Family Visa process - 4.5 hours

Note: This is for Expatriates trying to get their Families on Dependent visa to Kuwait
Lets note down the steps I went through for the Visa process for future reference:
1. In India got Marriage certificate Notarized and stamped from Home Department and Kuwait Embassy.
2. You need Marriage Affidavit from Indian Embassy (2 hours)

1. Submit Marriage Affidavit form in Duplicate
2. Passport copy of Wife
3. Photocopy of Marriage Certificate
4. Civil ID copy
5. Applicant passport copy
6. Show Original Marriage certificate(Attested by Home department in India)
7. Show Original passport

3. Attest the Affidavit of Marriage got in previous step by Ministry of External Affairs, Kuwait (Took 30 mins)

4. Get the Application filled by the office outside Jawazat(Immigration Department). I went to Ahmadi Jawazat, as I stay in that area. Documents that they took with this application were:

1. Original Affidavit of Marriage stamped by External Affairs
2. Copy of wife's passport
3. Copy of My Izne Amal (I had to show original Izne Amal)
4. Civil ID copy

She did not take my passport copy nor my Aqd Ijar (House contract) copy which I was hearing is needed now.

Thats it, I think she took 10 minutes to make the visa asked me to check the spellings, passport number etc. than put 3 KD stamp if all fine and get it signed by the Manager

Easy isn't it! Alhamdulillaah!! at 8 a.m. I was in the embassy and at 12:30 I had the visa in my hand. Than I couriered the visa to India for Medical, PCC and Endorsement by Kuwait Embassy. You can use TNT, I gave it to him at 6 in the evening and it was delivered next day before 4 pm in Mumbai.

Most precious thing to give - Time

The best thing you can ever give anyone is Time.
Because when you give someone your time, you give them part of your life.

Pondering over these lines.... Imagine if u give someone a Mercedes or a precious Diamond, U can get these material things back. Provided the person is willing to give them back ;) But imagine when you give someone your time. U sit with someone at the Beach or in the Coffee shop or in Office listening to what they are saying, or having them listen to what you are saying. We share our thoughts or our concerns or our issues and feel relieved. I mean, u dont really share anything material there is no Money going from your pocket to theirs or vice versa. But still u r giving or taking the Most precious thing. Because the time you gave or you took from the other person is gone. You cannot have it back and it is part of your life. If you are going to live for 60 years, you have already given this person some part of your life, Isn't it.

Now when I think of this in conjunction with the other post I wrote about Companions and their effect, they both together mean we should be soo careful with whom we are spending our time. Imagine u r spending your time with a jerk with whom u dont benefit at all instead maybe u learn some bad stuff from him. In this case u r giving the most precious thing u have in return for some Junk stuff. Isn't it Strange and we never think before we spend our time. We think its the least we can give anyone. But when it comes to giving something monetary to anyone we think 10 times. Strange right. Where is our Common Sense, As they say "Common sense, is soo Uncommon"

Win them or Lose them

I was speaking to a close friend after a long time. And in our discussions we went to the topic of Relationships and dealings with difficult people. We were speaking about how some people are difficult to deal with and willing to do things to Insult or Embarass you. How to deal with such people. My friend suggested a solution to deal with this in a very nice way. Whether you want to Win them back or Lose them. If you want to Win them back than you forgive and forget and accept whatever excuse they give for the differences that took place. But If you want to lose them, than you can remember every mistake they made and think how every excuse they make could be a lie. So its upto you Win them or Lose them.

I have some real Wise Friends... Isnt it!

Being Thankful

Among friends we often discuss this: That we have soo many favours of Allaah upon us. We should be soo thankful to him for the innumerous favours he has made upon us. But we on the contrary keep ourselves busy complaining and cribbing even on the smallest thing that we dont like happens to us. I just want to put this post as a reminder to myself... I did some reading on Being Thankful to Allaah, will try to summarize from the different articles:

Characteristics of a True Believer:
The believer is thankful to Allaah in his heart, with his tongue, and with the actions of his limbs. He is thankful for Allaah's Blessings and the great amount of goodness that Allaah has given him, those that he enjoys at all hours of the day. The believer is thankful and utters phrases of Allaah's remembrance, and he does not see any blessing greater than what Allaah has given him, nor any token of generosity greater than what has come from Allaah.
The believer scoffs at the materialistic fancies of this worldly life, as he is focused on the delight of repenting to Allaah, and turning completely to Him alone. With this, he takes an ample share of worldly delights and enjoys them, but not as the disbelievers or heedless ones do. He indulges in them in a way that assists him in establishing the Rights of Allaah and the rights of His servants.
By contenting himself in this way and hoping for the reward from Allaah, the believer fulfills his desires, his heart rests peacefully, and he finds tranquility. He does not become saddened if some affairs reach him that he does not like. With this, Allaah has combined for him the happiness of this worldly life and the happiness of the Hereafter.

