Boarding Pass... Or Fail?

Airports have descended into a new hell. Waiting lines are longer, the food is worse. The tech, dated. A few manage to surprise

- VIR SANGHVI

I find it hard to believe that there was ever a time when I looked forward to going to airports. And yet, strangely enough, there was indeed such a time: I used to regard airports as exciting places.

In the 1970s, if you went to the departure hall of the old Santa Cruz airport in Mumbai, you would find family groups who had come to see off young men or women off to America to find a new life/to take up a job/to study/to get married. The delegation would bless the departing passenger. Garlands would be proffered. Mithai would be distributed. And licensed airport photographers (Do they still exist, I wonder?) would make them line up for group photos.

The opening scene of Richard Curtis's Love Actually is set at Heathrow's arrival area as families and friends welcome passengers with hugs and affection.

I don't know if Curtis could shoot that scene any longer. When I land at Heathrow these days, all I see are bored limo drivers holding up name cards. Sometimes I see the odd passenger- relative who is looking worried because it is taking so long for the person he or she is waiting for to emerge. ("But the flight landed three hours ago").