blog crack

it's not just a building, it's a state of mind 

Sorry for the lack of updates on Thursday/Friday. I had to pull an all-nighter that lasted for 42 hours...so needless to say, I was busy. Thursday I had two deadlines and had to put the weekly SF Station issue to bed, and then on Friday I had visiting family situations.

One of which required me to take a little trip to the Indian embassy, which was pretty much like going to India itself.

Most embassies are full of pomp and circumstance. They're usually situated in really nice, posh areas. The buildings are made of stone or have brick with ivy crawling over the facade. There are giant flags majestically flitting in the wind.

Not the Indian embassy in San Francisco, which is an unassuming two-story affair squeezed between an animal hospital and a little house with over-active pets (a parakeet and a dog who keep squawking at one another). There is no pomp here.

First of all, there are crowds of confused looking brown people outside the doors looking like they don't know what to do with themselves. When you walk inside it looks like you've stepped into an immigration office in some third world country.

It's stuffy. There are babies crying. Everyone looks like they've been waiting in line for hours and hours. It's like going to the DMV.

In all honestly, the place was run pretty efficiently. We were given semi-clear instructions and we really didn't have to wait all that long in the lines in the morning (we did have to wait in the cold in the afternoon when we had to return).

My uncle needed to have his visa transferred from his old passport into his new passport. A simple cut and paste job, right?

Not here. You have to drop off your paperwork by between 11-12pm and then you have to come back and pick it up at 4pm. It literally takes all day!


bread lines or just waiting to be served at the embassy? 

They run the embassy as if it were extension of a bureaucratic office in India. They want to expose you to whole experience. They want all the immigrants to have a nostalgic taste of their beloved homeland.

If they want to show that they're keeping it real, they're doing an excellent job.