Identity card crisis

In no other country one would be carrying so many identity cards as we do. Take my example.

Being a senior citizen and an ex serviceman, my bag has the following cards, each one carrying my photo: Pan card, election ID card , ex serviceman identity card, military canteen identity card, ex serviceman contributory health scheme card ( for military hospital ), driving licence card, senior citizen card issued by BMTC, monthly BMTC pass, office identity card (I am employed in a firm after retirement ), medical insurance card (mediclaim) issued by New India Assurance.

I also possess a metro (Yeswantpur) add on card gifted by my friend, although this card is of no use to me since my wife’s long list of provisions contains  items ranging from 250 grams to half a kg (except rice.)

I have applied for Aadhaar card and expecting the card in 1-2 months. As per the recent news, home ministry wants UIDAI to stop data collection for Aadhaar cards because of security aspects. Probably another committee would get set up to issue some other citizen identity card and I am braced now itself to stand in the queue to get myself photographed at some post office or issuance centres. I understand the state govt. is planning to introduce another card with photo for those who possess property (land) in Karnataka.

Since my cards were issued in different years right from my age of 21, each photo has no resemblance with the other. While the oldest photos show me as a macho man with bushy mustache and eyebrows, the not so old photos show me with huge forehead and latest photos show me with bald head reflecting lights all over place and few strands of white hair above my eyes which were once upon a time my eyebrows. The strange thing is no one has bothered to compare the photo with my present avatar.

They all seem to be happy that I possess some sort of Identity card issued by the competent authority. Probably, since I have been showing all these identity cards at places which are not very highly security sensitive like international airports or nuclear power plants, I have not faced identity crisis.

The only card which most of the parents possess and which I don’t possess is the passport because neither me nor my son and daughter have managed to score more than 50 per cent in the SSLC and graduation examination. We all knew that no sane person would call us for employment in US or UK and hence none of us have felt the need to apply for passport .

That way I should thank my kids for saving me from standing in another long queue in front of the passport office. However my wife has strong hope (given by some astrologer ) that their kids i.e. my grandsons would become Einstein or Newton and they would get US citizenship and both of us would be invited by them to stay in the US. May be, that time I will not have any grouse to stand in the queue at the passport office.