Passport renewal in US

http://heresvivek.blogspot.com/2013/09/applying-for-indian-passport-at-bls.html

https://talkingleaf.wordpress.com/2014/06/27/indian-passport-renewal-with-bls-international-stressfull-experince-and-lessons-learned/

http://dipendu.blogspot.com/2013/11/indian-passport-renewal-by-mail-in-usa.html

These 3 posts helped me a lot to get the passport for my wife & my daughter (5 year old) renewed. My wife's passport got renewed in one shot while for my Daughter the application got returned once due to faint finger prints on first page of main application. I had to re-send  my Daughter's application with a more darker finger print. rea

Overall the process was very smooth. I am assuming that BLS is improving a lot.
I also called up BLS once - though it takes 30-40 minutes to reach them but once you reach them they are very helpful.

Below are few things that I learned
1) It's always better to use UPS instead of Fedex since UPS pickup happens daily from BLS office while Fedex pickup needs to be scheduled. Though both works UPS will be faster.
2) Getting Affidavits done at UPS store is quite easy
3) I got the thumb print stamp from Amazon for my daughter (5 year old)
4) I used ePassportPhoto.com to get the photos shipped to nearby Walgreens. I already had the soft copy of picture from India from my last Visa application
5) Make sure to use Affidavit of change of appearance for children

Life is mesmerizing

Life is such a beautiful yet mesmerizing gift.
Really? Who cares? Too busy ? Maybe later?
It's funny that we rarely find time to give some time back to ourselves.

I am a person who likes to stay busy doing productive things and you would rarely find me sitting idle. As a result my mind has a lot of thought clouds going around all the time. Earlier I used to think it's just me but was later relieved to know that it is with all of us. There is a constant criss-cross flow of thoughts going through the mind.

Yesterday while lying down on bed looking through the big window in my bedroom watching the green lush trees swaggering gracefully with winds I tried to live in the moment for sometime without thinking about the long list of things that I had in my backlog to be done.

It brought peace followed by a lot of questions and a flash of memories.

What is the goal of life? What are we running after?
Everyone wants to be happy. Now the big question is how to be happy. We often tie our happiness to Objects like a nice Car, handsome boyfriend etc but once we have it; it is able to sustain happiness for only few days.

The reality is that happiness is something that we need to find inside.
"Wait! I have heard it on Facebook".
True, there is nothing new in what I said. But things are easier said than done.

I am sharing few things below which I believe can bring happiness for you.

To be happy we need to make people around us happy. That is the best way I have found to stay happy. You don't need to do big things to spread happiness to people around you.
All you need to do is to be kind, human, be a good listener without judging people, smile when you meet people. Make people feel special about them.

Share your thoughts also on how to stay happy.
Bye for now

Life in US

Hello Friends... I am going to talk here little bit of my stay in US...
I am from India and I stayed in US from 6 April 2007 to 10th Sept 2011 (4 years 5 months)
It was on a intra-company transfer from TCS to Bank of America

I enjoyed my stay in US a lot and now when back in India I miss it a lot.
I stayed at 4 different cities in US
[1] Newark, Delaware
From April 2007 to Sept 2009
a) Allandale Apartments -> With roommates
b) Cavalier apartments -> With roommates

[2] Seattle, Washington
a) Summerhill apartment -> stayed for sometime with my wife and after She left lived with a roommate.
Sept 2009 to March 2010

[3] Charlotte, North Carolina
a) Autumn Hill -> stayed with roommates who also worked in TCS
b)Ashford Green -> stayed with my wife and Kid
From March 2010 to June 2011

[4] Auburn Hills, Michigan
From June 2011 to Sept 2011
Name of Apartment
a) Knollwood -> stayed with roommates. Found them on Craigslist

Some cities visited by me during my stay in US
[1] New York
[2] Washington
[3] Las Vegas
[4] Lavenworth
[5] Atlantic city
[6] Philadelphia
[7] Richmond
[8] Houston
[9] Seattle
[10] Chicago
[11] Wilmington, NC
[12] Atlanta
[13] Ocean city
[14] St Louis
[15] San Francisco

Now I am back in U.S. from Oct 2014 :)

DMV California - written test tips

[1] BAC alcohol level for age 21 and above -> 0.08

[2] if you are found to have a BAC of more than 0.08 -> DMV might take administrative action against you

[3] it is legal to make phone calls in which case -> only in emergency case ( not allowed even on red light)

[4] it is legal to leave a child under age 6 -> if there is someone 12 or older to look after kid

[5] when a car in front of you is waiting to make a left turn -> you can pass him if there is enough space to pass him without going over shoulder

[6] motorbike can legally use the space between lanes

[7] speed limit in residential area if not specified -> 25 MPH

[8] if you evade or escape from an accident site -> you can get a jail of max 1 year

[9] right turn on a red signal only after coming to stop

[10] in all questions pedestrian always has right of way

[11] it is NOT legal to have headphone on both ear while driving

[12] along which colored curb can you park -> green

[13] slow down near sharp curve for comfortable turn

[14] when there is so much fog that you can barely see -> turn on hazard lights and pull out of traffic and stop

[15] which light to use in rain & fog -> low beam

[16] if you have to continuously use wiper due to rain then you should turn headlight on (NOT high beam)

Bumper to bumper

Today I am goint to write about my driving expereince in India. I have recently returned from US after having stayed there for close to 5 years. US is the first place where I learned driving and there I used to drive a nice brand new silver colored Toyota corolla. As many of you know Cars in US are automatic. Secondly roads are too good and driving rules are followed by all. Also there is a Cop everywhere in case you break any traffic rule. To summarize driving in US is easy and organized.

