I
have always believed that there is nothing called superior or inferior unless
you have such a doubt yourself in some corner of your mind. All are born with equal abilities
and it is the failure to summon these powers which makes one overwhelmed or
conquered by others. But a recent experience I had made me think twice over
this so far unshakeable belief of mine. One of the dictionary meaning of
humbled is - belittle. And this is how I felt later although things somehow did
go my way in the end.
Coming
to the point, I planned for getting a Passport for many years but staying away
from home – studying and working – often discouraged me to go for it. And the
numerous bad experience stories
floating around dissuaded my whatsoever left will. Finally, I decided to bite
the bullet and apply for a passport. Starting from going through the necessary
documents needed I started working on getting my documents in order. After it
was done I got down to the actual task of filling up the application form. I
really don’t know to call it luck or what – I sometimes end up in very unique
complicated situations (you will find
more supporting evidence on this later on too). I had changed my place of residence while
working in the same city thrice in the last one year and the rules were such
that one should be mentioning all addresses where you stayed in the last one
year or so. Ofcourse, I realized that the more number of previous addresses
will increases the # of police verification procedures and delays the process
but I was afraid of being found out in case of misrepresenting the facts and
also somewhere I felt the things should be done the right way. [Later on you’ll find I did wish I had
thought it more on doing so. After finishing and uploading the form I
scheduled an appointment at the main passport office and reached there praying
to GOD. One of my friends had a similar (in his words – costlier) experience
when he had to go all the way from the southernmost part of India to the
eastern most part - 2650 km only – to set the wheels in motion. Knowing his
harrowing experience I prepared myself for all kinds of situations and questions.
Roadblock #1
On
reaching the office after a brief wait I was ushered to the counter where TCS
employees were pre-verifying the documents and handing over the file. There a
person did point out that I was not carrying my actual office Id. I had thought
of it in the night but it slipped out of my mind in the morning. But I had an
answer ready for it too – It was not mentioned in the List of Documents needed!
Hoping it wouldn’t be a problem I waited for my call at the biometrics counter.
There the young lady did try to raise a few questions over whether ICSE is really an educational board but it went alright
as I could convince her and got it done. At the second step is where my worst
fears came true and I realized and I was not as good at persuading people as I
was thinking after the initial easy victory I had. But then those who can
persuade obstinate, inconsiderate government officers are few and far between!
There the person looking at my documents firstly refused to accept the bank passbook I
had which I had opened recently in a Public Sector Bank specially for this
purpose. For him it was a new account and not a reliable piece of document. Well
this was unexpected! The List of Documents needed says that one should have a
running bank account (which I had)/(or) last one year bank statement from a
public sector bank. Now this is very weird and not at all helpful. I’ve had an
account in a private bank and never felt the need to switch over to a public
sector bank until I thought of getting a passport. Should I (a genuine person)
be waiting for 1 year to pass after opening an account to apply for a Passport?
Anyways, I tried to argue with him and showed him my HR’s letter which stated
my address proof. Here again there is a problem – they expect it to be on a
letter head with a hand written signature – but my HR department works out of
Singapore and the mode of communication is email. Taking heed from my friend’s
experience I had ensured that the HR letter said that it was an electronically
printed letter. I had tried my best to learn from others’ experiences. But then
the person in-charge asked for the Office IdCard L
Exactly the question
I was dreading but I tried to reason that it is not asked for in the list of
documents needed. He went crazy on hearing this – perhaps he was not expecting
someone to point it out to his face. He started saying Bus ticket/train ticket is also not mentioned there. To this day I
am still trying to figure out the link between it and a passport! He wrote
IdCard needed on the file and gave me an appointment for the next day luckily.
