Delhi’s international Airport Upholds Its Tradition Of Chaos
- Immigration booths for foreign passport holders at the Delhi airport
I was standing at the top of an escalator at the brand spanking new international airport in Delhi. (The swanky new airport, a huge improvement on its predecessor, was recently built by the Bangalore-based GMR Group.) In front of me was an ocean of people, in queues that numbered in the 40s, waiting to get through immigration. I got down and walked past all the lines, looking for the shortest one. I was moving back to India after 8.5 years in New York. After that journey of my life, what was another 30 minutes, I thought. So I queued up in the line nearest me, plugged in my iPod, and decided to be patient while listening to OneRepublic. The illusion of organized travel ended pretty quickly.
The booth serving the line next to mine had been empty for a while. So while my line managed to inch its way forward, the folks next to me had been getting increasingly agitated as both the officers at that desk had been gone a good 20 minutes. Finally two men–they looked official in their matching gray suits–took over the booth and started to process the paperwork. Suddenly a man standing in the line started clapping loudly. “Finally,” he said loudly. “We’ve been waiting here for ever. You call your self a manager? My 13-month-old son can do a better job of managing this booth.” The rant continued with how ineffective the whole system was. Other passengers chimed in. The cowed immigration officers dropped my queue and were only processing the one next to me. Anything to get the angry man out the door, I suppose.
Life in India is never without more than its fair share of drama. I can’t wait to catalog at least some of that!