Last year, we were on a world bicycle tour through India to Sri Lanka. We traveled from New Delhi to Tamil Nadu and reached Chennai, the capital of Tamil Nadu. In Chennai, we could not stay at a hotel because those without an Indian Aadhaar card were not allowed.

I had a friend from Tamil Nadu, a local Christian, on Facebook. I called him through Messenger and explained our problem. He immediately came to meet us. He took us to several hotels, but we were not allowed to stay anywhere. After that, he called a church pastor. The pastor agreed to let us stay at his church, so we went there.

When we reached the church, the pastor and other locals welcomed us warmly. The accommodation was not very good, but for us, it felt like a five-star hotel because no hotel had given us a place to stay.

Cycling in Sri Lanka

Tamil Nadu turned out to be a very hot place, so we all took turns bathing and rested. The next day, we explored Tamil Nadu. After two days, we headed towards Rameswaram, the nearest sea border to Sri Lanka. We did not ask anyone whether the Rameswaram border was open or not—we simply relied on Google.

It took us five days to reach Rameswaram, which is about 428 km away from Tamil Nadu. The distance between Rameswaram and Sri Lanka is only 55 km. We were so happy, thinking that now we could take a boat and reach the northern region of Sri Lanka, Jaffna.

But when we reached the seaside of Rameswaram, where boats used to operate to Sri Lanka, and asked where to get tickets, we were told that boats no longer run. We were shocked. They said to go to Sri Lanka, we would have to take a flight—either from Madurai International Airport or from Chennai.

We immediately took a bus back to Chennai and reached there the next day. Once again, we went to the same church. We bought tickets to Sri Lanka, scheduled to fly three days later. When the day came, we happily went to the airport. After receiving our boarding passes, we went to immigration.

Instead of letting us go, they kept us in one place, checked our phones, and started asking thousands of questions. Not just one officer, but almost all the officers checked our phones and questioned us. We were shocked—why so many questions just to go to Sri Lanka? When asked where we had stayed, we gave the name and number of the pastor and the church. They even called him and troubled him as well.

South Indian food

We were held there for about two hours. Finally, after airline staff came and requested them to release us quickly, they let us go. The flight was delayed. Waiting for such a long time was unbearable.

Then they let us to go and we boarded the plane and finally reached Sri Lanka.

But still, a question remains in our minds—why were we stopped and delayed for two hours? Why did they interrogate us so much? Was it to trouble us in hopes of a bribe, or was it simply according to their rules and regulations? An unanswered question…………