Recently there was an email discussion on an internal alias in my company about the question of God, religion, and whether God really does exist. Quite obviously, there were moderate to extreme views from both sides – the believers and the skeptics. Or shall I say, the Mulders and the Scullys!

Personally, I don’t believe in God. Or perhaps it would be more accurate to say that I don’t believe in our interpretation of God.

I am willing to buy the idea that there is a supreme force somewhere, most probably not of material form, that drives the universe and has been doing so from its creation. The reason for that is the big question mark that presents itself when it comes to our understanding of our origins and the nature of our universe. How vast is the universe? Where does it end? What lies beyond that horizon? And what was the world like before the Big Bang? How many billions of years did the universe exist before the Big Bang, and what was happening then? So many questions, and no answers as of now.

But I simply don’t believe in God in the manner that most Indians choose to believe he/she exists. Are the deities that we worship really Gods and Goddesses? I doubt so. Let’s say they really did exist at some point in time. But even so, perhaps they were simply inspirational men and women of great character, morals and leadership skills. Ordinary humans, who left an indelible mark on generations to come – not Gods. Or perhaps they are nothing more than figments of mythology. Who knows.

In any case, I am not really interested in the history of religions. I am simply intrigued by the way we follow our respective religions.

I believed in God as a kid, thanks to my conservative and religious father. But over the years I came to realise that most of us follow religion in much the same way as students follow their textbooks. We diligently follow our customs without understanding their meaning or reasons.

How else can we explain the fact that despite being one of the most religious societies in the world, we also happen to be one of the most corrupt societies as well. Think about it. There must be millions of people in our country who wake up and pray religiously in the morning, only to go out and take bribes, eve tease women, break laws for their convenience, bad-mouth other people behind their backs, and so on. Can these people really be called religious? How can they even pray to God after all that they do?

Ironically, religion was introduced to instill a fear of wrongdoing in man. It was supposed to make people more tolerant, understanding and compassionate towards others. But in reality, I see that the more religious someone is, the more orthodox and intolerant of any contrary views they become.

Religion, as we follow it, is nothing but sheer hypocrisy. We have mastered the art of maintaining the highest religious standards together with the lowest moral standards, with consummate ease. We are most comfortable accepting bribes right under a photo of Mahatma Gandhi. Not to mention the number of riots and amount of violence we’ve had in the name of faith.

I personally believe more in spirituality rather than religion. That is, if you do good things, then good things will happen to you. Simple as that! You don’t need to perform a puja or visit temples to bring prosperity or ward off evil. God is not so gullible as to overlook all our mistakes simply because we remember to pay him/her a visit. On the other hand, God would certainly note the good deeds we did, even if we didn’t pray to him/her.

Your thoughts and comments please…

And the worst part is, most people will not realise the problem until they have uploaded the XML file and received the ITR-V acknowledgement!

Here are a few problems that I observed:

1. If you have paid Self-Assessment Tax more than once, all your challans will not be recorded in the XML file generated by the PDF utility, even though you may have mentioned all the challans correctly in the PDF form.

   This can create problems for you, as the IT Dept. may think that you are claiming a higher amount as Self-Assessment Tax paid than what you have given the break-up for.

2. “Deductions under Chapter VI-A”, “Total income”, “Net tax payable” and “Total tax and interest payable” fields in the XML file are not populated. As a result, the fields are blank even in the ITR-V form (see below image)!

   

   In my view, this is quite outrageous! The ITR-V is an important document which is required for applying for loans, etc. Mistakes in this can potentially cause a lot of agony.

3. If you click on “Generate XML” in the PDF utility, then close and reopen it, and click on “Import from XML”, some of the fields are not populated. This is again due to the fact that all the data is not exported to the XML file.

I did not face any such issues with the Excel utility, but in general, I would urge all of you to just go through the generated XML file before submitting it to the IT Dept. website. You can open the XML file in any web browser such as Firefox or IE.

This year, the IT Dept. has modified the most common ITR-1 form to include a field for “Income/loss from House Property”, something which was earlier only available in ITR-2. This allows tax payers to declare income or loss for up to a single house in the ITR-1 form itself, instead of having to file the more complicated ITR-2 form.

This excellent move greatly simplifies the IT return filing process for a large number of people who don’t have any source of income other than salary and interest income, but are paying EMIs on a housing loan for one house. It also helps people who have income from rent received from a single let out property. Both these people can now declare their rent income and/or interest payments in the ITR-1 form itself.

