The Philadelphia Diaries: H.E.L.P.

                                                                                                                             January 22, 2022

 

Dear Diary

 

I left Mumbai in 2015, lived in Delhi, then Hyderabad and now Philadelphia and somewhere on the way, grew up. It’s been seven years now, and I am quite comfortable managing things on my own. But to be very honest, I do not think anybody is ever fully prepared to leave home, it is only how well you put up your brave face…which after a point becomes a part of you, and you do not really have to try. Over the years, the façade becomes taller and stronger with the concrete of experience and cement of memories and gets a beautiful coat of paint by the social media. 

 

I also think that the times you miss home the most are either when you are very happy or in big trouble! But here is my second honest confession, the places I have been to, Delhi, Hong Kong, London, Scotland, Hyderabad, LA, and San Francisco, have all been very kind. And the last six months in Philly have been equally so. From a new phone number to taking me shopping and lending their own things, from making sure I try every new cuisine and not miss any place worth visiting, from sharing passwords to celebrating festivals, friends have always been there. But friends are family. It is when help comes from the most unexpected places that you feel a different kind of happiness. 

 

“Help will always be given at Hogwarts to those who deserve it.” Albus Dumbledore

 

Today, I will not tell you about a new place, but the people who have, in their own way, made me feel safe and at home!

Paper Clips 

 

“When I was so much younger than today 

I never needed anybody's help in any way
But now these days are gone 

I'm not so self assured

And now I find I've changed my mind 
And opened up the doors”

 

Help! That was what was playing in a loop in my head in the Reading Terminal Market as I realized I would have to figure out a way to carry my groceries back. 

Rewind to an hour ago. 

I had picked up the week’s grocery, some chocolate truffles and the most refreshing lemonade from an Amish store that I had, finally, found today after failing the last couple of weekends. The Reading Terminal is huge, and for a direction dyslexic like me, it’s like a maze where I never find the same shop twice. As I was walking towards the billing counter, my shopping cart slipped out of the grocery trolley where I had kept it. As I picked it up, I realized one of its wheels was missing. 

“Oh darn!” That wheel had been giving me trouble, coming off the last couple of weeks and I would have to slide it back in position. I had ordered the cart on Amazon and it was quite helpful in getting the weekly stuff. Then began my search for the missing wheel under the numerous stalls of fruits and vegetables. Michael, one of the men from the shop, came to help me as he saw me searching for it. “It couldn’t have gone far, the cart just slid out and fell right here. It’s a white wheel, like this one,” I showed him the other wheel of my cart. He moved the stalls to look under each of them. Finally, the shop manager started checking the CCTV to see if the wheel had been there when I came into the shop. We saw that it was actually missing when I entered the shop! “It must have fallen off at some other place, it is impossible to search for it. I’m sorry for all the trouble,” I apologized to Michael. “Oh, don’t worry at all, moving the crates and stalls made me realize that the floors need cleaning! Now, how are you planning to take all this stuff back?” he asked. “I don’t know, I’ll just carry them in multiple packets, or carry some now and come back again for the rest of them.”

“Wait, let me see if I can do something, I have an idea,” he said. He told me to wait for ten minutes. 

 

“Help me if you can, I'm feeling down
And I do appreciate you being 'round
Help me get my feet back on the ground
Won't you please, please help me!”

 

It continued to play, as I listed out scenarios in my head, 1. Return this to Amazon, 2. Get a new cart, 3. Keep some things here and come back later for them, 4. Just carry everything somehow. 5. I should have gone to Whole Foods. 6. Why did I buy so many things today? 7. I should just carry a backpack. 

He came back and got to work. In five minutes, my cart had a prosthesis fitted. An old, smaller, black wheel he got and just attached it by winding a metallic paper clip around the spoke. “This should get you home,” he smiled. I thanked him profusely. “Don’t put too much in the cart and pull it slowly. It should hold. Have a good day!” he added. 

I have been using, for the last five months, this cart now, with a white wheel and a black wheel, and  neither of them coming off ever! Since then, I have gone to Reading Terminal Market several times, and each time I have tried looking for Michael. Sometimes, I don’t find the shop and at other times when I do, Michael is not there. But I won’t give up, I will find him and thank him for fixing a broken wheel and making me believe in the power of paper clips!

The Taxi Driver

 

“So, when you're near me
Darling, can't you hear me, S.O.S.
The love you gave me
Nothing else can save me, S.O.S.”

 

The best part of being in Pennsylvania was being close to Uma, my best friend, my soul sister, the godmother to my future child! We were inseparable since class six and after all these years, nothing had changed. Every chance that I got, I would book an Amtrak ticket and go off to her place, a regular weekend, Thanksgiving and New Year. Her husband, Ramstein, was a gem of a guy and had come to accept our eccentricities and idiosyncrasies, it felt like I had known him all my life! 

