Saras India

There is one place in India, in all the major cities, that is known and famous as HELL for all foreigners. The real name of this place is FRO, or FRRO - Foregin Regional Registration Office. If you are a long-termer in this country you cant escape this place. You need to go there and register. And it might sound like that is an easy thing to do, but that is a huge misunderstanding. There is a reason it is called HELL. The last three weeks I have been in this place around ten times. And it takes the whole day. Always. No exceptions. What these people tell you one day, is not valid the next day. And if they tell you one document is missing, come back tomorrow - there is one more doucument missing when you come back the next day. But they couldnt say that the previous day, because why would they check ALL the documents when they saw one was missing? So for those people that come from a country where everything is very structured, you can understand that they get very frustrated at the staff, and its very, very easy to get angry. I, among others, have yelled at the staff in frustration! And I am very sure that the staff hates all foreigners.

For all of you living in Bangalore, I am sure you are familiar with this building

And this is the inside, on the ground floor where everyone is welcome. Only the foreigners that needs to be registered are allowed on first floor. No one can come with you, even if you dont know English, you have to go alone. And can you see the thing on the wall with the numbers? I thought it was just to push a button and then the next number would appear. No, in this place they have the old fashion model. The one where you have to press the number yourself. No wonder the same number can appear several times, or that they skip a few numbers sometimes..

The only good thing about going to this particular FRRO in Bangalore is that I have found a sweetshop very close by, and they sell the best Jalebi (or is it Jilebi?) I have ever eaten. Whenever I go there, I buy lots of these sweets.