Documenting my part auto bio with pics - the Visa trail as documentation of my foreign trips

Last updated on 24th May 2019

This post follows up on my previous post: Some old pics of me (Ravi S. Iyer), https://ravisiyer.blogspot.com/2018/12/some-old-pics-of-me.html, where I mention about providing pics for my to-be self-published part auto biography.

From mid 1985 to end 1991, a six and a half year period, which would map to my age of around 23 to 29, I spent around 3.5 years abroad which is over half the time period, and remaining period in India mainly working on foreign software development project work from Indian company offices in Bombay. The foreign trips were to Western Europe, USA and Far East Asia. This had a profound mind-broadening impact on me and made me feel that I am a global citizen. I was largely able to relate to India, and at the same time, relate to Western world (USA and Western Europe) and, to a lesser extent due to lesser time spent there, the Far East Asian tiger (economy-wise) countries. I mean, I was quite at home in living and working in all of these places and having a good time - no problem at all!

As my health problems became significant from 1992 onwards, my life orientation changed. Spirituality became a key interest area in my life from end 1992 onwards with my software career taking a less important role than earlier. Partly due to health issues and partly out of choice, I did not go abroad i.e. visit any foreign country from 1992 onwards.

I guess I am a somewhat strange person now and was somewhat strange during the days of my foreign travel as well. Somehow I did not get into taking pics when I was doing my foreign travel. I chose instead to deeply experience my visits rather than capture them on a camera. Even today, I have clear recollections of many things from my foreign visits. As an example, from my first trip to Niagara Falls, USA (and Canada) in the second half of the 1980s, perhaps in 1987, I still recall quite clearly how I was stunned and awestruck when I had my first sight of the big and great Niagara Falls.

These were pre-Internet days for the wider public. I would have seen some pics of Niagara Falls but I had not realized it was so big. There was a big roar of sound as we were approaching the viewing area (USA side) from the parking lot but it did not prepare me for the huge volume of water and the height from which it fell, at Niagara Falls. I think I was talking to my friends while we were walking to the viewing area and suddenly the awesome Niagara Falls came into view. I was spell bound and completely awestruck.

So Niagara Falls experience is still accessible in my mind, around three decades after I saw it first, but I don't have any pics of me at Niagara Falls! Including such pics would lend more life to the part auto bio.

But what I have are my passport visas! It does provide an official documentation of my visits. So I thought I should include them/some of them as pics with sensitive info. masked, in the ebook. At least it will give some corroboration info. to the ebook reader that I did make those foreign visits.

I thought of also sharing them here. Readers may please feel free to ignore these pics :-).

[To open pic in higher resolution, right-click on pic followed by open in new tab/window. In new tab/window you may have to click on pic to zoom in.]

Above pic: Benelux Visa for my first trip abroad to Brussels, Belgium in 1985 for around 15 months with a break in between. In Belgium, I applied for and got a regular Work Permit, which document I don't think I have with me now.

Above pic: USA Visa for my first USA trip to Lowell, Massachusetts and Nashua, New Hampshire for, if I recall correctly, around 7 months in 1987.

Above pic: Benelux Visa for Netherlands (Holland) trip to Barneveld,  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barneveld_(town), for, if I recall correctly (IIRC), around 2 months in 1987 (almost immediately after I returned from USA trip).

Above pic: USA Visa for 3rd USA trip to Goleta near Santa Barbara, California, for, IIRC, around 2 months, in 1990. The 2nd USA trip was to Lowell, Massachusetts and Nashua, New Hampshire, for a year in 1988-89, IIRC - I have omitted its Visa pic.

Above pic: South Korean Visa obtained from its consulate in Los Angeles, USA for a trip to Seoul, South Korea for around 2 months in 1990, from USA. After this trip got over I came back to Bombay.

Above pics: Short marketing and international exhibition (CeBIT, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CEBIT) related trips to Sweden and Germany in March 1991, and Singapore in December 1991.

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May-2019-Update:

Later, for the paperback book (grayscale) and for the ebook (colour), scanned images were taken of some of the pics given in this post. Colour versions of those scanned images are given below without any text captions. The text captions can be seen in corresponding camera pic in this post.

End-May-2019-Update
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