New Delhi, May 7 -- Iran had just opened up e-visas for Indian travellers, but ours quickly got rejected. I read on forums that it was common to get an e-visa rejection, no reasons given. So we set about charting the archaic, long-winded route to get a physical visa at the embassy: get a visa code through an Iranian travel agency, file an application with travel documents at the Iranian consulate in Mumbai and submit medical test results for TB and HIV. The good news, considering the tense relations between Iran and the West, was that the visa wasn't stamped on our passports. It was issued as a separate physical document and instead of the passport, that paper was stamped upon entry into Iran.

It soon dawned on us that the long-winded pr...