Wednesday 20 February 2008

Inanimados mi Amigo

During the glorious moments stretching from 10.50am to 11.00am on Tuesday, the 20th of February in the year of our Lord 2008, some gentleman (judgements are better left to the heavens) had the better of me and became the proud owner of my long time friend, who people usually refer to as mobile phone or cellular phone.

This gruesome (again, how can i judge this, pardon me) incident happened on my way to office which is situated in one of the posh localities of Bangalore, called Jayanagar. With the sole aim preserving natural resources and being a higly civic and environmentlay conscious young man, I had decieded to use the non-punctual and congested public service transporation provided by the local civic body called the BMTC (abbreviation for Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation). It never had occured to me in my wildest dreams that the accolade will be so fast (fast being relative, I would like to take this occasision to announce the 13th month of usage of this amigo). If I can be called superstitious it is because of the number 13, what the intellegensia will call triskaedekaphobia. This is the biggest loss I suffered thanks to 13, so far (other losses being that of erasers, pencils, girl friends, wickets etc).

So let me elaborate on my experince during this 10 minutes (which seemed to stretch on for eternity) for the sake of those environemntally and civic conscious people travelling in Bangalore. The day was quite hot (it was already 11 at noon) and I had managed to occupy a seat next to window at the back seat on a low class BMTC bus on a day when all hell must have broken loose. The journey as always was quite uneventfull and so it went on untill the bus stop where I was shceduled to get down. As I was wading my way through the thick undergrowth of luggage and the huge trees of passengers, I saw the conductor and went on to get the balance amount from him. I got the balance amount and by that time the bus was about to start from the stop even when people were still alighting and embarking (that is not an uncommon sight in this city or any other Indian cities).

The following things happened during the short period when I was stepping down from the last step of the footboard on to the road. I felt some lightness in my pant's left pocket and my hand instinctively went to feel for that pocket. There it was, the pocket was empty. I realized that I lost my mobile and I was standing on road. (Wow, huow much time that really took? I'm impressed at my quick reaction).

My immediate reaction was that I must have lost my mobile in the rush from my rather small pocket. I suddenly jumped back to the bus and started searching the floor of the bus. By this time the bus had started to move slowly. while the search was going on, Somehow I managed to utter in some version of hindi that I had lost my mobile. Then some fellas in the bus told me something in Hindi, which according to my translator meant that the mobile was dropped on the road. Suddenly I got off the bus and went to the bus stop a few metres back. There I searched and the bystanders told that there was no mobile dropeed there. Then I felt that the mobile must be in the bus (during this time It never occured to me that it might be stolen) and went back runnnig to the bus and boarded it. This time I realized what the passengers actually told. It was that some guy had taken the mobile and got down at the bus stop. They also told that he was wearting a black shirt. I jumped from the bus when it was already moving at a good speed and went back in search of the gentleman-wearing-black-shirt. But it was in vain. If my mobile was a needle and someone dropped it in a haystack, I would have gladly searched for it. But this place is like a haystack with lots and lots of black holes in it. Nothing is coming back.

That was it. The pain striked me hard. It was a terrible feeling. Finally I realized that my mobile was indeed stolen (judgements?... f&*k...). I was cursing anyone and evryone and everything. It took me some time to come in terms with the reality. I got back into my senses. I did the next sensible thing to do. Went to a telephone booth and tried to call my number. it was unreachable (of course u idiot, he must be a seasoned theif). Then i called the service provider and asked to block my SIM.

After coming to bangalore, I had heard a lot of stories of people losing there mobiles (from the cheapest ones to the premium ones). I thought that those people are just careless or dumb. I always took pride in myself that noone will be able to steal anything from me. But today I had found (that was poetry, actaully I never even had a glance of the fella) my nemesis. I understood that it is possible to lose something even after taking all the practical precautions.

My day at the office was doomed. I didn't had the mood for anthing. I was so depressd. its not the loss of money that bothered me. It was the feeling that I had lost a friend of mine. I was very much attached to that friend (not an addict). I always considered it as an integral part of me. It was the first mobile I had bought with the money I had earned, blah blah blah.
So thats how I came to lose my mobile and joined the ranks of billions who does not own this piece of communication equipment (do I sound like some right wing media?).

Today morning when I woke up, I felt that the loss of my mobile was a dream and went for the mobile placed beside my bed. but the harshness of realuty punctured the confidence and smile and all that was good in me for another day of my life.

After reading thorugh the above mentioned story of riches to rags, my fans will be in tears, I know. But kindly bear with me. In this time of despair we should stand all the more together and try to bring some cheer around. For this you just have to contribute a sum of not more than 10grands towards my Mobile releif fund. Of course you will receive my personally aotographed replies and special mention in Forbes magazine.

With lots of love to my mobi,

May my Inanimados amigo rest in someones hand in pieces.

NB: pieces? yeah i mean it...


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