But how do we calculate the income or loss from our house property? Here is the procedure as per the IT Dept. (click to enlarge):

For rented/let-out properties:

1. In (a), enter the total rent which should have been received during the year for the property. This includes the actual rent received, plus that which was due but not received for whatever reason.
2. In (b), enter the amount of rent which was due but not received during the year.
3. In (c), enter the tax paid to local authorities, such as Property Tax.
4. Calculate (d), (e) and (f), which are self explanatory.
5. In (g), enter the total interest paid towards any home loan taken on that property. Unlike self-occupied property, there is no limit for properties that are rented out.
6. Calculate (h) and (i) as shown. Assuming no rent arrears from previous years, the value of (i) is your total income/loss from house property and should be entered into Row 2 of the ITR-1 form.

For self-occupied properties:

1. Since the house is self-occupied, you can neither declare any rent earnings, nor claim deduction for Property Tax or any other local taxes. So rows (a) through (f) will be empty.
2. The only deduction you can claim for self-occupied property is interest payment towards home loan for the property. This too is limited to Rs. 1,50,000 per year. This must be entered in (g).
3. The total income/loss from house property will be the interest payment amount entered in (g). This has to be mentioned in Row 2 of ITR-1 form as a NEGATIVE VALUE, so it will be deducted from the taxable income.

Note that in case you own more than one property, the above calculations must be repeated for every property, and the total income/loss from all of them should be declared in Row 2. You would also need to use ITR-2 instead of ITR-1 if you own more than one property.

As a result, I was left with three choices:

1. Move to a BlogSpot URL (yeah, right!)
2. Use the Blogger custom domain feature. This would have meant that I would have had to publish my blog either on my home page (http://www.vijaypadiyar.in) or on a subdomain like blog.vijaypadiyar.in. But that would mean a loss of painfully gained traffic from other websites, as well as my hard earned PageRank!
3. Move to a WordPress-based blog

Moving to WordPress was something I had in mind for at least a year now, but I never got around to doing it because there wasn’t a real strong incentive. Also, I was scared of breaking or losing stuff while moving and then having to spend more time fixing it!

But now that there was no other option left, I had to get down to doing it. Luckily for me, there are a lot of excellent tutorials on moving to WordPress from Blogger on the Internet and. By following the steps listed in this tutorial, I was able to shift my blog in about 10 minutes!

The most important thing to take care of when moving from Blogger to WordPress is maintaining your post URLs (or Permalinks, in SEO language). This is because any change in URLs of posts or pages on your blog leads to loss of traffic, as your old URL may already be appearing in relevant search results and having a good PageRank. Other websites too might be linking to some URLs on your blog.

The problem arises because the default format of Blogger and WordPress post URLs is quite different. So all your old posts will have different URLs after you shift to WordPress, if you don’t follow the instructions in the tutorial mentioned above. Fortunately, retaining the same URLs is extremely easy, thanks to the amazing flexibility that WordPress offers. (And this is just one of the many, many reasons why you’ll love your decision to move to WordPress!)

The benefits of hosting your blog on WordPress are:

• Extremely customizable. There are far more customizations available than in Blogger. You can choose what elements appear in the sidebar, how your post URLs look, location of uploaded files/images, feed settings, etc. Although it is easier to customize the blog layout in the new Blogger.
• Huge choice of awesome WordPress themes. I got a neat little theme for my blog too! And unlike Blogger, changing themes does not affect the layout, plugins or elements in your blog. This is a huge advantage over Blogger.
• Very easy to add functionality through plugins. I was able to add a “Digg this” button, a “Retweet” button, an “AddThis” button, Google AdSense ads, a tag cloud, anti-spam comment filter, a “smart” 404 page, etc. with minimal effort. Doing the same thing on Blogger would have taken several days at least, and lots of trials and errors. Also, WordPress immediately notifies you whenever any updates to plugins are available. Updating plugins is a one-click process.
• Easy to backup, import and export posts and/or blogs. Restoring blogs is not possible in Blogger, as the database is under Blogger’s control, not yours.

In short, comparing WordPress to Blogger is like comparing Firefox with drabby old Internet Explorer! Trust me, move your blog to WordPress and you’ll be wondering why you didn’t do it much earlier!

