Attestation by MEA (Ministry of External Affairs) Patiala house

Yesterday, I went to the Ministry of External Affairs, CPV Division, Patiala House, New Delhi for getting my Marriage Certificate and Birth Certificate attested. I am listing down a few details and tips that might help you in getting your documents attested in a timely and easy manner.

Pre-attestation:

My documents originated in New Delhi, hence I did not need any attestation prior to coming to MEA. For those whose documents originate outside New Delhi would need the attestation of their state's Home Department (or Foreign Affairs Department or General Administration department) before the MEA would attest the document(s). More information may be had from the MEA office (phone number mentioned later).

Office Rules:

I did not have a camera and my pen was not working (picked up a wrong one from home) so I could not write them down. Here they are form my memory

• No money is charged for any attestation. Those who require an Apostle sticker need to pay Rs 50 per document for which a receipt will be given.
• Documents may be submitted by anyone. The person(s) name don the document need not visit in person to deposit the documents. No passport or any other proof is necessary.
• Documents are accepted for submission twice a way. In the morning between 9 AM and 11:30 AM and in afternoon between 2:00 PM and 3:30 PM. The documents may be collected from the same office at 1 PM (for morning submissions) and 5 PM (for afternoon submissions)
• There is no need to contact any touts or agents. They may charge unnecessary money.

Tips n Tricks:

This is the information I have obtained from a friend and from the person ahead of me in the queue for documents submission. I hope they shall help you

• The office is officially known as MEA CPV division. CPV stands for Consular, Passport and Visa.
  
• The office is on Tilak Marg, very close to India gate.
  
• The queue for submitting the documents is longer in the morning than the one in the afternoon. My friend had suggested me to join the queue at 8 in the morning. But since I had some important work in the office, I chose to go in the afternoon. Lucky for me.
• The queue on Monday mornings is the longest while that on Friday afternoon is the shortest.
• There is separate queue for ladies. You may use it to your benefit. (In Delhi, ladies usually get separate queues at a lot of places, including railway reservation counters.)
• Since the documents are delivered on the same day, you may plan your trip for one day, in case you are coming from outside Delhi.
• A couple of touts may approach you with false promises. Avoid them at all costs.
• Carry one photocopy of each document. you wish to have attested.
• If you are visiting the office in the afternoon, you may have a couple of hours to spend. I chose to visit the Delhi Zoological Park (otherwise know as the Delhi Zoo) that is very close to the MEA office. A good hour and half spent.
• If you have to park your vehicle, you may use the Tilak Lane parking area. Parking here is free and is not difficult to find.

I hope this information would help you get your documents attested in a hassle free way.

I have the following number of the MEA division that attests the documents. The number is +91-11-2338-7931. The person who answered my call was courteous and helpful.

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10 Things You Can Do With YouTube

I came across this great blog that tells what ll can be done with the YouTube, Google and other videos we view and/or download off the Net.

The author tells us how we can split the videos (or join a couple of them), re-encode them into various other formats, extract sound from them and much more.

Here is the article
http://labnol.blogspot.com/2006/07/10-interesting-things-you-can-do-with.html

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YouTube video series - The Real Hustle

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=the+real+hustle&search=

This is a series of videos where The Real Hustle team shows how easy it is to con people. This is Social Engineering and some clever wit combined, with some identity theft cases also thrown in. Great show.

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YouTube video series - Darren Brown

This is my first post in this series. I have come across a couple of
such series of videos but have forgotten them now (at least lost the
links). Now I can journal them here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kbxV8vtm85s&NR=1

This is a series of videos where Darren shows how you can influence people to do things by 'working with' their minds. Watch one and then see the list of related videos.

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What's wrong about this picture?

Well, many things. This guy is putting his back, arms and wrists under great deal of pressure and on the path to some serious damage. Really, his back, arms and wrists are crying for help. Lets dissect the picture, body part by body part.



First, the back is definitely not getting the support it needs. Its curved at the wrong angle and is supporting a lot more weight than it should. In the correct posture, it is the hips that take support of the body weight. But when you bend like this, the back now supports more weight than it can. Prolonged periods in this position can do some serious damage to one's back. It can start to become weak, and could lead to things like a slipped disc, something that can lead to a long time of bed rest and/or limited activity, and some unnecessary medical expenses.



