What follows is a completely dehumanising experience. One officer takes away your passport, another your hand baggage, the third looks at your personal belongings and the fourth takes you with him. A special machine that you pass through blows air from head to toe, in search of banned material. Your belt, shoes, wallet, chains, laptop are removed and tested for unwanted material. Even a beep would subject you to further humiliation. You are subjected to a public strip search while others pass by giving suspicious/sympathetic glances. Your bags are zipped out and returned with everything hanging out.
By the time the ordeal is over, I feel my bile rising. I'm returning home after a long and successful trip, but the smile is gone. My feet carried my body and pride to an isolated place. I felt violated, mutilated and molested. As I wear my belt, tuck my shirt in and wear the shoes, I feel like a streetwalker, being bedded against my will. These are the new-age security measures but I look at them with increasing suspicion. Why only me, all the time?
I shared my experience with an international publisher and he said he has seen this happening to Asians often. He offered to come to India to discuss business to spare me this humiliation again. I hope others would do likewise. Does this policy of discrimination and exclusion make them more secure? Does the policy of arming themselves to the teeth, this paranoia, make them feel safer? While the security agencies scan me, would someone put the policies that brought about this change under the scanner too?
I had promised my son that I will take him on a holiday to America. I have decided to break my promise. He will understand.