I was just going through my old emails recently and happened to notice that a lot of them were corrupted. The mails look fine in the summary list, but when you actually open them, you see nothing! The sender is shown as “Unknown sender”, recipients are “undisclosed”, and the message body is empty. See the below images:

My initial reaction was to think that something was wrong with my Firefox browser. So I opened my email account from Internet Explorer. Same result!

I immediately contacted Rediffmail customer support. They asked me to forward details of the email that was corrupted, including date, size, sender, recipient, etc. While gathering the information, I found that they themselves don’t display the message size. How do the expect me to provide the information?? Anyway, I gathered the other information and replied to them. Below is the latest (and last) email from them, dated May 11, 2010. Nothing since then.

Subject: RE:’Rediff=010-374-029′ Astrology: Feedback
From: “Support” <customersupport@rediff.co.in> on Tue, 11 May ’10 @ 01:07 PM
To: “Vijay Padiyar”

Dear Rediffmail User,

Greetings from rediff.com

Thanks for writing to us.

Your mail has been forwarded to the Technical team. You can be assured of prompt and efficient service.

Please feel free to contact us incase you have any further queries or suggestions.

Warm regards,
Prakash
Rediff.com Customer Care

NOTE: Do not change the subject line of this message, for further correspondence.

—–Original Message—–

From:   Vijay Padiyar
Date:   Saturday, May 01, 2010  01:27 PM
To:   customersupport@rediff.co.in (customersupport@rediff.co.in)
Subject:  Re: RE: Astrology: Feedback   Hello

Following are the answers to your questions. I have attached the screenshots.

1. Name of sender is “BizzHost . com”
2. Date of email is June 5, 2006
3. Subject is “Registration Activated for Biz”
4. Size of email is about 4-8 KB
5. Error is that when email is opened, there is no message body, and “From” and “To” fields display “Unknown sender” and “Undisclosed recipients” respectively. Also, subject is shown as “No subject”.

This is just an example of one email. Similar problem is there with many of the old emails in my account.

Request you to take urgent action.

Regards

Vijay

http://www.vijaypadiyar.in

On Fri, 23 Apr 2010 09:52:12 +0530 wrote
>

Dear Vijay,
>Greetings from rediff.com

We thank you for taking the time to communicate with us.

Kindly get back to us with the complete detail of the mail in which you face these problem and also forward the complete error message along with screen shot as it will help us to investigate this issue better.

1.Name of the sender
>2.Date of the mail
>3.Subject of the mail
>4.size of the mail.
>5.Error while opening the mail.

Please feel free to contact us incase you have any further queries or suggestions.

Warm regard
>Samidha
>Rediff.Com
>Customer Care

NOTE: Do not change the subject line of this message, for further correspondence.

—–Original Message—–
>From: Vijay Padiyar
>Date: Thursday, April 22, 2010 04:28 PM
>To: customersupport@rediff.co.in (customersupport@rediff.co.in)
>Subject: Astrology: Feedback

———— START OF MESSAGE ————

Name: Vijay Padiyar
Phone Number: xxxxxxxxxx
Message : Hi

I am unable to view many of the old emails in my email account <myemail>@rediffmail.com. Please restore my old emails.

You can check the oldest emails in Documents folder in my email account. They are all corrupted.

Request you to look into this ASAP, or else I will go public with this matter, which will certainly lead to a loss of reputation for you.

Thanks

Vijay

———— END OF MESSAGE ————

I absolutely never imagined that I would face this sort of problem with a well-known Email service provider like Rediffmail! I guess it’s best to stick to the bigwigs like Yahoo! or Google Mail in future! The only reason I’m continuing with this account is because of the headache involved in moving from an old email ID to a fresh one.

Some other points that are irritating with Rediffmail:

- Very poor spam filter. Pretty much doesn’t work. In fact, it SUCKS! Recently, I marked one email as spam. That same email came again later in the day and again found its way to my inbox!!

- Poor to very poor customer support. In fact, the customer support for Rediff.com as a whole sucks. It is very poorly organised and getting past the FAQ to a real ticket submission form is difficult! Also, not all their product categories are covered.

- By default they block images on all emails, even those in the inbox. So, for every single email you open (and even if opening the same mail again), you need to click on “View images” at the top of the mail to see the images.

- Certain email addresses can’t be mailed. Recently, I tried unsubscribing from some mailing list. They sent me a confirmation mail with a long email ID full of alphabets and numbers that I was supposed to mail to confirm my unsubscription. I couldn’t send a mail to that address because Rediffmail wouldn’t allow me to. But I was able to email that same address from Yahoo! Mail. And their customer support just won’t understand such technical details, so it’s useless to raise a case.

