Random Musings #47: My Guardian Angel!
On emerging above ground at Oxford Circus, we split up. The girls walk to Zara, accompanied by their Mum, while I head to H&M to check out reasonably priced, while comfortable, Bangladesh made cotton tees and shorts. Yep, simple, as in simple tastes and wants, is my middle name!
As always, there is a good collection and I quickly pick a few, put them in the shopping bag and take them to the trial room. The assistant there greets me, asks how many pieces I had with me to try, gives me a tag with a number matching that but insists that I had to leave the shopping bag with him and take only the clothes inside. “Why?”, I wonder and ask, but who can argue with rules made by the powers that be!
Trying the tees and shorts is quick and easy thanks to the fact that I am already wearing a tee and a pair of jeans shorts, easy to take off and put back on. It is a very warm English summer day with the difference from Dubai being, almost only, the absence of air-conditioning!
True to the law of averages as far as clothes and me go, two of the six pieces I try, two fit me well. I get back into my own clothes, pick up the chosen ones in one hand and the others with the other, then my phone and go back to the assistant at the entrance to the fitting room.
Only then does it strike me.
The jeans shorts I was wearing were a tight fit and so I had been carrying both my phone and wallet in my hands all along, since leaving our AirBnb that morning. And, when I picked up the shopping bag before choosing clothes to try, I had placed both my wallet and phone in the bag - for convenience.
Now, as I handed the unchosen (yes, it is actually a good word!) clothes back to the assistant I realize that I am holding only two things — the chosen clothes and my phone.
Where, then, is my wallet?!?
I remember clearly placing only my phone on the small bench in the trial room but not my wallet. It quickly dawns on me that I must have left it in the shopping bag that I had handed to the assistant.
“Where is the bag that I gave you?”
“You left something in it?”
“My wallet, I think!”
“Yes, you did. Check the bags hanging here”
I do — wallet not there.
“Hmm, maybe someone took that bag!”
My heart sinks.
As wallets do, there were quite a few things in it the loss of which would cause minor to major inconveniences. Cash, credit cards, cash cards, national ID, driving license and then some. Quite a hassle to lose all these in one go, especially when traveling away from home. And also in a wallet, high in both sentimental and money value, a gift from the elder daughter.
The phone rings — it is the daughter asking “Where are you?” adding that they had come to H&M to join me. I say “Just out of the trial room. Let me call you back”, and hang up. I don’t tell them till much later in the day about what happened.
I then notice some more bags hanging on an ironing board a little to the left and ask the assistant to check those.
One of them does have my wallet in it.
“You are lucky!”, says the assistant with a wry smile.
“Yes, very lucky”, I reply as also “Yet again. Thank you!”, in my mind.
As a green-behind-the-ears professional starting off life overseas three decades ago in Bahrain, a friend introduced me to a ‘gifted’ person who could read one’s face, palm and feet. Among things that he said, many surprisingly true then or becoming true later, one was “Troubles and worries may approach you like dark clouds. But just when you think that a storm is imminent, the dark clouds will dissipate and disappear!”.
Indeed, this has been the case. On several occasions. Professionally and personally. Over the years.
Professionally, a long time boss, Angus, would say “Prabhakar, you have built up this tremendous credit bank — use it wisely!”. I guess he was right, one does build up a credit bank but could also equally, or even more, easily eat into it. As has shown the several twists and turns in my career, mostly good but also not without some unexpected and less pleasant ones.
Personally, there have been several occasions where all has appeared lost only for things to turn around miraculously and become alright. Among these, losing my passport and getting it back in no less than three separate instances, and similarly my phone too — again thrice! Much more significant ones involving family — anxious minutes when a very young daughter went missing on the busy streets outside the Madurai Meenakshi Amman temple, again while snorkeling over corals away from the coast while on holiday in Thailand and other anxious events — but thankfully, things turning out alright.
What does one attribute these to? Luck? Good fortune? Karma?
I have believed and continue to believe that one’s deeds and misdeeds have consequences. Some immediate and some, in time. Sometimes, I am conscious when I am doing them and sometimes only later from the consequences or lack thereof.
And that there is someone watching. And observing. Keeping me in check and in line.
My guardian angel. Who rewards and censures, in equal measure.
Like you may remember me versifying (Random Musings #22: I Dare to Versify!)
Jinke paas farishte hain
Jo chadar jaise chaaye hain
Buri nazar kya
Aanch tak pahunch na paaye!
Your enveloping embrace
Keeps me in good grace
And returns me from hell
Guard me, sweet angel!
Pray, continue to! My Guardian Angel!!
