Passport episode

1) This is the passport who's barcode could not be interpreted by the issuer, that is Indian Govt.


Passport1

2) This is the quality of the picture in the passport issued to replace above passport

Passport2


Passport1 was issued by Indian Consulate located in NY, in Jan 2008, and then in Nov 2008, I flew to Bangalore and the bar code on this passport could not be scanned by immigration officer at Bangalore airport.

Day1

I went to passport office in Bangalore, early in the morning(6.50 am) and the enquiry counter opened 30minutes late, that is 10.00 am. And the Govt. rep told me to apply for a new passport implying that Passport1 is a 'Damaged passport'.

Day2

After gathering all the documents, and with the filled passport application, I went to passport office early in morning(8.00am). I was carrying to Rs 4500, thinking that the fee for fast processing is Rs 2500, but I came to know that Govt. charges extra Rs 2500 for expediating process of replacing 'Damaged passport'(as if Govt. wanted to punish me for damaging passport intentionally). Then I came back to home to collect another Rs 500 and went back to passport office, paid Rs 5000 and submitted the passport application.

Day3

I went to collect my passport but found the picture on the passport had blotches similar to Passport2(as shown above). The clerk blamed the photo paper of the picture that I submitted along with passport application, and asked me to bring another picture, printed on good photo paper. This incompetence of irked me and went to speak to Deputy Passport Officer, and asked him to refund part of the fee because all along it was Govt. fault; it was Govt. that issued the passport who's bar code could not be read, and again it was Govt. that was not able to properly scan the picture. Officer got angry with me, and told that the classification of 'Damaged passport' is broad and refused to refund any money.

Day4

I went to passport office with new photograph and waited for couple of hours to collect the new passport, the one shown as Passport2, and surpraisigly picture on this passport was also not any better, it had blotches at same place as previous passport. I showed it to Deputy Passport officer and he said it is would not cause any harm.

In the end, Govt. officails did not take responsibility for issuing a passport who's barcode could nor be read by themselves, and also Govt. did not show ability to scan the photograph properly. And, out my 20days of stay in Bangalore, I had to go to passport office on 4days. When the citizens are served with such unaccountability and incompetence, how can one be proud of the country?

Bush meets his Eastern counter part

Iraq rally for Bush shoe attacker
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7783608.stm

foot-wear as assault weapon in Indian society
In India also, foot-wear is considered as an weapon of ultimate insult. We should note the difference between verbal threat of assaulting with foot-wear from the actual act of hitting with foot-wear; former is 100 or 1000 times higher than the latter, and in fact I have not seen any one doing it but heard people using it in conversation. For example this is a most popular usage, "I would have hit with foot-wear if he had....". Educated people of any generation do not use it, and also have not heard any one from my generation indulging in foot-wear assault, verbally or physically so I can confidently say that this is a thing of past.
Some times, angry mob uses festoon of foot-wear to garland the statues of political leaders, and this practice is relatively more compared to assautling a living individual with foot-wear.

Bush ducking foot-wear
Bush has a history of mis pronouncing, failing to make to construct proper sentence, and he is very bad at answering to unexpected question, but for the first time, Bush displayed a remarkable presence of mind by ducking away from the flying shoe :-) .
In Eastern world, say India, a foot-wear wielder represents a rowdy, a thug, and in this scene involving Bush, a Eastern thug took his Western counter part.