I feel so bad after reading this experience, can;t think of how much emotional & financial trauma this family went through. First all sick of indian offical of mumbai, they are idiots must hv been wanting some kind of bribe from you.
Planning a vacation to your own country, to meet your loved ones is BIG thing for all those who live aboard & when it ends up like this it is such a shame. My husband always talk about the value indian immigrayion officials give to passports other than indian.
I only wonder why family didn't contact US embassy for help, i am sure with kids being US citizens they would hv definitly helped which in turn encouraged the indian officials to act with some commonsense.
Two years back, i was visting india on Travel Document issued by INS which is given when Green Card is pending.
While returning to US, Immigration official looked at the document and told me that it is not signed.
I told him that thats how this document was given to me by INS. But he told me its not a valid document. After frustrating me for few minutes, he simply gave me the document. I think he was expecting some money from me or was enjoying in creating problem for me. I cant think of any other reason.
Before that a custom official in Delhi charged me Rs 500 for bringing a camera which costed $100 to me in Germany, My only mistake was asking him to see if i need to pay any custom duty. But then i was a kid.
Bottomline, if possible they will do anything to get some money from you or to treat you badly ( i think they enjoy this power they got as Gov employees).
Nothing new for indians to treat indians badly. We think I am the most intelligent/powerful among fellow indians and only way i look good is bringing other fellow indians down. They dont realize that others citizens look at them as fools!
Shame on the people sitting at these offices. India allows terrorists to be flown to countries by VIPs and they coomon man has to suffer. Definitely the people are very much apathetic and have none of the common sense. If the ACP is behaving like this only worst can be expected from his Jrs. These people somehow reach the posts but lacks the common sense. Only when some VIP gets a bad treatment these people are ationed upon. I fully support the views expressed against the nature of these creatures.
And it is not 1-2 people, the behaviour is throughout the work force be it airlines, customes, immigration.
and Yes they have guilty complex about their being inferior and treating other of the same skin with inferiority.
There are unpardonable lapses at this family's end so they dont deserve any mercy.Good that they didnt forget to bring their children with them!!.Immigration dept is working under the strict guidence of the GOI.They did their job.For different nationalities different yardsticks are applied all over the world.Blame games will not work.
I can understand the feelings of Vijay and Vaishali. I have witnessed similar behaviour by Air India staff at Delhi Airport. A family of four who were coming back from Delhi to USA arrived at the airport only an hour before the departure time. The officer at the check-in counter refused to do the check-in as they did not come two hours prior to departure time (even though flight was running late). I was standing on the side and watching. This couple very politely explained how they got stuck in horrible traffic but this guy was extremely rude to them. They finally requested to see his supervisor. This guy was even worse. He literally shouted on them and bluntly told them that the flight was full, their seats were granted to other people and he can not do anything. This couple begged and pleaded with this guy but he wouldn\'t even look at them let alone helping them. After about a torture of 30 minutes, he issued them boarding passes. Now, suddenly, where did these seats come from? According to him, their seats were already allocated to others. From that day, I have decided never to fly Air India again. No airline/business will mistreat its customers this way.Only Indians could do it
I feel very sorry for you and your family sir. Thats very shameful. I hope some body in power will read this and bring justice to you by having the official involved apologize to you and also by punishing him. I hope Indians will start showing atleast equal respect for people of Indian origin as they show for Fair-Skinned people. I pray that some thing should be done about the transit visa issue at Indian airports.
I am an indian citizen living in USA for 3 years. I am travelling to India in January and an worried about all the corruption and indecency I will have to face in India from the time I land in airport. I love INDIA. I am proud to be Indian. But, the dismal and pathetic state of things in India troubles me. I keep asking myselves, will Indians ever change?
During our recent trip to india (Jan 2006) we lost pasport of our US born 9 month old son during 16 hour long transit at singapore airport. Singapore authorities did not raise an alarm thefefore we found the fact after we landed in delhi. Delhi Immigration officials were very co-operative in our case and they allowed entry to our son with ceratin conditions like copy of new passport should be submitted with FRO delhi with in 10 days. I can understand the situation with you.
