Speaking out should be an option everyone should choose...

Today we are completing exactly our four weeks stay in India. It has been full of experiences since then. I don't even remember how many times, I have visited to people's office to get small things done; how many times I have got shocked that they actually don't work or bother; how many times I have realized that the procedures should have been simplified 50 years back and so on. Now I am getting used to visiting people's office, writing notes(applications), getting simple things done on crooked way etc. These does not bother me, if the system is such, we have to follow. However, today something noteworthy happened and I would like to know from my readers what should be done regarding this.

The story goes like this: When I joined this institute, I had a regular position offer and a fellowship offer. I wanted to join the regular job but wanted to keep my fellowships contingency(this is a valid option) since the salary offered by the job was substantially higher than the fellowship. But the admin office said me unless I complete the medical test, I can't join the regular job, so I have to join as a fellow and I can change it to the regular position only after the medical test is done. That was fine with me and I thought medical test should be going to be a one day trip to medical and that is it. But that is not quite what happens here. The office admin sends a tattered paper to a place called Swasthya Bhavan ( A govt. agency) by post. Once that letter received at that place, they will send another letter to you to your office address specifying a date for medical test to be done at a state run medical college. But before that one has to complete a number of tests at a separate clinics and bring in all the reports to the board. It sounded weird to me in the first place. I waited for this letter from Swasthya Bhavan to arrive but it never came in 15 days. So, we set off to salt lake to Swasthya bhavan to find out what is happeneing. As ususal, govt. office, all are either yawning, playing games with the computer or not there at their desk. Everybody looks extremely bored. We were tossed from one place to another in search of the place that can tell us the section that deals with such things. Finally after few rounds we reached at the right place! But alas, the right person was not there. Someone looked into our eyes and in a cold blooded manner said that he is expected to come in 2 hours. Damn we said to ourselves, since it was already 3.30 PM, in 2 hours it is bye bye time. In any case, we decided to wait, then suddenly saw a weak man sitting leaning over a pile of paper and looking intently into it. Out of curiosity we asked him what was he doing? And then it turned out that actually he is the one that deals with my types of papers. We asked him about ours, and bearing a bored countenance he pulled out a thick file and searched. My letter was there in the bottom ( The ones that come first gets to the bottom). Then he kindly replied us that he has sent the letter a day back and that should reach us in sometime.

A week later, I got that letter from despatch, looked into the requirements. It asked us to do urine exam, chest exam, eye test and carry all the reports and appear before a board on 24th August. We did the needful, another day off for me! Getting the reports back is again another days work.In any case, going to the medical board happened exactly a month after I joined (that is today).

We had a scientist joined day before yesterday. He was from some University in DC. He said his medical exam was not done and IB clearance was not done, but he was being able to join the institute. Surprise for us, many thought may be they have changed the rules in a months time. Today at the stae run medical waiting room, I discovered him. I was shocked. I thought to myself, he may have been confused and instead of Swasthya Bhavan he may have landed here. SO, I went and was trying to talk with him asking whether he needed to go elsewhere. Then he said a firm 'no', the office issued a letter to Swasthya Bhavan and he took it along and got the dates for today and did the medical tests the same day (all in just one day!!!). It sounded impossible in Kolkata since I have heard from other scientists that it took atleast 2 months to complete everything. I was admiring him and was thinking he must be really a smart guy to have gotten those lazy asses work for him in a few minutes. Then the waiting began for the medical board. The medical board constitutes  3 doctors and a helper. They are suppose to see all the reports and ask additional questions to make sure you are physically fit. I thought there may be some order  in which they will call people (i.e first one first) and was expecting them to call me first. But to my surprise, they called that guy first and my name followed immediately after him. When my turn came, I saw his papers lying on the table (since he was done) and one of the doctors got a phone call. After the call ended, the doctor informed the rest of the people indicating that fellow's file that "He is commissioner's son in-law". Then I saw very pleasant smile on all others faces which was indicating their inner happiness to have served the "prince". Now everything started making sense to me. For him, there are no rules, no queues. He can break the rule and break the queue and as a result, the genuine people get pushed back. I don't think I am going to leave this here. I may take it to the next level and let everyone know about it.

