As if removing your shoes and checking in three hours early, or having your eyes scanned and fingers printed weren’t enough, there is yet another airport travel safety measure added to the list. Yep, no liquids on board. Systematically, air travel has moved from a fairly pleasant affair to a cumbersome and at times humiliating experience.

If you’re not being asked to walk through a metal detector or a ‘puffer’ machine (which by the way is set up at quite a few airports in the U.S.), you have to remove your belts and have your luggage thoroughly searched. People feel like criminals just trying to get from one country to another. I guess we can take solace in the hope that with all these measures in place we might arrive alive -- that some crazed person might not blow the plane to pieces.

Thanks to a recently reported foiled terrorist attack in London, the luxury of having hand lotion, lip gloss, toiletries, water (yes! water) and other liquids and gels are strictly prohibited in carryon luggage or to take with you on your person. Not even items such as alcohol and perfumes purchased in the airport duty-free shops are allowed on board. All these items have to be checked.

In addition gadgets such as ipods, cell phones and other electronics are also restricted. What are we really doing? When will this paranoia and panic end? Sure, we’re aware that there are risks involved, and that security is essential, however, we cannot help but think some things border on the absurd. If we continue in this vein, we will, in essence, transport people like high-risk criminals. Where exactly are we going to draw the line, so that people feel like people when they travel?

One would assume that since 9/11 the officials in charge of national security, including air travel, would have conducted intense analyses to ensure that all loopholes that terrorists could use to stage attacks on the society are closed. This would alert these officials to the fact that liquid could be used to make bombs, and small electronics, as decoy for explosives. Therefore the security could have initiated the required controls to prevent these items being used as weapons. The ad-hoc manner in which controls, especially on domestic and international flights, are applied is absolutely frustrating, and ironically creates cynics out of travelers. Imagine, some travelers were overheard asking whether these bomb threats were not politically motivated. This is sad, because of course the threats could be real. What we really need is a comprehensive, anti-terrorist policy that covers all types of travel, sea and rail included, and not this erratic type that creates alerts every so often.

So, grudgingly, in the name of security we travel on, because sadly, in this global world, equipped with video conference calls, the Internet, blackberries and other such electronic innovations one cannot boycott flying… we imagine.