Tarun Dua

My days of living out in nomadistan seem to be at an end. Winding up between Bangalore, Ahmedabad, Mumbai and sundry other places is over for now except a few conferences I am supposed to attend in December and January-09, perhaps go Goa to meet Freeman if I can make it before he leaves Goa for Ted. Once more the familiar drill of getting a new airtel broadband connection ( and sign up for DND with 45 days wait), a gas connection, a part time cook, a taxi deal or buy a car, getting addresses updated on depository, bank, mutual fund accounts, a voter id card. India's bureaucracy and more recently the security circus establishment with its ridiculous un-environment friendly gas guzzling KYC norms makes true mobility daunting in the least.

I have been roaming with my Bangalore mobile sim ever since I left that city, since there is no plan to have number portability across telecom circles as opposed to amongst multiple providers. The TRAI is a fairly toothless and un-imaginative bunch. Now I consider myself a fairly 'stateless' actor with no affinity to any particular indian state.

Branchless banking offered by ICICI is fairly useless. Is it not enough that I pay taxes and use formal banking channels that they need me to be present to receive dead tree format mail at a particular physical location as opposed to just sending me electronic communication digitally signed on a mailbox hosted at a cloud.

I know I am grumpy, who wouldn't be having to jump through vogonic hoops built by the great indian bureaucracy.