Passport

Posted on 4/28/2019

Passport is technically nothing but merely a travel document. A powerful passport is the one that allows visa-free travel to most countries. If you live and work in a country and pay taxes there, then having or not having a passport from that country makes very little difference. Voting rights, ease in travel, and maybe some other benefits; but I don’t think such benefits are significant in any country for working people. (or perhaps it is in some states) In the end, it is an emotional decision. From a practical perspective, it makes sense to hold a powerful passport that will make travel easy. Unless you are from a country that is messed up politically or religiously or you own a political or sensitive office - it is just an emotional decision. It doesn’t really matter. If Akshay Kumar (or anyone else) is a Canadian Citizen - it is really his personal preference. He had a choice, and he opted for the passport that gives him visa-free travel to more than 100 countries!

In reality, holding a passport from another country or signing a pledge of citizenship doesn’t really change a thing, especially in this era, when everyone is connected to everyone else. I meet people who carry multiple passports from the countries where dual citizenship is allowed. I know friends who surrendered their Indian passports and took a US passport. I also know friends who went back to India and still hold a foreign passport. Then some got a passport from one country then later surrendered it to get from some another country. Do you think feelings can change with a passport? I see people questioning others over their passports - and it doesn’t make any sense to me.

The lanes in which a person grows up, the first schools, the nostalgia, and the primary language a person speaks, or the way a person feels looking at their national flag… none of it can change in this life - a passport is just a piece of paper. You are what you are, no matter what paper you hold in your hands. You are still going to love the same songs, feel proud by the same speeches, and feel the same looking at the national flag ! … isn’t it obvious?

My office is located in the US, but most of my colleagues were born and brought up somewhere else. Every other person in my group is from a different country, or their parents immigrated to the US. It is such a beautiful thing to work with people with such diverse backgrounds and experiences. It really is, and everyone loves their countries, cities where they grew up, and where they lived… passports do not define a person.