pockpicketed!

Getting back from (understatement alert!) a perfectly decent trip to Bangalore, I disembark the half-hour-delayed Udyan Express at Kalyan station, only to find all local trains are running indefinitely late because of flooding of the tracks at Mulund. "What the duck?", I think to myself, but fortunately a fast train bound for CST was just about to pull in. "Hurray", I think to myself again, and head for the platform in question, somewhat annoyed at the crowd for the time of evening, but mostly relieved that a train had deigned to pass by.

Stepping over piles of bags, some toes and a lot of slush (on the platform!), I make my way to the general compartments section. "Crowded!", I think to myself, yet again. As an aside - all this thinking to myself was only because I was alone, else I'd have thought out aloud to myself. Anyways, I wait for the wild Khopoli buggers to hop down, and begin to scramble inside. Managed to get in, bag intact, and got a nice little corner to stand in while waiting for the monster to edge its way towards Thane.

Dombivli came, Dombivli went. Then came the realization that something was not where it should be. This was instantly followed by the realization that it was my wallet that was not where it should it, and it should've been in the pocket of my jeans. "Uh-oh", I think to myself. All those proofs of identity. College ID, PAN card, driving license - all gone. Along with the usual bunch of credit cards and cash. But most importantly, the swipe-card to my XLRI hostel room was gone. HOW WAS I GOING TO GET THERE AND PATCH INTO THE HIGH-SPEED INTERNET WITHOUT ACCESS TO MY ROOM?!?!?!?!?!?

Panicked, calmed down, reported loss to railway police at Thane station, came home, related sob story to anybody who'd care to listen, sat at laptop to find out various banks' customer care numbers to report loss of credit and debit cards, and the phone rang. With news that some guy had found my wallet and wanted to return it.

"Hurray", I thought to myself. Fixed up a time and place to meet him, did so, retrieved documents proving one's existence, came back home after deciding to ditch the only Bombay Quiz Club meet one could have attended this term-break, and typed out boring blog posts. Here. Slashbot always has interesting stuff :-D

Which just reminds me, I just added a link to Slashbot to this blog. Pretty dumb not to link to your own blog, eh?