While coming back, at Hyderabad Airport an immigration clerk stopped me from boarding the flight citing that my passport was damaged. He was referring to a slight peel off of the laminated back cover of my passport. Initially I thought he was asking me to take care of it in the future, but slowly started asking me "what was I going to do, if he won't let me board the flight" ! I did not understand the language of bribery, as I was out of touch in the past 4 years or so. Instead, I started arguing ...., sensing that I did not understand his expectation he took me to another immigration clerk to help explain me.
That fellow initially told me to "manage" the person concerned. I did not understand what does he mean by "manage", I started arguing with him and gave him an impression of confrontation. He got terribly wild and scratched the immigration form with comments "not allowed due to damaged passport". Time was running out and I was the only person who had not reported at the boarding gate (15 minutes before departure). Then the wisdom dawned upon me and suddenly I realized the meaning of "managing a person". I rewrote the form at the suggestion of the immigration clerk and stuffed 1000 rupees in the passport and presented it. That did the trick - NO OBJECTION was raised, instead the clerk suddenly became very friendly and started suggesting how I can fix the laminated cover using a gum stick.
This is the sorry state of affairs at our immigration check posts, they would let smugglers and fraudsters to get away and escape from the country, where as people like me are harassed.
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