I can never thank Allah enough

Remember that the most beautiful things in the world are the most useless; peacocks and lilies, for instance.

— John Ruskin

I was wanting to write so much for today. I wanted write how good the people at RTA office were with me today and how being courteous in language and expressions works in our favor. I wanted to write how I felt when I came to know that being an educated person of 20 years would make no difference to me when it comes to having a passport for myself. Then I also wanted to know how I found a way to make things easier for me.

I was planning something for Flowing Emotions and had already made up my mind to make it into reality after dinner. In fact I had two things and I was happy that I would be writing something for that blog after so many days. I had so much of other material to flaunt and flirt with. But the power played a spoil sport. I had to spend more than 2 hours in darkness - almost 3 I guess. It was very disheartening.

But I asked my father if we could go out and have tea. We went out around 11:45 pm. The restaurant were we usually go was closed so we had to slide ourselves into a small hotel that appeared closed from outside. We had tea standing at the counter - there was no place to sit. I was expecting the power to be back when I came home. But it was disheartening again.

I left home today morning around 8:30 am after waking up at 7. After I reached the passport office, I realized how bad the Ministry of External Affairs in India was doing. I pity those people! I came to know that there is a counter for tokens that shows opens at 5:30 am in the morning and closes at 7. This counter had a tablet saying the timings as starting from 9:30 am. This was interesting. People there asked me to come at 5:30 am.

I had a friend with me and we were discussing that we have been living in Hyderabad for more than 20 years now, we have had schooling at the best schools in the city, we had a good college for our +2 studies and we are going to be engineers in a year from now and that too from a very good college. All this was immaterial here as we had to compete with people coming from rural areas who didn't even know how to fill the applications forms for the passport. I thought it to be unfair. I couldn't believe that there was no other way for people like me.

While I was saying all this, I had in my mind that I was showing some pride ans some sort of superiority complex. But I enjoyed the talk. Then my friend told me that something might be possible online and I noted down the URL that was made available there on some banners. I have tried it and I have an appointment for 16th. I need to be there at 3:15 pm with all the necessary papers and also a print of the form I had to fill online. I even have a file number now. This brought some relief. Now a days they are issuing passports within 35 days.

I was at the college at 10:50 pm. I waited for my friends for almost an hour. It was such a nice sight to see them when they appeared in front me. I simply can't imagine going away from them. They have become an integral of my life playing a role similar to the one being played by my parents and my brother. We spent some time studying for Design and Analysis of Algorithms and we spent the rest of the time enjoying. At 3:50 pm I was at the RTA office near my house.

I finally managed to get my father's newly-purchased two-wheeler's registration card and number. I had to request a few people there to help me and they were good. I couldn't believe they could be so fine. I felt nice knowing that there are ways to get good response even from people who are said to be very annoying and crude. I was polite with them and they responded the same way. I had my lunch after reaching home and slept. I had to do a lot of walking to reach home.

My brother is planning to buy a cell phone for himself. He had narrowed on Nokia 6600 but my parents said enough to clear the narrow area. They asked him to buy something more basic. He is more than four years younger to me and especially when I had taken a phone after coming to engineering third year, he is not supposed to have a phone right away. Somehow my parents have agreed and he is still confused with what he must do. There are chances that he will drop the plan but just sometime back he asked me if I could take him to some shop tomorrow. I agreed.