The Indian Embassy at NYC

For those poor Indians in New York and surrounding states who are in need of getting official help from the Indian Embassy, here are some tips.

A trip to this embassy would remind you about the good old days back in India. Long never ending queues would induce some bit of nostalgia into your soul! Boy, how I love that!

Ok, so here is the Case Study. I needed to get some documentations done and get it attested by the Indian Embassy and I had to send it back to India. After a week full of enthusiastic planning by my better half, we decided on a  plan. [The official website - http://www.indiacgny.org/ did not help much, except provide the details of the timings and address.]

What to Bring!
Dos

• Try to reach there early morning (around 7 :30 AM), so that you can be early in the queue. Actually its not necessary, you can reach there around 9 and still get your work done, but the lengthy queue will freak you out for sure.
• Get enough Snacks, H2O, energy drinks, magazines, books etc to keep you from being exhausted or bored.
• Make sure you have all your documentation. Take additional photo copies if required. You dont want to run around looking for the xerox center.
• Get printouts / copies of application forms beforehand.
• If you happen to need to type an applciation form or take a printout, there are lots of shops around 55nd Street (like Staples, Office Depo etc. You need to walk a few blocks though)

Donts

• Dont reach there before dawn. It is not necessary.
• Dont use your cell phone, once in the building. You will get a shouting or two from the staff.
• Dont hand-write application forms. They dont accept anything that is not typed.
• Dont argue with the staff there. They are capable of turning nasty pretty soon.
• Dont forget to get an umbrella, or a sweater or so depending on the local climate. You dont want to be a victim out there.

Reaching there!
We live in Long Island, which is pretty much close to this place. The embassy is in NYC and it's address is:

Consulate General of India

3 East 64th Street
(Between 5th and Madison Avenues)
New York, NY 10065
Tel: (212) 774-0600 - Fax: (212) 861-3788

(Please note that the telephone numbers may have changed. So do look at their website before you call them.)


We left home at 6 in the morning and took the LIRR (Long Island Rail Road) train that dropped us to Penn Station, NY at around 6:45 AM. From there, you have a number of options to reach the Embassy. You can take either the Subway, or the Bus. (Check Google Maps and select public transportation as the mode)
 
I would prefer the M04 Bus. You have to walk the least and you dont need to hop different bus / subway. And its frequence is almost around every 15 or 25 minutes.
 
We took the M04 from W 32 Street - 7 Avenue. It was like a five minute walk from Penn station. The drive is good, and you can look around and have fun. We dropped off at Washington Heights Cloisters(this is Via Madison and Bway, and around 15 stops / 25 minutes) From there we walked all the way to the Embassy. Take a printout from Google Maps, it will be helpful. Below is a sample one
 

 

I forgot to mention, You can buy a Metro transportation pass that you can use for subways and buses. You can get these passes at the PENN station. If you are not able to, make sure you have enough quarters / dollars to pay for the bus fare. I think the fare is around 5.5$ per ticket (in M04)

Once you reach the Embassy, things are pretty straigtforward. You need to wait until 9 or so, till they open the mighty gates. Also please note that the direction of the queue. It is in the basement, and not the main gate. The queue itself has no head or tail, so u need to ask the humble souls standing there. So when they open the basement doors, they will hand over tickets. These tickets have numbers and they announce the numbers. So, based on your luck and your number, you would have to wait some more time. Finally when you are called, you tell them your concern, hand them your documentation, make the payment, and get the receipt.

Some tasks, like attestation etc, can be done on the same day. So you need to wait till 4 or so to get it back. Thats a bad thing though, coz you have to wait so long for a lousy attestation signature! Anyways, there is an option for express mail through USPS. They will charge you 20$ and you would get back your documentation within a day or two (or three), through mail.

Indian Embassy at NY







This should give you an idea of the queue and where to stand. Do expect a much larger queue though :-D

Thanks to Google Earth for the nice images.


I seriously wish that you dont have to wait long for getting your work done!
And I hope this post helps someone in finding their direction.

Update One - Kicked out of God's own Country

Its been like 9 months outside India and I am already feeling crazy! This blog is dedicated to those pathetic "code monkeys" (an another me) who suddenly find their lives devasted getting into the profession of the Golden Goose (remember the goose that laid Golden Eggs) For the layman, if you believe IT is the best profession, then you are wrong. It sucks. It is cozy down there, where you are just out of college and when you are impressed by money (that you can use to impress others). But later... down the lane, you find yourself murking around, lonely, and deprived... looking back at the friend... who you just disposed off... to climb that extra rung on the ladder (to hell).
Unfortunately thats the way it is in any profession. But the pyramid in the software field, I believe is the steepest.

Whateva!!! Once you are in, you are lost. There is no way out, (unless you are ironically blind) You find yourself dancing on an oily stage surrounded by concrete mazes.. You fall down, you try and get up, and down you go. And you look around and see more such jokers on the dance floor, trying to help themselves (instead of others) to get up!

In one such slippery incident, I cribbed so hard, that I got a kick on my you-know-where and that catapulted me out of the country.... into Devil's Fantasyland!
Boy oh Boy!!

And look at me, here I am, at Uncle Sam's... waiting for my return ticket!

And to all of those, who dream of dollars and pounds... I hope I would be able to provide some kinda tips.. survival tips... while you own the post of a Non Resident Indian!

Stay Tuned!
Tada

2 Years - Long time

Its been more than two years since I last posted on my blogspot! I have been in and out of blogging every now and then. But now, for the sake of reviving my consciousness, I am seriously considering to get back on the boat!
The last two years, has left me with lots of stuff to bluff about! And I hope to keep my readers happy!

Stay Tuned~

Nostalgic pangs

Today after a long long gap of amost like a decade, I got to chat with a very sweet and old friend of mine. We used to send emails once in a blue moon, but today we got to chat for some time... courtesy Gtalk. Little dear as i usually call her, is studying at Coimbatore and she is gonna be the next generation of Software Engineers. She calls me bhaiya and I like it that ways. I think she must have been in some fourth or fifth grade when i left Surat to do my engineering. We neve got a chance to talk or chat since then...

But today, we chatted for some while... chatted on the past, the present and the future and whatever.... it was really a good feeling... walking back on memory lanes and thinking of a time called childhood.

Life is good when there is a reason. Life is bad when there is none. It starts with a dot and goes in a circle. But you never know where it ends...

Anyways, i needed a reason to create a new post and thanks little dear for giving me a reason!

Stay tuned!

A Break from work?

Phew! I succesfully managed to elude from blogging for another 2 month plus period! But today, quite surprisingly, I managed to take a break from work and did some good work. I listened to some good old music early in the morning, did some orkutting, posted some pics, and now, attempting to put on a blog entry!
Life is fun. Especially since yesterday, when Mishy, Sus and myself drenched ourself forcefully and completely from head to toe, in the heavy rain shower that caught us by surprise when we were cruising back on our bike. Getting wet was something that I had started to hate after joining the IT jungle! Maturity makes you lose the innocence that you once possessed when you were young. But yesterday dragged me back into those nostaligic lanes, where life was much more than taking wierd decisions that change the way things run across the globe.
And I was happy we didnt take the car!