Soul Cleanser - we must be Thankful
We have to live in this life and be thankful for even the smallest blessings of Allah (SWT), in order that we live in this world with a higher aim that merely earning a few extra dollars, and our life should be to seek the hereafter.
The key to achieving tranquility and harmony of a balanced heart, mind and body is that we look at those who are below us materialistically and we forget about those who are above us.

Quranic Ayah: And (remember) when your Lord proclaimed: "If you give thanks (by accepting Faith and worshipping none but Allâh), I will give you more (of My Blessings), but if you are thankless (i.e. disbelievers), verily! My Punishment is indeed severe."

Extract from a Poem:
I also Pray, Inshallah that ........... If you have a bad day at work, be thankful to Allaah Subhaanahu wa Ta'aala. Appreciate that you have a job. Some people don't. When you pay your bills, be thankful you can pay them. If you see a gray hair, be thankful. Think of the cancer patient in chemotherapy who wish they had hair on their head ...........
When you find yourself waiting in line or the recipient of poor service, be thankful.Many don't have services. Think about the people who have no food to eat and are hungry all the time .......... When you realise how much work it is to take care of a house, be thankful you have a home. Think about those who are homeless and wish they had a home to take care of ..........
When you feel like complaining because you have to walk a long distance from your car, be thankful . Think of what it would be like not to be able to walk! If you get irritated by other people's anger, apathy, ignorance, bitterness, or insecurities, be thankful. Things could be worse. You could be one of them! When you think everything in your world is terrible, and you want to give up, think of the people who have been told they only have a certain amount of time to live. They don't want to give up.

Appreciations

I usually make a folder in my Outlook PST files called Appreciation, where I keep all the appreciation emails received for work, how small a task it may be. It might seem small task to me sometimes, but helps the business user in such a way that he/she drops in an appreciation email. So the email deserves to be saved atleast for personal viewing and you can look back how many times or in which parts of your career you got appreciated. So I was advicing the same thing to a friend to make a folder for such emails. And popped up the question: Awwab, you should send me an email.

That made me think. Our friends affect our lives soo much. Whenever we are low we know which ones of our friends we can talk to and they can cheer us up. When we have a problem, we know who to share it with and get some good advice. Friends will try their best to cheer you up! We learn soo many things from them. Yaani, they are so much part of your life. And yes we dont send them any appreciation emails...

Two wives

Well After spending a good amount of time on Sharepoint Administration and Consulting I am back to Web Solutions. I have a good requirement to work on. It seems to be a crucial project for business. But I think it is just the tip of the IceBerg. If we Inshaa Allaah deliver it to the expectation. Lot of requirements will just bombard on our team. Good part is, that I again will get to do the whole cycle Inshaa Allaah. Requirements Gathering, Analysis, System Design, Develop, Test, Deliver Inshaa Allaah. And I am lucky to give a good supervisor and team to work with. So now lets c whether I use Agile practices or any other technique...

But the bad part is this is soo addictive as it was when I was in India and used to spend 10-12 hours at work + weekends in office. Now I am again getting used to sitting late in office. But I should not be doing that I am a married man now with two wives. shocked!

But yes, I can do it until my second wife comes to Kuwait for sure. But maybe it will be crucial war between my first wife and second wife to know who gets more of Awwab's time in a day. People who know Awwab know that his first wife is Work, married on 12th September 2003. See I also remember my wedding date. Neways... Life is soo much fun, when u enjoy your work and soo boring when u dont enjoy it! I love challenges but I think it is gonna be difficult to deal with two wives.. Lets see if I survive.... Guys, Listen to me dont get married... Just kidding...

Honestly speaking, U should Marry, why should only we Suffer..!! ;)

I know all my friends are gonna bombard me for this post.....but as u guys know, I am not scared!

