A Bomb on the Plane

Getting from Goa to Kerala... Not as easy as I'd envisioned. No direct flights, and trains take 100 hours. So we had to fly through Bangalore. Bangalore, once again impresses! Nice airport! Free wifi! Good Dosas at the airport! I thought airport food was supposed to be crappy! Not in Bangalore, totally good dosas.

Well, the second leg of our trip was from Bangalore to Trivandrum. In fact, Trivandrum got one of the stupidest renamings in India's massive identity crisis a few years back.
The official name of trivandrum is now

Thiruvananthupuram. WT and F!? Why would you change it from a name that barely fit on signs to a name that not only doesn't fit on signs, but can't even be used in a thesis title because it's so long!? Give me a freaking break. And to top if all off, the difference in the way it's spoken is only one extra syllable, that 'an' in the middle. Give me a freakin' break. Anyway, none of this is the point. The point is that we flew on a little hopper flight on Kingfisher Air. (Yes, that same piece of shit brewery got big enough to have an airline!) Well, as soon as we reached Trivandrum we had to catch a bus up to Kollam, which is only 50 km, but 90 minutes on a bus (express bus that is). We got to our hotel a bit late, but made it nonetheless. No sooner than we'd gotten there than did we see a news ticker notice (on Kingfisher News btw) about a bomb on a kingfisher airlines plane from bangalore to trivandrum (yes they use bangalore and trivandrum in the news instead of bengaluru and thiruvananthapuram). HOLY HELL! Was it on OUR plane? Surely not? Maybe so. They reported no passengers were hurt as the bomb wasn't detonated.

As soon as I let that shock sink in, I realize that this will mean hell in a few days when we have to fly OUT of trivandrum. They are going to be extra careful with their screening. Oh man, that's not good. They are going to go forward with the same reactionary screening for which airport security is so notorious. React to something that ALREADY happened, and give no credence to what other bad things might happen. Yeesh! But for as much "screening" as they do at every indian airport, one would expect that a bomb wouldn't make it on a plane from india's 4th biggest airport. Oh India, how I love all your rules that do nothing more than aggravate honest citizens.