Its so cold!!

Its so cold all the time. I don't know if the natural temperature drop is being made worse by my recent weight loss (bye bye warming fat) and blood loss due to various medical and surgical procedures. Or maybe I'm just getting old...ugh! Though primarily, it may be because I'm not doing anything except vegging inside the house (necessary for now as I just had surgery last Saturday). Whatever be the reason...its freezing!

The strange thing is I used to like winter. I liked the crisp winds, the warmth of the sun on winter afternoons and cuddling up under quilts at night. No more...all that is still there....but I just can't seem to get warm anymore. My feet are always freezing, the heaters don't seem to work. I'm just cold cold cold all the time. God I can't wait for summer!!

Resolutions for 2010

2009 was a bad year for me, health-wise, and I spent most of it in hospitals or bed rest. But I have high hopes from 2010. Since I will be recovering from my run of bad medical luck, I've decided to take 2010 really really easy. Focus areas:

Body: Maintain weight, try and tone up muscles

- Diet: Fat restricted diet, necessitated by gall bladder removal, and anyway good for me

- Exercise: Walk my dog Nero every evening. Restart 30-min stretching regime

- Sleep: Correct sleeping pattern and duration

Mind:

- New Skill: Learning to play the keyboard and read music

- Travel: Broaden my mind! At least one holiday to foreign lands

Emotion:

- Stop being a recluse. Go out more.

And above all, start living and enjoying life, instead of moping in hiding about all the things that have been going wrong with me.

Twilight Series and Romance

Recently, I picked up the Twilight Series by Stephanie Meyer. And suddenly, I'm a hooked rabid fan! Its not like I haven't read paranormal romances before. So I'm wondering what it is about this series that won't stop enthralling me! I bought, read and re-read all the books. I've seen both the movies. I trawl the internet regularly looking for stuff about it. I'm both shocked and fascinated by my own obsession.

This happens to me sometimes. I see or read something and get caught up and somewhat obsessed. But it normally runs out it course and I move to the next thing. But the Twilight saga refuses to diminish in fascination!

I guess its the age old good-girl reforms bad-boy alpha-male rake. Add to that high-school, the time of endless possibilities, straddling adulthood and innocence, when emotions seem so more more intense and everything so much more exciting. Its so easy to escape into that world of being cool, being newly in love and the first tastes of independence.

I love the character of Edward Cullen, his intensity, his passion, and his...well...superiority in most things. And I wondered what draws me to him. In real life, I love my hubby, I hate being without him...ten years and nothing has taken away the rightness of being together. Edward is like the embodiment of all fantasies...light and dark at the same time. I've read so many romance novels...but all the heroes remain in fantasy. Edward's character, is a rare case, of wanting me to break out of fantasy...and actually be that girl in his school.

And then, I thought back to my first days with my now hubby...and I saw what appealed. The desperation of forbidden love, the wonder of finding mr right, the intensity and the passion...not a slow build..but a high that refuses to diminish. Edward takes me back to that time. Not that we love each other less today, but this is a more mature love. Twilight gives me a conduit to go back in time and relive the first blush of a lifetime of love. A time when we didn't take our love for granted and it was more like a live grenade than a comfortable blanket.

You can't live with live grenades...but they sure light up your life! And then you can cuddle up into your comfortable blanket, and dream.

I don't think my hubby gets it...maybe its just a female thing. But he bought me all the books, and took me to all the movies (without cringing!). He got me the music and smuggled in a rose when I was in hospital last week. He will always be my Edward Cullen...though Rpattz sure is more eye candy! :)

The Passport arrives...

2.5 months after filing my application, my passport has finally arrived!! Its new, shiny, and my photo still looks distorted thanks to some fancy plasticky thing on it! But I got it! Finally, I have an official document proving my identity AND my proof of residence. Ah joy! I exist...I am...I'm government approved!

Now I have this really really strong wish to put it to use and go somewhere nice. Which sadly won't happen anytime soon it seems. Still ... I got my passport!!!! :) :) :) 

Meeting with Eliyahu M. Goldratt

Eliyahu M. Goldratt, the author of the book ‘Goal’ and a series of bestsellers, was in town recently at a local Book store. Our meeting, on Feb 22, was completely serendipitous!!

