Passport Stories

The Indian Government, it seems, has come out with a novel, new method to combat the “brain drain” being faced by the country - complicate the procedure of applying for a passport as much as possible! If the young minds of the nation can’t get themselves passports, they aren’t going to be getting anyplace in a hurry.

My own passport had expired some months ago, but sheer laziness coupled with a bit of procrastination thrown in for good measure, ensured that I hadn’t applied for its renewal until today. This morning though, with surprising zeal and resolve I headed down to the passport office, the forms all filled out, and the necessary documents in place.

The procedure itself, while no stroll in the park, wasn’t as arduous as people make it out to be. It follows the tried and tested “token” system, whereby you receive a token according to the time you arrive and then get summoned to submit the application form in that order. The beauty of the “token” method is that it obviates the need for a physical queue, which in this country at least, leads to more trouble than it is worth.

This is the procedure for submitting the regular application. There is a separate window for submitting a special tatkal (urgent) application, and this one oddly enough, does not operate using tokens. It involves standing in a queue!

I met or saw quite a few people whom I knew at the office today. About 10 different people. Which means that it was either a strange coincidence, or for some reason a lot of people I know are looking to scoot out of the country in a hurry! (I wonder if there’s anything to be read into that?)

I was also surprised by the number of English-speaking, fashionably dressed individuals who had come to the office. A far cry from the crowd one meets at other Government offices. But then I realized that a fair percentage of Indians do not own a passport, and to a large extent those who do would be from a higher level of society than those who don’t. Also, in order to submit a passport application, you need to come down to the office in person - you can’t get a personal assistant to do it for you, like you could with some other Government work.

So I guess that explained what I observed.