The Visa saga...

So apparently you need a Visa to enter India.  Hubs says this is because India say "we have to pay to visit your country, you have to pay to visit ours!"

I will warn you now, this post might get confusing, I'm still trying to figure it all out....

Hubs has decided to get a new "Person of Indian Origin - PIO" Visa which is good for 15 years instead of the regular 6 month Visa.  First he wanted all of us to get one, but I though it might be good for me to give India a go first before we fork out three times the cash each for the PIO.

We bought our tickets back at the beginning of March, and I've been "gently" reminding him to apply for the PIO since.  I say "gently" because I TRY not to be the nagging wife, as to my success, you'd have to ask him.  Well, finally mid September my "gentle" reminders prompted Hubs to suggest that I go ahead and start the application form for Poops and myself.  Well, shortly after combing through the jumble of information we realized that Poops and myself could not apply until Hubs had not only applied for, but had the PIO in hand.  But at least, this motivated Hubs to take a day off work and apply for the PIO and of course, catch a nap after mailing it.

Five weeks of waiting patiently by the mail box and the expected package arrived!  Hubs opened it with excitement only to find the entire application still in tack with a yellow post-it note saying he needs to surrender his Indian passport.  Simple enough right?  Wrong.  Hubs became a Canadian Citizen in 2004, and in 2006 he went to visit his family in India, traveling on his Canadian passport with an Indian tourist Visa.  To get the Indian Visa at that point in time, he had to surrender his Indian passport, but of course no one gave him any documentation of him surrendering his Indian passport, and so lies the problem.

We decided with the time of departure nearing it was best for all of us if we just apply for the short term Visa.  In recent years the Indian Consular has contracted out their Visa applications to a private company.  Looking at all the documentation on line the information stated that because Hubs was an Indian citizen and we were going to visit family we would all need Entry Visas instead of Tourist Visas.  We went online, filled out the forms, and collected all documentation needed, finally we had an application ready to go!

Wednesday we both took the day off work, and traveled through prime-time morning commuting traffic to the East side of Toronto (we live in the suburb of the suburb of the suburb to the west of Toronto).  Over an hour and a half later, we arrived at the office to apply for Visas, only to discover that it was an Indian National Holiday!  Office closed.  Hubs say, we will come back on Saturday, I pointed out that that Saturday was also some kind of National Indian Holiday.  We begrudgingly drove home defeated.  Hubs had planned on napping the rest of the day away, but I think my "I'm just ready to leave you behind and go to India without you" speech on the car ride home inspired him to go to work and we returned the next day, even getting up at 5:30 am (wtf!) to help beat some of the traffic.

Thursday, after our hour and a half drive through traffic we arrived back at the office glad to see it was open.  Not so glad to see it was already full of people.  Sally Sunshine would point out that we at least got seating for the next hour and a half as we waited our turn.  We were also happy to have gotten up at the crack dawn because by 9am (the time we arrived the day before) they were so full, they were turning people away at the door.  Finally it was our turn!  We submitted all our paper work to be check and the women at the desk of course asked for Hub's Indian passport...AHHHHHHH, we explained the situation and she say "okay, we will just put you down for a tourist visa" changed the form, and ta-da!  simple as that we were done!  In about 6 business days we should have our passports with Indian Visas inside in hand.  Ah, the simplicity of privatization!

Well, the masochists inside of us decided hey, it's only 10am, lets take a trip to the Indian Consular while we are here and see if we can find Hub's Indian passport!  Yeah!

So off to the Consular for my first "real" taste of India.  The office was a stuffy box complete with metal detector and grumpy guy demanding my cell phone.  It was fun however to see the look on his face when he saw my "flip-phone", somewhere between disbelief, disdain, and absolute mockery.  Then we were not allowed to ask anyone question but only to line up in the never ending line.  I do have to say, everyone we met in this line and the next four lines we were shuffled back and forth between for the next three hours was really nice.  Finally, we got our answer about Hub's mysterious passport:  "We don't have it, why would you give it to us?  You can try applying with this paper (gives us a surrender sheet) but basically you are screwed.  Good day".

So, we are getting our Tourist Visas in about 6 business days.....

The First Post!

Well, here it is, my first blog post about our trip to India this Christmas.  I figure things will be pretty slow at the start, but that I will eventually bumble into enough entertaining stories to post.  If not, I can at least post interesting pictures.

I will now introduce the main characters.

Me: white on the outside, brown on the inside.  Born and raised in small town Ontario.  I tend to bumble my way through my life in a charming way that entertains those close to me.

Hubby:  brown on the outside, white on the inside.  Loves his Indian food, loves his family, but loves the brooding grey environment of his adopted Canada.  All around great guy, which prompted some of my contemporaries to ask the "obvious" question if he was marrying me for citizenship.  The answer is no, he was Canadian before he met me, he's just apparently odder than he seems.

Daughter:  "Poohpers" a nickname that evovled from my husband's need to call everything cute "poo poo" much to my mother's chagrin.  Will be turning 2 during our visit to India where she will meet her Ajima for the first time.  We haven't decided if she's white or brown yet, but so far she's leaning to the toasty side.  She speaks Daddy's native tongue, loves Indian music and Indian food, but is a huge baby when it comes to spicy hot.  If anything remotely medium in spice touches her tongue she points at it and cries like a baby.  Consequently, she eats a lot of yogurt.

My Parents:  White bread as they come.  To their credit they are world travelers and have traveled more and farther than I could ever hope to, but for this trip, food will be the most interesting (ahem, entertaining) part of the trip.  My mother is more adventurous than my father, but I'm pretty sure Poohpers get's her spice tolerance from my Mom.  The "aroma" of spicy makes her break out in a sweat and gasp for water, Water, WATER!  My dad is the traditional meat and potatoes kind of guy.  Coming to our house for dinner gives him anxiety.  My Mom told me it took her years to get him to eat rice because he insisted that it was a desert.  Think "rice" pudding.

The Niece:  White bread third generation.  "Sally" has just turned 11 and actually asked to come on this trip with Grandma and Grandpa.  She was the only white person (I don't count) at our wedding that wore a sari.  I think it will be a good trip for her BUT she finds EVERYTHING disgusting.  She can't bring herself to sit near or even look at our messy daughter when she eats, instead she hides and repeats ew, ew, ew to herself.  I think her eating habits align with my Dad.  She is also the much loved "baby" of the family and knows how to work this angle.  Also, she's second thinking even coming on the trip as I've informed her about the immunizations needed.

Hmm, there isn't really anything else to add, other than my Mom is planning on bringing an extra suitcase entirely filled with granola bars......