We had been shopping for clothes for our vacation. Hubby had done his shopping the previous weekend and this was my turn. After our last stop (where I didn’t find anything, and hubby picked up some stuff…grr), I was completely frustrated with the futility of looking for beachwear, and other summery stuff in my size, and finding only winter-wear and clothes for skinny people. I was done shopping, and wanted to escape to my absolutely favorite shop in the world, a big bookstore. As we went in, we realized that in another 20 mins or so Mr. Goldratt would be there to launch his new book!

Now, I have read Goal. I liked it. It helped I was working at a factory at that time. But I’ve been mentally out of the corporate scene for a while. So what would have thrilled me a couple of years back was now a nice opportunity. I was pretty ambivalent about staying. Plus my feet hurt. Hubby seemed more interested. We drifted apart browsing books. Anyway, I knew 20 mins just fly when you are browsing books. And so it was. He came. We sat down. My feet stopped hurting for a bit.

Despite being indifferent before he came, I was drawn in. This, after all, was a man who is considered one of the premier minds in business. I was impressed by his clarity of thought, and the strength with which he shared his convictions. He did get a tad pissed off and impatient with some of the questioning (mine included). But then, for someone who is clearly seeing the entire elephant, I can understand the frustration in his being asked questions by people who see only parts of it (and worse, people who don’t even realize its an elephant)! He referred to his other books (I’ve only read Goal), explained about his current book, and somewhat impatiently answered the questions put to him (becoming thoroughly irritated by seeing the prevailing wrong assumptions some of us questioners harbored).

He talked a lot about cause and effect. How, nature really is very simple, but we try to make it complex. Numerous references to Newton, from whom he took the simplicity concept. One of the things he said struck me. He said, when we look at cause and effect, we take one cause and keep breaking it down. And that process sometimes seems endless. But when we look at a bunch of cause and effects, we can see the inter-relationships, the network, and its inherent simplicity. I must say, this struck me. I’ve always thought of cause and effect as an isolation process not a network process. I’m not really sure how this works, but I must say it intrigues me enough to want to explore it.

He talked about exploration. About divergent and convergent thinking (my question and his assertions of the number of wrong assumptions I was building in it..castles in the air he called it..lol) and how they are not separate, but within the same process. How we need to explore, question and think more. And of course, his famous words on how people say his books are common sense, and yet he finds it uncommon in people.

Despite his getting all het up, it was an interesting experience. I did find him a bit acerbic, fixed on his own books (and Newton) and impatient with the questions raised to him (the way clever people get when others can’t keep up with them). But then, he has spent a lifetime on certain concepts and theories, seen them work and has an amazing clarity of thought on what he believes in and wants to communicate. I guess some eccentricity is warranted!!

When I spoke to him while getting his signature on his new book that we bought, he came across as a benevolent wise man, someone who has seen more, is on a higher plane, and offers solutions that sound utterly simple the way he says them. I came away shaking my head in bemusement, a bit of amusement and a lot of respect.

The book released is The Choice and the event was held at Landmark Bookstore at Gurgaon.

Planning a Vacation

With the prospect of our holiday at an international destination cruelly dashed on the rocks of the passport office, we turned our sights inwards.

In the beginning, there was a lot of inertia. A. Lot. of. Inertia. Seriously. A lot of it. To be precise…almost a week of it. Cutting it really close. We knew we wanted to go on a vacation in March. We spent the first week of Feb, after the sad trip to apply for my passport, in static inertia. To get good flight rates, you need to book a month in advance. So we were cutting it close. But I was a bit numbed after the anti-climax of the passport process and hubby was too busy with work. He was expecting me to get something done. I was in generally drifting.

I googled some stuff on the Net. We wanted a cruise holiday, so I figured either Andaman or Lakshwadeep would have to do. I was keen on a Star Cruise which goes to Lakshwadeep. Sadly, I could find no schedule for it. It seems the ship has moved to South East Asia. Great!

