It was a fine day. Of course why wouldn’t Sunday be a fine day for anyone! I woke up late like other Sundays and spent some quality time watching T.V. I am never home during the weekends. I spend time with my friends back in the main city. As I live in Urapakkam, I had to travel all the way back to the City (Mambalam) where I roam. It was a similar day, where I had gone to Russian Culture center for a seminar on free software movement and from there went to Pondy-Bazzar with my friend Shrividhya, to shop for my trip to Vaalparai. I was really excited about the trip which we would be going the following weekend. We both were in good shopping mood and got few things. It was already 9 in the night and I had to hurry to T-Nagar bus stop to catch my 9.15 bus to Urapakkam.
After roaming around the bus stop for few minutes, I managed to catch a bus that had a board ‘G18 Thyagaraya Nagar to Guduvanchery’ both in English and Tamil. I realized that there were people like me who were roaming around searching the busy bus stop for the same bus and I guess many had not spotted the bus at that point. I got into the bus and looked around for a corner seat. My eyes scanned from the first through the last row in the bus – both ladies’ side and the common side (or rather gents’s side). There was a window seat in the last row! And by the time I started moving to that seat, I saw someone hurrying to the same seat. I decided not to show out the embarrassment that I felt at that point and sat in the nearby seat that was empty. It was second row from the door and there was a girl sitting next to me, near the window side. When you don’t get what you need, you tend to think all the best things on what you got. That way, I felt happy to be in my seat as it was nearby to the door, which means I don’t have to walk a long way to get down from the bus. Within a matter of few seconds the bus got almost full.
These are the few minutes where you think about Indian population and give a sigh. But then, I told myself “So you work for software company, and you have A.C. at office. That doesn’t mean you have to show off too much as if you are from US of A” and laughed to myself! I love Chennai, but when the topic of humidity comes, I am defeated, coz, no matter how much you argue with other state people, you have to accept to the fact that Chennai is hot and humid. It was 9 in the night and everyone around me was sweating and so was I.
I wiped my sweat off now and then with the tissue paper and with my hanky which was already wet. I could hear everyone’s prayer – “Please god, let the driver start the bus!” Finally I could see some smiles which meant that the driver was in his seat and about to start the bus. Just then, I remembered to take the money out of my bag to get my ticket to Urapakkam. “Gosh, what a big process”, I told myself. I started getting the attitude of a typical software engineer of being lazy! Finally, after a thorough search inside my Infosys RETL bag, I found my purse. “Happada. Enna kodumai saravana idhu!” I told a little loud and saw the girl next to me smile at my comment. I smiled back. I finally managed to reach my hand near to the bus conductor between a crowed of women and got the ticket. I thought to myself - This is it! no more tension, no more worries. All I have to do now is to sit back, relax and reach Urapakkam and from there take my Scooty and reach home!
These days no one likes to bore themselves by sitting idle in the bus. They either talk to their friends or listen to the radio. If I had a friend in here, then it would be the girl sitting next to me who smiled at my comment. But she already had her headset onto her ears, so I had to do the same. I took out my mobile and was happily listening to the songs and messaging my friends.
There are few things that you always treasure and are really possessive about! My Nokia N70M was one of those kinds. I took real good care of my mobile. I tried all sorts of cover from the bullet proof jacket type to brittle plastic type previously. Nothing worked for me. After few days, I thought to myself that my hand would be the best cover for it, when it is taken out of my bag. One can understand the importance of a mobile only if they had broken it or lost it during some accident. It’s really painful. Guys, yes, they do feel, but are not too comfortable sharing it with others. But girls, they are different. To them mobile is their world and if it’s lost, they feel a lot, I mean they show it out! Yes, I am that kind, though I like my mobile for a different reason than getting calls. To me, more than the call I get, I like the features that my mobile had. I had stored loads of songs, my favorite ones and had made playlists. I had stored my favorite pics. I used Bluetooth now and then, and above all I stored the important dates in it. It was my world. And yes, majorly, I had fought a lot with my dad to get this mobile. My argument was – “Appa, enaku theriyum enakku enna venumnu. I am getting this mobile in my salary ok. You don’t have to pay a penny! Chumma eppapaaru kozhandai maadiri treat panna vendiyadhu. Cha!” And on Jan 17, I got this mobile. I promised my dad that I will not loose this mobile as I lost my previous mobile - Nokia 3230. From that day till date, I had protected my mobile from the hot sun and heavy rains. I would get wet so as to protect my mobile from getting wet. I remember a day, when my onsite coordinator asked me why I dint pick the call at 8 P.M. to discuss the updates that I had to give for the day. I had to explain him that i was on travel and how it was raining and how I had to protect my mobile,to not to get it wet. Yes, my mobile means a lot to me.
