Surviving Aadhar Enrollment - Day 1

Fishing out the proverbial to-do task list, I noticed that the next task was 'Do Aadhar Enrollment'. This is the task that I have been successfully putting off since past one and a half years. But no more postponing. I took a deep breath and searched on the net. Lady Luck must be smiling because I found 3-4 locations in the vicinity of where I stay. I chose the nearest one and dialed the number mentioned on the site.

A lady answered. 'Hi, your name is mentioned on the Aadhar site' I told her what she, presumably, already knew.

'Yes' she replied stoically. She must be getting many calls with similar opening lines.

'Can you please tell me what documents I need to bring?' I asked, almost expecting her to reply with a stern 'all the information is on the site'.
'An identity proof and an address proof' she spoke calmly. Some lucky ones are endowed with an almost superhuman patience.
'No photo is needed?' I asked feeling mightily relieved. My supply of my own photos was at an all-time low inventory.
'No'
'Do I need to take an appointment or can I just walk in?' I fired the last salvo and prayed that she wasn't already at the end of her tethers.
'You can walk in' the words were music to my ears. I thanked her profusely and hung up.

2-3 days later I walked into the enrollment center. Being a municipality school, it was overflowing with children in various degrees of distress along with their harassed looking parents. I walked to a person who looked like the watchman. 'Where can I go for Aadhaar.....'

'Turn to your right. It's on first floor' he replied even before I had completed my question.

When I reached the 1st floor, I didn't have to ask where the center was. The classroom on the right had all the signs of government activity. Groups of people with confusion and impatience writ large on their faces occupied the room. True to the Indian tradition, there was no apparent queue formed. I sauntered over to a lady who looked like she knew what she was doing over there.

'Do we need to fill up any form?' I asked with my heart thumping at twice its normal speed in the ribcage. Filling up a 2-page form is not one of my strong points.

'Yes, you can get it over there' She indicated a knot of people near a table. Almost everyone in that group was craning its neck towards the center so I concluded that there must be a living being somewhere there.

When I made my way there, I saw that the poor soul was fielding questions that were being thrown at him from left, right and center. One person was asking him about the documents to be submitted while another one was complaining that it won't be possible for him to come again next day. Manners told me to await my turn but I knew from experience that he who keeps his mouth shut gets served the last, or not at all.

'Excuse me, can I get 2 forms?' I jumped in when there was a lull in the conversation.

Without saying a word, he tore off a form and handed it to me.

'I need 2 forms' I said meekly, thinking he might not have heard me the first time.

'Get a xerox done'. In India, a photocopy is called a xerox.

I should have been surprised, I think. But I wasn't. This had Government stamped all over it. Don't know where all that tax money goes to work.

Fortunately, I knew there was a place nearby where a photocopy could be obtained. I re-entered the school tucking the original and photo copy under my arm. An elderly watchman on the ground floor saw me looking around for a place where I could sit to fill up my form and kindly offered me a his chair next to a table. I fumbled in my purse for the identity and address proof. 'If you have a PAN card, that will be enough' he nodded towards the document and smiled to me. I smiled back. I hope the things are that simple. You never know with proofs of any kind and government people.

After filling up the form I went back to the 1st floor and rejoined the so-called queue.

'I doubt your processing will happen today' the lady who had led me to the form said.

'Oh' I don't think it is humanely possible to be any more verbose than this when you are informed that you won't be able to finish the work that you have set out to do.

'I was here yesterday. They took my form and asked me to come today' she nodded sympathetically noting the dazed expression on my face.

'Thanks so much. I will go and ask.' I said from the bottom of my heart. This good lady had just saved me the trouble of waiting in the queue for an unknown length of time only to be told to come next day.

I went to the person dispensing the form. 'Excuse me, can you please tell me if this can be processed today or will I have to come tomorrow?'

'You will have to come tomorrow madam.'

'Will you keep this form then?'

He turned to the only person in the room who was manning the center with him. This person was filling up applicants' information in the system, taking their finger-prints, photos and iris scans. 'Can we take her form?'

'No. Madam, please come tomorrow morning' the other man looked up from his keyboard and told me.

I sighed, thanked him and turned on my heels. At least I have the form and it is filled, I said to myself. If all goes well tomorrow, I will be done with this.

And thus I survived the 1st day of Aadhar enrollment with a firm view at the proverbial silver lining.

Bora Bora, Water Field Road, Bandra (W)

Chinese, Indian, Lebanese, Malaysian and Continental - 5 cuisines under one roof! How could one resist dining at such a place? And so I landed there for lunch one aftrenoon when the sun was shining brightly outside - a rare sight in this rain-soaked month of June in Mumbai.

As we were seated, the first thing that I noticed was that the decor had a cozy feel to it - with the low ceiling and walls that looked as if they were carved out of stone. The lighting, however, for some unfathomable reason, was just bright enough to enable one to see what is served. And the music blaring from the TV sets on the walls made it well nigh impossible to carry out any conversation unless one resorted to shouting at the top of one's lungs.