So I surfed some more stuff. Sent some links to hubby. Tried to see some stuff that worked. Lakshwadeep would be a nice cruise. Could be a lazy holiday if we stayed in one place, though it would be a pity to go all the way there and not island hop. Andaman is supposed to be very pretty and was ending up a packed tour, even though it had a couple of days of beach lounging. Lakshwadeep threw up some fantastic resort site, Bangaram resort to be precise, and interesting scuba diving packages. Andaman had scuba diving too, lots of places to see. My mum had been there last year and she waxed eloquent about it. In fact, she wanted to go there again! She had been to Lakshwadeep too about 20 years back (we all had as a family) and hadn’t particularly liked it…especially the tuna heavy cuisine. It was all open ended. I asked hubby for his opinion. He asked me to go ahead and choose. I was unwilling to choose. Days were passing, it was all going nowhere, and I was beginning to think, we just make plans and then remain at home!

The cauldron was bubbling and one fine evening it all blew up. Hubby and I had a fight. I was completely pissed off with his refusal to look at the options and refused to work on any more vacation plans. Ever. I sulked off to Puzzle Pirates. After some time, I noticed him on his laptop, looking at some of the options I had sent. A few more minutes of sulk, and I went over, and then..we finally started looking.

Bangaram Resort found favor with both of us, till we looked at the prices. Agatti Resort was cheaper, but still a bit pricey. We surfed about some more of the Lakshwadeep packages, but the resort stay most appealed to us, but felt too pricey. We checked out Andaman, and to some extent were sold on it. Though it was tour-like, it didn’t look so hectic and we could always have a couple of days to ourselves. Then we looked at the flight rates.

That was the end of it all.

Both Andaman and Lakshwadeep flight rates made us cringe. Yes, we could do it…but an international holiday would cost lesser! Seriously, was it all really worth it. We were stuck on that thought as we explored other beach options in India. We both didn’t really want to end up at Goa again. But that’s exactly what happened.

After a lot of searching, cringing, scanning peppered some frank disbelief at some of the costs, we finally found a package that seemed just right. And it was in Goa. Travel Masti had this lovely Goa Package for 4 days, stay at a Taj hotel (where we spent a lot of time exploring options before deciding on a hotel hubby had already stayed in before), Indigo flights to and fro, one night at a Casino with Rs 10,000/- worth of free chips each and just one half day of sightseeing. Both of us immediately knew, this was the type of holiday we wanted. So, after some talking about it, we sent off a mail to them with our questions and contact numbers. It was Feb 12. 10 days after the submission of my passport application, and half a month from our vacation days. By now, we knew our holiday would have to be in the first week of March. My parent’s anniversary is on March 6, so 1st-5th March seemed a good time for us.

They called up the next day, responded positively to all our question, and told us the offer was actually only for 2 days, and that we had to confirm the same day itself. WHAT! (While writing this, I decided to check if the package is still available today, 12 days later. It IS still up on their site, though with a rider that it may be withdrawn anytime. For all I know it might still be available! Still, it did make up firm up our plans :) )

I tried calling up hubby, he was in a meeting. I told the lady I would get back to her. Tried calling hubby again. Finally gave up and started writing a confirmation mail to her on my own. As I finished the draft, hubby called back. Whew! Hadn’t sent it yet. We confirmed the details and the dates with each other, and then I called her up and confirmed it. After days of dithering, it was all done in a few minutes! They sent someone later in the day to collect the money, sent us our vouchers. The next couple of days we tightened up the details. We had made minor changes to the original package, upgraded our room (after a lot of surfing on my part) and extended an extra day. All that was worked out and we were set. Gosh! That just zoomed!!

We spent the next couple of weekends shopping for beachwear while shops here are still selling winter-wear! While we made all these preparation, yesterday, my passport got verified!! It all seems to be coming together at last. 3 days to V-day and counting =D

Passport Application – The Verification

An update on the status of my passport application.

Yesterday evening, a police official with another person, visited our house for verification of my passport. I was delighted! I had never expected it to happen so soon. I was expecting them to take their own time and end up here sometime next month. I was also thrilled because we are planning to go on vacation next week, and I was really hoping they wouldn’t land up when we were away.