On one such weekend, we decided to make a day trip to Washington D.C. Uma and I laughed, sang and talked incessantly in the car, as Ramstein chipped in with punch lines and sassy one liners. It was the most wonderful day, bright, sunny with a nip in the air. We walked around the city, soaking in the sights and sounds, the Lincoln Memorial, the War Monument, the White House, Smithsonian Natural History Museum and the Capitol. By the end of the day, we were tired, and Uma booked an Uber to the parking lot where the car was. Yasin, the cab driver, was a well-built, quiet man and I only saw the back of his head from the passenger seat. In the cab, Uma was talking to her sister on the phone, Ramstein was thinking about a place for dinner and I was sending Uma the photos I had taken that day. I put my phone in my jacket pocket and sat back, looking at the city lights. We reached the parking lot and were walking towards our car. Involuntarily, my hand slipped into my jacket pocket, reaching for my phone…and it was gone! 

“It must have slipped out from the pocket in the cab, I am sure I had it there.”

Uma started looking in the Uber app if the driver’s number was there and Ramstein called my phone.

“It’s ringing,” Ramstein said. No answer. “He would not have gone too far, I’ll keep trying.”

“My battery is low, 2% and I don’t know if it’s on silent…it usually is,” I stuttered.

 

“When you're gone
How can I even try to go on?
When you're gone
Though I try, how can I carry on?”

 

My phone has all my information! My photos, emails, contacts…I should block the number quickly, how do you track an iphone? Breathe! Breathe! My phone has all my information!

“Hello?”

“Hello! We were just in your cab, my friend left her phone there. Can you please bring it to where you dropped us?”

“Alright, wait there, I am coming.”

Ramstein and I rushed to the entrance of the parking garage. Yasin was there and he handed me my phone, as I felt the air rush back into my lungs and my heart pounding against my chest!

I am not sure how coherently I thanked him, but I genuinely do from the bottom of my heart…

 

Chicken Soup for the Soul

“Achoo”

I sneezed for the millionth time. The dustbin was overflowing with tissues. A cold, a sore throat, headache, body ache, nothing new for me. It was a flu, (not the notorious virus doing the rounds) and I would be fine in 2-3 days. This too shall pass, I told myself as I reached the hospital for work. 

“Here, Mark made this. Heat this up and have, you will feel better,” Andy, my friend at work, handed me a big bowl. Mark, her husband, had made chicken soup for me. “I always like it when I am sick,” said Andy.

 By the end of the day, I was feeling horrible and just wanted to go home. Today was the worst. I will go home and go straight to bed. If I call home, D, S and S will immediately know that I am sick. I’ll just send them a message. They will worry unnecessarily. I will be fine by tomorrow… But I wish Ma was here. 

 

“How do I feel by the end of the day?
Are you sad because you're on your own?

No, I get by with a little help from my friends
Mm, get high with a little help from my friends
Mm, gonna try with a little help from my friends”

 

I reached home and somehow got myself to change. I don’t want to, but I should eat something, I told myself. And then I remembered about the chicken soup. 

I heated up some of it. I took the first sip and I can’t tell you how good it felt. It was the most comforting concoction. I think I almost finished the whole thing that night! I have asked Andy and Mark for the recipe multiple times, and they say, it was nothing, it is the easiest thing to make. I do not know if I would be able to make it as well as Mark, but if my chicken soup can make somebody else feel as good as it made me feel, that is enough for me. I prescribe medicine, I had already started medicines for myself, but the chicken soup was what really cured me! 

New Year’s Eve

December 30^th, 2021, 6:30pm. 

The train was delayed. I was going to Uma’s place again. I finally boarded the train at 7pm. In the train I was thinking the last time we were together on New Year. 

 

8:40pm

As the train pulled into Harrisburg station, I jumped off, looking forward to a great weekend. Ramstein and Uma were on their way from the State College to pick me up from Harrisburg. 

I couldn’t wait for them to reach. I recognized their car and I walked out of the station. Even though we had met during Thanksgiving, Uma stepped out of the cab to give me a big hug! 

“Let’s go, you guys can hug at home!” Ramstein chuckled from the driver’s seat.

As usual, we were engrossed in conversation, planning our weekend, and then ultimately deciding to just chill at home! 

 

10:30pm

Amid the talks and the music, we had reached home. 

“Uma give me my phone,” Ramstein said as he got out of the car.

“I don’t have your phone.”

“I gave it to you to hold,” he said calmly.

“I don’t have it,” Uma said as she rummaged through her handbag.

“Let’s check the car,” I said. I called his number, it was ringing, but neither could we hear, nor feel it vibrate or light up.

