Why I Don’t Have a Passport

‘Whaaa….. You don’t have a Passport???’ is one question I face from time to time. People are totally surprised and look at me like I am some alien who doesn’t know what a passport is.

When I say I didn’t need one until now, they tell me ‘You might need it anytime . . . why don’t you take one immediately?’

Then I tell them I won’t not need one suddenly. When I do, I will take one then. They are flabbergasted.

‘You should have taken a passport for attempting GRE/GMAT?’

‘No, I didn’t attempt those exams.’

‘You should have needed one for Onsite?’

‘No, I don’t get Onsite opportunities in my line of work.’

‘But you could take it for ID/Address proof no?’

‘No, I have other documents for ID proofs.’

‘You are very different. You are . . . (Insert: Strange, Non-conformist, Rebellious, etc. that they want to add, but don’t for politeness sake.)

Then they tell me – ‘Don’t you want to go abroad for a tour sometime?’

‘Maybe in the future, I’ll take a passport then. But first I want to see India.’

They stare at me thinking, ‘What’s going on with this guy, why is he so insane?’.

Then they ask, ‘Are you not interested to work abroad and settle down there?’

I just say, ‘No.’  Needless to say, they are open-mouthed.

After my interactions with people on this topic, I realize that there is a new slogan that people follow nowadays: ‘Roti, Kapda, Makaan, Bandwidth, aur Passport.’