(continued from Part 1).
It was still roughly 20min to departure if I remember right, when we entered the security check point area. It had the usual "keep-everything-out-walk-through-scanner" set up, excepting that there were separate queues for men and women. With my patience running out, I felt like screaming, "am I in a queue for a restroom or what". With me and my son in the men's queue and my wife and infant daughter in the women's, I waited for my turn to come up to pass through the check point, only to realize that my wife, with the infant in hand, could not fold the stroller. Ok. Out of my line, I got near her and got the stroller thing going. Having lost my place in line, we started from the back again. Thankfully, the queue had not swelled up in the mean time.
Finally, we got the chance to take out our laptop, wallet, belt, iPad etc etc and went through the sacred gate. Then a metal detector pat down for me and, lo and behold, for the 6yr old too. I saw our stuffs coming out of the scanner box on the other side and I started putting the laptop and ipad back in their places. Then I heard the security guy in the police fatigue on the other side ask out "Is this your bag?". Even though time was running out, I kept calming myself that he is not the person to let it out to. But then, he surprised me by pointing out to my son's carry on - his pull-man bag with all his toys, books etc. (You really want to check a 6yr old's carry on..Thanks Murphy)..Little did I realize, Murphy has not made his entrace yet. So, the office took out the pullman and opened it with utmost caution. Lifted the few books slowly, and very cautiously pulled out something. I was about to faint. My son's plastic toy gun !!! Two of them..!! Real-life size and made to scale ..(Thank the chinese)..!! I could only imagine how it might have showed up in the x-ray scanner screen. No wonder they were serious. Since it was India and I usually pass on for a decent guy there, they did not question me or embarrass me further. I was told I cannot have it. I just nodded silently. They asked for the boarding pass - my son's that too- to record it as a "confiscation". (Drum's roll !!) My son got the first distinction in my khandhaan to be flagged for carrying a weapon through security check point in broad light. The beauty of it all was, while the officer was recording this in his book with the toy gun next to him, my son, watching all this, approached me and with a voice indicative of being close to tears, asked, "Appa, will they give the toy gun back or not ?".
In the excitement of this drama, with all the fellow travelers watching it without a word, I had failed to notice the few young men and a lady, formally dressed, with walkie talkies standing next to us. Only when one of them started talking in his handset did I realize their presence. "Gate, we have located the last passenger at security check. Over". Oh yeah. Singapore airline officials. Waiting for us. Just for us. Not just them. But a whole plane of fellow travelers too waiting for us. Another first in my life- not only are we the last passengers to board the plane but the whole plane of people was waiting for us..just us. Those hapless guys were frantically searching for us in the whole airport with our names announced on the PA too. But with a "weapon confiscation" enacting in front of me, you could have blown an atom bomb for all I cared, let alone a PA announcement. One of the young men bolstered the courage to suggest to me "Sir, you could have put this toy in the check in baggage sir".
Looks like the our plane to Singapore was not fully booked so all the passengers have already boarded even though we had a good 10min before the planned departure. So, our whole family was escorted safely (so that we dont cause further delay) by four airline officals, one for each of us, hauling our carry on luggage for us. As if our experience was not enough so far, there was a final security check of the baggage on the aerobridge connecting the gate to the plane. My wife had lost her patience by now. She exclaimed out loud frustratingly "another security check ??". That one comment alone, at any other country would have meant a heap of trouble for us, would have made sure we miss our flight and get subjected to a barrage of questioning. For the first time, I thanked heavens we were in India then. The security people there, though they heard her comments, not only did they ignore it but did not doubt our travel intentions as well and with a smile, let us go without checking.
Never in the past 11 years, in the so many India trips, had I felt so relieved, on entering a return flight from India.
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