Mobiles, Police and Illness

Off off and away

The volunteer conference was held at the Bundelkhand Hotel in Orchha this year.  Before I left Barmer to spend a few days in Delhi with Mike, I submitted my completed work proposal to my bosses. (feedback to date has been very positive, Mr. Jain calls it the Bible!).  In Delhi I picked up a cold from Bolbol, one of the kids at Mike’s house.   Then to add insult to that I stayed out in the sun too long and got sun stroke again.  So my trip to Bundelkhand by train was spent sleeping.  And most of my time at the hotel/conference was in a daze.  After a few days a doctor was called in to see me.  He gave me a handful of many coloured pills to deal with my symptoms and I did begin to feel a bit better after that.  But my appetite seems have disappeared (and is still not back this 14^th day of August).

On my way back to Barmer: I had arrived in Delhi at the new train station and had to take the Metro to the old train station for my train. During that short trip between stations someone picked my mobile out of its holder.  I managed to find a pay phone at the old station and call the VSO emergency number to see if they could call Vodaphone to cancel my service.  Still in a daze I got onto the wrong train car, A1 instead of A2.  The train conductor told me to get off in an hour and make my way up the train to the A2 car. I did that, but the train didn’t stop long enough at the station for me to make it all the way up to A2.  The train started to move and I ran along seeing only the luggage car beside me.  But with my back pack on I couldn’t get a good leap onto and into the car and I was about to fall out back to the platform when two guys in the luggage car pulled me inside safely.  There were eight guys sitting around in the luggage car, no luggage, and two of them spoke a little English.  So they told me that I could get off in a few stops to get up to the A2 car.  It was nice sitting in the luggage car, with its big doors open on both sides and the wind swirling around inside.  Half an hour later I made it to my right seat where I had to ask some guys to move, as they had taken over my seat perhaps thinking I had not made the train.  After that I slept until the next morning when we arrived back in Barmer.

 

Mobiles and Police

I went home and put my stuff away and immediately went to the Vodaphone store see if my phone was cancelled.  It was blocked and I was able to get a new phone and sim card for only 1,050 rupees with my same phone number.  I took the information I needed about the old phone and went to the police station to report my missing phone.  At the police station, four guys behind desks in a small room looked at me and wondered what to do with me. Finally, one guy got out two blank pieces of paper with a piece of carbon paper in-between. He put it in front of me and told me to write out my report.  So I invented a Lost Mobile Report form and filled in my details and that of the phone.  I didn’t mention it was taken in Delhi, as they would have asked me to fill out the report there.  But it was important, according to friends at SURE, that I fill out a missing mobile report in any case. After I did my writing the man behind the desk stamped both papers, signed and dated them and gave me one for my records.  What this all means I haven’t the faintest idea.

 

Back Home

I went to see the Sharma’s and they made me supper.  And as usual they were not happy that I ate so little. I went home, turned on my AC and slept. Not only did I not feel like eating, my stomach was upset too.  I tried to eat a banana and drink some water, but I couldn’t do more than that.  Vishal came the next day with some lunch which I tried to eat, forcing myself, but only a little.  I watched some movies (that I downloaded from others while at Bundelkhand) and slept. This morning (August 14) I’m feeling a lot better, although I still don’t feel hungry. So I went into the office to catch up on email, write this blog and wait for the power to come back on (it’s off from 8am to 12noon everyday) so I can get back to my AC once again and to sleep.

Nasrudin walked into a teahouse and declaimed, "The moon is more useful than the sun."  "Why?", he was asked.  "Because at night we need the light more."