Honesty that is never lost

I lost my pouch.  It had my bank debit card, two credit cards, my PAN card, driver’s license, my car registration card, and my library card.  I do not remember how or where exactly I lost it.  Perhaps at a Chennai restaurant where I used my credit card last.  I had breakfast and spent some time with my college mate – we’ve been friends for almost 35 years. Or perhaps it fell off somewhere else on my way back – I just can’t remember.

I realised I lost it when I looked for it just before catching a train, a good 12 hours later.  Within a few minutes the entire family searched for it and it dawned on me that I had clearly lost it and not misplaced. I had to postpone my trip.  The restaurant guys were helpful but then they had not found the pouch.

The usual routine followed.  I called the bank, the credit card providers and blocked all cards. I was dreading debit notice notifications – none arrived. I somehow had an inkling that the cards did not find its way to the wrong hands.  India is now a digital country and your date of birth, address and card numbers are all you need to hijack any person’s identity and finances.

I waited for a fortnight to allow things to cool down.  And then started the process to get new/duplicate cards. Just as I returned from applying for a fresh PAN card, I got a call.  The guy identified himself as Chetan and after having confirmed my identity, told me that he had the cards.

And, apologised for the delay in calling me (one day).

With all the details that I had lost, the one thing that was not available was my phone number and he called me with that!  Though my search ended with the loss of the cards – the cards took on their own journey.

He got the pouch as a courier from Chennai to his office address in Bangalore.  I have no clue who exactly found my pouch nor why he chose to send it to an unknown person in Bangalore.  Chetan had no clue either.  It had come with no information and no notes.  He enquired with his boss who knew nothing.  He then wrote to a common group id from where the package had arrived to get a response that they knew nothing about it.  I think we will let that remain an enigma.

Chetan did not send it directly to the address as he wasn’t sure if the address was still the valid one.  Later, he visited the library and found it closed.  And when he called their main office, they refused to give my phone number citing privacy.  He had to give the card number and explain to them that he wanted to return the card to me.  The library saw the point and obliged with my number.  And then Chetan called me.  After a couple of days, he came home and delivered the card.  All intact.  Hope, very soon, he will get to see a miracle as well.

That made me recollect my own experience.  While on a journey by train a few years ago, I found a purse in the toilet.  It had money and all the cards.  Fortunately, I could find a visiting card with his number.  I called him and later couriered the purse to his house.

Maybe one good deed deserves another.  There are things you lose but honesty is not one of them.

The Moon Walk

Watching the Moon walking with me through the thickets and clearings; Along the clatter of the fast moving train one understands her benevolence much against her nonchalant bemuse.

The patches of clouds seem to eat her alive and only one has to see closely that she brings out the rainbow of grays.

The palms and neems and tamarind try to close her with their hands only to realise she brings out the resplendent beauty of the night trees.

The lightning seem to out shine her and shows the tempest with loud thunder only when the moment passes do you realise the calm beauty of the soothing moonshine.

The very earth rises up as mountains to cover her up.

Only to see the light seething through the rocks against a grand moon rock.

The flickering lights from the kitchen seem to mar the beams and yet she shines through the window to show the beauty of the lady cooking.

The fast moving train seems to outrun the moon and yet there she is in the station next.  And so my friend, what seems and what is are two different things. Be the Moon that shines and adds beauty however ugly the life journey is.

Budget Battlers

This is one of the craziest stories I’ve ever heard.

Let’s call our man Bud. He manages his finances like a man walks his dog. (The man while he thinks he is walking the dog, in reality what the dog thinks is right — I am taking my master for a walk).

Bud is very strict with his budgeting and never allows any expense to overshoot his budget. NEVER. If he has a wish, first it becomes part of a wish list, progresses as a budget item, money gets saved on a monthly basis till the budgeted amount is achieved and then he buys it. Woe befall any item whose cost increases anytime during the save period.

Bud, after a due diligence and financial assimilation, gets married.

He has a little problem though. He had a single bed.

While his wife slept on the floor, an item gets added to his wish list. In due course, it gets added to the budgeted list and his savings begin and ends successfully after a year. He had the money now.

So he goes ahead and buys his budgeted item — another single cot.

He brings it home and sets this beside his other single cot. Wow — all fine except for a small flaw. The beds were now of different heights.

Bud is now trying to make amends with his second wife.

Dead Man is never sad

Yesterday, my sister called at 8.45 pm to say a man was lying on the platform opposite her house since morning.  I immediately went and checked his pulse - he had been dead for a long time. He may have been in his 50s or 60s and there was a stick and a pair of slippers next to him.

Right away I went to the police station and informed - the police man asked me if it was man or woman.  When I said it was a man he was sort of relieved.  He took my name and number. I was both happy and sad.

I was happy that the police never troubled me and they never called me back. I later understood that they came with a photographer and took away the body in a van.

I was sad that there were so many people around the dead man and no one bothered or do anything about it.  He was lying right opposite a hospital.  Right next to it were vendors selling eatables and people eating right there.  It takes great courage or complete apathy to do something like that - I think it is the latter.

The dead man perhaps died because he was sad - but I felt he was never sad that no one bothered him after he was dead.  That was what I saw in the dead man's face.  Lesson to learn.

I would want to ask him why he had neatly kept his stick and slippers next to him before dying.

Of Space and Time

One day I agreed to drop my daughter at her school, she had joined a coupe of months ago.  On the way, I had a nagging doubt and asked her which left turn I should take.  She said she was not sure as she normally took a different route.  Nevertheless I was able to read my bearings and took the correct left turn and dropped her at her school.  But not before lecturing on the need for observing landmarks, directions, improving intuitive spacial cognitive capabilities and understanding at least geographical locations.  She kept nodding her head – I hope she understood what I meant.

