 |
| Kolkata-LucknowSept2012 |
Thursday, September 27, 2012
Tuesday, September 25, 2012
Do we see nice people everyday?
I met a lot of amazing people on my first official trip ever since I joined my new job in India (1st August 2012). One scientist from NBFGR (National Bureau of Fish Genetics Resource) was communicating with me since last year. He was in touch with me constantly and was very keen on collaboration.So, he along with his director invited me to visit the Institute and discuss collaborative options. I landed in the serene campus at around 9 PM on 23rd Sept 2012. Dr.Pradhan was waiting along with a driver. They picked me up and dropped in the guest house.The first thing that caught my attention was the nice and wide roads. The airport was also small and cozy and nice. I have never visited Lucknow,but somehow carried a poor picture of the state UP because it was constantly governed by lousy parties. I saw few of the Mayawati parks on my way to the guest house. The campus houses and the guest houses had nice pebbly exterior, that did not require and painting. One of the houses just in front of my room was decorated with real plants in the balcony,making it a very pretty sight. Next day on my casual walk, I saw luxuriously green Amla trees full of Amlas. Then there were peacocks - very beautiful ones. Food in the guest house was regular but nice. Chai was always available. I went to visit the labs and then made project presentations and discussion and retreated to my room at about 4 PM. Had really sometime to myself, so that I could stroll in the campus and took pictures. Caught some beautiful peacocks strolling on the roads carefree. It made a really pretty sight... I found a palatial house in the campus that belonged to the director, who happened to be an Oriya person. I planned to take pictures, but could not do that because it was already dark. The next day, I was taken to one of the nicest aquarium they had in the campus.Many exotic fishes were there. Then we went back and met the director again and this time he actually invited me to his house for dinner, although he was not going to be there!! It immediately sounded very exciting.Yesterday while passing by the house, I may have secretly wanted to enter into the campus and see how it is - and lo and behold, I got an invitation..We reached their house at around 8.15 PM and it was very nice there. Director's wife is one of the nicest women I have ever met, very simple and down to earth. While talking we discovered that, they lived very close to my parental house in Bhubaneswar and her son knew my cousin's son. So it was instant bonding She had cooked a variety of nice vegetarian food for us and it was a very delightful evening. She then showed me her nice kitchen garden with lots of interest. This again strengthens my faith in my future gardening company since so many people out there are actually interested in growing a garden.
Today I am coming back to Kolkata and with loads of good feeling about everyone I interacted the last 2 days. The campus was something that I could stay for ever and take pictures. It was a very delightful trip I have had that I will remember for the rest of my life..Photos coming...
Today I am coming back to Kolkata and with loads of good feeling about everyone I interacted the last 2 days. The campus was something that I could stay for ever and take pictures. It was a very delightful trip I have had that I will remember for the rest of my life..Photos coming...
Thursday, September 20, 2012
Life goes on - Miss you Aja...
My only surviving grand father passed away yesterday night around 3.30 AM. Not that it came as a surprise for us. It may be something that probably we all were waiting for ( I am ashamed to say this, but this is the truth!). My grand father was 95 and was kind of strong until a fortnight back. He would eat normally, walk and live normally except that he had some kind of mental illusion or probably a slight bit of schizophrenia where he was imagining a lot of things and saying it aloud. Other than that physically he was fine except he had diminishing vision and hearing. About 15 days back he kind of had some fever and was not eating regular food. He was just living on some liquid and water. He stopped urinating and the doctor suspected kidney failure and gave him only 24 hours on 10th September. My parents took a train and we all hoped that Aja should hang on till they reach. But yeah, he made it when they arrived on 11th. Not only that, he also was getting little bit better even though the bladder was not functioning. Then my uncle and his family took him to another doctor and they said that Aja's kidneys are fine, but ultrasound revealed that his urinary tract has a 3 inch tumor and they wanted to operate upon it. But, suddenly doctors decided against it because of his age and some other blood factors. His pulse rate, blood pressure constantly rose for some time along with uric acid. Doctors tried Dialysis, but that did not work. At that stage they decided to leave him alone and released him home. All along, the best part is he did not loose his senses. He was responding to questions, although he was very weak. The saline with some medicine was his only food for last 15 days. Every time, I get a call from my uncle's home, I would dread if aja is alright. I was to visit Lucknow on an official trip from 23rd September to 26th September. Part of me wanted to visit just because I wanted to see him. Now, I am sad that I can't see him upon my visit to Lucknow. Not only that my uncle's family and mother would also leave for Puri soon to carry on the last rites, so I may not see them as well. My mood is sombre, but at the same time, I am telling to myself that he is not having any pain and suffering any more. He is in a better place now.
