Rains, Founder's Day, PAN and Weekend Plans

After nearly two weeks of rains, the rain god seems to have had enough of Chennai. Its not rained for two days, but the climate is terrific – Cloudy, with a slight breeze – reminds me of Bangalore now and then.

Saturday (12th Nov), my company celebrated its founder’s day. A hall was booked and an entire set of programs were scheduled. I was in-charge of one of the 12 games for the employees and their families. The game was called “Touch-me-not” and it required one to carry a ring through the length of a radio aerial without touching it. The diameter of the ring was quiet small, which made the task quiet difficult.

The game was open to all, i.e. there were no age restrictions. There were 9 games with age restrictions; the game I was handling was one of the 3 which did not have any age bar, so there were a lot of crown right from the beginning.

The time allotted for the games was two hours, and in the first hour and a half, nobody was able to cover the length of the aerial without touching it with the ring. A few of the were complaining that the diameter of the ring was too small for this task, while most of the took it as a challenge and kept visiting my stall again and again to try to complete the task.

With none of the prizes meant for distribution being disturbed, I decided to relax the rules. I reduced the distance to be covered to 2/3rd of the original distance, thereby eliminating the thickest portion of the aerial, making it easy. So in the final half hour, 7 people went out of my stall with prizes.

I left the place after the cultural programs, which mainly comprised of dances and songs, and went with my colleagues to their house and we had a Saturday night party – booze, chicken and good food.

Back in the office on yet another of the dreaded Monday’s.

I finally managed to apply for PAN, which is a necessity for filing IT returns as well a host of investment options. I applied online and send all the required details by post. I am proving to be the king of procrastination. I managed to apply after 5 months!!! Now there is another thing left in the to-do list, to give my bike for service. God knows which I’ll able to do that.

Got my tickets for the long journey I will be making the coming weekend. I am planning to go all the way to Aurangabad, Maharashtra to make it to the reception of one of my close friend – Aditya Samag – who was married recently. I’ll be going to Bangalore, where a few more will join me. We will be proceeding to Pune by bus, and then by taxi/bus to Aurangabad. After the reception on Sunday, we’ll be reaching Mumbai on Monday, and fly to Bangalore. Then catch the night train back to Chennai.

Lot of traveling and I’m looking forward to it.

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Edited on 26-Nov-2005:

I received the PAN from the IT Department yesterday. The online application seems to be the most convenient form of applying for PAN. Form 49A can be filled online and there are three options of making the payment for the processing fee.

Once the form is filled and applied, you need to send the details of cash payment and proof of identity and proof of residence to the processing department within 15 days. I had sent the details after 10 days, but still received the PAN in 20 days time. So effectively it takes 10 days from the date of application to receiving the PAN.

A word of caution - Applying for PAN and not sending the proof and other details within 15 days is a criminal offence. You can be tried in a court of law!!!