A Smart Move

In today’s world mobile has become a very essential part of our life. It’s not just a necessity but has become more than that. One day without a mobile, your world falls apart, the feeling of incompleteness sets in. Every second our existence seems to be getting difficult. If you are a social animal, you feel cut off from the world. It’s like you are thrown into the wilderness without any amenities. Survival become difficult.

I have faced this situation during my visit to Dubai in October 2022. It was a very sunny and joyous day when I set out with my family and a close family friend at noon to celebrate his birthday at the Irish Village. My grandkids were also with us.  We had a great time drinking and devouring our favourite food. As I am not a hard core drinker, I had one glass of shandy (mix of beer and sprite). To make the celebration even more memorable, we played a game and involved the kids as well. There couldn’t have been a better way to celebrate our friend’s birthday.

As soon as the game got over, the kids started to express their boredom and to overcome this state, my grandkids chose to go to the 2^nd floor and play foosball which is also called table soccer, Taca Taca in Chile and Metegol in Argentina. It is a table top game. The aim of the game is to move the ball into the opponent’s goal by manipulating rods which have figures attached. The kids played for an hour and eventually got exhausted. When kids are tired, there is nothing that allures them. They need to get back home, sweet home!!

 At around 3.30 pm the kids started pressurising and insisted on returning home. The dilemma was that the grown-ups except for me, were not yet done. However, we had 2 options – let the kids sulk and crib while the grown-ups’ finished with their drinking and eating or someone take them home.  I offered to return home with the kids. An Uber was booked and I boarded the Uber along with the kids. First I made sure they were secure at the back with the seat belts on, and then I occupied the seat in front. I shut the door but I guess it did not close properly so the driver requested me to close it properly. As I had a phone in my hand I put it in the side pocket of the cab and shut the door. The drive was not very long. It hardly took us 10 minutes to reach home.

Normally when the kids accompany us in the cab, our entire attention is focused on them. It was the same with me. The minute I got off the cab, I got the kids out, said thank you to the driver and got into the house. As a responsible grandmother, I thought of calling my daughter in law to let her know that we were home but realised that I did not have the phone on me. Oh my word!! I had left it in the side pocket of the cab. For a minute, I felt like my entire world had crumbled, but then quickly I got a hold on myself and borrowed our house help’s mobile to call my daughter in law and related the incident to her. As she had booked the Uber and the details were on her mobile, she said she will deal with it.

My Daughter-in-law and son returned home after one hour, which to me, seemed like ages. I was impatiently waiting to be re-united with my mobile, but to my utter dismay, the mobile was still in the possession of the Uber driver. It seems after he dropped me, he had a passenger to be dropped in Bur Dubai which was about an hours’ drive from where we live. I was without my mobile all evening. In the meanwhile, my daughter in law contacted the driver again and he said that because the distance was too much from where he was, he will deliver the mobile when he has a passenger in our vicinity. This was getting too tense for me. I should have been more responsible. The last I heard on the issue was that the cab driver was not answering the calls. Here, at this point I was horrified, getting frantic and turning almost hysteric but couldn’t express my feelings as it was totally my fault.  Eventually, I went to bed thinking of how I would be contacting my friends, students and family.

I woke up on the following morning to learn that the Driver has not called back and neither was he answering the calls now. My daughter in law therefore lodged a complaint through the Uber App and I waited all day for some good news.  It was more than 24 hours now and therefore we decided that it was time to call the cops and complain. When we called the police, we were directed to lodge the complaint online. A form with plethora of questions to be answered. However, the complaint was successfully lodged and to some extent, I was now convinced that I will definitely get my mobile back. My mind was relaxed now!!

A family friends’ visit in the evening, added tranquillity to my relaxed mind. She sympathised with me after hearing the story of my lost mobile and suggested why don’t we call the driver from her mobile. We took her advice and guess what? The driver answered. The friend spoke to him “bhaiyya mere mummy ka mobile aapke paas hai kal se, aur mummy bohot pareshan hai” “please kuch bhi karke aap mobile humko pahucha do.” The driver responded in a very polite manner and said that he was at that moment, in down-town and it would take him a while to reach our location. This friend was very smart. She told the driver “bhayya aap down town se yahan ka jo bhi fare hota hai woh hum se le lo our abhi ke abhi wahan se nikal pado”. We sent him the location on mobile and in half an hour he was outside our house. We paid him the fare and gave him a generous tip. I was finally in possession of my mobile after 28 hours. It was a very smart move made by our friend and we had been at it for more than 24 hours. Whether it was just a coincidence or whatever one can call it, but I guess it was definitely smart thinking of our friend that helped me get my mobile back.