I leave the details of the trip (tiring but exciting) for my next post, and will try to outline the procedure to get the Schengen Student Visa for Internship from German Consulate at Kolkata. I specifically mentioned Kolkata because my friends faced quite a lot of problems at the Delhi Embassy.

So you start with your documents, here is the list:

1. Schengen Application form filled correctly.
2. Original Invitation letter from German Host, same must be faxed to the consulate by your university.
3. International Health Insurance, only if it is not mentioned on your invitation letter that host will take care of it.
4. No Objection Certificate from your home university for the whole period of intern.
5. Valid Passport of course!!
6. Photocopy of your air-tickets. They issue the Visa only between your dates of arrival and departure.
7. Covering letter (see below), a formal request letter for the visa addressed to Consulate General.
8. ZAV – mail them before leaving to check if you require this or not. In my case I did not need it.
9. Details of the sponsor of the trip and the supporting documents.

That’s all. Once you have all documents with you, call them to make an appointment for the day convenient to you. ofcourse, the next step will be to reach the consulate. You can reach there by Rail or Airplane. Howrah station is just 20 minutes away from the consulate whereas Airport is 35-40 minutes away. You can hire a taxi from the station/Airport to reach the consulate (Do ask them to down their meter, so that they don’t fool you). Reach there at around 8:30 a.m. and collect your token. Then, you will have to wait inside for your Roll call .

Note: I see that a lot of people come here looking for the covering letter. I believe that if you have the internship/job and the above required documents, then you can just state the facts in your letter, eg. “I have been accepted by … company/university for the post of … , so I need visa for a period of … months. Kindly grant it”. That’s it. I myself wrote it within two minutes while waiting at the embassy as I forgot to write one before leaving.

It takes no more than 10 minutes to submit the application, even less if you filled the application form online. Request them to give you the visa asap and they will readily agree to give you the visa the next day. Collect the Visa the very next day and you are done. You can even catch the evening flight on the same day as I did.

You can find cheap and good accommodation in the near-by area. We stayed at Hotel Asha (unfortunately, there was no asha there) which had both AC (Rs.850/day) and Non-AC (Rs.500/day) rooms and all other basic amenities (TV, shower, room service, etc). The best thing about it was that there was a cyber-cafe right in front of the hotel, so no communication problems . Also, be prepared for a very hot, humid climate and pack some extra t-shirts to sweat out.

I wish you luck for your visa application. For more inquiry, call the consulate or leave a comment. Click here to move to the website of German consulate, Kolkata.

Cricket as I define it on the basis of reactions from the audience:

A “very long” game played between two teams in which the following happens, ofcourse along with the usual boring bowling and the batting,

1. Before a ball is bowled: If its the Indian team, then the audience prays for a miracle so that the ball is converted into a dot ball or a wicket. If the opponent is bowling, they pray the opposite.
2. After a ball has been bowled: Start guessing and betting about the line and length of the ball. If the ball seems to go wide, or is declared a “no ball”, curse the bowler for having the bad action or longer run-up or not practicing enough or being out of  form, etc.
3. If the batsman hits the ball and he belongs to Indian team and it results in a four or six, praise him for the shot, otherwise start discussing where he could have hit to get some runs, like “yaar, poora mid-wicket khaali pada hai, yahan maarta to do run to mil he jaatey”, “India ki batting line ki to lagi hui hai aajkal, insey accha to apna Pathan he khel leta hai”.
4. If the batsman gets out by the ball and he belongs to Indian team, start cursing again.
5. If the batsman gets out from the opponent team, shamelessly start praising the same bowler who was cursed earlier for being out of form.
6. The whole process repeated for 8 hours, with some break of course.
7. After the match is over, start discussing about the highlights of the match everywhere, on the dinner table, in the bathroom, classroom, lab … If they lost the match, discuss the loopholes and the strategy for their next match.

It looks very boring as well as monotonous to me. I don’t understand how these people tolerate such shit and consider this as a measure of their patriotism. If you want to know the real cricket, read http://uncyclopedia.wikia.com/wiki/Cricket.

Note: I do like to play cricket though.

Thanks to all for their support and patience.

Be Happy

No, No.. This is not the movie review (not at least from me) but the unquenchable thirst and the hunger of life. All of us, consciously or unconsciously, seek for happiness. I smoke for happiness, he drinks for happiness and the other guy gyms for happiness. We do what makes us happy. But what if one day you realize that your reasons for happiness are diminishing? You want to be happy but you don’t have a reason to be happy.

Without getting into the writer’s shoes (the thing I am not good at), I will straight try to hit the nail. There used to be a time when I would cheer up for a new Pen, drive around the whole colony on my first bicycle, cry for a balloon the whole day, will distribute pancakes to everyone on my selection in JEE, but now there is nothing that can make me that happy. I still laugh sometimes, but my reasons to be happy seems to be decreasing with increase in my age, experience, and intellect. The only time I am happy now is when I am sleeping or listening music (and that too sometimes becomes mechanical).  When I analyze between then and now, the only thing that have changed are my desires. My desires to become successful, my desire to earn, my desire to get a partner, my desire to make my family happy, and my desire to be happy. I don’t know if these desires are the cause of my diminishing reasons for happiness but Buddha do. Buddha in his Four Noble Truths said  “craving is the cause of suffering and when they (People) have completely overcome desire, ill will and ignorance, they will know the supreme happiness”.

Therefore, I am now trying the Buddha way to know the path to happiness.