Three Week Recap Part 1: Old Delhi & FRRO!

Blog 8 - Three Week Recap Part 1: Old Delhi & FRRO!

   

Slideshow of Pictures in Old Delhi!

Being stuck at home on Monday due to food poisoning allowed me to finally be able to write blogs! Unfortunately, and with my luck, today was the first day of the kho-kho (an intense Indian game of tag and duck-duck-goose mixed) tournament at my school. In these past few weeks since my last blog, I have been unbelievably busy, so instead of writing specific blogs for all the things I have done, I’ll do a couple recaps, and in the future, I will make sure to not miss my Sunday blog time!

One of the numerous things I love about India is that plans are spontaneous: from having nothing planned to doing almost everything; it suits my personality entirely! For example, for people staying longer than six months in India, they need to fill out a comprehensive and bureaucratic procedure at the FRRO (Foreign Regional Registration Office) within fourteen days of your arrival in India. For those who don’t know, both the host family and host student is given a volunteer counselor as your personal help in the country. One of the great aspects about AFS is that they have a great support system of non-paid volunteers across the world, like here in India!

This is Bhavya (my counselor) and the street sweets we had!

On the fourteenth day, my counselor, Bhavya, picked me up on a Tuesday so we could get me registered. I brought all the necessary documents, but this did not suffice with the office due to a change in schools from the school I attend and what school is listed on my visa. After learning this, there was nothing left to do at the FRRO office as we needed to get a couple of letters from the schools and AFS regarding the situation. We used the metro and some rickshaws to visit Old Delhi. We visited my first Hindu temple right once we got outside the metro station. When we put our shoes back on from the temple, an elderly lady called us over to her. She was seated on the ground and showed us plain black braided bracelets, she offered us one for twenty rupees (30 cents). The current exchange rate with Indian Rupees and the USD just reached 70 INR, the lowest it has ever been. Bhavya gifted one to me where it was tied on my left wrist and bought one for herself with hers being tied on her left ankle. The lady blessed us with a prayer allowing this bracelet to be our protection and safety. Bhavya had me try delicious street sweets and an ancient paranthas street spot. We also passed next to the red fort via auto rickshaw on the way to the AFS National Office, where I was reunited with the great staff I met back at orientation.

 The ancient paranthas street food spot. Parantha is like a flat bread with things inside. We had one with aloo (potato) and another with mint.

One week later with all the required old/new documents, I was brought to the FRRO office with another counselor named Anuj, as Bhavya lives a distance away from me. Again, after Anuj talking to the FRRO office in Hindi, something was wrong. We needed to go to the school to get a bonafide, in which we had, but it had to be on a different document. After collecting this document from the school, we returned to the FRRO office. There was another issue but was eventually worked out by Anuj explaining things (this is all in Hindi so I could not understand exactly what was occurring). The FRRO officer finally accepted my documents and started to enter them on the computer. He then said the application is with the Delhi office and not the Gurgaon office. I was the only one with this issue as the rest dealt with the Delhi office, in which they have an electronic system, where all you need to do is upload a picture of your documents and you are good. So after spending most of the day and then learning that, Anuj took me to Burger King where we engaged in interesting discussions on a wide range of topics. The FRRO problem was resolved but could have been avoided if we just used the Delhi portal in the first place, but if this didn’t happen, I wouldn’t have been able to experience Delhi, as well as the famous Indian bureaucracy.