Marriage certificate registration process for Catholics in Mumbai

Well, if you are reading this post, it means that you are looking online for a rather daunting, but compulsory , govt procedure that each newly married couple has to undergo, despite its dread, to have their marriages recognized for any official documented process. Please note that this blog covers this process for people who follow the catholic religion only. However, if by any chance you follow a different faith apart from the catholic, jewish or Parsi faiths (an exclusion which escaped me, but not the minute attention seeking eye of my better half), do not despair. I am attaching the rules and regulations snap shot displayed at the local BMC office, where according to the new law, you can get your marriages registered.

So, if you are a catholic, read ahead. 

You have two options:

1. Follow the regular procedure of getting two witnesses and registering your marriage with the registrar. The problem with this method is that both you, and your spouse need to be present at the registrar. This,  excluding a trip to get a date with the registrar. Moreover, you need two witnesses for this procedure, and so, will have to co-ordinate an off-day with them or in a worst case, plead them to attend the marriage registrars office.

2. Get the marriage certificate from the church attested (for which I will guide you in this blog). The advantage with this method is that only one of you (I'm guessing it will mostly be the husband's...hehehe) need to be present. Also, it requires no prior date reservations. Everything is done in a single day. 

I opted for the second method as it was easier and hassle-free (or so I thought). I tried to find a lot of help online as any good netizen would do, but got very little. Although, I must admit that the Snehalaya website (http://snehalaya.in/civil-law.htm) mentions it in a much better manner. Also, it is mentioned in a very good manner in the blog by Moses Gomes (http://cybi.wordpress.com/2008/11/09/information-on-court-marriages-mumbai/). Thanks for taking the time to jot this down guys!

Having done the preliminary research, I decided to deep dive into this methodology. I had my cousin with me to provide me moral support all along the way :D. Ok, so no more wasting time. Here goes:

What you will need:

1. An id proof (passports work great) of both the partners.

2. A photocopy of each of the proof.

3. The notarized marriage certificate (will get to this later)

4. A pen :)

5. Patience and

6. A day off :)

Now Snehalaya's website mentions that the Marriage certificate obtained from the church has to be notarized first, but on Speaking to the marriage registrar and the father in the bishops house, I got to know that the notary has to be done after the stamping from the archbishops house. I followed the Snehalaya method and the father at the archbishops house said that it does not matter. But just to avoid inconvenience, you can notarize the document from the Bombay high court (or any other suitable place you know) on the day you are visiting the archbishops house, so that the date is same. But in my experience it does not matter much, as long as the certificate is notarized. I had a gap of a week between the notarization and the archbishops house stamping. 

So, to summarize the steps:

•  Obtain the marriage certificate from your respective church.
•  Get it notarized from the notary (preferably on the same day as you intend to go to get the procedure done, but not necessary)
• Visit the archbishops house at Colaba, Woodhouse, to get the stamping done (location available on Google maps). The timings as of today are:

            Morning: 9:00am - 1:00pm

            Evening: 3:00pm - 5:00pm

           A word of caution: Please reach the archbishops house well before 1:00 or 5:00 so that the father does not go on   a break. I just made it before 1:00, but the father had already left, so I had to wait till 3:00 to get the stamping done. And it was a long wait:). Note that the Mantralaya section can be done only in afternoon, so choose your time accordingly

•  After the stamping, go to the home department building opposite Mantralaya. 

          The timings are: 2:00 pm - 5:00 pm.

          They will ask for an id proof (original) before letting you in. So, the passport (or any other Photograph  id proof that you are carrying) will be handy. You have to make an entry in a register. Place your  baggage (if any) in an x-ray machine, get yourself searched and then continue into the building. Here,  you need to go to the home department attestation center on the 9th floor and get the document attested. You will face a long line here, so it makes sense to allocate sufficient time for this process in your schedule. It took me almost an hour for my turn. In case people in the queue try to confuse you, note that you don't need any photocopies of any document since the original itself is verified.

Here, there are two windows placed side-by-side:

1. The first will just verify your original id proof against your name and stamp the document. You need to enter the name of the notary officer in the blank space and move to the window ahead. The person on this first window will guide you.
2. Here, you need to again show your id proof to the presiding officer, who will verify it again and sign the marriage certificate on the stamp from the previous window. I almost missed this window and my cousin pointed it out to me :).

