Visa disobedience
Check-in counters for economy class and business/first class opened at 2:30am. Passengers were asked to come forward to six check-in counters.
‘Ticket and passport please’, said the Airways staff.
The passenger handed over the documents. The Airways staff looked at the e-ticket and said, ‘so you’re travelling to Philadelphia’; she matched the face of the passenger with the photo of the passport; it was alright; she turned the pages of the passport to find the visa; there was none.
‘I don’t find your visa; I can’t check you in. Do you have the visa anywhere else?’
‘I don’t need any visa; I’m a World citizen.’ The passenger replied.
‘No, Sir.’ The Airways staff replied, ‘You’re a NewZealander, I can’t let you board the plane. What luggage do you have? ?’
‘I’ve only this cabin-bag.’ The passenger replied.
‘Please stand aside, let the next passenger come forward.’ Said the staff and glanced at the other check-in counters. She heard the same words from five other check-in staff.
No passengers had any luggage to check in; each was carrying only a cabin baggage. None of them had visa. None of them stood aside to let the next passenger come forward. The airport staff looked at the queue of passengers; none was carrying any suitcases; as if everyone was here for a bus ride.
One of the Airways staff phoned their boss to ask for instructions. The boss of the Airways was at a loss; he asked the top boss of Wellington airport. Security forces were mobilised to arrest the passengers who refused to move from the check-in counter if boarding passes weren’t issued.
Six passengers were arrested, moved the next six passengers to the check-in counters; none of them had visas; none agreed to step aside to let the next passengers come forward; so they were all arrested.
Next six passengers moved to check-in counters; none of them had visas, none of them agreed to step aside for the next passengers; so they were arrested as well.
This continued till all 215 prospective passengers were arrested; no boarding pass was issued, no luggage was checked in.
Baggage handlers got worried when no luggage was passed to them for two hours after the start of check-in. They came to see what was happening at check-in counters. The flight was cancelled and all prospective passengers arrested.
The next flight to leave Wellington Airport had the same fate, as all passengers booked for the flight appeared without any visa. The flight after that had the same fate, and all the remaining flights of the day weren’t any different. No international flights took off from Wellington on that day. Soon the news was received from other airports– Auckland, Christchurch. No international flight departed from New Zealand.
Hours later same sets of events started in Singapore, Bangkok, Sydney and other airports. Network has been set up in every country of the world; enough people have been mobilised to buy all tickets for all flights, supposed to leave the airports on that day.
This situation made an extra-ordinary impact for the aviation industry, the insurance companies, the airport staff, security, even the prisons of the country. Most airlines checked their booking for the next weeks and found that the passengers with very similar names were supposed to fly in the forthcoming flights. One emergency meeting was convened by United Nations to address the plea of the aviation industry that had no other options but to let people fly without adequate visas. But people all over the world wanted to fly without any visa; at least the bookings for next few days suggested that, what should United Nations decide now? Some wise men of United Nations could easily see the popularity of Narottam over the social media; they thought Narottam should be arrested and interrogated. But how one would arrest Narottam? Many persons were claiming to be Narottam, millions of Narottam-s were scattered all over the world; as if everyone in the world has become a Narottam. UNO opined that all passengers involved in these cancelled flights were terrorists, violators of the established visa regulations. Two names emerged from this extensive questioning arrested passengers: one is Narottam and the other is Samares. Narottam couldn’t be arrested, as the security forces couldn’t identify the real Narottam from millions of so-called Narottam-s. Samares i.e. I was arrested for questioning.
Narottam thought there should be a World Anthem; he dreamed that the citizens all over the world danced to the tune of IMAGINE:
Imagine there's no heaven
It's easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people living for today.
I was arrested for questioning on my role in mass disobedience of visa regulations all over the world. Forensic sciences and technologies are very advanced now-a-days. Though arrested for instigating terrorist activities, I have not been subjected to any third degree torture; instead forensic probes have been deployed to extract my memoirs to find out how I lived my life and developed the vision of moving across all boundaries in life.
Forensic probes analysed my memory.
In my childhood, my entire world was a lower middle class family, including parents, brothers and sisters. In this world, every member was prepared to sacrifice for the happiness of the family.
The world grew in size, as I went to schools, universities, workplaces in India and overseas.
Some glimpses are noted below.
AbhaMasi in Jadavpur University

