Day 31 – Wednesday, April 2
Jose's girlfriend arrived yesterday
afternoon so I haven't see him since yesterday morning. After
morning prayers, waited for Ajay to show up to take me to the police
station. Waited. Waited. Sent text message, no response. Finally
sent text to Shirish to see if he knew where Ajay was. So he got in
contact and found out he was at then hospital with his brother. So I
will go to police station on my own. Shirish got me a ride there,
but I just went for it. Pass security and go up to second floor
where I was three weeks ago. Doing good. See the guy I remembered
and he was expecting me. Dug up my file and went over the paperwork
again. Things going well. There were two dates on two different
pieces of paper, one was my agreement to work till September 15 with
Manav Sadhna, the other was October 20 which is the date my visa
expires. He says he has to use the September 15 one, but if I want
to stay longer, I can request an extension until the visa expires –
just go online and submit an extension request at least by August 15;
there won't be any problem in doing that. We get that all
straightened out and things continue going well. I have to sit in a
waiting room, it's crowded. I will have my interview with the head
guy of foreign bureau later this afternoon, time undetermined. I was
already told by Becky and others this is the worse part. I got all
the preliminary things accomplished in about 15 minutes. It's around
11:30, so I sit. It's warm, but the ceiling fans are going. It's
actually relatively comfortable. It's the kind of room you start
nodding off in. The warm air circulates, making your eyes tend to
droop a little, then a little more. You know you are going to fall
asleep any second, but you also know your name could be called at any
minute, so you shake it off. It's not even noon yet, you know they
won't call you for a while. It's busy in there, people getting called
up. Today it's a lot of Pakistani people; they have a bureau
specifically for Pakistanis. I don't think Indians dislike
Pakistanis, but I don't get the impression they really like them
either; but that's politics, and I'm too old to care about politics.
Twelve thirty comes and goes, one, one
fifteen . . . I hear a call for foreigners. My ears perk up. I have
no idea but I get up and merge into a line. I only see one other
westerner for sure, a few other maybes. I figure if I am in the
wrong line, at least I get to stand up a little while. No harm, no
foul. Then I hear my name as they start going through the files. I
ask “me?”, pointing at myself at then same time, knowing they
are looking at my photo on the page. He points and motions for me to
come over. Wow, I am first up, good move. Then they call up a bunch
of Thai workers. They start to line up more people outside the door.
That could have been me, but I'm first. Then I start to think it's
because I'm the old guy and they don't want me falling over. What do
I care, if old gets me to the head of the line, then I'm there.
The head guy of foreign bureau attempts
to act busy at his desk as they usher the first five of us into his
semi-large, semi-official office. He finally looks at my file that
then lady has put on his desk. She is telling him I am volunteering
with Manav Sadhna and he asks me about Manav Sadhna and how long they
have been an NGO. It's all a little game – I've seen all this so
many times over the years. The Thai guys are nervously looking
around as he questions me. I just talk like we are having a
conversation instead of feeling like he is interrogating me, which is
what he is trying to do. In a few minutes, he signs off on my pack
and goes to the Thai guys. Those poor guys spoke no English and had
no idea what was going on. They were so nervous as he went through
them one by one. I couldn't help but smile. He finally called in
their Indian middle man and they got a few things straightened out,
though he was pretty nervous too. He finally signed off on their
documents, and we were leaving. He had his head back down shuffling
through other papers and I went over to shake his hand and said “It
was nice to meet you”. He looked up, smiled, shook my hand, and
said the same back. Indians love to shake hands – goes back to
that whole lack of human contact issue. I just wanted to leave a
lasting impression on him in case I ever have to go back.
On the way out, I asked the lady if
that was it – she said yes, so I just left. Note to self: when an
Indian tells you yes, ask again. If the Indian says yes a second
time, ask someone else.
Took a ricksha back to Manav Sadhna.
No less than 20 minutes later I got a call from Ajay saying I didn't
pick up my residency paper before I left the police station. So I
had to catch another ricksha, go back to the police station, go
through security, then talk to the first police guy I had talked to.
He went back over the dates, and about how to get the extension if I
wanted to stay until my visa expired. That's when I told him why I
would most likely get the extension – so I could be here for
Diwali. He just looked up at me and smiled as he handed me my
residency permit.
So, this time I was done with police
headquarters; at least for now.
Working on plans for upcoming trip.
Dates and location are set for the Himalayan trip. Leaving May 1 by
train. At some point, transfer to bus to go way up to around 6000 feet into
the Himalayans at a town called Uttar Kashi. Then go another 20km by some unmentioned mode of transportation. No longer at the foothills of Himalayans, now in the Himalayans
– about 30km from the Chinese/Tibetan border. AWESOME ! ! ! Just
found out Jose and his girlfriend, Romy, are going too. VerranBai
and Sherish are starting to get the tickets set up for the train and
I made sure to tell them get a one way ticket for me because I will
be flying out of Dehradun at the end. When Jose and Romy heard me
say that, they said they will do the same. They haven't made plans
yet, but they can work that out later. You get the turbo prop out of
Dehradun to Delhi and get anywhere from there. As each day passes, I
am thinking more and more of not getting reservations for anything
ahead of time and just winging it. As long as I get to Kolkata and
Varnasi for sure.
So now I am helping Nelam ,with her
monthly and end-of-year reports. I take what she has done in rough
English and I just rewrite it based on what I make out of it. Then
tomorrow we review it to make sure we are on the same page. I just
did one this evening. Reads pretty good now. Anything I can do to
help now is good – keeps me busy, and it's something I like doing.
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