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Showing posts from April, 2024

The Illusion of Order: When 'Civilized' Means 'Sterilized'

 I remember my first visit to the United States over a decade ago. Landing from my small, bustling hometown of Meerut, India, I was instantly awestruck. The silence, the systematic flow of traffic, the lack of honking—it was a world engineered for flawless human convenience. Everything was neat, clean, and in order . For nearly a year, I was hypnotized. I praised this country for its efficiency, its cleanliness, and, notably, its lack of stray animals . Where were the dogs, the cows, the insects that are a normal part of life back home? The US, I thought, was truly a superior model of civilization. My clothes never even collected dust; it seemed the entire landscape was sterilized. But as the years passed, the hypnosis began to fade. I started asking a darker question: What is the price of this perfect order? The Cost of the Empty Road My initial praise for the US was based on what I didn't see: no stray animals, no swarming insects, no dust. I realized this absence wasn't a s...

The UK Immigration Embracing eVisa While Mitigating Technical Risks

  Technology always breathes new life into a system and alters our way of working. However, it takes time and numerous changes to make a technology foolproof. Those who have lived the time computers came must be familiar with it. Technology change is something that we complain about today, but we thank later. A new move by the UK can be seen as the dawn of a new era and may see the same transition. When everything is going digital why should the immigration process be left behind? The UK government is currently busy putting in place a completely digital immigration system. This means those applying for immigration to the UK will not see the paper documents like a Biometric Residence Permit (BRP) but will see the electronic records of the immigration status, or eVisa . The goal of the Home Office is to make the system work on its own with minimal to no paper usage by the end of 2024, according to the Home Office Digital, Data and Technology Strategy 2024 . This is not a new thing, a...

Modern Services, Outdated Hours: Can Flexible Timings Benefit Public Services and Traffic Congestions

 I am living in Chandigarh and my wife's driving license is due for renewal this month. Just few months back I got my license renewed from Chandigarh Road Transport Office (RTO). The working of Chandigarh RTO is exceptionally good. At least this is what I experienced when I got my license renewed. With 10 minutes of walking in to the Chandigarh RTO office at Sector 17, I was out, this was the speed at which things happened. Trust me I was expecting a long queue and lot of people wandering around asking for questions or stationery. Amazingly, the fully air-conditioned Chandigarh RTO office had roughly 10 - 15 people in total, when I was there. I had already applied for the license renewal online, and the only thing needed to be done at the RTO office was the photo click and some signatures. The first checkpoint at the Chandigarh RTO was the license renewal window where they cross checked the details that I had filled in the form with the physical documents.  It ha...

Soaring Spirits, Deferred Dreams: A Pilot's Story of Perseverance

It is over 15 years since I did my commercial pilot training from US. I still remember the day when I was waiting at the Indira Gandhi International Airport to board the flight to US. Five people had come to drop me off to the airport. Everything looked like a dream as I think of that day today. The time spent in the US while learning to fly was the best time of my life. Back then I had no idea in the worst of my dreams that I will be sitting at this place writing about my journey. Unfortunately, my journey has been stalled at 250 flying hours in my logbook. The reason is financial constraints and yes the recession of 2008. My father had almost zero earning; I was able to do flying training by selling the ancestral property. I did complete the training but there were no jobs as I returned back to India. Slowly, all those who trained along with me were absorbed in the industry, as the market recovered. But, some wrong decisions and some bad luck, and I are now workin...