I bought sand-witches from the canteen and sat near the veranda to look over what was happening in the hall below. I watched a few games between Dipu and Nandan. After Dipu left, a girl wearing navy blue skirts and light green top, started playing with Nandan. I was fascinated to watch the girl, playing so well. I came down to watch her more closely, dazzling in her blue skirt and green top; realised, she was our neighbour, AbhaMasi.
After the game, she told me that she had started M.Sc. in Mathematics. When she left home for the university she was wearing a saree over her skirt and top, so that any onlooker took her to be a very domestic house-wife. After reaching the university, she took off her saree and packed that in her bag.
From that day onward, I started having my tiffin-break at the same canteen and started playing table tennis. AbhaMasi taught me many tricks of table tennis. She taught me how to use forehand and backhand. In both these forehand and backhand shots, she showed me how to drag the hand towards the opponent’s body, so as to provide back spin. Gradually, I started using more of top spin rather than back spin, and started winning over my ping-pong trainer AbhaMasi.
Another area of common interest was Mathematics. The same professor, who taught AbhaMasi in M.Sc. classes, used to teach us Maths-III in engineering. Sometimes, we shared our experiences with each other.

On the college notice board, interested students were asked to submit their names for selection of participants for Inter-Varsity Radio Drama Competition. I was in the runner-up team in the same contest last year. Since AbhaMasi joined Jadavpur University this year, I asked her to contest as well.
Two girls and six boys were selected for the drama. Both AbhaMasi and I got roles to play there. I told Baba, Ma and my siblings that I would participate in the radio-drama again in this year. But AbhaMasi told me not to tell anyone at our place about her participation in the drama.
AbhaMasi and I met several times at different secluded places mainly to rehearse our roles in the drama. In actual drama, we were never present together in the same scene; yet I played roles of the actors who would be conversing with her in the actual drama. Similarly, she played the role of many male characters who would be conversing with me in the actual drama. We had to select places of rehearsal with a few considerations; no one except two of us should know where we would be rehearsing; there should be enough light so that we may read our scripts, because there was no need to memorise our scripts. Even after so many precautionary measures, our class mates had often seen me with an unknown girl; they questioned me about my love making.
We remember the days of the rehearsals at the radio stations; we needed to speak from two live sides of the microphone as the other two sides were dead and couldn’t receive any sound. We needed to hold the paper carefully so that the noise of ruffling paper was not received by the microphones. The people had to be queued before the microphone, so that the noises of moving people are not heard by the microphone on its two live sides. The recording of radio dramas might be much different now-a-days, but we have to monitor our movement while expressing our emotion through our voices.
Finally came the day of announcing the winner of Inter University Radio Play Competition 1963. Last years’ winners Calcutta University was announced to be the Runner-up and then came the announcement– “This Year’s Winner is Jadavpur University.”
On those days, one hour radio drama used to be broadcast at 8pm on every Friday. On Friday the 19th April, 1963, my parents and siblings sat down with me before the radio set to listen to the drama ‘Why Couldn’t We?’ by Jadavpur University students. AbhaMasi already negotiated with the concerned university authorities that her name will be stated as Siuli Chatterjee; so nobody at our home guessed that AbhaMasi participated.
In the drama named “Why Couldn’t We?”, the lead character is Panchali, a woman in her thirties. At 4am one day, her father. Aseem, found Panchali, hanging from a bar above, a rope, tied around her neck, kept her hanging from the bar.
Aseem came out of his flat and knocked at the door of neighbours - Madhav and Jadu. These neighbours went inside the house and brought down the body of Panchali.
Madhav and Jadu went inside Aseem’s flat and brought down the body of Panchali, there was no life in it. They called the police.
Dharitri, the police woman, arrived. She first interviewed Aseem and from him she got the list of contacts of Panchali, as shown below:
Darshan – the doctor-psychologist
Falgun – Panchali’s husband
Kanka – Panchali’s ex-partner
The Last Scene
[The lights fade. The lights are up to reveal one table in the middle of the room where Panchali’s ex-partner Kanka, her husband Falgun and the police woman Dharitri are seated; Kanka and Falgun are facing each other.]

Dharitri: Hi Kanka and Falgun, Thank you for coming over here. I’ve listened to you two separately. Now I’d let you talk and share your grief with each other. Please let me know, at the end of your discussion, if I could do something.

Kanka: I appreciate your grief, Falgun. I’ve seen Panchali for more years than you have. Most charms of life are lost, when we lose a warm and cooperating companion like Panchali. Yet, Falgun, I’d say she’d have been alive today, had you not married her.

Falgun: Kanka! Panchali has never let me feel that she is unhappy with me; I could never dream that she’d commit suicide. She was so vibrant and scintillating, I wondered how she managed to live with you for so many years.

