Jan 25 2010
It has been in the recent news the devastating twin earthquakes that mostly flattened Haiti. While the rest of the world stared with horror and shock many people has lost their home, their family, their near and dear ones in a few minutes of nature’s whims. Help poured in from all quarters and my friends contributed their share, however I was still dumbstruck at what had happened.
Jan 08 2010
My book was published this July and I got my first royalty statement soon after. My contract with Galileo Press was executed in the US and hence this required me to apply for a TIN to get the actual payment as well as claim tax exemption from the Indian Government. The process, it seemed, was simple, fill a couple of forms and mail it with a notarized copy of my passport duly apostilled by the Ministry of External Affairs.
And this is where it all began. A visit to the MEA office in Kolkata got me the response that since my passport was issued in Trichy (It was issued while I was still in college), I would need to visit the passport office there and get it verified (?). Somewhat perplexed, I landed up in Trichy Passport office who told me that I would need to visit the Chennai MEA office to get my passport apostilled. At a loss for what to do I called up the MEA office in Kolkata again seeking for help and the response that I received floored me. It was not under their “jurisdiction” to get my passport, which was issued in Trichy, apostilled. I would need to go to the New Delhi office instead. All attempts to argue over the fact that that my passport was a central government issued document and not a state government issued one and hence should be verifiable from anywhere in the country only yielded curt and irritated replies and this was where I almost gave up.
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