After one month away from home, attending garment fairs across the West Indies, we were completely exhausted after 22 hours of transit at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport. We were desperate for sleep. So when we boarded the Mumbai-bound Northwestern Airlines plane, the first thing I did was to strap my seat-belt and prepare to sleep after take-off.

There are four seats in the middle of the plane, all in one row, between where my friend and I were. So I decided to stretch out. After take-off, I unstrapped myself, settled down for a nap. After approximately 20-25 minutes of flying time, we heard an announcement that the plane was being taken back to Schiphol due to security reasons. Technical snag, I thought, as I got up. Then, the shock of my life. Dutch security officers, some in black, some in black and blue, came and arrested all 12 of us, all of us from Mumbai.

Once we were out, they examined our hand-baggage, our baggage was summoned, identified and checked. They found nothing. The airport police didn’t ask us anything other than the names. They didn’t need to. After all, they had our passports, that had all the details. The only question in my mind was yeh kya ho raha hai? Hum toh businessmen hain, okay hain, everything about us is legitimate. Oh, and there was another foreigner, long-haired, shaayad hippie tha, who was also taken away by the police. He said something harsh to the police when we were being taken away.

... contd.