Sweet and Sour Experiences

Recently, I was visiting my native place in Pauri Garhwal, Uttarakhand. I had just crossed Haridwar on my onward journey when I received a call from my cousin, whom I was visiting, requesting me to buy some screws and bolts from Kotdwar, which was about an hour’s drive away. Kotdwar is located at the foothills of the Himalayas, and the terrain beyond it towards my village is mountainous.

On approaching Kotdwar, I stopped my car close to a hardware shop and enquired about the items. The shopkeeper asked me to wait as he was busy with another customer. In the meantime, I surveyed the nearby shops. The umbrellas displayed in the adjacent shop reminded me that I had forgotten to bring one along. Weighing the importance of umbrellas in mountains, I bought one. Then I approached the hardware shop and placed the umbrella near the counter.

The shopkeeper sorted the items and handed them to me. I made the payment and left for the onward journey. I had hardly travelled about 10-12 km when it started raining, prompting me to think about the umbrella. I realised that I had left it at the hardware shop. Since I had already covered a long distance, it was not feasible to return, and decided to collect it on the return journey.

While returning after a week’s stay at my native place, the umbrella was incessantly in my mind. I stopped the vehicle in front of the shop and approached it with some apprehension. My unease further intensified when I saw a different gentleman at the counter. I told him about the umbrella. The gentleman immediately got up from his seat without responding and went into the interior part of the shop and returned with the umbrella. He explained that his brother was at the shop when I had left the umbrella. He further added that since they both looked after the shop in turns, his brother had informed him about the umbrella and had advised to keep it safely. I profusely thanked him for his kind gesture, but he replied that there is no need for thanks as it is your AMANAT. It was a very humbling experience.

This episode reminded me of a somewhat similar experience I had long back, but it did not have a happy ending. It was the time when digital photography was yet to spread its wings and analog cameras were in use. I had given the negatives for developing in Chandigarh and visited the studio to collect photos on the appointed date. I received the photos, took out my wallet, and made the payment. And just to make sure that the photos were okay, I started scanning them by placing the wallet on the counter. After the check, I left the place, leaving the wallet on the counter. About half an hour later, when I looked for the wallet to make a payment at another place, I realized my folly. Hoping that the gentleman manning the counter might have kept it in his safe custody, I rushed back.

On approaching the studio, I enquired about the wallet. To my great surprise and shock, the gentleman at the counter replied that he had not found any wallet on the counter and expressed total ignorance about it. Since CC TVs were not in use those days, I had no proof to prove my point and left the place in dejection.

Life is an amalgamation of sweet and sour experiences; however, we mostly remember the sour ones and forget the sweet ones.