Revisiting past, our aja (my mother's father) was one of the most welcome visitors to our house. Whenever he would come he would take 4 of us (all 4 brothers and sisters) to near by sweet shop and let us eat anything we liked. That was the best part of it. I was small and greedy. Often I would order more that I can eat - much to the displeasure of my older brother. He was kind of ashamed of my greedy behavior and will flag through his angry face not to behave that way, but hey who cares.... Aja would let me order anything I liked and I could pack them home, if I could not finish it then. Visits to Aja's house in Jamshedpur was always fun. Great food, nice new clothes and festive occasion is all that I remember. My grand mother passed away long back (in 1982) and my grand father was all by himself since then. He lived with my uncle for a long time (about 26 years). We have not done anything for him as such which I regret to say. We just knew that he existed, but did not have chance to call him, since he couldn't hear much. Every time he fell sick, he would bounce back, but this time he could not. With all this, I wish to give you a final good bye Aja - may your soul rest in peace...
Revisiting past, our aja (my mother's father) was one of the most welcome visitors to our house. Whenever he would come he would take 4 of us (all 4 brothers and sisters) to near by sweet shop and let us eat anything we liked. That was the best part of it. I was small and greedy. Often I would order more that I can eat - much to the displeasure of my older brother. He was kind of ashamed of my greedy behavior and will flag through his angry face not to behave that way, but hey who cares.... Aja would let me order anything I liked and I could pack them home, if I could not finish it then. Visits to Aja's house in Jamshedpur was always fun. Great food, nice new clothes and festive occasion is all that I remember. My grand mother passed away long back (in 1982) and my grand father was all by himself since then. He lived with my uncle for a long time (about 26 years). We have not done anything for him as such which I regret to say. We just knew that he existed, but did not have chance to call him, since he couldn't hear much. Every time he fell sick, he would bounce back, but this time he could not. With all this, I wish to give you a final good bye Aja - may your soul rest in peace...
Saturday, September 15, 2012
Customs clearing agents in India - Do you really need them?
Our shipping landed in India coast at Khidirpur, Kolkata around 2nd September 2012. We had sent them on June 24th 2012 from USA, so the time it takes for shipping is not very efficient. I got a call from someone here, who said that they will charge us some amount for handling our stuff from SriLanka to here. However, we were told the shipping money we paid in US covers coast to coast transportation. In any case, there seem to be some grey area somewhere we could not understand. Well, after talking with her, she said their price will be maximum 10,000 INR. When I told her that we had only a small pellet, she said the cost will be way below that. Then she tells us that we have to hire a clearing agent and gives us address of one such person. On contacting that person, he quoted some price, that will be 2-3 times the cost of my entire shipping goods. We were contemplating if we could do it ourselves without an agent. I am writing this article for people who are in the same boat as we are. If you are NOT willing to pay bribe and want to get your things out quickly, then PLEASE DON'T HIRE CLEARING AGENTS.
