Out of travails come miracles, they say. During a recent train journey from Chennai to Bengaluru, such an experience unfolded.
I had my ticket by the Shatabdi Express leaving Chennai in the evening. I reached Chennai Central in a cab with one roll-on suitcase and a hand bag and paid the driver by cash. As the station is known for pickpockets, I took precautions: put back my money purse in the hand bag, checked for my mobile and closed the hand bag before alighting from the cab.
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On reaching the platform I pulled out my mobile phone from the hand bag to check the compartment number in the digital ticket. As I was walking towards the compartment, clutching my phone, I felt my hand bag had become lighter. Sure enough, the purse was gone.
I was stunned, and went blank for a few moments – the purse contained not only money but credit cards, ID cards, the PAN card and driver’s licence.
I gathered my wits and approached a Travelling Ticket Examiner who was on the platform and told him, “I just lost my purse with money and ID cards. With no ID, can I travel or should I go back?” He was sympathetic, asked for my seat number and told me to board the train: he will alert his colleague who is in charge of my compartment. With a heavy heart I settled down in my seat and called my husband and told him about the mishap and asked him to block all the credit cards.
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Meanwhile, the TTE for the compartment arrived. I showed him my ticket in the mobile and told him about losing my purse and so not being in a position to produce any ID. He said his senior had mentioned about my predicament.
Then the most curious thing happened. He enquired if my purse is pink in colour and longish. I was taken aback and responded in the affirmative. “Ma’am, just now in C5 compartment an elderly couple showed me this purse they found under their seat. Let’s go there and check if its yours,” he said.
I jumped up from my seat, and with my heart pounding, followed him to C5. Lo and behold, it was my purse, and I immediately produced my ID card from it. All the money was missing but the cards were intact.
The elderly couple that found the purse had reported it to two TTEs who were passing by. They were safe-keeping the purse for the owner to claim. Indeed, the thief was a ‘compassionate’ one and threw the purse inside the rail compartment and not on the tracks. I had tears in my eyes and gratitude in my heart.
Analysing this incident later, we realised that the common practice among thieves is to only take the money and discard the purse/bag immediately. Still I consider that losing the purse on the platform and getting it back in the running train within an hour is nothing short of a miracle.
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