         So now, in affect you will have the notary at the back of the marriage certificate, along with 3 stamps   by the archbishop house and another stamp by this verification dept. Whew! thats too many stamps for          such a small certificate. So, by now, its almost full.

• Before moving further, make sure you have the following:

1. The original and Photocopies of the id proofs of both the partners (preferably the passport, as it has the  biological fathers name on it, which will be verified against the fathers name on the marriage certificate).
2. A photocopy of the recently stamped marriage certificate with the backside showing all the stamps collected till now.

• Finally, go to the Mantralaya, i.e. the building opposite to where you are. Right now, the building is being renovated, so you will need to go to the back of the building from another entrance. But for this, you require a pass. This pass is available just to the left of the main gate, which is again given on display of a photo id. So, by now, you know how important the id proof is. Take the gate pass and continue to the left, take a right and you will see another gate. As an indication, there is a post office on the ground floor, just so you know that you have entered the correct gate. Again, show your Id proof, dump your bag in the x-ray machine and move on. Same again in the first building to your left that you will enter. Take a left and follow the path to the lift. Go to the 6th floor. Here you  will meet the marriage registrar, Mr. Lopez, currently in room 631. He will verify the documents against the originals, take the photocopies of the id proofs and the photocopy of the recently stamped marriage certificate that you just took in the previous step. He will then stamp the marriage certificate, and you are done!

Thats it...you have made your marriage certificate good for all govt purposes and also if you need it to go abroad. Phew! quite a task huh..

When doing my research, I got Mr. Lopez's number from the govt website, who explained the entire process to us, step-by-step. So, a big thank you to him for being such a great help! 

I hope I was able to help you in getting clarification to register your marriage. All the best!

REST Jersey JAXB Internal server error - HTTP status 500

Hi,

If you are developing a REST web server and get an error something like this:


************************************************************************
exception
javax.servlet.ServletException: Servlet.init() for servlet Jersey threw exception
org.apache.catalina.valves.ErrorReportValve.invoke(ErrorReportValve.java:102)
org.apache.catalina.connector.CoyoteAdapter.service(CoyoteAdapter.java:293)
org.apache.coyote.http11.Http11Processor.process(Http11Processor.java:859)
org.apache.coyote.http11.Http11Protocol$Http11ConnectionHandler.process(Http11Protocol.java:602)
org.apache.tomcat.util.net.JIoEndpoint$Worker.run(JIoEndpoint.java:489)
java.lang.Thread.run(Unknown Source)

root cause 

java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: java.text.ParseException: End of header
com.sun.jersey.core.header.MediaTypes.createQualitySourceMediaTypes(MediaTypes.java:289)
com.sun.jersey.core.header.MediaTypes.createQualitySourceMediaTypes(MediaTypes.java:274)
com.sun.jersey.server.impl.modelapi.annotation.IntrospectionModeller.addProduces(IntrospectionModeller.java:171)
com.sun.jersey.server.impl.modelapi.annotation.IntrospectionModeller.workOutResourceMethodsList(IntrospectionModeller.java:301)
com.sun.jersey.server.impl.modelapi.annotation.IntrospectionModeller.createResource(IntrospectionModeller.java:124)
com.sun.jersey.server.impl.application.WebApplicationImpl.getAbstractResource(WebApplicationImpl.java:744)
com.sun.jersey.server.impl.application.WebApplicationImpl.createAbstractResourceModelStructures(WebApplicationImpl.java:1564)
com.sun.jersey.server.impl.application.WebApplicationImpl._initiate(WebApplicationImpl.java:1328)
com.sun.jersey.server.impl.application.WebApplicationImpl.access$700(WebApplicationImpl.java:168)
com.sun.jersey.server.impl.application.WebApplicationImpl$13.f(WebApplicationImpl.java:774)
com.sun.jersey.server.impl.application.WebApplicationImpl$13.f(WebApplicationImpl.java:770)
com.sun.jersey.spi.inject.Errors.processWithErrors(Errors.java:193)
com.sun.jersey.server.impl.application.WebApplicationImpl.initiate(WebApplicationImpl.java:770)
com.sun.jersey.server.impl.application.WebApplicationImpl.initiate(WebApplicationImpl.java:765)
com.sun.jersey.spi.container.servlet.ServletContainer.initiate(ServletContainer.java:489)
com.sun.jersey.spi.container.servlet.ServletContainer$InternalWebComponent.initiate(ServletContainer.java:319)
com.sun.jersey.spi.container.servlet.WebComponent.load(WebComponent.java:609)
com.sun.jersey.spi.container.servlet.WebComponent.init(WebComponent.java:210)
com.sun.jersey.spi.container.servlet.ServletContainer.init(ServletContainer.java:374)
com.sun.jersey.spi.container.servlet.ServletContainer.init(ServletContainer.java:557)
javax.servlet.GenericServlet.init(GenericServlet.java:212)
org.apache.catalina.valves.ErrorReportValve.invoke(ErrorReportValve.java:102)
org.apache.catalina.connector.CoyoteAdapter.service(CoyoteAdapter.java:293)
org.apache.coyote.http11.Http11Processor.process(Http11Processor.java:859)
org.apache.coyote.http11.Http11Protocol$Http11ConnectionHandler.process(Http11Protocol.java:602)
org.apache.tomcat.util.net.JIoEndpoint$Worker.run(JIoEndpoint.java:489)
java.lang.Thread.run(Unknown Source)