Kanka: Sure, Falgun. I’m a man of a few words, but I’ve always listened to her. I forgot that the last Tuesday was the anniversary of my first date with Panchali, but she remembered. She wanted to spend that evening with me; that’s why she travelled to her daddy’s place to organize a get-together with me. But I didn’t get the message, because my work phone is different now. She came to me last evening to see me in person.

Falgun: Did she? Did you find her any different?

Kanka: Yes, Falgun. When I saw her last, she was pregnant with your offspring; she was looking forward to having a baby with the baby’s father beside her. This time she wasn’t carrying the baby any more, that dream of a married family life has been lost. She was asking how she could come back to me.

Falgun: What did you say, Kanka? She never gave me a hint of this.

Kanka: I said, since you’re married with Falgun, you must first discuss with him to decide the next course of action. If necessary, you may need to take help of lawyers.

Falgun: What did she say then?

Kanka: Nothing; but she loved you dearly and now it seems to me she wasn’t ready to discuss this with you. Apparently, she found it easier to take her life than to ask you this difficult question.

Falgun: I wish you told me this yesterday instead of leaving her to decide on this. We could have sorted this out, and she’d have been still alive today.

Kanka: I’m not that close to you, Falgun. I thought Panchali could have explained this dilemma to you better than I could; she is closer to your heart.

Falgun: I don’t know how I’d have reacted yesterday, had you or Panchali asked me those difficult questions. But today it seems, I won’t have minded for any compromise only to keep her alive.

Kanka: I wish, we could have told this to Panchali now. Let us go together to have a last look of her face.

Falgun: Sure we would. Had she been alive, she’d have loved to see us together, she could have asked for our advice for the next steps. But for now, let’s call Dharitri, the police woman, and tell her about how Panchali was forced to commit suicide, because she couldn’t move across relationship boundaries. We could save many such Panchali’s, who are failing to adjust their individuality with one spouse and helplessly looking for ways to live and befriend with people outside the relationship boundaries.

[Kanka and Falgun hugs each other, get separated and shake hands. Lights fad]

 
Bus Break-down while Returning from Work

After graduation, I started as a Management Trainee in Burn & Co Ltd. I started dreaming my future, dreaming when Dada Hriday, Millie, Tulie and Dolly would all get married and it would be my turn to get married and spend my life in loving my dear wife, my dearest person on the earth.
For travelling to and from Burn & Co Ltd, I used to go by buses. I used to start for work after having breakfast at home at around 8am and start returning from Howrah at around 6pm by the route E1. At the end of every workday, I used to return home at around seven in the evening and enjoy dishes prepared by Ma, while gossiping with my sisters; but not on this day, when I met AbhaMasi after a bus breakdown. I felt, as if, I met a star hidden behind clouds.

Whenever I boarded a bus, I took a window seat. On this day too, I was habitually on the upper deck, looking down,- looking down on the people walking on the road. Half an hour to home now, I felt a bit hungry; Ma used to surprise me every day with a new snack.
A big jerk—screeeech, the double-decker halted. I heard the noise and the driver had been trying to restart the engine, once, twice, a number of times. Soon I heard the announcement: ‘This bus won’t travel anymore because of a serious breakdown. Another bus will be here to take passengers from this bus. If you want refunds, please come down to me with your ticket’.
I got the refund and started strolling towards home. It would take about 2½ hours, but I preferred brisk walking to indefinite waiting. No longer in the bus, I was now in the crowd ambling through the streets. Would I come across some known face here? Could I find some passers-by to talk to? Could I hunt for a suitable girl who would talk to me at least for a while?
‘You’re Bablu, are you?’ I heard from a girl just behind me.
‘Yes’, I was about to say, and looked at the girl, who was none other than AbhaMasi.
I asked, ‘How come you’re here? I missed you so much after you left the university.”
She said, ‘I have come here to my auntie’s place. I would have to stay here for a week, because she had left for Durgapur for a week.’
“That means– you’re alone in this house now. Do your in-laws know about this?”
“They all know that I’ve come to Auntie’s place but they don’t know that Auntie has gone away and asked me to look after her flat.”
“How far is your flat? Let’s walk to your flat now and relax for a while. I have so much to tell you.”
“My flat is about a kilometre away; before that you have to take me to a restaurant; and we would celebrate your new job.”
I said, ‘Sure, we would find a restaurant, on the way to your place. In the mean time, please tell me more about you, anything about beautiful AbhaMasi.’
‘I like to listen to handsome Bablu as well.’
‘Sure, start your stories first.’

‘AbhaMasi, I’m tempted to capture you for an hour. May I take you to the coffee house now?’ I interrupted.
‘Sure, I like to have dinner with you to celebrate of your first job.’