The official was very nice. He had a bunch of applications and as he took out mine, asked me for my proof of residence documents. I was a little taken aback as we had submitted copies with the application, but it seems those are not sent to the police. So I sat them down, and went hunting for my trusty BSNL Bill (which went into hiding and took some finding). They asked me a few questions – how long had I been living here (which month/year), how many people lived here, what does my husband do, what do I do..etc. etc. They also wanted to know if it was our own house or rented. On confirming the former, he wanted papers showing the same. I told him it was in my husband’s name, but he was ok with that. Luckily, I already had a copy of that from my mammoth application document gathering time. So, a copy of the BSNL phone bill and I thought we were set.

But not quite.

The official took out a fresh sheet of paper and noted his observations down. That I was so and so, w/o so and so, living at this address, since this time, occupation etc. Then he bowled his googly. He wanted that sheet verified by two of my neighbors as witnesses. Huh? Umm..what about the reference on the form. Well ma’am, we need this witnessed by your neighbors. Lovely. My ungregarious, not-knowing-neighbors, keeping to myself attitude had turned back and was kicking me in the a**. However, with a confidence born of the inevitability of the moment, I ventured out of the flat to knock on the doors of my nearest two neighbors. The first one isn’t a stranger. In fact, she was one of my references in the form. She was the easy fruit, so I went for her first. Unfortunately, she was doing Puja, so I had no choice but to brave the next door. Now, that’s a family I have seen in the lifts, but never even spoken to. I didn’t even know if they were home! I hoped someone was…because the alternative...of leaving the sanctuary of the 3 flats in this wing and going to another wing/floor of the building was not a happy thought. Luckily, the lady was at home. She was gracious enough to go through the document and sign it for me. I came back to wait for the other neighbor. She already knew the history of my passport application pain (having met me on my frequent police station affidavit trips). Her husband was at home, and she got it witnessed by him. And that was it.

Wow! Was it really over? I double checked with the official. He said all was fine. They’d put the verification into the mail tomorrow and another 10-15 days and I should get my passport. Gosh! Wow! I wondered what would have happened if I hadn’t been at home. He told me they generally visit twice, for himself he said he even visits thrice. They may call on the numbers given. If they don’t get the person, they send that back as a remark. Uh oh! And can a person come to the police station to get verified? Well the person could come, but the verification would have to be done at home so a) it can be checked they really live there and b) witnessed by the neighbors. Wow. Was I glad they caught me at home at the first go!!!

As they left, I immediately called up and told my hubby. He thought I was lucky. Not to get it done, but to get it done with such ease. Ease? I wondered, thinking back on my door-to-door foray. Well, the police official was nice (not general perception) and he didn’t ask for anything (no greasing palms, no hints even!). And I thought back and realized my hubby was right. Generally, any interaction with the police is approached with trepidation, because we expect them to dilly-dally, expect humbleness and something to grease the wheels, and generally act unhelpful. In my earlier affidavit police station visits, though they hadn’t acted unhelpful or greasy, they HAD made the process longer and bureaucratic and just plain frustrating. This verification experience on the other hand, apart from testing my asocial behavior, was a breeze. The official was well spoken, informative, completely un-greasy and focused on getting the job done. Maybe because it was in his favor to get it done quickly, but still…it was a change to see them go for closure, rather than put bureaucratic hurdles or behave in a unwelcome manner.

Yet another milestone crossed. Ab Dilli door nahin!!!

Facebook initiation

Well after that flurry of activity about my passport, life's been pretty tame. The only new things are my dog developing a strange hacking fit (read more about it here) and me starting my facebook account.

Facebook is strange. Its probably new strange to me right now, than really strange-strange. Loads of people I seem to know are on it. Within minutes of logging on, I had 9 friends. It has this strange 'status update' facility, that from what I see from my friends, is almost addictive. Its like the most up-to-date version of what everyone is upto. My hubby seems to love it. Its fun, but I'm yet to find it addicting. I guess when you have loads of people on your list, its far more fun to read it. And when you're doing something more than just sitting at home and playing games, its more fun to update it.

