Memoirs of a Wandering Nomad

I have surprisingly few things to pick with Bangalore. Overall the city has been a pleasant experience more often than not. The new airport – There are no lounges. For a new swanky airport, this is quite a surprise that they did not think about it. You are given a token with which you are supposed to hunt for food. The food counters are always crowded, and people are sitting around like beasts around a watering hole, pretentiously sipping beer from plastic cups. There are hardly any power connections for people to work on their machines. There is a common area, but it is usually super busy. 15-min Wifi in the airport – This ‘international’ airport boasts of a unique service to the customers. It provides you with a free Wifi connection for as long as a full length of – hold your breath – complete 15 minutes! I have no idea what the purpose of this is. It takes 5 mins just to load the settings page. Language – If you think only Chennai has language issues, you have not been to Ba...

I want to start with the town I love to hate – Chennai. My relationship with the city has been consistently tormenting on both sides since the time I first visited Chennai in the late 90’s. I even came this close to being posted here for work in 2002. By sheer luck, and some quick actions, I was spared from the ordeal. Here is a list of things that I hate about the city: The stink – there is a particular smell associated with every city. In some, it is very strong. Mumbai and Chennai are two cities with a very strong, and often revolting, odor. Maybe it is the way the municipal government handles waste management, maybe it is a by-product of the sticky and humid weather, or maybe it is just in my head, but I have not been able to get over it for sure. Mumbai, yes - since I was born and brought up in the place - but Chennai, no. Poor Connectivity – I am a Jet Airways regular. There is a huge challenge when it comes to early morning flights from Delhi or late evening flights to D...

As you can see, it has taken me almost half a year to publish this. Firstly I was too tied up running around the world making a living. And secondly, I was wondering to myself whether I should or I should not, due to the sensitivities attached, and what response I would get. But then I said, what the heck! ... So here goes ... ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Seriously, I have had it till here with all these travel blogs and posts about different cities and places and how nice they are. I mean, come on. I travel for a living. Out of the seven days of the week, I am traveling for five. Obviously, the ‘Little Dorothy’ syndrome of how nice these places are is extremely hard to keep in such a case. Don’t get me wrong. I love traveling. Even now, I am sitting in an airport lounge, drinking the mango nectar served by the (pretty) attendant, and watching all this hus...

Now that you are all set and ready for going to the passport office ... blah blah blah ... Abandon all hope, ye who enterth! PART II: Step 3: Going through the actual process: ------------------------------------------------------------------ 1. Now that you have got the forms, copies, shaved, taken bath etc. etc., you are all set for the big day. 2. This big day is not a particular day, but any working day for that matter. When you fill the online form, it will give you some date for an appointment. Note that this date is almost entirely utterly useless. You can go any day before, after ... the appointment is a sham. You still need to stand in the queue the whole day, no running away from that. 3. So you reach the regional office, which is near Siddhi Vinayak temple, Dadar. This used to be Bengal Chemicals factory some years ago, and is now converted as the new passport office. The old passport office is in what is called the Manish Buidling, which is further down the road, after the ...

Now this one post has nothing to do with Biking. I am writing this one to share with you some pearls of practical wisdom I collected last week when I went through the process of passport re-issue. Now why this is called re-issue and not renewal etc. are topics that will be covered subsequently. I hope this note is useful to those who will need to brave this new and inhospitable terrain invariably. All the discussion below is for Mumbai Regional Passport Office. I am not sure if the process is exactly the same for other offices, or if there is any process at all. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- - A passport normally gets issued for 10 years, which means that at the end of the 10th year, you will need to get it 're-issued'. There is no running away from this. It is like Death and taxes, only g...