Good things happen to good people!

Some people think good things happen to good people. So I'm good I guess, because I've lost my cellphone twice and got it back both times.
Once I left my cell in an autorickshaw in Chennai. The minute the auto sped off I realised my loss and let go of my tears. I tried calling my number, but the phone was switched off. There was nothing else to do except call up amma and tell her of my great misadventure!
My mom sounded cool and told me philosophically that I would get it back if I was meant to get it back. Some consolation that was!
I kept trying my number once in a while, only to hear a monotonous voice telling me that the number was unreachable.
In half an hour, my cousin, who used to work nearby rushed to my office with the information that my mom had spoken to the auto driver and that he had asked me to pick it up from his stand!!
I got back my phone after paying 100 bucks, and that too, because the other auto drivers insisted.
Not that I minded paying the sum, but I'd just like to clarify that the auto driver who had my phone was very decent about the whole thing and kept refusing the money I tried to push into his hand.
But this is not an isolated case. I've seen this happen in Delhi, too. One of my friends from college left her cellphone in an auto and it was picked up by the next person to hire the vehicle. This person, a foreigner who knew neither Hindi or English, communicated to the auto driver that he first wanted to find the phone's owner before going on his way!
A colleague of mine left her phone in an auto and missed it a good half hour later. When we finally got through to her number, the auto driver actually told her that he'd come and return it at her office in an hour's time and just asked her to pay for the distance he had to travel without a passenger!
That in Delhi!
Why I'm reminded of all these lost and found cases is because another colleague left her phone in the cab that dropped her home from office last night. The driver said he would return the cell tonight.
We're just keeping our fingers crossed...to find out if she too figures in the 'good people' list!!
But while we are waiting to be the good people that good things happen to...wonder what we'd do if we had to be those good people who did these good things to us.

Is it all just about money and just about being "different"?
What happens to ethics and what happens to sensitivity?
Is it okay to numb your feelings to everything that goes on around
And just wait and watch while the world flogs a dead man?
And it's a world I am part of.
It's a world that has made me its own.
Is it very abnormal to feel this way?
Somewhere everybody is losing sense of direction.
Talk about sensation in a world where nobody nobody really feels anything.
Even a murderer can plead his case
Then why did we just hang the victim of a murder?
Or doesn't anyone care until it becomes a court case
I'm in an abyss right now.
I know I can get out when I want.
Then what am I waiting for?
Why am I jeopardising my sanity for something I don't believe in?
I am seeking answers for something that is eluding me.
I hope my search ends before life does.
And before my sense of right and wrong is numbed completely by a totally senseless, insensitive way of life.

Dis-enchantment

There seems to be a pervasive sense of disilluionment everywhere.
People without jobs are not getting the jobs they want. Those with the jobs they wanted, don't want them anymore and those who still want the jobs they have are not wanted by their employers.
At least this seems to be the general feeling among my friends. Is it just a phase of not being happy with what you have or is something wrong with the system? It seems difficult to analyse as I'm so into the situation myself.
Office politics, arguments, miscommunication, irritating colleagues, everyone seems to have a different peeve, but the bottomline is the same...the yearning to quit.
Before you ask someone about his or her job, prepare yourself to hear a earful. A spineless boss may be the problem for one or an interfering one with another. With a third, it might be too much pressure and and with a fourth, lack of responsibility.
Would swapping all these people help the cause or will there be another round of disappointment and chaos. One wonders, but it's worth an experiment, isn't it?

House H(a)unting

I never knew house hunting in Delhi could be this difficult. Over the last few months, I've followed every trick in the trade and I'm still homeless.
The Broker robbed me of 50 bucks and pretended to show me houses. It was surprising the way the houses he showed me were just what I told him I did not want. In order to ensure that I did not feel cheated he made me climb flights and flights of stairs and explore dingy rooms, dirty rooms, rooms without kitchens, some without bathrooms and even rooms for the future...as in rooms that were under construction. Surprisingly, i'm still feeling cheated!
Then I tried the time-tested method of word of mouth. The result, every alternate day I have someone asking me if I've found a house yet or not!
And thinking that God helps those who help themselves, I jumped into the fray. Sometimes with friends and relatives and at other times relatively alone, I walked all across Munirka and Ber Sarai and parts of Rajinder Nagar and Karol Bagh, just arbit-ly asking around if anyone had a house to spare. And believe it or not, it was this method that scored a hit...well, almost... more than once. The first time I tried this, I made friends with a chai wala, an istri wala, a maid and not to forget, half-a-dozen shopkeepers. And, I also found a house I liked.
Of course, it was not their fault that the lady quoted an exorbitant price for a small two-room flat. So I continued to be homeless.
The second and third time I tried the trick, I did find a house. But that's when I discovered another big problem. It wasn't enough to find a house. It was also necessary to LIKE the house you found...and the probability of liking the house I found seemed to be very negligible. And in the only two cases where the entire equation actually worked fate stuck its nose into my business. The houses were taken before I could say Haunted House!
And then, once again, I was left homeless.
Any ideas? I'm already running out of time, patience and enthusiasm!

THE FINE PRINT

Another blast in another corner of the country
A few more dead and few more left to die
Another deadline delayed and another late night
Some things are the way nothing should be
And yet, nothing is the way everything should be
No tears shed and no sympathy gained
It’s just a toll after all
It’s another number game
Another race to the top
No blood spilt, here, there or anywhere
For after all, just casualties named in black and white
No faces, just bodies
And sometimes, just body parts
To be stared at in shock and sorrow
At the breakfast table the morning after
In the end, the dead are dead
And another deadline waits to be met