I traveled to Nepal this week, and for some reason my suitcase took a detour through Manila and Seoul. When I finally retrieved it yesterday and unpacked, I found two packages of kalonji seeds in my bag. They were all the way at the bottom, so someone lifted all my clothes to put them in there.
The obvious question is why? My two wild guesses:
maybe they smell like some illegal drug and airport security was testing their drug-sniffing dogs. This seems highly unlikely.
something in my bag looked odd on the x-ray, so security opened it up to take a look. These packages were in some other bag that was also being inspected, and the contents got mixed up when the bags were repacked. This seems more likely but is also a very boring explanation.
I’m reminded of my foreign seed escapade from many years ago. I bought a few packets of seed in England at the Chelsea Flower Show to bring back home. One of them was of an ornamental poppy (Papaver somniferum) that I thought might raise eyebrows going through customs, so I discarded the paper packet and put the seeds into another packet containing lupin seeds.
The customs guy looked at me funny anyway. “Lupins??” he said, doubtfully.
While in Saint Martin a few weeks ago, we visited ParrotVille as we always do. It’s a big screen building with various parrot species flying free. When you enter the place they give you a cup on a stick, filled with seeds. Birds land on your cup to eat seeds, creating photo ops.
There are quail and other ground birds that tidy up spilled seed, but there is still a sign that says, “Please do not spill your seed upon the ground”. I always chat with the guy who owns the place. This year I asked him about the new sign. He laughed, yes he was making a biblical joke.
I appreciate all the speculation. Another question: you find unknown kalonji seeds in your suitcase. They are in unopened, commercially produced bags. Do you eat them?
My gut reaction is no way. But then…maybe they were put there for a reason. Maybe this is my superhero origin story.