The only other thing I've tried in it, apart from updating my details of course, is play Text Twirl. Which basically is a jumble of words where you need to make as many words as you can from the letters given. Yea...my kinda thing. Also makes me wonder, just how much of a gaming addict am I. The only thing currently that I actively feel like doing when I log into Facebook is play text twirl!! Gosh I'm weird.

I also like seeing other people's pics. How people change, and yet look so familiar. Though it also brings home the fact that everyone is losing weight and I'm putting on weight. Depressing!
Well, I can't really think of anything else to write about. I guess I still need to get into it, rather than just putting my profile there and waiting for the world to acknowledge it. Yea, thats an old problem with me. Meanwhile, I think I'll give Text Twirl another whirl!

Passport Application - The submission

D-day, monday morning, and we were running late. Finally, asked Dad to drop us to the office. We were there by about 8:45am. First, we milled about in the front for about 2-3 minutes before realising we needed a token to get in, and that window was at the back of the building. Rush to the back and 2 lines, one for Tatkal, one for General. We had been advised to take General, but since the Tatkal line looked short, hubby stood there and I stood in General. Then hubby called me to Tatkal and pointed out the reason. On a board was written Token no. 1-30 for Tatkal and 1-100 for General would be given entry at 10am. Ah thats the reason! However, since there were fewer than 30 people in Tatkal in front of us we remained there after some juggling of lines and phone discussion with our agent. Cold winds, about 9am. The counter would open at 9:30am. I realised some of the people in queue had lined up since 7:45am, maybe even earlier!! Gosh! Shivering in the line we all waited for the window to go up.

While waiting, hubby started milling around. Suddenly he came back, whether spurred by something he had seen, or simple recollection - I didn't ask - We've forgotten the covering letter. I sighed. No fresh papers in the packet either...okay that was dumb of me. I always keep blank sheets! Well, sent off hubby to look for paper. He found an enterprising paan-waala selling A4 sheets and returned. I started writing. It was 9:30am now. No windows up. Slight grumbling in the ranks. Kept writing. General window went up. More grumbling in Tatkal line. I kept writing. Soon our window went up. I stopped writing and got my papers ready. At my turn, he looked at my application and gave me a General stamp! Huh? Perhaps he saw it was for damaged passport. Anyway, the number was 48. I was IN the first lot. Thats all that mattered really.

Back to the front, and another queue to get in, with a small side queue lined up outside a photocopier stand at the corner of the complex. I stood at the side and finished my covering letter while hubby kept our place in the line. Finished, I came back into the line. By and by, we went in, got security checked and got into the warm room. Found a place to sit in front of the lost/damaged counter. The counters were not yet open. As I looked through my papers again, suddenly I realised that I needed a copy of the last four pages of my passport booklet...I had only the last two pages! Gosh, would this NEVER end!! I sat hubby at my place with my purse and other documents, clutched my passport, wallet, phone and application form (for re-entry) and went to the photocopy kiosk outside. Took me a while to find the end of the line till the copier pointed out I was standing at his "give back" window, not his "take" window. Luckily, there were only a couple of other people. Feeling chastised, I went to my right place. The copier was fast and I quickly got my copies and went back inside.

As I took my place again, hubby got up and started scouting around. He then suggested we queue up at the lost/damaged counter anyway, coz even when our token no. came up, we'd just be sent to this counter and have to queue again. He stood in line while we waited. As he came closer to the counter and I joined him, the token numbers being called went up. In a strangely weird co-incidence, our token number went up the same the we reached this counter. Since the lady took our application, and we figured it was our turn anyway, all settled down. Or did it?

I kept my originals ready. Everything was in place. She spent a lot of time going through everything, then looked at me and told me it can't be done under Tatkal. What????

