Need to renew(passport office calls it reissue!) passport.
Started around 7.30 in the morning and reached the office maybe around 8-8.15A.M.
Biq queue as usual, i enquired with the parking attendant(one thing i take for granted is that i can ask any office staff for details.I know our people will definitely oblige, even though it may look emotionless).He told me that those with online appointment(i booked one) can go to 1st floor directly.
I was now at the second floor, seated and reading "New Earth" by western spiritual master Eckhart Tolle.I was reading about the different manifestations of ego and the caution to be aware of them.He said how the ego always takes a morally correct position and looks down upon others as if it is always correct.
I was very tired for i did not sleep much and also did not do my asanas & yoga.But i was somehow determined to be aware for atleast some duration.This reading helped me alongwith others that i had read earlier.Around 9.15A.M, a security person came and told us that all those seated, applying for new/reissue of pp, need to move down to the 1st floor.A commotion occured, people started to move down fast.I was unhurried and moved at a comfortable pace downstairs.
We were asked to stand in a spiral queue.
Sure enough, there were a group of people who would not obey this queue and wanted to sneak in first.The poor security got irritated and started raising his voice. The poor unruly group would have none of it and tested his patience:-)
Meanwhile. a sardar near me started taking a high moral position,usually done by most of us including yours truly.He said to his wife -"These unpad(uneducated) people will never learn, why can't they stand in a queue?" He went on and started making some sarcastic remarks.I was listening and was determined not to get involved in this(BTW,i 've played this moral game many times over & over.I do it even now even though to a lesser extent).
Somehow all of us went upstairs and broke into different "Q" for each counter.
The sardar was in my queue, just ahead of me.He was tense, making numerous corrections to his forms and enquiring about the supporting docs, order of supporting docs etc.He asked me - "what should be the order of forms?". I told "I dunno, should not matter" with a smile.
Then in the adjoining queue, someone tried to goto to the beginning of the "Q" from a nearby "Q".Reason - he is coming back to the office more than once since his form got rejected and he was told that he should stand in the same counter and meet the same passport officer.The poor guy was desperate and hence tried to do this.As expected, a person started objecting(i've done this countless times from time immemorial) and shouted at him to go back.
I told - "It's ok, seems a genuine case, why not allow him?".
The person was not interested and started arguing back, i stopped with a smile.
To my surprise, the sardar came to the defence of that guy and said -"It is ok, please let him be in the line.He should have come back many times, He is unaware of the procedures.If at all some one has to be blamed, it has to be the PP office for not putting out clear instructions" in good tamil!Of course the other person was in no mood to listen and started arguinbg back.After the argument, i saw that the sardar was very cheerful and became very generous with people around.In fact, he was sent back to fill the form correctly and went back w/o a murmur to get it filled.
By now, my tiredness had banished and many thoughts occured to me, but one thing was clear - "the need of the hour is clear understanding of the situation and treating people genuinely with real empathy not clouded by our own conditioned mind.If one does that it will definitely create a positive atmosphere and people will automatically respond accordingly".I really thank all the spiritual masters right from my guru(Sadhguru).It is they who show the path and it is for us to follow to make this a better life.
