Of passports and travel and thanksgiving

Updated to Add

I am excited. Four days of holiday. I have lots of things planned for these days. We are not going anywhere for a change. Staying home and tending to home like things. We do not celebrate Thanksgiving in any traditional sense, but I have been thinking today on all the things I have been thankful for. Last three weeks have been tough for me due to various irritations. It all started when....

It has been almost two years since I got married and I had never got a chance to change my name in the passport. Since we are "aliens" here in the USA, any of these processes is a pain in the behind and I just kept putting it off as a disagreeable task. Finally, my passport was close to expiring and I had to send it in to extend it for another 10 years. We do not have a consulate here in Orlando, so I sent it in to Texas for processing. I sent it in on the second week in September. The website said it takes two weeks to process mailed in applications. Meanwhile I booked my tickets for a trip to India (on November 10) to see family and spend a precious two weeks there. I had saved all my vacation time from work for this and was really excited about it.

I am sitting here (US) and writing this post and it is past November 10, so you know where this is going, right?

I get the entire application packet sent back to me about 17 days later rejecting it, on grounds that one of the forms were not notarized. The funny part is the form was not even in the website when I sent in my application. Anyway I sent in my application again in the first week of October happily.

Are you asleep yet?

Two weeks passed, and then three. I started getting a little worried. I called the Consulate. It took me hours to just connect to the receptionist or the lady who picks up the phone. She did not even let me finish talking. Her sympathetic response was: "If you have sent the application in less than a month, don't bother us. The processing time is 4-6 weeks. You should have brought in the application in person. This is what happens to mailed applications."

What I did not know was after I sent in my application the second time, they changed the time from 2 weeks to 6 weeks. I wrote emails, faxes, called them everyday. No one ever bothered. I told them about my ticket. I did whatever I could. I was traveling on a Saturday. Up until Thursday I held on to hope. I ran to the mail box every day after I came home from work. Only to be disappointed.

Again and again.

The office of the Consulate General of India, Texas is the worst, most unprofessional, rude and incompetent office I have dealt with since coming to the US.

(Oh Ewok girl and all the rest of my readers from Texas- When I said Consulate in Texas, it is not Texans who are manning the office. It is Indians. Indians who are so rude that when you request them something, they speak to another person in the office in their local language and laugh loudly while keeping you waiting on the phone. The reason why I linked to them many times is I am hoping that when someone does a google search this would come up. I am that irritated with them.)

Finally, they sent in my passport on the 12th after I had canceled my India flight and left to the Adirondacks for my training. Much as I loved my training, I would rather have gone home since I would have received training in March anyway.

Now here is the kicker of the whole thing.

When they sent in my new passport, they forgot to change my name. They rejected my application first time around because they did not have enough documentation to do a name change.

I will give you a moment to digest that if you are still reading.

Husband and I are speechless. We decided I am going to retain my maiden name for another 10 years. I am totally rendered incapable of dealing with them. The damage of canceling my ticket and re-booking a new one is $500 and I paid $1500 to get the original ticket. And then there is whole thing of dealing with travel agents in getting a new ticket. There are no tickets available for the entire month of December. I am sick and tired of it all and I feel like licking my wounds, just paying a penalty and not making the trip. Then I hear my parents’ voice over the phone and I realize I do miss them a lot and how much I would enjoy 2 weeks with them. We don't get to see each other all too often with 10,000 miles separating us.

I realize this has been a pity post and I don't mean to rain on my lovely readers' thanksgiving happiness, but this is how I have been feeling for the past three weeks. I haven't cooked everyday, house is a mess, and temper is short. I do feel better after I wrote this. Yesterday, in the midst of all my doom and gloom, I was blessed by the words of Amy Carmichael:


If I do not feel far more for the grieved Savior than for my worried self when troublesome things occur,
then I know nothing of Calvary love.

If stupid people fret me and little ruffles set me on edge; if I make much of the trifles of life,
then I know nothing of Calvary love.

I wish I could say that it was bright and illuminating and I was completely okay after that, but if I did, I would be lying. But I did feel that there is indeed a lot I have to be thankful for. And that is what I am going to do. Be thankful.

And some Christmas decorating.

Have a Happy Thanksgiving y'all!!!