Next comes the process of checking-in. If you are lucky, the queue is short. The officers take their own sweet time to clear passengers and often by 1.00PM, the queues are more than 100m long. When passengers have still not been cleared by departure time, they are put into a fast-track lane by the airline officials who have to plead with the officers to be able to do so. This however causes even more delays for those, whose flights are a little later and this effect may snowball.
Past immigration come the customs officials.
They either give a receipt or write the item down in the passport, so that on the return journey you don't have to pay customs duty on these items. To do this, you have to remember to carry the original receipt for the item, so that there is proof of purchase in India. If the item has been purchased abroad, the purchase receipt and the customs duty receipt have to be presented. The procedure itself does not take much time, but if you forget to carry the necessary documents, things can get really sticky. There is still one more baggage check procedure to go through, before entering the security lounge.