We did hire a clearing agent who just talked us into believing that he the best one out there and threw around his weight saying that he does handle big stuff. His charge was 6500 INR, but he added everybody's cost and charged us 25000 INR. This included the cost of transportation from Srilanka. This man said the cost is 11500 contrary to what we were told in the beginning. From the very beginning, I did not believe anything he said. But he convinced us that everything is receipted, so we breathed little easy. The next thing he does is asks around 5000 INR saying that it is speed money. If we don't give this amount our goods will be delayed further. When probed into it, he said they have to pay something to the custom officials in order to get the job done. When we asked them if this was bribe money, he carefully avoided that word. So, in other words, this money seemed perfectly legal to him (or he wanted us into believing that). When we said we are not going to pay a single penny beyond the receipted money, he said fine. Then he sends one of his fellows to accompany us to the customs office. I found the customs people are much better than the clearing agent people. Clearing agent people want to make the process appear very complicated where as it is not. They also have a component, where they want to justify their existence and somewhere during this procedure, they introduce the bribe mechanism. I have now strong reasons to believe that they are only rotten apples in the whole system. If you want to really go to customs house, go there and meet the PRO and talk with them to find the procedure. You may get things done faster than going through an agent. They not only delay you, but also create a practise of bribery for their own benefit. So the practise of hiring a clearing agent should be ABOLISHED completely. There may be some complicated going around, but I think you can do it yourself by asking people around. For our stuff, we did everything including the valuation, listing by yourself. After the customs are paid, the next thing is to go to the port and get our stuff. Here again the clearing agents person caused great deal of trouble. We reached there by 11 AM and he kept on going back and forth without telling us what is happening or why we are waiting. We met the customs commissioner, and that guy was a very nice person. Our agent kept on telling us for 2 hours that our things are getting taken out from the container. At around 2 PM when we asked the status, he said nothing has started. To that, we got very upset and started physically moving towards our goods. Then there were labors, they came running and started emptying the container. Our small pallet was there in one corner of the container. Finally, that was removed. Then, we called the customs official and he wanted to just look at the TV in our presence. He saw and was convinced that the pricing was right. Then no other question was asked. Finally, we were ready to get our stuff. But in any case, since we were processing our goods through the clearing agent we could not take it by ourselves. He had taken the charges for delivering at our house at a very high price. Finally at around 11th midnight got our stuff home.
The DOs for taking your stuff if you have shipped them will be:
1. Talk with the local handling people.
2. Go to the customs office and talk with their PRO.
3. Find out the steps and procedures.
4. Take your address proof (electricity bill etc) with you.
5. If your passport address is different from your present address, then you have to make an affidavit in that effect. So, get that done.
6. Keep few of your identity proof with you handy.
7. Always carry your passport.
8. If you are in Kolkata start at 11 AM. People go for lunch from 2-4 PM, so don't expect anything to be done during that time.
9. Go personally to all the counters. They are nice people. When you go with an agent or the agent goes alone, they expect bribe( I am not sure if that is paid to the customs or the agent swallows it)
10. The agent wants your stuff to be in the port for a long time, so that he can take the rent for that. So, never encourage that.
11. Go to the port by yourself and get your goods cleared.
If in this process you ended up paying some extra money to the labors, then so be it, at least you are fighting against an un-necessary step and un-necessary people. NEVER EVER HIRE A CUSTOMS CLEARING AGENT. You can ask me specific questions regarding this.
We did hire a clearing agent who just talked us into believing that he the best one out there and threw around his weight saying that he does handle big stuff. His charge was 6500 INR, but he added everybody's cost and charged us 25000 INR. This included the cost of transportation from Srilanka. This man said the cost is 11500 contrary to what we were told in the beginning. From the very beginning, I did not believe anything he said. But he convinced us that everything is receipted, so we breathed little easy. The next thing he does is asks around 5000 INR saying that it is speed money. If we don't give this amount our goods will be delayed further. When probed into it, he said they have to pay something to the custom officials in order to get the job done. When we asked them if this was bribe money, he carefully avoided that word. So, in other words, this money seemed perfectly legal to him (or he wanted us into believing that). When we said we are not going to pay a single penny beyond the receipted money, he said fine. Then he sends one of his fellows to accompany us to the customs office. I found the customs people are much better than the clearing agent people. Clearing agent people want to make the process appear very complicated where as it is not. They also have a component, where they want to justify their existence and somewhere during this procedure, they introduce the bribe mechanism. I have now strong reasons to believe that they are only rotten apples in the whole system. If you want to really go to customs house, go there and meet the PRO and talk with them to find the procedure. You may get things done faster than going through an agent. They not only delay you, but also create a practise of bribery for their own benefit. So the practise of hiring a clearing agent should be ABOLISHED completely. There may be some complicated going around, but I think you can do it yourself by asking people around. For our stuff, we did everything including the valuation, listing by yourself. After the customs are paid, the next thing is to go to the port and get our stuff. Here again the clearing agents person caused great deal of trouble. We reached there by 11 AM and he kept on going back and forth without telling us what is happening or why we are waiting. We met the customs commissioner, and that guy was a very nice person. Our agent kept on telling us for 2 hours that our things are getting taken out from the container. At around 2 PM when we asked the status, he said nothing has started. To that, we got very upset and started physically moving towards our goods. Then there were labors, they came running and started emptying the container. Our small pallet was there in one corner of the container. Finally, that was removed. Then, we called the customs official and he wanted to just look at the TV in our presence. He saw and was convinced that the pricing was right. Then no other question was asked. Finally, we were ready to get our stuff. But in any case, since we were processing our goods through the clearing agent we could not take it by ourselves. He had taken the charges for delivering at our house at a very high price. Finally at around 11th midnight got our stuff home.