I dragged AbhaMasi from the road. We entered the coffee house. We managed to find empty chairs near a window on the upper balcony. I looked down from the window; we were far above the crowd.
‘What would you like to have, AbhaMasi?’ I showed her the menu card.
‘A mini-dhosa and coffee’, AbhaMasi said.
My eyes glittered as I heard my own choice from her. I said, ‘I’d also go for the same’.

We came out of the Coffee House, and started towards AbhaMasi’s flat. Soon we arrived there and entered the one-bedroom apartment. As soon as AbhaMasi opened the window to look on the street below, torrential rains started and she had to shut the widow forthwith.
AbhaMasi said, ‘It will take hours to reach your house, especially in this weather. Why don’t you stay here tonight? It will be easier for you to go to work from here.”
I also thought, it was the only option, I had; but didn’t like to tell everyone about spending a night with a woman, when no one else was around. I phoned my Dada and said, ‘Hi Dada, this afternoon we’ve received important tender documents for Godavari Bridge project and we have to submit the tender tomorrow. I’ll work overnight at my boss’s office. I expect to return home by 6pm tomorrow.’
‘Okay, Bablu’, Dada replied. ‘Take good care. I hope the boss will organise some dinner for you. Please get some sleep.’

Next morning when I woke up, I discovered myself on an unfamiliar bed. AbhaMasi has emptied her side of the bed; she might have been in the shower. I looked at my watch- seven-fifteen. I remembered I didn’t have my shaving set with me, nor my toothbrush and toothpaste. I would have to go to work unshaved and with last night’s saliva in my mouth.
Soon AbhaMasi returned from the bathroom. I was spellbound by her soft natural glare; I couldn’t take my eyes off her long dark hair, her rosy cheeks and the sparkle in her eyes.
‘Let me wash up a bit’, I said and disappeared into the bathroom.
‘So that’s the end of our day’, I said to AbhaMasi. ‘I shall now leave for work and go back to my normal life.’
Two years later, I started working at Jamshedpur

When I returned from work, in the letter-box I found an envelope- an invitation to the wedding of my childhood friend- Panna. I rushed to Calcutta.

On the day of the wedding, the groom did not turn up; he was in police custody since noon, accused on charges of a murder.
Panna's mother grabbed me, 'Please don't let Panna miss these auspicious hours; don't let our elaborate arrangement be ruined.'
I didn't want to comply - I didn't want to get married without any love for the bride; yet I couldn't avoid her request.

But Panna did not accompany me to Jamshedpur; she stayed in Calcutta to start studying for M.A.; at that time I didn’t think that she might want to be close to her male friends. I took my parents to Jamshedpur.

Panna was worried when she came to see us when my father was hospitalised, because she did not have her period on time; she asked me to post in the morning a letter to her boyfriend. I posted that without reading the contents.
When I came home for lunch, she asked me to post another read letter to the same person. I could not suppress my curiosity, and read that letter before posting. In that letter she had written, how she enjoyed the fun with her boyfriend; but her period had started; so she was relieved for the time being; next time she would let his horse win.
I wanted to leave her permanently in Calcutta; but she cried, touched my feet and promised to love me only from then on
But she didn’t comply later on..

I worked in many cities of India, so that Panna lives with me in the cities. But she spent most of her days with her parents, in the vicinity of her boyfriends.

I decided to migrate to Australia. She and her parents tried hard to dissuade me. But I was determined to migrate even if Panna didn’t accompany me. Panna’s parents made her migrate with me.

Panna, her daughter and I migrated to Australia.

Situations were marginally better in the new country; Panna never treated me as her beloved husband. I looked around and found that I was not alone; most persons have never loved their spouses, but maintained their marital status.
I developed a vision for having one big family in the entire world, so that no person is exploited by the legal spouse –No Country Boundaries –No Family Boundaries.

After returning to Sydney, I organised a week’s camp for six couples. In this camp for envisioning the soul of the world I stated,-
‘The goal is to become a citizen of the World;’
‘Let all countries like UK, USA, USSR, Australia, Canada, Thailand, Philippines, India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Pakistan belong to one organisation – the World. Any citizen of this organisation, would work and earn livelihood anywhere in the World.
‘Visas or work-permits won’t be required for moving across country boundaries.
‘Countries have fought many wars to define their borders. Citizens of a country inherit the privileges of the country.
‘We want the citizen of the World to inherit the same privileges irrespective of the country of birth.
‘Let’s brainstorm to find ways to move people between countries.’

