Rapid pinging on the Hike messenger made me wash my hands
and take a break from my cooking.
I opened the family “Home Talkies”
“Mama! Don’t freak out!”
I messaged back, “?????”
“I think I have lost my watch!”
The very responsible Doctor of the family was at Prayagraj
Kumbh Mela. She was there on duty. She and her team had been put up at the eye
camp. She shared her “room” with three other people. We all had been apprehensive
about her going and roughing it out at the eye camp there. But she had been
very pleased with all the arrangements made by the Organisers. Lovely warm
tents; great attached bathrooms and the most important thing four square meals
a day with lots of snacks, tea and coffee thrown in. True they had to work
hard, but they had fixed timings, so it was a kind of break from the slavery
that they had to face at college!
I sighed and thought, “Why did she have to get my bad
genes?”. But like me I knew she would find it. I was the famous “lost and found”
specialist of the family!
I messaged back, “You will find it!”
Father noticed the conversation sometime later and said, “No
you won’t”
“Tell me when you last saw it”, I asked
“Well! I think I left it on the bed before I went for my
bath.”
“It will be there, amongst the bedclothes”, I insisted
“Have searched!”, came the terse reply
“Maybe it’s time for a new watch!”, came another
rejoinder
“You will find it”, I signed off.
There was discussion in the house about whether or not it
would be found. Well all my life, I had lost things (Specially keys and
money!); given up hope of ever finding them; found them definitely. This time
around I was sure my mitochondria would find it!
After three days an abashed message, “Found my watch!”
“Where was it?”, three people messaged back
simultaneously
“It was with my undies in the undies bag”
I never said, “I told you so!”
The next day I overslept as I hadn’t been keeping too
well. I woke up to hear the face time app ringing.
I clicked on it to see the teary-eyed baby of the family,
six thousand kilometres away in Chicago.
Of course, I panicked! But I am the parent, cannot show
it!
“Mama! I have lost all my immigration papers!”
“No, you cannot have, I am sure you will find it”, I said
reassuringly not feeling reassuring at all!
Lord and master took the I pad from me (he could see I
was panicking)
“Where did you last see it?”, he asked
She had just returned from a business trip.
“Did you take it with you to Ohio?”, I asked
“No, I did not”, came the tearful rebuttal
“Where did you last see it?” repeated Dad
“Well, I kept very carefully. They are in a thick folder.
When I came back from India, I first kept it on my bedside table, then I use to
sleep with it every day…”
“Then?”, prompted Dad.
All this while my mind was going haywire thinking of
where she could have kept it.
“Then once my bed got all dirty, so I kept it on the
floor… for safe keeping you know”
I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.
“Was that the last you saw it?” Dad said, a little
frustration creeping into his voice.
“What about your passport?”
“Passport is fine I always keep it in this bag”, the bag
was displayed to us.
I sighed, “You can get all the other papers from the university,
right?”
“I suppose so, but it will take time and I need to submit
the documents tomorrow!”, wailed my baby
I doubted my mitochondria for a second! I never left
things for the last moment. That must be from her father, I comforted myself.
“Take me around the places you could have kept it. What
about the suitcase?”, I asked tentatively, sure I would get an impatient answer
in response.
“That was the first place I looked for!”, was the snappy
reply
“Do it again, just to please me”, I wheedled
The suitcase was got out, I saw her hands going all over
it.
“No, its not there!”, she wailed
I got up to leave the I pad. My mitochondria had failed!
I was mutely looking at my better half for some reassurance.
“Hell!” the young one exclaimed
“I think its here! But I don’t know how to get it out!”
I was frozen!
Lots of noise from the iPad, I did not dare look into it.
“Got it!”, said the triumphant voice
There she was, with the teary-eyed smile (Which by the way her
father loves), the absconding folder in her hand!
I could have given her a whack and hug at the same time.
Well don’t need DNA testing for these two, they definitely
have my mitochondria!
