visa apps and misc paperwork

Well, as my "India list" slowly dwindles, item by item I am checking things off my list, I am finding myself putting the finishing touches on our visa applications. We can't do anything wrong. We can't forget to cross a t or dot an I or they threaten to decline our tourist visas. I was in Vancouver on the weekend so I went to the consulate directly to get the low down about this one clause I had read on the website while browsing for the instructions how to apply. It said that if your passport was not issued within the vancouver jurisdiction, that you need to send in a utility bill in your name and a "reference form" along with your application and all the other stuff. So, here is where the Indian bureaucracy and red tape come in. I initially called the consulate to ask what that meant. Did that mean us? Since our passports were issued in Ottawa? The man on the phone was uncertain so he said it is best to send them both in anyhow, just to be on the safe side. Ok, fair enough. Then my next question was "what is this reference form". On the visa application there is already a section where you fill in your references, but are they talking about a separate form? its sound like it.
So while in vancouver i thought what better thing than to go straight in to their office and find out first hand. Well. After circling the block for parking like 8 times, I finally went in. The office was jammed with Indian nationals getting passports. There is a "security officer" slash front desk door guy sitting at a low desk who looks like he is accepting people's applications. I am advised to take a number. My number is about 35 positions away from the numbers currently being called out. I decide to wait and take my chance asking my question to this officially dressed guy at the door. I am subjected to a couple of cases of the "men first" rule rampant in India. Realizing this. Realizing that the fact that I am in this short line but that I keep getting bumped as men come in front of me. Only one person respectfully lines up after me when they come in. She is a woman. When I realize this, that i am going to have to get a little more aggressive or i might be there all day, i step up and say excuse me, leaving no room for further budging. I present him with my predicament. (The place is a zoo and he is clearly trying to process as many people as he can, as quickly as he can). His advice is that in my case, I only really need the utility bill in my name, NOT the reference form. I argue. "Are you absolutely certain? I mean, why would it SAY that, that i need both, if that wasn't the case? I don't want to mail it all in, only to have it returned to me saying incomplete, and we only have time to go through this process once, since, as always, they date the visa start date from the moment they approve the visa, for 6 months from that date, they don't care when your departure date is. and since i am there for 5 months, i need at the soonest, 1 month before my departure. processing can take 2 weeks, hopefully not more. its a bit of a tight timeline.
So anyhow. We argue. Finally he grabs two forms and thrusts them at me. They are the alleged "reference forms". One for me and one for my mother. "Here you go! he says". and so i thank him and back out, back into the hall. I figure then at that point that it couldn't hurt to just send in both the utility bill AND the extra reference form, just to be on the safe side BUT then i look down at the forms. And across the top is written: ADDITIONAL FORM TO BE FILLED BY NON-CANADIAN NATIONAL!!! AAAAAHHHH!!! I told him I was Canadian, born and raised. he knew this. So why am i now holding this form in my hand? I am not a non-canadian national!!
So that is how i arrived home from vancouver the other day, more confused than when i left. So again today, I phoned the consulate. I explained my situation. The person on the other end was the most competent sounding person out of the three that i talked to. Instead of sounding like he was just trying to get rid of me as fast as possible, he actually asked me all sorts of pertinent questions pertaining to my case And THEN gave me his recommendation. He said yes, both the utility bill AND the reference form, exactly the one i had been given at the consulate. I explained to him how it didn't seem right, since the form clearly stated that it was for non-canadian nationals, which i clearly am not. "i know, i know, it does, but that's ok, just fill out the form please and send it in with everything else". twice we went over this point and twice he assurred me that it seemed wrong but to just do it. and not to just fill out the forms in pen, but to download it online and fill it out on the computer and then print it, so that my answers were typed.
Well that's all fine and dandy but then do you think i could download the document AND then type my answers into it? no, of course, nothing could be that simple. it was an adobe document that is read only, you cannot make changes to it. and i couldn't just copy and paste it to another document because then the fancy consulate insignias weren't transferred. There must be a way, a technologically savvy way, if anyone knows one, let me know. Instead I ended up printing the form and then refeeding it into the printer and printing the answers on it from a separate document a separate time. so ridiculous.
anyhow, so that is that. done. and the finished product looks quite nice i might add. i made one for mom too.
details are getting finalized.

