PATONG CAN WAIT

What if Indians had to clear a Social Behaviour Exam before getting a passport?

Sounds ridiculous.

Until you meet Siddu.

Siddu has one dream: Patong.

No passport. No problem.

Except the government has introduced a new rule. Before he can travel abroad, he must pass the International Social Behaviour Qualification Examination.

And where there is an exam, there will be coaching.

Enter the Global Sanskaar Institute.

"We Don't Improve Behaviour. We Improve Scores."

Siddu joins with his childhood friend Dudee, a man desperately trying to appear sophisticated, cultured and international despite considerable evidence to the contrary.

Then comes Rakhi Chopra, their sharp-tongued Delhi Punjabi instructor, whose job is somehow part teacher, part counsellor, part crisis manager and part janitor-to-CEO.

What follows is a riotous journey through queue jumping, buffet warfare, hotel etiquette, airport seat reservation, public-volume control, competitive bill payment, fake sophistication, Phuket Airport madness and, eventually, Bangla Road.

But beneath the laughter sits an uncomfortable question:

Are we becoming international travellers faster than we are becoming responsible travellers?

Funny, sharp and painfully familiar, PATONG CAN WAIT is a satire about passports, manners, entitlement, coaching culture and the little Siddu hiding somewhere inside many of us.

Because, getting a passport may be easy, but what about learning how to behave once you travel carrying one?

That could take longer.

Patong can wait.