airports makeover

wi_fi airports scream newspaper headlines!Chennai airport that too.We can take over laptops with us and while waiting for the boarding call(or even thereafter as we have seen on many occasions)you can browse the net and send mails at any place within the airport.How cool is that.Only it excites some of us,the bulk of travelling youngsters take it as a given.
Airports were glorified cattle sheds not many years earlier.And when you get off the aircraft,musty smell of decaying stuff used to hurt the nostrils.Of course the courtesies and comforts that we take for granted were non existent.Multiple counters of the airlines was not common.Long queues were.The counter clerks being casual and rude was common.A small courtesy of a whell chair for a handicapped person was taken as a big concession.Waiting lounges did not believe in providing chairs which were comfortable.And the public announcement system used to be so muffled and garbled.One never knew what was being announced.
Did you know that your hand luggage which goes through the x ray machine while you are getting frisked could be stolen?It did happen recently to a friend and the airport staff were not being friendly when they kept saying "nobody would take your bag away". But they did!It was frustrating to keep repeating the same thing and then when she said she does not have a single rupee or credit card on her person and all that is inside the bag; more than that the person will be in the concourse and well guarded.would not have vamoosed.Then they got their act together and thankfully by then the person who flicked(?) her bag returned it with a sheepish expression.Lesson drawn by this experience is that she carries a handbag which cannot be mistaken for any other handbag.It is made of fluorescent material and is bulky and not enticing anybody to carry it away even absent mindedly.She had a funny looking,funny shaped bag when i met her in the airport and this is the story she narrated!
So have an x ray eye on that precious bag of yours while you are being frisked.