Passport

Life sure knows how to keep people grounded and humble. when ever you start to fly high trivial chores or routine tasks can be an eye opener as in how difficult an easy task could get.

In the recent past I have been guilty of believing in miracles. They say that if you are looking for a miracle it can be found every where; in fact my typing this post at 3:47 am Monday 18th May 2015 sitting on the couch at my sisters's place in Waukegan, Chicago itself is no short of a miracle.

It all started on 29th Nov 2012 when I filled in an online application form for my Passport. I did have one but thanks to my negligence it never got renewed once it expired and then due to the time lapse I was asked to apply for a fresh passport and not for the renewal.  It seemed like an easy enough task and with all the computerization and new rules of issuing a passport within 90 days of application I thought I would be good to go latest by March 2013 to visit abroad. And so it started the miracle in waiting after application I went through the routine verification and police verification process... days turned in to months and months into 20 months to be exact. During the course of these twenty months I had gone through the process of police verification 3 times at two different places but still no passport. My passport became the laughing stock , every body would ask in good humor what did you do, they don't want to let you out of the country .. the jokes were not funny anymore and so I kept following it up the best I could and I was told repeatedly it will be done in ten days .

Tired , hopeless and feeling dejected in the new efficient system of external affair ministry I confided in one of my friends about my desperate situation. From that point onward when I was about to give up on ever getting  new passport things started happen my friend referred me to a friend who refereed me to a person who dealt with cases like mine where sometimes the routine government procedure fails to deliver and they would go step by step to identify what the problem is and how it can be dealt.

I got in touch with this gentle man in Aug 2014 and by the end of Nov 2014 I had my passport. It was a miracle simply because some time in Jan 2015 this gentleman who helped me get my passport which was stuck for 20 months passed due to cardiac arrest . Now I would like to believe that he came into my life for three months only to give me the freedom to travel abroad otherwise who is to know when and how much I would have had to struggle before I would get my new passport. According to what he told me my application had not even moved out of the Police station because the cops did not give me a green signal since I refused to grease their greedy palms.  It all sounds very routine but to me it is a miracle because I know the deadlock my application was in and there was no way as a common man I would have ever discovered that all this while when I was repeatedly visiting the police station it was all in vain as they were not even updating their records  or even the dates on which I had visited the police station.

All this done with and when I go to tell my friend thank you for every thing she did to get me connected to the gentleman who finally did get my passport work done she tells me solemnly ... " well sandy you better make that trip to visit your sister because Mr. P passed away and you were probably one of the last cases he worked  on, consider this as a gift or a miracle because of the timing, struggle, and everything falling in to place in the matter of three months. "

Here today as I type this post I say a silent prayer for Mr. P... thank you for my Passport !!!