I know it\u2019s been a long time. For many of you, I\u2019m sure it appears I\u2019ve dropped completely off the radar. Usually, I begin my postings with some kind of apology, citing time constraints as the reason why I haven\u2019t updated the site in so long. Or replied to the ever-growing pile of emails in my inbox, for that matter. And if it ain\u2019t broke, why fix it, right?<\/p>\n
So yes, I have been busy. First of all, the usual excitement at Deep Griha. There\u2019s never a dull moment at that place, and I\u2019ve been getting involved in various projects, helping out where I can. At times it\u2019s been hard work, but I\u2019m learning constantly and soaking it all up.<\/p>\n
Back in December, I submitted a proposal for Deep Griha to Commonwealth Connects (a pan-Commonwealth development initiative focused on information communication technology). The proposal was entitled \u2018ICT skills training for urban slum communities in Pune, India\u2019 and for a couple of months I kind of forgot about it. Then, out of nowhere, I received an email inviting me to present the proposal at the Commonwealth Connects 2007 conference, to be held in New Delhi on 23-24 March. It\u2019s always nice to receive some positive feedback and since I don\u2019t have any formal training in development issues it\u2019s good to know that the proposals I write are generally along the right lines.<\/p>\n
The only hitch was that the conference was scheduled for a week after my visa expired. But things can sometimes be arranged\u2026<\/p>\n
My plan was simple: head up to Delhi a few days early, procure a 14-day visa extension from the Ministry of Home Affairs, attend the conference, then overland it to Nepal. As luck would have it, my old buddy Matt was making plans to trek in Nepal around the same time. Bingo \u2013 we\u2019ll team up. After a few weeks clowning around the Himalaya, return to India on a fresh visa. Job done.
\nOf course, it didn\u2019t work out that way. The MHA didn\u2019t like the sound of me attending a conference on a tourist visa, not least one organised by a commercial sounding name like the Commonwealth Business Council. The fact that the event was co-sponsored by the Government of India, the keynote speaker was President Kalam and that a load of ministers and officials would be in attendance didn\u2019t make any difference. The problem is that tourist visas are (ostensibly) non-extendable, and can\u2019t be converted to any other kind of visa \u2013 such as a conference visa for example.<\/p>\n
My old Pune University batchmate Jasmeet had met me outside the visa office. He\u2019s a Delhi local (Dilliwala?), and as he rightly pointed out, \u201cYou don\u2019t know how the system works.\u201d We quickly embarked on a whistlestop tour of various government departments in an attempt to get the necessarily clearance. Jasmeet showed exactly the right kind of dogged persistence combined with infinite patience which seems to be the way to go about these things. I just played the role of \u2018bemused foreigner\u2019, a part I was born to play. At one stage, we managed to get as far as some junior undersecretary in the right department, but by then it was getting late. \u201cIt\u2019s 3 o\u2019clock on a Friday afternoon, and your visa expires on Sunday. It would be very difficult to get much done in time,\u201d he told us.<\/p>\n
So that was that. I was left in somewhat of a dilemma, because with my visa expiring in just two days I had to leave the country sharpish. I did have a train booked from Delhi up to near the Nepalese border, but of course that was scheduled for after the conference. There\u2019s a long waiting list for tickets so getting something the next day would have been impossible. We enquired at a respectable-looking travel agency in Connaught Place about flights to Kathmandu, leaving in the next couple of days.<\/p>\n
Everything was booked out, on all airlines. Not good.<\/p>\n
What about Colombo, Sri Lanka? (Always a good backup.) Nope. Nothing available at short notice. Okay\u2026 getting desperate here\u2026 what about Bangkok? Possible. But only a one-way ticket, because my visa was about to expire. What\u2019s that got to do with the agent? That\u2019s my problem, I protested; I\u2019d get a new Indian visa once I arrived. Nothing doing. I pointed out that last time I booked a ticket to Bangkok the agent refused to sell me a single ticket, due to non-existent (or at least, non-enforced) Thai regulations. That\u2019s why I ended up thinking about returning to India to study (lucky for me, as it turned out). This time, I wanted a return ticket, and they\u2019d only sell me a one-way passage out of the country. Shi baba.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat we need,\u201d I said to Jasmeet, \u201cIs a proper Indian travel agent. You know, some guy with a telephone.\u201d<\/p>\n
It didn\u2019t take long. We passed a bureau de change and Jasmeet asked the man inside about travel agencies, and lo and behold he led us to exactly the kind of place we were after: guy with phone. Within half an hour, I had a flight booked to Kathmandu, leaving the next day.<\/p>\n
So here I am. The plan is to kick around for a couple of weeks until Matt arrives, then hit the trail. I\u2019m here earlier than scheduled, but that\u2019s not the end of the world. First impressions are good and I\u2019m looking forward to exploring the Kathmandu valley over the next few days. Watch this space\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I know it\u2019s been a long time. For many of you, I\u2019m sure it appears I\u2019ve dropped completely off the radar. Usually, I begin my postings with some kind of apology, citing time constraints as the reason why I haven\u2019t updated the site in so long. Or replied to the ever-growing pile of emails in my inbox, for that matter. And if it ain\u2019t broke, why fix it, right?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-89","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldofpablo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldofpablo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldofpablo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldofpablo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldofpablo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=89"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worldofpablo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldofpablo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldofpablo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=89"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldofpablo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=89"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}