Yesterday suddenely I started thinking of my trips to Europe in 1970s. In those days, there was no need to have visas or even return tickets. I know when I went to Germany at the invitation of my friend Elke Wilkens, I had not to obtain a visa endorsement. The entry to Germany was like going into your own house. If one showed the passport, the Passport Controller would see it and even if you didn’t show, he would not bother to ask for it.
Once I felt that I should have some proof to show that I did go to Germany. How to do it was the problem facing me. I could not speak in German, which was very essential in those days. Of course, now most of them can speak in English – thanks to internet. Many a times, the Passport Controller would not speak in English and even if he did, he used to find it difficult to understand my pronunciation. So I asked my friend, when she had come to see me off at the airport, to request the Controller to affix a seal that I was departing from Germany. He flatly refused saying that there was no such procedure. Therefore when I went next time, I tried to request the Controller to affix the seal to state that I am entering the country. He said “not at all”. That was the freedom with which one could get in and get out of any country. That was the way one could go round the world.
The entire visa regime has changed now and it may be due to the wicked nature of some human beings, may be due to the lure of Western life, or it may be because the life in one’s own country is difficult. I do not think such days when man’s intentions were not suspected and everyone thought that the other person who entered the country was a friend or human being would come back at all.
In those days, the man was truly a citizen of the world without any barriers or boundaries. Now all countries want people to visit their respective countries and to attract people, thousands of dollars are spent on ads, but in the end only those having visa alone can go there. Therefore we cannot now call ourselves as Citizens of the world in the true sense of the word. Even now one can say that he is a citizens of the world ( provided he holds a visa).