Phone: Lost and Found

Yeah. I know I know. I am posting after quite a long time (15 days since last post). To be honest, too many things have happened in my life since I last posted. I will write about them soon. I promise.

A couple of days ago, I was waiting at the Mumbai Central station waiting to catch the train back home. A Virar train had just entered into the station and after the mad scramble to get in the train got over, the train started moving. As the ladies compartment neared, a girl standing on the footboard lost her grip on her cell phone and it dropped on the station, sliding and landing right near my feet. A few onlookers were looking as I picked up the phone and I didn’t know what I should do with it. The phone was Samsung and must have cost around 5-7K. A couple of fellow passengers suggested I give the phone to local police men who are nowadays found on every platform. I decided to hand it over to the cops.

While walking with the phone one part of me really didnt want to return the phone, since I had lost a couple of phones and they had never been returned. I was like it is payback time. While thinking about this, I also realized how sad I had felt when I lost my phones and how this person might be feeling. What she must be going through, the nervousness, the fear and the hope that someone might return the phone back to her. I decided to do the right thing and decided to hand over the phone to her. I called a couple of people from her contact list and gave them my details, so they could get in touch with her and she could retrieve her phone.

After waiting for her to call on her cell for about 15 mins, I decided to board the train and head home. So when I had just boarded, her brother called and in a very accusatory tone asked me “This phone is with you”. At that very moment I felt like throwing the phone from the window. Bugger, here I am trying to return your sisters lost phone and you are accusing me of stealing the phone. I asked him to collect the phone from Borivali since I have already boarded the train and have no intentions to get down and make my journey more uncomfortable. After speaking with her brother, the owner of the cell phone called and said she was at Bandra and would appreciate it if I can get down and hand it over to her there. I agreed after much deliberation.

I got down at Bandra and located her and gave her the phone. It turns out she was working for Lufthansa Airlines ground crew. The relief and joy on her face was quite watchable. She thanked me and I moved on. The funny part was even after losing her phone once, she decided to travel on the footboard of the train, the way she lost it initially. I just looked up.. sighed and boarded a very crowded train to home.

Moral of the story: Nice guys always get crushed.