Indian Passport: Love Hate and Anticipation 1

Applying for my Passport for the FIRST TIME and since I had heard so many stories about peoples attempt in getting one I just thought why not share the whole process of mine with you all. By the way I am not going to violate any norms of National Security so you Government people don't you dare misinterpret my post and come calling on my doorstep.
After lot of persuasion I reached a level where I couldn't take it anymore of not having a passport and not having the option of visiting abroad. As this is right now a lean period in office for the arts programmers (people in accounts are right now in the spotlight) I thought its a good time to put my energy into this and get this passport issue done once and for all. Like an innocent lamb I entered the passport site and boom the devil was there with multiple links to fry my brain out. Calmly and quietly I ventured for the step by step  form fill up and by the end of it I was like wow its so easy. Great job Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) great job with this whole online application thing. With hope in my heart I submitted the form and asked for an appointment schedule. Thus started the roller coaster ride and after like 50 attempts I lost hope. Called up the toll free help line and found out that I gotta log in on Saturday at exactly 4pm in the afternoon and will be able to get things done. By this time I was still hopeful. But just to be sure I called up a friend of mine to learn more and she told me to "............hahahahahahahaha". Not the reaction I was looking for. She had applied for an Urgent (Tatkal) Passport where the Passport office claimed to take 15 days to deliver but it has been 14 days since she couldn't log in to the site. Her advise was wake up by 1o'clock in the nihgt reach passport office by 2am and by 4pm next morning your turn will come and wallah you will find yourself victorious. As the conversation rolled on we even thought of kidnapping the guy from Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) who was in-charge of building the whole site and make him tweak here and tweak there to get us the appointment schedule by torturing him (tickling him Asterix and Oblix style.)
Well that was all I could achieve today and now my head is so buzzed that the only song that is playing havoc inside my head is ....

The Passport Song

Those of you who already have their Passport pray for me that I can be brave and strong in this hour of ordeal. Will keep you all posted about this on Saturday. Good night.

Sleeping Editors make Kolkata Itch

" A tweet by @iPoonampandey was reproduced in t2 on March 19 because of a technical error. The Telegraph had no intention to hurt the sentiments of any community. We apologise for publishing the tweet. "

What a load of crap. How can a newspaper print a tweet without putting it under the editorial inspection in the first place? Either the editorial team was sleeping or they thought it’s quite hep to print something this nonsensical. I am not dumb enough to link it or post it in spite of the fact that this is my personal blog. Furthermore there is conscious effort in killing the story about the protest that brewed from it in Kolkata tonight. No information means more chaos Media should know that better. And furthermore the national news channels are killing this news too. Just because some media friend did a mistake and that erupted into a riot like situation in Kolkata (Park Circus Area) doesn't mean you stop making news out of it. One needs transparency in media. But in one way it’s good that the stupid media people (Since they have themselves proved their stupidity) are not taking up this story. God knows what they would have done. For 30 years my father was a journalist. He taught me to criticise media and not takes it in its face value. It is sad that tremendous hard work that he had done in his career today stands disgraced. Yes I agree there is lot of pressure on people in the news house but that doesn’t mean that you completely lose your mind .On top of all this they put up an apology like this (above mentioned). The apology should have been.

" A tweet by @iPoonampandey was reproduced in t2 on March 19 because of a technical error. The Telegraph had no intention to hurt the sentiments of any community. We apologise for publishing the tweet and we have sacked the team who are behind this negligence. "

Models are a beauty queen that’s their job they should not be made into opinion leaders. In today’s world superstars are made within seconds but they are superstars only in their business. Don’t make them Gods in things where they have no credibility. Hope this post finds more voices thus making it loud and clear and instead of firing innocents the media house that is The Telegraph (I don't need to politicaly correct here like our Chief Minister Mamta Banerjee who couldn't even take The Telegraphs name as if it was Lord Voldermort) should start firing those over paid fat baffoons from their cushy cabins and throw them into the street.

The Pizza Lullaby

The power of today's online advertising is sooooo cooollll. Well I should know it best for I was a Mass Communication student and had spent quite a number of years pursuing the career of a web designer. But everybody knows best. The reason I am suddenly awed by this is because after coming back from office I fell asleep  with the laptop on. But the damn phone wont give me any peace. After the call I woke up logged into Facebook and wallah its a new post from Pizza Hut advertising there assorted menu for garlic breads. In a half sleepy hungry state the mind became prey to this ad and now I am waiting eagerly for cheese garlic bread and a zesty chicken pizza with pepperoni toppings. Any moment now the pizza will be here and life will seem wonderful. A certain amount of childish excitement is brewing inside me. But all this new age advertising also distracts you a bit. In all this excitement I forgot to wish a dear friend of mine HAPPY BIRTHDAY and now that I have done that she is asking for a crate of beer. Well the purse is there to be emptied so what the heck. 

