Mr. Powell, thanks but no thanks

I ambled, sat squat legged on the cement slab which was still warm enough to hurt my butt, stared at the handicapped kid trying to walk over bridge with his brother’s help, made friends with the kids-Amit, Sumit and Paras, kicked the ball and waved bye to them.  It was 10.10 PM and I was sure Chawla general store from where I usually buy water bottles will be closed. I needed water to survive yet another long lonely heated night. Got lucky this time, the shop in the Shivalik Park was still open and I bought a bottle of water, coke and pop corn.  Sat on a chair in a dark corner and gulped the chilled water. Got pensive yet again, long time I have written a blog post, I thought. Munched more pop corn, this time with more vigor, coke was stronger than I expected. I started feeling better, the ephemeral positive energy was doing rounds and I stoked it. I needed it badly, the longer it stayed, the better I felt. ‘Any seldom-good-and-often-bad exciting incident happened in life in recent past?', I asked myself. Last few ml of coke were left, pop corn already over. My senses started conversing and finally they decided I have enough to write one. I picked up the flakes of corn which fell down, send them down the USE ME box along with the coke bottle and walked towards house number 22/1, galli-number-3, my abode for last 12 months.

‘Using our products you can do your job in 3 hours which otherwise will take 3 weeks’, I asserted while giving my 9th demo for the day. I was tired and hungry and no mood to cajole another potential customer. I asked Marc to take over and I went to have some food. I picked a bowl of fruits and a glass of water with lots of ice and walked aimlessly till my tired eyes fell on the giant screen. It was General Badin Powell speaking - ‘Let’s show the world that our security is our primary concern..’ he said as I quickly followed a flock of SAP geeks into a hall where he was addressing a very large audience. He was the key note speaker at SAPPHIRE’10@Orlando(annual SAP user conference). His life is no ordinary, a man with exemplary achievements and credence; I was excited to see him speak live. ‘After the 9/11 attacks, we revisited our entire security system……’, he was touching upon something sensitive. ‘US embassy offices across the world have been upgraded with latest IT, we connected them with the fastest of internet using optical fibers…’. He continued while I was finding it increasingly difficult to stop yawning. ‘And we made it clear that the VISA will never be easy again for people from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Middle East and of course Moslems (Muslims)….’. There was a round of applause after every patriotic comment he made. I remained indifferent and when finally tiredness took over I moved out. As I walked back, I realized, I have just got the answer for few frustrating questions lingering in my mind for a while – Uttam, Bohra and me were in same line with same documents and reason, yet they got their VISA and not me, Why? - Same office, same reason for travel like Ritika but a long wait of 4 months-Why?.  

'I agree Mr. Powell that you were forced to enforce such a change and may be my name matched with some damn grief stricken terrorist. But I thought every law (natural or man-made) has some exception. You should have allowed a decently harmless student from India’s best Business school invited by the Dean of the best Business school of your land (Stanford), duly recommended by honorable local congressman of the mighty United States of America and endorsed by the elite academicians. I wrote emails and kept writing, called up desperately at your embassy office, and all I get to know is my VISA is in pending administration status. No information can be shared nor can it be expedited. ' Visa became a distant dream until that afternoon in DLF building when a courier guy stopped and asked 'Sir, eh Winshuttle naam ki company kahan hain', I smiled when I saw the parcel on my name in his hand.

PS: The words of Mr. Powell are not verbatim. Please do not quote me :)