AHAHAAHAHAAHAHAAAHAHAHA!

laughter. isn't it great? life is hilarious. well, i booked a whole bunch of stuff yesterday, hotels in van, in delhi, car pickups in delhi and our ashram stay in rishikesh, all sorts of stuff. and it is so fun. fun to book. fun to do. now i need to back up my computer files for the trip. i'm taking my computer with me. in that past i would have dead against that (pardon my total disregard for capitalization right now, tis late).... but now... i dunno. i can see the value in having it. i am just going to back up my files so just in case something happens.
tonight was week 2 of the Yoga for Back Health class, and i am pretty sure I have found my calling. Its the back health yoga. It is just so fun. to me, anyways. and what a great group we have. i am so impressed with these people. and i am having fun too. well, just a quick note then. i'm tired and need to turn in. peace and love to all, and to all a goodnight.

visa applications and temple

Will it be the same? Writing this time? I suppose we shall see.

I am sort of looking forward to the journey. Sort of is an understatement. I am doing all I can to stay in the present and resist the temptation to project myself off into the future, into some idealized time 2 months from now, when I am in India. I know I will be there soon enough. To just be where I am and appreciating this moment, here and now, is the challenge, but i feel it is of the utmost importance.

I am wondering if the creative urge to write will well up inside me again. I am not sure what at all is going to happen. Lots has changed in the last 2 years since I was last in India. ... when was that? i came back to Canada April 30th, 2009. I was just looking back in my passport the other day. So that means it has not even been 2 years since I was there. Time flies. No, it will have been only 1 and a half years between trips. that is so cool. Of course I couldn't have done it without the loving support of my parents. Thank you.

Actually, I've been very busy in those 1 and a half years.

I am looking forward to being over there and not having to do anything but sit on a rock and watch the Ganga flow by. Does that sound like a waste of time to any one out there? Believe me, I am looking forward to it.

So I was perusing my passport the other day, as I said. I was preparing my application for my Indian visa and they want to know all about your past trips to India. So I was hunting around in the pages of my passport, trying to decode all the stamps and stickers and read the smudge entry and exit dates in languages I can't read. luckily numbers are universal to all languages. well, i mean, the actual form of the numbers.

I had to get my visa pictures redone because the first batch was totally the wrong size. duh. The second batch turned out waaay better anyhow. I was in some kind of funk the first time I went for pictures. The second time I was feeling a little bit mischevious and made a bit of a silly face.... but it is still a serious face, as is required for all passport photos now. You are not allowed to smile. and of course i forgot and was grinning like a fool, until i remembered not to smile, so I think I reeled in my mouth, but my eyes are still clearly smiling... there is nothing they can do about that, is there. Goofy picture.

The visa application is a hoot too. Typical Indian document. It makes me a little eager for my trip and nostalgic for the country that I call my second home. What am I eager for? I think I am most eager to go back to a place where money is not the main pre-occupation with the people. I am eager to be amongst a people who know how to pray, who consider the destiny of their soul almost every day. Maybe I am idealizing it. Many would say I am, and I guess that is why I don't want to think about it too much. I don't want to romanticize it before I get there and then feel let down because I've built it up so much in my mind or something.

It is very difficult to explain, because our society is so... ambitious, so driven, so obsessed with collecting nuts for the winter. And I know many will think this is naive and silly, but I just want to sit on the sand and look out over the ocean.... eat a mango, take a nap in my hammock. When did life become so complicated? This is what my friends and I were just asking ourselves tonight as we picnicked on the studio floor by candlelight.... When did it all get so complicated? We just want to sit on the water's edge somewhere with our toes dangling in the water.