But I refused to be cowed down as I said in the beginning I asked to meet the
Regional Passport Officer. Again, he was really not expecting this too! He said
there is no one here. Go to Exit gate. I persisted and he said No, no. Go away
and while I was sitting in front of him he started attending the person behind
me in the queue. Meanwhile a TCS supervisor had come around hearing the
argument. I asked him where the officer in charge is and he pointed me to a
madam who was sipping her tea standing outside her cabin watching all this
while. I went up to her and politely explained my case but she too talked on
the same lines. I pointed out to her too
that the OfficeId card is not mentioned anywhere and she too seemed to be
unsettled by it. She started talking absurdly and told me that it is an Oral Requirement and so it is not listed?!!?!–
I doubt she could give it in writing ever. Anyways, seeing my pleas fall on
deaf ears I dejectedly walked off thinking of how to skip office the next day
to come again here
Roadblock #2
The
second day I took leave from office and reached the Passport office at the allotted
time. The process started at where it had stopped earlier. I went to the same
officer, who had rejected my passbook earlier, with my officeId card and after
a brief stare at me approved the file and asked me to proceed to the last and
final counter – the passport granting officer. I had a sigh of relief thinking
all documents have been verified and success was near. But picture to abhi baaki thi!
As
soon as I handed over my file to the officer without opening it the officer
asked - What are you doing here? Where do
you work? Actually I don’t look like a native of this place from any angle.
I answered him and he asked for a letter by the company and he immediately
rejected it saying that it doesn’t have the office seal and started telling me
about all the forged cases. I pleaded but to no avail. Finally, I told him I
want to talk to the Assistant Passport Officer. Since it was lunch time, he
punched something on his keyboard quickly and asked me to go talk to her and
went for his lunch. As soon as I entered the office cabin of the APO she stared
at me and asked her secretary why I was here. I explained the problem and this harassment
of telling the documents missing one-at-a-time only on each visit and requested
her to help. She claimed to have reminded me of the office seal the other day –
which she clearly had not. And then she walked out of her cabin.
I
sat in the waiting area coming to terms that I would’ve to come yet again
another day. I was waiting for the same passport granting officer to come back
so that I could check with him when I was supposed to come back again – my next
appointment. It had been a long 10-15minutes wait when suddenly my token number
was displayed on the monitor. Sensing a faint hope I rushed to the counter
which happened to be adjacent to the one where my document had been rejected a
little earlier. I handed over the file and documents to the officer there
present and he started going through it and putting forward the same old
questions – The bank account is recent/ Is ICSE a national board/the HR letter doesn’t
have a seal. Promptly I showed him my office IdCard and also the bank passbook
which covers as an address proof. He was slightly convinced only to find a new
fault – he began rechecking by Date Of Birth. It was only on the 10th
marksheet and not on the 12th – and rightly so. This was new! He
asked me my educational qualification and on hearing that I was B.Tech, asked
me to show the degree.
Now
it is nowhere mentioned to bring along your under-graduate/graduate degrees but
I didn’t want to confront him. I replied politely that I don’t have it and
nonetheless it doesn’t have a D.O.B. Frantically, I showed him the Character
Certificate from school and in a bid to find the Transfer Certificate spilled
on his desk all the documents I had with me – the mark sheets and
pass-certificate from 10th, 12th. Seeing the plethora of
documents on his desk he started to randomly pick one and have a look. And then
with a smug, perhaps convinced that this guy who has so many of his official
documents all over my table looks genuine – he signed and gave me the
Application Granted receipt.
Eureka!
What a nerve-wracking victory. It seemed to me for a moment that now a new
problem regarding D.O.B would be raised. But it went smoothly. And I quickly
collected my documents and slipped away as the old Passport Granting Officer
came back from his lunch.
Roadblock #3
As
I waited for the status on the website to be updated to “Pending Police
Verification”, I got calls from two of the police stations. I went and
completed the formalities and it was
done within a week. I was impressed that atleast this part of the process is
smoother. But No Sir! The call from the third police station, which happened to
be the farthest from my place, didn’t come for about 30 days since the
application was granted. Alarmed at this unexpected delay – one weekend I went
all the way 20kms to the concerned police station only to find the local
passport verification officer missing. All I could get was his phone number.
I tried calling him but no answer and then I
started calling him twice a day at random times. After about a week he picked
up my call and asked me to call after 2-3 days. Again my calls started going
unanswered and I added a new weapon to my armour – SMS. I texted him my name
and file number. The first time I did this he immediately called me back and
after listening to my case where I honestly told him that the Regional Passport
Office tells me that my verification was pending with him for more than 40 days
– he got a bit pissed and asked me to call again after a couple of days. Couple
of days later I texted him again inquiring about the status but this weapon had
been rendered useless. He didn’t call back and neither did he pick up my calls.
