Ghastly Heaven...

‘Mandir’ is the place and ‘Murath’ are the officers. Not to be surprised when u hear “sir, pooja is going on inside & officers are busy having ‘Prasad’ (sundal), wait for 15 mins” at 11.00 on Friday Morning while waiting for appointment with one of the officers. Worshipping them is the only way your prayers get answered. For those who have taken a holy step into the Indian passport office would have never ending stories of distressed encounter(s) in this gruesome government office.

Pre-requisites for our relocation to Australia involved Police Clearance Certificate (PCC) and Spouse Name Endorsement (SNE). A simple procedure as heard and said. Go the Regional Passport Office (RPO) in person, submit the marriage certificate, appl forms and pp to the officer-in-charge (lady there) in the morning & get the SNE & PCC by afternoon.

My husband’s application was out-rightly rejected stating police verification has not been done on his pp. A month long battle, series of follow-up visits and idol worship of every fussy officer including the guard at doorstep was just to understand how police verification could not be done on a passport having valid US visa and traveled/lived there. Limited are their talks and so are their appearance to applicants. A sneak peak inside would revel the incessant gappe time with Chai Vada of the officers in their 4hrs duty. RTI – utter bullshit!!

The reframed procedure as stated was to apply for a new pp (non tatkal) & get police verification done followed by our requirements would take anywhere between 45 days to 3 months un-guaranteed. Going by the procedure for new pp after unsuccessful battle, the certifying officer had to contradict the need for normal application form as he found PV done in earlier pp. Astound by his words, requesting for explanation the officer showed up the PV on his system. The error later found was the lady entered the passport file number instead of passport number in her system that threw up error which she assumed to be PV not done.

What would one have to mention about the simple mistake of this wonderful lady handling this monotones job for not less than 15 yrs. A blind man’s job that made our life dark for a while. Simple negligence that left us with unbounded stress, hassle, frustration and uproar that went to extent of being uncertain of our relocation. Indian passport office is nothing but a GHASTLY HEAVEN for an individual who has Videsh dream.

Policies, procedures, escalation are just unfamiliar in these offices with govt having no time to look in to establishing people friendly organizations. Deshn netaon ki JAI HO!!!!!!

Destination Abroad!!

I remember one of those corporate get together @ MH, there was this man sitting with parrots claming to predict one's future. I sat in front of him for the fun of knowing what he has to tell for me and he said...... said I have opportunity to fly out of India shortly... Holy fun!! I told myself… If a gamble with cards and parrots would have to say my future, I wish to have stacked up the cards to my hearts desire. Fun turned out real in less than a year... Now I say Holy Shit :-) I wish to catch up with this man with his parrot for a hi-tea...

In less than 2 months of our marriage we were destinated to move to Australia. Well not a desired destination for Mr.Husband who has this US mania. But for me dreams were high and excitement sky rocketed. As such I had my plate filled with the excitement of married life and now this big plate looked like a quarter plate waiting for a gourmet meal to be served as my main course... WOW, Thats life I said myself…

Sydney, Australia: a life knitted by my husband n myself… we are the vagabonds of this nation, backpacking on holidays, quest for hi-tech gadget collection, crazy affair with high streets, big buildings, fascinating cars, fast life & disc are the feast for our life while shopping apparels from the worlds big brands, parties with stilettos n clutches, connoisseur food lovers on dinner dates - we are crazy for this cosmopolitan life we are indulged in… We Live, We Explore, We Indulge and We Enjoy…

So, do I Still believe “that’s life”??

Well, this fascinating is as much as a good nite’s “Hangover”… celebrating the 2nd anniversarry says reality has taken a sneak peak and in day-to-day life we feel that our parents are available only on a virtual mode, festivals and blessing shared thru a fiber optic cable, family pics where we don’t find a place anymore and family happenings is like a one hour News show. Successful in life, material and wealth, pride in 'vacation to India' where your my country is Videsh, we start realizing the eternal bonding getting vague.

Cosmopolitan life, Stilettos and parties would never equate with the warmth of parents, mom’s hug on a bad day, chai with pop discussing the crazy news on TV or one of the distressed fights with your bro/sis for a stupid reason…

Our Instinct here is only for a maximum period of 4 years. We know what our Indian passports mean to us, not to call ourselves proud Indians but to feel life at its best in our adobe. Destination abroad is so much fun only when your instinct is short - Move around, get yourselves tagged in different countries, learn different culture but be rooted to the Indian Soil…

And that’s definitely what we are!!