There is a time in everyone’s life when one wakes up to a great opportunity beckoning you at your doorstep. And this opportunity is so attractive that you would like to believe that nothing can stop you now from grabbing that.
One such opportunity came knocking at my good friend Visky’s doorstep. He got a job with a leading financial institution in Tokyo, Japan after grueling rounds of telephonic and face to face assessments in India. The appointment letter which had come in through the mail said that Visky needs to be in Tokyo in 3 weeks time on dot at 9 am in The Financial Tower, 8th floor. Visky jumped up with delight and anxiety and called up his Ticketing agent for inquiring about the Japanese Travel Visa process. That was the moment when enlightenment happened; the Indian passport which Visky held for last ten years was nearing expiry in another 5 months. Japanese travel advisory rules required a passport to be valid for minimum 9 months for Visa application acceptance.
Lo and behold! Visky was in for a shock. Little did he realise that this could be the end of the road for him as far as the Tokyo job was concerned. He picked up the phone again to check the earliest date by which he could get his passport renewed from the Mumbai Passport office. The Ticketing agent had answer which was not encouraging enough, atleast 4 days through the ‘Tatkaal route’ after you get an application submission appointment. Visky knew that the ‘Tatkaal’ (fast track) route was best he could attempt for and immediately logged into his computer and browsed the passport website to secure a date of appointment. After filling in a whole long list of identity questions and document references, Visky secured a date for submitting his application. Earliest date was about 2.5 weeks away !.
Visky quickly calculated the time he had for securing the Visa after he gets his renewed passport, it was just not enough to make it to Tokyo in 3 weeks. He was aghast and started sweating profusely. He could see his dream of working for a major institution and that too in one of the foremost markets of the world going for a toss.
He thought he cannot give up so easily and thought of making a visit to the Passport office in the hope of getting a solution. Next day sharp at 830 am, Visky was at the Old Passport office, Worli in the queue with number of like-minded and eager wannabe travelers. To his dismay, Visky was politely asked to stand outside the gate till 11 am until the Passport In-charge Mr. Haulbani gets the time to see visitors.
After a 2 hour+ agonizing wait, Visky was escorted with an army of similar eager beavers to the first floor, where chaos ruled. Visky realized soon enough that, meeting Mr. Haulbani to seek an exceptional consideration for a quick appointment was to remain a dream. After waiting for another half hour at the waiting hall on 1st floor, Visky ran into a soft spoken gentleman who had come over with his son for seeking a quick passport service and was equally anxious about the entire situation. This gentleman named Mr. Dharkar, who later was going to become an angel in disguise for Visky, gave a telephonic call to one gentleman named Mr. Krishna Mehra at Matunga. Mr. Mehra was apparently an agent for Visa and Passport applications and quite reputed as per Mr Dharkar’s friend.
Since Mr.Dharkar was left without much option, he decided to go to Agent Mehra as it was the only resort for finding a solution to getting a Passport in quick-fix manner. My friend Visky also got convinced about this solitary option and piled on with Mr Dharkar in his BMW zooming off in the direction of Matunga. Mr.Mehra was a middle aged bearded man with an air of confidence of doing anything and everything connected with travel and tourism. He gave us a surprised look, and asked the group almost with ridicule about the reason for going to Mr Haulbani’s office.
According to him, Mr Haulbani was an IPS officer deputed at the Passport office for a temporary period and now quite enjoying his posting. It was practically impossible to meet Mr. Haulbani given the time pressure he was under etc…Mr.Mehra however claimed to have a direct line with Mr.Haulbani. This was a great revelation and Visky’s respect for Mr.Mehra suddenly shot up !
Visky and Dharkar duo tried to be comfortable in the not so cosy 2 feet x 2 feet non-descript tin-box shop of Mr.Mehra. Mr Dharkar's son then narrated his angst.
