Equality in Indian Religious Practices

People in India are quite devoted when it comes to their religious practices and ceremonies and I have nothing against someone doing something they want, as long as it does not affect others in a negative way. But then Indians want to let others know when they are doing something good, like praying or going on pilgrimages to temples like Sabari malai, etc., This is where I believe they encroach upon the space of others quite liberally.

Where we used to live, there was a church nearby. The Sunday services are always done with loud speakers and the whole surrounding area is forced to hear it. And we moved to another place and now there is another church nearby and the same deal again. Right next to my sister's house, there is a church and every Sunday no one can talk to them on phone since all you can hear is the loud preaching of the church. I do not understand why people have to disturb others when they are praying or doing religious ceremonies. This happens every Sunday and is very annoying. Didn't even Jesus Christ preach that when you pray, you pray in privacy without sounding a trumpet? Trumpets would be less louder and for much shorter duration, than the loud speakers we are forced to hear every Sunday!

Then there are other seasonal celebrations like going to Sabari mala, where people rent out loud speakers and blare the devotional music and their religious chantings out so loud, that one wonders whether these people are looking for peace and harmony, or just plain recognition.

The idea of equal rights in India seems to have a net negative effect on everyone. Everyone has a right to disturb everyone else... Non-Christians are annoyed by the loud Sunday services, Christians are annoyed by loud non-Christian ceremonies, and non-Muslims are annoyed by Muslim service calls. The point is to have everyone follow whatever they want, without disturbing others. Tolerance should not be in tolerating the annoyances caused by others, but should be a "live, and let live" attitude towards others that they can follow whatever they want and do whatever they want, and I am OK with that.

Chennai Furniture Shopping

Bought some furniture for my home recently and want to share a decent experience I had with the furniture stores. The store came highly recommended by my paternal uncle and cousin, who bought all the furniture for their home from that store. The furniture in their home looked quite good and I decided I would order almost exactly the same pieces of furniture and some mattresses from the store.

My first order was a big one. I got two single beds (cots) for my parents. The legs and the beams were all solid wood and the base (on which the mattress rests) was plywood. I got it for Rs. 13K each. Then I purchased a sofa set (one three seater and two one seaters) for 28K and a four-seater dining table for 14K. I also ordered two Kurl-on mattresses (one for 17K and another for 10K) for my parents. The total came to 97K (after discounts). The shop took some cash advance and delivered the items on time and took the remaining amount when they delivered.

My next order was for a double bed and it costed 21K. This order was delivered a day late, but compared to how a lot of things get delayed in India, a day's delay was alright (though I expected better from the store). There were also nominal delivery charges (750 for the first one and 500 for the second).

Ok, now you want to know which store this is. It is:
Sri Venkateswara Furniture,
No 573, Anna Salai, Teynampet, Chennai, Tamil Nadu 600006
Tel: 044 4269 2150

(The store is close to Teynampet police station.)

I found the owner Mr. Parthiban both amiable and efficient.

We believe the furniture will last us a long time (few decades at least).

Disclaimer: I am not in any way affiliated with the store, the owner or will get any compensation for promoting the store. I am just a happy customer who likes to share both my positive and negative experiences with my shopping in India via this blog (since there is no Yelp in India yet).

Poorvika Mobiles - Bad Experience

Went to Poorvika mobiles in Valasaravakkam, Chennai on a Friday to get an airtel sim card. The process was usual - they took my aadhaar card original, photocopied it and then took two photos from me. I also got an Idea sim card for free (which I do not intend to use). Since the sale had to happen, the process was very quick and efficient. The promise was that in 24 hours the sim card will be activated... And as is usually the case with India, 24 hours later the sim was not activated! I went to the store and inquired about it. They still had my application with them. The excuse they gave was that the guy who was supposed to pick up the forms to the airtel office did not show up! Now I have to wait for two more days (till Monday) for the sim to be activated. This is just plain inefficient. I cannot understand why people cannot keep their word. In any case, this is just a post to warn others who are considering going to Poorvika that they may be just as inefficient as any other store.

UPDATE: I know that "free" usually means trouble. What has happened now is that Poorvika has sent the Idea sim card for activation first and is delaying the Airtel sim card. I believe this is a sneaky marketing ploy to get customers to buy Idea plans, instead of what they actually wanted. I am guessing Airtel sim card activation is now going to take much longer.

I am going to strongly advise my friends and family to avoid Poorvika Mobiles from now.

Coimbatore Experiences

Happened to travel from Chennai to Coimbatore to attend my nephew's wedding last week and thought I would record my experiences here.