*******************************************************************************



Check if you have written the Annotation @produces in the resource POJO as:

@Produces(MediaType.TEXT_XML) - Without quotes

and NOT

@Produces("MediaType.TEXT_XML") - With quotes

and don't forget to import

 javax.ws.rs.core.MediaType;

Hope this helps!

Android: Making your Android emulator work through a proxy

Well, lets face it. Most of the android developers work in firms with stringent IT policies which include accessing the internet through proxies. I had a harrowing time trying to get internet access on my emulator. Here's a solution that worked for me. Hope it will help others facing the same issue:


In your Emulator go to:

1. Settings -> Wireless & Networks -> Mobile Networks -> Access Point Names.
2. You will find an APN called as "TelKila". Click on it.
3. Add your proxy server and port there.

In your Eclipse go to:

1. Window -> Preferences -> Android -> Launch
2. Add the following command in "Default emulator options"

  -http-proxy -debug-proxy http:// < server >:< port >


3. If you have a username and a password then you can add:

    -http-proxy -debug-proxy http:// < username >:< password >@ < server >:< port >


Now you can browse the internet on the emulator browser!

Hope this helps!

Real for the affluent...Unreal for me

Real Estate ...

The word sends jitters down the spine of a common man residing in the city of Mumbai today.
The phrase "home sweet home" sounds good only when mentioned in the books. I have been trying to get my own place from the past three years!!.. That's right, three years. Every time I make an effort and begin my hunt for a new abode, the prices increase, and the idea of owning a home, floats away from my grasp, taunting me and blowing my self-confidence and conviction to smithereens.

For the past three years I have heard a lot of comments / arguments / stories and read a lot about the Real Estate scenario. All the while, poor blokes like me, who neeed some sort of self-assurance, come up with a  renewed, confident, argument that the real estate prices will fall and its just a bubble. Well, being completely honest, I used to assure and convince myself that there is some truth in those arguments and it is only a matter of time before things will change. But that never happened. And  finally, I became self-aware on this stream of thought. But, this change of mental being was thrust upon me by the real estate market facts, and I never understood the logic behind the prevailing, astoundingly exorbitant prices.

Lets go down the memory lane a few years back...namely 2006. Prices for the Andheri area hovered around   INR 5000 per sq. ft. Now, in 2012, its around INR 14,000. From Jan '08 to the current year, the prices have increased from INR 7200 to INR 13,200...almost doubled !! (Source: Magic Bricks)

So what happened? Did we start making babies at twice the rate after the '08 era and the population doubled, thus rendering an acute shortage of land? Or did the raw material rates just increase by 200%?

Some people attribute the change to increase in income. True, the income of India Inc. did increase...also at a good rate. But then, the slowdown / recession of '09 should have mellowed down the price rate increase. But, like an adamant and stubborn bull, it continued to charge towards the skies. So, we're back to the same question. Why are the prices increasing? Time and again, latest reports from various institutions have proved that the sales have dwindled. Then how can the prices be explained?

One of the theories I encountered, was that the land in Mumbai is limited. Really?  I don't see any land limitations in this horizontally expanded city (read slums). Well, to be a bit fair, maybe the land is just locked up, either in never ending cases ( which go on for years on end ), or morchas by the local politicians to protect their vote bank slum dweller buddies (done to death cliche, really!!). But, AFAIK, builders are very good at greasing the palms of the local corporator and getting the job done (read SRA projects), given the stupendous amount of profit they make. By the way, my close friends' spouse, who is an architect quoted that the development cost for the most luxurious apartments does not exceed INR 1500-2000 per sq. ft. So, do the math..