The DOs for taking your stuff if you have shipped them will be:
1. Talk with the local handling people.
2. Go to the customs office and talk with their PRO.
3. Find out the steps and procedures.
4. Take your address proof (electricity bill etc) with you.
5. If your passport address is different from your present address, then you have to make an affidavit in that effect. So, get that done.
6. Keep few of your identity proof with you handy.
7. Always carry your passport.
8. If you are in Kolkata start at 11 AM. People go for lunch from 2-4 PM, so don't expect anything to be done during that time.
9. Go personally to all the counters. They are nice people. When you go with an agent or the agent goes alone, they expect bribe( I am not sure if that is paid to the customs or the agent swallows it)
10. The agent wants your stuff to be in the port for a long time, so that he can take the rent for that. So, never encourage that.
11. Go to the port by yourself and get your goods cleared.
If in this process you ended up paying some extra money to the labors, then so be it, at least you are fighting against an un-necessary step and un-necessary people. NEVER EVER HIRE A CUSTOMS CLEARING AGENT. You can ask me specific questions regarding this.
Saturday, September 8, 2012
Process of Customs Clearance In case you are shipping your stuff from overseas
Yesterday, on 7th September, I spent my entire day at Delhousie (A place where most of the official buildings in Kolkata is housed). Ask why? We were told that our cargo has landed in Kolkata (That was about 2 weeks back, and we were summoned just now by our customs clearing agent - that is how it works here) In my last post here, I have written about how we shipped our stuff.
Few things you need to know when you are trying to ship your items:
1. The shipping cost you pay in US is not all you have to pay eventually. In our case, it was written that the local clearing and handling cost has to be taken care of by the client. That means, there will be about $300 you have to cough of to pay for the transportation of your goods from international water to your destination. It sounds ridiculous and the jobs sound to be overlapping, but that is how it works.
2. We were introduced to a new terminology called as a "clearing agent". I was wondering what is a clearing agent was. Came to know that they are the ones that actually interfaces between you and the customs officials. Here are my ramblings about a clearing agent:
So, what does a clearing agent do? All will convince you that without a clearing agent you could not get your stuff from customs. We were also convinced by this trap. We went to the clearing agents office at 10 AM and he had one 2 page form filled out (of course with our feedback) and there were multiple copies of the declaration of goods paper with the prices (and that document was prepared by me!!) and a paper saying that we authorize the clearing agent to release the items on our behalf from the dock. I was told that there are 2 ways to deal with customs officials.
1. Pay and get it done quick,
2.don't pay and get delayed.
