aldwych in the rain

my bus arrived at london victoria at 06:15, the high commission of india opened for visa applications at 08:30. i thought i'd toddle over there to make sure that i knew where the place was, and the plan was to sit in a coffee house for an hour or so nursing a brew and read me some hindu philosophy.

when i got there i found at least 60 people queueing up already - 2 hours before the place was due to open! so i joined the queue, popped the ipod on and thought nothing more of it. about an hour later i turned around and saw that the queue had grown to about 300 people (i kid you not) stretching back along aldwych! in the rain. cold rain at that.

as we slowly advanced i noticed that there were a lot of sikhs in the queue, and as i looked closer i could see that there were actually quite a lot of indian people there, clutching their british passports. it seemed odd to me that these people had to obtain a visa to return to the country they and their families originated from.

as we got closer to the door and the tickets started being handed out (very much like the deli counter, take a number and wait for it to be called out) the atmosphere changed, people started jostling each other and a scuffle broke out at the front between two older chaps, both yelling at each other in hindi. then as the doors opened there was a massive surge of people, all pushing and shoving to get in.

i was quite chuffed to learn that i was number 77 (26 was already displayed on the sign and it had only been open 10 minutes) so i took a seat near the front and waited. the three girls on the counter (only 3 of the 8 desks were open - despite the million people stood outside in the rain) were rattling through the numbers at quite a pace - if you weren't at the desk within 5 seconds of the number being called out you were too late. the girl who processed my application was heavenly, lovely deep dark eyes and a really nice smile. needless to say i instantly turned into a hormonal adolescent....

and that was it - i had to take the slip to booth 9 in half an hour and i was done. maybe booking a return bus ticket at 17:00 wasn't the best idea after all.... oh well, a quick trip to euston and i'd be back in manchester by noon.

i'm not too happy about the visa being on page 13 of my passport, but what the hell I'M GOING TO INDIA!!!!