Broke ! ! !

In my one year stay as a paying guest, there hadn’t been a month when I did not say that I was broke. My roommate and I joked about how we spent most of our pocket money in the first half of the month and then spent it as less as possible because we always ran out of it. She was the one who believed in saving some part of the money every month and I was the one who believed in ‘spending everything here and now.’ Those days were fun and I never actually ran out of all the money! Even if I had just 10 bucks in my wallet I knew I could get 1000 bucks or more out from the next ATM on my way.

And then a couple of days back, I lost my wallet! That, my friend, you call the moment of really being broke. That day one of my classmates lost her wallet in the bus, a week before that my ex-roommate lost her wallet too. So I thought that I should be extra careful while travelling in buses or maybe I will be the next person without her wallet. Guess what! Being extra careful actually made my wallet say ‘Bye Bye’ to me.

I have no idea when the theft took place. I had my wallet when I climbed on the bus and it wasn’t there when I got down. Funny it was how I found out about my loss – Ordering food and then realizing that my bag doesn’t have the money to pay it. ‘Please wait a minute. OH MY GOD! Okay.. Please cancel the order because I think I won’t be paying you because I think I don’t have my wallet here. I think it’s lost..HOW? I’m sorry. Just cancel it.’ Yes I panicked, called my Aunt and asked her to pick me up from the mall where I was supposed to sit down, have a cup of nice hot coffee and peacefully complete the scrapbook that I wanted to give my brother this Raksha Bandhan! ZAP! How can things go just the way I planned? Never have my plans worked and that day was no exception.

My status on that legendary day!

For the first time in my life I lost my wallet and again for the first time I went to the police station to lodge an FIR which took two and a half hours. What amazed me the most was, the image of police station in my mind and the real picture. No it wasn’t the Bollywood Thana! Shit! Anyway I along with my Aunt talked to the lady constable and wrote the required application (FIR). I asked my Aunt to go back home for all I had to do was wait and I did not want to trouble her and the kids. So she went and I sat down to wait in an open room where there was no fan and loads of giant mosquitoes. I actually killed one and had it's blood on my finger. I could have been arrested then and there you see (Hahaha.. ) I waited for half an hour, then one and nothing happened. I was upset – Not about my wallet but that my scrapbook wouldn’t be complete in time. I was angry- My plan did not work and there I was sitting doing nothing but texting my ex-roommate!

I was least worried about my wallet. I took out the incomplete scrapbook and started working on it.[ I really was crazy about completing it] Mom and dad kept calling me to know what's happening. I kept them updated. What worried them the most was that I did not have any identity proof anymore. And there I was thinking, ‘there is no proof of who I am, I can be anyone. Naaice.’ When you’re my friend, you know I can think of such things anytime. I got the copy of my FIR in a while and was headed home when my brother called to let me know that he was picking me up for a movie. So I went for Ship of Theseus and finally ate something. I had no idea that I was starving the whole day. Because my wallet was lost and my plans ruined, I had to buy rakhi with my brother’s money and that too from the mall. Unusual it was!

That day I was so bothered with the incomplete scrapbook that the realization of losing a wallet and being broke did not dawn upon me till now when I bought some things with a bit of money that I got from my brothers as Shagun, yesterday i.e. Raksha bandhan. With just eight bucks in my pocket, I realize that I do not have the option to take out money from the next ATM because with my wallet, the debit cards are lost too.

I guess I am finally BROKE. The best part is, all of it seems so funny! The whole thing from the time my wallet got stolen.. It is just freaking funny! Because I never thought things like these would happen to me, it is all new, kind of adventurous!