obsequity is all perspective!

one of the few remaining tree-lined streets of bangalore lead us to the office of the commissioner of police, bangalore city. "need to go there, sir. yes, all of you. need signatures, sir. for FRRO, sir. need to register yourself -- staying more than 180 days, no, so only." aalright.

it looked like a jungle lodge. tropical monsteras climbed high over luxurious red-berried banyans, hostas on the beds below, copper pods, etc, etc... old colonial columned buildings signalled government offices. tons of people hanging around (doing what seemed like nothing) underlined the same. a short walk led us to a very small lobby where 2 pot-bellied middle-aged men were busy checking, separating and initialling various documents. chinese, indians, the occasional caucasian all hung around looking clueless to different degrees. a swarthy seated man who initially told us he was "in line, sir" waved us to approach the counter ahead of him. one of the pot-bellies -- a dark nama-ed man sporting a handle bar mouche and huge gold and silver rings took our documents. sanjana's documents were first. she stepped forward curiously to see what he was going to do. he poked her tummy and said "what you had for breakfast?" "nutella sandwich," she replied in a small voice. "not idli? not raagi dosai?" he asked. sanjana stared unsurely back at him. "your name?" he asked. she replied in a slightly louder voice. "sanjanaaa," he repeated and resumed his checking documents. "you are not registered?" he asked sanat. sanat pointed to his documents in the pile. "oh, wokay." a few minutes later, he had detached a few papers and waved us to "get signature from ACP." we headed out to the ACP's office.

a totally different atmosphere shrouded this place. a high ceilinged large room with high beams from which hung ceiling fans idly churned warm air. a long low table with several people sat at one end. ACP saheb was sitting in a polyester curtained room with several peons in attendance in permanent stoop. ACP saheb ordered them around in a soft but firm voice which made sounded more like a cough. he had a gentle face, but the relocation person who was guiding us told us he was extremely stern "he never smiles." when our turn came, the relo expert's turn to bow also came. we stood up -- i felt my backbone bend in deference as well. as he signed, we said "thank you, sir." no words were spoken otherwise. and then sanjana happened. she waved with a loud "baayyye" to the assistant commisioner of police, jagadish prasad. ACP smiled and waved back and said "bye."

the relo expert was shocked. "i have never seen him like that!" sanjana said excitedly, "the policeman said bye to me!"

sanat and i exchanged amused glances -- for sanjana, obsequity comes in the face of mrs.julia and mrs. jan, not the assistant commissioner of police, bangalore city ;)

but all in all, having the relo person showing us around and doing the paper pushing was tremendously useful. we couldnt imagine doing it all ourselves. coming on the right visa (for US citizens) is so important -- realizing you have a wrong visa only just before the stipulated 180 day window is about to expire, then running around to delhi/chennai to get the visas changed, harks of one's worst nightmares. our getting a PIO card before we left negated all those issues and proved to be a huge benefit. for NRI US citizens considering a long-ish stint in india, suggest getting a PIO card.