On my way back, I got cocky after all the discourse.  Why do I need to take the next right a good kilometre away while I can take the right turn just here.  And so I did.  Immediately I felt happy – the general direction was correct and the road was empty with cool breeze blowing across my face.  It was early morning and I started enjoying the early morning sun light.  Even a bird started calling – far removed from the other right that was soaked in diesel, congested with vehicles and paved with pot holes.

The road started meandering and I sure liked it.  Unlike other roads of Bangalore where after every half a kilometre you hit a fork with three roads with two of them one-ways, this was simple – just one road.  I started to think of the good old days of Bangalore – this is the closest I can come to.  And then I recognized something – my smile widened.  See, my sense of direction and my grasp of land marks have stood by me.  I came closer.  I sure recognized it.  It was my daughter’s school.  After three kilometres all I had done was to end up where I started.

I came back home and ate my words for breakfast.  Of course, I did not tell anyone.

The Manager

I saw this woman in a flight to Mumbai. One look at her and anyone can make out that she is on a mission. Set jaws, eyes straight ahead and a powerful projection of persona. She is out to prove to the world and the flight’s destination is what she is looking forward to right now.

Sure enough, no sooner did the aircraft’s tires hit the ground, she hit the ground running by switching on her mobile. She called someone – perhaps, her junior one of the hundreds of people working for her. Immediately she started shooting her bullets.

“Ok. Give me the status update’. She said already calculating the number of problems she needs to resolve.

The other person must have told something like, “Let me first get the update so that I can give you.”

“I need to know now. I do not wish to be kept waiting for problems to be resolved on their own. It doesn’t matter if they are bad. Please give me straight”. She said expecting the worst.

This could have been the response from the other end, “Well, the work is going on and nothing to report at this juncture. I shall report once we achieve a milestone" – or something to that effect.

She was actually irritated now. She said, “No. This will not do. I exactly need to know what is happening. It is straight in the line of your duty.” I got even more curious with the tone of the conversation. She must be handling something really grave – perhaps very sensitive and of national significance.

Perhaps, the other guy was a smart Alec. He must have given a vague reply like, “I am under control and you do not have to be bothered with such mundane stuff.”

She must be a very powerful person – she would not give up so easily. I wonder if she is a top governmental official who gets her work done or someone who has been a boss all her life. She said, “Please do not give me such pedantic replies. I know that you know and I need to know what you know”.

The guy is caught – I sensed that he had no choice now and must have given some facts. She retorted immediately, “This is not what I was looking for. There are responsibilities clearly drawn up – who will do what and when. I am not looking for daily reporting – I need hourly updates; clear and unambiguous. You are the person who shall ensure that each hour the progress is monitored, measured and updates given to me. I want the activities tracked against the plan. I need them now. I already missed two hours this morning.” She seemed extremely impatient with that seemingly inefficient manager.

I am not sure what the next piece of conversation was but sure she did fly off the handle. Her eyes dilated and she kept shouting in a muffled tone, hardly being able to control herself. The way she seemed excited, I was sure the nation is going to endure the worst of this failure of her manager. The plane still had not come to a stop now - ignoring all announcements to keep the mobiles switched off until the aircraft comes to a complete halt, she retorted, “What do you mean – he hasn’t reported yet. It is ten in the morning. You just cannot say, if he has not come, he has not come. This is grave injustice. I need the work done now. And there are dependencies. What about the risks involved. Who is going to bear the cost?” She seemed to think miles ahead – I felt she is planning for the future generations’ prosperity with such zeal.

When the full import of the message sunk into her – she moved away from the panic mode and switched into her solution mode. You can expect these only from the real mature visionaries. Those who have been in the line day in and day out of their lives solving complex issues of the society and the country at large. I was amazed at her tenacity and judgment.

"Ok. Let me quickly think. Please take notes even as I talk to you. Once this call is over, I will give you his number. His name is Selvam. He is from Tamil Nadu and you need to find someone who can talk to him in Tamil. Tell him that the work is waiting for him. He has exactly two days to complete the job. You need to talk to the architect who can specify what the problem is.” No wonder, I thought she is a person of great repute – who else but an enterprise architect would have such insight into explaining what the problem is. And she must be even greater to have an enterprise architect working for her.

Even as I was admiring her immense aspirations she has for her country – the next sentence she uttered felt like cold water thrown on my face.

She said,”Selvam is the plumber. He can know what the problem is from our architect. On my instruction, you have taken leave just to take care of this plumber and you tell me he has not shown up. I do not care what you do – get the plumber resolve the issue and let me know. Call him. Take your car to wherever he is and bring him. Give me a call half an hour later. Now I need to rush to office work.” That must have been her husband. God save him, at least from the plumbers of India.

I felt relieved. For a moment I thought IT people have really started showing concern for their work. Of course they do - for all their personal work. But this one took the cake. The language sounded so familiar even I was fooled by her.

This was not the first time where I came across people using their project management tactics in real like - it works very rarely. And even rarely still in IT.

I just smiled, switched on the mobile, took the incoming call from my boss and said. “I am still stuck in the plane. I will give you an update when I check out of the airport.”

Trees of Bangalore Today

 

 

 

 

a few photos taken where beauty of Bangalore, it's trees - were cut and replaced by steel and concrete . A few photos. But are they not necessities and don't we use those pieces of infrastructure for our convenience.