We took Spice Jet from Chennai to Coimbatore. The ticket fare was for hand luggage only and the four of us (me, wife, my dad, my 5-yr old son) all comfortably took all we wanted in hand luggage itself. The weight restriction is 7 kg per person for one piece of luggage, plus 2 kg allowance for laptop bag, hand bag, or some small luggage. The flight was little more than an hour. Once we landed in Coimbatore, I tried to take a prepaid taxi to Kavundam Palayam, which is where our hotel was booked. The prepaid taxi rate was Rs. 600, which I thought was very expensive. So I enquired around and found the number for another taxi service, phone number 0422 6060 303. This cab service is called VK-CABBIE or something and costed us only 330. So this was a wise choice. Later I heard from others that there is something called red taxi, which is even less expensive.

Our hotel was Balu hotel on Mettupalayam road. It was about 1 km towards kavundam palayam signal from Ooty bus stand on mettu palayam road. The hotel was quite mediocre. It has a bar attached to it and if you happen to stay in one of the rooms close to the hotel reception, then cigarette smoke at night is going to suffocate you. Also all the rooms are smoking rooms, so if you travel with kids or hate passive smoking like me, then avoid this hotel. Avoid using the water bottle they provide. It is not a new one; they just fill water and keep it full and it looks exactly like a new bottle, until you open it and realize the seal is broken. The toilets were not cleaned properly. But there were some advantages. There is a coffee/tea shop just downstairs so we could satisfy our caffeine addiction twice a day. There is also a medical shop in the same building and we had to buy a lot of medicines, so that was quite convenient.

The wedding was in Kalpana Kalyana Mandapam. The wedding hall was nice and big, but then the construction of hand wash and the dining hall was just plain stupid. You have to get down half a floor for the handwash and then several steep steps to go down to the dining hall. Lot of old folks had a tough time and even normal people had to be careful when using the steep steps.

The food was catered by Malamurthy catering and was excellent. All the items were really good and I did not find a single item that was bad. This is really rare in India and I would consider it as a highlight of our whole trip.

Return trip was by IndiGo and we had check-in allowance, so checked in our suitcases. Once we landed in Chennai, we took fast track prepaid taxi. There was a guy with fast track uniform who took our luggage as soon as we stepped out of the airport with the fast track bill. I thought he was the driver. He was walking too fast for us, so I had to rush up to make sure he is not stealing something from our luggage! Only when he loaded our luggage to the taxi, the driver guy came and this guy stood next to me and said "Sir, thank you, sir" and looked like a drooling dog... I realized this guy just wants some money for pushing our super light cart for a couple of hundred feet. This is just plain cheating from fast track. I told him how I was taken for a ride by him and gave him 20 rupees. Not sure why fast track has to do this. In retrospect, I should have just used Ola cabs or Uber for airport pickup. Prepaid taxis have become a rip off in Chennai airport and Chennai Central and I hope the competition just eats them alive and they go out of business soon.

Roku 3 Dim/Dark Screen Issue Solved

Solution: Switch the HDMI port. 

The rambling:
I have Roku 3 and an LG LED TV. I started noticing that when I switched the input from TV to Roku, the screen started dimming in a few seconds. I didn't even need to open any app; it was happening on the Roku home screen itself. My TV has two HDMI ports and I had connected Roku to HDMI 2. Changing from HDMI 2 to HDMI 1 helped solve this problem for me. Prior to switching from HDMI 2 port to HDMI 1 port, I tried tweaking the picture settings in my TV and also did a factory reset of Roku and these did not help. Switching to port 1 is the only thing that worked!

General Power of Attorney India - Document and Procedures

I am going through the task of giving general power of attorney (GPA) to my dad in India. I live in Los Angeles, CA and my dad is in Chennai, India.

I was googling for what to write in it and found a few documents. Many of them had typos and required some editing. I have done some editing to the best GPA document I found on the web and posting it here. You can copy-paste and modify it for your needs :-).

---

GENERAL POWER OF ATTORNEY

KNOW YE ALL MEN BY THESE PRESENTS THAT I,

<<Your name here>>, (age __) residing at

<<Your address here>>,

do hereby appoint and constitute

<<Your attorney's (dad/mom/whoever) name here>>, (age __)

(hereinafter called “Attorney”) and at present residing at

<<Your attorney's address>>,

to be my lawful Attorney in my name and on my behalf to do any one or all the following acts, deeds and things, namely:

1. To apply for a loan/s under various schemes of Any Financial Institution as also any further or additional loan/s to Any Financial Institution for such amount as the Attorney may deem fair and for that purpose to pay the processing fee/s and sign the loan application/s in my name and on my behalf and to furnish all the details and information required by Any Financial Institution and to give any statement, letter, clarification or any other writing required or necessary for availing of the said loan/s from Any Financial Institution and from time to time to follow up the said loan application/s and do such other things and deeds as may be necessary in relation thereto.
2. To accept the loan offer letter/s and sign the acceptance/s thereof in token of my acceptance of the terms and conditions therein contained and to pay on my behalf the administrative fees and any other charges including commitment charges leviable in respect of the said loan/s.
3. To request Any Financial Institution or agree with Any Financial Institution for any or modification in the loan amount/s, rate/s interest, period of repayment of loan/s or any other terms and conditions in relation to the loan/s at any time or from time to time.
4. To receive the disbursement of the said loan/s and for that purpose give effectual discharge and give all the necessary information and documents to assist the Technical and Legal Appraisal of the property/ies purchased / to be purchased with the help of the loan/s.
5. To mortgage any property/ies he/she may book / purchase on my behalf or which I might have booked / purchased (whether with or without Any Financial Institution assistance) with Any Financial Institution by deposit of Title Deeds as security for the repayment of the loan/s granted / to be granted by Any Financial Institution to me.
6. To deposit of my behalf the documents of title and to state on my behalf to any officer of Any Financial Institution that the said documents are being deposited for creating a security on the said property/ies by way of equitable mortgage of repayment of the said loan/s. The Attorney is fully authorised to make these statement and convey my intentions to create security on my said property/ies or any other property/ies or any other property/ies he/she may book/buy on my behalf.
7. He/She is further authorised to make any other statements necessary to create equitable mortgage by deposit of title deeds and also to execute any writings, undertaking, indemnities, etc. on my behalf in respect of mortgage of the said property/ies or the guaranteeing of the repayment of the said loan/s ant other writings whatsoever required in respect of the said transaction of the loan/s granted / to be granted to me or creation of the said security.
8. He/She is also authorised to execute ant loan/s agreement/s, promissory notes, letter/s of declaration and indemnity or such other documents as may be required by Any Financial Institution in respect of the said loan/s.
9. He/She is also authorised to execute in favour of Any Financial Institution an irrevocable Power Of Attorney authorizing Any Financial Institution to execute in its own favour or in favour of any other person, as Any Financial Institution in its sole discretion may decide, legal mortgage in any form including in the English form of the property/ies.
10. To buy land/s or property/ies and to book flat/s residential unit/s on my behalf and to execute Agreement/s for Sale for the same with any builder/seller and make payments to him thereof and to present such Agreement/s for registration before the appropriate Registrar / Sub Registrar of Assurance of any other authority in any place or places in India as may be necessary.
11. To admit execution of the Agreement/s for Sale before the said Registrar / Sub Registrar of Assurances or any other authority as may be required for the purpose.
12. To obtain possession of the flat/s unit/s as and when the same is ready for occupation.
13. To receive loan/s and all other documents including title documents on my behalf from Any Financial Institution and execute receipt/s therefore.
14. To sign forms, documents and papers required for the purpose of registration of Co-operative Housing Society or a Limited Company or an Association of Apartment Owners and become member thereof participating in all the meetings proceedings from time to time, obtain share certificates and/or other documents issued in my name hold the same as my Attorney and obtain possession of the flat/s.
15. To open and/or operate Bank Account in any Bank in India in any name both resident as well as non-resident. The account may be operated in Indian Currency or foreign currency to be remitted by me from time to time. He/She is authorised to do all such acts, deeds, and things including signing any papers/ documents as are necessary and incidental to the above AND that any act or statement or writing of my said Attorney in pursuance hereto shall be fully authorised and ratified by me.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF I have signed below on the date, month and year hereunder written.

___________________________

(Affix your photo)

Date: _____________

---

I also gathered from Chandan's blog (and the comments therein) that two of your friends/colleagues need to sign and write their address in this document as witnesses. Their signature need not be done in front of notary public. Your signing has to be done in front of notary. The attorney (i.e. my dad) does not need to sign it.

After getting the document notarized, you have to send it to your secretary of state to get it "apostilled"  (means a special sign for certifying foreign documents). For CA residents, here is the link: http://www.sos.ca.gov/business/notary/authentication.htm

After getting this done, it is highly recommended to send it to the Indian consulate and get it attested by them. Details for the San Francisco Indian consulate are here: http://www.cgisf.org/contents/view/118

After all the above are done, your document is ready and can be sent to India to be used by your attorney.

Will update this post as I go through the process.

Wish me (and you) good luck!

---

UPDATE

I got signatures of two of my friends with their names and addresses. Then took the 2-page GPA document to a notary public. He asked me for my ID and address proof, after which he notarized it for $10. I also took a passport photo in his office for $4/photo. I was a bit concerned that there won't be enough space on my 2 page document for him to notarize, but he attached a separate sheet.

Then I thought of mailing it to the Secretary of State (SoS) office in Sacramento for apostille. Instead I saw that there is an SoS office in downtown Los Angeles, so drove there on my way to work. Just had to take a token, fill out a simple form asking information about the document. The wait was just 30 min. (there were 10 people ahead of me). The fee was $26 and they accept credit card and personal check. They had attached 1 more sheet and placed their seal across the notary sheet and theirs.

Now I have mailed it, along with my Indian passport, to the Indian embassy in San Francisco for their attestation with a $23 money order.

---

UPDATE

Unfortunately my application was returned by the embassy since I did not complete and send the Miscellaneous Services Form required by the embassy! I haven't re-applied so far! (But hope the post is still useful for others.)