- Earlier (few years back) there was a consistent problem of some emails not reaching me at all. These included some important mails, and I had to face a lot of problems because they didn’t arrive. But Rediffmail customer care refused to accept the problem, and simply asked me to check my spam filter settings.

- Even now, mails don’t arrive instantly. They take several minutes to several hours to arrive. This never happens with Yahoo! Mail, Gmail, etc.

- In their older email version, it was not even possible to view the user-created folders from the main view. One had to navigate via a series of links to access those folders! Now, thankfully they’ve fixed it.

- Again, earlier they used to send a lot of their own advertising emails. This was irritating, since you couldn’t even block them! Even Indiatimes used to do the same. But then these guys stopped it. But recently they’ve again started it. Very irritating!

- Being a fringe player, probably they don’t have the kind of bugdet and development team to develop and offer cutting-edge features like the bigger players can. I guess one has to live with it…

These are only some of the niggling issues. Will add more when I can think of them. Probably the only plus with them is the unlimited storage space, which again isn’t really useful unless you’re using it as a file storage account.

That said, there are still several areas where things are conducted in the same old socialist India style, with simple tasks taking years to accomplish. The Employees Provident Fund Organisation, or EPFO, is one such organisation that continues to be a major source of harassment for the working population in the organised sector in India.

India’s IT revolution has spawned a generation of workers that are well-paid, exposed to a global work culture, and basically far better taken care of than their peers in traditional Indian industries. With the multitude of companies, variety of options and hefty salaries on offer (due to a shortage of talent), job-hopping has become a common sight, with many people known to switch jobs more than once in a single year!

But if there’s anything one dreads while switching jobs, it’s the certain prospect of harassment one has to face while getting one’s PF and Pension transferred from the old company to the new company. It is a well known fact that in a majority of cases, it takes upwards of 1-2 years to get one’s PF transferred, leading many to either forget about their accumulated PF, or else withdraw it instead of transferring it (which is a relatively faster option).

I find this whole process of “transferring” PF accounts every time one changes a job rather cumbersome. It may have been adequate in the pre-1991 days, when people joined one organisation and retired from the same organisation 40 years later, or at most changed one job in their entire career. But in today’s fast-paced workplace, this has turned into a major irritant, creating unnecessary red tape for everyone involved, and reducing dynamism in the supply of workforce.

The EPFO needs to evolve with the times, if it doesn’t want to be despised as a modern-day dinosaur.

My proposal is to have one single EPF account per individual, and keep the account number same as (or linked to) the PAN number of that person. So whenever a person starts their career, their first company will ask them to apply for a PAN card. Upon getting the PAN number (which takes less than two weeks nowadays), the employee can communicate the same to their company. The company will then proceed to create an EPF account for that employee with (or linked to) the same PAN number. And importantly, this EPF account will belong to the employee, just like a bank account. So when they switch jobs, they only need to provide their PAN number to their new company (which is mandatory anyway) and the new company will be able to continue depositing the PF to the same account, without the need for any paperwork for anyone.

Such a system will have the following benefits:

1. It will ensure that every person joining the workforce registers for a PAN number.
2. It will eliminate the bureaucracy involved in shifting a job, as an employee only has to open an EPF account once in his/her life
3. It will benefit everyone involved:
   • Companies no longer have to open fresh EPF accounts for every single employee joining them (including returning employees), resulting in reduced paperwork and hence reduced costs
   • Employees will no longer need to transfer their EPF accounts, thus saving them a LOT of harassment and allowing them to make more productive use of their time
   • It will significantly reduce the workload on the EPFO, and also reduce their interaction with the public, which is great news!

Further, the EPF accounts can also be Internet-enabled, so that employees can check their EPF balance, apply for withdrawals or loans, etc. online without the need to approach the EPF office. The idea is to turn the EPF account into a kind of Internet-enabled bank account, with the same resultant benefits.

I further propose that the EPF should be allowed to invest in equities and thereby give its members the chance to earn higher returns for their money. The New Pension Scheme (NPS) already does this, so why should the EPFO not follow suit? Since it is mandatory for us to deposit a part of our salary into our EPF account, it is only fair and democratic that the EPFO give us a choice of where to invest that money. The EPFO should give its members a choice between investing in fixed return debt schemes or equities with potentially higher returns. And this, again, should be doable online.