We opted for the later. So, the clearing agents employee first takes us to the PRO(public Relations Officer) in customs office. They were nice and looked into our declarations and had few questions about the pricing. We convinced them and they signed. Then the employee takes us to another place and comes back and whispers into our ears that they are asking money. We straight said NO to that. Then the waiting began. There was a clerk sitting putting up a reluctant face; he pulls out some large tattered registers and looks at our price declaration intently. That is where actually they pull people, negotiate for money. He began circling the items saying that these are customs chargeable. We came prepared with a printout of the rules and regulations and showed it to him saying that what he says are customs chargeable are actually not. He putting up a long face had to oblige. Then the paper went from that person to another person across the hall. He also asked for money, we refused. We failed to understand what they were actually doing with the paper other than pulling a huge note book and scibbling all of those again and agian and wasting our time. Then we were told the papers went to someone else who will check the pricing (note here, the same thing has been done 3 times already). There we were delayed for 1 hour more. Then the employee from clearing agents office took us to another place (in another building). That guy again asked for all passports, present future past addresses and was looking for every avenue to pull us, so that he could make some money. My current passport has US address, because that is where it was issued in 2005. He had problems with that. Then I had to explain the reason behind it. We had to show our present address with proof. Then he said, go and make an affidavit. I was failing to understand why this step is needed. I am the person declaring with proof that, this is my present address, with my proof of identity, how a third party who did not know me or has got anything to do with my address can certify that and how that certificate becomes more authentic then my own declaration!! Well, this is how our system is designed. So, we went downstairs. There were brokers, who took 3 times more money than the actual cost of stamp paper, typing and signing. So, in other words you always end up paying to a middleman because you don't know where to run (Can we please eliminate these useless steps!!). Finally, we took the whole thing up to the person who asked for it. There we found the seat was empty. Our waiting began (Probably here money would have shortened our waiting time). We waited patiently and after 2 hours another guy taking pity on our situation asked for our papers. He was carefully looking at everything, so that he can find flaws and ask for money. We kept no loop holes, carried everything with us. Then he did something (I am not sure what he did - probably wrote something and signed on the paper). Then those papers were carried to another person sitting across the hall. He also asked money, we resisted and he kept the paper on his table for half an hour before releasing them. Honestly, I am not sure what he was doing with them either. Then our agent told us that we have to go to another building. We obliged and followed him. There he made us wait outside for 1 hour. Then the man inside that room called us and started calculating the customs duty payable on those. Then our agent took us back to the office we started from. At this step, we are suppose to pay the customs duty. The man who is supposed to take the money for duty payment asked money. We refused. Angrily, he left and said it is already 4.30 PM and they can't take cash now. We fought saying that there is still time. In any case, he finally took the duty amount and returned us the receipt. It took him one hour for this job. Then finally at 5.30 PM, the first set of clerks were to write down something in their thick book and this took about 30 minutes to complete. It was almost 6 PM and finally we made full circle by returning to the PRO's office (where we started of that day). So, in all I would say that, few signatures, a simple calculation, cash payment which should not have taken more than 30 minutes took us 6 hours!! Hiring a clearing agent actually did not help. Other than guiding us from one place to another, he actually did not do anything. He instead was coaxing us to pay the bribe amount. We had a great sense of achievement that we could get our job done without paying a single penny extra!!
So, if you are shipping your things be aware that, you could actually do everything yourself, just ask the PRO how to proceed and your job may be done faster than going through a clearing agent.
Few things you need to know when you are trying to ship your items:
1. The shipping cost you pay in US is not all you have to pay eventually. In our case, it was written that the local clearing and handling cost has to be taken care of by the client. That means, there will be about $300 you have to cough of to pay for the transportation of your goods from international water to your destination. It sounds ridiculous and the jobs sound to be overlapping, but that is how it works.
2. We were introduced to a new terminology called as a "clearing agent". I was wondering what is a clearing agent was. Came to know that they are the ones that actually interfaces between you and the customs officials. Here are my ramblings about a clearing agent:
So, what does a clearing agent do? All will convince you that without a clearing agent you could not get your stuff from customs. We were also convinced by this trap. We went to the clearing agents office at 10 AM and he had one 2 page form filled out (of course with our feedback) and there were multiple copies of the declaration of goods paper with the prices (and that document was prepared by me!!) and a paper saying that we authorize the clearing agent to release the items on our behalf from the dock. I was told that there are 2 ways to deal with customs officials.
1. Pay and get it done quick,
2.don't pay and get delayed.
