Jehan Ara

Entrepreneur and communicator Jehan Ara, in Mumbai for a concerence, fumes about the ‘special’ treatment meted to Pakistanis visiting India (and vice versa)

On the flight to Mumbai from Karachi were people from all walks of life. Across the aisle was Javed Jabbar apparently on a mission vis-a-vis Ramchand Pakistani or another film; next to me was a lady who had lost her husband five years ago and had been in denial all this time, filling her time with work and family obligations. Now she was’off to visit family in Mumbai and then on to Bangalore to a health farm to detoxify and come to terms with the reality of her position and start living again. There were musicians possibly headed for an Aman ki Aasha event (which I heard Zia Mohyeddin was also flying up for). There were old people going to meet family. There were some tourists, young honeymooners,and couples with small children either just out to discover Bollywood or heading to Mumbai to catch up with family and friends.

The flight itself was very short  one hour and 25 minutes and although take-off was 10 minutes late due to air-traffic control, we landed in Mumbai at 12 noon. We were excited about the conference we were attending and happy that the visa had been granted. It had been a real hassle this time, requiring Home Ministry clearance, No Objection Certificates (NoCs) from the Ministry of External Affairs and the Maharashtra State Government. The President and Vice President of Nasscom and several friends within the Association had put in a lot of effort to ensure that we got our visas at the 11th hour. We were granted single entry, Mumbai-only conference visas for ten days instead of the multiple-entry business visas that we had requested which would have included Bangalore, Delhi and Hyderabad.

I wish that after 60+ years our governments would get their act together and allow legitimate travelers to get visas easily, for the country. I think ours must be the only countries that provide city-specific visas instead of country visas. It is so idiotic. What if I meet someone at this conference with whom I want to explore a business relationship with. He or she may be based in Bangalore or Pune or Chennai. I cannot travel to those cities because I had not forseen that I would meet this person and would be traveling to any of these cities. Can you believe that if I apply for a multiple entry visa, I need to specify which cities I will be visiting on each of these trips, where I will be staying, and so on. Absolutely absurd! Both Pakistan and India have these requirements for each other’s nationals.

But that is not even the beginning of the absurdity. Listen intently to what happens when we land. The flight took only 1 hour and 25 mins but because we were Pakistani nationals, we had to form a single file at one counter where our passport particulars were manually noted down by an immigration person. The process was painfully slow. There were old people, people in wheelchairs, infants and business people who just stood there patiently as the queue inched forward. Don’t get me wrong. The officials were all very polite, very friendly and even apologetic at times for the discomfort but this process defined by some very wise people in Delhi and Islamabad had to be adhered to. Once we were registered, we were given resident permits which we had to fill up before we could proceed to the immigration desks.

I thought now things would happen quickly but we were unfortunate. Mumbai airport had just installed new software that day which most officers did not really know how to use so as they strugged with it, the passengers waited. Their supervisors helped them but the process took time so it was only 2 hours after landing that we finally ventured out to grab a cab.

The journey to Mumbai – jehanara.wordpress.com