Sleepless to Sleeping

We all know friends always have an impact on life. Little things they say or do, might have a huge Impact - Good or Bad. I have read online stories about how a kind gesture affected the friend in a big way (Not sure they are true or fictitious). My story goes like this, last couple of weeks many of my friends were on leave and I was going through an issue that I was thinking about it soo much. I had some of my friends whom I had shared this with. I had explained my problem and what I thought was the solution. But still I was thinking on it soo much, that I was Sleepless...I eat, drive, try to sleep, do watever. I could not get this out of my mind...Kept thinking thinking.. And after some of my close friends came back, who know a lot of my secrets... and I discussed with them what was going on and got the same advice that they always give me. Awwab Be Patient, May God Help You. Now I am back to normal, All praise be to Almighty God.
Yaani, Ajeeb I did not solve my problem yet, but just shared it with my closest friends and phew... I am soo cool about it now. Yaani, earlier I was confused that may be I was wrong. Since it was all my thoughts, but after discussing with my friends, I did not get to hear "Awwab u r wrong" So Now I am soo normal Alhamdulillaah. That I changed from sleepless to Sleeping extra.

I had two Alarms one at 3:45 a.m. and another 6:00 a.m. N can u believe it I did not wake up on any, I straight away woke up at 7:46 and came to work at 8:30 . Thats 1.5 hours late, I guess in the last 2.5 years I have been working here, I have never been soo late.... Allaahul Mustaan

Progress

What we call 'Progress' is the exchange of one nuisance for another nuisance.

Havelock Ellis (1859 - 1939)

I sometimes belive in this one. But I hate it when the newer Nuisance is worse the older one. Than I think it definitely is not Progress, but destruction!!!

And give not a thing in order to have more

I was speaking to a friend some days back, and from my box of principles and things learnt and memorized, I mentioned: Key to happiness is you keep giving without expecting anything in return.

Example: If you give a smile and expect the other person should also smile back, you will be hurt, if he/she does not Smile back. But If you smile without expecting a smile in return and the other person chooses to ignore you and does not smile back you will not be hurt. I think I had learnt this from some of my Intellectual friends. I dont remember from where I learnt it.

The Phone picker

How would u react if someone unknown calls u and tells u that Mr. XYZ in your department is not picking up the phone, can u ask him to pick up the phone. And u dont even know Mr. XYZ nor the caller. So much to ur amazement, I think u will go crazy like "Excuse Me Dude, I m neither your secretary nor His, to ask him to pick up the phone. If he is not picking up the phone u use some common sense and send him an email to pick up the phone if his picking up is so important for you OR walk down to his office. But why the hell, u call me to tell him to pick up the phone" So now u have a trouble situation to handle and u dont have time to think bcos the guy is on the phone. So my intelligent friend did not lose the temper but instead calmly adviced that u can drop him an email and tried to enquire who gave you my number, to which the caller preferred not to Answer. So there r soo many variety of people you can find in a big organization. Strange Isn't it! Every experience brings in soemthing to learn. So dont do the mistake again dude "Ask him to pick up the phone" People have taken ur act to the blogs.... ;)

U r like a Fish!

One of my friends said that to me, "U r like a Fish" and I was surprised at the phrase, because I did not know what it means. So I enquired what do u mean by that. Obviously Kuwaiti's know much more about the Fish as they go Fishing as well as Diving in the sea. Brave folks Man! Neways, so I when I asked what it means, I learnt that some fishes of the Sea cannot swim in the River and some fishes of the River cannot swim in the Sea. This is what is meant when u hear someone tell u, U r like a Fish! So u were swimming well in one area/place/department but U might not be able to survive in another area/place/department. Bcos u will not be able to swim there. Bcos u r like a Fish. well I dont know If I am really like a fish or not. But, I do miss my old team and the lot of ideas I used to have to work on when I was there :(

Prayer - the peasant and the king

I went to a Mosque close to our Main Office as I was late leaving office and it was time for prayer. And after reaching inside I was so pleased with what I saw and could not stop praising Almighty God. In the same row, I could see some very influential intellectuals of this country/our company side by side with may be a meagre cleaner in the company who might be getting 20 KD (~3000 INR) salary. It touched me soo much, what a noble religion it is that brings down the rich and the poor, the Fair and the Dark, the Arab and the Non-arab all are equal in front of their lord. And when they pray they stand shoulder to shoulder and feet to feet with whoever is next to them. Can people still have pride and look down upon others, after going through this practice 5 times a day where you proclaim God alone is great and you kneel down putting your forehead on ground out of Submission to God. I dont think so... I remembered something similar said by a lady leader of Indian history called Sarojini Naidu, who mentioned in A talk given to the Young Men's Muslim Association, Madras, 1917 : "the democracy of Islam is embodied five times a day when the peasant and the king kneel side by side and proclaim, "God alone is great."