On returning to India I was initially scared to drive. Especially to drive a manual gear car. I had taken driving classes in April 2007 just before leaving for US but couldn't learn it. I started off by driving my father's Maruti Alto in my hometown Ranchi for sometime. Anytime any big vehicle came in front I used to get very nervous. Also engine of my car used to get stopped several times due to me not using clutch and gears properly. That was very embarassing. Especially if you had lot of cars behined you honking at you. I did search internet to see how feasible is driving Automatic car in India and what options are available. It think i10 has one automatic car. At the end I decided to go the tough way to learn true indian style of driving on manual car as I wanted to get a feel of it. In Jan 2012 I moved to Pune and started driving school classes in March 1st week. I took only 4 classes. During those classes I had most trouble during taking turns and merging with traffic. Unlike US you don't wait for anyone in India - you just jump in.

On 14th March I got my Honda Brio and my driving in India kicked off. My biggest huddles to start with were [1] Stopping car from going back on a slope [2] Preventing my engine from shutting down when too slow This 2 items took me a while to get grip Also it takes time to learn when to use which gear. If you make one wrong choice your engine grunts at you. Driving in India is truly multiasking involving all your limbs. Two hands on wheel or 1 hand on wheel and another on gear stick. Though slowly I have become comfortable to drive with one hand on Wheel. Your one leg needs to switch between gear and brake. You can never ever afford to make a wrong switch as the results will be sure sort accident. Luckily I never went wrong on those two. Your other leg needs to be on clutch pedal and it does have to do lot of work. I sometimes get tired just changing gears in a slow moving traffic and in such cases you make 1 wrong choice and your engine might either grunt or stop all together.

Most annoying things at start of my driving [1] I used to keep some space bwetween my and front car which other people used to push there car in to gain 1-2 sec. [2] Cars suddenly coming in front overtaking me. [3] Cars suddenly stopping. [4] Pedestrians taking walk leisurly on road. Even not responding to horn. Forget responding people don't even turn to look at the honking car.

My car is just 2 months old but has already got it's own share of scratch and dents. First dent and scratch I got was when I was entering Pune Central on Baner Road. The end of this parking lot is too narrow and I hit left side of my car's body to a concrete getting it a dent at the bottom of back door. Second was when going to office when a two wheeler crossing the road perpendicularly left a small scar on front of my car. Though it was hardly visible. Third one was when returning from office close to my home a truck's tyre had got puntured and the truck guy had parked his truck right on road leaving very little space for a car to cross. At first I was hesistant and started taking back gear. But then I saw another car who made it through the narrow space. Looking at that I too decided to go that way. But unlucky for me my left side mirror got hit and I had to back off and also while backing off my car's left handside body got a scratch. 4th and the last one was when going to Life republic when my left window got hit and broken. I have placed a order for it and it is going to cost Rs 3000. That is too much! Hope this incidents turn out to be the last ones and I am able to drive peacefully and safely on indian roads.

BIA Bengaluru Airport to Whitefield (CMR college)

When coming from Bengaluru (Bangalore) Airport to Whitefield the best option is to take BMTC AC Volvo bus. The bus stand is just outside Airport and is easy to locate.

One important note - BIA6 bus will take you upto Kundalahalli but that will be a reallyyyyy long trip as it goes from within cities. It took me over 2 hours from BIA to Kindalahalli gate. I had taken bus around 5:15 at Airport.

Instead take the bus that takes you to just Marathalli Bridge (other than BIA6). You will have to walk a little in this case - from below bridge to above bridge to catch next bus to Whitefield (CMR college). Use 335E as next bus.

Whitefield (CMR college) to BIA Bengaluru Airport experiences

Hello friends

Here are some tips for people traveling to Bengaluru Airport from Whitefield area (CMR college). This article is based on my personal experience.

[1] to catch a morning 7:30 flight I could not find any option other than booking a Meru cab at 5:00 AM. It cost me Rs 700.

[2] next to catch a 9:50 flight below is how I reached Airport
- BMTC volvo from CMR bus stop to Marathalli bridge - at 6:15 - Rs 15
- BMTC bus (non-volvo) from Marathalli bridge to Hebbal Airport bus stop - Rs 15
Use bus no 500-D and board it opposite to Kalimandir (below bridge). Here do not get down at Hebbal bus stop but get down at One stop later where we get bus to Airport. Bus conductor should be able to guide you on it.
- now you can get buses to Airport every 10-15 min. It will cost you Rs 130.
At this stop you will also see a board from BIA about Airport Shuttle bus stand.

I was able to reach Airport at 7:30. AM. So it took only 1:15 min and 3 buses to reach Airport. Total trip cost Rs 160.

Hope this article helped. Happy journey.
Please comment if this article helped you.