I think, therefore I write

Jibber Jabber

Hello all,

How have you been? Yeah, I know that I have gone missing for a while, no need to start accusations right away :P. Let me first tell you that I had gone on a long vacation to my native. And then my site was pulled down by my techie admin for maintenance purposes. Ok, that is not the truth. Before the site was down for maintenance, K had a whole week to write. It is not like she didn’t have internet access which was usually the case when she is back home. This time she had so much of time and also an okayish internet connection (though the speed is pitiable). The real reason – she was downright lazy!!

Ok, my alter ratted out on me and I have no escape. Yes, I was so lazy but not without reasons. I had gone back home after a looooooooong time and my mom was incredible. What with her cooking and pampering! So here is what happened to me from March 23, 2013 to April 1, 2013 – Crispy Dosas with a chaotic variety of chutneys, Drumstick Sambar, Awesome rasam, Mushroom Rice, Mushroom fry, The yummy paapad that you usually get in the exhibitions/fairs, Soft Idlis, Pesarattu (Only that we call it parupu dosa back home), Hot Gulab Jamoons, Mosambi juice every evening, Coconut rice with Onion Raitha, Tender Coconut every morning, Fruits given to me in ready-to-eat state and it went on.. These are just the toppers of the list.

Can you blame me for doing nothing except eat and sleep? Okay, let me move on. I am getting edgy because I am back in Bangalore and reciting all this makes me want to go home again. So except for a few useful things like applying for Aadhaar card, submitting my voter id for the long pending correction of my name, getting my lost debit card from the bank and helping out mom here and there, I was totally jobless. I spent the idle time by gossiping with mom, fighting with dad, playing with the stray cat that has made our home its regular haunt, feeding the dog which visits our house at mealtimes (otherwise, it has its own kingdom 🙂 ), bursting the bubbles on a huge bubble wrap sheet, reading novels, sleeping, talking over phone to my bro, sis-in-law and Aditya. 😆

So that’s about it. And I am back in Bangalore only to find that the climate is worse. I have never felt this drained and sweaty in Bangalore. The city as I remember when I used to visit my aunt’s place for summer vacations was always pleasant and drizzly. Now, that city is no longer here 😥 Anyway, it was hotter back at Trichy and hence I would rather be here climate-wise.

While on it, I might as well let out a few other rants. I told you I went to apply for the Aadhaar card right? I was happy to see a small queue and the person behind the counter operating a computer. My first thought was we could get it done soon. As Murphy would have it, trouble came when my turn was just 2 steps away. Suddenly something happened and the database was not returning the data when the person’s name was typed in. And this official did not have a clue of what to do. He was asking the help of the person in the next counter and that guy was also busy and in the end both the queues got held up. In this situation what irritated me was, the guy behind the counter had been trained to do the procedure of applying for an Aadhaar card. But, the trouble is he was trained for just that. He absolutely had no clue what to do when the DB had trouble. Then I suggested that him to import the data once again and he stared back blankly not knowing what import was. I could see an import option on the screen but I was not sure how they had gone about the entire application and did not want to mess it up. After much deliberation, I told him there is an import option and hence there must be a way to bring the data in. He confirmed this with the fellow guy and after a bit of clicking around he got it. Why can’t they train the people in the proper way? Teach them what it is that they are doing from the start to the end. Just don’t say click this, click that and then click submit.

Next comes the voter ID. It frustrated me enough that they had got my spelling wrong but that’s not it. They had also got the spelling of my father’s name wrong and they had given my dad’s name with the wrong spelling with the label as Husband’s name! Jeez! 😡 I wanted to change it when I got the card then and there but I was told that they would come for corrections later. So I had no choice but to let it go for the  time being. After waiting for 6 years, I decided it was time to correct it putting aside my laziness and making use of the time when I am in Trichy. (God knows when I might be able to visit next). I go to the corporation office and I had to roam around for an hour to find the place where they give the application form for corrections. Then another hour to file the application and finally they ask me to come and check after 3 months. If they had told you can come and get it after 3 months, at least I would have understood knowing the speed of processes in India. But, it seems I should go and check what is the status after 3 months. God knows if my application will be touched in the meanwhile. Topping this, the guy who gave me back the acknowledgement slip for my application didn’t sign it. When I asked him, he says sign is not needed, just the number on it is enough. How long is it gonna take him to sign it and it says on the slip that he is supposed to sign it! 😡

