Originally Posted by
Gynob001
I wish it is true. Angry looking rude military security who don't speak english or the local language at the Chennai airport made me squirm. I asked (by mistake) whether I needed to remove laptop from an open laptop case and found myself surrounded by fierce military men.
I stood in line behind a lady from canada who told the security inspector that he looked hassled before moving away from the desk. The next in line (me) was surrounded by a dozen policemen who wanted to know what did I mean by hassled!
Sorry you had this experience.
As you noted, they can be military folks. Often, they are purposely posted in cities that are not in their home states / towns.
They should at the very least speak some broken english, and fluent hindi for sure.
in Chennai for example, you can ask for a tamil speaking person, (if you do speak Tamil)...in case you want something particularly explained to you.
If you are not confident with their language skills, best option is to communicate using minimal english such as:
First, hold your laptop in hand, then say "Laptop?"...with a question mark kind of look on your face....they will automatically direct you to place the laptop in the plastic bin.......
Similarly you can say "Belt?"....OR: "Shoes?".... Or whatever else that you want to know.