International passengers carry interesting baggages, I do, do you?????

Hey friends, there was an interesting write-up in Times Of India where they found out that Indian passengers carry very interesting baggages from their homeland, some even mangoes and noodles too.

Middle east is the place where we get all the Indian products at Indian stores.  But, again if one is on the look out for a particular brand, then I am not sure if it is available.  I have known people carrying fresh jasmine flowers too as the travel time is only three hours from India.  On the personal front,  I find the spices are much more aromatic in India and feel that if I prepare Sambar powder with Indian stuff, the flavour is so authentic.  This stands first in my list of packages from Chennai.  Mustard seeds of that minute size is not available here,so I carry enough to last a few months.  Of course, goodies from Grand sweets or Adyar Ananda Bhavan is a must and my friends wait for those too.  Being a grandmom,  my mind is always on the look out for something unique that I can carry to US for my daughters and grand children especially the typical cotton clothes.

Back to my problem of what to carry and what not, as I visit US quite often, but annoyed by the recent restriction of the baggage weight. These airlines have become smart over the period. Earlier days, we were permitted to carry 2 baggages of 35 kgs each, and now only one baggage of 23 kg. Imagine 68% reduction in carrying capacity. This is very hard on us who wish to carry the entire world to our children and grand children. This family unfriendly decision by the Airlines industries is a great hurdle in promoting family values !!!. Here goes the list from Abu Dhabi to US. My relatives, friends and neighbours love to have the choco dates. It is a unique combination of dates stuffed with roasted almonds and dipped in milk chocolates packed attractively and provides the royal touch. Fresh motichooooor laddoo, how can I forget, at least a couple of kg from Chappanbogh is a must item. I prefer to carry plenty of Saggeei dates, nuts and Arabic sweets to give them the Middle east touch. So, having stuffed my suitcase with Chennai and Abu Dhabi purchases (remember 23 kgs), where is the scope for my personal items. Most of them goes into hand baggage and my husband will carry out inventory balancing and adjust the weights as if he would be in a position to hoodwink the checkin counter staff.

In reality,  to walk through with  hand bag  3 to 4 kgs above the limit,  brings out my hidden natural artist in me  every  time I check in at the airport.

At the airport, the check in bag cleared with 26 kgs  mmmmmm  great relief.  ‘Ma’m how about your hand baggage?’  My highly expressive enactment satisfied the counter staff  that it is not much beyond the permissible limit and here I gooooooooo.   What an effort to avoid few kgs of excess baggage. In spite of all this, I end up paying excess baggage most of the time, as I cannot forego some of the above items en route.

In my opinion, the body weight and the luggage weight  of the person should be a combined limit, so that sleek person like me can gain advantage !!!!!!!!!!