Weekend is here

Thats how time flies.... I joined mid of last week. So I completed one and half week in my new department and did not even realize. I feel I just joined yesterday. But time flies soo fast. Although I am trying to deliver some stuff using Sharepoint Out of the box, but there are some other things in my mind that I would love to deliver but I cannot due to unavailibility of the right tools... I wish I get my workstation with all the software development tools I need soon. In order to start being productive. Although I am also investing time learning something new everyday. I just learned what Back Allocation is today. But I will not tell you, what it is. So I think I am enjoying learning about Oil. But still I am missing my Development tools...waiting...waiting... a long wait.... I feel like a carpenter who knows his work but is still waiting for a Hammer. he cannot do anything without a hammer, can he?? Maybe he can hit the nails with a screw driver. But how good will be a product where the Nails were hammered with a Screw Driver instead of a Hammer. Will you buy it?? I would not, for sure!

Techno-Functional

No, No...Dont get me wrong. I have not left Systems Development to become a DBA. I will try to convey what I mean by Managing Data. I have joined the Data Management team which is very important for the Exploration & Production business in an Oil Company. So basically all the data needed to run the Oil business is managed by the Data Management team. Atleast thats what I think until now. I just joined last week, so maybe after getting more understanding I might take back my words... So I think I am gonna enjoy this new job Inshaa Allaah. Although I will have to learn a lot, as I would be expected to understand and take requirements from people who are from 100% Petroleum background. They speak in abbreviations, that I hear for the first time and they speak technically right in their taxonomy of Oil. So its not technically right according to an IT guy... Do u understand, G&G, seismic, E&P, GOR, etc, etc... i get to hear all this everyday now..

But the good part, to add to my IT technical skills, I will get a chance to add functional knowledge of the Oil Business. Sounds Good. Isn't it?? As some of my friends had adviced me earlier (I can remember two friends giving me the same advice, 1 Indian, 1 Kuwaiti) that Awwab you need to diversify your skills if you want to grow. In today's world specialization in 1 product or technology is acceptable but will not help too much in growth. As much it will help if you have knowledge of several Technologies, products.. Earlier they used to say it is not good to be Jack of All, Master of None. But it seems in today's world you need to be Jack of All or maybe Master of All..

So Moving towards a more Techno-Functional role in the Oil Business Inshaa Allaah... wish me luck...

Wedding Blues

I know a lot of my friends keep reading my blog regularly and will be shocked reading this post. Yes you have guessed it right, this is not a pre-marriage blog post but a post marriage blog post. I came for my vacation on the 1st June and had planned to get married in this trip since I was already engaged. But things turned out in such a manner that I got married in 4 days, I just had 4 days left when I knew my final wedding date. I got married on the 13th of June 2008. It was a completely different experience. There was so much of excitement. I remember as I was sitting in the car going for my wedding ceremony, all the thoughts were passing in my mind, that I was entering into a new phase of life, things would change for Good Inshaa Allaah. But I was pretty cool through the whole process. Alhamdulillaah everything went on fine. I apologize to all my friends that I could not invite them due to the unavailability of time.

First Flood

Welcome to MUMBAI. I have been in town since 1 week. Enjoying it. It started raining since yesterday, weather is cold. You dont need A/C or Fan. Today morning it started raining heavy. And I stay close to Maratha Mandir Theatre which is well known for water flooding. So even that 1 hour rain led to flooding and what I could see sitting in my open gallery is:
1. The roadside hawker still finds a customer
2. A foreigner enjoying tea from the roadside hawker as it rains
3. A taxi guy who could not keep his car running in the water.
4. The front garden outside our buiding submerged in water.


And Yes I wanted to go out to do shopping today but now I am stuck.... :(

Human Fish

I went to local Fish shop that sells fish for your fish Tank at home. I was just casually visiting bcos I have got no Fish tank at home. This fish looked so Human to me, its head and face simulates humans so much. Mashaa Allaah, All glory be to GOD. This shop had a lot of uniques fishes, some had natural text like texture on their body, it seemed someone has written something in japanese or chinese. Did not click those though. And yes the above fish comes with a price TAG. It costs 45,000/- Indian rupees Yaani 300 KD. Its too much for a common man, but nothing for fish lovers.

