3) Address Verification (Trichy):

Ooops , again a letter from a Commisoner of Police office this means that my file is still with them and not moved to passport office yet. This saddened me a lot. The feeling of going to COP office in VT was horrible.

Finally I went there (had no choice). This time the news was that they had not received a police report yet from Trichy,Tamilnadu. As I haven’t lived in Mumbai for more than two years they need to verifiy my old address as well. (they torture innocent people like me and issue passports happily to all kind of terrosits, funny)…..

I can’t go to Trichy as it is 36hours by train from Mumbai and also I just came back from my vacation. My father’s turn now. He visited our Srirangam police station two-three times and finally the police man came home in a Motorcycle to verify whether I lived there and he decently asked my mom money for his petrol charges and Xerox charges. Thank god, atleast he asked for it means he will move it. And he did it.

My roommates who applied for passport two months after my application through the very same agent and company got their passports without any hassles. This really lowered my morale.

Even after a month my reports didn’t reach Mumbai. My father this time visited a “the head police office” somewhere far from Trichy. Even my sister and BIL went to try their luck.

meantime, my company gave me a letter to the passport officer stating that I need to visit a client in U.S etc….and asking them to treat my passport file with high priority. This standard letter from my company had a good impact on most of the people's application.

But the period I went with this letter to the passport office was wrong. One of a Muslim's duties, as described in the Five Pillars of Islam, is to go on a Hajj at least once during his or her lifetime. This is a pilgrimage to Makkah (Mecca) in Saudi Arabia. Which means they all need passport to go there and the only one month was there so everyone where rushing behind their passport. Can you believe that i got into a Stampede (had a feeling on that day as if i was already in Mecca) that too inside the passport office?

Another funniest part is the passport office opens at 9.30am but people start lining up from 8am (the line goes till 2-3 streets) just to enter inside the office. If you are late for this queue you can’t get inside the office.

I think my roommates might have got a feeling, that I was doing some parttime job at passport office as
1) i was getting up at 6am (which i hate to do)
2) going to Borivali Train station by bus
3) took a train till Dadar
4) and from Dadar a shared Taxi to passport office.

I did this continously for a week. One day when I was waiting for the share Taxi , one lady all of the sudden came and put “kumkum” on my forehead b4 i could resist her and told me that whatever you for will succed and asked for money(good begging technique). As I was too hurt and tired of this passport game, I felt that as a good omen and gave her 10Rs. That’s what I know. Like a flash there were five ladies with plates and all put “kumkum” one after another on my forehead and all asked for money. I ended up spending totally 50Rs that day on them.

But nothing worked. What did i do next ? coming soon…..