Suh-cur-i-tee, Suh-cur-i-tee!

As I was getting ready this morning, I was thinking about all of the upcoming security measures I would have to pass through over the next 24 hours to get to the states and how intense they are. The security personnel at any airport are surely not a group of people I want to get on the wrong side of. They actually scare me a little bit.

It's good to know that airport security people are looking out for the dangerous ones, but there has been a lot of backlash over full body scanners and other intense measures like pat downs being seen as over-the-top and unnecessary. Honestly, I say bring it on. Because I know if they're looking at everyone intently, that means many more deterrents for those with evil agendas.

Also, as I was thinking about the large possibility that it will take me 5 hours (okay maybe only 30 minutes) to pass through the security at the airport, I remembered the security measures taken at local joints in India.

Security measures in India often make me question, "Are you for real?"

Now, too many times to count, I have been a little too close to an argument or disagreement in India. For example, if a driver does something rash on the road or skips out on paying for parking, a person walking on the road (or the parking lot attendant) may possibly attack his car by grabbing onto the open passenger window and nearly getting run over or throwing whatever object is in his hand (keys, plastic cup of chai) at the car speeding by. It doesn't make much sense to me, especially since the guy in the car normally "gets away" with little or no damage (maybe a busted tail light). But that doesn't stop the locals from yelling and trying to hold onto the car as if it was an animal they could stop by sheer force.

Also, anywhere they have potential security threats, there are always metal detectors at the front door. So when you go to a hotel, at the movie theater, or at the mall you have to walk through the arches. And often times there will be a security guard at the front door. The thing that makes me ask, "Are you for real?" is when you walk through the metal detector and it goes off (like loud alarms), and the security guard just waves you though. Or when you walk through the metal detector (and it's more than obvious that it's not on), and then the guard makes you open your purse to look inside, waves a metal detector wand at you, and let's you go on.

One of my favorite stories about security in India though happened to a good friend of mine. She's Canadian, and had been staying in India for about 6 months when she flew to take a little mini vacation somewhere in South Asia. As she was passing through the airport security, a woman pulled her aside and asked to search her bag. As she handed over her bag, the woman started pulling out various objects and asking what they were. When she came to some tampons, the woman was very confused. She pulled them out and asked what they were. My friend was a little too embarrassed to explain what they were, and the woman proceeded to shout to her coworkers while holding the bag of tampons in the air. Only after another woman explained to her that they were feminine products, she quickly placed them back in my friend's bag and said, "okay, you can go."

What makes that story the funniest is that the woman genuinely did not know what tampons were. They're not really used in India, and so it's understandable, but funny.

So that's just a little lighthearted taste of security in India.