- Ensure that the person who visits your home for the safety check up has the ID card. Safety is a major issue now a days and thus allowing just any body inside your home can be foolish.

- The receipt of the safety check up must be kept safely, as its validity will last for two years. Moreover, it can be useful for getting your insurance claims through in case of any mishaps.

-Although the safety check up is mandatory and thus must be done in every two years, but the process takes time and thus its not as if, the check up MUST be done on the exact same date when it is due. 4-5 month laxity in the check up date is acceptable and thus dealers do not force the customers to do it immediatly

-The things that you will need to have to get a DBC are the Subscription Voucher( original and 1 photocopy), Customer( in whose name the connection was issued, ID proof of customer( Original and 1 photocopy) , application for DBC and your blue book(diary).

- The application needs to simple, stating you connection number, name, address and reason for requirement of second cylinder.

- The application should be addressed to the Sales Officer of the company of which you have the gas connection(Bharatgas or Indane or HP Gas)

- Once you have given this application with the copies of required documents to the dealer, the dealer forwards it to the company, from where it is to be approved. The approval should normally take around 10 days, but at times takes up to a month due to inefficiency on the part of the dealer and the company.

However, at time we err. We err in our estimations, our planning and preparation. We err because we don’t estimate and anticipate the magnitude of difficulty that the route may present us with. I also erred in my last trip to Bhutan. I under estimated a certain part of the route. This was the part which is geographically called, the state of Bihar.

We planned to take the NH 57 through Bihar. Its a national highway and the distance, as seen on the map seems easily coverable in one day. I knew that the roads would be bad, the conditions would be bit tough, I totally, completely, foolishly under estimated Bihar. We had estimated that we would cover the distance, which was around 400 km, through Bihar, in 10 hours. The average speed was to be 40 km per hour, which is as low as it can get. This was the average speed that we had when we crossed Ladakh, which are known to be the toughest roads in India.

However, it took us 15 hours to cross half this distance. that makes it an average speed of  13.3 kmph and believe me, we are going as fast as we could on those roads!

We crossed half of Bihar and then finally lost our patience, our courage, our determination and took a detour into Nepal, which is not supposed to be safe. But at that time, we thought that even Nepal would be better than Bihar. We were in a car registered in India, we had no passport, we got into Nepal through an entry gate which is rarely used and worst of all, we had no legal entry permit. But we drove into Nepal because crossing Bihar was IMPOSSIBLE. The roads to unimaginably bad. I am good writer, know the English language reasonably well, but I just don’t have words describe road conditions, the people, the environment, the everything of that place. In fact, while I was there I thought I was in Afghanistan. The situation is really that bad.

Well, here some pictures of the NH 57. The last picture is very important. It depicts the final problem that we faced in Bihar, that made me LOOSE courage. Will describe it once you have seen it.

And this is Last one

What you see in the last picture is a boat. The only way to cross rivers here is to keep you car on boats like these, pay the guy Rs.300, so that they push the boat to the other bank. My car was too big to get one the boat and there were two river like this one which had to be crossed by road and it takes roughly 45 minutes to cross river. All of this made me lose completely to what I called Impossible Bihar. That was when we found and took a detour into Nepal, which was 40 km from where we were. Those 40 km took 2 hours to cross, but we crossed over to a much better road, which got us 500 km by the night.

For instance, if you booked for refill on 3rd when the rate was Rs.200, the rates got changed to Rs.250 on 5th and you got your delivery on 7th, you will have to pay Rs.250.

The bill will obviously have the old rates written on it, as it is printed at the time of booking. Also, the practical thing is that the dealer never gets to store gas cylinder. Company gives limited stock for daily use only and thus it is not possible for the dealer to supply in the old rates as this will lead to high losses.

This rule applies even if the rates are decreased.

You need to have all the documents necessary for the process, here is a list of the same:

1- Subscription Voucher/s of the connection.

2- Blue Book/diary

3-Death certificate of the customer

4-Proof of relation of the transferee to the customer. For instance, if the transferee is the son of the customer, then you can present a voter card, driving license, pan card etc which have the ‘Father’s name’ mentioned.

4- NOC from other legal heirs. For instance, if the customer was you father and you want to have the connection transferred in your name and you have 3 brothers too, who are equally eligible to get the gas connection, you will have to get an NOC from all of them.

5- The first right, however over the gas connection is of the spouse of the customer.

6-You will also need to give an affidavit from your side, stating that all the documents and information given by you are true to your knowledge and that you are responsible for the same. The proper format for this affidavit can be procured from the dealer. In case your dealer does not have it(very rare) you can ask me for it by commenting on this post.

Once you have given all the documents, the dealer will terminate you gas connection and will make a new gas connection with the same deposit for cylinder and regulator in the transferee’s name. So, you will get a new subscription voucher and new gas number for this.

Whenever you receive a gas cylinder, you must check if it is valid for use or not. Normally, the dealer will not deliver such a cylinder, but mistakes can happen. If you use the expired cylinder and any mishap happens, the company will not at all take the responsibility.They will refuse to recognize you. The only thing to do in such a case is to talk to the dealer, as only the dealer can help you out in such case of a mishap. In the worst case, you can file a case against the company in the consumer court. This case will have them running in no time, but the sad part is that even after filing the case, the company will not take responsibility and all the losses will have to be payed by the dealer.     However, as you have received the cylinder, don’t use it. Keep it capped and report about the same to the sales officer of the company. The phone number of the sales officer can be obtained for the dealer. In case the dealer refuses to give the number, you can note it down from the mandatory board which is displayed in the dealer’s office. This board will be white in color and will have the cylinder stock, rates etc written on it.

As in such a case, the dealer does not have to deliver the cylinder to the customer, he cannot charge for the delivery and thus the discount is given. To avail the cash and carry discount, you have to book your gas at the dealership, ask for a cash and carry slip and then go to the godown to collect the cylinder.

This is good for customers who live nearby the gas godown.

Now, when we reached there, we found people standing there with ponies, meant to haul tourists to the Monastery. We were immediately excited and asked them about the rates. However, they told us that they cant offer the ponies to us as they were booked. The booking for the ponies had to be done one day before the proposed visit. But we pleaded endlessly, at the end of which the pony man went to call another pony man who had some spare ponies. So, we got lucky and thus had a gala time climbing to the monastery. The cost of this facility, however was quite high at Rs.500 per person which made up to be Rs.3000 for 6 people.

However, this cost was nothing as compared to the visit to the Monastery, which was amazingly beautiful. It is perched atop an 800m high cliff, like and eagle sitting atop a mountain. Its as if a jewel studded on the huge face of the mountain that bears it.

Cameras and food stuff is not allowed inside. You cant even carry phones. However, the interiors are amazingly well decorated with colorful Bhutanese paintings of legends of the great Guru, in the honor of whom this Monastery was made.

For the best experience, one must go to this place early in the morning, as we did and on a clear, no-cloud day. It is very cold up there, with almost no shelter on the way and thus if it rains, you will be trouble. The Tatsang Monastery is a few km off  Paro, a beautiful town to the west of Thimpu

Although companies assure that the glass is unbreakable, but in my opinion, being safe is best. There are many well designed non-glass-top stoves in the market, which should be given preference.

If your regulator is faulty, your gas dealer can replace it. He may or may not charge you for this replacement. However, in some cases your gas dealer may not have regulators in stock and may refuse for making the replacement. In such a case, even the sales officer of the company will not be able to help you and thus the best thing to do, is to buy a regulator from the open market, but ensure that you buy a genuine ISI marked regulator.