Know International Courier Services Better

The introduction of courier services in the market has made life a lot easier when it comes to sending parcels to another person who is standing miles away from you. It omits the need for you to personally travel and have the parcel delivered. What is amazing is that its service reaches across the borders of the city, state, country and continent. My father has a handicraft store and often gets order from merchants located in around 10 to 12 cities across the country. When I introduced to him the concept of courier services, he was amazed at how well it worked. I remember him narrating to me how painstaking it would get when the orders were high to personally go and deliver the items. A fair share of his savings would go in traveling from one city to another, making it a rather expensive affair. But his love for handicrafts didn't let him give up the store. Now with the option of having courier services on his side, he has seen great benefits. He has tied up with a renowned courier service and has his parcels transported without an ounce of hassle. He now finds himself in a much better space now. Not only is he less tired, but he has more time to spend on making his business better. Over the last few years, he has seen his business soar to new heights. He has extended his business to three more cities. My father is a happier and more prosperous man now. I too have got into the business and I'm looking to take it to an international level. Because let's face it, we all know how exotic the Indian products are considered to be across the seas. As I browsed through the establishments offering courierservices in Pune and spoke to them about my international shipping plan, here are a few things I learnt.

Not every country allows everything – It is important to research on the items that are allowed to be shipped to certain countries and the one that are restricted. Doing your homework on the rules and regulations set for each country with regard to what can be couriered will save you an ample amount of time. For instance, in Europe it is highly imperative to complete and have attached a customs declaration when a parcel is being sent out of the country. If the details of anything are incorrect, then you could be in big trouble. As per an article I had once read, one cannot ship clown costumes to the southern region of France. This is because 6,000 strong village of Vendargues have banned the costume. A number of pranksters were known to cause immense panic among children and therefore to keep this at bay, the place has banned clown costumes. You cannot export chewing gum to the City State of Singapore. They are on a mission to keep the city clean and therefore are trying to keep chewing gum off the streets.

Securing package is the most essential – Be sure that whatever you are shipping is legal and within the specified laws. Make sure that you are packaging it well. You may have to end up paying a bit more to have it wrapped and sealed, but you had rather do that than have your item damaged. Sometimes simply using bubble wrap isn't enough. You may have to place the item in a wooden box with hay all around it. By packaging your shipment well, you save it from being damaged in any way. When in transit, not always can you be entirely sure of how well it is being handled. Therefore make sure that you spend enough time knowing what is the best way to pack the item you are having shipped.

International payments may vary – One aspect of international shipping that can turn an experience sour for you is international shipping cost. A misconception that many have is that they have to tear open all their bank accounts to pay for the shipment. If you research well, you will be able to know how much are the exact costs to ship various items to different countries. Also, bear in mind that this is going to be shipped across the country or continent. So, factor in that when you are working out your costing. Every country has their own set of charges, but knowing this in advance will save you from paying more than you really ought to.

By keeping this tips in mind, I was able to make successful shipments without burning a hole in my pocket or having myself thrown in depression. I have tied up with two recognised companies offering courier services in Pune and they have delivered exceptional services to me on every occasion.

4 Vegetarian Tandoori Dishes That Are A Must Try

Whether a foodie or not, one fact that everyone will agree with is how the mention of Tandoori food often goes hand in hand with non-vegetarian preparations. The perception that 'mood to have Tandoori food' inadvertently means the craving to devour some succulent non-vegetarian preparations like different types of Chicken Tikkas, Tandoori Seafood Platter and the likes, needs to be changed as there are a couple of misconceptions with regards to Tandoori food. Contrary to popular belief that Tandoori food is a type of cuisine à la Chinese, Italian, or North Indian cuisines, the fact remains that it actually is a style of preparation wherein the food is cooked in a hot clay oven. It is the style of cooking the food in different types of these tandoors that renders the food that typical and unique grilled and smoky flavour. Another myth to be busted here that Tandoor preparations are not just limited to various types of bread or rotis and meats. You can toss together all the ingredients for the marinade which imparts the actual taste to the main dish and follow it up with the other ingredients to make the dish of your choice, which may not necessarily be a meat or fish preparation. It may sound delusional to many but vegetarian kebabs do exist and once served to you, you will surely be bowled over by the sheer deliciousness of these. What is interesting to note here is that just like its non-vegetarian counterpart, vegetarian kebabs do come in a deluge of varieties. Read on to find out the best vegetarian tandoori preparations that many Tandoori restaurants in Mumbai are popularly known for.