Apparently, it seemed my earlier verification had never come in, so this time I would have to go through the whole process. About a couple of months, maybe more because I was from a satellite town, the whole process was through normal post, and everyone takes their own time. I think I completely numbed out. But, but the documents are all there, right? Oh yes, they are fine. It will happen in normal process. But what about the senior govt. officer verification (done with much effort on our part). Well thats not really required, since its for normal Tatkal and you dont qualify. I think I was too much in shock to really say or do anything. My hubby checked was was next. We went to the payment counter, paid and submitted the form and left the place.

All that running around planning, what now? Well, my hubby said, we wait. His colleague actually got it in 3 days really under Tatkal scheme. Yea right...like thats what I needed to hear, not that it really sunk in anyway. I felt hysterically numb and shocked, if such a state is possible..sucked into a really really weird anti-climax. Well, hubby and I discussed, I guess we can take a national holiday then, as we wait for the process to complete. Yea, I guess so. Lots of nice places around. Yea, can do cruises too. Yea, lets check out something. Yea, lets just get home right now. We walked to my parents' place. Packed up our stuff, picked up our dog Nero and his stuff and drove back home. And that is where we stand.

Passport Application - The Preparation

One of my New Year resolutions, and latest endeavor in a self exploration voyage is to restart my writing. So this blog is the starting place for my experiments with writing.

The latest happening in my life is my passport application. My previous passport had got damaged due to water seepage which rendered my photograph into a noseless, 2 black dots for eyes, vaguely outlined face. Not a good thing for a document that is one of the critical ways for photo identification. I had been planning to apply for a new one for a while. This need got excaberated with my marriage, or rather my decision (after much agonizing post marriage) of what to do with my surname. I finally settled on a double barrelled mouthful keeping my maiden name as my middle name. This created a need for my personal documentation to be changed. For any personal documents to be changed, we needed to register our marriage, which we finally did after 5 years of marriage!! That done, I had enough documents to support my name change and could go in for the next level of document changes...those defining my identity in the eyes of the government, official agencies and life at large.

Even then, the bureaucratic procedure, the tedious supporting documents requirements, the application process itself made me keep postponing the inevitable. Till one day we decided, we wanted to go on a nice vacation somewhere. Now I really needed a passport!

Thus began the process of document gathering. Hubby found a person who advised us on the documents to be collected. Armed with that list, I scoured through our vaguely organised and much scattered personal papers. Here is what I needed as enclosures to my form.

1. My birth certificate (of which I only had a copy)
   
2. Proof of address - Phone bill, Bank statement. I later realised (when I was standing in the application submission line!) that only nationalised bank statements work. Luckily, I needed only 1 proof and the phone bill worked. Now the phone bill is a story in itself. We have 3 mobiles and 2 landline numbers for 2 people! Earlier we had the state owned BSNL phone and net. But the net service was dismal. Hubby works for a conglomerate, one of whose main companies is a telecommunications company. So he got their phone and net at a better price. The net connection was far better too. This was after our building society first went for the BSNL option after much deliberation, and after a few months, felt compelled to add the other option due to better service, but I digress. Anyway, so we got the new connection and removed the earlier net connection. We wanted to remove the earlier phone too till I realised it is the ONLY proof I have that is admissible in various government agencies as a valid proof of residence!! The ONLY one! So the connection remained, and with it, my proof that I really DO live here.
   
3. Proof of educational qualifications - 10, 12th, graduation, post grad - marksheet and certificates. Which is when I realised I never collected my graduation certificate and was living with a provisional one. But combined with my marksheet it would work, so I was fine on that.
   
