I've flown in over 55 countries, but the worst country to fly in (for me) is India because of the security check process. I almost always carry cameras & lenses. They make you take out every camera, every lens, spare batteries, power banks, etc., besides the usual things like laptops, belts, etc. It takes me a while to take all that [stuff] out. And then you have crowds of people pressing against you and sometimes they simply walk ahead of you as you're laying out everything that needs to be taken out. The worst is that you lose line of sight as you go through the body scanner and your trays go through on the conveyor belt. The lag between when you let go of your trays and when you're reunited with them could be several minutes and spatially distant depending on the airport and the crowds. I'm always nervous that an employee or a fellow-traveler can easily pick up a camera or lens. (I usually don't care about material stuff, but laptops, phones, cameras & lenses are very important to me.) Yes, there are security cameras all over and if someone were the swipe something from your tray there's a high chance that the perp will be caught, but who wants the hassle of complaining to the police and tracking down the perp when you're rushing to catch your flight? I once popped into the office of the head of security at one of the airports and talked to him about why people and their stuff aren't more or less synchronized as it is everywhere else in the world. He did admit that stuff gets stolen routinely and almost always the perp is caught. So I asked him, why they don't streamline the process? He smiled and shrugged.

The combination of draconian rules, disorienting crowds & lag between when you and your stuff get scanned makes flying in India to be particularly stressful for me. Never felt this level of stress anywhere else in the world.

So the question is: are there tricks/hacks you've figured out that can make the whole process less stressful?