Yeh numbers ka maamla hai

So did I mention my folks(as in North and South pole) are here? I didn't? Well, there you go, now you know.

Hence its time to talk about house numbers and the commotion it seems to have created.

This is a recurring theme at every trip. North and South Pole rehearse this a few times, as to what to tell the immigration officer when he asks how long they're here for. Then of course, North Pole went off on a tangent and said exactly what he was instructed not to. So there began the first of the many complications.

Prior to that, each of them had filled out their disembarkation card. Unfortunately South Pole(the teacher that she is) forgot to supervise the one that North Pole filled out(you know, for spelling mistakes and such!). 2.5 hrs later they emerge out into the arrival hall where I was waiting for a very nail-biting, hair-pulling too-long a time.

All is good so far, they looked exhausted; we loaded the luggage into the car and headed home. As I pulled into the driveway, South Pole had a light-bulb moment. 'Oh' she goes, "your house number is 25676' and she proceeds to glare at North Pole "You had it down as 25576 in your disembarkation card, mine was right".

"Mbmmph" goes North Pole, jetlagged, exhausted and quite incapable of defending himself. I hurriedly unlocked the doors and proceeded to make some hot filter kaapi and deftly changed the topic, so I thought.

Its been a week since, and South Pole makes it a point to answer every soliciting call that comes with caller ids such as 'US Homeland Security' or the police(insert any other official agency) and makes it a point to be polite and nice. Why? The immigration dept would be calling to ask why they had the wrong house number in one of their disembarkation cards, right?

Right.