Kerala man's old passport becomes wife's scribble pad for 'coriander powder, Raju newspaper'

Rajeev Chandrasekhar also said the video depicted 'many different uses of a passport'. (Representational)

Twitter user D Prasanth Nair shared a photo that has left the internet in splits. An elderly gentleman submitted his passport for renewal, unaware of the surprising contents within. The officer in charge of the renewal process was taken aback by the unexpected twist – the passport had transformed into a phone book over the years.

The now-viral one-minute clip, shared by Nair on Twitter, shows the camera panning through the passport's pages. It becomes evident soon after that it is not just a travel document. Instead, it doubles as a meticulous phone book, with numerous numbers scribbled across its unused pages. To add to the surprise, the passport also features various calculations and even some bookkeeping.

“An elderly gentleman submitted his passport for renewal. He was not aware of what someone in his house did. The officer has still not recovered from the shock after seeing this. (It's is Malayalam, but you will understand the same),” Nair wrote captioning the video. He mentioned he got the forward on WhatsApp.

The passport in question hails from a bygone era, dating back to the 1990s or earlier. In stark contrast to modern passports with printed details, this vintage relic boasts handwritten entries for the passport holder's name and address. Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar couldn't resist sharing the unusual discovery and humorously tweeted, "Just For Laughs - many different uses of a passport."

#JustForLaughs - many diff uses of a passport  https://t.co/vUs3dndIQo

— Rajeev Chandrasekhar  (@Rajeev_GoI) November 3, 2023

The woman scribbled hundreds of phone numbers including their newspaper vendor called Raju. She also scribbled groceries to be bought - oil, coriander powder, in the pages. The calculations for money were daily books being kept - who owed whom how much.

Twitterati, too, joined in on the amusement, with comments flooding in:

One user said: "Maintained his passport as a phone directory and did some budgeting in there as well."

"He used his passport creatively, turning it into a phone directory,” said another.

Another humorously remarked, from the Malayalam scribbles, "God’s own passport!"

"Optimum use of resources,” noted another while a fifth remarked: "It happens only in India...cue the music."

Another had some insight. "Someone put the empty pages in a passport to good use. Instead of issuing every passport with too many empty pages most of which may never be used, go paperless and digital. Time to drop the 18th-century habit of hand-stamping passports with ink and rubber typefaces,” they wrote.