{"id":144,"date":"2014-01-13T19:20:47","date_gmt":"2014-01-13T19:20:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/community.knowledgegap.biz\/?p=144"},"modified":"2014-01-14T16:57:45","modified_gmt":"2014-01-14T16:57:45","slug":"sour-sweet-dc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/community.odishagateway.org\/?p=144","title":{"rendered":"Sour & Sweet DC"},"content":{"rendered":"

SOUR<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

An interesting visit day to DC for Indian Visa related work.\u00a0 The OCI Visa is contracted to and processed by an Indian company, BLS International\u00a0with offices in major US cities.\u00a0 \u00a0The US consular offices and India government coordinate\u00a0activities through BLS.<\/p>\n

Being frustrated by lost passport, lost application,\u00a0automatic e-mail replies, waiting for total\u00a0about 5 months on promised 2 month processing\u00a0I was sought for help by\u00a0my\u00a0out-of-Washington\u00a0\u00a0friend family.\u00a0 It was after failing to physically locate BLS-DC address:<\/p>\n

BLS International USA<\/p>\n

Suite 100, 110 220<\/p>\n

I Street NE<\/p>\n

Washington, DC 20002, USA<\/p>\n

through US Postal Service, FedEx, and Google maps, WMATA map for Metro transportation\u00a0etc., I decided to venture out driving in this cold morning (January 13, 14).\u00a0 The GPS\u00a0lead me\u00a0to an attended\u00a0parking lot. The attendant told me it was a government parking lot and he had no idea where\u00a0to look\u00a0for the I Street NE or BLS. But he told me to try at the newly opened Walmart.\u00a0 Thinking uncertainty about a restroom there and whether there was just a name and yet to open (because there was a lot of “Politcs” on the issue of opening) Walmart,\u00a0I asked if I could just park anywhere else.\u00a0 It that vicinity there was no sign of a city called DC the way I had\u00a0known (1971) even lived for last 34 years.\u00a0 From my look, I guess, the attendant was very kind to say that I could get a free parking space (it was 7:30 AM) on the road side around here!\u00a0 Wow free parking in DC!\u00a0What a good luck!\u00a0 Quickly I tried to grab a space on the road side, and in a couple of minutes while talking to him I came out of the government parking and the spaces were gone.\u00a0 I of course was prepared for\u00a0 any parking space, free or not.\u00a0With my stupidity I \u00a0drove in a one way only road, in the opposite direction, got ended up in an empty (there was only one car parked there) parking lot.\u00a0 First I thought it must have been a mistake, so I read all instructions, plus I saw\u00a0quarter\u00a0accepting spots ( an old novelty) and due to other pressures in mind (u guess) quickly parked and started walking east to get to I NE (I actually parked in I NW where my GPS led me to remember?). At that point I figured out where I was that was\u00a0one end \u00a0of I NW and naturally I headed east driven by\u00a0logical reasons. But good lord going east was leading to another parking lot and a couple of people cutting through and I could not venture to talk to them.\u00a0 But I am a Physicist so I had this strong conviction that opposite direction of West must be the East.<\/p>\n

Once I was past the lot there was this H Street, NW and the cross streets were H and K.\u00a0 I practiced recollecting\u00a0from my memory the relative position of I with respect to H &K.\u00a0 So, I entered to 4 visible and world famous company (NOMA, DC Community College, CNN, Federal Energy Commission, and DC government or something) only buildings and the security people led me how to find I east.\u00a0 After\u00a0criss cross walking and not getting it I entered to the CNN building and explained to the security that I may\u00a0kindly be introduced to a reporter if he could not\u00a0help me find I east\u00a0even before asking the intended question.\u00a0 He was really a nice guy (the lady before was also and she was trying to physically leave her sit to show me the direction but I gave her the impression that I had been living in the metro area for 34 years and she was very kind to believe me!) and told me with\u00a0two right turns blindly will get me to I east.\u00a0\u00a0The rest was not too difficult\u00a0and less confusing.\u00a0 \u00a0It was 9:10 AM and I got a waiting n umber (5). The ticket issuing\u00a0guy must have seen me disoriented and made it clear there is no need for me to be in rush, because I probably will not be called till 10 AM and I could buy a cup of coffee next door (I went out but did not see any shop and came back but felt guilty to showing him that his instruction was not right and so I went out again walked about a quarter mile grabbed coffee and came back).\u00a0 When I came back he was waiting at the reception desk (I believe he must be a manager type and the only guy running the steps) and he before even looking at my number (he must have been pleased\u00a0that his instructions for coffee was successful)\u00a0the ticket said to wait a little and at 10:10 AM I was called.<\/p>\n

SWEET<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

These BLS contractors working at the desks were superb!\u00a0 Unlike the e-mail behavior, even before I showed the entire paper work she (Usha) quickly reacted to the fact that she remembered the case of lost passport got remembered the name of the applicant etc., very pleasant talking to, and I thanked for her responsive personality.<\/p>\n

Walmart – I now knew entire geography of the place, found it and went inside for the restroom.\u00a0 Another gentleman followed me and was vocally praising the neatness of a bath room in DC.\u00a0 I agreed. And so much that I felt\u00a0obliged to buy and carry some fruits\u00a0home.<\/p>\n

My old GPS – Wow I made it to home on time as the GPS predicted.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SOUR An interesting visit day to DC for Indian Visa related work.\u00a0 The OCI Visa is contracted to and processed by an Indian company, BLS International\u00a0with offices in major US cities.\u00a0 \u00a0The US consular offices and India government coordinate\u00a0activities through BLS. Being frustrated by lost passport, lost application,\u00a0automatic e-mail replies, waiting for total\u00a0about 5 months … Continue reading Sour & Sweet DC<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[7,9],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/community.odishagateway.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/community.odishagateway.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/community.odishagateway.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/community.odishagateway.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/community.odishagateway.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=144"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/community.odishagateway.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":332,"href":"https:\/\/community.odishagateway.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144\/revisions\/332"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/community.odishagateway.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=144"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/community.odishagateway.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=144"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/community.odishagateway.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=144"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}