A year before the pandemic that kept the world on edge, we, eight close relatives from Mumbai, smitten by wanderlust, planned a three-week tour of the Schengen countries.
One afternoon, my wife and I found ourselves at the Schengen visa application centre, armed with passports and copies of bank statements certifying that we are in funds to take care of our travel.
The queue at the visa counter was delightfully short. As our turn came, I handed our passports over to the man at the counter.
To my chagrin, he said, “Excuse me sir, the binding of your passport has become a bit loose. You will have to get a new passport.” As if getting a new passport was a cakewalk! Since I assumed an unconvinced expression on my face, he asked me to wait and disappeared into the back office. When he reappeared, there was a tall lady with him. “My boss,” he said introducing her to me.
After examining the passports, she said, “Sir, my colleague is right. While your wife’s passport is intact, yours is slightly damaged. If I forward this to the consulate for stamping the visa, they would doubtless send it back. In fact, one doesn’t have to be eagle-eyed to notice the damage. Please apply for a new passport.” To her query if she should process my wife’s visa, my wife responded in the negative. We returned home crestfallen.
Next couple of days saw me busy with applying for a new passport. To my surprise, it came almost in the twinkling of an eye but with a caveat, though. It said for security reasons I could use my passport only after a policeman verified my residential address by personally visiting my house in a week’s time. That was a ticklish issue for me, for the house in which I was living was in the name of my son and was not the one whose address I had given as my residential address in the passport application but that of another house which I had rented out. So, if the policeman visited that house, he wouldn’t find me but my tenant.
Luck was with me. The policeman’s visit didn’t come about unnotified. I received a call from the police station advising me that the visit would occur the following evening. I called my tenant and kept him abreast of the matter. When the policeman visited the following day, my wife and I were present there and my tenant posed as a visitor.
Being satisfied by the genuineness of my residential address after verifying my Aadhaar card, latest society maintenance bill and electricity bill, besides my presence there, the policeman got up to leave when I tried to give him a 500 rupee note, unnoticed by others. He refused. I told him privately that my gesture did not mean palm-greasing but it was a mere expression of pleasure at the happy turn of events. He was unmoved. He refused to take even a glass of water or a cup of tea offered to him. Maybe he did not want to be under any obligation. All this proved him to be an upstanding member of the constabulary. I warmed to him!
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