Today my friend Steph took me to temple. We had 20 minutes to kill while we were waiting for our pakoras and chaat from Spice on the north shore. It was so peaceful in there. We went in, removed our shoes, washed our hands and covered our heads (how is it that i just happened to be wearing a sort of dupatta or scarf that day around my neck). No one was in the temple, which was carpeted in a typical Indian bright red and blue carpet. There is a large Punjabi population in Kamloops. Steph is... 2nd or 3rd generation? Her dad was raised in Canada and although he is Indian, he is as Canadian as my dad is.

Temple was quiet. We offered our prayers and prostrations. It felt good to press my head to the floor. And then we sat quietly without speaking and just absorbed the peace of the room. Quietly a recording of chanting was playing. It was utterly peaceful and soothing. The feeling that something greater was at play than our silly day to day worries and concerns that we get so caught up in like they actually MEAN something. So calm, so very relaxing and nurturing. It was wonderful. What an oasis. As we nibbled our prasad, Steph told me stories about her childhood and her mother. After we left I continued to feel so calm and just an overall sense of wellbeing and relaxation and ease that I did not have going in. All these tensions and worries just melted away. It was heaven.

Thank you Steph!

Ouch

OUCH!
Don't remember Hep B shots hurting quite so much.
No, I'm pretty sure last time I got one at the travel clinic 2 years ago I distinctly complimented the nurse on how I really didn't feel a thing, she was THAT good. Where was that lovely woman last Thursday? Hmmm. I actually jumped in my chair when she stuck me. Actually physically flinched, and it wasn't just painful for the millisecond going in, or the instant it came out.... it hurt going in, coming out and all the time in between. So much that I couldn't stop myself from saying out loud: "owow, why does it HURT so much?". She told me a couple of excuses, the sirum was cold, this and that, etc. All of which I believed and ate up in the moment. But once I walked away and out to my car, I got to thinking that no, no, it didn't feel like that AT ALL last time. I remember because I commented on how I had felt nothing before.
Maybe she was just being rough to punish me because I had admitted to writing in my OWN yellow vaccination book, filling in a missing entry myself a couple years ago because I had not had my card with me at the time when I had had a hep A shot.
Anyhow. I am getting all shot up. I only have one "B" shot left to get (when i get home from India) and then I am all good for life for both Hep A AND B. ALL done, thank you ma'am.
yipee! so that's fun. Even though shots are like.... not easy for me at all. I've stopped warning them though, that I am a baby, but now I am thinking to start again. I am thinking that it would make them feel more sorry for you and then, perhaps, be more GENTLE? My arm is still sore. Three days later.

hahaha.
oh boy, i am going to have fun with all my points of view on this blog again. I guess that's what blogs are all about, right? A place to spew all your points of view about everything you come in contact with.
So, no, maybe I will have a different goal with this blog. Maybe my goal will be.... to have a creative outlet. Not an outlet for my whining and moaning, but a real creative outlet. And to share ..... stories.
I know there's not much to say yet, at this point, still in Canada. Still two months away until departure. But I know that that time goes by fast. The last two months in the bat of an eyelash. Just getting ready. Now we are good for vaccinations. Got our visa photos done too. So that's all ready. Even bought our lonely planet guide book to India, the one with the big pink turban on the cover. So we've been flipping through it, looking at the Taj Mahal and planning our route.
There is talk about whether we want to get malaria prophylactics or not (spelling?). The jury is still out on that one. Just this one possible problem area we MIGHT go to: Goa. Need to do more research. Of course the travel clinic and the family doctor are ALL about anti-malarials. They always are. But in reality.... well, we shall see. Bit more research.

One fun thing: it is fun to be planning this trip, and as we are planning it, to be saying "we". To be using the pronoun "we", is fun. we, not I. This is a very different experience for me. To say "we" rather than "I". And i like it. Everytime I say "we", I get a nice feeling. To know that me and mama are going together. I don't know when mama is gonna read this, or if she ever will, if she will ever know how happy I am that she has agreed to come with. What a great gift she is giving.
I have a busy next two months planned. I was thinking of even beginning to tell people I am leaving two weeks earlier than I am, just so I have some down time at the end to great ready.
Ach, I'll have time. All will be well. All will be good.