It was a fine morning to leave home to go the passport office to complete the submission for a renewal. Being skeptical of the convoluted processes and many a times mis-guided processes that plague the government services, I was not very enthusiastic. But it had to be done and I only prayed that it gets done in one visit – dreading the though of an earlier experience with the aadhar card.
I had booked a taxi using the app on my phone for a half-day rental. I was expecting the work should get done within four hours or four minutes depending on how thorough the travel agent had been with respect to the process of renewing a damaged passport. At the travel agent’s office I had recorded his instructions involving the documents that I was carrying and the process that I have to go through at each of the three counters. I was ready. But you can never be assured of that!
I was standing behind an elderly couple who had come to renew their passports without any of the documents that I was carrying. They had the originals, but that is no good for submission. You have to carry the copies of those documents that include proof of address, proof of age, and all other documents that need to go along with your submission depending on your unique situation. Their unique situation showed them the exit door within minutes. I was worried about that unique situation to show me the exit door too. But that did not happen to me.
I was very apprehensive of many things including what if they cannot take fingerprints of all ten fingers, what if the copies I had are not clear after scanning into the system and so many other things that could go wrong. I was at the A counter within minutes and was done with submitting my documents and my identity within half an hour, including getting a receipt for the fees paid.
I was bit elated and walking happily towards the B counters to the next stage of the process – verifying the copies against the originals. Since this task was not that time consuming, I could see when some 50 A counters were funneled down to 20 B counters. Another ten minutes of wait and five minutes at the counter, I was heading to C counter. I could not believe that I am just cruising.
The C counter just verifies your identity with the captured image and either authorizes or denies the issue of the passport. Whichever way it goes, you are going to be at Exit counter collecting the receipt that tells you what just happened. In my case, the renewal requested was granted.
This experience was so mind-boggling, I wished the same could be said on many other things that are done in India – privately or publicly.