The guilt of my inability to do anything or raise voice against such actions got partially erased when I did something today fearlessly. This may even cost my hard earned medical report go awry. Shocking as it may sound, one of the doctors in the exam room was continuously smoking. The exam room and the waiting area was getting stuffy with that. I could not stop myself from telling him that he should not be smoking there harming everyone around. While saying that, I was fully aware that I know no commissioner, they may as well screw up my medical report and make me do everything all over again or may declare me misfit for the job. But I chose to speak out and he finally said sorry. I am hoping next time when he lits his cigar in a packed room he will think twice....

Coming back to the earlier chapter about my colleague, I would like to know what should be done to stop such queue jumping.

Our first 2 and half weeks in India

We are going to be 3 weeks old in this city this Wednesday!! Now we are feeling much at ease and comfort. What we (Pramod) has done in these 3 weeks are remarkable. Being new in this city, it is hard to find a rental place, but he actually did find us a rental place within 10 days of moving to the city!! Within 2 weeks of coming to this city, we have already moved into our rental place, purchased most of our furnitures that are at various stages of delivery. We have been cooking for last 3-4 days, have a maid now for last 3 days, have news paper delivered to us for last 3 days, plumbers fixed few things,  ironing of our clothes taken care of, milk delivery taken care of. Cell phones are up and working for last 10 days, suitcases unpacked a couple of days back, kitchen arranged couple of days back. We have discovered few local vegetable markets, day to day shopping places. Life is finally looking up. Most importantly, we have figured out how to go to office from my new rental place. Here 5 Kms is considered a big distance. My office being 5 kms away from the office is considered far. Our housing society is something like half kilometers from the main road and given the road condition, it is not advisable to walk and taxis would not go from here. So, the best way is to take a cycle ricksaw till the main road (Partly because we want the ricksaw guys to get some money), then take an auto till another half kms away from office and then walk. It may sound horrible in the beginning, but we will get used to it.

Joining a Govt. job after long overseas stay

Landing in India this time was quite different from  landing in India before. Since this time it is permanent, we started looking at things more critically than ever before. I am not sure if this is the right thing to do. Fortunately or unfortunately I have come to a place where the systems and protocols are very much tangled in a mess. I have been associated with govt. organizations before, but this one appears like much different.

From USA, I have been sending documents from time to time for signature, but did not know until I arrived here that they have actually lost some of them!! Let alone sending it the right place. That is kind of shocking. I was surprised to see that people are still dealing with papers and files for procedures. Nothing works through email. You must make your presence felt, stand there and actually literally walk along with your paper, so that it moves from one place to another.

Here are few things that took me for surprise. I realized there was no sitting place for me, there was no id created for me, there was no email id and so on. What about computers? I must be kidding, that is even far away… Who is supposed to do all that? Looks like me. I have to run around between places and speak with the departments and make my case. For my fellowship to be released, I need a piece of paper to be signed and sent to DBT. But that will not happen until I go grab the paper, get it signed and send it personally. I thought that was the job of the admin staff, but hey who cares.

