It's been almost a year since I wrote anything, the ever present writer's block you know! :)
"How did it get so late so soon?" ― Dr. Suess
Anyway, it's an incident from my daily commute ~a year or year and a half ago. Like any regular weekday evening, I took the bus home. It takes anywhere between ~5/10 mins to get home, depending on time of the day.
Remember a time when you are so deeply absorbed in your thoughts, that you kind of have sense of your surroundings but you are not really present, your brain is busy processing other information, which at that time felt more pressing or intriguing! I don't remember what was I thinking about but I do remember what happened after.
As soon as the bus reached my stop and the driver(who knew that I get down there) made the stop even without me requesting for it. I realized that I needed to get down, because part of my brain did take a note of what was happening around me, just was not fully aware. I did not want to waste his time, so thanked him, (I took my right hand out of my pocket on the way) and quickly sprinted out of the bus.
The moment I stepped out of the bus, I realized, I (perhaps) dropped something in the bus, but then I ignored the stimulus thinking that I might just be hallucinating. But as I started walking, I put my right hand back in my coat pocket only to realize that I actually did drop my "wallet" in the bus. It was probably just 10-20 seconds after the bus departed.
I panicked, it reminded me of the incident when I (technically not me, but that's irrelevant) lost my passport in Sydney, because I had my California ID, driver's license and all the debit/credit cards in that wallet. How careless could one be? Finally, you stop beating yourself up for an event and then you make a similar blunder!
On the top of that, it was a Friday evening, ~6:00 pm. All banks were already closed, even getting a quick replacement for a debit card was not possible. And now that I am not in India anymore and thanks to acquaintances/friends who advised not to keep a lot of cash(I used to roam around with a couple of hundreds and also just because it's so inconvenient to deal with cash. You almost never need cash here and I just hate to carry the heap of coins<change> around).
Well, if it was India, there was no way, you are ever going to get any of the things you dropped in a bus, back. So..I was confused between : trying to call card companies to block my cards or to call the valley transportation agency to try and see if I can get the wallet back. I called the bus agency and the representative tried but just could not reach the driver for almost 30-40 mins. I was on the line waiting. During that time, I walked up to the house and back to the bus stop, and waited until the bus arrived again after an hour. I was not sure if it was going to be the same bus or a different one.
The bus arrived. I hopped in and quickly told the driver what happened. He recognized me for it was the same person who dropped me an hour ago. I quickly sprinted back towards my seat(on the ride that day) and there it was...My wallet was lying a few feet away from the seat.
Now, that I got the wallet back, I thanked the driver and got out of the bus. I felt a bit better, called the bank call centers to block all my debit cards but I am still using the same credit card. It's been a while and there have not been any fraudulent transaction. So, people here are really awesome and honest. And I love that..!!
“It's discouraging to think how many people are shocked by honesty and how few by deceit.” ― Noel Coward
And I was shocked too :)