The camp endeavoured to identify what must be changed to allow a person to become a citizen of the World, and what the associated rights and responsibilities should be. The group thought, they must abolish all formalities and regulations of visa and work permits.
The first step was to set up a political party called World Organisation [WO] for controlling all countries of the world. Some of the responsibilities of WO might overlap with those of UNO or United Nations Organisation. Which country should WO belong to? UNO or a multinational company registered in many countries?
The camp decided that WO won’t be registered at all; a group could be set up on a social media like Face Book or LinkedIn, where members from all different countries would be inducted. A handful of people would control the entry and exit of members from this group. No legal restrictions of any country would be applicable to WO, which would set up its own rules and regulations for the welfare of the world.
We researched on pairs of countries separated by land borders. Most countries have at least one neighbouring country separated by a land border. Longest land border between two countries is 8,891km between Canada and United States. Longest single segments of land borders are:
Kazakhstan and Russia: 6,846km
Canada and United States: 6,414km
Argentina and Chile: 5,150km
We located on the world map, all land borders between countries.
USA’s land border with Mexico is 3,141km long. WO supporters planned to buy land in bordering towns on each side of the border. New houses would be constructed; under the cover of construction work tunnels would be built beneath the border; these tunnels would enable smuggling of people from the house in the bordering town of one country [say Mexico] to the house in the bordering town of the other country [say USA]. All people smuggling needn’t be done simultaneously, but done whenever convenient between the two countries connected by hidden tunnels.
Eventually we managed to create a History at Wellington airport, as shown at the start of this novel and made me analyse the events of my life that created the History of One World.

Before staging the mass disobedience of visa regulations all over the world, I was a graduate mechanical engineer from Jadavpur University. I migrated to Australia, got my MBA, Master of Computing Sciences and PhD in Computing Sciences from University of Technology, Sydney. I worked as a Banking Architect in banks of Warsaw, Glasgow, Bangkok, Manila, Jakarta, and Kuala Lumpur. I have listened to the people of various countries of the world and written the book ‘No Boundaries’. After my retirement, I have published 50 books in three languages. Recently I have published two audio-books. Now, I have also produced a movie “Harness Climate Atrocities”, which was shown in the local film festival.

Forty years have passed since the mass disobedience of visa regulations.
Suddenly, my eighty year old body fell on the floor, unconscious; a lot of blood spurted out from my forehead; Panna rushed over, applied a bandage on my forehead. Panna and our daughter, Koel took me to the hospital emergency room. I had to spend that day in the hospital and another twenty-three days in the rehabilitation hospital.

After being under the careful care of the hospital nurses for so long, it felt good to return to my own home on the one hand; on the other hand, I felt equally helpless because of my disabilities. Panna, Koel, my son-in-law, and my granddaughters worked hard for two weeks to decorate the house for me; but as soon as I entered the house, I realised that living in this house would be very laborious; The floor of the adjacent bathroom is a couple of inches higher than the floor of the house; I can't lift the walker up easily; even if I could lift the front of the walker and put it in the bathroom, it wouldn't be easy to move it over the bath mat. So, I have to walk with a stick to and from the bathroom.
When I saw the single bed in the room, I realised that Panna would never share the bed with me again. For many years, Panna had slept alone in this bedroom on a bed larger than a king-size bed, under the pretext of saving herself from possible injuries after various surgeries; now her bed has been moved to the first bedroom, where I was sleeping until now. The single bed in the third bedroom has been moved here, so that I have more floor space to move around with my walker.
So far I had been sleeping alone on a double-bed in the first bedroom. Two pillows, Panna's and mine, were covered with bedcovers all day long; before going to bed, I would lift the bedcover on my side and place it on Panna's side, and when I woke up, I would pull the bedcover towards me; it was very easy to organise the bed. Now in this second bedroom, before going to bed, I have to first remove the bedspread and the matching pillow on it, then I have to remove a heavy quilt; and place all these on the chair, I sit on during the day.

This year's Holi i.e. the colour festival was celebrated at my niece Tumpa's house. Panna, Koel, Tumpa, the granddaughters, and the sons-in-law danced and sang with Abir, and everyone showered Abir on me while I was sitting on the chair.

After returning home, a few ideas came to my mind to solve the problem of making my bedroom more usable.
Previously, Koel, her husband and daughters had installed a wedge for moving the walker from the room to the bathroom and back; the walker could be moved from the room to the bathroom, but the sliding door could not be closed. I left an inch and a half gap between the wedge and the bathroom floor so that the door could slide through the gap.

I was making arrangements so that Panna would never have to suffer from lack of dollars in my absence, and could spend as she pleased without any worry.
I heard Panna calling out, a terrible pain in her back; she was lying face down on the bed; I slowly massaged her; I said, 'Get some sleep'.