The Betaal at Airport Security

As we were going to Goa on a weekday, the airport queues were quite short. As luck would have it, both the slots of the ladies’ security check queues were empty at the same time. So my wife told our 11 yo daughter to go in one while she went in the other.

 

The lady doing the security check asked my daughter where she was going. Panic stricken, my daughter yelled for help, “Amma!”. This from the same kid who will talk incessantly all the time. The one who can speak a mile a minute. The girl who can argue about any topic under the sun, even when she has no clue about the matter. But ask Miss Chatterbox a simple query with a one-word answer, and suddenly she is dumbstruck. Like the betaal had finally posed the question for which even Vikram does not have the answer.

 

The two ladies doing the security check had a hearty laugh. Like they were expecting just such a reaction. That this was par for the course among kids. A way for them to liven things up at work.

 

I wonder if airport folks have a term for this phenomenon – maybe even a cool one like “broken arrow” from the John Travolta movie by the same name:

“I don't know what's scarier, losing nuclear weapons, or that it happens so often there's actually a term for it.”

Except this one is funny.

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