Another one of the theories is that, the builders pay approximately 40% of the total cost of the project as bribe, to get the projects approved, which is then passed on to us, the middle class. Well, they certainly won't pull that money out of their pockets. Nobody wants to share their profits.The result is little Uncle Scrooge's, mushrooming throughout the land, in the guise of govt. babu's. Anyways, from the word that is doing the rounds, the new Land Act provides free FSI to the builders, which they acquired previously by paying bribes. So, if this FSI is lets say even at 30% of the total project cost, the builders have a saving of around 10% ( 40% bribe - 30% FSI fees), which I frankly doubt they will ever pass on to the consumers..Have you ever seen inflated prices come down in India?...I guess then we need to gear up for more BMW's on the roads, driven by the rich builder fathers' spoilt brats.

Yet another theory doing rounds is that there is an ample amount of black money being pumped into real estate. Well, this is something that makes some sort of sense to me. How then can the easy payments of heavy debts being paid off by the builders be explained when there are no sales happening? This money can be accorded to the bribe takers, politicians and apna NRI's. I guess it was not surprising when I read in one of the daily's , that approximately 50% of the flats in Mumbai are owned by "investors".

Whatever the truth, the fact is that the middle class at the end of the day, always gets screwed..The rich have enough money to by umpteen number of residences, the poor plan their way to the SRA and other schemes, sell the flat, make a quick buck and then squat somewhere else by sending all the money to their gaon (village). We are the ones to get f****d.

Then there's also the money you pay for NOTHING (read super built up). If you have ever gone house hunting you will hear.."area 650...super built-up". And if you ask "How much is the actual carpet?", they say "30% less". And where is the area that we are paying for? Does it even exist? Do we ever get a measuring tape, and calculate the garden / steps / lobby / swimming pool etc, divide it by the number of flats and then add it to the carpet?. So this area is like a shadow which can be increased or decreased as per convenience, without a logical explanation. A brokers' own words..... "Bhau badhane ke liye hum logo ne super built-up badhaya. Usme kya hai...sab log karte hai" (We increased the super built-up area to make profits. Everyone does it.). He had actually inflated the super built-up area from 680 sq ft. to 730 sq ft. Right now the general norm of  "loading"  (extra area added to the carpet to convert it to super built-up) is 30% (they will quote 33% if you push a bit ). Now for the secret which you probably did not know.

Let me explain with the help of an example. Ideally, according to the norms, the super built-up area is calculated as the additional area above the carpet.Let the super built up area be 110 sq ft., with 10% loading. Now, when you go to a builder, he will tell you, "110 super built-up area. Carpet is 10% less". You calculate "Ummm..10% less is 110-(10% of 110 = 11) = 99 sq ft.". Now try the forward calculation. Adding 11 sq. ft. to the 99 sq ft of carpet area, to make it 110, super built up is actually 11.11%!!. . Huh? So where did the 1.1% sq ft of area get added from? Well, voila, they have managed to prove you an idiot in mathematics. So a personal tip. Always ask the exact carpet area and do the math. If you know the carpet and the super built-up, Just calculate

                [(Difference between super built-up and carpet) / Super built-up * 100]

and you will get the exact percentage of loading. So, this means that the 33% is never 33% ...its always close to 40%. And you end up paying 40% of the amount for "nothing". Its like giving charity to the already cash-rich builder / seller. For an average flat costing INR 60 lakhs, guess the amount you "donate".

