CHECK MATE

As a security guard,our correspondent turns a bag voyeur as she peek s into the mess inside fancy totes and gets used to the music of metal detectors...

As a security guard,our correspondent turns a bag voyeur as she peek s into the mess inside fancy totes and gets used to the music of metal detectors
Uniforms of all kinds have always fascinated me. But to don the uniform of a private security firm and act out as the female security in-charge is a different ball game all together. Yet here I was,headed to the Centreport Mall in Pune,to become the security guard for the evening.

I was in a shirt two sizes too large and a metal detector half the size of a tennis racquet. I got down to the job of checking womens handbags and conducting a thorough check of their persons. But before that,Sagar Yadav,the security supervisor,briefed me about the right way to do it. Dont hold the metal detector on for too long. Or else the battery will conk off! he warned. All ready for the grind,I anxiously awaited the first female customer to set foot in the mall.

The minutes ticked by but only men,of all age-groups and social strata,trickled in. My photojournalist friend,waiting patiently for the first good photo-op quipped,Why not frisk a couple of men to begin with? Just for the experience! I grimaced at him,getting frisky was not the point here.

And so,I resumed my lookout for a female buyer. Meanwhile,I got into a conversation with 26-year-old Saira Sheikh,the real life security guard. Saira told me that although some customers give trouble,most of them are cooperative. Of how her shift lasts nine hoursand that implies nine hours of being on her feet,quick frisking and thorough checking.

Our banter was soon interrupted by the arrival of a middle-aged woman along with her son. Carrying a huge bag,she sauntered up the steps,opened her bag for inspection,went through the body check and was gone,all in a matter of seconds. One down,several to go,I thought. Five minutes after the lady walked through the malls entrance,it seemed someone had opened a floodgate somewhere. For,where there had been a rarity of women,now it appeared as if all the women in Pune had somehow decided to make the mall their destination for the evening.

In they strolled,middle-aged and sprightly,chic and traditional,in burkhas or noodle straps,some even clicked pictures against the imposing glass exterior of the shopping mall before walking in. Some women were cooperative,others not quite so,yet others in a hurry to get it over and done with and still some more definitely cheesed off about the check.

And then there were the ladies handbags,in sufficient variety and number,to give an exclusive Hermes store a complex. They ranged from the uber-chic ones Fendi and Marc Jacob to those bought for less than Rs 100 off Laxmi Road and Hong Kong Lane. As I opened one of them and placed the detector inside,it started screeching,much to the dismay of the other security agents. The lady in question,though,had an explanation. Rolled up in a cotton handkerchief were gold chains,which she had just taken out from her locker. After being done with shopping,she intended to give it for safekeeping to a relations house,where a wedding was to take place. Positively dazzled by all the gold and a little weary of listening to the long,winding tale of the gold chains,I looked forward to the next handbag.

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And it was not to be long before I,or should it be my hand,holding the metal detector,got to ravish another purse,this time a Louis Vuitton. Never feeling more like a voyeur than at this particular moment,I was eager to take a peek in.

The insides of this tote,though,were as disappointing as the exterior seemed enticing,for it was a mess of a purse,with lipsticks,loose change and credit cards lying haphazardly all over the place. In short,it was the most stereotypical ladys handbag,one that would have given male chauvinists a rollicking time dissecting it and its contents.

Conducting the body search was another matter and sometimes not quite expected. Some women were decidedly uneasy about it,while others just went through the drill.
My metal detector went from beep to squealing beep and was just about to give up,having searched so many specimens of the female gender,when at last,it was time to call it a day.

The once bustling main street now had fewer vehicles and lesser noise; the mall itself was,minute by passing minute,going into a slumber,with fewer footfalls. The shutters were definitely coming down on my one-of-its-kind assignment which will stay on with me for a while.