Something I saw yesterday, I think should be documented here. There are a lot of admin staff sitting on the downstairs in a big hall. Each of their tables are filled with files and and files. I was told that I should have my medical card ( I am not sure if this is equivalent to a insurance card). Then I asked a fellow scientist whom should I contact for this. He gave me a name and a department. I went to that department only to find that she is on leave. The I asked another fellow in that office about the card. Then he gave me a conditional statement – Go to billing dept -> meet Mr. X and if he is unable to do it then come back here. Okie Dokie, I went to the billing department, met Mr. X and at 2.30 PM, he was having his lunch. He said casually without even looking at me come after 4.30 PM. I obliged and went again at 4.30 PM. This time he asks me if I were a permanent staff. To me permanent has no meaning, no one is permanent, this term is actually obsolete. In a govt. institute no one gets a permanent position before a years time and people issue their cards much before they complete a year. So, in order to simplify things, I said yes, I was permanent. Then, they say, they have received no circular about it and feigned ignorance about my whole existence. Then another guy from behind tells, she is Ramalingaswamy fellow. To that, the lady sitting near by makes a ridiculing gesture  and tells “you should not say you are permanent, you should say you are a Ramalingaswamy fellow”. Well, I had to brush her aside and asked that guy that we are entitled to all benefits, now he takes out a thick note book and looks for names that were Ramalingaswamy fellows and had health cards. Luckily that day I spoke to a R fellow and knew about his joining date. Mr. X looked at the register for some time and coolly said his name is not on the list. Then I had to tell him to look at year 2010 records. There you go, it was there. Then he reluctantly dragged his feet, got up and went to the other side of the room opened an almirah overflowing with papers and notebooks, pulled out a big form and handed it over to me. In these last few days, I have mastered filling these forms,  so not an issue for me…

Job Redundancy:

I think much of the problem stems from job redundancy. In other words no one knows their responsibilities and boundaries. One job can be performed by many people technically. So, that leads to passing on responsibility from one desk to another. For my guest house stay extension, I asked one of the section officers and in the end, I said I was not sure if that was his responsibility. Then he tells, OK, you go to section X in room No Y meet Mr. Z ask him for a letter. I was testing the water, so did not follow what he said. Went to Director’s assistant and asked him, if he could draft a letter and get it signed by the director and he said he would!! Well, now I wonder why then it has to follow this circular route.

Another instance I faced today was about getting my R letter signed by director and send it to DBT. The section officer emails me saying the letter is ready please come and get it signed by director. I went down and asked the concerned person and he says, we will get it signed, so don’t worry. In the end of the day, just to check I went to that section only to find there was a summit of all admin officials. They are having a gossip session. I asked him if the letter was signed.

An Expat’s story of landing in India after 10 long years….[1]

I feel like documenting my life more now than ever before. This way, I guess I can reach out to other fellow country men who are trying to come back to their country after a long overseas stay. I hope this will help them in getting ready for things and what they should or should not expect from here.

We landed in India on the  24^th July at New Delhi (NY -> Brussels -> New Delhi) about 9.30 PM. The flight was on time, Jet airways was awesome. Most importantly, the one way tickets costed much less from NY than from anywhere else. It was just about half the price of a one way fare from DFW. The flying time and journey was uneventful. We had windows and isle seats and that was the best combination ever. Jet airways had much more leg space than any other airlines we have traveled. I have also traveled in Air India and the leg space is comparable to that. People were friendly and the choice of channels was awesome. I managed to see many episodes of the Big bang theory. One comparison I would like to make here with the airlines I traveled to China (I think probably US airways and China Eastern airlines). The difference between these airlines and Jet was obviously with food and hospitality, and most importantly with the choice of TV programs on board. In those airlines, the choice of programs were limited to  very few and there was issue with synchronization. In other words, if you choose to play a program, then it will appear that the program is running already like a regular TV show, and you have to wait for a certain period of time to get that re-broadcasted. This may be because they are using very less bandwidth…

