Wednesday, March 4, 2009

Re-entry to India

Having recently spent a week in the UK, where the weather was crisp and cold, but wonderfully dry the children and I returned to Hyderabad whilst John went elsewhere for a conference. Now, arriving in Hyderabad is a much improved experience compared to two years ago.  The airport is brand spanking new but the experience continues to be a frustrating one on times. 

On this occasion there were queues at each of the counters, but in India you will rarely find that people observer the red, wait here until called, lines.  Instead, there are weary travelers crowding around each counter thrusting passports forward.  You will then often be greeted at immigration by an immigration officer who looks bewilderingly at your passport and spends five minutes on each individual passport.  The fact that the original visa has been extended (has to be done on an annual renewal basis), and the original and extension stamps are on separate pages confuses matters even further.  For this reason little sticky post its are affixed to the original visa page and extension of visa page.  All temporary residents in India for longer than a year are faced with a similar problem, and this makes me wonder why such a situation encounters such a 'haven't experienced this before' look. 

I am beginning to believe that whilst undergoing training to be on the front line of immigration for their country, as opposed to the Americans "How dare you attempt to enter my country" attitude, the Indian authorities suggest an "act confused" front whilst sussing out each and every visitor for as long as possible.

Finally, get through and take advantage of the duty free shop for wine purchases (previously unavailable in the old airport), and by the time we get to the baggage hall our bags are arriving, which makes me think that the immigration officer has merely known how long the bags will take and has timed the process perfectly for my benefit!

We make our way through the throng of people outside, it seems that 20 -30 people is the average number of family of friends waiting to greet each returning  Hyderabadi.  It is 5:00 in the morning, a quick phone call to say we are on our way out.  Our car arrives and we are met by the ever smiling Shivar.   Home we go.

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