So, I do have an update my passport saga –

 

After a few hiccups , which reinforced my belief that me and the passport have a figure of thirty six (chathees ka annkda), I finally descended the  bird dropping covered steps into the undergrounds of the Indian consulate to collect my new magnetic readable passport on a Tuesday evening (submitted on Monday morning). 

The highlight of the visit was running into another person in his late twenties, who like me was among the chosen few with a figure of 36 – or rather I should say, he had a figure of 72 !! The poor guy got his passport back only to find that his place of birth was printed as Nasirabad, Pakistan – and he swears, he had filled out his form very clearly indicating a place of birth Nasirabad, Rajasthan.  To add to his fury, the person at the counter kept insisting that his old passport  had also  indicated Pakistan – the handwritten Rajasthan apparently looked like Pakistan ?? ..