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That getting a passport would be so tough, I had never imagined. So it’s a welcome thought to know that you don’t have to do it every now and then. The government knows that too, so it wants to make it as tough as possible, and in my case, humiliating too, to some extent.

It’s like being nuked and talking about its ill-effects for a long time to come, like Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Time is money, and if you need a passport in a jiffy, tatkal is the only way out. At such times, it’s a disaster when what the passport office wants, you don’t have.

In my case, it was the age-proof. I had nothing to show I was born on such and such a date. Many people I have known have two birth dates, one for the official records, and one to actually cut the cake and get the bums. In my case, I have just one, the real one, but even to prove that one birth date became a tough proposition.

There is a birth certificate, as authentic as it can get, but that they do not want; there is a permanent account number (PAN) card, but despite that being a government issued document with your birth date mentioned on it, it appears like one government agency does not trust the other’s documents.

Voter’s ID is OK, but mine has all the wrong details that could barely prove that I was I, and the nonsensical address mentioned on it, never exists. My driving licence has it, but one can’t read it, thanks to the battering it has taken when I got soaked innumerable times in the rain (it’s that good-old booklet of yore, at least used to be).

Now, the only thing they are looking for is my SSLC marks card for age-proof. But as I completed my matriculation way back from the Pune board (Now the Maharashtra board, which calls it SSC), the birth date is not mentioned on it.

Making an affidavit with a stamp of approval by a magistrate was the only way out.
After the basic work, a lawyer led me through the gloomy passages of the Mayo Hall court to the chamber where the magistrate heard the cases.

I was among law-breakers, the accused, and the hand-cuffed, and truly, at some point of time, I felt I belonged in their category for not having maintained my age-proof responsibly.

Yes, I got the affidavit, but it leaves me with hope that the Nandan Nilekani-led unique identification card project would make such processes simpler. What documents the unique identity card would require is another story. But, it’s a promising one-stop card for all services, so I better have all the papers in place, as Karnataka is to be its first beneficiary within the next 18 months.