Before we landed at Mumbai, we were given two forms to fill in. The first was a statement to be filled and signed by us about our possible contact with Swine Flu. the second was the Immigration landing form.
It really showed that I was completely out of touch with India as I filled up the Immigration form. There was a point about "ECR" to be filled in by Indians. For the life of me I had no idea what was an "ECR". After racking my brains, I thought it best if I asked on of the Indian youngsters who was sitting in the row in front of me.
I tapped on his shoulder and asked him what was an "ECR". He looked at me incredulously, thinking where this old goofy guy had come from and something in an American accent, which I could hardly understand. Then the guy sitting next to him said it stood for "Emmigration Clearance Required".
I was so naive, I asked what that meant - when he told me to look in my Passport. Sure enough, there it was stamped that I did not require emmigration clearance!
We landed on time at Mumbai International Airport at 25 minutes past midnight on 19th November. As the aircraft doors opened, the feeling was exactly like being in a sauna, the temperature being around + 30 C. We were pouring with sweat as we walked a long long walk from the aircraft to the Health Registration counter where we were expected to give up that form we had filled on the aircraft. Along the way I read a placard that said that Finland was one of the countries on the list where there was swine flu, and our ear temperature would be taken.
Obviously the guys and girls at the counter did not have much faith in such placards placed on the way from the aircraft, so as soon as the took our forms, they waved us on to immigration - which was another long walk.
As we were walking slowly, we were among the last at the counter. I handed all three forms, Annikki's, Mika's and mine, to the officer. He asked me to stand in front of him. Then he went through my passport, issued in 2004, which was pristine clean with only one entry, my Finnish residence permit. Not a single other entry - except the stamp showing I had left Finland on this journey.
The officer looked at me and asked how long I had lived in Finland. when I told him it had been my home for 25 years, he said he was proud of me as I had kept my Indian nationality.
(I wondered which other country would give a dumbass like me their citizenship!)
We finished immigration and we were waved through customs to again make a long long walk to the terminal exit where we hoped our car and driver would be waiting for us. It was past 1:30 when we reached the exit!
