FM....FM...FM...Family media

Never thought I'd be so addicted to FM radio. It's a great way to uplift the soul without stressing eyes. And good part is its ability to allow you perform parallel processing and enhance your imagination to never seen songs. Well....if you like a song...you can always go to Youtube to override your creative mind :-).

FM radio was the only media to entertain the boring souls when I was a kid. Waking up to early morning Venkateswara Suprabhatam and then daily news digest at 7am...don't think I'll ever forget those days...and especially the All India radio signature tune...feels like I'm back to my lonely days ;-).

When TV sets entered the market, we entered neighbour's houses with great enthu. And when TV entered our house, we let others share the joy with great pride. Wonder how we survived those days with so many people at home, and even serving them chai paani at times. And those Shivaratri days...watching movies in our front yard among 50 people, with no one paying attention to Lord Shiva, but just there to stay awake all night in the name of Jaagaran... anyways, love those days. And now, it's a treat to listen the trio singing Doordarshan tune in the latest flick ZNMD...

After TV, FM took a backseat to some extent. Over time, with FM installed in cars, it's back to life on roads. With so many soothing songs in the air, got myself one FM radio. And it's the best family media I've at home after games. Unlike TV shows, I don't need to worry about switching channels when kids are around. But still there are songs that can't be avoided on FM too ...after Munni and Sheela, the latest Himesh Reshammiya's flick "no touching, no touching....only seeing, only seeing..". ...kya kare...kids catch those songs pretty fast :-(. Anyways, much better than seeing those songs on TV, and someone better compile FM version of the song "....no seeing, no seeing....only listening, only listening..." :-).

With only one hour TV time for kids, FM radio with its soft musical background makes us feel like someone is home all the time, and our maids don't mind syncing to songs to ease their work. All I can say, FM has the power to paint the mood with surprising songs ranging from old to new, sad to happy and much more....so just tune to FM and enjoy life!!

What's in a name?

Well, to be precise, what's in a last name? That's the exact question popped up in my mind when I applied for my driver license in India few months back.

Like any budding Indian driver, I went to RTO to apply my DL(driver license). Felt relieved when one of my friend told that we don't need to go through written or driving test if we have a valid out-of-country DL. So marched into RTO with the hope to get my identity soon.

As soon as I entered the RTO complex with my husband, we were surrounded by agents in no time. There were more agents than applicants. We disappointed them by applying directly. After some struggle in finding the exact officer and his sitting location, we submitted required documents and got approval. Voila....we were happy to go home with the feeling "after 7 days, we'll have our DL".

With assumed slow process in India, we visited RTO after 10 days. As they couldn't locate our DLs, we had to go there again. Next day, they found my husband's DL...but not mine :-(. When asked "why?",  no one could answer....as the concerned person was on leave. Another trip to RTO revealed that my documents are not complete.

When I questioned the officer sitting there, "how come mine got rejected when we both submitted the same documents for address and age proof?", he verified with other workers and replied that my marriage certificate was missing. With a smile, I asked him "well, you didn't ask that for my husband". All he could reply was a big smile saying "that is the process here ma'm...". My immediate response to his smile "you wasted three days of our valuable time by not saying it before". Well, he replied our concern with another big smile. 

I had that document ready to surprise him. He couldn't resist to ask "so you already knew that you need to submit the marriage certificate?". haha...couldn't control my laugh and told him "just carried in case if I need it for any reason...". 

All this mess was the result of mismatched last name with my husband's last name. When we came out, my husband was happy and raised his collar by saying "see, you don't have an identity without me" :-). Even though he never asked me to change my last name, I could see a big smile on his face. What to say of those husbands whose wives changed their last names forever. Anyways, I was happy to give few moments of happiness to my dear husband.

It's a good way to tag family with one last name. In olden days, with women sitting at home, taking care of household activities, with no facial identity outside, and a man biased by his physical strength, it made complete sense to identify family with man's name.

Including spouse's name is dated back to puranas... Seetharam, Radhakrishna, Parvatiparameswar. But the only difference ....those are the names of men who took their wife's name after marriage or eternal love. And those men are all GODS. And instead of suffixing, they prefixed their better halves in their names. Well, their stories are limited to books, no one follows them in real ;-). Even if they follow, it's in news for sure More men taking wives' last names.

OK I got my driver license. Congrats to me ..:-). But something I learned in my few visits to RTO, people don't even bother to keep their working environment clean. Walls are decorated with betel leaf spit and stairs are filled with shit and no one even bothers to get it cleaned.

Went after 15 days, still the same. Dunno if I need to pity the people working there or praise them for ignoring it. Pathetic...and I could see some new improvement...ants digging mud in the middle of the main entrance :-(.

OK. I'm done with name concern and clean concern :-).

In case if you are an NRI with valid DL and moved to India for some reason, here is the list of documents required to get permanent license:
- Address proof document (index-II/  telephone bill/ electricity bill etc...)
- Age proof document (passport/ birth certificate/ school leaving certificate etc...)
- Document or proof explaining the type of license you had and the vehicle you were allowed to drive
- And girls, if your last name is different from your husband's, do submit your marriage certificate without fail