Assuming that I had to struggle my way here too I prepared myself to devote my Saturday
in trying to meet him and getting his approval on my file. I had also made up
my mind to complain to the Commissioner office on Sunday if it didn’t work and even
go till the Ministry of External Affairs. Aam-aadmi’s patience is not endless.
Meanwhile
I didn’t stop bugging him. I kept calling him twice a day and texting him with
the file number. And one fine day in office I got a message stating that a clear
report has been submitted and passport has been sent for printing. Persistence
is the keyword here!
Roadblock#4
I
got an email stating the tracking number of Speed Post with which my Passport
had been dispatched. I was relieved but one last twist in the tale awaited me.
I had asked the building guard to collect it since I would be in office but he
didn’t have my coveted thing when I returned from office. I checked up online
and it showed the Undelivered - door was
locked status. I called up the local post-office and they told me the
postman would come again the next day. I decided to take a WFH since I wanted
to be present at the home but no one came. Disappointed I went in the evening
to the post office to collect it and they told me to come again the next
morning at 9. Braving the early morning drizzle I reached the post-office at
8.45 where a new unanticipated problem awaited me.
The
postman refused to hand over me the mail saying the address was wrong. Ideally
my house number should be Q13 but my landlord is a bit superstitious and he has
changed it to Q12A since quite long – even before I moved in. All
communications to this address are addressed to Q12A and not to Q13. But
nonetheless, I argued in vain with the postman and even showed him the door
number photo which I had on my phone. I explained to the postmaster and even
showed my passbook and HR letter which has my house number as Q12A. But the
postman would not relent. After a long argument they told me to go and wait as
the postman would come to my address till 11am after checking with a local
police official. I returned back thinking what this strange issue I have got
into is.
As
my patience grew thin waiting till 10.30, I started getting ready to go to the post
office when I saw the same postman outside my apartment entrance. Of course,
till now both of us were pissed with each other and he angrily pointed to the
board which listed all the flats in the apartment and there it was mentioned
Q13. I asked him to take a look at the parking lot which had Q12A and come up
and see that the door also had Q12A number plate. But he ran away.
The
problem here is that the board listing the flat owners and flat numbers doesn’t
list Q12A. It mentions Q13. The apartment society hasn’t updated the board but all
correspondence is directed to Q12A. Now see this is a funny, unique complicated
situation I got into for simply no fault of mine.
Anyways
I was really furious as I had no control over all of this. I went upstairs took
another photo of my door, of the parking lot and took the lease agreement which
too had Q12A mentioned as the house address and rushed to the post office.
There again the same old story repeated itself. Except I had written an
application addressed to the Postmaster and gave it to her and requested her to
give me an acknowledgment. She seemed too cautious (or scared?) to give me one
let alone her name and mobile number. The postman asked me to come along with
him to the police station to the local passport verification officer. Having no
option I went there fearing all the problems which were to unfold if they didn’t
find my arguments genuine. Already pushed into a corner, I talked to the
officer there convincing enough to give him reliable acceptable proofs. He
realized that the passbooks, lease agreements etc were reliable enough proofs
plus the photos I had taken were acceptable supportable evidences too.
To
not accept his (and the postman’s) mistake straightaway, he asked me to give a copy
of the passbook front page so as to keep his ego up. Luckily I had it handy and
immediately handed him. He was surprised and grinned. But not to be outdone he
told me to give a copy of the lease agreement too. Now I didn’t have it so I
went to a nearby Xerox shop to get it done. After handing it over to him, I got
the elusive mail and was asked to open it then and there. The postman noted the
Passport Number asked me to sign and then took it to the officer to match my
signatures. Phew! They matched and then the officer started me telling his duty
as a local intelligence official in the local language even though I had told
him to talk in English. Anyways
I collected my passport after the enforced
formalities were over and scurried back home in jubilation.
Thus ended my first interaction with this
monolithic system and after overcoming tremendous unthinkable obstacles and with 2 visits to the Passport Office, 4 trips to police stations and 3 trips to the local post office within 48 days I got
my passport.
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