“Do you drink this or eat this?” asked the security personnel.
It took some time for me to understand his American accent. By the time I was ready to answer, he shot another question.
“Is it Indian alcohol?”
For the first time on that trip I cursed myself for keeping that pickle bottle in my suitcase, instead of my husband’s.
Husband, standing beside me was watching the fun.
That was year 2006 and our first visit to USA. At immigration check, the officer somehow spotted this bottle in my suitcase in the scanner.
He opened the suitcase and took out the mango pickle bottle which I had very carefully sealed with lot of cellotape.
After examining it under a light, his first question was “Do you drink this or eat this?”
Yes, the mango pieces were less and juice was more in that pickle. The mango pieces were barely visible in the bottle.
His second question was “Is it Indian alcohol?”
To this I managed to answer “No that is Indian pickle”
He looked perplexed and examined it more carefully by rotating it in his hand. While rotating he could see the mango pieces.
“So this is Indian pickle!” he said with a smile.
My anxiety vanished. “Yes it is” I said.
“Ok, you can take this” he said.
I heaved a sigh of relief. Later that night my son and daughter in law enjoyed the pickle with curd rice while we narrated the incident at the immigration security check.
Image source: Via Google