In any case, we landed in Delhi only to realize that one of our baggage was missing that contained all our documents. We initiated all the procedures, so that it should be delivered the next day to the hotel we checked in. We spent the whole night in Delhi airport. They have a guest lounge area where you can stretch yourself. Our flight to Kolkata was in the morning at 6.40AM. We checked in all our bags and belongings at 3.40 AM and were killing time in the airport. Finally, we boarded and reached Kolkata on time. My brother was there right on the gate (he works at the airport). Then surprises followed. The hotel we booked through hotels.com informed us that the hotel is actually not booked. My brother tried to use his connections in getting us a place, but finally it turned out that they let us stay in a suit that costed 3 times the price we would have liked to pay. To add to our troubles, there was also taxi strike. Some news channel type people came to me asked me about my experiences about the strike. I am not sure if they had broadcasted it or not, but it was funny. I emailed Dr. Mandal (A chief scientist, who I was in touch with from the very beginning of my recruitment procedure at IICB) about our housing woes and thankfully, they managed to book guest house from the next day for 10 days. I would join the institute as a Ramalingaswamy fellow initially at the insistence of the director. The regular position will take a while is what I was told. In any case, after that being done, we decided to proceed back to the hotel and slept a lot. The next day morning, we proceeded to the CSIR guest house that is located by the side of the Ravindra sarovar. It is a very nice place with high speed internet in each block. It is managed really well. After a long time, I did not have to lift our overweight luggage, somebody else actually did it for me:)) We called the laundry guys to come and take our dresses for washing and drying. I guess, my dresses must thank me for that since they were never pressed in last years…Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner was served along with morning and evening tea. Again another luxury, did not have to wash utensils in 10 years. We just eat in the dining room (Food served) and walk off. Food comprises of Rice, Roti, 2 veggie items, dal, salad and sweets. I am enjoying it. The room cost per employee (IICB) is Rs.25 and Rs 50 for Pramod. It was very cheap and nice place to be in. Now I am feeling little bit like home since we will be here for a stretch of 10 days. Looking back I realized ever since we vacated our home (on July 4^th), I never lived in a place for longer than a week. So, this definitely appears long term. My second day in Kolkata was really good. We booked a car for the whole day and ferried around the city. I managed to talk with the section officer of the institute, clarified some employment related questions, filled up some more forms and came back to guest house. We took walk by the sarovar side that has beautiful walking trails. The next day 27^th July was also a good one. I  send my photos for id making, followed by making some progress into taking students and my office space. On 28^th our baggage arrived and we obtained a data plan for cell phone. The next thing remains is to buy a phone.

Kolkata has not changed ever since independence I guess, with all the old dilapidated structures and non-functional traffic. It is impossible to go from one place to another without frequent halts. I am not sure why the govt. is not taking any actions. There are old vehicles, taxis ferrying around and people with their unpleasant demeanor make situation more worse. But slowly, you will realize that behind their grumpy face does not lie any anger towards you, but rather that is their true native state.

The first few days appears extremely similar to my CPMB joining dates for Ph.D programs. The only difference is, I was much younger and in-experienced then. I am now tempted to write about a comparative account of landing in USA VS landing in India. I am sure there will be many parallels as well as perpendiculars. Life is slowly settling and I am feeling better each passing day.  

Our Last Month in USA

Soon after we sold our house that is on 26^{th June}, our new home owner allowed us to be there at home till 4^th of July. We had everything else sold except the refrigerator.  We gave away all small items including the office tables, chairs, hangers, kitchen items, groceries etc. On 3^rd night one person comes and enquires about the fridge. He agreed to pay only $100 for the fridge. We still had some food items inside. We are big tea fans, so just replenished our organic milk supply on 3^rd not realizing that the fridge will no longer be there after the next day. The next day, on the 4^th July, our new owner arrives with his entire crew (his wife, children)  at about 9 Am while we were still having tea. We just started boiling milk then. In any case, after seeing them, we did not want to hang around there for any longer. We decided to leave with all our belongings to the hotel. But the actual check in time for any hotel was around 2 PM. It was really very hot outside and we reached our hotel thinking that they will let us in. But, since it was holiday time, they said there is no guarantee that you will get a room even though it is booked. We could not wait any longer because we would spill and spoil the milk. So, we moved in with all our belongings loaded in a car from one hotel to another. Finally the one very close to our house, most importantly close to Y was available. We booked that and we had an early check in. Among other things we carried, utensils, kitchen papers, toilet papers, small amount of groceries. But it is needless to mention that we used each of the items that we so painfully carried with us. The next day, I was all set to go to VA to conduct workshop and jamboree. My trip to VA was very enjoyable. I will post about it later. Pramod poor thing lived in seclusion for all those 9 days and managed to sell his car on the Sunday after I came back from VA. It was all very memorable. I re-made my yoga video, put the annotations and music in it. Spend my time really leisurely going to Y, talking on phone having nature walk.