The story went like this; Mr. Dharkar’s son was to leave for Germany in the next fortnight and his passport had a validity of more than 10 years. Shenzhen visa rules stipulates that the passport validity be less than 10 years for granting visa. Mr. Dharkar’s son wanted his passport validity to be reduced to less than 10 years. The influential Mr.Mehra asked couple of questions to Mr Dharkar, nodded and picked up the phone (which Visky realized later was to the Worli Passport Backoffice). The earliest appointment date available at Passport office was 3 days from now. Visky almost fell down from his chair with shock and awe and little admiration !
Mr Dharkar and son submitted all papers, made the signatures and handed over the documents to Mr. Mehra. The question on Mr.Dharkar’s mind was, how was Mr. Mehra going to manage this and what was the level of assurance of getting the passport in a matter of ten days?
To this Mr. Mehra retorted with such confidence that Visky was left open-mouthed. Mr.Mehra said that he was in this industry for last one decade and never have they failed in their commitment to deliver their promise. This service is possible only because he meets the requirements of the people who matter at the Passport office. Visky was almost tempted to ask whose requirements were met, but thought it wise to keep his mouth shut.
No sooner had the Dharkars left the tinbox, Visky started off narrating his potential tragedy in the making. Once Visky had completed, Mr.Mehra looked through Visky’s blue colored passport and asked him whether his CID verification was done for this passport. Visky scratched his head and remembered his solitary visit to Kalachowkie police station number of years back.
To this response Mr.Mehra gave a broad smile and picked up the phone, put it on speaker phone and quickly narrated Visky’s passport number details to a very alert voice on the other end. There was a moment of silence, after which Mr Mehra asked for name of the passport and expiry date and asked for CID verification confirmation. The responses were positive in all respects. Visky’s name, passport expiry date and CID verification matched. Visky was amazed not because the person on the other end knew the answers, but more so because it was getting pleasantly confirmed that Mr.Mehra had the right connections.
The next appointment date available for Visky was three days away. Yipee !! and a renewed passport under Tatkaal would be about a week away if all goes well. All this convenience and ease for few extra thousands, felt Visky. Delightedly Visky signed all the forms and documents and handed it over in total confidence to Mr.Mehra.
As a parting word, Mr Mehra said to Visky that it is a matter of trust between us and the people we rely upon to get this job done so quickly; and for this trust there is a small price. On hearing these golden
words, Visky smiled and left the tin-box shelter agreeing to meet Mr.Mehra three days later opposite the Passport office.
Day 3, at the passport office, Visky reached at 10 am, well in time for his 1030 am appointment. Mr.Mehra parked his bike and walked towards Visky clutching handful of papers. Mr.Mehra handed the application form, neatly stapled copies of various proofs etc and the original passport and intialised HV on the corner of the application form in dark pencil.
Mr.Mehra pointed out from a distance to a security guard at the passport office entrance and asked Visky to show him these initials. These two alphabets were akin to the ‘Khulja Sim Sim’ magical words for Visky, and which were to open doors for the flight to Tokyo.
Nervously Visky crossed the road and walked straight to the guard and showed off the initials on the form. The guard nodded and ushered Visky into the Passport application hall. Visky walked to the window number 12 as advised by Mr.Mehra and waited for his turn. Within 20 minutes, the clerk at Window 12 was stamping Visky’s papers. To Visky’s surprise, the clerk was not interested in perusing Visky’s papers at all. Visky thought, such is the power of two alphabets !. From Window 12, Visky was asked to deposit the official fee at the cash counter.
Visky jubilantly walked out of the hall at 1110 am with the cash receipt which assured him that the passport will get dispatched 4 days later giving him adequate time to process the Japanese visa.
Visky’s smooth ride to Tokyo has happened finally. He took off by Japan Air flight last night.
However if one were to think of the means by which he was able to achieve the smooth passage one could get into a debate of ethical and unethical ways of doing things.
The deplorable part of this factual story is that, every day our public service system is being used and twisted by our own people. It is simply mind boggling to note that the human resource system in all the public offices of our country has been hacked, right from the security guard to the highest sanctioning authority (in this case the passport office). The question is when will we see change ? When we will say to no to corruption ?
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