Wednesday, March 29, 2006

Pickpocketed

It was gonna be a fun saturday evening, an opportunity to regroup with old college buddies and crack a few PJ's , discuss about some new venture , play dumb charades and many such things. The time was fixed at 6:00 PM and as always people expected me to see atleast at 6:30 PM . But I had an immediate cousin visiting my house and I started a bit late.

Now the place where we all were gonna meet was about 40 minutes from my house which included around 20 minutes of rail journey through the ever crowded Mumbai local train. I was at the Thane Station wondering when my Train would arrive as there were no trains for the place I was heading to for the past 10 minutes and obviously the platform was crowded with many persons seeking to catch the train. I managed to sneak in front of other people so that I could be one of those first souls to get inside the compartment . Now I have this practice of just checking my wallet ( kept in the pants) before I catch a train and then just when I am inside the compartment. As the train arrived at the station lots of people alighted from the train and double the number of people boarded the train. As soon as I managed to step inside the compartment I just patted my pant pockets only to find my wallet missing. I though to myself that I must have not checked the pockets properly. In plain words I was hoping for a miracle. But alas it was not to be ! I had lost many a thing including my library card , railway pass and of course my debit card. Cash of course !

At that moment nothing struck my mind than blocking my all important debit card . So I immediately sms'ed a friend to provide me the customer service number of a reputed bank. In jet speed I had the number and I was trying to get through the IVRS to talk to the bank representative. Finally after 5 minutes I was connected to a representative who took more than 30 minutes to block the card because he was not able to verify my name ( One which can give Vangilapuram Venkata Sai Laxman a complex ) . I was trying to keep my cool but then WTF aren't the customer service reps trained to search using multiple options. Or are banks using the banking software developed by the East India Company ? I queried as to who would be responsible in case my debit was misused . The representative just kept on saying that he was helpless and gave me all that empathy crap. So finally reluctantly I had to call my folks at home to get the account number and get it blocked. Finally the issue was resolved . But the representative while closing the call also added that since I was a lucky ( any takers ?? ) and the chosen one I would be soon receiving a international debit card within 10 working days.

The evening carried on with me reliving my college days of borrowing money from my friends . In my 6 years of traveling the local trains never has been a instance of my wallet being pickpocketed and always believed that the probability of me being the target of such an act would be extremely remote . But all that has changed for me and traveling in trains is not the same anymore !

5 Comments:

At 10:27 am, Blogger Unknown!!! said...

Oh! dude...that was very bad...once i had experienced this when we tried to go for movie at 10 rupee ticket during college to save money...in the jam packed queue...some one flicked my friend's purse and he was the only sponser that day...so we had to come back...

so hows life dude...hey this is my email :- just08in@gmail.com do send me details abt the Ibank..u said once u'd do that..

 
At 12:43 am, Blogger Surya Ragunaathan said...

Hey, i know this mite sound a lil no-use-doing-so types to you, but next time something like that happens call and report about it first to the railway police, there sits at least one officer at every station(precisely, in the station master's cabin - there's a single number to it, conneting to all stations)...Under the R.P.F laws they are supposed to immediately check all those pple who r in the train with u in ur compartment. This, they must do by sending in two or more officers at the very next station that ur train reaches to.
There was one such incident in New Bombay last year when a crook was caught possessing the wallet of another within few minutes coz the guy who got robbed, called the R.P.F immediately and two officers boarded his compartment in the next station itself and checked all the men. Of course, this can happen provided the culprit is someone who was boarding the train(and not getting off while he pickpocketed u) and who doesnt get off in the very next station.
cheers!!
(btw, any specific reason for not mentioning the place where you were going?)

 
At 1:17 am, Blogger Krishnakumar Chirakkal said...

@ Unknown - Moral of the story - When your friend is the sponsor always guard his pockets :-)

BTW, I had sent you the details long back at your Yahoo id ( just08in@yahoo.com ) . Nevertheless I have sent it on your Gmail id too.

@ Surya - Thanks for the info . I did go the RPF but only the next day just to confirm in case they found any wallets . For the first time I had seen this policeman being very helpful as he showed me all the purses which were in his possession.

No conscious effort to hide the place, but simply missed it.The place is where I have spent half my life and absolutely love .... DOMBIVLI.

 
At 11:01 pm, Anonymous Anonymous said...

btw its "vangipurappu" venkata sai laxman...well i guess u dont care much after wot hppnd to u...my sympathies

 
At 4:56 pm, Blogger Krishnakumar Chirakkal said...

@anon - Thats what happens when people have long names :-)
Thank you for your sympathies,( btw, do I happen to know you ? )

 

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