Things I have left behind in a cab
I found a new use for AI: generating writing prompts, so I can blog weekly. Here is this week's edition.
In recent memory, I've forgotten three things in Bangalore cabs.
Keys
This was the most recent one, only 2 months ago. That evening, I was out for a friend's wedding reception, and dressed in traditional Indian clothes for the occasion.
Turns out, the pocket of this attire (which I rarely wear) had a hole in it, and the keys had slipped out on to the seat.
I didn't realize it for the entire night; my usual phone-wallet-keys-pat-check system was off that night given that this wasn't my usual jeans-and-tee-shirt ensemble.
It took me a day and a half to get in touch with the driver (who was extremely helpful) and get it back. Thankfully, I had easy access to spare keys that day, so it did not bother me too much.
I have an AirTag attached to the keychain, which never gave me a notification that day! C'mon Apple! After all these years of false alarms, you failed when I needed you the most!
But, it was fun to watch my keys travel across the city until I got it back.
Kindle
I am quite bad at remembering things I carry that aren't in my bag. I have lost several umbrellas in my life.
A couple of years ago, I was reading on the kindle while in the cab, and then forgot to put it back in my backpack and obviously, left it in the back seat.
This driver was a lot less helpful. On the phone, it felt like he'd found it but wasn't ready to admit it, and only let me know once he was sure it wasn't worth much. Just a feeling, I might be wrong.
My Kindle is old. I bought it in 2014, and it had been through a decade of rough use. During the incident, I wasn't sure I'd get it back, and figured this was finally the push to buy a new one. But hey, looks like it had a few years more in it!
Might be time this year to buy a new one though - the battery life is quite bad now.
A Turkish Flute?
Last year, I went to Europe to visit my friends. The first leg of the trip was to Paris, where a friend hosted me, and it was delightful. Here, I decided to visit a musical instrument shop and buy a flute.
I learnt to play the flute as a kid, and now I have picked up this habit of finding and collecting local flutes across the world when I visit. The music shop near Montmartre didn't have any unique French flutes, but had a Turkish one (Kaval). Expensive, and also too long to fit in my suitcase.
That didn't stop me. I carried it around across my trip - Zurich, Budapest, Lower Tatra Mountains in Slovakia, and then finally back home to Bangalore. The flute arrived all the way in front of my home and when I unloaded my luggage, I promptly forgot the flute in the boot. Would have been a very funny way to lose something, but managed to get it back thanks to a responsive Uber driver.
I have probably forgotten more items in the past and I am sure I will forget more things in the future, despite these incidents drilling a checklist into my head before stepping out.
I'm grateful for all the ride-share drivers, not just for the rides, but for returning my stuff for no reason other than it being the right thing to do.