Media hype or...?

Over the past one week the hindi news channels are going mad over one murder case which has happened in Noida.

A girl by the name of Arushi who was 14 years old was found murdered in her house in Noida and also the house help by the name of Hemraj has also been murdered. This has happened on the 15th night, today is 21st and the channels are continuously giving a breaking news of the case. Weird it is. These channels act like they are the masters of solving crimes. Some of the channels are forming their own investigating teams to solve the crime. As though the police are fools and don't know their work. The channels keep saying that the killers will be booked any moment now etc..

At one time the channels were showing a live scene of the police trying to enter a door. The crazy part was that the police were trying to unlock the door with a kitchen equipment, it looked so funny. I know that it is a serious affair out there but how silly to unlock the door with a kitchen thing. Oh my God.

The reporter also had a problem when the parents of the girl murdered went to a temple. The parents might have gone to the temple to pray for the justice for their daughter. The reporter said that in such a time the parents have gone to the temple they should not go etc..

I would like to ask isn't there anything else to report. There were blasts in Jaipur, elections in Karnataka, India's minister has gone to Pakistan maybe a lot more. They do mention the other stories but in passing. Some of the channels have made stories out of the non- seasonal rain that has come in the national capital New Delhi. I would say what is the big deal ha?

Thank God for the English channels they at least have other stories to show and talk about. They have good programmes which give insights to other parts of India.

Other silly things that the channels show are the behind the scene stuff happening in the much watched IPL matches.

I would like to know what you guys feel.... Bolo ap ki kya rai hai? baltao?

Making of Passport

After getting married there is a lot of paper work involved. With paper wok I mean changing name and address in all the things that really matter.

We ( by we i mean hubby and me) decided to start by re-issuing my passport. We felt that that would not be difficult. First, we found out the overall process from the travel agent in the area. We also went to the official website for passports of our Indian government. (Roshan also needed to get a new passport issued as all the pages in his passport were exhuasted because he travels a lot).There was something which is called verification certificate, that is given to you by a government official. So we dug into our address books and searched through all our connections. My brother then remembered that one of his friend's dad is an IAS officer. So we went to him and got the verification certificates. Oh my God what a waste of time these government offices are. They take half an hour to type a letter then they take another half hour to get the the letters stamped. So there were 2 letters one hour wasted and again both these letters have to be stamped so one hour there got wasted.

The IAS officer is a very sweet man he kept talking to me about his work and his wife and kids. All the while he kept cribbing about the way the government peons and other staff operate. He was telling me that he was totally helpless with the way it is done. He said that if in a government office does this kind of delay they are termed as inefficient and corrupt. At the same time if a delay of the same kind occurs in a corporate setup it will be termed as internal politics and a way of functioning. Crazy that was.

Anyway I finally got the letters, but it was a good 2 and half hours later. Now 1 whole day was lost so couldn't do the passport submission that day. Then we had a affidavit from a lawyer to state that we are Indians and have nothing wrong with our identification. That didn't take that much time. It was done in say half hour.

We had filled the form online. So there was very little hand writing to do. Oh yes when I was at the IAS officer's office, my hubby was at the passport office submitting our forms and other documents. The next day I went with hubby to the old passport office to submit the other documents. We wanted what is called the Tatkal service. So we submit the papers and were called a week later for just a stupid signature in front of an official. That was a lot of craziness as I had my chappals torn by a very rude woman.

Then we went back home and after some days I had a rude shock, a police officer came home and made a big ruckus asking me all kind of questions , "Who lives here? Where is Roshan D'silva? Does he ever live here? or does he not live here? where is he right now? who are you of him? etc. etc."
All these questions were asked in a very rude way and because of the loud volume my neighbor came out and she was also asked all kind of questions whether Roshan lives here or not. Apparently he had come earlier and we were not at home so he figured that we don't live here. Then I called Roshan and we went to the police station and gave them the required documents etc. so that was ok. The officer in the police station was very helpful, told us what the next steps were, made us sit down and spoke with us very nicely.

Anyways Roshan's passport hasn't yet come but we did find out why. Oh by-the-way my passport came without any delay. It is Roshan's which is taking all the time. Now apparently all his previous passports have been issued overseas so the procedure is different and they have to do some verification as he has never had his police verification done in India. Now we understand all the delay. So we were all the while blaming the system but it's actually the bureaucracy which is the culprit. Thanks to the passport website we know the status of the most important piece of identification one needs to prove he/she is Indian. Lets hope his passport also come as soon as possible. The only sad part is that the Jumbo passport which we have applied for is only 60 pages so according to Roshan he has to repeat this process every 3-4 years as that how long it takes him to exhaust all the pages.

I can fairly say that we need a lot of patience when it comes to dealing with the government offices in this country. PHEW!!!!

Being married is loads of FUN

Married life is fun…….. At least so far!!!

Life was so protected and taken care of when I was single. Parents did everything for me I had them to go back to and ask for direction. Now its all about doing things oneself. Not that my husband won’t give me direction or advice, only it is different. Twenty eight years of your life you become used to a certain way of explanation of things and situations, the husband also has a certain way of being told things or telling things. So for me it’s all about learning. I am being observant taking things in one by one. It’s fun.

The story so far is that I moved out of Cuffe Parade and moved into Marol Andheri east. It’s a coincidence that I was a Marolia and I have shifted to Marol. I am now a D’silva.