I was listening to the song and there were constant noises from the crowd that was standing. The bus stopped in the regular stops. The No. of crowd getting down was directly proportional to the no. of crowd getting into the bus. No matter how many stops came, the amount of people in the bus remained same! In one stop, a lady with a kid in her hand, got into the bus. Everyone should give seats to old people, pregnant ladies and ladies with small babies, if they were standing. It’s the culture and the courtesy that I learnt being in Chennai. There were many following it, but it was followed less in crowded buses. But, I felt that the women and the kiddo needed a seat badly. So I was looking around to find an empty seat and found that I had only a little space to even turn my head around. So realizing that there was no empty seat, I got up to give my seat to her. She was thanking me with her pleasant smile. I smiled back and said “Ukkarunga!”. I gave my bag to the girl who was sitting near the window corner and stood up. I kept my mobile’s head-set inside my bag as it was very hard to listen to songs when you were standing. People literally fall on you during the sudden breaks that the driver applies when there is an over speeding car or bike going in the front. So I rounded the headset like a mosquito coil and kept deep inside my bag, closed its zip and ensured twice that it was closed properly. Little soon did I realize that the mobile was still in my hand. I would irritate a lot of people if I repeated the same process, this time to keep my mobile inside. So I told to myself, “Konjam stopping daan! So kailaye vechikalam” and was holding the second row seat corner tight so that I don’t fall, when the next break was applied.
To everyone’s surprise the bus was running smooth for a long time and the cool breeze vaporized the sweat on everyone’s face. Always there goes a saying that “A long silence is broken by a huge tornado” or something like that. I realized the importance of that saying. It was a huge sudden break that the driver applied. No one in the bus expected it! “Thud” a woman hit my elbow and there went my mobile – out of the window. I know that you people would be laughing at this point that I had wrapped up my story into so many paragraphs to explain this! But, yes, it was a horrible thing that happened to me day before yesterday at 10.15 P.M.
Before I realized what had happened, the bus started to move. I realized that my hand was empty, which meant my mobile had fallen down. Where? Where? Oh my goodness… I am dead!
I pushed people around me having a little hope that it had fallen into the bus. But I did remember me seeing it fall outside the window. My heart was racing. I had to stop the bus somehow. I remembered the cost – Rs.10000/- I am dead! And that minute the driver stopped the bus. It was Perungalathur stopping. I got down in a hurry. I had no time to shout at that woman. All that was running in my mind was to find the mobile that had fallen down. I knew that I should have very less hope on this. But still, we do hear at times about miracles. I wished for a miracle – a miracle of my mobile to have landed safely into someone’s hand. But no… How could that be? The bus was on the run when this happened. Whatever! Please let me find my mobile, no matter however and whatever state it is in! As soon as I got down from the bus, I got an auto and explained briefly what had happened and asked the automan’s help in finding my mobile.
To my luck, the automan was a good fellow. He realized my state and agreed to drive the auto, to locate the broken pieces of my mobile. By this time I was sure of that, since I saw 3 to 4 buses at 50 Kmph going on the same road. So I decided to somehow locate and find whatever was left out on the road. And after a complete scanning on each and every spot on the road every second, I was able to locate my world! Yes, it was broken as expected. I got too excited seeing that and wanted to pick that immediatly before one more bus ran over it. I asked the automan to stop and was watching the broken mobile. I ran towards the mobile, not realizing that a lorry was speeding behind me. The auto driver pulled me back and it was then that I realized the mistake I had done. He scolded me badly for reacting so! I was already wiping my tears off and now I started crying like a baby. He realized it and immediately started consoling me. He asked me to sit down inside the auto and said he would get me the broken pieces. I followed his instruction and was half sitting in the auto with my head peeping out to see if he is getting all the pieces.
He looked around to see if there was any vehicle coming towards him and after thorough examination, he picked few things. Finally he came running towards the auto and I got out eagerly to look into his hands. There were horribly broken pieces of my mobile. The screen and the front side VGA cam were gone. The battery and the sim-card were the only things that were not damaged. I consoled myself and asked the auto man to drop me back to the bus stop. He consoled me all the way, but none of his words went into my head. Finally I reached the stop, told him thanks 3 to 4 times, gave him 30Rs. and waited for the next bus to come.
I still had 2 more stops to reach my destination. After 15 mins. of me scolding myself for my carelessness, I found a bus stopping near me. Realizing that it was a bus to my destination, I got in. Everyone looked at me as my eyes were red and swollen. Conductor was scared to come near me, but he had to, to collect the money for the ticket. He slowly asked me where I had to go, and I said in a low voice “Urapakkam onnu” and gave him 7Rs. No one in the bus spoke. I am sure everyone made their own prediction of my tears. I never bothered about their strange looks. To me my world is broken into pieces. And I couldn’t think of anything. The driver applied the break slowly, and the conductor called out “Urapakkam”. I realized that it was my stop and got down having my head down. I was silent. I had never been silent for such a long time. I slowly moved towards my vehicle and started it to go home. It was one horrible experience, yes it was!!!!!!!
The First pic I took in my mobile - My dad at Subhiksha show room. It is the place from where I bought N70M on 17th Jan 2008.
