My horrible experience in India: The FRO Pune and choosing a university
This title is not used to bash the country or
the system, but it's to point out the fact that without clear thinking and high pressure you can make the worst decisions of your life and suffer highly the consequences of your bad choices. This story will be about the time that I arrived in India, in order to choose a college to do my master after completing my English classes and the struggle that I had when I decided to come in Delhi. I hope that this story
will serve as a lesson for everyone.
The
beginning
I arrived in India in January 2013,
I first started to live and study English in Pune which is a beautiful town in
the state Maharashtra and 3 hours away from Mumbai. During the time I arrived
there I have decided to go for an MBA my father wanted me to just go live and
study in Bangalore with one of my cousins, who was already studying there at
the time. So I decided to look for a college, with the help of friends and
faculties from the university where I was doing my English class, named Tilak
Maharashtra Vidiyapeeth. My faculty gave me good leads for the different
universities I could choose to pursue my master studies, in Bangalore and
Delhi. Unfortunately, one thing that I was completely unaware about is that
most of the colleges in India close the admissions around January and February,
like all the University that I was interested to join and this is how the mess
started; a mess so huge that I completely underestimated the consequences in the
long run.
The
beginning of problems
In short, I had to travel from Pune to
Bangalore a lot during the month of February to May, in order to find a college
that I could get an admission in a university that I will be satisfied with.
During that time also my family, especially my father, was putting a really
huge pressure on me and was unable to understand my situation. In February
2013, I had introduced my folders to one university only with a huge waiting
list, Symbiosis University; In may still with no answer from Symbiosis, I decided
to follow the last lead to a college in Delhi which became my college MAII a branch
of Stratford Universty from Virginia, USA. I got the admission and joined the college in
July leaving Pune and happily getting transferred In Delhi. If I knew what I
had done, I would have taken a better decision.
The
BIG MESS
There are a lot of things that I
didn’t say yet, here they are:
1. No
documents for admission
I came in India, through a
consultancy that did the admission for me at Tilak M.V. in Pune; so I was
thinking to go for the master in Tilak and not changing the university. This was at that time that my faculty gave me an advice that I should go for Symbiosys
or better colleges which she also gave me the lead, and asked me the famous question
that I heard from my friends and other locals “Why did you choose India?”. The
thing is, I didn’t have my documents with me that my college and other
universities asked for the admissions. I had to ask my family to fax it for me,
and I had to do the translation here at the Embassy of DR of Congo based in
Delhi. Without an official stamp of the Congolese embassy, my documents couldn't be accepted. So when settled in Delhi, I had to do the translation at the
embassy and paying a certain amount for it.
2. A
new hope?
During my research to find a
college, around May 2013, I found one college in Bangalore willing to give me
an admission and it has really good reputation, great campus. But the new rule
of Bangalore, mentioned that every students that came with a specific course
mentioned in their visa, had to go back in their respective countries to
reintroduce their demands for another visa, in case they would want to change
the courses. Going back in my country was out of question; my father threatened
me to either find a college or go back and forget about pursuing my studies in
a foreign country. Because for him, I was just an incompetent, little brat who
couldn’t manage anything by himself, how nice for him to say this to his son
struggling to find a college in such a short notice. So I tried again to poke Symbiosis, to know if
I was accepted, but it was still in process. Then I got the lead for my college
in Delhi, from my mom about Stratford University in Delhi. I went there they
gave me the admission, saying that it won’t be an issue I could register at the
FRRO of Delhi without any inconvenience and many people had done the same
thing. But I should do it fast; otherwise I would not be able to get an
admission, again LIE (they are flexible in terms of admissions, no time limit).
I paid the fees 1500 USD, then mentioned to Symbiosis that I had found a
college, in my surprise, just few days before the courses (1st June,
beginning of the courses) start they announced me that I was accepted in their
college and could start. I was crushed and angry at that time, because I flew
to Delhi and got an admission in a rush. It couldn’t cancel my admission in
Delhi, because the fees paid were not refundable, and it would have created a
huge fight with my parents. So, I bitterly rejected their offer with regret
until this day, because I would have loved to join their college and stay in
Pune with my friends, but I still enjoy Delhi anyway as the city helped me to
be more mature and confident about myself.
3. The
transfer in Delhi
After I shifted in Delhi in July,
there are two things that I didn’t know, I had to ask the FRO of Pune to
transfer my Documents here prior my departure. Why I didn’t do it? My college
told me that I didn’t have to do it; it would be perfectly fine with Delhi FRRO
and blah blah blah….if I knew what kind of huge BULLSHIT it was I would have
preferred to stay in Pune instead or do it differently. Here is the reason why,
If you want to change the city, you need to introduce a request to the FRRO to
transfer your documents to their sister institutions in charge of the city you
will be living and from that city you can introduce your request to register as
you need to register yourself for a second time. I didn’t know that, I went to
the FRRO, four months after my arrival because my roommates told me that i could register late it won't be an issue thinking that I will introduce my documents and it would be done, but
I was dead wrong. I was left with these three options: one, was to go back in
Pune to request from the agents to send my documents in Delhi; two, was let the
Delhi office send an email requesting the documents; and three which was to go
back in my country and reintroduce for another visa. The last option was out of
question, so I let the FRRO send the request which didn’t succeed the FRO of
Pune was resilient, so I had to fly over there meet the director himself and
begged him that this situation was very unpleasant for me as I was missing my
classes because of that. The director agreed, but not the agents who made my
life miserable, until my friends went there to complain to the director and my
file was sent and I was able to register in Delhi in March 2014. Do you want to guess how
long this process took me? Six
months. Yes, six fucking months. My college in Delhi tried to help
me but was inefficient at that time. Now, they have put someone in charge for
the foreign registration but before you couldn’t count on them.
The
resolution
As you have noticed, I did big
mistakes while coming here in India, ; I have given advices in my previous posts
about how to choose your colleges to choose and FRRO. My college was really my third choice on the
list; i would lie if I said that I am now cool with it. But that would be a big
fat lie; I still have a bad taste on the bad advices given by my counselors
which were in fact not their fault but the institution itself. Most of the Universities,
only care about profit and they sometimes forget that we are actually people
and if we had a bad perception of their institutions we would not recommend it
to others. I don’t want to live in the past and questioning myself on what I
should have done that would be exhausting because I had a really different life
here in Delhi, which changed me in the good way; but I can definitely say that
now, I’m very careful about my decisions. So what are the lessons from this
story?
·
Do your admissions on time, and always
gather the right information about your college before joining it.
·
Be careful when it comes to change the city;
always try to consult those who are aware of the rules of the FRRO.
·
Don’t give your 100% trust to your
college, because remember it is a for-profit institution and they can do
everything in their power to prove you that they are the best and they care
about their students. Well, I would say it’s 60% true and 40% false.