Vacation in India continued...

So as I was saying in my previous post, I was on vacation in India for two good weeks. As soon as I returned from India, I was drowned in a big sea of work which did not allow me to even visit this blog, updating was out of question.

The work was so boring after 14 days of good time away from it that I could not get my engine started. But it is life and one has to get used to it and as I am writing this I am getting back to my normal behaviour at work.

I will not talk about my work here, but as promised write about the Indian experience, so here it is:

On the morning of that particular day I along with my friend the IT professional plus my other friend the PHD* candidate for the last 15 years arrived to Kabul International Airport on time. The security at KAIA did not disappoint us and as usual we were checked a dozen times and all our private parts violated.

My PHD candidate friend of last 15 years was stopped by Afghan Police at KAIA and every time they asked him for his passport and papers, he was given special treatment all the way and it was very frustrating on me and my other friend that Why were they treating him eeeessspecially and treating us like very normal people?

Anyways, we got our passports the exit stamp and once in the security of transit hall (if you will call it) I complained to my friend and showed my displeasure at the fact that he was treated with so much care?!
My PHD candidate friend for last 15 years told me that when the immigration officer put the exit stamp on his passport (after thorough checking off course) the police next told him that KAIA police had suspected him to be a Pakistani so that is why he was treated like royalty!

It is good the KAIA guys didn't do this with me as I would have told them that at least biologically speaking every body comes from the same place (sorry for my French) and that geographically coming from Pakistan or Afghanistan should not entail eeessspeecial treatment.

What can I say; KAIA police and immigration do not have the word disappointment in their dictionary!!

I will leave them there and move to the next topic, Delhi airport and Immigration.
Well, they are not so different than their counterparts at KAIA. What struck me with Delhi immigration was the fact that most of the immigration officers did not know some very basic general information about Afghanistan.

The guys who was putting the entry stamp on my passport was arguing that Osama Bin Laden is an Afghan warrior of a dangerous breed and that all of the 9/11 pilots (suicide bombers) were Afghans.

I tried humbly to tell him that Comrade Osama is Saudi national and that most of the pilots (he called them pilots) were also Saudi nationals.

Delhi immigration almost deported me back to the land of opportunities (Afghanistan) when I told them to read some newspapers or books and try to learn about issues before making wrong judgements! But then I shut up on time and quit lecturing.

I latter found out why Delhi Immigration officers had a very narrow minded view about Afghanistan when I watched the very dramatic Indian news channels for two consecutive nights for 10 minutes only.

A minute does not pass on Indian news channels without very graphic breaking news about Taliban and Al Qaeda.

It's like breaking news 24/7!

Normally you get 1 or 2 breaking news a day and even for that you have to be lucky, but on Indian news channels there is no shortage of breaking news blocking the whole damn tv screen with graphics!

See below the examples of some breaking news from Indian news channels.

(FLUSHING ON SCREEN, BOLD AND IN RED)
- BREAKING NEWS "25 Taliban ready to enter India"
- BREAKING NEWS "Baitullah Mehsud supports Pakistan against India" (What?)
- BREAKING NEWS "I am going to finish the Taliban if I am elected PM" L.K Advani
- BREAKING NEWS "Ajmal Kassab is an Adult"

To summarise it is not the first time that I have witnessed discrimination and prejudice against Afghans in airports around the world and a lot of time and effort is needed to educate people that the very first victims of international terrorism are the Afghan people and we have suffered the most from comrade Osama and his band of terrorists.

The depressingly funny part is that our own Kabul International Airport police and immigration authority is the biggest culprit in this regard!!!

On the other hand,, I hope the Indian media will start to get serious and do not blow news out of proportion; they can also get rid of BOLD LETTERS IN RED which are simply scary.

I will write about the rest when and if I have time (sorry for being so rude)

*PHD stands for Passed High School with Difficulty