Also, in this posture, the table seems too high. Don;t be mistaken, the guy is 6 feet 2. But since he has kept his chair low, the table top becomes 'too high' relative to his shoulder level. Because of this, his arms are raised a little too much, and are hence 'under attack'. Sustained pressure on the arms could lead to pain in the arm, leading to reduced usability and problems doing routine things like driving a car.



Again, the lowered position of the body puts more stress on the wrists than they can handle in the long run. This can lead to what they call Repetitive Stress/Strain Injury. The problem is that by sitting in the way this guy is, he is unable to place the wrists in the position that puts least pressure on the wrists.



Wrists take a lot of beating from typing on a computer, and for IT professions using a laptop the wrists maybe at a greater risk than does the human back. As I have emphasized earlier, an IT professional should take utmost care of his/her body, especially of the back and the wrists. There is nothing more important for the IT

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Laptops and human backs

What is the one thing that an IT professional should take utmost care of? Their backs. This applies to anyone who works long hours in front of computers. Repetitive Stress Syndrome strikes at the back and wrists (will cover wrists in another post) more than anywhere else. Another  major problem is DVT (which a friend of mine is suffering from right now) but that again is reserved for another post.



The major implications of an injury to the back could be anything from missed work-days (and the salary), medical expenses (especially if a surgery is involved) and/or lingering pain that haunts you for life.



I recently had a muscle sprain while lifting some household items and it lead to a three days bed rest. It was really difficult for me to even stand straight, and the pain was excruciating. After three days, I could not stand it any longer and decided to join office. The pain took its time to go away, but even today, I feel some pain in the affected area once a day or so. This episode made me realize how important it is to keep good care of our body, especially our backs.



I  have seen two of my colleagues in my previous company undergo
surgery for the treatment of slipped disc. Though excessive usage was
not the only reason for their medical condition, but it definitely was
an important one.



My current employer takes good care of its employees when it comes to good furniture. We all have the legendary Herman Miller Aeron chairs, perhaps the best thing that happened to chairs. These beauties provide good comfort and keep our backs in good shape. Though a good chair is not the only solution, its the best investment a company can do for its employees. I'm located in India and I guess I can count on my fingers the number of organizations that have Herman Miller chairs. There is no dealer for Herman Miller in India and all of these chairs have been imported from the US. At about USD 750 a piece, they don't come cheap.



Here are a couple of tips one could use to avoid problems with one's back

• Use a docking station. If you cannot arrange for one (or afford one), go for an external keyboard and mouse. If you can afford it (in terms of space and/or money), get an external monitor also.

• Keep you monitor (either the external one or the laptop's monitor, or both) at a comfortable high position. The top of the monitor(s) should be at your eye level.

• The keyboard and the mouse should be on a flat, level surface. Both should be at the same level and close to each other. This limits the amount of stretching you would have to do to reach the mouse and back to keyboard.

• Take typing lessons. I'm serious!! When typing, if you look at the keyboard and not at the monitor, you are unnecessarily stressing your neck and your back. You can avoid a lot of it if you could type without having to look at your keyboad. You may either enlist for a training session somewhere nearby or just any good typing tutor software. Google them out.
  
  

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My Open Source Tools

• No Java developer's list can start without Eclipse. Its a great tool, with its fair share of woes.
• Notepad++. I have not used it much, but my Manager thinks its better than TextPad (shareware) or EditPlus (shareware) for the low-level use that we encounter, and better than Notepad. Its a light tool with nice code highlighting and stuff.
• Tail for Win32. A really nifty tool if you work with log files that need to be monitored regularly from a Windows box. Like I test on JBoss and need to monitor the log file for some critical messages. I was using TextPad earlier and had to move focus out of it and then back to it just to be able to refresh the screen. Then my Manager told me about Tail for Windows. And its really great. It also helps you highlight keywords you may set, so whenever those keywords appear in the file you are 'tailing', it highlights them, making your task of monitoring the file really easy.
• Putty. A SSH client for windows. Its a great one because it mimics the LINUX terminal type and so gives a great view. Also good for normal telnet (non SSH).

More later

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Whatever starts

Right now, I have no idea for the name of my blog. And no direction for the blog topics.



This is yet another attempt at blogging regularly. I really hope I stick to my commitment and write something useful every couple of days. I hope to make it a habit worth cherishing.



Bon voyage.

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