Fanaa in security
In a fit of tech lust and sentimentality, I flew into Delhi on a whim to see what I’m tired of seeing on BBC News and never in person. I speak of course of Sikhs in bagpipes and tartan and sleek silver death machines: Delhi’s Republic Day Parade from Rashtrapati Bhavan to the Red Fort via India Gate. Vladimir Putin was the guest of honor at the Republic Day parade and looked thoroughly bored during the folk dances. I saw him on TV — never made it past security and decamped to Khan Market to watch on a cafe screen.
Security in India is a preview for how bad it could get in America. Here you already have mandatory bag searches, wands, pat-downs and bag check when you’re going to the mall or watching a movie. They seize the chance to confiscate cameras to prevent copyright infringement (mission creep), but can usually be bought off by popping the battery out of the machine.
At the parade this morning, they were forcing people to throw away pens and lip balm and turning away those with mobile phones. I wasn’t particularly attached to my phone and tried paying a chaiwalla and a restroom attendant to hang onto it for me; both declined. I spent the next 20 minutes trying to look inconspicuous in front of burly Sikhs in camo turbans, manning sandbag bunkers and jeep-mounted machine guns. Looking for a place to stash the phone, I slipped the SIM chip out and stuck the phone in a plastic bag under a newspaper and leaves. The whole thing was hidden between a telephone switch and a brick wall.
When I got back to the security gate, I learned that the camera wouldn’t be allowed either. What’s the point of a parade without a camera! I considered sneaking in but the risk of being shot seemed to outweigh the reward. Fortunately the phone was still in its sad little hiding place. I missed the horsemen, the tanks, the airshow, and watched it all on cable.
Fortunately I’ve got tickets to the return parade in a couple of days, ‘Beating Retreat.’ It’s supposedly prettier but carries a much less phallic name. The purpose of this parade is apparently to return a hundred tanks to their original location without inciting panic about an invasion. The marching bands are just icing :)
Every Delhi-ite I’ve mentioned this to knows about the no-mobile, no-camera restrictions. Just not the 30 family members I talked to before hand. They didn’t think to mention it. Why would they? It’s common knowledge.
Happy Republic Day.
on Friday, January 26th, 2007, 3:43 pm in Holidays, Military, Music › 
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If you meant to do harm, that’s how easy it is. And absolutely nothing can be done about it. Depressing.
Manish, i really wonder why nobody told you this…..kinda’ unfair to you (but like you said everybody knows it-BTW, is it your first time in Delhi?). but what you describe, and what JayV refers to is really scary. No jokes, these things ahev ebcome a rule of life. Its not too uncommon to get chills if you spot an unattended bag. JayV, i agree its really depressing.
Just a friendly note, please be more careful in future…..because you can imagine the consequences of what could have happened…..
Manish, since Beating Retreat is at sunset, and is or used to be done with camels silhouetted in the turrets of Rashtrapati Bhavan, and very sophisticated marching about and soft and complicated drumming by Army Navy and Air force going on, it was and must still be quite gorgeous. Then they play Abide With Me on bells, like a Bye, Nice Knowin’ Ya farewell to the British (originally, as I was told as a child, since beating retreat was also once used to withdraw troops), and then they go off playing Saare Jahan Se Achha, so there.
After 9′11 in US , bombay blasts.. the world is never the same..
Its good to be overcautious though, better safe than sorry right.,sometimes I like all the security precautions they are taking..
Take care Manish, nothing is more precious than ur life..those photographs are not worth all the pains…
I wonder sometimes what will happen to individual freedom and rights when I look at todays world with taping phone messages, monitoring emails and wonder if there is any place in this world we can walk in freely without fear…
I pray things get better in this world and world becomes peaceful again…
Nope, was born there.