After a good sleep in Mumbai, we were up at 6:30a for the very short (20 minute) flight to Pune. The domestic airport in Mumbai is smaller than the international airport, but security is just as important. Each passenger's bags are scanned and each passenger is scanned with a hand-held detection device. The men & women queue up separately at one end of the large waiting room. The men are instructed to put their bags on the conveyor and then stand on a small box at the front of the line while a male security guard scans them with the metal detector. We all watch. It seems rather unnerving for the guy with his arms and legs spread wide on the box. As a woman, however, I put my bags on the conveyor, but then I enter a small curtained-off space, where I stand on a low box and a female security guard very respectfully scans me and then bows her head ever so slightly to indicate that I am secure and free to go. It's a pleasant experience. The difference in treatment sets us off on an animated discussion of women's rights and the way things "should" be. Women "should" be scanned in private with respect; however we should not take that respect so far as to say that women "should" be unable to be seen in public, nor the opposite way to say that women "should" be treated exactly the same as men, with no regard for gender. Different cultures obviously have swung their pendulum either far right or far left of center.
As we leave the Mumbai airport, heading west out over the Arabian Sea before turning left to head south-east to Pune, we pass "shanty-town," with its hundreds of cardboard boxes, which function as homes of many hundreds of people. This is the part of India that is very hard to bear.
The flight to Pune lands at my fifth airport in 2 days. We disembark, collect our bags, find our names on the signs held by the drivers from our hotel, clamber into small SUVs and head into Pune. The Central Park hotel is quite nice. We get our room assignments and I exchange some currency (about 42 Rupees to the US dollar). Then we head into the town for some lunch.
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2 comments:
Hi Jenny, Glad to see that your posts have finally come through. Of course I am up at 2AM checking! Just finishing Sam's blanket.
It sounds as if all is going very well. I saw some of the Academy Award show last night. Helen Mirren won best actress for The Queen. I'll have to ask you about it when you return.
Continue to have a good trip. I'm off to bed so I can get up and be perky for Mia & Sam tomorrow.
Love you,
Mom
Jen, love looking at your blog. Sounds interesting, have a great trip. I love all the details you give about it, it likes you can picture every detail. christy
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