A year gone by….

April 14,2010 will be etched in my memory for a long long time,thanks to Mr.Ambedkar.

April 10th,2010: After successful completion of 5 months of training in Infosys Mysore,finally I headed to Bangalore as I was posted there much to my desire. Training days in Mysore campus was unforgettable. A place where I believe is the best place after getting out from engineering college and before plunging to make a career in IT world. Till date I long for those days,those night outs to clear next day’s exam, late night birthday parties in food courts, playing any sports  just after moving out from class after giving last attendance(mandatory hai isliye karna padta hai),to catch up a film on weekends in the multiplex(I remember I had to stand in the queue for 2nd instance, for 4 hours in all,to get the tickets of 3 idiots after I didn’t get tickets on 1st instance),competing with friends to score highest in bowling alley(once I deliberately didn’t throw the ball up to the mark in last 2 rounds to avoid giving treat to all friends on being the highest),after 12am IPL matches repeat  highlights in the room the list goes on. Simply put as Bryan Adams would put it,those were the best days of my life. After 5 months of training and being posted to Infosys Bangalore,here I was in Mysore railway station to board a train to capital city. I was with 2 other friends,one who was to accompany me to Bangalore campus and other had to travel to Chandigarh from Bangalore. The ride was smooth sitting on AC compartment. The time was spent reading magazines(bought to take full advantage of allowances offered),listening to music and calling friends. After 3 hours I was in Bangalore-the city I love the most.

Since we were 3 of them we had to move huge luggages of our belongings from train to the platform. We thought we would pass each of the luggages one by one. After moving all the luggages we stood for a while for crowd to disperse so that we could catch a taxi. After 10 minutes or so,the train began to gather pace to head towards Chennai.Just when the train had covered a fair distance and the platform was empty I realised that one of my suitcases was not present.Oh shit,Did i miss it?Then I realised that since there was no space to keep the suitcase near our seat,I had kept it some distance away from where we were sitting,because of which I forgot to unload from the train. That bag was precious not because it had gold in it but it had 22 years of my life in it- All original documents of my mark sheets and degree certificate and all the files was present in the suitcase. How could I miss it? At first instance we thought we would contact the nearest station master to take care of this bag and we would move there to collect it. Dropping the plan, thinking it would be time consuming and risky we thought of other plans. I was running out of ideas. Suddenly I realised there was a class mate of mine travelling to Chennai on the same train. I happen to talk to him(if I am not wrong for the 2nd time in 5 months)in Mysore station as we were waiting for the train before coming to Blore. Since I was not that close to him I didn’t had his cell number and somehow managed to get his number from a common friend.I described the compartment where I was sitting on the train and where I kept the bag giving all sorts of explanation about the bag. He managed to find it with some struggle. At last a sigh of relief!! I told him to take my bag to his compartment and keep along with him. I was in constant touch for next 1 hr or so while moving on a taxi to Bangalore campus. He being new to Chennai and for the reason that he had 6-7 bags to carry he told that he will give my bag to his other friend travelling along with him to Chennai to take it to his home. I told I will call in some time to guide him to send that bag back to me. Now that the bag was found I had to somehow get that bag from Chennai. I thought of all possible options to come to a conclusion to acquire that bag from my friends based in Chennai. My friend went on to say that he would get surely but only on the next weekend. I would not have waited for 7 long days worrying about the bag, I was not bothered about the lost clothes but original documents was my main concern. Since I had just joined Bangalore office,I was skeptical about getting leave in 1-2 days. For next 2-3 days I was in constant touch with friend’s friend who had kept my bag in his house in Chennai.

April 14th,2010: Then came April 14th -a holiday in Infosys Bangalore  thanks to Mr.Ambedkar, I realised it was best option to go myself to Chennai to acquire my lost bag.So there I was travelling to Chennai in a not so good frame of mind. Only the sight of the bag could brighten me at that stage. I boarded a 10.30 bus to Chennai only to reach there at 5 am. Chennai was very new to me and for the fact that I didn’t sleep  last night, I thought that I should catch some sleep in a nearby lodge before moving to the friend’s friend place because going at 5.00 am to friend’s place was not an option. I didn’t even knew how that friend’s friend looked, only thing was that I had his number and house address which I was told was near to bus-stand.Then after getting fresh in the hotel room and skipping breakfast(as bag was only on my mind), I thought of hiring a auto to his place. I was charged Rs100 for a 2-3 km ride on a prepaid auto(the auto driver convinced the pre-paid fare collector to charge 100 even though it was well under 3km range  when I denied to come in his auto). After fighting with him(no use since he was talking only Tamil and I didn’t know Tamil) I somehow reached the destination written on the address slip. It was 9.00 am and sun was violent with temperature touching only 36 degrees. I had to walk some distance to reach tat friend’s place.After seeing me sweating I was offered water and some special sweet(as it was Tamil new year). I told him to show my bag before anything else. Strange thoughts began to creep in my mind like-What if he picked the wrong bag which didn’t belong to me?What if the documents were not present in the bag?The sweet which I was offered began to taste sweeter as I saw my own bag with all the neatly kept documents in it. I  was thrilled to get my bag back.When you get back anything which is lost your joy has no bound. I spent next 30 minutes or so talking casually about the weather,Chennai DC(Development Center) and Tamil New year. I started complaining it is very hot in Chennai (After all I was coming from cool Blore). I was told that it was just a start to summer and 36 degrees in Chennai was normal by any stretch of imagination. So it was time to leave and thanked the friend whole-heartedly for taking care of my valuable bag.I had a quick lunch to board bus to Bangalore now in a happier mood.

All is well that ends well.

P.S: Never ever in my life I had misplaced or lost something valuable thing like this.But after this incident I have become more aware of my belongings. My parents were unaware of all this drama only to laugh after hearing the whole story.