Let me know what you feel about this proposal. I am planning to forward the same to the EPFO and the Ministry of Labour & Employment.

UPDATE: The Ministry of Labour & Employment is unreachable! That’s right – neither their suggestion/feedback form works, nor is their email ID laborweb@nic.in valid.

So here’s my small effort to simplify and explain the process of calculating your Property Tax, and also paying it!

Note that the calculations are as per the Self Assessment Scheme (SAS) currently used by the BBMP in Bangalore. Also note that, although the information is generic, the calculations are specific to flats (since I’m staying in a flat!).

Pre-requisites

To calculate your Property Tax, you need the following information beforehand:

1. Zone in which your apartment/flat lies. For this, you need to refer to this link on the BBMP website.

2. Total Built-up Area of your apartment. This should be specified in your apartment’s Sale Deed. If not, you can calculate it from your apartment’s floor plan. Some Sale Deeds only mention the Super Built-up Area (which may include the car park area), so you can use that (after subtracting the car park area, if applicable). It’s better to clarify this while purchasing the apartment.

The Built-up Area includes the Carpet Area of your house plus the area occupied by the walls. Note that this is different from Super Built-up Area, which includes your share of the common areas too (gym, garden, club house, etc.). See this link to understand the difference and to calculate the Built-up Area.

3. Total car parking area allotted to you. If you do not know this figure (or it is not specified in your Sale Deed), then you can put in a rough figure of 150 sq. ft.

4. Year of construction of apartment. This is the year in which construction of the property was completed. The builder or your neighbours can provide you this information.

Assumptions

For the purpose of this calculation, I will assume:

- Zone as D (my zone!)

- Built-up Area of the apartment as 1400 sq. ft.

- Car parking area as 150 sq. ft.

- Completely self-occupied apartment (i.e. entire 1400 sq. ft. is occupied by my family, and no part is let out to tenants.)

Calculation

We will use the following variables:

D = (Tenanted area of apartment) x (Rate per sq. ft. of tenanted apartment area) x 10 (months)

E = (Self-occupied area of apartment) x (Rate per sq. ft. of self-occupied apartment area) x 10 (months)

F = (Car park area) x (Rate per sq. ft. of car park area) x 10 (months)

G = Gross Unit Area Value (GUAV)

H = Rate of depreciation in %

I = Depreciation amount

J = Net Unit Area Value (NUAV) of apartment after depreciation

K = Property Tax

The rate per sq. ft. of tenanted/self-occupied apartment area and car park area depends on your Zone. You can get it from Annexure I of the BBMP Property Tax Handbook.

Depreciation rate for your apartment depends on the age of your apartment. You can get the applicable rate from Annexure III of the Property Tax Handbook.

As per Annexure I, for Zone D the rates per sq. ft. are Rs. 3.20 per sq. ft. (tenanted aptt.), Rs. 1.60 per sq. ft. (self-occupied aptt.) and Rs. 0.80 per sq. ft. (car park area) respectively.

Also, since my apartment is less than 3 years old, the depreciation rate is 3% as per Annexure III.

The formula is:

G = (D + E + F)

I = (G x H) / 100

J = G – I

K = J x 20%

For my case:

D = 0 x 3.20 x 10 = 0 (0 because no portion of the house is tenanted)

E = 1400 x 1.60 x 10 = 22,400

F = 150 x 0.80 x 10 = 1,200

G = (D + E + F) = 0 + 22,400 + 1,200 = 23,600

I = (G x H) / 100 = (23,600 x 3) / 100 = 708

J = G – I = 23,600 – 708 = 22,892

K = J x 20% = 22,892 x (20 / 100) = Rs. 4,578.40

So, our basic Property Tax is Rs. 4,578.40. But wait, that’s not all! On this figure, you have to shell out a cess of 24% (refer to Annexure I of the Handbook again).

That comes to 4,578.40 x (24 / 100) = Rs. 1,098.82

Hence, total Property Tax payable is 4,578.40 + 1,098.82 = Rs. 5,677.22.

Note that, on this figure, you get a rebate of 5% if you pay on or before May 30, 2010.

Also, if you don’t pay the Property Tax on time, there is a penalty of 2% per month on the total Property Tax payable.