We opted for the later. So, the clearing agents employee first takes us to the PRO(public Relations Officer) in customs office. They were nice and looked into our declarations and had few questions about the pricing. We convinced them and they signed. Then the employee takes us to another place and comes back and whispers into our ears that they are asking money. We straight said NO to that. Then the waiting began. There was a clerk sitting putting up a reluctant face; he pulls out some large tattered registers and looks at our price declaration intently. That is where actually they pull people, negotiate for money. He began circling the items saying that these are customs chargeable. We came prepared with a printout of the rules and regulations and showed it to him saying that what he says are customs chargeable are actually not. He putting up a long face had to oblige. Then the paper went from that person to another person across the hall. He also asked for money, we refused. We failed to understand what they were actually doing with the paper other than pulling a huge note book and scibbling all of those again and agian and wasting our time. Then we were told the papers went to someone else who will check the pricing (note here, the same thing has been done 3 times already). There we were delayed for 1 hour more. Then the employee from clearing agents office took us to another place (in another building). That guy again asked for all passports, present future past addresses and was looking for every avenue to pull us, so that he could make some money. My current passport has US address, because that is where it was issued in 2005. He had problems with that. Then I had to explain the reason behind it. We had to show our present address with proof. Then he said, go and make an affidavit. I was failing to understand why this step is needed. I am the person declaring with proof that, this is my present address, with my proof of identity, how a third party who did not know me or has got anything to do with my address can certify that and how that certificate becomes more authentic then my own declaration!! Well, this is how our system is designed. So, we went downstairs. There were brokers, who took 3 times more money than the actual cost of stamp paper, typing and signing. So, in other words you always end up paying to a middleman because you don't know where to run (Can we please eliminate these useless steps!!). Finally, we took the whole thing up to the person who asked for it. There we found the seat was empty. Our waiting began (Probably here money would have shortened our waiting time). We waited patiently and after 2 hours another guy taking pity on our situation asked for our papers. He was carefully looking at everything, so that he can find flaws and ask for money. We kept no loop holes, carried everything with us. Then he did something (I am not sure what he did - probably wrote something and signed on the paper). Then those papers were carried to another person sitting across the hall. He also asked money, we resisted and he kept the paper on his table for half an hour before releasing them. Honestly, I am not sure what he was doing with them either. Then our agent told us that we have to go to another building. We obliged and followed him. There he made us wait outside for 1 hour. Then the man inside that room called us and started calculating the customs duty payable on those. Then our agent took us back to the office we started from. At this step, we are suppose to pay the customs duty. The man who is supposed to take the money for duty payment asked money. We refused. Angrily, he left and said it is already 4.30 PM and they can't take cash now. We fought saying that there is still time. In any case, he finally took the duty amount and returned us the receipt. It took him one hour for this job. Then finally at 5.30 PM, the first set of clerks were to write down something in their thick book and this took about 30 minutes to complete. It was almost 6 PM and finally we made full circle by returning to the PRO's office (where we started of that day). So, in all I would say that, few signatures, a simple calculation, cash payment which should not have taken more than 30 minutes took us 6 hours!! Hiring a clearing agent actually did not help. Other than guiding us from one place to another, he actually did not do anything. He instead was coaxing us to pay the bribe amount. We had a great sense of achievement that we could get our job done without paying a single penny extra!!
So, if you are shipping your things be aware that, you could actually do everything yourself, just ask the PRO how to proceed and your job may be done faster than going through a clearing agent.
Saturday, September 1, 2012
Sixth weekend in Kolkata
Today we mark our sixth weekend past landing Kolkata. Things have certainly cooled down a lot. We did NOT have to get up get ready and go somewhere to complete some job. Although we still don't have a gas connection and managing to cook in 2 induction heaters (see what is an induction heater here) quite efficiently. Pramod is even taking a nap right now because we discovered that most of the shops remain closed during after noon hours in Kolkata.In any case, it just feels good that we are self sufficient now after working through it for almost 6 weeks now. We have so far got some utensils for induction cooking, managed to get good drinking water delivered, a maid clean our house every day morning, a milk man deliver milk, a paper wallah for news papers, an istriwallh (man who irons the cloths) press our clothes, electrician, plumber to take care of daily complaints, watchmen for miscellaneous jobs.
