A Date with the Raj
Yesterday we all had to go register with the FFOR, which is the Indian Govt office that keeps track of foreigners. Of course we already have perfectly valid visas, but we still had to go along with about 1000 pages of paperwork to be registered to stay in the country. The first step was reasonably modern, we had to sit at a computer and type in all our details, visa numbers, place of work, vital statistics etc. These get printed out.
Then we had to take the printout to a desk, where a lady takes it gives me a receipt duplicated 3 times with carbon paper (something I haven't seen since about 1978) I then take the receipt to another lady who gives me a little blue book (with handwritten receipt) and a folder. I then take the book and fill in for all four of us the same details I had already typed into the computer only this time by hand.
Now I take the books and the binders back to the first lady. She puts all our paperwork in the binders and stamps the books about a gazillion times. Now I have to take all of these over to the supervisor to check. Once he's gone over it all we can leave.
It took around 3 hours for the process.
The whole thing looked just like one of those little Indian offices you see in the movies with rows of people at old desks, everyone sitting there with books of chits and rubber stamps.
But we can now stay in the country until our visa expires.
In other news our flat in Bandra will be ready in two weeks. Bandra is the Indian equivalent of Beverly Hills, it's very nice, all the Bollywood stars live there and it has some great restaurants, bars and clubs. Our flat is around 1500 sq ft and will be $4000 a month (we're not paying of course) which just goes to show the demand for housing here.
The other amazing thing we have found here is the obsession with light switches. Every individual bulb has it's own switch, and they are very keen on small recessed lights, what this means is that in our temporary flight, again around 1500sq ft there are over 100 light switches; and of course there is no logic to the switch location.
Tomorrow I think we'll ge tour driver to take us down to Marine Drive for a walk along the beach.
Hopefully we'll get some pictures up soon!
Then we had to take the printout to a desk, where a lady takes it gives me a receipt duplicated 3 times with carbon paper (something I haven't seen since about 1978) I then take the receipt to another lady who gives me a little blue book (with handwritten receipt) and a folder. I then take the book and fill in for all four of us the same details I had already typed into the computer only this time by hand.
Now I take the books and the binders back to the first lady. She puts all our paperwork in the binders and stamps the books about a gazillion times. Now I have to take all of these over to the supervisor to check. Once he's gone over it all we can leave.
It took around 3 hours for the process.
The whole thing looked just like one of those little Indian offices you see in the movies with rows of people at old desks, everyone sitting there with books of chits and rubber stamps.
But we can now stay in the country until our visa expires.
In other news our flat in Bandra will be ready in two weeks. Bandra is the Indian equivalent of Beverly Hills, it's very nice, all the Bollywood stars live there and it has some great restaurants, bars and clubs. Our flat is around 1500 sq ft and will be $4000 a month (we're not paying of course) which just goes to show the demand for housing here.
The other amazing thing we have found here is the obsession with light switches. Every individual bulb has it's own switch, and they are very keen on small recessed lights, what this means is that in our temporary flight, again around 1500sq ft there are over 100 light switches; and of course there is no logic to the switch location.
Tomorrow I think we'll ge tour driver to take us down to Marine Drive for a walk along the beach.
Hopefully we'll get some pictures up soon!