On Indian Visas. Part II.
I wish I did not have to write the part two of this story, but I am not that lucky. Jumping to the conclusion: I did get the 6-month multiple entry visa. Halleluiah!
Coming back to the beginning or, to be precise, morning Friday 14th of February: According to the website of the Embassy of India in Kyiv , it suppose to work from 10.30 to 12.30 p.m. Monday, Wednesday and Friday. We arrived at 11.35 at the door of the Embassy. We rang a bell since it is normally locked. The door guy informed us that the embassy is already closed for visitors. Indeed there was a schedule taped to the door informing that visitors’ hours are till 11.30. Hence, we need to come back on Monday. After seeing our puppy eyes, the door guy deign to concede our plea to, at least, look if our visas are actually ready. After looking at our receipts he declared that it is CLEARLY written on the receipt that we suppose to come back at 5 p.m. None of us guessed that the little hieroglyph in the corner of the receipt meant 5 p.m. Personally, I thought it was some sign in Hindi ‘for internal use only’. Apparently, it meant 5 p.m. The help from the door guy ended at this point. At least he was nice to mention that one of us can pick up all passports if she has the receipt. Since two of us had to go back to work (we actually have to take time off work to go to the embassy, if you did not guess), the third friend went at five to get the passports. Since it does not say when she has to be there (like from 4 to 5 or from 5 to 5.30 or anything of the sort), we suggested her to be there precisely at 5 p.m. Unfortunately, the place is rather remote and she got 15 minutes late getting there. The embassy was deserted. Fortunately, she was able to persuade the door guy to call an officer dealing with visas and get our passports. Surprisingly, the date on all of them is actually 5th of February!!! They were ready 10 days before we went to the embassy for our passports. No one called us to inform about it.
Well, I am glad that I got at least this visa. I’ve heard about some Canadian guy who was refused Indian visa in Ukraine and had to go to Canada in order to go to India for vacation with his girlfriend.
P.S. I’ve been watching wonderful advertisement of Indian government
on the BBC news promoting Indian tourism. Organizing the work of Indian embassies
abroad would have done a lot more for promotion of Indian tourism, ‘cause
I would have rather gone to Thailand if it weren’t for my family in India.
©Lidia Bhaskar, 2003