Ok, here is a story which I should have written a long back, but… Anyway, why to waste time on “why I didn’t” part when I am writing it now! 😉
And by the way, it’s not just a story but our own experience! 🙂
It was 13th April 2012 and we had come to Bijapur to attend one of our friends’ marriage party.
After the marriage ceremony, and lunch, and bla bla bla, around 3:30pm, some of us (Me & Vivek) wanted to take some rest while others were busy teasing the newly wedded bride groom, so thought of heading back to the lodge. And so we did. But as we were coming out of the marriage hall, we got two bags from Santosh and Sameer, which we were supposed to take to lodge.
We hired an auto, reached our lodge, paid him the charges, went to our rooms, hit the bed.
After 3 hours…
I get a call from Santosh. I am sleepy, still managed to answer his call. “Hey, where have you kept my bag?”
What!!?? Bag!!?? I am totally awake now! “Bag? Hmmmmm, it should be in any one of our rooms only.”
“Negative. I searched in all rooms, didn’t find it anywhere.”
“Really? Did you ask Vivek about it? Hmmmm, forget it, I am coming down there..”
Man, where did I keep it? I thought Vivek took both the bags.. But..
When I come down, I see that all are nervous, Sameer more than anyone else because he had kept some valuable gadgets in his bag. After all the inquiries, I started to re-collect that we both came to our rooms with empty hands, meaning we left the bags in the auto! My God! Such a terrible mistake.. But still we were not ready to accept the truth.
First we thought someone might have taken the bags from our rooms. So, started inquiring the lodge people, obviously they were unaware of such thing happening. They even helped us find the truth by showing us the video footage of the lodge entrance when we were entering, and there we were, walking in with nothing in hand! So, we had left the bags in the auto, as I had realized a little earlier before. Vivek & I were at the receiving end of all the blastings. 😦
We tried two things to locate the auto, reported in police station, and checked with other autowalas to see whether they have some kind of association or something where they gather the things they find in their autos, both failed miserably.
To find that auto’s details, We even tried to catch hold of the Video Surveillance systems for Traffic Monitoring using some inside link but there also we were asked to wait till next morning!
It’s around 9 in the night, and we all had almost made our mind that the bags are gone and there is no way we can get them back. And then, Sameer gets a call from his relative staying in Bijapur, say Mr.X who started inquiring about those two bags. Sameer was super excited and called me immediately.
What had happened was:
Even the auto driver had not seen those bags for nearly 4-5 hours. Fortunately, one customer asked him whether those two bags belong to him. He was puzzled because even He wasn’t sure who left those bags in there. There was a chit in Sameer’s bag, which is having some address and even Sameer’s photo [fortunately ;)]. The autowala wanted to return those bags but unfortunately, he was an illiterate and couldn’t read English. Then he took help from some friend of his, who could read and guide him to the address mentioned in the chit. When they both reached that address, it was Mr.X’s address and he immediately recognized Sameer and we got call from him.
We met at some common place. We had even taken some sweets, along with some money to award that autowala. After give and take, say many thanks and all, we headed back to our lodge, relieved like Hell!
See, we all crib about autowalas being rude and mean, but we should not generalize it because there are some good autowalas out there. You just need to be lucky enough to find one. 😉
PS: Sorry, I don’t remember his name, or his auto’s number. So, careless about me! 😐
Gang's Wavelength 