4. Proof of marriage - Marriage certificate, husbands passport copies and a joint affidavit for name change. This was the first of affidavits required and luckily the lawyer who had helped with our registration had already got it done. But this was the only relief. Soon I realised for the next few days, affidavit would be my sole purpose in life!
5. Police complaint (in original) for damaged passport. Another little story within a story. Luckily the police station is right next door, so one balmy afternoon, I loaded up my papers and walked to it requesting a complaint to be lodged against my damaged passport so I could apply for another. The officer looked at my passport, looked at me, contemplated on life for a while, looked back at me, asked me again what was it exactly that I wanted? A police complaint lodged against my damaged passport etc. etc. I produced the passport. Hmm...it looks ok. No sir, the photo is distorted. For a photo identity document, it wouldnt do! Luckily, another customer/ complainant who was standing there supported my claim. Hmm... said the officer, let me check on this. Then he disappeared into the deeper regions of the police station with my passport as I cooled my heels. Suspenseful moments passed. He emerged after a while with my passport. You need an affidavit stating your passport is damaged and requesting for an FIR. Huh? Before I could say anything, the bystander customer (standing with an affidavit of his own) told me how easy it was to get one, just a few rupees, a bit of time, stamp paper, visit to a court, etc. etc. I beat a hasty retreat. Got the affidavit done (another story later in this post) and reached the police station with alacrity a couple of days later. The same officer was there, and he said all was ok. Then he asked another person to write the report. This person hemmed, hawed, came up with a million problems and hesitated with a lot of doubt and stubborness on writing the report. The Investigating Officer has to give the go ahead first, he said. I looked on in perplexed resignation one gets on dealing with official bureaucrats who hold your life purpose in their hands and look for red tape to strangle it with. Luckily, the initial officer (who told me to get the affidavit) took it upon himself to get the job done. I was asked to sit as he disappeared once again into the mysterious regions of the building. More suspense. Some (actually a fair bit) minutes later, he emerged with another person, who turned out to be an investigating officer in plain clothes. He asked me a number of question, how did it get damaged, when, why, why do I need a complaint, who am I, what do I do, what does my husband do etc. etc. After multiple questioning (much of it repetitive) he was satisfied and gave the go ahead for the complaint to be written. The writing official STILL had doubts. What should I write? Who will authorize? Whose name is it against? etc. etc. At this point the Investigating Officer pointed to the affidavit, and told him to get on with it. FINALLY! After a few ponderous moments of writing, trying to find errors of comission and omission in the affidavit, sadly for him finding none, he finished the complaint and gave it to me. I could have collapsed in relief, but I waited till I got home to do so!
6. The Affidavits - Bane of my life. Luckily, hubby had a person who would get them done so all I had to do was provide the drafts. An affidavit for verifying who I am, one for saying my passport is damaged and apologising profusely while accepting any further carelessness can attract legal action, and one for the police to please lodge a complaint. The first two drafts luckily were available in the application form and the passport online site. However, the real pain was figuring out which affidavits were needed, and finding out their requirements at scattered moments of document collection. Hence, multiple visits for affidavit creation were required. Pain, pain, pain!
7. Lastly, a document from a senior government servant verifying who I was etc. etc. in given format, on their letter head, with my photo and a copy of their ID card. Sigh! Luckily, my parents are in the government, and though they could not due to direct relation do the verification, they have enough friends who could. I contacted one of them, and on a visit to my parent's house (on the solemn occasion of the passing away of my grandmother a few days back), I cornered him, settled my hubby on the photocopier and got the documents done. This document is required for passport to be applied under Tatkal scheme, where you get you passport within a speedy 7-10 days of application and the normal police verification is done after issue of passport, based on the verification of the senior government servant.

Phew! All documents in place. After 3 weeks of running around, we felt prepared to apply. We checked with the agent who told us, application would have to be in person. The passport office is walking distance from my parents' place, so we took full use of that convenience and landed up on Sunday, to spend a day there and be ready early morning to queue up for the passport application process. We had been told to queue up by 8:30am so that we got an early number and got the stuff done quickly. Finally, it all seemed to be coming together.

As we prepared to get to my parents' place, I realised I'd made some dumb errors in the application. Why o Why!! Hubby said we'll white-ink and correct it. So we reached my parent place and asked for white ink. Thats precisely what I'm looking for, said Dad. What? Where is it? Somewhere it seemed where it could not be easily found. So, that evening, Dad, hubby, Nero our dog and I all walked to the market to buy some white ink, and provide Nero with some feverish street dog barking and part chasing, I-top-dog-here-who-the-hell-are-you diversions. Back home, I corrected my form, found 2 more mistakes, corrected those too, mentally deskbanged my head and finished the form. Put everything into the envelop and then endeavoured to do something else than this whole consuming obsession of completing my passport form. Tomorrow will be a big day!