The Counter Strike Like Drill

Arriving at the Airport some six hours before your flight can be a nuisance. However, for as long as I can remember I have been doing exactly that- reaching the airport at midnight for an early morning flight. This time, however, I was about to witness something different.

As I approached the entry with my ticket, something did not seem right. The lights inside were dimmed. Maybe I was too tired that it appeared so, maybe the little sleep prior to that had caused this. The security guard without even glancing at my ticket said there would be no entry before 2 AM. A good two hours had to be spent before I could enter. I went into the adjacent waiting room...

The bad thing about the waiting room in Terminal 1D is that there are no charging ports. With my laptop's battery in the sunset of its life, there was no way I could start it. I decided to take out my camera instead.

The Nikon L120 is not designed for night photography. Each photograph had to be taken with utmost care and needless to say, after a few tens of photographs, I was tired. That is the time I turned around and the sight surprised me.

I had noticed a few trucks parked nearby- probably cargo- these things are present at the airport anyways. However, what was different this time around was that there were around fifty armed people in black near them, or probably more. They were taking their positions.

Was the airport under attack? Were there hostages inside? Was it the reason we hadn't been allowed to enter earlier? Well, for three reasons, none of this was possible. First, the security guard earlier had told me earlier that we would be allowed at 2; even though the Indian SWAT was taking position, the security guards were in a light mood. Thirdly, Google had no mention of anything (and there were no reporters, and I was not being told me move away in spite of being incredibly close...)

I came to the conclusion that it was probably just a drill. It was fun to watch nonetheless! The way they were taking cover; their formation; and the masks on top of that! In fact, I noticed a few flashes inside, flash-bangs maybe? Some had high tech guns, others were controlling whatever those LCD screens did, the very few left outside were giving orders through their walkie-talkies- perhaps the strategists. As they were entering, I could feel as if I was controlling them. It looked so real, hell, it was indeed real- I just didn't have a controller! I had my camera, but didn't click any picture- as I wouldn't put it online anyways(security threat?). It was indeed Counter Strike- only this time, we had the Counter Terrorists dressed as the traditional terrorists, and nothing else.

All this took over an hour, and we were allowed in soon after. Although it did delay the entry on top of the fact that I was tired, it was totally worth the wait!