Seth Madej » India

India Visas: A Long, Cautionary, Long Tale with Two Extended Intermissions, pt. 3

Seth — Tue, 07 Dec 2010 21:33:41 +0000

Note: You might like to read part 1 and part 2 of this saga. Or, you can get all three parts on one long page here.

Just over four hours remained for Sophie and I to procure Pennsylvania’s drivers licenses with which to complete our applications for visas to India, and I’d again been foiled by my own personal Officer Dibble, the Bottom of the Page. It chortled in my face as I sat in the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation waiting room and through a mouthful of Brazil nuts explained that to get licenses Sophie and would I need a second, and completely unobtainable, proof of address.

India Visas: A Long, Cautionary, Long Tale with an Extended Intermission, pt. 2

Seth — Thu, 23 Sep 2010 19:02:33 +0000

Come back with me, dear readers, to a simpler time. A time eight months ago, when Steve Martin had not yet heard of Twitter, when movies about talking owls were just a magical fantasy, and when I had yet to finish living the story about which I would begin writing a month later and then forgot about until today. I resume our tale where I left off, with less than 24 hours remaining for my wife Sophie and I to acquire two forms of proof of address to use to acquire drivers licenses to use to acquire visas to use to gain entrance to India.

India Visas: A Long, Cautionary, Long Tale, pt. 1

Seth — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 22:37:06 +0000

You might remember that Sophie and I returned to the US not only because we were exhausted and had gone just far enough past the edge of sanity that we had named our luggage, cameras, and hairbrush, but also because we needed to facilitate getting visas to India. Just before arriving in Turkey, we discovered that our original plan to apply for visas at the Indian consulate in Istanbul would’ve led to us being denied and redirected to the embassy in Ankara. Which in turn would’ve led us to spend a week in a town the tourist highlight of which is something called the Monument to a Secure and Confident Future.