Now, lets turn towards the resale flat sellers. They follow a herd mentality with no ability to think for themselves. "The flat in the next building was sold for 70 lacs!!...I think I should sell it for 75". The virtual competition of one upping the other, combined with the ever increasing greed factor, makes this lot even worse. Oh yes, lets not forget the neighbourhood broker bhaiyya (brother) , who entice these brain dead lot even further. "What bhabhiji (sister-in-law)?  Did you say 75 lacs? Do you know the current rate? Don't worry, I'll sell it for 80"
Their greedy mouths salivate with the thought of a higher brokerage from both parties.."Good, now i'll get more money from both the parties". Then begins all the lies and deceit. An ad is published. "An airy 1 BHK, with 24 hours water. Good peaceful society. Hurry, Lowest rate in area". It has to be interpreted as "A pathetic stinking chicken house, with 2 hours of water supply (rest, to be stored in overhead tanks inside your homes), and free earplugs to muffle out the infinite sounds around the flat". From my personal experience I have always learnt to ignore the "big area" part. I have seen "big" houses, where you could scan the entire house by just standing at the doorstep. Disgusting chicken houses. Also, "peaceful location", either is in contrast to what is mentioned, or it is the only building standing in the area, like a creepy haunted house. And we all know what their "lowest rates" mean. On the other hand, just to give these resellers some benefit of the doubt, they are just ignorant simpletons who know nothing about the real estate market, except that the bajuwala (neighbour) sold his flat for a certain price. So, they assume it to be the "market" rate.

Sigh! I don't have the strength to argue anymore. Perhaps, things will NEVER change and Mr. Pareto (80/20 rule: 20% of the world's population has all the riches), will be merrily singing "I told you so" in heaven.

So, WTF. I need a place to stay. And I'll buy one. My father struggled his entire life to get a 1BHK apartment. I may at the most get a 2 BHK by paying a loan my entire life ( which if you calculate, will be double the loan amount ). .. I'll live my life just for one more bedroom...Life sucks!
Now back to house hunting...

Android: ClassNotFoundException (for an external jar) on eclipse update

Since I'm an Android developer and found the solution with much difficulty, here is a possible solution to the above problem of "ClassNotFoundException" runtime error, even though the project compiles successfully. Try changing the lib folder in your eclipse project to "libs".
If this still doesn't work, try going to Project properties -> Java build path -> and checking the check boxes of the libraries. Clean. Build.

I don't know why this happens after the latest update of the ADT ...weird...but I hope this helps someone.

Getting Life out of the Box

Why is it that we are so afraid to think out of the box? Why are we so insecure that it has almost become a habit to take decisions which have been tried and tested? Why do we follow the rule "Learn from other peoples experiences"? or simply said...why is it that we follow norms set down by other individuals..Can't we think on our own? Are we completely incapable of creating our own "rules", so as to say? Is it just plain FEAR that gets the better of us? It has time and again been observed that people who think "out of the box" succeed, although it may not always be true. But we should ask ourselves, we humans are capable of a lot of things. So do "we" go down as 98 percent of the population does?, live out average lives and die, or can "we" make a difference in our lives, and everyone else's too, so that we are remembered for thinking differently.
Take a simple example. We indian's (and everyone else ) cherish our father of the nation, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. He is renowned worldwide for his methods. There were so many freedom fighters who fought for India. So why is he unique? And why is "he" the father of the nation? Wasn't it because he could think differently? While everyone sought violence as the only means to resolve the predicament at hand, he chose the different way, non-violence. And people noticed. And he went down in history, such that our freedom is completely synonymous with his name. People asked him to make decisions for the newly born nation.
Lets take Bhagat singh, another freedom fighter. he decided to "sacrifice" himself. He let himself be caught on purpose, so that he could be hanged until death. He gave his life when everyone else was interested in taking one. He did this so that people would take notice of such a different thing, and be awakened to the situation. They did. And they did take notice of "him" too. His name mentioned in the history books proves it.
We can take another example, physics. It has taken many years for the physicians of our times to come up with these "laws of physics", matter is made up of atom, molecules, electrons etc. Now we know that there is another possibility, Quantum physics, which challenge their very concept in the first place! So what about all the things we learnt since childhood, if this theory happens to be true?
So is following the path set up by others, the best way to lead our lives? Well, sure it may be safe, as it has been proved by those who tread on it before us. But is it the only way? Is it necessary to follow plans and maps and charts to lead our lives? It is said that man hardly uses a minuscule percent of his brain in his lifetime. But who's stopping us from putting more of this gray matter to good use?
So i'm putting forward this question to anyone who reads this. Can we think out of the box and still be successful, or still lead meaningful lives? Distancing my self from hypocrisy, I agree that I myself am leading this same life. But I atleast ask a question to myself. Do you? Or you are just gonna say "Nicely written. Now let me get back to what I've been doing".

Well.... its a start!!!

First day!!...dont know exactly how to start...i thought since the entire world wants to publicize their views, why not me???...Dont plan to update it regularly though...I'm a bit on the lazy side....