You can perform the same calculation online using BBMP’s Online Property Tax Calculator. Select “Residential & Vacant Land Calculator” for residential areas (flats or plots). See the image below for how it looks:

Payment

For payment of Property Tax, you have to use either Form IV or Form V. Form IV should be used if there is no change in the details from last year (i.e. no change in Built-up Area, no change in self-occupied/tenanted status, etc.). If there is any change in details, you must use Form V.

So if you have purchased the apartment from builder/another person, given it on rent, stopped renting it, or constructed additional area in the house, in the current year, then you must use Form V. Otherwise Form IV is sufficient.

Online payment of Property Tax for 2009-10 and 2010-11 can be done on the BBMP SAS website. Note that you will need the Application No. of the 2008-09 SAS Property Tax paid receipt. If someone else has paid it, they can give you the details.

Payments can also be made at the BBMP Citizen Service Centres (click here for list), as well as BangaloreOne outlets.

Note that if you have purchased the apartment in the current year, it is advisable to pay it at the BBMP Citizen Service Centre, as the online form does not allow change in name of the owner.

Useful Links

• BBMP website
• BBMP Online Property Tax Calculator
• BBMP Zonal Classification
• BBMP Property Tax Handbook
• Difference between Carpet, Built-up and Super Built-up Area, and how to calculate Built-up Area from floor plan
• Step-by-step guide to paying Property Tax

One of the proposals in my presentation related to making MG Road and Cubbon Road a signal-free corridor. I am pleased to say that this proposal was featured on the front page of Bangalore Mirror on November 24, 2009.

The complete article can be read here and downloaded here, and the complete presentation can be found here.

Please feel free to share your views and comments on the proposals with me!

However, the reality is quite different. Yahoo! only allows you to transfer contacts between Yahoo! Mail accounts for free. It does not even provide an option to transfer email. And if you try to transfer email between your Yahoo! accounts directly through the TrueSwitch website, it asks you to make an upfront payment of US $19.95!

I don’t know why Yahoo! Mail would charge money for something that they should actually provide for free! Particularly when others like Windows Live Mail (see this and this) and Gmail (see this and this) have already done so.

Claims Vs. Reality

Quoting from the Yahoo! Mail help page at http://help.yahoo.com/l/us/yahoo/mail/yahoomail/manage/manage-66.html:

What’s TrueSwitch? It transfers webmail info

Along with our partner, TrueSwitch, we make transferring information from your other webmail accounts simple. All of your contacts, emails, and calendar information. All of it!

Just tell us the old account you want to switch from, and the new account you’d like to switch to. That’s it! Start here.

Now, if you click on the “Start here” link above, you will be transferred to the Yahoo! page on TrueSwitch website (http://secure5.trueswitch.com/yahoo/), which in turn redirects you to an internal Yahoo! page (http://overview.mail.yahoo.com/transfercontacts).

Unlike Yahoo!’s official claims, this page only allows you to transfer contacts and not email. Why this is so is not clear. Whether only Yahoo! email accounts of select countries/regions can be transferred for free to another Yahoo! email account, I do not know.

Anyway, I tried next to transfer email directly through the TrueSwitch website by downloading their application. But after filling in my old and new email IDs and passwords, the software threw an error saying “TrueSwitch is not a free service for your target email provider” and asked me to pay US $19.95 for the transfer. This, even when the TrueSwitch website itself says on its home page that the service is free when you switch to their partners (which includes Yahoo!).

I sent an email to Yahoo! customer care, but they conveniently washed their hands off and asked me to contact TrueSwitch directly.

Have contacted TrueSwitch now. Let’s see…

Next Step: Transferring To Windows Live Mail, From There To Yahoo…

Waited and waited, but no response at all from TrueSwitch! Well, that sucks.

So I hit upon a “bright” idea! Why not open a Windows Live Mail account, transfer my email there, and then see if I could transfer to my new Yahoo! Mail account using TrueSwitch again (hopefully Yahoo! would allow transferring email at least from a non-Yahoo! Mail account?). Gmail was ruled out because it doesn’t support folders, and instead uses labels.

So I opened the Live Mail account, and I immediately got the link to transfer emails from other accounts after logging in. I inserted my Yahoo! Mail ID and password, and the transfer started. I checked after a couple of hours, and a few folders had already been transferred. So far so good…

But then, nothing moved. The transfer was stuck halfway for several days and showed no signs of progress. Finally, I got fed up and gave up that idea.

UPDATE: Did It Using POP3 Finally!

