We are BIG!

Long time no writing on my blog. No, I didn’t forget it. I just promise I will write about my trip to the North of India. I started. I swear. It is on draft. But it has to be a big post, coz my trip was big, and with a lot of things in it. But this is another post. I will try to find time to show it to you. Now let’s come back to this post.

Life is weird, very weird. It is so weird that I cannot understand it. But life in India is even weirder. Aa! But Minister of Home Affairs beats all these. I don’t have knowledge about legislation and laws, but for sure it is not normal to change the legislation so often.

After 2 weeks of dealing with uncertainty and reading news, I understood that for sure they must have their very strong and reasonable reasons  to change the legislation and to ask all the foreigners to leave their country. Seams that they have too many unqualified labors, too many people are coming to India to look for a job and they want to stop all this immigration and to improve the quality of the workers are coming here.

And.. after 2 weeks in which I was booking my fly tickets to go back home, I was looking for presents for family and friends, I was making plans, I was already dreaming with the cold and nice weather from my dear Romania, dreaming with my warming room, with my warm cloths, being very enthusiastic I will can wear my boots, my gloves, my winter jacket, I may see snow… I will can eat ciorba (soup), cheese; 1 week in which I was asking myself how it will be to go back home, to wait for the green light of the traffic lights, to have a decent seat in the bus, to go by tram, to be on time, to have a silent room, without noise, to enjoy a walk in the green landscape, to don’t cover my mouth and nose with a handkerchief because of the pollution… 3 days before flying I find out the magic answer:

“Who are eligible for a Business Visa?

Foreign students sponsored by AIESEC for internship on project based work in companies/industries.”

For more information: http://www.mha.nic.in/writereaddata/12566695441_work_visa_faq.pdf

This kind of things is just remembering us how big and powerful is AIESEC. It is not easy to influence the legislation of a country, and more a country like India. AIESEC is really making a difference in the world! Congratz AIESEC in India for the achievement!

Yeah! Security!

In Romania I use to have a very peaceful and quite life. We had only the world wars like everyone in this planet, of course, it is world war, isn’t it? and.. hmm.. oh yes! an intern revolution, a very violent one, but this was all. Since I know myself I live in a secure country, no attacks, no terrorism, no bombs, no guns. The security things use to be only in American movies. In all my life, I think I cross once through a metal detecting gate – in the People’s House – seat of political and administrative power. According to the Guinness Book of World Records, it is the world’s largest civilian administrative building (The Pentagon is the largest overall), most expensive administrative building, and heaviest building. It makes sense, isn’t it?

Since I left Romania, the metal detector gates started becoming part of my daily life. Everything started some 4 months back when I took off from the Otopeni airport. I one and a half days I switched 3 planes and I pass through n number of security checks. This is understandable too.

And I land in Mumbai, India…

Yeah! and we started: day 4: Churchgate train station: aa? what is this?? What are all this gates for?? Where am i? Why there are so many security people?? What is going on here?? aa?? Why there are so many armed men??? Why do they have so many sub-machine-guns? WTF???

Answer: nothing happens, it is just security.

Me: Oh! Ok…..They look like preparing for war, not just passing by.. making sure everything is alright.

And this was only the beginning! Let me tell you how my life looks now:

Everywhere I go there is a security man: ATMs, shops, every door of my office, restaurants, libraries, malls, strations, absolutely everywhere!!!

Train stations: metal detecting gates only

Malls/Hospitals/Supermarkets/Public spaces: before getting in there is an entire procedure: show the bag to the security lady/man, they check everything you have inside the bag!! And after you are free to pass through the metal detector gates. No, no! This is not all; there is the body control too: they scan your body with a manual metal detector. hahaha

My Office: Uh! This is the most terrible daily experience! Some 2 weeks back the things were simple: I just had to have my ID Card, to show my bag and this is all. But… now I shift. And I shift to Kensington- a Special Economic Zone in Mumbai. So, we have:

• the security of the area: on the entrance, on the gate: they check my bag, and to have the ID card – like in the previous office, nothing special and new.
• the security of the building: on the entrance we have metal detector gates and those machine that scan your bag, so, yes! the security guys, coz they are only men, know everything I have on my bag. And even what i don’t have hahaha, they always say I have metals that appear and disappear from my bag. Weird guys! They always want to discuss with me, so they always invent metals on my backpack. They scan even my lunch! Crazy people!
• the security of the office: yeah! there are more!! practically this guys don’t check anything, they don’t check my bag, they cannot check more and better than those downstairs. But, they check my cup. Yes!!! They check my cup! They make sure it is empty and I’m not carrying coffee inside the office. Uh! Cruel people!! How can I make them understand I cannot wait half an hour outside my office for my coffee to get cold and drinkable. Oh well. I will get a bottle on Monday! Ha!
• Golden Rule: No media are allowed. We are not allowed to carry any kind of media: cameras, pen drives, memory cards, CDs, DVDs or other things like this. In some offices neither the phone.

Hmmm… this is practically about the fisical security. Once I am inside the office, there is another security. The internet access is restrictioned: no blogs, no shopping website, no google maps, no, no, no, no. TCS has an entire list of no’s.

So practically they have an evident of every thing I am doing, whatever I’m buying, of all my phone calls (I need an address proof to can get a prepay sim card – yes! the sim card that back home you get it from the smallest shop on the street corner!), everywhere is documents, papers and signatures…

Security Security Security!! Everything here is Security! Security! Security!

The big day has come!

Ladies and gentlemen I have an announcement to do: I got the visa!!

After 2 weeks of stress, emotions and so on, I got it yesterday! At 4:03 I call the embassy to ask for my visa and the lady say: yes, it is ready, you can come to take it.

me: How much time do I have?

the lady: Until 5 PM

Oh great! less than one hour. I start calling at courier companies and no one wanted to get the order because it was too less time. After a lot of calls those from Fan Courier accept to get the order if I call to embassy and they wait a little bit more. I called and I get 20 more minutes.

I didn’t know if they could get the envelop or not until today morning when I call them and I asked: they get it!!! Some minutes ago they call me to tell me that my envelop is going to be in Iasi until 2 o’clock!! I just can’t believe it!!!

I got the visa! Friday evening I left Iasi, and Saturday morning Romania. Sunday morning I will be in Mumbai! Starting Monday morning I will be working on the huge Tata Consultancy Services India for one year!

Embassy of India in Romania

To start my internship at TCS I have to go to India, to go in India I need a visa, to get a visa I have to have all the necessary documents.

Sometime in my life I learn to think structured to can resolve my problems in an efficient way. So, I start with the end: I prepare all the documents and I entrain to Bucharest, destination: embassy of India, SMART objective: get the visa.

But like the Romanians are saying the home accountancy is not the same as the market accountancy and in the embassy, they thought better and they realize that they want to see my invitation in original, even throw phone they told me it is not necessary, and this is not all, they want to see my diplomas.

Ok, well, maybe they want to ensure that I have the necessary preparation for the internship. But they ask me all the diplomas that I have! All, doesn’t metter if they have nothing to do with the job. Bring us all you have. Interesting, I never thought is good to have diplomas to get a visa. )