Ohhhh goody the Pizza is here and now I stop singing this song. 

Though its a  Domino's Pizza song its the best pizza song ever

Freud and Bengali Mutton Curry

Bengali Mutton Curry

Ahhhhhh back again. and the first thing that pops in my mail is my brother asking me what was there for lunch and also correcting my spellings. Well now that I have corrected my spellings why not further inform the wonderful sunday lunch that I had. Well as I ventured to take off the lid I found a deadly concussion with pieces of mutton and potato. Completely red in colour which had no delicious reassurance. Fried eggplant, some fried slices of potato and dahl. Ohh yes to mix it all up there was pristine white rice, innocence wrapped in a casserole. Thus the menu was in Bengali Bhat - Dahl - Begun Bhaja - Aloo Bhaja - Panthar Mangsho. Bengalis abroad will die for a lunch like this but those from foreign lands should never venture into this they will get burned inside.

Sigmund Freud

I am a fast eater and today I was even faster. After having the lunch it was definitely a heart attack that i was getting. Couldn't move much but the seasoned bengali appetite got it all down in no time. Of course to felicitate the digestion process I slept like a slob with strange dreams. I don't know whether Freud wrote about it or not but in tropical weather I have seen that a post lunch nap issues more dreams than in the night. Opps i just wrote something I shouldn't have written. My god what a sin. I just hope that this blog post gets lost in the web. If any Bengali intellectual or as a matter of fact any individual who has read the back cover synopsis of Interpretations of Dreams they will just keep on commenting and commenting and commenting thus making sure that i find myself in an asylum. But alas I will continue.
And what more to say, Politics trying to get some mileage over cricket. In one hand Pakistan made 330 runs and India chasing it like some Bollywood villain and on the other hand its the India's Rail Minister playing the lead role in a sentimental thriller sit com "I will leave my Chair huh!" Dinesh Trivedi best of luck.

Little Red Riding Hood with Grandma Wolf

Ohhh no, again wrong statements, now I am seriously dead. I should start writing about sexual repression and gender biased fairy tales. But noooooo some English Literature student will spank my butt just for kicks. I think its the traumatic red mutton curry that is acting up now. 

Lets rest the case here and go back to facebook. I just don't want to miss whatever is left of this Sunday which is rapidly coming to an end. Oh and just for information its the same bloody old Mutton curry that is there for Dinner this time with Roti.

Adele singing whats there for lunch

Is there any reason to feel sad when its already afternoon and you still haven't taken your shower haven't had your lunch and all you are doing is lying around and listening to Adele - Make you feel my love in a constant loop and your pack of twenty cigarettes is almost empty? The house is empty and the curtains are drawn and because of late payment Vodafone has cut done my outgoing facilities. 

Adele performing in 2009 

There I go again I pressed the replay button damn that girl Adele.

Well after a crazy week of back to back events, parties, anonymous phone calls  and hospitals my fatigued brain cells have made it impossible to think straight. We Bengalis have this great quality of being extremely lazy and can spend hours without moving a single muscle but its just difficult to put the mind at ease. We are thinking global economy and whats there for lunch at the same time. I think we justify our physically vegetable state by over working of our brain, end of the day we are back to square one fatigued to the core of our bones.

In my case one such thought that is popping up is to redecorate my room. But with my salary vanishing quickly out of my account what ever I am thinking the practical SOB inside me is crushing it down. But none the less I am hopeful that I will be able to execute most of my desired decorations by next month. I have even done copious amount of sketches of how my room should look and on paper I have achieved quite a satisfactory plan. Now its time just for the right kind of motivation. Well I could have told my girlfriend to motivate me but she will beat the hell out of me if she gets to know that I am again upto spending money. Plus right now I am playing the role of the motivator trying to get her finish her PhD proposal which she needs to submit to one university whose last date of submission is tomorrow. Ouch! that hurts. I can already feel her invisible pinches for writing this.

Looking at her study and write made me so jealous. I also want to do it but sadly I never had any stamina to venture into academics. I think I am like those sages beneath the banyan tree who is very happy to give out wisdom (Not Free Ones) in one session and then just leave it to lesser mortals to figure the damn thing out. Ouch! again the invisible pinches.

Actually I come from a quite an academic family with grandfathers as renowned professors and  psychologist  my mother as a teacher of English to my father as journalist and my brother as a Cambridge University St John's College research scholar. Me, I am the black sheep of the family. With my inherited qualities I opted for being in the field than in the realms of theories. 

Urrrggghhhhh.... no point crying over spilled milk now that i my mind has drifted to whats there for lunch lets just go and have it. 

Adele just one more time if you please sing that song again dear ..... Loop loop loop ........