 

I opened the menu with great expectations, ignored the Indian section on purpose and stole only a cursory glance through the Continental and Chinese menu.The Lebanese offering had the usual suspects - Hummus, Pita bread and Shawarma. So I turned my attention to the Malaysian cuisine. Trawling through the menu, my eyes settled on Nasi Lemak - it was described as rice flavored with coconut milk, served with chicken gravy and fried peanuts. Interesting! I wanted to go back to the Lebanese menu to choose something not sampled before but once again I was vetoed down by the rest of the family. I was allowed to experiment, but within the safe confines of Chinese cuisine. I would have loved to go for Honey Chicken but settled instead for Crispy Thread Chicken.

The Crispy Thread Chicken was served first. At first glance, it looked as if the chicken pieces are wrapped in fluffy cotton candy. A bite, however, revealed that they were rice noodles, fried crispy to perfection. The meat was tender and well seasoned. The dish was served with a sweet tangy sauce - a perfect accompaniment! I once again wondered, albeit uselessly, if it would be possible to cook such a dish at home.

The Nasi Lemak was served next. I prefer my chicken to be boneless - though I am told that chicken with bones has a taste of its own. So I stuck to the gravy. We weren't sure about the exact method of eating this dish so we went the Khao Soi way - some rice on the plate, gravy poured on top along with a bit of sauce that came in a small bowl, a smattering of the fried peanuts and fried onions to top it all. Wait a minute! What's that fishy smell? Oh, what I had taken to be fried onion was in reality fried dried prawns. :-( This was the only sour point, at least for me, in an otherwise really delicious dish.

So, in short, Bora Bora is definitely a good place to go to if you are sick of looking at the same menus and want to try something different. I hope you are a bit more adventurous than I was. :-)

Love In Mumbai

I tuned in to my favorite FM show on Golden Era songs - Purani Jeans - hosted by RJ Anmol on Radio Mirchi, after a very long time recently. Right in the middle of the show, Anmol spoke with Monjoy Mukerjee, son of the late Hindi movie actor Joy Mukerjee. He told Anmol that Joy Mukerjee has produced a film called 'Love In Mumbai' but did not release it for reasons best known to him. His family knew about it but they didn't know where he has kept the reels. After Joy's death, his son diligently searched for them and spent about a year working on it. Looks like now the work is done and they might release it in July. The movie features Joy Mukerjee, Wahida Rehman, Rehman, Kishor Kumar and Ashok Kumar.

As far as I know Joy Mukerjee made his movie debut with 'Love In Simla' - Sadhana was the heroine. I have seen only parts of this movie - it is aired sometimes on the B&W channel. From what I have seen, it looked like a story of a rich beautiful girl who is all set to marry the hero until he falls for her poor orphan plain Jane cousin (played by Sadhana). I haven't heard all the songs from the movie but 'लव्हका मतलब है प्यार' didn't sound too melodious. 'Love In Tokyo' - with Asha Parekh - however, did have a bevy of melodies - ले गयी दिल गुडिया जापानकी, ओ मेरे शाह-ए-खुबा, सायोनारा सायोनारा and my absolute favorite, मुझे तुम मिल गये हमदम. I guess 'Love In Mumbai' sort of completes the trilogy.

I hope they do end up releasing the film. I will definitely go and watch it - to live in the Golden Era that was almost over when I was born.

Horror Movies on Movies Now in July

If you are fond of the things that go bump in the night, do tune in to Movies Now channel in July. From 4th July onwards, they are going to air horror movies at 11pm every Thursday.

Get ready to be scared out of your skin! :-)

Wrong Answer

A teacher teaching Maths to seven-year-old Laiq asked him, “If I give you one apple and one apple and one apple, how many apples will you have?”

Within a few seconds Laiq replied confidently, “Four!”

The dismayed teacher was expecting an effortless correct answer, three. She was disappointed. “Maybe the child did not listen properly.” – she thought.

She repeated, “Laiq, listen carefully. If I give you one apple and one apple and one apple, how many apples will you have?”

Laiq had seen the disappointment on his teacher’s face. He calculated again on his fingers. But within him he was also searching for the answer that will make the teacher happy. His search for the answer was not for the correct one, but the one that will make his teacher happy.

This time hesitatingly he replied, “Four.”

The disappointment stayed on the teacher’s face. She remembered that Laiq liked strawberries.

She thought maybe he doesn’t like apples and that is making him lse focus.

This time with an exaggerated excitement and twinkling in her eyes she asked, “If I give you one strawberry and one strawberry and one strawberry, then how many you will have?”

Seeing the teacher happy, young Laiq calculated on his fingers again. There was no pressure on him, but a little on the teacher. She wanted her new approach to succeed.

With a hesitating smile young Laiq replied, “Three?”

The teacher now had a victorious smile. Her approach had succeeded. She wanted to congratulate herself.

But one last thing remained. Once again she asked him, “Now if I give you one apple and one apple and one more apple how many will you have?”

Promptly Laiq answered, “Four!”

The teacher was aghast. “How Laiq, how?” she demanded in a little stern and irritated voice.

In a voice that was low and hesitating young Laiq replied, “Because I already have one apple in my bag.”

Moral:  When someone gives you an answer that is different from what you expect, don’t think they are wrong. There shall be an angle that you may not have thought about yet.