What goes around REALLY comes around

So, last week I found this wallet on a bus on campus. It was wedged in the space between two seats. The student card in the wallet indicated that it belonged to a student of the same university but from a different department. The wallet had plenty of cash, his IC, some credit/debit cards and other miscellaneous stuff that people usually put in a wallet. My first thought was to call and hand it over to the campus security or the lost and found section in the university. But then I realized if I did that, it would probably take a long time for it to get to the owner. He must be frantically looking for his wallet. So I plumaged through his wallet and found this receipt for a badminton court booking, and in that I found his telephone number. I called the guy and told him that I had found his wallet. He said he would come to my lab and pick it up.

After a while, the guy turned up at my lab. He told me that he had in fact lost his wallet a week ago and he had decided that he would not get it back. It was lying in that bus for a week. Since it was stuck in between the seats, no body had noticed it. He thanked me profusely for returning his wallet and left. After that, my day was really busy and I forgot all about the incident.

That day evening after I left the lab, R and I went out for dinner.  Since it had been a long day at work, I came home and went straight to bed. At 11:30 p.m., my phone rang. The guy on the phone introduced himself and asked me if I had lost a laptop, a Mac book pro. It was then that I realized that I had left it in the restaurant after dinner. I had not even realized that it was missing. At that moment, I had a panic-attack. He told me he had found my laptop at the restaurant and he did not want to give it to the police, as he was not sure if I would get it back. He asked me to come and pick it up whenever I could. I left immediately and went to get it. On my way to meet him, it struck me, how had the guy found my number? When I asked him, he said he had used my computer to log in to my face-book account (it doesn’t need a password as I am the only one who uses it). He had instant messaged one of my friends who was in Australia to get my number and called me. Later my friend messaged me to tell me “ I can’t believe you lost your computer and a weird guy just asked me for your number”. It seems that the guy had pretended to be me, to ask for my number and only later admitted to being someone else.  God bless that guy for returning my laptop. I shudder every time I think of the consequences if I had not got my Mac back. So much of my work would have been at stake among other things (I don’t back up very frequently).

Lessons learnt at the end of an eventful day:

Be more careful with your stuff

Back up your computer more regularly

What you give is definitely what you get in return!

What goes around comes around

I’m having trouble waking up in the mornings these days, which means I’m always late to work. I should have known this day would come.

You see, I was on vacation in India for the last couple of weeks. It was almost an evil pleasure to watch people hurry to work in the mornings (especially on Monday mornings) when I could choose to stay in bed or laze around. And I reminded everybody I met that “You have to go to work and I’m on vacation!!” It was such a sweet feeling. I could see the jealousy in their eyes and hear them quietly hurling curses my way.

And now Karma is biting me in the ass.

The Smile Spreader

• This man is 78 years old and he still works for a living. 
• In spite of that, there is never a bitter moment around him.
• He is almost toothless but his smile is perfect.
• He always sports a smile and you can’t help but smile back at him, even when you’re having a really bad day.
• No matter what you say to him, he always has a funny retort. There was this time when I asked him, “What’s in your pocket?” and he said, “my girlfriend’s letter, don’t tell my wife”.
• He walks with a stoop but he always opens doors for the ladies.
• He plays pranks on the aunties on the floor. In spite of that, they all pamper him.
• He has nicknames for everyone. He calls me Mona Lisa. And tells me I must smile more often.
• He reminds me to comb my hair.
• He is one of those people who make you want to believe the world is good.
• He told me today was his last day at work today.

Goodbye, Pachek. I’ll miss you.

Don't ask me if I know you

Has somebody ever come up to you and said “ Hi, (your name), do you remember me” and you don’t have a clue who that person is. It happened to me today.

I am usually not forgetful and I don’t generally forget people but this was one exception.

This girl came up to me after a class and said, “ Hi, how are you?” 

Looking at the blank look on my face, she said, “ You are Maya, aren’t you?” and I said, “Err, yes.”

“Do you remember me?”, she asked.

And the faintest idea of seeing her somewhere ran in my head.

“Oh yes. I do. Of course I do.”

And she had to embarrass me further. “Do you remember my name? “

I gave her a sheepish grin before she told me. “My name is xxxxxx.”

So embarrassing!!

Kids!!

On my way to work this morning, I saw a young mother pushing a pram with a little kid. The kid must have been a year old or so. He stared intently at me. I smiled and waved at him. He still kept staring but didn’t wave back. His mother prodded him gently to wave at me but he refused to do so.

Soon I lost interest and moved on. And then something caught my eye. This other kid walking behind them, probably the younger boy’s brother, not much older than him. He was almost running to catch up with them. He was waving frantically at me trying to catch my attention. And when I looked at him, he waved at me and gave me his sweetest melt-your-heart smile. 

He was trying to say, “ Look at me. I am here too!”