1. Corn Kebab: This is one preparation that you can have on the menu as a starter for your next dinner. It is quite popular among children and the innovative plating itself is enough to have you indulge in the crispy delicacy. Sweetcorn dominates the preparation along with potatoes while green peas is an optional ingredient but is commonly found. The best part of the preparation is its non-oily nature due to the chosen grilled method of cooking. Tangy Pudina chutney makes for the best accompaniment of this exciting vegetarian Kebab that can give the good old Fish tikka a serious competition.

2. Tandoori Tofu: A great substitute for the good old Paneer, Tofu is quite popular among foodies. More so because of its nutritional value. Made from soymilk, Tofu has great health benefits with its high iron, protein and low fat content. Giving the classic Tandoori Paneer a break, try the Tandoori Tofu instead which is high on taste as well as bears many a health benefit too for you. Served on skewers and plated very interestingly, this dish will leave you impressed at the word go. The rich gold hue of the turmeric peeping through the deep sunset orange tint from the grill makes quite an Instgrammable impression. The thought that food is consumed by all the senses holds quite true in this context as the aroma from the grilled preparation build your appetite, the platter served in front of you is quite a visual and finally the taste of the rich spices in the creamy marinade satiate all your cravings. It is time for you to try this one!

3. Veg Seekh Kebab: Yes, you read that right! A dish called veg Seekh Kebab does exist and does complete justice to its name, just like its succulent non-vegetarian cousin. The best part of these vegetarian Kebabs is unlike the chicken or mutton Seekh Kebabs, the vegetarian one can be prepared using diverse combinations of ingredients and is not limited to just a couple of vegetables that can be used for the preparation. A combination of potatoes, cabbage, carrots, french beans and green peas is among the favourite ones liked by many a food lover. The delightful golden-brown colour of the tandoor preparation plated with finesse is just what you need to sate your hunger pangs. Dips like Pudina chutney and yoghurt garlic sauce add a distinct flavour to these scrumptious kebabs.

4. Mushroom Tikka Kebab: Whoever said that Paneer is all there is to vegetarian food has definitely never given vegetarian food a fair chance and made a judgment just too soon. The Mushroom Tikka Kebab is one example of just how palatable and tempting a vegetarian dish can be. The extremely nutritious and delicious mushrooms are grilled with Bengal gram flour and some of the choicest spices and condiments which make it the perfect preparation for snacks.

So the next time you head to one of the Tandoori restaurants Mumbai has, steer away from your usual non-vegetarian Tandoori orders and experiment a little with the recipes mentioned above and you will be pleasantly surprised by how toothsome vegetarian Tandoori preparations are.

Registering A Vehicle In Madhya Pradesh? Here's What You'll Need

In India, there are multiple Regional Transport Offices, commonly referred to as RTOs. These are the authorities that provide certificates of registration and permit the owner of the motor vehicle to drive in any public place or any other place only if the vehicle is a registered one. These departments operate in accordance with the section 213, Motor Vehicles Act, 1988. Under the ambit of the Madhya Pradesh Transport Department, there are ten RTOs, ten additional RTOs, thirty district transport offices and forty transport check-posts at state borders.

If you are living in Bhopal, the vehicle registration authority is the RTO of Bhopal, that comes under the ambit of the Madhya Pradesh transport department. It is on the Durga Mandir Road in Shivaji Nagar and its RTO code is MP04. The main functions of this RTO are to deal with the registration of vehicles, issuance of driving licenses and permits, and enforcement of the various motor vehicle rules and regulations. For the convenience of the citizens, the MP transport authorities have taken most of the important procedures online. In terms of vehicle registration, there are several transactions that the MP transport authorities permit.

At Madhya Pradesh transport, perhaps the most common transactions are the temporary registration and permanent registration of the vehicles, post which you will receive a registration certificate. The following is a list of documents you will require for temporary registration and permanent registration of a vehicle at the nearest MP transport RTO.

1. Temporary registration of the vehicleWhat are the documents that MP transport department requires for the temporary registration of the vehicle?
   

