Asian Window

In Tehelka, a profile of India’s ‘Passpost Baba,’ the man many believe can guarantee a passport and a job abroad:

If you are aspiring to travel abroad for higher studies or hunt for job opportunities in a ‘phoren’ country, there is one place where you must place a copy of your curriculum vitae – the revered Hazrat Miskin Shah Dargah, in the steel city of Jamshedpur, where passports and applications in the form of letters hang from a peepul tree in thousands or even more. One application and vrooooom! You fly to your dream destination! Baba is there to fulfill your dreams. Not surprising then that this dargah situated at the Berdih Kalubagan kabrsitan has earned fame as the resting place of “Passport baba” over the years.

Does that sound weird? Perhaps weird it is, some even say it is stupidity, but in a country which is known globally for its mysticism and superstitions, the Miskin Shah Dargah has become the destination for students, parents or anybody who has ever dreamt of a passport to foreign shores, be it the Gulf countries, UK or US. The blind belief, that your prayers for a job will be answered – if a mere written application to Miskin Baba and copies of passports are tied to the branches of the tree which hover over Baba’s samadhi or tomb – is perhaps also a classic example of the growing despair among the educated unemployed youth who now have fallen back on saints and fakirs for a solution to the malaise. The extent of the belief, or the malaise, can be judged by the fact that the branches of the tree have to be cleared and cleaned once or twice in every six months so that it can accommodate other applications and passports in the waiting!

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