It
was only an hour after returning home from the park that I noticed that my mobile
phone was missing. I rushed to the park and made a desperate search that proved
to be futile.
The park is common for two adjacent apartment
blocks. I checked with the security guard of my block whether anyone had reported finding an abandoned phone in the park but got a
negative reply from him. I requested him to check with the security guard of
the adjacent block. Presently, he informed me that no one from the adjacent
block had reported finding a phone either.
My entire family including my wife, son and daughter-in-law joined me in the search. Not to be left behind, my 40 month old
granddaughter also contributed her mite by telling me emphatically, “Grandpa!
You should have left your phone in the park!”
The technically savvy members of the search team
comprising my son and daughter-in-law used Google to locate my phone. The
omniscient Google showed the phone to be in our complex, indicating the adjacent
block as the probable place of refuge of my phone
We used the Google facility of making the phone ring
for 5 minutes. My son told me that the ring would go even if the phone were in
silent mode. But there was no response to these efforts.
Even as technology was being used to trace the
phone, I wrote Sriramajayam and recited Vishnu Sahasranamam, the two traditional
methods that have always helped and guided me during difficult situations in the
past. I was a little reluctant to use these methods, wondering whether I was
invoking something special for resolving a trivial issue. Then I convinced
myself that though using excel to find the sum of 5 and 4 may appear somewhat
inappropriate, excel would, nevertheless, give the correct answer!
Time passed, with no developments.The phone
remained in the same position, if one were to accept Google’s infallibility. We
called this number several times from a couple of phones and also used the Google’s
facility of generating a ring for 5 minutes, a couple of times. But nothing
happened.
My son suggested that I could lock the phone from
Google using a password. I did this, with a lurking concern that I should be
able to type the password correctly and unlock the phone, if it was retrieved! As
prompted by Google, I typed a message requesting the finder to return the phone
to the address given. Google would have the message displayed on my mobile
screen.
My wife, for her part, sent a message to my whatsapp, requesting the finder to return the phone to
the owner at the address given in the message. I watched with amusement, the
whatsapp message appearing in my laptop, thanks to the whatsapp web installed
in the laptop!
Before going to bed around midnight, I did two more
things. I gave one more 5-minute long ring using Google, hoping that the long
ring at midnight would be heard by someone and would provoke them to take some
action. I also initiated a psychic step I had read in a book, by drinking
some water from a tumbler and leaving a small quantity of water in the tumbler to
remain overnight. The belief was that when I drank the remaining water in the
morning, the problem would get solved!
I got up in the morning with no good news awaiting
me. There had been no information about my phone. And my wife decanted the
water I had left in the tumbler, without knowing that I had left it for a
purpose! Was it an indication that I won’t get back the phone, I wondered.
It was about 8.30 am, when the calling bell of my
apartment sounded. A lady living in the adjacent apartment block stood there
with my phone in her hand. She said that
she had found it on the road, outside her block and that she had no idea whom
it belonged to. She said that though she heard the phone ring a few times, she
was too busy to answer it. I wondered
both about her claim of finding the phone on the road and about her explanation
(or lack of it) about not responding to the 26 calls made to the phone from
other phones and the couple of long rings generated by Google that would have
disturbed anyone.
However, it was time to be grateful. So, I thanked
her profusely and celebrated my getting united with my smart phone! Perhaps,
blocking the phone and giving a message had an effect. Thank you, Technology
and thank you, Google!