On 18^th July, we decided to check out of the hotel and stay in one of our friend’s house. We littered their house with unending number of trashy items, and feel bad about it. On 18^th evening, I could go out and say bye to all my friends. That night however, was very memorable for us for the in-appropriate behavior of our friend’s husband. It is hard to believe… The explanation for their behavior was not satisfactory and we have decided to dissociate from them. That was quite an experience. When we look back and think what has happened, we just feel overwhelmed for our new experience. Of course there is always some kind of sadness involved in losing the friendship of a close one, but hey that happens in life…

On 19^th we started for NY from DFW. Everything was good. Returned the vehicle on time, The overweight luggage bags with the domestic flights were waived in consideration of our international travel and so on. Finally, we reached in La guardia airport. We booked a room through airbnb website. I would recommend that site to anyone who does not want to pay a lot of money to the hotels and at the same time, seek the comfort of home for a long term stay. Our guest house was located in Bronx and it was just 6 miles from La guardia airport. Booked a cab, landed there by 3 PM. Pramod started his office work and I also started my work. I must admit one thing here, the internet speed was awesome. I never had experienced such high speed internet. I could do all my data downloads from the guest house. I would highly recommend this place to anyone. The place is called Sobro guest house. It has a shared kitchen, groceries, shared toilets. But nevertheless, everything was extremely clean. We went around on 19^th, did some shopping and ordered Chinese take out. The stay in NY was awesome. Then Vidya joined us on Saturday and showed us around the city. We appreciate her company and her time and moreover, it was good that we met her before we left.  We had the experience of testing some exquisite Thai tea, nice Indian Masala Dosas and some Indian Buffet. On Saturday, we managed to walk in on the Brooklyn bridge, empire state building, then time square. On Sunday, we visited the world trade center(9/11memorial) , Rockefeller center and central park. We went back to room at around 7 PM. I managed to cook in the rest house earlier and we had the opportunity to eat home cooked meal. That night, all the house-mates were very active, having Vodka, talking and playing cards etc. There was a film suit also going on at the same time. Then comes 23^rd, we set for leaving to the airport. Only dis-appointment was the taxi prices. The local taxis cost about $45 from Bronx to JFK airport, but this taxi which we thought should take $35, charged us $65 eventually.

So, in the end of our stay we learned 2 important lessons in life: 1. Never to get too close to anyone and get so attached that their behavior will hurt you. 2. Never assume anything.

My VA Trip....

Every year I enjoy my trip to VA. It has become a ritual ever since I started working from home.I get there, take few lectures on structural annotation, Nextgen sequencing and hands on exercises and participate in annotation jamboree and come back. But this year, it was really special. Every year although I assume trip to VA may be the my last one, but this year it was the "real" last one, since in less than 1 week after the workshop and jamboree I was suppose to leave for India. I don't know how but I somehow managed to keep that creepy feeling of separation away from me.

The best part of the trip was Chitii and Dewal-Rana's visit. I can't appreciate enough for the time they have spent in coming all along to say good bye to me. But in true sense, I know we will meet again somewhere sooner than we did this time. Both Dewal and Chitti  are nature lovers and their company always tempts us to explore the natural trails that Blacksburg  is blessed with. Chitti arrived from Ohio (non-stop driving) and Dewal and Rana arrived from DC after a 4 hours drive on evening of 7th July 2012. It was already evening, but we did not waste any time, managed to go to Pandapa's pond, made a full circle around the ponds. In the night, we had dinner at the sole Indian restaurant in Blacksburg followed by a VBI tour. Rana Dewal and Chitti were visiting their sitting places after a long time. By the way, although I was technically an employee of VBI, they have banished my sitting place and the computer.

