Hello friends,
Todayâs story is relevant to our modern struggles of working from home. Thereâs always something or the other to disrupt our flow state - you need to cook, clean, attend to children, open the door, attend to phone calls, and whatnot!
Because of its relevance, I chose to write it in the first person. Writing in first person allows you to dip into a characterâs struggles even further. If you havenât done it, I highly recommend that you narrate or write a story in first-person. If you do, please share it with me!
Do read and share this story with your friends.
âReading time - 6 minutes
Lost and found
Thirty days. After thirty whole days I stepped out of my apartment today. Not because of COVID-19, but because I was lazy. Why step out of your house when not needed? That too in todayâs world, you can get almost anything delivered to your doorstep. I am a big proponent of ordering things online. It is so much more efficient.
But today was different. Sangeeta Aunty, who lives three lanes down from my apartment, had insisted that I come to her place for lunch. I detest it when people call me for lunch. As I work from home, people think I donât have anything to do during the day. Little do they know that video calls take up most of my mornings, and group chats and emails take the rest of my time. It is hard to find a few moments when I am sitting without any work.
Sangeeta Aunty had been calling me for more than three months at this point. Every time, I found a reason to say no. âI am busy today; I have to go meet a friend whoâs coming from the US; I have to go to a brainstorming session; meet a work friend;â all the excuses were done at this point.
This morning, she gave me an ultimatum. If I didnât visit her place, she was coming to mine. Which would be terrible.
I had a review meeting at 1:30 PM, so the plan was to finish lunch before 1:00 PM so I could be back by 1:15 PM. The tasty Fruit Cream dessert filled me up so that the fifteen-minute walk back to my place was extended to twenty minutes. I was at my buildingâs entrance at 1:20 PM. Climbing up the three flights of stairs took a few more minutes, before I was in front of my door, panting as if I had been chased by a cheetah.
I checked the right pocket of my pants followed by the left, followed by the back pockets. I couldnât find the keys. My face went red, thinking I wonât be able to make it to the review meeting. My breath was warm and my eyes felt hot.
I called Sangeeta Aunty to check if I had left the keys at her place. The answer was no. How would I? I had not taken anything out of my pockets while I was there â not even my phone. In fact, I had intentionally put it in silent mode for a change. For a change, I decided to not look at my phone and concentrate my attention towards her. She was not a bad person after all, just a little annoying with her endless questions. I didnât have the patience. But today, surprisingly, she let me do most of the talking. It was I who asked most of the questions, as she kept smiling and answered my questions. I wondered what had changed.
âDid you check your pockets?â
âYeah, of course, Aunty,â I replied. Wasnât that an obvious first step? âIâll talk to you later,â I cut the phone line.
I rang the doorbell of my neighbour, an old uncle named Mr. A K Rana. He was a retired Army Colonel. Again, a person who liked to talk very much. I didnât involve him very much in my life, but he was happy to keep a spare set of my apartment keys at his place. In the three years I have lived in this apartment, Iâve never spoken to him for more than five minutes.
He opened the door. âOh, look whoâs here. How come?â he had a wide smile covered by his thick, white beard.
âUncle, keysâŠâ I said.
âOh, sure thing. Come on in? Have a seat for a bit?â
âSorry, uncle, I have a meeting for which Iâm running late. The meeting starts in 3 minutes. Kind of important to be on time.â
âOh, yeah, yeah, Iâm an army man. Being punctual is one of the most important things in life. Let me find you your keys,â he said and walked back into the apartment.
I stepped in since the door was open. I had never entered his apartment before now. Besides the TV was a rack full of trophies, medals and certificates. Some of the certificates were also hanging behind the TV. I started reading the accomplishments of this old man one after the other.
As I reached the middle of the rack, my phone buzzed a notification stating my meeting was starting in 2 minutes.
âUncleâŠâ I called, as Mr. Rana was still in a bedroom.
âYeah, I am looking for the keys in my cupboard. I remember keeping them here. Give me just a minute.â
What could I say? I couldnât do anything but wait. I kept staring at the trophies one by one. This man had an illustrious career in the Indian Army. Most of the medals were related to his participation in the Kargil war, but some medals celebrated his participation in the Army Swimming team.
My phone buzzed again. A message from a teammate. âJoining the meeting?â she asked. I thought of responding yes, but a part of me wanted to say no. I was convinced that Mr. Rana was going to need more time looking for the keys. I typed a message but deleted it before sending it to her.
âUncle, it is time for my meeting.â I raised my voice, âAny chance you could make it faster?â
âYes, yes, beta. Looking for the keys. I had kept them in this shelf only, but theyâre not here.â
I didnât respond. It was 1:35 PM. Usually, in my meetings, a few minutes of delay was fine. But 5 minutes was too much of a delay for an hour-long meeting. Review meetings were full of heated discussions around the marketing strategy of the company. I was asked to present the results of our newest marketing campaigns. If I didnât present, no one had a reason to be in the meeting.
âUncleâŠâ I called out again. This time, my palms were sweating. âSo much for being an army person. Cannot even remember where he kept my apartment keys. I wonder how he worked with a strict time discipline.â
Once I was finished with the negative line of thought, I asked, âCan I help you find the keys?â
âSure, come on in.â
I stepped in to the bedroom. Nothing peculiar about it. A giant wooden bed was sitting in the room apart from a metal cupboard. Mr. Rana was sitting on the floor, peeking into the lower shelves of the cupboard.
âCan you check the topmost shelf? I am sure I didnât put it there, but still worth checking.â
âSure, can you move aside please?â I asked. He nodded.
âBe careful with the shelf. Thereâs too much stuff there.â He said.
My hands reached the top of a stack full of clothes. I slipped my hands at the bottom of the stack, but my hands touched no keys. I kept slipping my hands into the middle of the stack.
But in the process, the shirts sitting on top of my hand slipped and fell on the floor.
âNo way I can make it to the meeting,â I concluded. I decided to message a teammate to cancel the meeting. Before starting to pick up the clothes, I typed a message into my phone.
âOh, hereâs your key,â Mr. Rana said, holding the key in his hands. I was about to hit the send button. Phew!
âGo, run to your meeting,â he added.
I looked at the mess I had created, feeling ashamed. âIâll clean this up after my meeting. Iâll be back in the evening,â I said.
âDonât worry about it. Go, run!â And I did. I ran as fast as I could.
I was 20 minutes late into the meeting. When I explained the predicament, the meeting attendees actually chuckled at the incident and excused me. They had started discussing some other items in the meantime and had pushed the review to a later date.
Things are not always as bad as they seem to be. Maybe, I couldâve just explained to them that I wonât make it to the meeting and helped the old Colonel arrange the shirts back in the cupboard shelf.
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Thanks for reading :)
Hemant
Nice one Hemant! Enjoyed readingđ. Reminded me, a line from the famous movie, bicycle thieves, "There's a cure for everything, except death".