I had a very eventful day the day before.

It started off very well with a kind lady offering me a lift to the campus on a DiDi (Chinese Uber). In Hindi we say 'naeki aur puch puch', meaning if you are doing a good deed, why ask! And not being an enthusiastic walker myself, it is like giving water to a thirsty man in a desert, I guess! Hehe! So, I happily arrive and go to my lecture room with a chirpier air because I wasn't dampened by a walk and sweat. Soon after I get there and start to settle in, I realise that my watch is missing. Normally I might have thought that I have forgotten whether I wore it or not but, on this day, I specifically remembered wearing the watch. I wondered if it came off when I got out of the car. I wished I had walked because then there was hope of retracing my steps and finding it. All I could think of--though I knew I should really be thinking about my lecture due to start in half an hour--was the history of the watch. I remembered the exact day I bought it 10 years ago. It was the most expensive watch I have ever bought though not expensive for a watch by objective standards. I thought about how beautiful it still was though it had been so many years. I yearned to have it back. I looked everywhere in the hope it was right there somewhere. You might wonder why such nostalgia and emotion for a watch... I could easily buy a new one and a more expensive one too. I suppose I develop a very deep attachment to things that I have had over a long period of time, and in a way I have them by my side for so long because I am attached to them. It's not about the money or not finding a new one. I started and finished my lecture with a very heavy heart. I had another lecture in an hour, and it was starting to get a bit cold. As I was getting my shawl from the back of the chair where I had placed it, lo and behold, there lay my watch under the chair! I was so jubilant to find it! It was almost a miracle to me. I found it hard to focus on my next lecture now because I couldn't help but think about how we realize the value of things only when they are gone... not that I did not realize its value but it was one of those things that I was using every day without ever reflecting about its significance to me. And suddenly in the space of two hours I couldn't think of anything else...

In the afternoon as I was starting to walk back home with my music on as usual, it turns out that one of my earphones for my iPod had suddenly stopped working. It was perfectly fine the day before and suddenly out of the blue, it was dead! I thought I could order one from Taobao but the quality of products can be quite tricky, so I decided to check with my Admin if they had one lying around for staff use. I couldn't believe how helpful they were because though they didn't have it, they said they'd order it and I should have it soon. Again, I thought about the history of my iPod... It was 14 years since I had purchased it, a time when there was no Bluetooth or any of that jazz. When they asked me if I wanted Bluetooth, I had to actually explain I wanted something really basic! I remembered the really long journey I have had with this iPod... how it has made my life and more so walks so enjoyable! It has all the music I need, and I cannot think of parting with it. But as I was thinking these thoughts, I also thought about how the same sort of thoughts had run through my head just that morning. And this incident too involved a thing and a helpful person though in a different sequence...

It seemed like an odd turn of events to happen on the same day, but I didn't know yet there was one more turn to come. I intended to collect some of my items from the Taobao collection point near my house. This is a bit like the Amazon collection points though here it looks more like a busy post-office with loads of packages and 3-4 people helping to run the shop. I assume these people might be a family because I see a middle-aged man, middled-aged lady, a teenager, and a small boy hanging around usually. They look at the collection number on our phones, help search for the item in the whole shop the arrangement of which completely beats me, scan the item which registers the collection in my phone immediately, etc. They probably help me more because I can't make any sense of a lot of it whereas many others seem to magically find what they want, scan their thing, and go their way. When I got there the place was empty. I had quite a few things to collect. As I was waiting for my things inside the shop, a longer queue was forming outside, and I noticed one of my students come in! I was a bit embarrassed to see my student in this place but he was standing right in front of me so there was no choice but to greet him. We started making some pleasantries in English. People in the queue meanwhile are fascinated to see two people, one a foreigner, talking in English! It's not very common in this small little town. To my utter embarrassment, the shop folks are unable to find one of my items and start communicating with my student in Chinese to get him to explain to me the situation! Had he not been there I would have used my translator app to communicate but these folks saw us talking in English and decided to communicate with him about my stuff! The missing item was a pair of shoes and though they were saying I might have collected them earlier, I knew I hadn't. Some back-and-forth dialogue ensues with my student acting as translator. The icing on the cake was when he saw I was slightly anxious, and said reassuringly, 'We will sort this together!' I was quite touched really, though also inwardly dying of embarrassment about inadvertently embroiling him in this situation! At one point he said that this must be an unpleasant experience for me. I had to say it would be an interesting one once they find my shoes! hehe! Which they did in a while. So, there I had my third epiphany of the day... something going wrong with a product, some helpful person in the mix!

Made me wonder what the design was behind this day ;)