Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Mera time kuch kharab chal raha hai :(

Yesterday was a very long day for me. Yesterday I was pick pocketed. Yes - you guys heard it right, and I am bad at keeping suspense and revealing at the very end as to why yesterday was a very long day for me - I was robbed of my wallet. Of the zillion + 1 things I carry in my big as a rucksack purse, the small cute navy blue wallet was what was chosen by the disreputable thief. And with it went 800 odd rupees, one ICICI platinum card, one ICICI silver card and 2 debit cards :( Thats why I said, mera time kuch kharab chal raha hai :(

Now back to the basics, how did it happen. Well yesterday I chanced to get into a bus to commute to office. As per my habit I paid for the ticket and went ahead to read Love in the time of Cholera. When I alighted from the bus, my purse felt a teeeeeny weeeeny lighter and I checked - the wallet was MISSING! Now till then I gave no thought as to who, when, how - I ran to the nearest auto. The urgency in my tone was sufficient to convey to the auto driver who knew no other language but Tamil to go ahead and chase the bus. He could have given any Hrithik Roshan a run for his money by the Dhoom ishtyle in which he drove the auto rickshaw. We reached the bus in the next to next stop and when I got in and checked, there was no purse to be found :( First I thought, maybe I was careless and had dropped the purse and the driver or conductor took it up. Crestfallen, I asked the auto rickshaw driver to drive me home, promising him to pay once we got home. On the way back itself, zip zap I got 2 messages of transactions worth Rs. 2840.50 and Rs. 6293.00(within a span of 15 mins of loosing my wallet). Then I was certain, that none of the bus operators had picked the wallet, cos they would be still on the route. It must have been someone who took it deliberately - and I had quite a few people who chanced to sit beside me and there could have been any number of opportunities for someone to pick pocket :(

I must commend the auto rickshaw driver for the awesome help that he was. I later discovered that he was infact waiting for someone to come when I came and approached him. But rather than waiting for that person, he chose to drive and help me. His other passenger in fact still owed him money for the onward trip. I called up that person to speak to him, since the auto driver did not have balance in his cell phone. The other gentleman said that, he had picked the auto from near his home and would pay him surely in the evening.

Once home, I had to go through the long, unnerving and extremely irritating process of cancelling 2 credit cards and 2 debit cards. My God, how ICICI bank made me wait wait and wait phew! I have gotten allergic to the theme tune of the bank grrrrrrr.... It took from 1220 to 1445 to get the 4 things blocked. Then since there had already been some transactions on my credit card, I had to file an FIR in the nearest police station and fax the same to the Fraudulent Department of the bank. When anything has to go wrong it will most definitely go wrong. Today being election day in the state, most police men were on election duty and the rest present were munching mutton biriyani clad in white vests ( believe me thats what they were doing ) When I saw the sight I thought I wonder if anything will work out today :( But I think the writer recognised my face ( Yes I had come to the same police station 2 months back to inform about the loss of my cell phone, and he obliged to take the complaint. Thank God! As we were coming out, we heard of another case of a girl having left her credit card in the ATM machine itself! Someone withdrew 4K cash and used the card to shop for 15K odd! She had left the debit card in her office ATM machine, means someone well educated was into such abhorable task. Maybe there should be more plastic money :(

FIR logdged, we came back home. I was dead tired not only with all the scurrying around but also because of a reprimands I got from K. He was hyper, tensed and very very anxious. And my dad being his replica, I had warned my sis not to tell him. When I reached home from the police station at 1530 and was about to have lunch, my dad wanted to speak to me! I was nearly narrating Hanuman Chalisa. I was too happy to hear "It happens dont worry" rather than a face a rampage from him. He was so chilled out!! I was amazed! Maybe he thought I must have got a heady dosage from K and could do without a repeat telecast from him. Lunch done, I lied on the sofa and dozed off for an hour and my mil who was with me through and through (poor dear she ) too had a cat nap.

Evening was full of analysis of how, why, when, destiny, karma, God. We called up the store as well to find out what had been shopped and it seems the spurious person had bought vessels and a fan! My dad was like " Arre why did nt he/she buy and ac!" I was like "Dadddddd!! " My manager being the good samaritan that he is, offered any sort of help needed even monetary :) When I informed my onsite counterparts, I was touched to see their empathy and concern. One of them retorted, the fiend should be made to do allllllllll the documentations of our projects, not once not twice but thrice and should even be made to answer some questionnaires :)

Frankly speaking, I was having a very ominous feeling since the morning. One thing or the other was going wrong. I had a strong sense something very wrong was going to happen. So when the theft happened, I was relieved in fact, that okay, if this is what had to go wrong, its fine. Whatever happens happens only for the good....