 

11:00pm

We had searched every inch of the car. His phone was nowhere to be found.

“Did you stop anywhere on your way to the station?” I asked.

“No,” they both said together.

“You got out of the car at the station, it must have fallen off at that time,” said Ramstein.

“I think one of us would have realized if a phone fell down while we were hugging,” Uma said.

“But that is the only possibility,” he said. “It has pictures of my research project, I have not backed it up for the last two weeks.”

“Let’s go back and check at the station,” Uma said, considering for the first time, that she might have dropped it on the streets of Harrisburg.

“You guys stay, its late, I will go,” Ramstein said.

“We are all going together, you are not going alone” I said decidedly.

Uma took the car keys and said she would drive. I messaged home that we had reached and bid them good night. I will tell them tomorrow, if everything works out, I thought.

On our way, Ramstein and I were searching for ways to track an android phone. 

“It is ringing. If someone had taken it, they would have taken out the sim card or switched off the phone immediately. We may be able to find it” I said. 

Uma and I stole glances at each other. Ramstein was changing the passwords to his different accounts. 

 

“Rescue me before I fall into despair, oh

I'll send an S.O.S to the world
I'll send an S.O.S to the world
I hope that someone gets my
I hope that someone gets my
I hope that someone gets my
Message in a bottle, yeah.”

 

“I will block my number,” he said.

“Wait, let us see if we can find it. We will call on the number when we reach. If we don’t find it, then you block,” said Uma.

“Your pictures will be backed up on Google Photos, don’t worry, you can retrieve your project pictures,” I said.

“No, I had not turned on that feature,” he said.

We tried tracking the phone through Uma’s phone. The location it showed was their home, battery 54%. 

“It is not at home, I had it with me when I left,” said Ramstein. 

Even with multiple attempts, the battery remained at 54%. “I don’t think this is working, how can the battery level not change,” he said.

Somehow the drive back seemed unnaturally long. The fog was creeping in, gradually becoming denser. Uma checked the gas level. “There is some food, cookies, chips, croissant. Eat,” she said.

We did not touch anything.

 

December 31^st 2021

12:45 am

We reached Harrisburg station. As the car turned to the road where they picked me up, all three of us craned our necks…hoping against hope that we would spot a phone lying untouched on the road.

This is not school, this is not a problem which will just solve itself tomorrow.

We parked the car and got off. An empty police car was parked at one end. The three of us started scanning the road, the pavement, the bushes. A solitary man in a cycle passed us by. 

Ramstein went inside the station. The Police office was closed. 

After a while, a taxi drove up. It drove around the station and then stopped. Uma and I started walking towards the station to go in after Ramstein. He came out shortly. We spotted a “Lost and Found” with shutters down.

 

1:10 am

“Let’s go back now, we can come back on Sunday when we come to drop you off,” he said.

Dejected, we started walking back to the car. Uma and I held hands. What were we expecting, a miracle? Were we so naive? 

“Entry only for staff” said a sign on a door leading to a room that had the lights on. The three of us stopped, staring inside. We could see a table, with lots of papers. Many shelves with papers. What were we looking for? All three of us were hoping for the same thing, without saying a word to each other.

Suddenly there was a sound from inside the room. “Somebody is there inside,” gasped Uma.

Ramstein started knocking on the door. We pressed our face to the glass windows. 

A man came. He opened the door.

“Can I help you?” he asked

“We are looking for a cell phone? We dropped it on the road, about two hours ago?”

“What phone?” he asked. His face had no expression. Uma and I just held our breaths.

“Samsung Galaxy S7.”

“What did it look like?” He asked again.

“It had a purple cover,” Ramstein said.

“I think I have something for you,” and the man disappeared.

Nobody moved.

He came back and handed Ramstein his phone.

“Thank You, thank you, thank you!!!” All three of us gushed!

“Have a good year,” he smiled, locked the door and went back.

Ramstein looked at his phone, battery 53%.

 

2:45am

The three of us were sitting on the couch, eating noodles and just thinking of how lucky we were.

“We never asked him his name,” Ramstein said.

We will always remember this night…how we lost a phone in the most obnoxious way, how we went on a wild goose chase and how miracles do happen! I am just glad we were together!

There are a lot of things that are not right, that should never have happened. The world is cruel, mean, selfish and unfair…but that is only a small part of it, it is not the whole world. Small incidents, trifles in the large scale of things, restore your faith in the world of men (read humans) …even in the days of Armageddon.

 

“That there’s some good in this world, Mr. Frodo. And it’s worth fighting for.” Samwise Gamgee

 

Love, Joy and Peace

Philo in Philly

MS

(P.S. the names have been changed, but you know who you are!)