BENGALURU: It was a happy ending for a 65-year-old Mysuru native, who had forgotten his diamond-studded wedding ring at the Passport Seva Kendra in Lalbagh, which he had visited on Wednesday to apply for his passport. The ornament was recovered and handed over to his Bengaluru-based nephew, K Umesh Prabhu, by passport officials on Thursday.
Visitors leaving behind documents at the passport office is a common phenomenon but someone leaving behind a precious ring is a rarity here, said V Mahesh Vandal, who is Karnataka in-charge, for Tata Consultancy Services, which takes care of operations of all Passport Seva Kendras in the country.
Speaking from Mysuru, Prabhu, who retired as the General Manager of the pharmaceutical firm Torrent, said, “This ring is of enormous significance. It was given to me by my wife on our wedding day in 1992. Its cost must be anywhere between Rs 1 lakh and Rs 1.5 lakh. But its actual value for me is infinite. To be honest, I thought I would never get it back.”
Prabhu said, “I had left early for Bengaluru on Wednesday as I had a tatkal appointment for my passport. We arrived at 9.45 am for the 10.30 am appointment. I got to know of a special queue for senior citizens and I went there. While my fingerprints were being scanned, my ring was moving around as it was a bit loose. Hence, I removed it and placed it aside, and gave the biometrics. The process was really quick and I went to my sister’s house in Bengaluru later.”
It was when he was traveling back to Mysuru that he realised his ring was missing. “As soon as I reached Mysuru, I found the Lalbagh passport seva mail id online and wrote to them. I also stated my nephew SN Sunil Pai would come down to collect it the following day,” he said.
CH Gangashankar, Central Manager of TCS at the PSK, said, “Our associate CC Soumya found it and handed it over to me for safekeeping. We gave it to his nephew today (Thursday).”
Prabhu shot off another mail to the passport office lauding the quick service by a government organisation.