Have you ever been to the Patna passport office at Biscoman Building at Gandhi Maidan? If not then you should, it’s a spectacle that everyone should enjoy. Simply because, it seems like a safe haven for thugs, crooks, agents and pimps alike. About 5 years ago, I went there to be immediately surrounded by people asking me questions like “how to fill an application form”. I had gone there to enquire about someone’s application to obtain a passport. First, I got a little scared but then I settled down and realised they were nothing more than aspirants for brand new passports. The passport to freedom; freedom to acquire visa and travel to other parts of the world. Most of these aspirants are individuals wishing to travel to countries like Dubai or similar nations to work at constructions sites or simply to get out the country. A lot of the people I met at the Patna passport office were hard working and honest individuals. How wrong was I? The lesson to be learnt here is that, just as the same you, you cannot judge a book by its cover; you cannot judge a person by the way they talk or the way they look.

Nevertheless, I have realised that unless a few strings are pulled, getting a passport can be difficult. I urge the people at the Patna passport office to get their acts together and get rid some of the black sheep and process passport applications with honesty and dignity.

Five years on, it seems as if the passport office has moved on to a different location with clients other than people.