23 comments:

pami said...

thats bad news..still i feel u averted a bigger danger in d form of a small one... a piece f advice, dont carry all ur credit n debit cards always...there will hardly b a situation whr u wud need all f them..so better keep 1 or 2 n rest locked up at home

A Benevolent Sultan for Life said...

:(

Jack said...

Amrita,

Be careful in future. When traveling by bus, do not take out purse to pay the fare but keep loose change in hand or in the outer pocket to pay. I have had my pocket picked twice but it was my carelessness on both occassions. How much damage has been done due to misuse of CCs and DCs?

Take care

Satish N said...

Achachooo ... thats so sad, missing a wallet is one of the most toughest things to digest, its more like our family member, coz we spend most of our time with that wallet and we store lots of imp things there. Anyways, the thief did not harm you for that petty 800 rs cash. Tk care dude ...

Divya Khanna said...

u indeed had a long and sad day!!! its really unfortunate to lose ur purse!
beware from next time! ur blog surely would help others to be careful!

Ashma said...

oh.. poor dear.. hota hain kabhi kabhi yaar.. koi naa.. at least u will b more careful going forward.

PS: Just look at the bright side.. u get to buy a new wallet.. ;-)

Amrita said...

@Jack and Satish - he/she swiped the card for 8k odd.. :(

Anya said...

sad indeed...

chriz

I'll try 2 be truthful said...

ohho , once my purse got stolen from my bag right outside our computer library along with college ID and lib card :( but kudos to the autodriver for being so helpful .
condolences .

WritingsForLife said...

oh i am sorry... i hope they can find the wallet. but its good to know that your dad still had a sense of humor... its ok, things like that happen. just be careful from next time onwards.. and think about it... there are still some good people out there i.e the rickshaw driver. :-)
I will keep you in my prayers :-)

The Furobiker said...

jus be thankful that u were swiped off for small amounts.. my bro got 70k shock!

you can check with your banks that where was the credit card swiped. many shops etc have cctv cams to track the customers.. maybe u can get the person who used it..

Shit Happens

Amrita said...

Thanks Raaji :)

Mukesh Agrawal said...

:-(,hey thts a pretty bad experience ..i lost my whole travelling bag last month with a digi cam,5 pairs of cloths,4 GB pendrive & many more.hota hai,bade bade city main choti choti batein hoti raheti hain :-)...so cheer up & b careful...hmmmmm.

Amrita said...

hey Mukesh, I think your experience was worse :(

Nitin said...

badi kanjoos hein ... only 800 rs..

Deepsikha Mishra said...

Gawwd.... Shit.

.. said...

I caught up with the news quite late..hope everything is sorted out now...

Ekta said...

ooh god!
I hate it when I lose things..once I forgot my digicam in a bus and tried to find it 5 min later and it had dissapeared!
But touchwood it wasnt as bad as it cld have been!

Angel said...

oops jst read this blog .. :( .. bit too late i guess .. u jst got one more experience :) ... try to learn smthing from it ... dont run away from credit cards ... rather insure them against misuse ... these days it jst takes one call to block them all and protect them ... :)

Amrita said...

dino before i called the damage was done!!

Renu said...

OMG...this is one thing I am always scared of and worries me all the time....I hope thwe police can trace that oerson with the shopping he has done.

In the end we can only console ourselves saying that if we are well it is ok.

Once my son was going from KNP to allahabad and withing 4 minutes somebody took off his suitcase, till today I cant forget my son's shocked and sad face, as he has all...I really mean that all his belongings in that...clothes,books everything.

Salomie said...

Damn, sorry to read this. But I have to say, plz be very, very careful when you commute or are in a crowded place. My mom used to be after us with her reminders everyday when we left home: never keep your bag beside you on the seat, esp if somebody else is sitting there. If you're standing in a crowded bus / train, don't let ur bag dangle beside you, hold it against your body so that no one can touch ur bag without u being aware. If you're sitting in restaurants, again, don't leave ur bag beside you or hang it from the back of ur chair, best is to keep it on ur lap. In short, be aware of where your things are at all times.....better to be a lil paranoid than to suffer the after-effects.

Chitra said...

Gyah! Reminded me of the time my purse got picked! I had to hurry to get my ATM and credit cards locked! Lost quite some cash though :-|.