For house, we have either already got the furniture or ordered the furniture that are at various stages of delivery. Here, the problem with furniture is, you have to go and order it one day and they will deliver it atleast after 15 days. But the assembly will take place some other time. So, it takes 3 sessions minimum to get a furniture to your home. It is another thing if your furniture is not what you saw in the showroom. Same thing happened with our bed. For the second time after assembly we realized that the bed is of smaller size. In this case, you call them after assembly, they will send someone to dismantle it. That weill happen on one day and another person will come another day to pick that up. So, altogether 5 iterations for a faulty furniture. For our bed, we have this done twice already - meas we still have 0 bed status but have gone through 10 iterations. Cutting short my cribbing, let me tell you now what we have got so far. We have got a table, a chaste with drawers, a bookself, a dining table, a living room furniture, center table, dining table, a ward robe and a mattress in our house. Two chairs for office are delivered but not assembled yet. So, that makes it already 25 +10=35 sessions for these. The remaining things like a sofa set, a bed, another ward robe is what we are waiting for now. We also have a refrigerator, washing machine, induction heaters purchased. I forgot to mention, the mother of all, that is a Tata Indigo car is bought yesterday!! Waiting for a driver. So, looks like not bad at all. We came to this house on August 8th and in about 23 days all these incredible amount of work has been done by Pramod. Our gas is also approved, we only have to go pay and collect it. The last things in this lot is to get our shipping (cargo that we packed from US) handed us over soon. That is a very complicated procedure, I will write about it in my next blog post.
In my office front also a lot has been done. May be some people will laugh if I detail all that, because we all assume that everything should have been done by the appropriate people before I even landed, but sadly that is not how it works here. You have to struggle and get things done all by yourself. Here is what I consider a great feet that has been done in my lab in last 6 weeks:
1. Got my official id
2. Set up my email id
3. Set up my personal web page up.
4. Got my start up money approved by director.
5. Started placing quotations.
6. Already bought a microscope and got the payment paper work done for it.
7. Got my medical card.
8. Got a data card for browsing.
9. Got an office to sit.
10. Got my medical test done.
11. Got some furnitures via donation(I am not entitled to furnitures here since we are moving to salt lake office soon)
12. Got a printer.
13. This weekend actually they are painting my room.
14. Co-wrote 2 grant proposals.
15. Participated in CSIR networking projects.
16. Interviewed Ph.D students
17. Inducted for teaching bioinformatics to graduate students.
18. Started getting emails from a number prospective students.
19. Working on another major grant.
20. Working on remaining set of start up budget.
21. Got my DBT money released(spoke to meenakshi munshi and her PA couple of times already)
22. Opened an account in a public sector bank (It is a big deal if you are dealing with State Bank of India - they are all paranoid about address proof).
There may be many more things that I did and don't remember right now to include. So, this looks to me as super productivity. Although there are hindrances, I am actually making progress!! Now I am feeling good that I have summarized all these as it goes.
The system may be complicated and difficult to follow, but once you get a hang of it, it is a piece of cake. Now, the canteen man does not give a scornful look. He actually chooses the bowl with more curry and puts in my plate:-)
To work, I used to take a taxi before, but now we take a cycle ricksaw till the main road and from there I walk about half kilometers and get a shared auto and then get down about 1/2 km from office and walk on the pedestrian path to office. When I compare the day we landed and today, I feel a lot of difference in our perspective. First day the road seemed crammed with pedestrians, auto, taxi, cars, old buses. But now they don't appear as such. They appear as people whom you may know. Even the roads sometimes appear empty(If you are there before 9 AM). I think space and cleanliness is a relative term. If you come from USA and land in Kolkata, it may appear very dirty, crowded, but if you come from say Mumbai, this may appear as a piece of cake (Sorry can't give a better example because don't know a place dirtier than t his). Now, I am at peace with the crowd, the dust, smoke and have adapted to carrying a handkerchief on my nose and walk. Even the homeless people staying on the pavements appear very familiar since I see them everyday. One of them stays near the auto ricksaw stop. He is actually a very clean guy and has a very healthy street dog as his companion. Many times I have seen him keeping a nice clean bowl of water for his companion and buying some biscuits. One day even I saw him sitting by his dog that was taking a deep carefree sleep on the pavement . The homeless man covered his dog very carefully with his only belonging - a bedsheet. A perfectly harmonious relationship they shared....
