The passport conundrum

About two months back I managed to get my passport drenched in the Mumbai rains. For all those cynics who are going .. how the hell, you should have known better, knowing Mumbai rains you should carry it in a bag etc etc, well in my defense, this is my first monsoon in Mumbai and well I refuse to take any responsibility for it. However the story is not about how it got wet but about what happened thereafter.

So being in the Business Development team my Job Description involves some amount of travel where I am suppose to work my charm and wit and convince the customer to buy my product. Hence it was important that my passport got renewed at the earliest. So I did my research and found out from the website (http://passport.gov.in/) the list of documents I need and the fee. I was fairly impressed because the website had all the information I needed.

So then I put everything together and called up all the agents listed on just dial. Well 98% said that it is not possible to renew a damaged passport under Tatkal scheme. When I insisted that I have checked the website and it says I can, they shot me down. Of course they were doing this day in and day out and how dare I challenge their wisdom. The 2% who agreed that I can asked me to pay them 10-12k for the job. So frustrated I decided I'll do it myself. 

The passport division had made it pretty easy, what with online applications and appointments. So I filled up all the particulars and submitted the form online. On submission I was asked to select a date and time of appointment. I gladly selected the same and noted it down on a piece of paper. Now me being me, I lost the paper but I didnt lose heart. How difficult could it be? I just had to go check the website with me application number and I'll get the appointment details. Well the website had been pretty impressive so far so I had hope. Alas!!! not everything in life works out. I tried googling everything possible but to no avail. Could never trace the details. So finally I caved in to the agent's demand and hired one.

He sent me a list of everything that I had to submit. As proof of current address I had to send forth my Bank Statement for the last one year, a society letter and an NOC from the landlord. Bank statements were in place BUT ... yes I know there is always a BUT. Otherwise there will never be any story right?
So the Society chairman said he wont issue a society letter as we were tenants and not owners of the apartment. He was some lawyer so he "claimed" he knows the law a little to well. When I asked him why would the passport office ask for such a document if its against the law ... well the answer was 'where do you work?' 'what is your qualification?'. When I told him that I am an MBA from a reputed school and am working as an 'Associate Manager' in my company well he did feel some respect for me and offered to give a letter on his letterhead :) Sadly the government does not accept any such document.
As for the landlord ... "Sorry. I dont feel right about issuing a NOC". Yeah I understand your dilemma mr. Landlord. What if we takeover your property using that NOC which states 'Amrita Banerjee has been living at this address since 1st April, 2010 as a tenant'. That's definitely possible I would say because I can prove that the apartment belongs to me since I possess the NOC.
But now since I have justified the actions of every person who could help me to prove I live where I live and didn't, what do I do to prove that I did in fact live where I did?
So I dropped in a line or two to the Ministry of External Affairs asking them to resolve my problem and I am still waiting for a response.
Any of you guys have any suggestion???

Making Headway?

Haven't each of us wished at some point of time that we knew what the next big thing would be? Create the next Google or Microsoft...
So I was trying to guess what is the next big thing in the mobile technology space. First the handsets started getting smaller and sleeker. Now we are back to big screens and heavy instruments. For web pages to be legible on the handset we need big screens; ergonomic keypads so as to punch in long mails comfortably.

The cause and affect is a little confusing. Did GPRS catch up for OEM's to change the handset designs or did mobile internet take off because the handsets supported it? Well either ways the question is not around what was but what will be?

The thing working for mobiles is its namesake - mobile. Mobility is what is the talk of the day - from desktops to laptops to mobiles. What we want is to carry everything we need in our pocket. So we are checking mails, accessing contacts and calendar, banking and even paying for goods and services with our mobile phone. This instrument plays multiple roles from a music player, camera, computer and wallet.

The increasing memory or screen resolution isn't going to be a USP forever. It will be all about applications. The app store has already caused an epidemic. Open APIs and open source applications have paved the way for technology to be exploited to the maximum. From recipes for your favourite dish to getting directions to the nearest wine store; there is an app for everything.

What is astonishing however is that no one is concentrating on enterprise applications. The need is obvious - my business has several people on the field trying to make a sale, fixing a problem or getting the specifications for a delivery to be made. Wouldn't it be great if I could convey the details real time to a system?

Before I leave my client's office the order is placed and processing has started. The time to delivery is reduced as the time lag between my reaching the office and logging the order is zilch.

Another scenario, my client in Delhi wants a demo of my latest product. I know that four of my sales staff are in Delhi region for various client meetings. I check their location through a GPS application, check their calendar to see if they are free and send them a message with the details of the call to be made. Now the sales guy can call dips and send a message to all the other sales reps updating his status.

There are about a million such applications that can be created to make life easier. However there is one big challenge with the mobile space - the lack of a standard platform. Every handset manufacturer uses a different technology. Even for the same OEM, the technology varies with handset models. Hence I have to port my application on a thousand different mobile platform for it to be a universal application.

My parting thoughts: the mobile handset manufacturers must look at standardizing platforms so as to promote their cause unless they want to develop or port every application in-house. Vertical integration is in my opinion not a viable solution. Hence a standardized platform is the need of the hour for the next big thing to hit us.