• Proof of address (The valid address proofs can be the Aadhaar card, PAN card, electricity bill or the ration card)
• Pollution under control certificate or PUC certificate
• A valid certificate of insurance of the vehicle
• Form 21 – the sales certificate of the vehicle
• In case of an ex-Army vehicle, the original sales certificate from the concerned authorities in Form 21 needs to be furnished
• Form 22 – road-worthiness certificate of your vehicle
• In case the vehicle is an imported one, customs clearance certificate is required
• In case the vehicle is a semi-trailer or a trailer, a copy of the design approval of STA is required
  
  What is the fee towards registration?
  
  
• Under Rule 42 (10) of Madhya Pradesh Motor Vehicles Rules, 1989, you may have to pay a nominal fee of INR 50 towards temporary registration or towards extending the temporary registration.
• At the same time, the designated tax amount as specified in the Madhya Pradesh Motor Vehicles Taxation Act needs to be paid as well.

2. Permanent registration of the vehicle

What are the documents that Madhya Pradesh Transport department requires for the permanent registration of the vehicle?


• You will need all the documents as mentioned in the 'Temporary registration of the vehicle' section in addition to an application in Form 20 to the MP transport registering authority, for registration of a motor vehicle with Madhya Pradesh Transport.
  
• Bear in mind that this application must be made within seven days from the date of delivery of the vehicle.
  What is the fee towards registration?
  
• You will need to pay the specified fee as mentioned under Rule 81 of CMV Rules, 1989.
• You will need to pay tax as specified in the Madhya Pradesh Motor Vehicles Taxation Act.
  
  About the Registration Certificate's validity and effectiveness:

• This document is valid all over India
• It is issued for fifteen years for non-transport vehicles (private vehicles)
• It is issued for two years for transport vehicles.
• After two years, the owner of the transport vehicle needs to obtain the fitness certificate from the registering authority, every year.
  

In addition to the above transactions, the MP Transport Department also facilitates the renewal of the registration certificate, the issuance of a duplicate registration certificate, change in residence address, endorsement of hire-purchase agreement and termination of a higher purchase agreement.

Booking Railway Tickets Has Become Simpler Than You Think

It is finally that time of the year when the vacations have set in. My board exams have gotten over so my entire family has decided to enjoy a beautiful trip somewhere in the mountains. My grandpa had been insisting for quite some time to go to Manali so my dad, mom, my little sister and I decided to plan a family vacation in the city of valleys. My grandfather is a heart patient and the doctor has advised him not to travel in the aeroplanes so consequently, we had to all travel via trains. I think travelling by train much more fun than travelling on a flight. Yes, I know aeroplane would be much faster to reach but when you have a wonderful group of people around you, then nobody can do justice to the amazing train travel.

Since my father is a working professional, he really did not have the time to personally go and book the train tickets for our vacation. In order to do the train enquiry, my grandfather visited an agent, but his rates were a little higher than our budget. So one of my close family friends suggested that we book the train online, and consequently, in my free time, I started surfing the Indian rail service booking to check the IRCTC Railway Ticket Booking so that my family could do the train booking online. After I started browsing the website, I realized that it is very convenient for any kind of train enquiry as well as railway enquiry. The website offered a consolidated list of the entire IRCTC train schedule. If you wish to travel anywhere using the Indian railways, then you should definitely try this train reservation online. The best about this online railway ticket booking is that it entirely eliminates the need to use a middleman, such as the agent, and if there is no agent, you do not have to shell out a single extra penny for your railway ticket.

In this fast-paced world, people rarely have the time to go and stand in those long railway ticket booking queues. My grandfather used to tell me that during his time, when people wanted to travel, they had to personally go and visit the railway reservation office every time they had to inquire about the train availability, train ticket availability, train berth availability among other things. And since we had to travel for a good couple of days on the train, it was even essential for us to inquire about the food that was going to be made available during our journey. Now the whole train ticket booking has been shifted online, so in order to check the IRCTC availability, we scouted for the IRCTC train availability on the website itself. We also checked the railway timetable, Indian train status, IRCTC availability as well as the current train running status.

Often times it used to occur in the previous days when the trains used to run late and people had to spend hours on the railway platform, which got pretty inconvenient and exhausting for people. But these days, with the Indian railways embarking their journey into the new digital world, things have become pretty simple and manageable for the common man. The government has introduced a train tickets booking app for our greater convenience. You can easily go ahead and do an Indian railway ticket booking using the app. If you are in a situation where you are already at the platform waiting for the train and you need to know a live train status or the PNR status of the train, then you can do so using the online website.

