Kulting my sister's cycle

Today is special, I had my first brush with kulting(stealing) stuff, that too my sister's cycle! Want to know what really happened?

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Daily I check whether my sister has come back or not. On seeing her reply to my mails, yesterday morning, I thought that she has come back. Later in the evening, I saw her cycle near the department, which convinced me that my thought was right. On seeing the cycle, I found that its front tire is punctured and the cycle is in very bad state. I have used her cycle many times and I thought that it was time for me to repay back. But if I ask her politely for the key, she would never give me. She told that she cares about me. So she would not allow me to get pained. Therefore I tried to open the lock with my own cycle key :). And to my surprise, it worked as if it is the right key. But again there was another problem. There won't be any cycle shops open in the evening and I could not take it the next morning because she might be searching for it. "My bad luck", I thought, and I locked her cycle and left.

Later in the night, I met Prateek from TCS lab and inquired him if she is really back or not. And he told that she has not come back. "So I still have a chance to get her cycle repaired", I thought. Unlike helping other friends, it is tough to get a chance to help my sister. She does everything on her own, a very big independent :P. So I decided not to lose this chance.

After waking up in the morning, today, I unlocked the cycle with my key and dragged it to my hostel (I usually sleep in the lab). After going to my room, I felt lazy and wasted lot of time browsing stupid stuff. And by the time I got ready, it became noon. Then I came out thinking that I would give the cycle to the repair shop. But to my astonishment, I could not find it. "Oh God! where is the cycle? If I lose it, she will kill me!", I said to myself. Then I asked the security guard. Pointing to her cycle, he asked "Is this the cycle you are searching for?". "Yes, yes!", I said. "Tell me your room number and name. Somebody filed a complaint against you. You stole his/her cycle", he said. At first I got scared, I thought "Who might have noticed me bringing her cycle? I was very careful while unlocking it, nobody was around". But again I convinced myself that it is my sister's cycle and I brought it this far to repair it and there is nothing wrong in that. I daringly told him "Yes! I brought the cycle. It is my sister's. And I brought it to get it serviced". I was thinking of who that person who complained might be. Many questions popped out of my mind - "Did Shiny sell the cycle to somebody? or did Shiny herself has come and complained against me?". So I asked him, "Who is that person who complained? What is her name?". He told that a house keeping servant (woman) came and complained. "Ah! now I understand", I murmured. Shiny knows few cleaning servants in the department. So she might have given her cycle to one of them temporarily or may be permanently.

Then I ran to the department, to find that person. I went there and searched near all the bogs. I never got a chance to know where these serving people stay. Finally I met a woman and when I said two magical words - "Shiny", "cycle"; her faced glowed like thousand volt bulb. She started talking in Tamil and I don't know Tamil. She put all kinds of expressions on her face (tensed, weeping, etc.) and I understood that she got properly pained. "How much trouble I caused her", I thought. For us, losing a friend's cycle is merely an issue of money. We can buy a new cycle for him/her. But for them, it is different. Rarely do people give them things they can't afford and losing those things is awful and sad for them. In this case, she has to return back the cycle to my sister and if she loses it, it will be a big problem.

So I had created hell lot of trouble for her. "Now it is the time to set things right", I thought. I brought a Tamil speaking friend from RISE lab and with his help, she and I had come to a decision that we would go back to the hostel and get the cycle. And after that I could give it to the repair shop. While going back to the hostel, again by walk, I bought her some biscuits to calm her down. She looked more tensed than me.

There is one last twist left in this story. When we reached the hostel, the dumb security guy :P had sent the cycle to CCW office. "Now the cycle is gone.", I thought, "Impossible to get from CCW, they would have chained it and thrown somewhere". And when we went there we found the poor cycle chained and put along with the other lost ones. "Time to beg and fall on their feet, we can't lose the cycle at any cost", I said. We did not have any documents of the cycle. But we would not give up. So we went in and started requesting. In my most respectable tone, I started asking for cycle - "Sir Sir, my sister's cycle sir :P. Please give it back". And I told the whole story and she too told the same in Tamil. He got very confused and asked "I still don't understand you both". Luckily there was clever guy beside him who understood and explained him. I guess he was in good mood and he allowed us to take the cycle back. "Huh! at last! we got the cycle. Thank god", I said and we took the cycle back. I told her to go back on her own and I went to the repair shop and finally gave the cycle for servicing.

Let me not share this story with my sister :). I will tease her by telling it later and she'll get real angry for doing all this :D. Ha ha ha...