With all options in limbo, I stumbled upon a blog which talked about how to enable POP3 access for free Yahoo! Mail accounts. The blog suggested that by changing the “Preferred content” option to Yahoo! Asia, the POP3 option can be enabled.

I followed the precise instructions on the blog and it worked perfectly! My old Yahoo! Mail account was now POP3 enabled. Now, the next step was to configure my new Yahoo! Mail account with the POP3 settings provided by the old account. To do this, you need to go to Options >> Mail Options >> Accounts >> Add or edit an account, and enter the following:

POP3 server: pop.mail.yahoo.com
SMTP server: smtp.mail.yahoo.com
Username: Yahoo! Mail account (username@yahoo.com)
Password: Yahoo! Mail password

You can also refer to this page for the same, or see the image below.

IMPORTANT: Remember to uncheck “Retrieve new messages only” so that it fetches all email from the Inbox, and not just new email. Also remember to check “Leave mail on POP server”, or else it will delete the email from the old account after fetching it!!!

Once you do this, a confirmation email will be sent to your old Yahoo! Mail account. You have to click on the link in the confirmation email and sign in with the new Yahoo! Mail account ID and confirm the request. Then you will be able to access your old account from your new account via POP3.

Note however that the service only fetches emails that are in the Inbox, not those in other folders. If you intend to transfer those, you need to manually copy each folder one by one to the Inbox in the old account, and click on “Check for new email” in the new account on the Options >> Mail Options >> Accounts page.

You would also be advised to add a filter in the new account which will basically redirect all email that has your old email ID in the “To/Cc” columns to a specific folder in your new account. That way, you can isolate all the email from the old account from the existing email in the new account.

Hope these tips helped! Let me know if I need to add anything more or make any corrections.

Following are the main steps, as you may be aware:

1. Apply for a Learner’s License (LL)
2. Wait for one month
3. Apply for a Driving License (DL)

NOTE: You need to be aware of which RTO your area falls under. There are five RTOs, one each covering North, East, South, West and Central Bangalore. These are in Yeswanthpur, Indiranagar, Jayanagar, Rajajinagar and Koramangala respectively.

Since I applied for my DL at the Koramangala RTO (located in Koramangala BDA Complex), I will provide instructions with references to that particular RTO.

Step 1: Applying for the LL

You need to go to the RTO with the following documents (copies as well as originals):

1. Three recent passport size photos
2. Address proof (Ration card, Passport, etc.)
3. Age proof (Birth certificate, PAN card, etc.)

With these documents, go to the helpdesk which is on the second floor of Koramangala BDA Complex. Take CMV Form 2 from there and fill it up, or else download it from here. Next, go to the RTO cash counter which is in Room No. 12, pay Rs. 30 per LL and get the receipt printout. Note that if you’re applying for, say, both two-wheeler and four-wheeler LL at once, you need to take two receipts of Rs. 30 each, so explain to the person at the counter accordingly.

On the CMV Form 2, you need to tick all the vehicle categories for which you need the license (e.g two-wheeler with gear, light motor vehicle, etc.).

Next, attach copies of all the above mentioned documents to the CMV Form 2 and go to the Assistant RTO Officer’s cabin. He will verify the documents with their originals and then sign on the CMV Form 2. Then, you need to go to Room No. 2, where another person will ask you to explain the traffic signs and driving rules as specified in the Indian Motor Vehicles Act of 1988. After that, he will sign on the form too.

Now, you need to go to Room No. 12 again and submit it at the LL counter to the right of the ARTO’s cabin. After an hour or so, you will get your LL, which is basically a sheet of paper with your photo and other details of your license application. It also mentions the validity period of the LL, which is six months from the date of application.

UPDATE: You can now even apply for the LL online! You need to visit this link, go through the instructions and then click on the “Register online” link at the bottom. Not giving any more details as everything is explained in the link above.

Step 2: Waiting period of one month

There is a waiting period of one month after you get the LL, after which you can apply for the actual DL. This is to enable you to learn to drive the vehicle properly under the guidance of another valid DL holder. Following are the rules for this period:

1. Always carry your LL with you
2. Never drive the vehicle alone. You are supposed to be accompanied by another person who has a valid DL for that vehicle class
3. Put a red “L” sticker on the front and back of the vehicle, which will warn others that you are a learner

Step 3: Applying for the DL

Now comes the real test! After you have completed the minimum one month waiting period, you are eligible to apply for the DL. For this, you have to give a driving test in front of a Driving Inspector and he has to be satisfied that you have learnt to drive the vehicle properly.

