that did not even move out of home even once on sunday :) vaise going by the weekend there is not much to work for over the week either:) Tomorrow, i m supposed to apply for the reissue of the passport....just another reminder that i have been out of college for 10 years....!! and this is the time when you really start thinking about the indian beaurocracy.....i m trying to check and recheck if there are any additional documents that I should carry just so that i am able to present them, in case the clerk at the desk asks for it out of his whims and fancies....the next on the agenda is police verifcation, and i m wondering if someone will be home when this person comes calling (though i feel that since my address has nt changed over the last 10 years, and my passport still has a validity of 6 months in there- there should not be a police verification, but who knows...) and lastly who is going to collect the speed post when the passport finally comes in....there should be an option to collect the passport from the office itself(wishful thinking!!) So here we are, the way beaurocracy could hamper a smooth issue of passport....a new thing that i learnt was that ration card is not the only residence proof you could rely on....they have actually asked for a PSU bank statement(thankfully 1 of them has the residence address, every other accoutn has office address there), some bills( which are all on my mother's name), election i-card...which has the address partially incorrect....and now beat that, i am just wondering that after staying at the same place for 30 years, i have issues getting the documents right, what happens to a person who is not even staying in the same city for these many years.....quite a frightening sceanrio.... I agree that the passport is a sensitive document, and that there should a proper scrutiny for each one that is issued(keeping in mind the terrorism menace that we have), but the process hsould be a little simple...and thankfully i feel that is happening, for once rite now, i have fille dup the form and can take an appointment, a far cry from the last time when i actually was standing at passport office rite from 8 in the morning, soon people are going to get their passport within 3 days, thanks to an initiative in which PwC, my alma mater also had a role to play... anyways for now, i m dreading how would my encounter with the great indian democracy go tomorrow, will post the experience tomorrow