Getting the Philippines Visa(Visa life part 2)

Visa life part 2
i got there early in the morning, at around 7.45 i was at the chennai central station soaking in the heat and sweat.

i started walking towards that huge parking lot next to the station, its too large for an indian parking lot so to say, probably the only open space for 10 kms and relatively free too.

i was sweating heavily by the time i took the subway to the other side,reaching the small lane which leads to park station, decided on an impulse to go left towards a restaurant that i had seen from the other side of the road, it was a good choice.

had the traditional chennai breakfast of the idli, vada and pongal, the waiter came and deftly flicked the glass up and the water down into it from the flask like an expert batsmen flicking the ball to the boundary.

suddenly the crowd started increasing and a magic family appeared beside my table with kid, sis, mom, dad et all, the man said you can use this seat, i wanted to help so i got up and took my food to another table, the family was greatful, i was ok, i tried to drink the coffee but my tongue refused, hence i gave it up after 2 sips.

gave the waiter a 500 buck note and thought these guys are going to crib about the change, but suprisingly no one said a word, they gave me the change out of which i promptly left 12 bucks for a tip, the total cost of the breakfast was 50 bucks post tip.

i went to the station and saw a medium sized queue in front of the ticket window, as the queue progressed i watched how people wasted their lives waiting for the next person buy his journey ticket, cant there be an easier way like buying a ticket through the net?? how stupid is any state government in this country?

got the ticket and reached guindy after watching each station pass by carefully. was there at the consulate at 9 in the morning... there were 2 other chaps from my institute there, one was sumukh and the other one was reddy, they were waiting to submit their forms to the lady.

waited for 30 mins to be told that my document submission will take time. meanwhile she made me get some xeroxes for these 2 chaps.

by this time i had called sudarshan and kumaran checking when they were arriving, guessing that this entire process would take time i told sud to come as per convenience. Kumaran came and she wasted no time in picking on him, he was also made to get some xeroxes for the nth time counting.

it took nearly 4 hours for my visa thing to get completed, had a hilarious time waiting though, the consulate lady kept picking on kumaran all the time, with everyone joining in from time to time.

finally at 1 -1.15 the lady started doing our stuff, mainly re-verifying our copies so that everything was correct and putting a seal on each and every original page inside the mammoth cover. stapling everything with a giant stapler to ensure that everything was together.

i slipped in one of the medical tests that i had missed putting into the cover the first time. finally sud was the 1st to go with his cover getting neatly stuck. then she took out some wax thinggy, a candle and proceeded to put the wax thinggy on the back side of the cover along the length and breadth of the same. once she finished this stuff she took a seal and put it all over the cover and handed it over to sud, he left shortly after that. i told him i will see him in Manila.

then my stuff got over as quick as it had started and i too was free, i left that place saying bye to kumaran.

Another batch mate Harikrishna who had come at the same time dropped me off at Guindy and this time around since i was prepared i just took the train to park station, got down there and walked across through the sub way and came to Chennai central station.

i saw the mad rush and the bag checking that was going on at the main entrance and i decided to wing it and move in through the side entrance, there was checking here as well, but surprisingly no one saw me walk straight through the exit point into the station, what a joke!!!

took the train home comfortably getting to know reddy and sumukh in the process, got down at cant and went home with my friends but not before dropping reddy at the south end circle.

they stamped the visa on my passport and i took the same home satisfied that the 2nd part of my visa journey was over.

regards,

ashwin

cheers! hic!!