Arranging the house was a task, because mom used to do all that back home. I decided to target one room at a time. My first room I started from was the kitchen. That’s according to me the room which is used the most. Lots of things were kept in a not very organized manner. There were some things which I had never seen before. Then there were some other things which had been used long ago. I made a list of things that I am used to using which were non-existent. The things that I was sure that I or anyone else would not use I got rid of. By getting rid of I mean I sold it to the scrap dealer of the area. Made money out of the things I thought were useless but I made money out of it so I don’t think that they were useless after all. That was so much fun.

The next room was the bedroom. I had to make it more cozy and a place to retreat in at the end of the day. Arranging this room involved setting up the cupboards and the dressing table. The bedroom didn’t take as long as the kitchen. I did get rid of a lot of weird looking clothes and bedding material. Now the sad part is that one cant make money out of the useless clothing. Anyways I did the bedroom. Stuffed all the clutter into places which one didn’t know existed. Now there is so much place around.

Next was the little balcony which is attached to the bedroom. That was a task, as there were quite a lot of things there but as I had become used to getting rid of things I did it here too. Now there is space in balcony also.

The living room didn’t need that much of arrangements as there was nothing really one can do in the room. Only it needed to be tidier. That’s what I did. Yes the sofas needed to be re-upholstered. The cushions needed to be completely changed so that’s what we did. There is one long window which had the oddest looking curtain on it. We made a decision and changed them as well. The room looks very livable.

There are two sets of long windows in the house. One in the living room and the other in the balcony in the bedroom. Both of them have what is called box grills. These box grills had some things store on them. Again these things were left and forgotten. Pipes, rods wooden planks, tiles and some small rubber strips I had to get rid of these things as well. I got money out of some of the things and had to throw the other things away. These windows are sliding so they have the railings on which the windows are fitted. These railing had so much of dust and cement in it. For that we bought a vacum cleaner. We used it to clean the railings. Now they are cleaner than before. That was fun too.

There are three different furniture pieces. Two tables and one sofa-cum-bed which don’t really go with the house’s looks but I haven’t managed to find any takers. They are kind of a eye sore in the house.

We also got ourselves a landline connection and a broadband connection.

The house is to some extent a home now. Over all being married is lots of fun.

I got engaged

Sorry for the long pause in postings. !st I had my dad in hospital for a minor operation. His nostril was blocked, the septum was to be corrected and he had a lot of polyps which had to be removed. A 2 hour operation but it took time. Pre-operation and post operation care etc.

Then I got engaged on Wednesday last. So preparations of thats and then recuperating from the event the hang over is still there though. Its a lovely feeling being engaged to THE person. NOw the whole thing of the marriage starts. Am getting married on the 23rd December by-the-way. Please readers my friends please be there.

Will be more quick in postings. Sorry people.

Too much Nostalgia

This is one of the things which I think most of us living in India before the cable days grew up on. Check it out and do tell me. It kind of brings tears to my eyes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WpT3TqsNqBY

Please check it out.

Ideas of Fun

I am thinking most people didn't well understand my earlier post. What fun na?!

I think the idea of fun changes according to age. when we were kids we did different things like break brand new toys just for fun, much to the plight of our parents. Then when in school jump around, get dirty, tease other children, make fun of the teacher etc.

As teenagers the focus shifts from "silly" things like jumping to playing video games or musical instruments, one-day picnics, or just going for coffee at a cafe. Then when we come to the twenties we change to maybe shopping ( cause some of us do part time jobs), eationg out, watching movies or plays, exploring far of locales etc. Somewhere in the late twenties we change yet again to attending musicals, having wine, reading Russian or German novels, doing some adventure, going on longer trips and the list goes on.

Then slowly some of us get married and have joint fun with ones spouse( not in the double meaning way ha ) Of course then we get kids of our own and the cycle continues. For the parents its fun to watch their babies grow up, though there are emotions, attachments, responsibilities etc but over all its Fun.

My Ideas of Fun
1. Watch TV especially news channels
2. Sleep
3. Read funny articles in magazines and newspapers.
4. Do some adventure. Go for a ferry ride on Gate Way of India for example.
5. Irritate my brother.

I believe by the end of the activity you did one must say either to oneself or out loud ,
" That was Fun!!!!" or " What Fun that was!!!!"

What are your ideas of fun? Bolo Bolo Tell Tell?!?!

Thinking Twice

There are some things which people don't really think twice before doing. Somethings work out good when some people don't think twice. While certain other people aren't thats lucky. It's very strange how certain people don't realize what they are doing is right or wrong.

For example ( the good effect people) certain people don't think twice before expressing their emotions. Well sometimes thats a good thing but sometimes its not. The people who say it on your face think that they are doing you a big favour, they say " I am like that, very frank. I say what I feel. Take it or leave it." I think its nice to be frank and all but then you also must be ready to face the consequences.

Then there are some people who are complete opposite of the 1st category, they don't say anything till it is unbearable. Then when they say it they don't think twice. They are worse than the 1st category because theirs are bottled up emotions related to the past, related to the character and nature of the event unfolded in front of her/him.

These are serious issue or matters. Some other situations are such where we as "Indians" don't think twice before doing ( there could be exceptions to the case I don't want a Devilish experience here). For example throwing rubbish on the roads, throwing stuff outside our windows, sometimes even spitting on the street, pushing elderly people on railway stations and the list continues.

I think without these people there would be no entertainment. Its nice to observe such events and think about where we stand. But also I am not saying that if someone litters the surroundings you must keep quite about it. I don't allow it myself. Well I fall into the category of people who don't think twice before asking someone to stop littering. I believe if you can't clean then don't make the place dirty.

What say my readers can we not litter please THINK TWICE before you want to. We wouldn't do it if we were in the west would we?!