For house, we have either already got the furniture or ordered the furniture that are at various stages of delivery. Here, the problem with furniture is, you have to go and order it one day and they will deliver it atleast after 15 days. But the assembly will take place some other time. So, it takes 3 sessions minimum to get a furniture to your home. It is another thing if your furniture is not what you saw in the showroom. Same thing happened with our bed. For the second time after assembly we realized that the bed is of smaller size. In this case, you call them after assembly, they will send someone to dismantle it. That weill happen on one day and another person will come another day to pick that up. So, altogether 5 iterations for a faulty furniture. For our bed, we have this done twice already - meas we still have 0 bed status but have gone through 10 iterations. Cutting short my cribbing, let me tell you now what we have got so far. We have got a table, a chaste with drawers, a bookself, a dining table, a living room furniture, center table, dining table, a ward robe and a mattress in our house. Two chairs for office are delivered but not assembled yet. So, that makes it already 25 +10=35 sessions for these. The remaining things like a sofa set, a bed, another ward robe is what we are waiting for now. We also have a refrigerator, washing machine, induction heaters purchased. I forgot to mention, the mother of all, that is a Tata Indigo car is bought yesterday!! Waiting for a driver. So, looks like not bad at all. We came to this house on August 8th and in about 23 days all these incredible amount of work has been done by Pramod. Our gas is also approved, we only have to go pay and collect it. The last things in this lot is to get our shipping (cargo that we packed from US) handed us over soon. That is a very complicated procedure, I will write about it in my next blog post.
In my office front also a lot has been done. May be some people will laugh if I detail all that, because we all assume that everything should have been done by the appropriate people before I even landed, but sadly that is not how it works here. You have to struggle and get things done all by yourself. Here is what I consider a great feet that has been done in my lab in last 6 weeks:
1. Got my official id
2. Set up my email id
3. Set up my personal web page up.
4. Got my start up money approved by director.
5. Started placing quotations.
6. Already bought a microscope and got the payment paper work done for it.
7. Got my medical card.
8. Got a data card for browsing.
9. Got an office to sit.
10. Got my medical test done.
11. Got some furnitures via donation(I am not entitled to furnitures here since we are moving to salt lake office soon)
12. Got a printer.
13. This weekend actually they are painting my room.
14. Co-wrote 2 grant proposals.
15. Participated in CSIR networking projects.
16. Interviewed Ph.D students
17. Inducted for teaching bioinformatics to graduate students.
18. Started getting emails from a number prospective students.
19. Working on another major grant.
20. Working on remaining set of start up budget.
21. Got my DBT money released(spoke to meenakshi munshi and her PA couple of times already)
22. Opened an account in a public sector bank (It is a big deal if you are dealing with State Bank of India - they are all paranoid about address proof).
There may be many more things that I did and don't remember right now to include. So, this looks to me as super productivity. Although there are hindrances, I am actually making progress!! Now I am feeling good that I have summarized all these as it goes.
The system may be complicated and difficult to follow, but once you get a hang of it, it is a piece of cake. Now, the canteen man does not give a scornful look. He actually chooses the bowl with more curry and puts in my plate:-)
To work, I used to take a taxi before, but now we take a cycle ricksaw till the main road and from there I walk about half kilometers and get a shared auto and then get down about 1/2 km from office and walk on the pedestrian path to office. When I compare the day we landed and today, I feel a lot of difference in our perspective. First day the road seemed crammed with pedestrians, auto, taxi, cars, old buses. But now they don't appear as such. They appear as people whom you may know. Even the roads sometimes appear empty(If you are there before 9 AM). I think space and cleanliness is a relative term. If you come from USA and land in Kolkata, it may appear very dirty, crowded, but if you come from say Mumbai, this may appear as a piece of cake (Sorry can't give a better example because don't know a place dirtier than t his). Now, I am at peace with the crowd, the dust, smoke and have adapted to carrying a handkerchief on my nose and walk. Even the homeless people staying on the pavements appear very familiar since I see them everyday. One of them stays near the auto ricksaw stop. He is actually a very clean guy and has a very healthy street dog as his companion. Many times I have seen him keeping a nice clean bowl of water for his companion and buying some biscuits. One day even I saw him sitting by his dog that was taking a deep carefree sleep on the pavement . The homeless man covered his dog very carefully with his only belonging - a bedsheet. A perfectly harmonious relationship they shared....
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)