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A woman with the potential to make it big. It is not that she cannot: she simply will not.
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The closest anyone has come to being an adopted daughter.

Sunday, July 10, 2011

Security stuff

My office is (possibly) the smallest in a quite big office complex. This means that the pool-car (office-cab, as per corporate jargon), has to undergo a string of security checks to enter the compound. Typically this involves
  1. Asking the driver to open the bonnet and then inspect it manually; 
  2. Asking the driver to open the boot and then inspect it manually;
  3. Placing a device that looks like a stick with a mirror at one end to inspect the bottom of the car.
The car I'm given right now is a Tata Venture, which helps me bypass points 1 and 2. But this is what intrigues me. Of course, security checks are crucial, especially since 26/11. But how effective are these checks?

For a moment, consider yourself a terrorist travelling in a Tata Venture. You have two options:
  1. Carrying a bomb or firearms inside the car and pass safely, or
  2. Using Fevikwik or Dendrite to stick the bomb underneath the car and get caught.
Which option would you choose?

***

As a great man had once claimed, airports are not the prettiest aspects of a common man's life. The worst part of them, especially over the past ten years, has been security check. The removal of jackets and shoes; taking laptops out of bags; disposal of bottles of water; suspicious looks at, well, let's not get racial here.

The most intriguing aspect, though, is the list of items one cannot carry on an aircarft as carry-on baggage. Golf clubs are fine, but the list mysteriously includes items like bows and arrows. This made me visualise:

Consider a terrorist or a hijacker, boarding an aircraft. He carries a bow, and behind him, a quiver of arrows. He accommodates the entire package within the minuscule space (built under the assumption that a position as vertical as possible and legs bent at an acute angle at the knees are the most preferred position for the average individual) allotted to every everyone.

Now, he tries to hijack the aircraft. He slowly walks out, possibly pushing his neighbour quite roughly (in case our hero had a window or a middle seat). He takes position, takes out his arrow of choice from his quiver, takes his own time to pull the bowstring, takes aim casually at one individual (with several people behind him) and asks the flight to be taken to the interiors of Tibet instead of Delhi.

Or, if the hijacker is really ambitious, he possibly goes up to the cockpit (is it just me, or does everyone else find the word obscene as well?), with an aircraft full of passengers behind him, takes aim at the pilot (and not his crew, since it's only one bow), and commands him...

7 comments:

  1. Good one! Infact, as we have discussed, I go with my bike to the same place carrying a huge bag and no checking is done!
    It is certainly assumed that either
    1. a terrorist cannot enter with a bike (he will definitely opt for a car!) or
    2. a terrorist cannot carry weapons and/or explosives within laptop bag or
    3. a person having a company i-card cannot be a terrorist!

    ReplyDelete
  2. to blow-up: a pacemaker bomb,carried safely in heart.
    can fevikwik be used to stick bombs?
    no,havnt tried.

    world seems safer fter osamas gone.

    ReplyDelete
  3. GOOD MORNING!
    This is to remind you that your birthday countdown has begun.

    <8)))--<

    ReplyDelete
  4. mm bday?
    Abi,can you do a post on request?
    take a trip down the memory lane and describe your birthdays over the years,like you described those India-pak matches in one of your posts?
    i've seen many kids tell about their bdays but never an adult.
    pleeze?

    ReplyDelete
  5. few questions.

    do you feel "safe" at your workplace.
    do you feel happy in the knowledge that VIPs are frisked too?
    cockpit is one word.why it doesn't remind you of a male hen who's shit scared and feels something at the pit of his stomach?
    what inspired this post,and what's the undertone of this post?

    ReplyDelete
  6. make that he-hen ;-)
    i'm a feminist you see.

    ReplyDelete
  7. your words were prophetic or what?
    blasts in Mumbai.
    Kasab read your blog,was outraged.

    ReplyDelete

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