Shocked by the refusal, Hashmi says, ``I was taken aback when I received my brother's letter from Lahore informing me that his visa form had been turned down by the clerk on grounds that unless a male member's address was given, his visa form would not be accepted.'' The applicant's pleas that his sister was widowed 20 years ago and was living alone fell on deaf ears.

Disappointed by the fact that there were hitches in visa formalities and her brother's visit may be delayed, the lady recalls, ``Many years ago, when I tried for a visa to Qatar where my brother was working, it was turned down because his wife was ailing and at Lahore. I was told by the Qatar visaauthorities that unless there was a woman in the house, I would not be allowed a visa. I pleaded that he was my brother but they refused to listen.''

Shabnam Hashmi, Qamar Azad's daughter, adds, ``Well, such blasphemy may occur in Islamic countries but that it should happen in a country as progressive as India is quite disgusting.''

Sources in the Ministry of External Affairs reveal that there is no such rule or criterion for granting a visa or accepting a visa form and that the incident could be the result of the concerned official's ignorance. ``But look at the inconvenience it has caused an old man'', says Shabnam, adding, ``He wrote us this letter on May 12 and it was received here on May 29. Finally, I have sent him my husband Gauhar Raza's address so that he can visit his niece and nephew-in-law. Her husband is a senior scientist at the CSIR. Now he will have to go Lahore and apply afresh. That such things should be happening after the much-publicised bus diplomacy of Vajpayee and Nawaz Sharif isindeed sad.''

For a sister who was longing to meet her brother, it is the opening of old wounds inflicted on thousands of families at the time of the Partition in 1947. ``Families were separated for all time. I was in India but my parents and husband's parents migrated to Pakistan. I could not go at the time of my mother's death or when one of my brothers died in Pakistan. I visited my relatives in Pakistan as late as 1968 '', says Hashmi, as she reads out her brother's letter, which says the clerk told him there has to be a male member in the place where you plan to stay.