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Passport aka identity

I was standing in a queue at Indian Embassy in Toronto, to get my Indian passport renewed. I was almost waiting for 2 hours, but the excitement of going back and meeting my people weighed down all my waiting hours.

I looked around myself and found Indians everywhere,a TV showing the advertisement where a newly wed daughter calling her dad silently from the kitchen asking how to make chole (channa)and her dad tells her the magic of Garam Masala[:p] , children getting scolded for not obeying their elders,Old people narrating their experiences to the people sitting beside them, women knitting sweaters and gossiping,and above all Indian officials shouting out the numbers of the respective people.

An old person came up to me and asked me a favor to write his address on the self-addressed envelope as he had forgot his glasses.After writing for him, he told me " Sukhi raho" :D

For a while all was calm and peaceful even among this shouting and chaos.Out of sudden, I could hear a screaming of a lady and bad words being used. As I turned my head to see who she was .I saw a beautiful Indian lady wearing a cream colour skirt, with brown shirt and high heels.For a while, I wondered what happened to her?

She was coming towards me with her face red and all angry, I thought she is going to eat me up .I was really thinking that time have I done something bad- but I couldn't think of any!.It was looking exactly as I am holding a red cloth and a bull is running towards it.

Finally she was face to face with me-and said "What the hell these Indians they think of themselves?"

I said "Excuse me? I didn't get you?"

She said,"Indian people are rubbish and filthy"

I said " How can you say that, after all you are also an Indian."

She gave me a really bad stare and opened her purse. She was looking for something very aggressively.
After 2 minutes she showed me her Canadian passport and said" huh! I am no more an Indian I am Canadian , look at my passport.!!! "

She handed me her passport and I found this act of her weird and I told her " Come on, this is a passport, a paper cannot change your identity."

"Number 121 , Please come to counter 4. Number 121..121"

That was my number being called. I told her " I have to go, that's my number."

After getting my Indian passport renewed , I looked out for a lady with whom I was talking to. I couldn't find her and I really wanted to know what made her say that!If I find her ever in the street of Toronto I would certainly ask her about it.

Comments

Qian said…
Mansee, I am so happy that you finally wrote an article instead of a poem.I like it.
In daily file , we always meet so many people and so many things which make us think what is happening to the world and to people living on the earth.You capture and disply them to us, making us see the world clearer.Thank you.

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