Lost and Found

Vikram was sitting in his home wondering about the life till now. He remembered an incident that had happened during his childhood. He was thinking about that day when his wife Shwetha asked him "what are you thinking husband". He smiled and said "nowadays it's not safe as it used to be during our childhood". Shwetha said yes and asked "what made you think so?". Vikram said nothing just remembered the incident that occurred when I was a child. I was lost in Mumbai roads for just an ice cream. Shwetha was smiling and said "I want to listen to every detail of the story". Vikram said okay.


It was summer vacation and we had come to grand ma's house in Mumbai. I had still not joined school and was around 3 years old. Those memories of my grand ma's home are still fresh. In Matunga it was Murli Mahal society. After this incident the name of the society was at least never forgotten. A wooden staircase to get onto a particular floor of a building. A balcony which was used as entrance by us family members so I never knew there was an entrance from within the building too. And of course my pet wild cat munna. Smile widened on Vikram's face after recollecting the information. This is the story of that day which changed few things. The morning was bright and humid and used to be less hot than what it is now. Brother had a match to play with his friends in society. I was with him and mom was with us. We both got ice cream and mom said she would be back in 5 to 10 minutes and I should not move from this place. She said brother to keep an eye on me. My brother finished his ice cream as he had to go for match. In this process he kept me on the cycle carrier as he knew I was afraid of jumping from there. During this action my ice cream fell down. I told my brother I wanted my ice cream. He said not now after the match. I started crying for the ice cream and brother said ask mom to get it. He went for batting and I started shouting I wanted ice cream. He got angry and said go and ask mom get it don't shout now. I got angry and I wanted to have my ice cream at any cost. This made me do the most impossible thing which broke my fear of cycle carrier. I jumped off it and fell to the ground. From that day I was not afraid of jumping from cycle carrier. I got hurt and ran towards my brother crying and he saw and said wait for 2 minutes mom will be coming. I said I want to go home now. He said after the match we will go back. I said I want to go back right now. He said then you go back if you know how to go back. I remembered roughly how to go back. So I moved out of the building without remembering which building I am coming out from. Looked around for the structure which looked similar to the society where we lived. I thought I found turned that way. As soon as I reached the gate I felt I was in the wrong society. But thought I might be wrong so I went in and tried to find the balcony entrance from where we got in usually and I couldn't find it. I went into the building entrance and found the same wooden steps like my granny's house apartment. I felt a little better and rang the bell. Unfortunately someone else opened the door and I didn't have any word to say. I stared at the lady at the door and asked the first thing came to my mind that is "where is my granny?". She looked at me filled with dirt and said no one like that stays here and closed the door. I went to upper floor and thought of trying my luck. But it was of no use. Soon I realized that I was in the wrong building. I came down and back on road. I was about to cry but I thought if I can try I can find the house. So I moved further ahead and entered couple of more buildings which came to no use. After coming out of another building failing in attempt I came to road and started crying loud mummy mummy and running on the footpath. At a few distance after getting tired I stopped at a place and started crying. I had lost all hope of seeing my mom, my brother, my granny, my father again. The footpath was getting busier as the day started growing which made me more afraid. Suddenly I saw a Police person looking at me from distance. Seeing me cry after a while he started walking towards me. As soon as I saw him walking towards me I got more afraid and tried to stop crying as mom always said if you don't stop crying Police wala will take you to jail. He reached near me and I was trying to see away from him so that he doesn’t see my tears. He bent down towards me and asked softly "where are your parents, child". I was afraid and didn't reply. He consoled me and said don't be afraid and say. After several attempts I said Dad at home and mom at Granny's home. He then asked, where do you live? I said Granny's home. He asked, where is it? I started crying. He then took me up in his arms and said we should go to Police station. On this I started crying even more and said no Police station and said I will stop crying. He was trying to convince me that it's for my betterment to go to Police station but I was saying no no and crying. So he got tired of convincing and thought of finding my Granny's home. We started moving to different building s from ground floor to top floor me in his arm and he asking the people question is he your child. I started becoming good friend and started saying stories about my pet cat at Granny's home and how I played with it. Then he asked me the building name. I said I don't know. This time he was not ready to give up before finding the house. I remembered one thing about the building. I said there's a temple inside the society and we go every evening there. Now he had named few apartments with temples inside. As I did not know the name I was of less help. As I was tired of running and crying I slept in his arms. This time he was alone running from building to building with temples from bottom floor to top floor asking people whether I am their child. After sometime I got up and found myself on a lady's arm. I heard the Police person saying this is the last apartment, if no one recognizes him we would have to take him to Police station. This made me wake. I started saying no Police station and the Police person said okay to keep my mind. I saw at a distance a woman wearing saree similar to my mom's Diwali saree. It was the happiest moment. I started shouting mummy mummy loudly. Mom was trying to find from where the voice is coming. Police person did not know which lady among many on the road. I said Diwali wali saree. At last my mom saw me and started running towards me. I was very happy to see her. My face had a very bright smile. As soon as she reached near I jumped on to her and asked where was she going wearing Diwali wala Saree. And everybody started laughing. I was on my mom's arm and was assured now. I was relaxed but the Police person was scolding my mom about the negligence. After that we went back to Granny's home and from there back to home.

That's how I was really lost and lucky enough to be found by that Police person. I don't know where he is now, but I always pray for him as he was the reason that I am still with my family.