In june I had to go to Velizy, France for a business trip. But there was only one problem... no two... nah three... or may be more. The first one - my passport was about to expire. I applied for it's renewal at the regional passport office. In first instance itself I managed to submit all the necessary documents. And then started the long wait for the passport to arrive. After 30 odd days I still had not received it. I checked the status on the website of passport office and for next couple of days I observed that the status was same. And next day early morning of I went to the passport office only to be sent back with a status that my application is at police station. The police station of course has not received my application and thus started my running from police station to the passport office and then back. The least that I can say about the passport officials is that they were least helpful and illogical in their approach. The system could be hi-tech, the office could be computerized, but in the end it is the mindset of the officials that can improve the efficiency of the office. There could be 100 reasons to say NO to improvement but only one strong boss to turn around an organization.
Finally after n number of round to police stations and passport office, I received my passport. But then the appointment to the France consulate for getting visa was not available! Now this is the 'office' where the applications are moved in very efficient manner. However I must say that my travel office really tried their best and got an appointment for me... just a day before my flight. And thus I got my passport stammped with the France visa!
I was packing my bags on saturday, the same night on which I was to fly to Paris, I got a call from office. Some data which I had to take along with me had some problem. Once again I was shaken. I rushed to office and in another 3 hours or so got everything under control. In the mean time called up my wife to pack whatever she thinks is appropriate and I dd not regretted that... :-) Then I rushed back in time to say good bye to my family and of I went to the Mumbai airport.
The flight was good and landed on time in the fashion capital of world - Paris! The weather however was quite bad... it was cold and raining. Very unexpected in June. Visited the Musee the Louvre, Trocadero and Eiffle tower on sunday. Could not go up the Eiffel due to the chilling wind and the rains. Interestingly there was a big screen put up at the Trocadero for the football world cup. The football fever was in the air.
Monday - first day of office at Velizy was good. Met all my colleagues after a long time. The conference for which I went there was on the next day. Everyone was putting in all there efforts to make it a success. The conference was excellent and very knowledgeable. I also got opportunity to meet experts of various fields. Meeting and hearing the views of customers from all over the world, getting to know their perspectives was altogether a different experience. Most importantly I conducted a session in this conference and it was very well received and appreciated... Making it worth all the troubles!
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