I think this is the most convenient thing that the government of India has done for us. With the help of the website, you can check so many things about your journey no matter where you are located; you can check the train running status live. The website is open for any kind of Indian railway enquiry that you might have in your head. Other important things that you check online for your travel plans include the seat availability as well the train status. So while we were waiting on the platform waiting for the train, I made sure to check PNR status as well as the IRCTC PNR status.

The online website will also help you with any kind of IRCTC train enquiry. My family is not a very large one but there are certain groups that are huge in number and may require a whole boogie for their travel. So for such purposes, you can always check the IRCTC seat availability, the train seat availability or any other Indian railway seat availability for your desired convenience. Online train ticket booking is a very simple thing to do. It is much more conducive than what people did in the earlier days for Indian railways booking. So, even if you are new to this whole online booking, do not shy away because IRCTC ticket booking, Indian railway reservation and the railway reservation seat availability is a very easy thing to do.

Good luck!

Signing Up With IRCTC Was The Best Train Travel Decision

Over the last few months I have begun travelling for work and leisure a lot more. The work of course leaves me with no option, not that I don't enjoy it. But the leisure was part of a resolution I made for myself. I generally enjoy travelling by train because of so many reasons. Budget of course tops the list but the interaction with people, noticing their behaviour and their interaction with one another never fails to amuse me. However, the Train Ticket Booking process at the initial stages became a bit of a task. Followed that was the tracking of the train PNR status. The rush to the station and make that frantic search for the name on the chart would always leave me exhausted. The thought alone of the Indian railway ticket booking process was dreadful. The long waits in the line to check on the train ticket availability never seemed like it was going to end. I shared this concern with a friend of mine who then helped me out with her travel agent's number. "He should sort your Indian railway reservation problems", she said. The first few times it did seem highly convenient. But when I evaluated the toll it was taking on my wallet, standing in a queue to check on the Indian railway seat availability for my next trip did not seem so bad after all. But doing that every single time was no option at all. The railway enquiry counters were sometimes flooded with people and waiting for my turn seemed like an endless wait. I was desperate to find an easy way to have this entire Indian railways booking scenario of mine taken care of once and for all.

Magic turned to miracle when another friend introduced me to an online train ticket booking site and ultimately ended up discovering the IRCTC railway ticket booking website. For the longest time I would struggle with trying to find  out about the train seat availability or make railway reservations. The former site did help me out at times and for the times that it didn't, I had to resort to the ticketing agent all over again. And on one or two occasions, I did hear a gentleman in the train mention how easily he managed to get done his last minute train booking with utmost ease. That's when IRCTC ticket booking became known to me. So the first thing I do when I come back from my trip is sign up for IRCTC railway ticket booking. If I am being honest here, I really had my fingers crossed on this.

As I began browsing through the site, I saw how I could not just check for the IRCTC seats availability but also check on the IRCTC PNR status. I was actually quite amazed at how well equipped the site was. Having an online railway ticket booking site that has everything you require under one roof. This digital train enquiry counter for the Indian railways ended up being my life saver. My work trips were mostly planned, but the leisure ones would happen on the spur of the moment. Hence this kind of assistance is definitely what I needed. In addition to it all, I was charged no additional fee like that which was charged by the other site as well as the travel agent. Other than train inquiry, the site also furnished me with a railway time table for the required days. I found the site incredibly convenient as it continued to feature train berth availability, train availability seat availability, IRCTC PNR status and alot more.

Giving me the ability to check PNR status, the IRCTC PNR status option gives me a much clearer picture on the train running status live. This online Indian railway enquiry portal is well updated with the current train running statuses. This online railway ticket booking site as well as train ticket booking App gives me the option of booking railway tickets as well as making last minute train reservations. My travels from that day onward became a lot easier right from checking of the IRCTC train schedule to getting IRCTC train enquiry done seamlessly and enjoying the live train status updates too. I no longer had to resort to any other source to get information on the railway reservation seat availability for all my travels. Considering I was a frequent traveller, saving up on the additional fees charged by the agents as well as the other online portals helped me save my pockets from burning just a bit more. And of course being Indian, the more I can save, the better it is for me. With App in hand too, I found myself getting less tired from the decreased running around on the platform, since I had all the information I needed right here, in my hand.