Wednesday, January 16, 2019

The two faces of the Passport Service Kendra, Thrissur!

We'd got up at 6 and gone about our chores. The geyser of our bathroom had suddenly got erratic and therefore, Lekha had to be provided with a bucket of hot water from the adjacent bathroom. The fixing of the geyser becomes a priority work because I hate things being in a limbo in our house!

Shyla, who collects samples on behalf of the 'Thyrocare' came in at a half past 7 and took my blood samples and will deliver the results tomorrow evening.

Wonder whether the overhead filter and the attendant water tank have problems because the water seems to be getting over at a greater frequency. Anyways, the cleaning of the filter is due next month and I've called Subin, who has said that he'd do the cleaning tomorrow morning!

After a bit of rest following lunch, we were ready to go to the passport office at Thrissur or the 'passport service kendra', as it is known these days. Sajid, our chauffeur had given us a few anxious moments before fetching up at a half past 2. The one hour that we kept in hand was to cater for the traffic snarls that could pop up, anytime, on the Guruvayur-Thrissur stretch. (Thankfully, there was none during our onward trip and consequently, we reached there by a quarter past 3, but on the return leg, we did lose about half an hour at the Kechery stretch thanks to a bad snarl!).  

The procedure at the passport office has been streamlined and we were inside the massive hall and issued with tokens - mine was S194 while Lekha's was N549. The huge complex is divided into three spaces viz. Enclosure A - where one's particulars filled at the Akshaya kendra are verified/streamlined as required, Enclosure B - where a final check is carried out by the senior officials and Enclosure C - where the last scrutiny is done by the personnel, deputed from the Ministry of External Affairs, as I understand.

The two faces of the PSK, Thrissur that I came across, this afternoon.

I was called in first for the verification and had gone through the entire process after which I'd decided to stay on within the enclosure till Lekha, too, finished the exercise oblivious of the fact that it was taking too much time. It was then that Mr. Jayachandran from enclosure B had come searching for me as he was worried that the third and final opening of the window, regarding my particulars,on the computer was gonna lapse! He had, then, quickly, cleared my particulars and sent me back to help Lekha at her counter and said some very nice things about me and the defence services. This was the positive and customer friendly face of the PSK! 

Finally, I'd gone to the enclosure C where I'd the misfortune of having to go through Mrs. Sobhana, a woman - I'm deliberately calling her so, because a 'lady' is supposed to be gracious, humble and  customer friendly. She's being paid handsomely by the government to do the job and she'd better realise it soon - with a lot of pre-conceived notions. She just wouldn't accept the fact that we'd undergone the police verification at New Delhi, during the initial issue. I let it go, without reacting, because I realised that there was no point! She said that she was from Ernakulam and was missing from her seat much before the session had ended when I'd subsequently, accompanied Lekha for her turn at the counter. She, definitely, must have buzzed off for her home in contravention to the rules!! This was the negative and ugly face of the PSK!

Jayachandran had given me his cellphone number on a piece of paper but much to my anguish, I realised later that I'd lost it. Have been trying to trace that piece of paper but to no avail.

Sajid dropped us back by 6 and it was a quiet evening, thereafter.


Tailpiece.

1. The four nuns, who had supported the nun who was raped by the Jalandhar Bishop Franco Mulakkal, have been asked by the Missionaries of the Congregation of Jesus to leave the Kuravilangad Convent and rejoin their communities in various parts of the country. The beast seems to have won this round and what amazes me is that the entire organisation seems to be supporting him in his misdemeanours! Sad!

2. There seems to be a lot of dissent among the judges of the Supreme Court regarding the 'recalling and reviewing' of the Collegium's 12 Jan decision of elevating Rajasthan High Court's CJ Pradeep Nandrajog and Delhi HC CJ Rajendra Menon and elevating Karnataka High Court Justice Dinesh Maheshwari and Delhi HC Justice Sanjiv Khanna, instead. Sad, yet again!

PS.
To my estimate, I wouldn't be exaggerating if I were to say that more than 95% of the people who'd come in connection with their passports were Muslims, this afternoon. The crowd had people of all ages, including babes-in-arms!

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