All is well that ends well

I’ve been thinking a long time to write this post but every time I sit before my pc I forget this task. Now here I go to describe this recent incident in my life.

My workplace is some 20 kilometers from my home and it takes some odd 1 and half-hours for me to reach there. Life here in India is very different and you can’t expect a middle class girl like me to take a cab daily to the office. I use different modes of transport daily and if I start explaining about that I will never get to the incident I wanna very badly say about. But I’ll try to brief you about this.

My travel requires me to stop and change vehicles at two places. From my home, I usually take an auto that will take me to the local MRTS (Mass Rapid Transit System) railway station at Tidel Park. I guess, that those in IT would know this very popular IT park. Usually this will take me some 20 minutes if there is little traffic. But here, I am in chenni, India and I hope you people know about the population explosion in our country ( I bet no one in the world would dare to compete with our country in this).So it roughly takes me 20-45 minutes depending on the traffic. From thiruvanmiyur, I take the 8.40 AM train to Park station, which takes about some 35 minutes of travel, and from there I mostly take the Government run buses to reach my workplace.

Having said about my usual routine, now I’ll move on to say of what happened on this date. I had an additional task also on this date and that is , I had to take railway pass for my friend Shambhu who would join me after two stations. So having this in my mind, I left home pretty early (7.50 AM) and took an auto. I am not sure how many people would know about “autos” in chennai. A typical one is a three wheeler and could seat three passengers at a time other than the driver. The ones we see in velachery are very much the same only that they are a little bigger and the driver can squeeze in some 6 passengers into the auto. We already had 6 passengers on that day but the driver was a bit more greedy or I don’t know what can be the reason ( If we ask them , they’ll tell you their sad story) , was in no mood to start the auto on that day. He waited till one more passenger got into the back seat and one fellow to sit together with him in his driver seat.

The auto was packed and so was the road. I was desperately looking at my watch all the time on whether I would be able to catch the 8.40 train. If only I miss that train, the next train is only at 9.20 AM and this would make me some 40 minutes late to office. The auto finally managed to reach the station by 8.35 AM.
Then I ran off like hell to the ticket counter only to see a queue over there.I waited for some 5 minutes before I could get to the ticket counter lady. By this time, I had taken out my friend’s old pass and the money from my purse and was having it in my hand. I reached on to the counter , wished the lady and got the new pass and by that time, the train had arrived in the 2nd floor. I ran again , took the lift and got into the train. I was gasping for breath and wasn’t able to think any other thing till I met my friend at her station.

The train was very crowded and my friend said that she would be in the next compartment and left. I thought that I’ll also go and join my friend there and left for that compartment. We stood there for a while and then I gave her, her pass. She had a look at it and asked me for my pass to see the last date. I opened my bag to get my purse and ALAS .. MY PURSE WAS NOT THERE. “My Goodness!” I thought. The last time, I remember was that I had it at the ticket counter. After that I couldn’t remember anything and it was all blank to me. So my friend and myself got down at the next railway station so that we can soon go and get the purse back. Now, here I’ll have to tell one thing. We had a reputation for losing things and we often got them back also. So this time, we were dead sure that we’ll get it back safely though I had a slight fear ‘coz of the things I had in my purse.( 1 credit card,2 debit cards , lotta cash and my railway pass).

By that time , we had reached kotturpuram and we thought of taking an auto to the railway station. The driver was in no mood to listen to our bargain and we had to do all the walking till kasturbai nagar. This time , Shambhu got an idea. She asked me to catch an auto and went to the kasturbai nagar railway station master. She told him about the issue and asked him whether he could help us by calling tidel park station ticket counter lady.The station master was kind enough and he called up and here I got my next shock, THE PURSE WAS NOT THERE IN THE TICKET COUNTER. We still went to the station and asked the lady.
She said that she didn’t see any purse and exclaimed that since there we so much queue its actually hard for us to track down my purse. I was almost in tears when she said that. Sensing my emotions , Shambhu was too quick to react and the first thing she did was to call up Mithin (our colleague) to inform that we would be late.

Then we made some calls to home and bank to block my credit cards.My father got worried about me and kept on calling me to find out the latest news I can tell him. I meanwhile , contacted my old boss , because one debit card I had was got through him. He listened to my story and asked me to quickly go over to the bank to give a written request to block the card. I thought that was a okay good idea and asked Shambhavi to go to office while I can continue with my search for my purse. I didn’t even have the mind to think that I had no money left. Shambhu didn’t want to leave me and she said that she’ll accompany me. Very nice of her, I really don’t know what I would have done on that day if this cute friend had not been with me.By this time, the next train had come and we did some quick searching in the train also. Finding no results, we first went to the tidel park staion master, Mr.Mani and told him of the details. I should really have a special mention about this guy.He had a fatherly affection in him and listened to our plight with care and asked us to write down the details.He said that he’ll alert all other station masters about this and he DID.He asked us to go to the railway police station in egmore to report about the loss of credit and debit cards.

Then we went to the bank and gave a written request. People over there also asked us the story and said that it would take them some 10 days to give me a new card. One old fellow there , gave a sarcastic advice too.
All this didn’t get into my mind and I was thinking in my mind whether I should really go to the police or not. Then I decided for it and shambhu suggested that we go to the nearest ATM and get some cash.
She got the cash and we went all the way to the egmore railway station. Hmmm, Ya I forgot to mention one thing here. I somehow had the feeling that I’ll get back my purse and the fear had gone then. We went to central railway station first , refreshed ourselves with some packaged water and yes checked our weight.(Don’t think that I am crazy, I just have this habit of checking my weight in the automatic weighing machines one can find in stations). Then we went to the police and gave them a written complaint. They were as indifferent as ever. It would have been a surprise for us if they had behaved differently. By this time, it was almost noon and we rushed to our office.

Mithin had already updated Shalu and Swarna about this and when we reached they were all curious to know what had happened. Shalu had had a difficult week also but he was all concerned about us. The day went on like this , and as time passed , the fear returned in me.I was wondering within myself and praying to God of what would have happened to my purse. I always had the idea that hard earned money would never get lost.But the happenings of the day bothered me a lot and I kept on nagging to my lord about this.Shambhu left for home early on that day and I left pretty late.

My heart was in one turmoil and I went straight to my favorite Good Shepherd Church. It’s a place where I pour out my thoughts to Lord very often and it’s a very comforting zone where I gain my morale boost also. I went there disturbed, gained some comfort and returned home. My parents were waiting for me anxiously and seeing me they didn’t feel like scolding. I had my dinner and was relaxing a bit when the door bell rang. People , listen , now only am getting to the actual story.

One young couple were standing at the door steps with my purse in hand. The lady continued with her story. “ I was sitting in the train when people next to me found a purse lying down. I got it from them and found your photo and address inside and thought that I might come and give it to you. First I had thought of giving this to you tommorow morning only, but as evening came by, I was feeling very insecure with the purse in my hands and I asked my hubby to take me immediately to your home so that I can give it to you.”. Praise be to God.!!!! .. Whoever said that people aren’t good any more ? Here I’ve seen this
Good samaritan lady who came all the way from her place to give my purse, my friend shambhu,
People at my office with genuine concern, the station master, my old boss and ofcourse , you people who are reading it with this much amount of patience !!! Thank you people ! Let God reward you from his abundance!!!.