Even Bad Situations Lead To Some Good

August 18th 2007. A few of us friends had driven down to Chennai from Bangalore. A close friend was down from UK, for his daughter’s carnatic vocal debut performance. After a highly engrossing and entertaining debut performance by my friends’ 15 year old daughter, we met up in the hotel room to catch up with old times. We retired around 230 am, and my friend left at 345 am to run some airport errands to drop the Chief Guest of the previous evening and his wife’s friends who had come for the event.

I woke up around 7am and in quick time realized that my cell phone, my digital camera and wallet were gone. A complaint with the hotel management, and thereafter with the local crime branch police followed. We drove back to Bangalore around 2pm and I personally felt I had seen the last of everything that had been stolen. Precious amongst the wallet items were my Indian and USA driving licenses. Calls to cancel the credit and ATM cards happened as we waited at the hotel during the investigations by the hotel management and by the police. We later drove back to Bangalore, and as I retrieved my travel bag from the boot I had a shock. My shoes, which had been packed inside, were lying outside. On checking my travel bag, I found a brand new cell phone. A very dear friend who had come down and spent time during the time we interacted with the hotel management and polics, had slipped away to buy this, and took my other friends’ help to slip it into my bag, lest I protest and refuse to accept it if given directly!!

September 3rd, 2007. An early morning call that I didn’t pick up. At around 900am, my cell buzzed again and couldn’t quite place the location from which this call was coming. I was asked if I were Vincent Sunder. On my confirming, the person at the other end said he had found some items near his vehicle! Credit cards, ATM cards, driving licenses! An auto driver, who had chanced to see the little rubber band strung bunch of cards and other items. Seeing my visiting card, he promptly used a public calling booth to make the call, inquiring how he could reach them to me. How could he reach them to me? He did not even have a phone. I took his address and his a contact mobile number. A few more calls from my side and my friend’s Coimbatore based brother-in-law swung into action. Within a hour, he called me. The auto driver was at his office with the items. He had to force him to accept the money that I had requested to be handed over to him as a goodwill gesture.

Late in the evening, as I was driving back my cell buzzed again. The Coimbatore caller again. Why? What now is he calling for? As I wondered, he spoke. He thanked me for the money and mentioned that it helped him pay his son’s school fees and purchase the school books he had required also. I squirmed and closed the call saying that some day when I visit Coimbatore I would connect with him through the contact number he had given, and meet him. The Sub-Inspector at Chennai, who had been in touch with me on the FIR filed, sounded completely surprised when I called him to inform him of this development. Very strange, he commented.

Some good comes out of even the most terrible situations, and you encounter some amazingly honest people. People who go out of their way to take the trouble of doing what they feel is right – at a personal cost. The money had also gone to help a kid with his studies. I would personally never look back at the loss at the hotel with any sense of regret – anymore.