Getting a passport was quite a thing in the past. It was like a sense of accomplishment, if you got yourself a passport. Serpentine queue in front of the passport office. Touts going all around asking people to pay extra buck to beat the system. It was a nightmare even to apply for a passport, forget about getting one. Getting the application, understanding the requirements and submission of documents, in itself, was a cumbersome process. Let us assume you somehow manage to get through all of these crossing through seven mountains and 14 seas as they say in stories to kill a demon…submission was a major hassle….it is like flying in the air without any wings….and so you can imagine. You still manage it do it…that’s a miracle in itself, then if the application is accepted after due scrutiny…you have to wait for months or years to get your passport (in the olden times). With the passage of times, there were lots of improvements with computerization and decentralization. It has been a sea change since the days of the past. At first, they started issuing passports out of post offices and then subsequently TCS the IT major took over this activity which happened in the recent past.
These days, within days after the baby is born, they have a passport. Little Anirud had to tread the same way. Photographer came home and took snaps and developed it in a white background. In the passport application the thumb imprint had to be taken and the agent came home to do it as they are adept in such tasks. Though I tried hard to apply for the passport before I left Mumbai, I could not do it due to some delays. Finally, Vidya had to go along with her cousin carrying Anirud as well to the passport office and deliver the application. Unless they see the baby, they said they would not issue the passport. The monsoon rains had started and getting to travel in Mumbai during peak hours and in rains is such a hassle and that too going to a passport office. It takes hours to go and come back. In between the baby had to be fed mother’s milk. Well, tough times for both of them. Eventually we got it. Visa was another tension as we got it (stamped from the Kuwait embassy) the evening before we had to leave Mumbai to Kuwait.
Perhaps, Life’s like that…as it comes in the Reader’s Digest.
Beautiful Life 