India: Once There Was Boy Alex Who Loved His Wooden Snake…

Getting through airport security in Delhi was part of the adventure. The thing is, the airport was set up very differently from what we are used to. Even our security check was done differently—females and males had different lines to wait in (we had no idea), plus a lot more policemen and security officers walking around than you see in Europe. But the craziest thing happened WHILE we were having our carry-on bags checked…A few hours earlier that day, in Agra, Saumya bought a wooden cobra snake for Alex. Something like this, but not an alligator, and a little bigger.

Alex wanted to carry it in his hands to keep it on the plane since he loves snakes and this was such a special gift to him.

Well, when the security guard saw the snake, he said Alex is not allowed to have it on the plane. I said, “But it’s not real, it doesn’t even look real. It’s obviously a wooden toy”. They said that no snake replicas are allowed on board (they are allowed inside your checked in suitcases though).  They even were surprised to hear that we bought it in Agra as he mentioned something about not being allowed to sell stuff like that. Anyway…they saw how sad Alex was, but they said we had to leave it at the security check point anyway…and run to the information desk to find someone from Air India airline who could come get this snake and put it into our luggage.

So we ran, as boarding was almost over. Found an information desk, asked what the security guy told us, and the lady just looked at  us like we were crazy (we probably looked crazy at that point—running around to save the wooden snake?). She just waived us off to the direction of the gate, basically telling us not bother her. We ran up to the gate, trying to ask Air India personnel to help us get that snake on the plane (wasn’t there a movie called “Snakes On The Plane”?). One guy said he’d walk with Robert back to the security area to see if they can retrieve it—sounds promising, right?—but somehow three minutes later, Robert runs back saying with frustration, “This guy is not going to help us. He said there is no time, and he doesn’t want to go out of his way”. Very disappointed and just frustrated, we boarded the plane (with Robert mumbling something about never flying with Air India again). Alex was the saddest.

And then we sat, and waited, and waited for another twenty minutes (plenty of time to get the snake) because OUR family (haha)—my sister, my mom, Saumya, his parents, sister and friend were running late through security check. They said no one was letting them skip the line although their plane was leaving very soon. Anyway, because their family is friends with many pilots in Air India, planes usually wait for them in such situations-haha.

And that is the end of the story about Alex, the owner of a wooden snake for five hours.

If you ask Alex, yes, this story deserved its own post! He hopes to get another snake like that in the near future, so he is already planning his next trip to India. We shall see.

Gotta run to pick up the boys from school now.

To Be Continued…