The next days plan was big and adventurous. Sadly, we just had the day of 8th on our hand, since they all had to start working on the 10th onwards and 9th was kept for driving back home. I also had my jamboree on 9th. Hard pressed with time, we did something incredible. We started off in the morning after breakfast to explore the hucklebury trail from the NRV mall [More about huckleburry trail here]. We took the entire trail leisurely and completed the whole trail in 2 and half hours. Sweating profusely and beaten by scorching sun, there was no looking back. It was nice to see people cruising across the place in bikes and in running mode. Completely exhausted, we reached at the library and took Chitti's car (thanks Chitti !!) that was parked near the library to the mall. Chinese food and ice cream seemed the perfect combination at that point. Rana vowed not to come again with us that evening. We decided to take the cascade hiking that same evening - it was odd but we had no time left. But the only hitch was, we were supposed to meet Nishant, Nileshwari and their little boy in the evening for dinner and that was suppose to be at 8 PM. We reached our respective rooms by 3.30 PM and took small naps and then started of to the cascade fall at around 5 PM. As it is about 20 minutes drive and we had our own delays in stopping and taking pictures, we could reach the foot of the mountains only at 6.30 PM. However, our frequent stoppages and breaks delayed the process quite a bit. We were just about 15 more minutes to go before we reached the tip, it was already 7.30 PM and we were suppose to meet Nishant family at 8 PM. Dewal started calling them frantically from the mountain trails. But there was no network, so we decided to descend and go back directly to dinner in our sweat soaked state. We were actually quite late for dinner and I was really glad that we came down. Did not want a toddler waiting for us late in the night for dinner. I was meeting with Nishant/Nileshwari and their little boy after a long gap of 4 years!! It was great meeting with them.We 4 (Chitii, Rana, Dewal and I) went to my room after dinner at the Holiday Inn and chit chatted till wee hours of the night before parting away. Chitti stayed on for Monday. Soon after my jamboree at 5 PM, we decided to explore mountain lake. [More here]. We took pictures on and off wherever it appeared interesting. This is the place where the famous 1987 movie dirty dancing was shot. The most difficult part of the trip was climbing up the mountains and the steep sideways. I was constantly warning Chitti to not look anywhere, and poor Chitti obliged to it.

On Tuesday morning, Chitti left and I was all by myself again. Days were busy but in the evening, I always had company. On Tuesday Biswarup and Endang took me for dinner, wednes day my lab buddies Regina and Hua Wise took me to an Italian place and on Thursday, there was big dinner party at Chunxia's. This time I missed going out swimming with Chunxia. They are such sweet people. Then Susan came to pick me up on thursday night to her place to Roanoke. On Friday, I was to leave for TX. I met her girls and it is always nice to watch them grow. The little one (Natalie) likes to mingle with strangers. Both girls are soooo cute. Friday was the end of my final VA journey. I miss you all my dear friends, it was great knowing you all.... I will publish the video I made out of the photographs shortly. [Publishing the video]

Our last few days in Texas

I wanted to enjoy every day we had in Texas and it feels nostalgic now. Is it so difficult to let go of a place? May be, but writing a blog on that really helps. On July 4th we left (read rather evicted of ) our house and checked into a hotel (made sure that we moved close to Y). I left for VA on the 5th for my annual workshop while Pramod stayed on in the extended stay and managed his office work etc. My VA trip was great and I enjoyed a lot. Going to write about it in my next post with pictures and videos. I returned back on 13th, spend time very leisurely, getting up late etc. Pramod managed to cook some fish and dal and some leafy vegetables for me as welcome lunch. Went to my body pump class at 11.30 AM, had a swimming schedule in the evening but could not do it. On sunday early morning, our car was sold finally and we went and picked up a rental car, a nice one that to.

Lately Y became my lifeline...

My favorite ladies: My Zumba instructors at Y.

Sunday Lunch in Suchismita's house, followed by dinner in Pushpa nani's house. It just passed so quickly. Then came monday, I created a new yoga video and posted it. Tuesday Zumba class, took pictures with my instructors, wednes day body pump class and that is it. We went to visit one of our friends and wanted to stay back that night and something really in-appropriate happened. That made it more bizarre. We have communicated with the right parties and in few more days we may be able to do more about it.[Update: The parties have apologized, so we are good to go]. But hey, life is so full of experiences and that teaches us a lot about life. I will write about it, when I am completely out of it.[Update: Now I am out of it completely]...