Security

The world has surely changed. Everybody in the world is more security-conscious these days, but it's present in spades in India. Soldiers and security people with guns are at every temple, toll booth, tourist spot, main street corners, and all over airports and train stations. Virtually every office building and upscale store has private security people.

Every carry-on bag is screened and stamped, then that stamp is double-checked before you board a plane, past the soldier with a weapon standing next to each boarding door (and at the other end, when you depart). In Delhi and Mumbai armed men surrounded each plane while it boarded and refueled. They even check boarding passes as you leave the plane.

The private security industry must have mushroomed in the past year, since the attack on the Taj Hotel and Victoria Station in Mumbai. Those men hijacked a fishing boat, killed the crew, and approached Mumbai from the sea in the middle of the night.









We stayed in the JW Marriott Hotel in Mumbai; Marriotts have also been repeatedly attacked around the world, and this is surely a microcosm. Security here starts with closed iron gates, opened for each vehicle. Then there are four solid steel posts, 12” in diameter, which must be lowered to let each vehicle in or out of the hotel drive. Each vehicle is searched by at least 4 people, who look under the hood, in the trunk, in the passenger compartment, one of whom has a bomb-sniffing dog. (Many places also use mirrors to check the undercarriage.)

Approaching the front door, every item (including all your luggage) is passed through an airport-type x-ray scanner, every person walks through an airport screener, and is then manually frisked. Women are screened by females, behind screens, but are similarly frisked. Finally, you're invited to enter the lobby. But if you're attentive, you also noticed the permanent bunkers on the sidewalk outside the hotel, and near the back entrance by the beach. These are occupied by men with machine guns, 24/7. And there's at least one sniper on the roof. People in security uniforms, wearing communication headsets, wander throughout the hotel at all times. There are cameras in every hallway. Room keys are needed to access any floor in the hotel, except the lobby.


The back entrance, facing the beach, is carefully guarded. The hotel is walled off by a 10' stone wall, about 12" thick. There is one gate, manned by a security guard 24/7, who has a list of hotel guests and room numbers. You must sign out and receive hotel ID to walk out to the beach. The door is solid wood with a lock the size of my fist. One small panel opens, and the door is not opened without visual contact and communication between the guards on both sides. Inside the wooden door is another, solid steel door, which is more bullet-proof.
[By the way, these pictures were downloaded from the internet.  For some reason, we were reluctant to ask men with guns to pose for us and say "cheese."]

There are constant celebrations here. People at the hotel next door have fired off firecrackers, several times a day or night, for the five days we've been here. One of the two men in the bunker on the beach is about 25 years old. I can't imagine a scarier or more thankless job.