(Essay)

These days traveling, especially by air, comes with many risks. I am not talking about accidents, bad weather, or delays. I am talking about the probability of losing stuff. Most of us travel with paraphernalia, such as phones, iPads, and laptops, with us than ever before. We are required to put them in separate bins for scanning through the X-ray machines. We must oversee the bins and make sure our items show up on the other side, lest someone else picks up our stuff in a rush to move on towards the gates.

God forbid if one loses an item at an airport. If this happens, it is disappointing and heartbreaking. We are so dependent on these that their loss makes our lives miserable. It is like being cut off from the rest of the world. Recently we lost our iPad, during our travel from Washington D.C. to Mumbai India. But it happened under different circumstances.

At the end of June 2024, we traveled to India for a month to attend a wedding and meet several relatives who were of advanced age. Bharati and I both have an iPhone each. We decided to take our recently purchased iPad too. The large screen of the iPad makes it possible to do chores like reading magazines and our daily newspaper online and check in for the flights. Bharati decided to keep the iPad in her handbag to lessen the load on my backpack.

We flew from Washington D.C. to Charles de Gaulle (CDG) airport in Paris. After a brief layover, we flew from CDG to Mumbai. It was a long journey, taking almost twenty-four hours door to door. Our flight from Charles de Gaulle Airport to Mumbai was delayed by an hour. It was past 1’o o’clock at night when we reached Mumbai. It took another hour to get through immigration, etc. Just before landing, we were asked to fill out a short immigration form. We needed a pen to fill out the form. I had carried a couple of pens just for this purpose, but they were in my backpack which was stored in the overhead bin.

“Don’t bother,” Bharati said. “I have a pen in my handbag.”

She proceeded to look through her handbag and found a pen. We filled out the form.

We had booked a room in a nearby hotel. I was surprised to see several people lined up to receive us at the hotel entrance at this late hour. Once inside the hotel, the night manager Mr. Kevin approached us.

“Your room is ready. Follow me.” He said.

We were glad that we didn’t have to go through the formalities normal in checking into a hotel. The first thing we wanted to do was to get a good night’s sleep on a bed. We started to unpack our suitcases to take out essential items. We had planned a family get-together the next afternoon. We didn’t have much time to rest.

“Oh my God,” I heard Bharati scream.

I was at a loss to know what had happened.

“The iPad. I don’t see our iPad.”

“Didn’t you keep it in your handbag?” I asked.

“Yes. I had placed it in my handbag. Now it is not there.” She sounded desperate.

We started to remember events just before we landed. Then she remembered that she had taken it out when she was looking for a pen to fill out the immigration form.

“Shoot. I took it out and placed it in the back pocket of the seat in front of me,” she said. “When the air hostess came around instructing me to keep everything under the seat in front of me I complied. I slid my handbag under the seat. I must have left the iPad in the back pocket of the seat in front of me.”

That was it. This happened despite our being careful to guard the items we had with us. We were disappointed. We had purchased the iPad to take it with us on vacations for the purpose I mentioned earlier. All that was gone. We didn’t know what to do at such a late hour at night in a big city we were not familiar with. Several thoughts went through our minds. How can we contact the airline? Will they even respond?

“Well,” I said, frustrated. “Let’s consider it lost and move on.” I blamed it on our bad luck. It happens, but why should it happen to us?

“It’s not the loss I am worried about,” Bharati said. “I don’t want to start our vacation this way.”

Bharati tried to call the airline but finding the correct number was a difficult job. On a whim, Bharati had an idea to call the hotel manager to see if they had a contact number for the airline. She explained what had happened. To our surprise, Mr. Kevin was unperturbed.

  “Don’t worry,” he said. “This happens all the time. We have people at the airport. I’ll contact them. I am sure they will try to find it.”

We were not that sure. Our flight had landed way out in the large airport. Who knows what the airline cleaning crew had done with it? If they were honest they may have handed it to the “lost and found” department. We were restless.

A half hour later Mr. Kevin called to inform us that they had located our iPad. We couldn’t believe it. Was lady luck smiling on us? Mr. Kevin said we just needed to write an email to the airline about what happened. He came to our room to inform us. We requested him to draft the email to the airline because it was better he did it rather than us. He knew exactly what needed to be said.

Everything was moving in the right direction. We just needed to physically get the iPad in our hands to be satisfied. Half an hour later we got a call from a lady asking for the password to open the iPad.

“This is to make sure the iPad is yours,” she said.

I reluctantly gave the password. We kept our fingers crossed and waited.

We didn’t have to wait too long. Mr. Kevin knocked at our door again. He had our iPad. Bharati hugged him.

“My iPad. My iPad.” She said overwhelmed to get the iPad in her hands.

This was beyond our belief. We didn’t care how it happened or what the hotel staff did. Now we were certainly going to enjoy our vacation.