Am I an alien if I hate LOTR?

Maybe J.R.R. Tolkien is really cool. He wrote big pieces of fantasy crap in the 1930s. They were published after 50 years of his death. He has an amazing imagination and his books are a storehouse of enriched historical and linguistic background material. Movies are made based on his books. They bag 11 Oscars. We have video games and other Lord of the Rings merchandise. So what. I still hate it. I've read tons of other, heavier books, but I couldn't stand 5 minutes of that shit. I threw the LOTR DVD in the dustbin, after bearing the movie for 5 minutes. So am I a loser?

I took a survey. I got some of this.

1) "What? Lord of the Rings? That's some cool book, na? I'm sure I've heard about it. Oh, we have movies too? Cool....."

2) "Tolkien is better than Shakespeare, dude. You're a loser if you hate LOTR"

3) "I found it a challenge to read LOTR. It was really big, but I read it slowly and enjoyed it."

4) "I watched all three movies at PVR. 150 bucks for each one. They were so awesome, I tell you.... though I couldn't figure out the main plot"

Me - "If you didn't get the first one, why did you go to watch the second and third?"

"All my friends were going. If I wouldn't go, I'd look like a loser."

Passport Headache

Getting a passport seriously is a big headache, here in India. Especially if you need one urgently. I need a passport as a photo ID proof to give the SAT exam. They don't accept anything else as an ID proof for Indian students. Shows what the rest of the world thinks of us.

First I got a form from the District Passport Office, a big long one, for 30 rupees. I spent 2 hours to fill it in neat handwriting, taking care not to misspell or make mistakes. Did that, took it to the office for verification. They rejected it completely saying that it was an old form and wasn't valid now. They advised me to download the form from the internet and then fill it. They also told me that the normal passport procedure takes about 2-2 & a 1/2 months. I need the passport on June 2, my exam date. So now I have to go to RK Puram, the head office, to get it done. OK, I downloaded the form from their website, printed it, spent another 2 hours on filling it, wasted another 6 photographs.

This is when my father reminded me that I already had a passport, when I was 3 years old. The passport had expired, but using it in the old passport section, would mean no police verification etc. We looked for the old passport, and found it in a dusty place. Now here's the cool part. We finally find the old passport after 2 long hours of searching, only to get to know that the spelling of my name is different in the passport. Shucks. My name was earlier spelt as 'Apoorav'. Now we have to go through the 'name change' procedure. We have get an affidavit signed by the court, and get it printed in 2 newspapers, that I, Apoorav, has changed his name to Apoorv, for all legal purposes.......

OK, got the affidavit, 2 newspapers, done. Now we go to RK Puram. The office opens at 10, we reach at an early 9:15. To find about 400 people already queued over there. To get into the office, you need a token. The token is available at the backside of the office. They issue only 250 tokens per day, and the ofiice is open fron 10 to 1. So people start queing in front of the token office from 7 in the morning. And the office is closed on Saturdays and Sundays. Damn. So now, I'll have to take a leave from school, and go there on Monday.

All this just to give a test. But the one source of solace is that the passport once made, is valid for 10 years. Phew!