Life Time Experience!!!

                    After our sardonic companionship with the Chipmunk and a brief sweet sojourn with my college friend at Singapore, we finally arrived at the HYD Intl airport. My family was eagerly waiting at the entrance to embrace the little one as it was her first visit to India. I couldn’t wait to rush out of the flight and were done with the immigration officers pretty quickly. So far, this is common for all of you right? What’s not common is to follow.

                After we pick up the luggage and are almost near the exit, our carry on was scanned by the customs. As I was travelling with the baby and had to open my backpack multiple times during the trip, I packed all my jewelry and gold coins in the carry on for safety.  The officers (I hate to call them by that word) asked me to step aside. I knew I was their prey for the day.  So, one of them asks me: “Madam, are you bringing any gold with you?” I say: “Yes”.  I don’t recollect the exact sequence of the conversation but this is how it went.  Customs: “You need to pay tax.” I said: “I thought NRIs could carry how much ever gold they want right (I knew there was a limit upto 10 kgs). I added, I purchased them with my tax paid money (rather hard earned money, Only I know how many things I sacrificed in the process of saving) and I have bills for all of them. But I was totally mistaken. I was not aware of the fact that we’ve to pay WAT or declare the gold, keep it with them and collect on the day of leaving back to US. Hmm..I could do that. But, all these years I saved to get some beautiful jewels done for my sister’s wedding.

                Had I been inordinately humble and made a pitiful face and cry: “Sir, please sir, I don’t know sir, leave me sir, I am with a baby sir, I need to go sir, or Sir, pls sir, pls take this $100 and let me go sir”; may be they would have had some kind of sympathy on me. But. But, I’m not the kind who would just let things go. I’m one of those pigheaded creatures who despise bribe.  There was nothing like ‘talking’ with those idiots. It’s either fighting or surrendering.

                There was this b….with dark rimmed glasses and a thick moustache who kept grunting at me looking at the other officials: “What do you think? You are dealing with Govt. You could go to jail”. He kept repeating it. While reading  Bikram's Post, I recollected something. I didn't want to slap that guy. Wanted to spit on his face. What the heck? Put me in jail? Whoa..They didn’t even let me hand over my baby to the family for a while. It was 1:00 AM at night. One of them, (I think he has a bit of humanity in him) let me go & drop the baby outside.

                The episode was never ending. When I was not willing to bribe them, I should pay the tax right? Nah..I was trying to pull the strings from my end by calling the other customs personnel who our family knew. Unfortunately, all of them were either not on duty or just got off the duty.

There came this time when I had to show them my coins to weigh. Looked like they didn’t pay attention to how many I was carrying, as they already knew they weren’t going to get their fodder from me. I had them in two packs.  As Mr. Baldy went to weigh one, I put the other inside in a jiffy. Had I not done that, I would have paid them a six digit amount.  It took them an eternity to get the bill. Meanwhile, I start a conversation with the baldy and said: “Okay, let me know how much you want and let me go”. He says: “No, not now. Not now. Not after coming this far”. Sigh!! I curse myself for my idiosyncrasy. There he is finally with the receipt & sends me to the counter to pay the tax.

I gathered all the cards my family holds and withdrew money from different ATMs.  The guy at the bank counter bears this sympathetic face for my fortune and says: “I cannot take INR. It has to be in US $$.  Please go and get $$ from the only surviving currency exchange outside. The exchange people informed that they can give me $$ only if I am flying abroad and need my itinerary.  I express my helplessness and somehow the bank person collected the fee. I was literally crying.  I am supposed to be self-content right? Then, Why am I crying?

            On the last step, while I gave the receipt and was waiting to pick my gold, the baldy says: “Next time, see, if you deal with it initially itself, then you won’t have to go through all this”. I replied: “ I know that. I know that’s how my husband or any sensible person would have dealt it. But now, I don’t have any guilt. I’m proud of what I have done.” And offer him a thanks (for the lifetime experience) and run sobbing to hug my family after 3 hours of agony.

I still don’t feel satisfied that I paid the Govt. I could have used that money to donate to multiple organizations. That’s what has been bugging me. I am paying for no reason. Well, they had a reason.
Btw, ladies and gentlemen, pls melt the gold coins into a bangle before carrying it or have it in your personal hand bag, not the carry on or mix them with a bunch of Indian coins. That way, when they scan everything is shown as metal and not as gold. (Well, a jeweler gave me this idea :) )
p.s: I just recollected this. I always had a secret desire to fight with the customs and wished it aloud many times. They say, thadaasthu devatas will listen. And they did listen  and made my dream come true.