Airport Blues !

A few days back, I had taken a flight from Bombay. I was accompanied by a friend of mine, N, and while we were wandering about in the lobby, we met another friend of ours, A, who was basically from Ahmedabad, and who would be flying on the same flight as ours. This was not a coincidence really, because college was reopening the next day. Soon it was time to board, and we had to walk through the security check. I am very particular as to what I carry in my handbag - batteries, nail-cutters, pointed objects, matchboxes, anything that can be construed to be harmful. Those who travelled by air in the 15-20 months following 9/11 will remember the extreme precaution taken by most airlines.

Next in line was N. His first handbag, a backpack (Jansport if a remember aright), came through clean. There was apparently some problem with his second bag. The airline official asked N to open the bag so that he could sift through the contents. The main compartment did not reveal anything even remotely suspicious, much to the airline official's surprise. N was giving me looks like - "Phaltu mein tang karte hai... ". The guy then opened the side compartment. Out tumbled 1 plastic box, 1 plastic pouch and 2 deodorant tins. The plastic box contained, much to my disbelief, 2 long thin razor sharp cutters, 1 tester, a couple of screwdrivers, something that resembled a time-bomb - that too digital, lots of wires and an assortment of small electronic objects. (At this point, it is important to note that N was studying Electronics in our college !)

I blurted out, without thinking, grinning from ear-to-ear, "Dude, you can assemble an entire bomb here !". (A few years ago my dad had the chance to visit Turkey, and since at that time foreign good-quality deodorants weren't available in India, he purchased quite a few of them. Since many of them were quite expensive, he innocently kept them with him, in his handbag. At the security check, he was held aside. As many of you might be knowing, deodorant cans are inflammable. At that time my dad didn't know that. The Turkish officer wasn't very fluent in English. And my dad decided to play it safe by keeping a poker face throughout, as if he wasn't understanding anything. The officer couldn't fathom why somebody would want to carry so many deo cans in a flight, unless it was to blow them up midair. He tried asking my father the same. Blank face. Finally, the Turk took my dad into another room, took a lighter, held it alight in front of the deo can, and sprayed the deo through the flame. He then turned to my dad and said "See - fire !". My dad stilled maintained his poker face. The guy got exasperated, and let off my dad, as a hopeless case ! )

Anyway, the airline guy looked up at N with a look that said "?". N started explaining, ofcourse. Meanwhile, both me and A, or J- as we fondly call him, went a little ahead and laughed our heads off. Later, N joined us, looking very sheepish. It turns out that the thingamujjig was an ammeter-cum-voltmeter, and that N didn't know about the explosive nature of deo cans. Luckily for him, he got to keep the deos, the razors went straight into the dustbin, and the remaining kit was given to the steward for safekeeping for the length of the flight, with instructions to hand them over to N after the flight landed safely at the other end !

That, was one hilarious experience.