How many birth dates can one have? Well, in this country, more than one. I personally have three birth dates according to my current and last two passports. If you add the birth date on my national ID card, then I have four. I am not talking about the day and month, but the year as well.

This is the result of the fiasco that goes on in calculating the corresponding dates of Hijra and Gregorian. You might think this is limited to those of us born before 1970 when most of it had to be done manually, but my son now has two birth dates and he was born in 1983. He was born in the United States and his birth certificate is clear about the date, time, place, and hospital he was born in. No if or buts about it. He was born 6th June, 1983.

When we got back and the certificate was translated, stamped and validated, the birth date on his passport came out as 14 June, 1983.

He was furious, but I told him not to worry about it since in my new passport I am made to be younger than his mother, which is satisfying though not true. He could see that her rage at this transgression could move mountains.

Why do these things happen? There is a piece of free software available on the Net that converts such dates with ease and precision. You just type in the date you want, and it gets converted accurately to any calendar you want. Simple as that.

As a result of this mechanism, you have people who have hopped-skipped-and-jumped the century mark while officially they are ‘nearing’ eighty, and others forced to retire at age fifty. I know that these birth dates give consular officials an inordinate amount of headaches as they try to figure out which Mohammad Al-Ghamdi they are dealing with.

The average citizen has no power to change or correct such mistakes. If you go, like I did, and point out your son’s real birth date, you are not listened to and thought of as a mad hatter who is a stickler for numbers. You tell them it has to do with more than numbers since bank accounts, certificates, and other necessary documents tell a different story than his passport does. No deal.

Unless you are a Gnostic or a Cabbalist, numbers in themselves are meaningless. Yet they are important. We use the Indian numeral system while the Arab one is used by the West. Some newspapers are revolting against this practice and are now using the Arab numerals.

Yet our license plates sport the Indian numerals only, disregarding the millions of expats who live here and can’t read them. What if one of these expats needs to take down the number of a car that hit him and ran? Get a translator.

At airports around the world you see airline officials struggling to decipher the dates on the visas issued to non-Saudis. Airlines are liable to big fines if they carry a passenger without the proper documentation, but none of them are versed in our calendar. Mistakes happen and fiascos ensue. Why not put the corresponding date in something others can understand? Simplicity is the hallmark of a happy life. Why not try it?