It was 9th of July 2014, Cuttack had been hot n humid, we were off to Puri just after Bahuda to catch a glimpse of the deities outside the temple. It was a different experience. I had never seen the chariots in person and since I had the camera, I got busy. Someone else saw me got busy and made impromptu plans to teach me a lesson and make some quick bucks. I was wearing baggy shorts with good amount of safety against stealing. But I was so lost clicking those snaps, I had no clue the thief opened my back pocket and made away with the wallet. Just a few minutes back I was telling myself to be careful with the wallet but unfortunately didn't do anything about it other than make a mental note of it.
The feeling of helplessness that you get among a mass of people, after losing your wallet is difficult to describe. Thankfully my family was around, albeit I was a little bit away to catch a better view of the three chariots.
After the initial scoldings, it was a spate of phone calls to cancel all the cards, catch police guys to register a complaint, etc. It wasn't so easy, considering we're surrounded by a million people, cows, other animals/things found on streets of Puri, quite a chaotic environment. The Police wallahs were helpful after some tele-prodding by my advocate uncle, but they weren't going to do much more than filing a complaint in the station diary. Our requests to look at the CCTV were summarily turned down, many police personnel openly claimed that the CCTVs don't work. Of course had it been a big-wig who had lost even a penny, the entire state machinery would have been put to work to find the culprits, every one of the CCTVs would have automatically started working as if receiving a divine command from the God Almighty himself. Anyways I had resigned myself to the fate of my own folly. My biggest worries were the driving license, which I had obtained after much running around at the KR Puram RTO (different story, just realized I have posted it in a corruption fighting web-site but not in my blog, will do next) and my voter card.
Thankfully I realized I had taken out my voter card, but the DL was still gone.
Around this time, I kept getting a feeling that most people throw the wallet after taking out the money and maybe soon i'll get a call from someone who has found it.
And very soon I did. But not before I had deactivated all payment cards I was carrying. They told that there was no money in the wallet but all cards were intact including and to my immense relief, my drivers license. These guys claimed they found the wallet on the beach. We arranged to meet at a specific place, they wanted a reward, I at this point would have gladly given them too but it was highly possible that they themselves had pocked my pocket and decided to call me to get even more money after pocketing all the cash in the wallet. Anyways, my brother and father decided to stay a little away and observe these guys and I went in alone to meet them.
There were three of them, decent looking guys, they were quick to hand over the wallet. I gave them a few hundred rupees in gratitude, told them since I had deactivated all cards hence couldn't offer them more. Thanked them, my dad n brother joined asked them where they were from and then we all headed our way.
This putting to rest an eventful morning, we were so tired after that episode that abandoned all other plans, went to a good place to have a meal and sped back to cuttack.
I used to have a lot of faith on my instincts and situational awareness, this incident was a major dent on those claims and was a useful lesson - Don't wear loose shorts in crowded places.
Total monetary losses amounted to about Rs 3,000.
My family was demanding a treat for bearing with me that day, apparently I was thoroughly intolerable, I can imagine what they meant. I get extremely pissed when I lose something and this time the stakes were quite high.
The feeling of helplessness that you get among a mass of people, after losing your wallet is difficult to describe. Thankfully my family was around, albeit I was a little bit away to catch a better view of the three chariots.
After the initial scoldings, it was a spate of phone calls to cancel all the cards, catch police guys to register a complaint, etc. It wasn't so easy, considering we're surrounded by a million people, cows, other animals/things found on streets of Puri, quite a chaotic environment. The Police wallahs were helpful after some tele-prodding by my advocate uncle, but they weren't going to do much more than filing a complaint in the station diary. Our requests to look at the CCTV were summarily turned down, many police personnel openly claimed that the CCTVs don't work. Of course had it been a big-wig who had lost even a penny, the entire state machinery would have been put to work to find the culprits, every one of the CCTVs would have automatically started working as if receiving a divine command from the God Almighty himself. Anyways I had resigned myself to the fate of my own folly. My biggest worries were the driving license, which I had obtained after much running around at the KR Puram RTO (different story, just realized I have posted it in a corruption fighting web-site but not in my blog, will do next) and my voter card.
Thankfully I realized I had taken out my voter card, but the DL was still gone.
Around this time, I kept getting a feeling that most people throw the wallet after taking out the money and maybe soon i'll get a call from someone who has found it.
And very soon I did. But not before I had deactivated all payment cards I was carrying. They told that there was no money in the wallet but all cards were intact including and to my immense relief, my drivers license. These guys claimed they found the wallet on the beach. We arranged to meet at a specific place, they wanted a reward, I at this point would have gladly given them too but it was highly possible that they themselves had pocked my pocket and decided to call me to get even more money after pocketing all the cash in the wallet. Anyways, my brother and father decided to stay a little away and observe these guys and I went in alone to meet them.
There were three of them, decent looking guys, they were quick to hand over the wallet. I gave them a few hundred rupees in gratitude, told them since I had deactivated all cards hence couldn't offer them more. Thanked them, my dad n brother joined asked them where they were from and then we all headed our way.
This putting to rest an eventful morning, we were so tired after that episode that abandoned all other plans, went to a good place to have a meal and sped back to cuttack.
I used to have a lot of faith on my instincts and situational awareness, this incident was a major dent on those claims and was a useful lesson - Don't wear loose shorts in crowded places.
Total monetary losses amounted to about Rs 3,000.
My family was demanding a treat for bearing with me that day, apparently I was thoroughly intolerable, I can imagine what they meant. I get extremely pissed when I lose something and this time the stakes were quite high.
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