Airports

Guest Blogger: Pardeep

Hey peeps. I am LOVING the new America! It’s made airplane travel sooooo much easier. Flying used to be easy for me but then 9/11 and all. Shout-out to you Jamal, I know you didn’t have it easy before the whole terrorism thing. But since then, I have had to get to airports an extra hour or two early to allow for extra search and possible interrogation. Every time I fly to Ohio for a family gathering I get asked “where are you really going?” Then my ticket is flagged for “special search” which can take an unpredictable amount of time depending on how many times I have to re-wrap my turban. Then I end up having to be manually scanned by some guy with a baseball bat shaped wand because I can’t take off my Kara and they never believe that it’s not some kind of weapon (I don’t know how to kill someone with a bracelet, do you?). I don’t even want to talk about what they do with my beard. A few times I rented a car instead, it was actually faster (and less humiliating) than flying.

But NOW….I sail right through! In fact, last time I flew the TSA looked at my boarding pass, called me by name, with a Mr. in front of it, cautioned me to stay warm because Ohio is having a rough winter, and waved me through when my bracelet set off the metal detector. “No worries,” said the attendant, “have a good visit with your family. Make sure you come back though, we’d miss you if you were gone for too long.”