When I complained, my dad lectured me on this is how the system works and only if I come out and do stuff like this, I will get experience. I mean, this is not experience. This is just getting used to violation of rules, negligence and carelessness of the officials and stuff like that. Only in India, we call this an experience worth learning. 🙄

I guess that’s enough blabber for a post. See you around guys!

Until later,
Keirthana 🙂

7 Comments

  1. Raghavan alias Saravanan M

    Welcome back Keirthana 🙂

    1. Congratulations for having been disconnected totally from the regular official work 🙂 and also having spent the time with your dear ones 🙂

    2. It was such a nice list of eatables you had mentioned 🙂 I could imagine how much you would have put on now .. lol

    3. Welcome to the community. I can very well write a book on the atrocities happening in India and you are now in the queue. That is all I can say. These morons should be killed in public and should be taught how to be disciplined. I am sorry for whatever had happened but your dad is right in his own way. The modern India concept works only with our generation and it does not even have visibility to the previous generations. We should just live with them! 🙁

    Take good care.

    Cheers,
    Raghavan alias Saravanan M
    Jeddah | Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

    • Keirthana

      Thanks Anna! Yeah, it was quite an awesome break. And for the food part, yeah I blame my mom entirely for my weight 😛 And me being the food freak, I cannot refrain 😉

      And you are right, the visibility of a nation without these silly scrambles and inefficiency is indeed lost on most of the population. We could just sigh and continue our work.

  2. Ajay Kontham™

    I am going good. How have you been?

    The Guy in the Hat says ‘Hi’ to the Alter K . Someone seems to be inspired by the famous Alter Ego character (don’t look here and there. I was talking about ME). 😛 You got a name? #JustAsking

    So, you had a great time in the vacation. And you have to stop doing that – telling all the food items you had. My stomach was completely full upto the neck (believe me, it was) and still you made me hungry. 😛

    Bangalore is at its worst this year. What they used to tell about the Bangalore’s climate to be the best is slowly fading into ancient history.

    Ah, Aadhar Card. There people act as if they know everything and know what they are doing but the truth is something otherwise. Seriously, they either need to recruit skilled person or at least give them the required training. Wait, may be you can. 😛 #JustSaying (if you are getting bored being jobless with a job.) 😛

    If you want you work done quicker, throw a few hundred/thousand bucks. Money can buy anything here in India. Or If you want to be a good citizen and follow the rules, you might not as well get anything done, for sure or you would be old with grey hair. #TheUglyTruthOfIndia #NoKidding

    Take Care and keep Writing. 🙂
    -Ajay Kontham

    • Keirthana

      Guy in the Hat,
      Yup, My alter got inspired by you and is peeking out more often than it used to. But unlike poor Ajay, I am putting up a good fight 😛 No name yet for the alter. Let me see if I can come up with one.

      Ajay,
      The intention of me listing the food items was exactly that and am glad I made someone else beside me also edgy due to lack of home food 😛 Evil, ain’t I?

      Pleasant Bangalore climate sure has become history 🙁 No way other than to put up with it. And the rambles on the government procedure, sigh, you are too right.

      Thanks for dropping by! 🙂

  3. Atrocious Scribblings

    Nice read. To be honest – I tried reading this post first at work just before lunch and as you can imagine – it was hard getting past the 2nd paragraph after it being filled with graphical descriptions of the food items.

    Also, paperwork/ official documentation in our country is bad but we can definitely take solace in the fact that our parents/grandparents had it worse.

    Cheers 🙂

    • Keirthana

      Hey AS,

      Long time no see! How are you? Glad you came by. And sorry about the food list 😛

      Yeah, we just have to live with it in India.

  4. Greenboochi

    My dad would have told the same to me :rolling eyes:

Leave a Reply to Atrocious Scribblings Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *