The Case of the Missing Cell Phone - Part I

Hello people.

I am stopping the Time-Energy paradox series now to post a series of posts...an incident which, of all people, happened to me. Hehe, nothing suprising...I am ALWAYS in some kind of trouble. But I manage to get out of it allright, thank God! More often than not, I am usually the wrong person, in the wrong place at the wrong time. I somehow feel Life tests my resilience a LOT, and I can tell life straight in its face - Look dude, I haven't lost. I've never lost. Stop trying!

This time, I've been dragged into a Cell Phone theft, not of my own accord; have been served a notice for interrogation by the police, have tried playing a hand in deducing the sequence of events of the theft, and have succeeded in narrowing down the field of enquiry to a much smaller circle. I am posting the story in parts. Read and EnJoY!

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Well, it all began one fine afternoon last month. The sixteenth day of July, the seventh month of the 2006th year after Christ was born. The plan was that I meet Dinesh at the Majestic Theatre, with my Uncle, and we go tramping along on Avenue road, peeking into the cramped, musty bookstores, looking at various course books. Well, it so happened that I reached my granny's place five minutes late. My uncle is a stickler for time, and he started berating me. I had a genuine reason for being late - My cousin sister chose that very hour to drop in and conceal herself in the toilet, doing God knows what. He wouldn't listen to my reason; so I stormed out of the house and decided to go by myself. Mistake No.1

Near Ulsoor Gate limits, they have installed a traffic signal in the stupidest manner possible. The Zebra crossing and the Yellow line are on one side of the cross road that intersects the main road, which after 15 metres divides into two and also has another traffic signal! The signal is on the other side. I was crusing along at 60 kmph and coolly eased into the left lane and crossed the yellow line. I missed the signal. But then, i suddenly saw the signal flashing red, and braked immediately like the dutiful citizen I am...hehe...and my bike skid. Mistake No.2. There were four cops there, and one Sub Inspector fined me 300 bucks then and there. I had 27 in my wallet. He served me a notice to pay the fine at a later date. He also confiscated my License.

Dinesh and I merrily loafed around the area, had hot crisp masala doasa at one of the oldest hotels in Bangalore and I then came back home. I thought I'd go on a saturday and clear the matter up. That saturday never came.

My mother arrived in Bangalore on the 24th of July. Now, we have a hotel in JP Nagar, of which I am a partner...i.e...my mother is one of the investing partner, but I carry out official duties on her part. We have a traffic cop, an SI, on our payroll there. My mum, in all her earnestness, stormed into my room, extracted the notice out of my wallet and gave it to him to retrieve my license. I did not know the SI's name, not had his number, nor had spoken to him. And, there was no copy of the notice. Mistake No. 3.

A few days later, we were all sitting in the canteen, when my cell fone buzzed. The conversation went like this -

Person : Is it Abhilash?
Me : Yeah
Person : Are you Chinmoy's friend?
Me : Yeah
Person : Is he around?
Me : No
Person : Where has he gone?
Me : I dunno
Person : When will he be back?
Me : I dunno. May I know who's speaking?
Person : I am Chinmoy's friend.
Me : Ah...(Mental Note - Take chin to task for giving my number to his darned friends)
Then the person asked various details regarding Chinmoy's practical timings, etc etc etc. I answered only in monosyllables...the result being the entire gang laughing at my taciturn method of speech. The converstaion, thus, got filed away in some spidery corner of my brain for future reference. I asked Chin about the call when he came back, but apparently, to this day, he has no idea who had called. The call had gone on for about 3 minutes.

That same day in the evening, i got a missed call on my cell fone. I sent an SMS back asking who it was. Two days later, when I was in the bus, the same number called. The conversation went on like this -

Person : Hello. I recieved an SMS saying 'Who is this' from your number. May I know who's this?
Me : I had gotten a missed call from your cell, so I sent the SMS
Person : I am an Inspector of Police, talking. May I know whom I am talking to?
Me : I am a student of St. Joseph's College. (I connected this cop to 'our' cop)
Me : Sir, are you familiar with Nimantran Hotel?
Person : Uh...huh...
Me : Sir, do you know the owner ?
Person : Uh huh Yeah. Who's talking?
Me : (dropping my guard). Sir, I am Abhilash from St. Joseph's. I am the owner's nephew. She had given you a notice requesting you to get the license released. How far have you gotten?
Person : St. Joseph's? Ah good! Which course?
Me : I B.Sc MCZ
Person : MCZ....uh...Mathematics, Chemistry Zoology?
Me : No, Microbiology.
Person : Ah..
Me : Sir, have you managed to get my license?
Person : Yeah, come to ASHOK NAGAR thane and get it.
Me : Thanks, I'll be there...(suspiciously)

Whole conversation = Mistake No. 4

I became wary. My license was at Ulsoor Gate. Our 'SI' was at JP Nagar. How the hell did Ashok Nagar figure here? I surmised it might've been some mistake, and I forgot about it. Totally. And, I didn't show up at Ashok Nagar. Cardinal Mistake. The date, most probably, was the 3rd or the 4th of August.

On the 9th of August, I bunked the first half of college because -

1) I had nearly 100% attendence
2) Had to study for the upcoming exams, starting from the 10th
3) My sister was ill...and my aunt and uncle were busy with the Hotel

When I went to college in the afternoon, I was informed that I was a 'Wanted' man...by three people -

1) The Extension Officer
2) A professor
3) our HOD madam

Since we had practicals that day, I couldn't go. Mistake No. 5.

The next day onwards, we had exams for three days. On the 11th, Rodriguez, our Extension Officer gave me the dope - A girl had lost her mobile phone on campus. Rather, it was stolen. The police had come THRICE on campus, served a notice to the Principal, asking for my custody for interrogation. The principal had abused them saying, while he's the principal, no student of his would be arrested or detained by the Police.

Here comes the interesting part. The girl was supposedly from I HEP, Bachelor of ARTS. They hesitated in giving me her name, so they stalled me off my giving me her description. I knew they wouldn't want to, so I desisted from pressing them for details.
Here starts the fun. I had never seen or met the girl in my life.