Sunday, May 29, 2005

Et tu, Brute! ( You too, Brutus? )

It is not just in India I face problems (Passport, PCC), but in foreign countries as well.

What is Social Securitby Number :
The nine-digit Social Security number is used by the US federal government to track workers' contributions to the Social Security retirement system. Because it is unique to each individual, it is widely used as a personal identification number. Most VA healthcare databases identify patients by their true SSNs or by scrambled versions of them.

I went to NY on Dec 15th, 2001. During that week, our Regional manager took the three of us (two colleagues also arrived in that week to NY) to the Social Security Administration office. We applied together for Social Security Number. The other two persons got their SSN in two weeks time (which is very common) and I did not get it. I got it six months after the application date. Unbelievable, isn’t it? I made two more trips to the Social Security Administration office and made a dozen phone calls to the SSA office. They told that verification on my immigration status with DHS (Department of Homeland Security) wasn’t over.

I couldn’t get my driving license without SSN (anyway managed commuting with friends- car pooling.); fortunately, they allowed me to open a bank account without SSN,after a small drama. One of my friends “L”, who believes in Astrology and Horoscopes, felt that something in my horoscope is making these administrative tasks worse for me. Though I didn’t bother about it at that time, now I have second thoughts on his comment, as these things are becoming a routine to me.

In June 2002, I got my Social Security Number finally. By then, I was ready to go back to India (Sep 2002).Ha-Ha!!. Guess what, I got a nice rhythmic number (SSN). Though I know that first three digits of the SSN are determined by zip code, etc., I convince myself saying these two "Viji, your wait is worth, you got a very nice rhythamic number" and "எது நடக்கிறதோ, அது நன்றாகவே நடக்கிறது- கீதாசாரம்".(Whatever is happening, is happening Good - The Essence of the Bhagavad-Gita).