There is a state run guest house at Malabar Hill, Mumbai. Ministers and high-up government officials stay there and also hold important meetings there. The security has to be very good at such a place. The health university holds a workshop on the same topic once a year at this secure place, and invites us there. It is painful listening to the same topics, the same speakers, and the same content year after year. But that is not the topic of the post today. The topic is the security at that place.
They have a tall fence with spikes at the top, so that no criminal or terrorist can climb over it. The gates are manned by multiple security guards. They look at you suspiciously. If you do not get discouraged and retreat, they open the gate and ask you what your business is. When you proffer documents to support your business there, they scrutinize them with suspicion. One wonders if they can read the documents in English. They do not move their lips when the look at the documents. Then they ask you for an identity card. If it is printed in English or Marathi, they ask which place you have come from. I am yet to know any language of printing the cards that they read and accept. If they are satisfied, they let you in. There is no checking the insides and undersides of cars which go in. The metal detectors do not work. They do not frisk you like they do at the airports.
The first time I went there, I was not prepared. I had no proof of identity with me, because the letter of invitation had not asked me to get any. I thought it was a free country and I was an important part of that country. They did not think so. The letter was not enough to get me in. They had to be sure I was who I claimed to be. I told them I would go away, and they would have to explain why I went away without attending the meeting. I could not understand what was threatening in the appearance of an elderly and frail looking doctor.
"I can recite the steps of performing a vaginal hysterectomy. That should prove I am a gynecologist" I wanted to say. But if our students did not want to hear those steps from us, these policemen would surely not be interested too, even if it was offered as proof. Finally they let me in reluctantly. At the end of the day they were not sorry they did, because no one blew up the guest house that day.
Just to prove that the security was lousy, I carried a color photocopy of my identity card in plastic lamination the next time. They looked at it gravely like they looked at everything, and let me in. They apparently did not know that terrorists and criminals carry fake IDs which are much better done than the one I carried. I have carried that same photocopy every time, and different security guards have let me in every time. I hope the people who frequent this guest house read this post and beef up the security there. Next time I plan to carry my original ID card and the photocopy, in case they will have beefed up the security. I will do that though I have serious doubts about them reading any blogs.
They have a tall fence with spikes at the top, so that no criminal or terrorist can climb over it. The gates are manned by multiple security guards. They look at you suspiciously. If you do not get discouraged and retreat, they open the gate and ask you what your business is. When you proffer documents to support your business there, they scrutinize them with suspicion. One wonders if they can read the documents in English. They do not move their lips when the look at the documents. Then they ask you for an identity card. If it is printed in English or Marathi, they ask which place you have come from. I am yet to know any language of printing the cards that they read and accept. If they are satisfied, they let you in. There is no checking the insides and undersides of cars which go in. The metal detectors do not work. They do not frisk you like they do at the airports.
The first time I went there, I was not prepared. I had no proof of identity with me, because the letter of invitation had not asked me to get any. I thought it was a free country and I was an important part of that country. They did not think so. The letter was not enough to get me in. They had to be sure I was who I claimed to be. I told them I would go away, and they would have to explain why I went away without attending the meeting. I could not understand what was threatening in the appearance of an elderly and frail looking doctor.
"I can recite the steps of performing a vaginal hysterectomy. That should prove I am a gynecologist" I wanted to say. But if our students did not want to hear those steps from us, these policemen would surely not be interested too, even if it was offered as proof. Finally they let me in reluctantly. At the end of the day they were not sorry they did, because no one blew up the guest house that day.
Just to prove that the security was lousy, I carried a color photocopy of my identity card in plastic lamination the next time. They looked at it gravely like they looked at everything, and let me in. They apparently did not know that terrorists and criminals carry fake IDs which are much better done than the one I carried. I have carried that same photocopy every time, and different security guards have let me in every time. I hope the people who frequent this guest house read this post and beef up the security there. Next time I plan to carry my original ID card and the photocopy, in case they will have beefed up the security. I will do that though I have serious doubts about them reading any blogs.
