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This is a true story. The story of a man being reunited with his laptop – Sergio (it has a name)! The incident is reminiscent of those YouTube videos one tends to watch on a rainy Tuesday, of people going back into the forest after years and from nowhere tigers/lions come out of the wild and snuggle with those individuals, years after no contact, mind you. Beautiful!
Who is Sergio? He is all of 2 years of age, silver in color, wonderful memory and attractive. Heart rendering and very moving, this episode also brought to light the existence of one Mr. Arnab Mitra who has since then become a friend of the writer of this article and will probably read this on social media as well. Hello, Arnab. The nation wanted to know – who you are.
Sunday, 30th November
As I turned to the gentleman (a prominent panelist from television debates) next to me on the flight, I asked rather helplessly, “Have you ever lost a laptop.”
He stared back and responded with a question, “No. Have you?”
“Maybe” I said with much consideration.
“It’s a yes or no answer, what’s this maybe?” He said.
I shut my eyes. My head found the back of my Indigo airline seat. I was fifteen minutes into a flight from Mumbai to New Delhi and I realized that my laptop got exchanged with someone else at the security check. The next 2 hours would fly by, literally not otherwise.
Earlier that day, I was lunching with my dear friend Hari Bala at Café Zoe. His extended family from church, his pastor Ryan and his wife Rachel; over conversation and spaghetti we spoke of hope and never giving up on oneself. It was a morning like none other, waking up and going to church on a Sunday, meeting with some incredible people and spending time in meaningful debate and sharing each other’s joy. I was in a good place, a happy one. Religion to me has always been an fascinating area – I was born to Hindu parents, raised by a Christian nanny (who still lives with us, thirty years on) and shepherded by a Muslim driver for the first eighteen years of my life. And, as I left lunch on Sunday, I knew that regardless of what may come – being happy, hopeful and realizing that nothing is impossible are things I must hold on to. Be it professionally or in a personal capacity, as a son, friend, brother, lover, boyfriend – I must hold on to the core values of what differentiates me from the person right next to me. As the air hostess approached me for a glass of water – hope went flying out of the window.
But…hope dangled on a string, like slow spinning redemption, lyrics of Dashboard Confessional replayed itself over and over again. I gaped at the laptop once again, the blue screen and the welcome sign read: Hello, Arnab Mitra. This wasn’t a bad dream; my laptop was well and truly gone. Now, I was stuck with the mission of tracking down some dude with a really common Bengali name and with no leads apart from his name. And a tiny thumbnail – photograph!
The air hostess on the flight was helpful and promised to go over the list of passengers on the flight. I prayed to all my gods – Arnab, you better be on this flight.
She approached me with a huge smile, as air hostesses often do. A part of me felt that there was a miracle waiting to take place, Arnab was on the same flight. I got up in anticipation but she said, “No Arnab Mitra on this flight.” Beaming smile on her face, oh well.
At the back of my head, I began wondering how many flights must’ve left the terminal I was in, between 4pm to 6pm. How many airlines must’ve been flying out of that terminal, for me to get passenger lists from – Jet, Indigo, Go, Spicejet, Air India… damn! The sheer work involved in getting Sergio back was quite upsetting, especially for a laidback bloke. What was the other option? Social media – go all out. The nation will look for Arnab Mitra (and Sergio).
What seemed like an eternity was only a couple of hours, as soon as I got down from the plane; I called my mother and narrated the incident. Luckily, we both saw the funny side to the incident. I realized there and then, Murphy’s Law ought to take its course.
As soon as I posted the status on Facebook about the situation I found myself in, I began getting great assistance from both friends and family. Before I knew it, we had not only tracked Arnab Mitra down but also found his Linkdin profile, Facebook page, Twitter handle, Email and also his company profile. All in a matter of minutes! Wow, what a breakthrough.
I can’t imagine what we would do without social networks (and family/friends). The next hour was spent trying to get in touch with Arnab, narrating the incident, relaying information and making sure we had each other’s laptops. As the night progressed, more and more friends got involved and what began as a helpless situation turned into a story with a happy ending. The moral of the story is: a) stay alive on social networking sites, b) maintain close relations with intelligent people who could’ve made great detectives but chose other professions and c) keep the faith, hold on to hope.
Arjun Puri is still waiting on Sergio to arrive. Arnab Mitra sent some dude called Rajaram to collect his laptop today. One side of the exchange has already taken place. Many people found a minute to laugh about this epic scenario Arjun found himself in. Arnab is friends with Arjun on Facebook and has promised beers on their meeting. All’s well that ends well!
(About the writer: Arjun Puri was born and raised in Kolkata, back when it was still called Calcutta. As a young child he spent time in Mumbai, Chennai and Bengaluru – before their names changed. His last long-term home was London, and he fully expects it to call itself something else soon. Arjun graduated from the University of St Andrews in 2007 and worked as a banker for 5 years, before he realised it was not for him. Arjun now lives in Delhi and works in the education sector. He loves books, sport, people and travel -- and most of all, Leyla, his German Shepherd).
