Calling 911

A few weeks ago I had my maiden US Trip, thanks to some professional requirement and generosity of my supervisor (need to mention this.. he reads this blog) and it could have not been more eventful. And nothing was crazier than losing your passport in a cab in Washington DC. Yup, I left my bag in a  cab and walked out to collect my luggage from the back of car and walked into the hotel we were supposed to check in. A few minutes later, at the reception of counter I looked at the laptop carrypack on the back of my colleague…Damn.. I had something similar to that. I ran outside hotel as if  the hotel is going to be bombed in a few moments. The guard at the revolving door was completely at sea, why this man is running.. and I never cursed the hotel security arrangements and revolving gates so much in my life.. it consumed almost a minute .. somehow I came out of the hotel and rushed to the sport where I had left the cab. And, as I expected there was no sign of the cab. I was on a foreign land without a passport and … did I mention the passport was in bag which also had my lovely MacBook, an external hard drive with all my backups… Craziness creeps in.. no storms in.

I rushed to the hotel reception counter and told him what had happened.

“I am afraid I cannot be of much help. All I can do is to let you check in and you can contact police.” The guy at the counter blabbered something like this. My mind had completely stopped registering things which were not relevant.

“Can you give me the number?”

“hmm.. let me check, for emergency we call 911 but I don’t think they take such kind of complaints.. I ll check and give you the police number.”

WTF.. is this not an emergency? I cursed him, cursed my self, cursed everyone I can. I even cursed the system of having passports to travel. It was 11 pm. I thought for a while and called my colleague, a US citizen and our contact there. I woke him up from sleep to give this wonderful news. He must be cursing me but I was hoping him to provide me some help.. What kind of help.. even I was not sure.

“Do you know the cab company?”

“No.”

“What was the color of the cab?”

“Did not notice. But I know the driver’s name. His name is Rashid and he is an asian.”

“Dude.. there are 100 of drivers with such name and how you are going to find him. I think you should try yellow pages and call cab company and enquire.”

I rushed in my hotel room, looked for yellow pages and believe me.. I was so blank that I was not sure where I should look for cab companies in yellow book. I left that there and called 911. This is an emergency. I do not want to run spend all my day at Indian Consulate at Washington and try to get an alternative.

Somebody picked the phone. I think a lady. A thick american native accent replied “Ambulance, Fire or Police”.

“Police”

“Wait for a while I am connecting you.” In a few moments a different voice asked ” How may I help you.”

“I have lost my bag in a cab and I do not know how to track the taxi company. All I know is the name of the cab driver.”

“Sir, this is not the number for this purpose. You need to call another number.”

“Listen, this is the only number I know. I am new to this place and that bag contains my passport.”

“But this is not the numebr for that purpose. I am giving you another number. But it is very difficult to find the driver this way.”

“What? Dont you guys have a database of drivers and I think you issue driving licecnse after recording all the details. It will take a few moments to search the database.” The computer geek suddenly woke up in me.

“here is the number of cab commissoner and we have registered your call and somebody will contact you on this numnber.”

I snapped the phone after noting the number. I looked at the yellow pages. Struggled my way to Cab section. Wow. There is only one cab company with Islamic name. Here I go. I called the cab company and right away bluffed.

” Hey I need to talk to your cab company driver Rashid. Can you connect me to him?”

“Sorry sir, right now he is out and you can talk to him only in morning”

Bang on target. So somebody named Rashid works here. I called him again. And announced a reward for the driver.  Some sigh of relief. But the bag has a MacBook and some other stuff. Why the hell that guy will return? He can easily sell the stfuff and get more than what /i can give him. But I knew once I have tracked him, I ll get my passport.

Suddenly the hotel room’s telephone rang.

“Sir, this is your cab driver. I was trying to reach you on your hotel phone, and even tried you number given in business card in your bag, but it was not working. I have your bag, will be there in 30 minutes.”

I got my stuff back.  I could not thank more to that Bangladeshi driver. Honesty is not completely out of fashion yet.

Powered by Qumana