Wow...Awesome..Fantastic..Amazing

None of the words in the title fits what I want to say...

Today was a day that my friends and my seniors made me feel like I was soooo Important... The honor and respect I got from them throughout the last 2 years I worked with them was great. But the sweet surprise Farewell party that was arranged for me was Amazing. I have never received a more pleasant surprise than this before in my life. I am sure,the effort behind it was enormous and I had no clue they would do such a thing for me.... It makes me feel sooo happy. The way the cakes had a message was a fantastic idea by a Genius I know, I could not resist clicking it as soon as i saw it. And the cake was very tasty tooo.. There was Yummy Biryaani with home cooked Curry and the Samosa's and Sandwiches too.... It was a great treat... Well if you are intelligent enough, u would know there were some great female brains behind the whole idea... who were so caring and nice to arrange something like this for a dear friend/brother for some... I dont have any words how to thank all of those who were involved it.

Before the treat I got to hear some words from my immediate colleagues and big boss which were very touching and soo true. Bcos all the time I worked with them, we did work like a family. Although they were client to me, I always got the chance to represent them in meetings in front of other vendors/other groups whenever needed. They encouraged me by accepting my ideas/opinions and supported me through thick and thin. I could take a stand on many things because I knew I had overwhelming support and trust from my superiors.

And the last words I mentioned to my immediate boss were: "I did not work for you guys, because they say If you like to do something, than make it your line of work and you will never have to work again. And I enjoyed my work soo much that It was more pleasure than work.. " sometimes i used to go on weekends to do things or implement ideas that were running in my mind. It was FUN!

Yes U can ask me, If all was fine with you and them, why did you leave them. In the past, whenever I changed a job it was for better prospects or more salary but not this time. Unfortunately, I did not leave them nor did they leave me, but due to some unavoidable contractual conditions I was unable to continue providing my services there. But yes, in the future if given an opportunity, I would love to be back to these lovely people that I worked with.

But Yes, after hearing their opinion about me leaving and the Joy of the respect they gave me... my feelings had become a Mushakkal (Mushakkal is arabic dish which has different stuff mixed). So I was happy for the surprise and sad because they did not like that it was my last day and I did not like it either.. I hope I will get over this feeling.

I left for office @ 7a.m. and just reached home at 1 a.m., bcos after work I did shopping and saying good bye to some friends n stuff. But still, I would be unable to sleep until I poured my heart out here on my blog. So thats the first thing I had to do. Its 2:25 now, dont have the energy to do a type/grammer check. Thats it for now... more soon.....

Last Day Morning Coffee

Its my last day working for a Client which is IT Group of one of the top 10 Oil Companies. It was amazing working over here. I think it was the best opportunity out of all the places I have worked. And I wish and pray that I may get a chance to work for them again in the future and provide my services to them.

Spent more than 2 years now, and got soo adjusted to it, the environment was good, people are good, work was what I loved. In a single sentence: "I enjoyed being in ITG @KOC" . I made a lot of friends...and great friends..Got to know many nice people. And since it was my first overseas job, learnt a new culture, got to see people from different countries and working with them... Lived alone, so learnt responsibilities... But I am sure I am lacking in that department... being the most careless about my household chores.

The guy who gets my morning tea, just came in and was like "Shhh we wont get to see you from tomorrow", It was very touching... Well because all around me have been like family to me..

So anyways, have to see how the last day passes by, need to make sure everything goes cool, have already taken a step back since 2 weeks in work related issues, only advicing my team when needed. Trying to get them up n running to Replace Me!

Upgrade or Migrate

Well finally completed the task to Upgrade/Migrate from Sharepoint 2003 to Sharepoint 2007. Invested a lot of time in this project to make sure everything moves fine and as planned without any issues for end users.

And I come to office next day morning and try to delete an item in a list and get the error. "Cannot complete this action Try again later" try to edit the same item and get an exception "Exception from HRESULT: 0x80040E14". Not very pleasing indeed. And than I remember I had faced this and fixed it in the past. What could it be.... Wear my thinking Caps, Switch the button to ON. And go and ask Big Brother. U know whose Big Brother...Its bro Google..

And 2 minutes and I click the same link that I must have read before. This error comes when the Transaction Log on the Backend databases becomes full and needs to be truncated. So I call the database support guy and he fixes it for me and everything is working fine..... Cool