You again need to carry three passport size photos for this. First, go to the helpdesk as before and take CMV Form 4, one for each class of vehicle for which you are taking the license (don’t forget this, or else you will have to run around again later), or download here. So if you’re applying for both two-wheeler and four-wheeler simultaneously, as I did, you have to fill the CMV Form 4 in duplicate. In this form, you have to fill in the requested info and also provide your LL number.

You also have to take CMV Form 7 (for issuing PVC card DL) from the cabin to the right of the ARTO’s cabin in Room No. 12 and fill it up (only once, even if you’re applying for more than one class of vehicle license). Next, go to the RTO cash counter in the same room and pay Rs. 215 for the PVC card (smart card type) DL, and Rs. 50 each for the driving test for every class of vehicle. In my case, the total was Rs. 315 (Rs. 215 for plastic DL, Rs. 50 x 2 for DL test for two- and four-wheeler).

Now, you again need to go to the ARTO’s cabin with CMV Form 4(s), Form 7, your LL(s) and payment receipt(s) all attached together. He will verify everything and then sign on the Form 4(s).

Next, you need to go to the DL section which is the same place from where you took the Form 7 (room to the right of the ARTO’s cabin). There, your picture will be taken on the webcam, your fingerprints will be scanned, and you will be asked to sign using an electronic pen on a pad. All this will be recorded electronically on the RTO’s computers, and will appear on your actual DL.

Then, you need to go to another desk which is on the left of the ARTO’s cabin, where you need to show them the signed CMV Form 4 and payment receipts, and they will enter it into the system (don’t ask me why it’s like this!!). Then they will put a stamp on your CMV Form 4 that says “Back entry done”. Ensure that your photo, fingerprints and signature are taken before you come here, or else the system will not accept your form.

Once this is done, you need to go for the driving test. The Driving Inspector will be sitting on the ground floor of the Koramangala BDA Complex. Go to him with all your forms attached, and with the original documents (including Emission Certificate(s)) of the vehicle(s) for which you are applying for the license. Note that if you’re applying for both two- and four-wheeler, you need to bring both the vehicles with you (so you need a friend/relative to come with you, obviously), and you also need to get the original documents of both vehicles. Also note that you need to arrange for your own vehicles; you can’t borrow another person’s vehicle, as the Inspector will not allow it for some really strange, inexplicable reason!

Once the driving test is done, the Inspector will take all the forms from you, sign on them and keep them with him. You don’t have any proofs/receipts with you at this point, which I find rather strange (’cause what if he loses your form?). After a couple of days, you can come and collect your DL. Note that in Koramangala RTO, they issue DLs only on Fridays between 4-5 PM, so you can’t collect it on any other day.

It may also happen that the Inspector is not satisfied with your driving for whatever reason. Perhaps you genuinely made a mistake during the test (didn’t give necessary signals, didn’t follow rules, etc.), or perhaps the Inspector just wants you to grease his palm. If it’s the former reason, he’ll ask you to reappear for the test after a week’s gap. If it’s the latter, the decision is yours as to whether you want to pay him off or complain to the authorities (Lok Ayukta or RTI may help you here).

Step 4: Collecting the DL

Once you collect your DL on the given date, remember to verify it on the spot for any mistakes. Ensure that your name, date of birth, address, parents’ name, etc. are correct. If not, bring it to their notice immediately. Perhaps you may need to pay Rs. 215 again for a fresh plastic card, as the present rules are such that you pay even if the mistake is theirs!

This is how a Karnataka DL looks like (currently):

Hope this information was helpful! Please let me know if I’ve missed out any details, or if any information is erroneous.

Useful Links:

• Karnataka RTO website: http://rto.kar.nic.in/
• Bangalore Traffic Police website: http://www.bangaloretrafficpolice.gov.in
• Traffic Rules & Regulations: http://www.bangaloretrafficpolice.gov.in/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=82&btp=82
• Traffic Signs: http://www.bangaloretrafficpolice.gov.in/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=78&btp=78
• CMV Form 2: http://rto.kar.nic.in/form2.pdf
• CMV Form 4: http://rto.kar.nic.in/form4.pdf
• RTO FAQ: http://www.timesol.net/rto/
• Traffic violations on your vehicle: http://125.17.140.50/BPSFineDetails/BPSFineDetails.aspx