Search Mission

Search continues for the dial top of Razia's watch

The other day Bhaswati Bose lost her solitaire in the tall grass of the Garden and miraculously, found it two days later. Before that, Monthi Serrao discovered a ‘gold’ chain close to where we exercise, but it turned out to be fake. Today, Razia Khan lost the dial top of her beautiful Swiss watch and got everyone rummaging through the grass after the exercises.
It was like searching for the proverbial needle in a haystack. Razia had been all over the place today as she conducted the free-hand exercises. Moreover, nobody had any clue what the missing object looked like. Obviously, it was quite expensive because Razia did not want to give up the search even as one by one, everybody was losing hope. Harbans Kaur suggested localizing the search to where Razia stood during the Laughter Rounds because chances were she had clapped so hard that the dial top simply flew off her wrist.
Even there, we drew a blank. Srichand Arora felt so sorry for Razia that he offered to buy her a replacement for the watch – more so because he had scolded her rudely for interrupting the exercises and intently looking about in the grass.

Razia returns Arora's wallet

Sushma Gupta treats us to barfi

Razia insisted the dial top was irreplaceable and priceless. Arora was to console her later by offering his wallet, saying she could buy a new watch with whatever money she found in it. There was Rs2,500-odd inside and Razia promptly returned the wallet.
A playful gesture like this not only lightens the atmosphere but also reduces the sense of loss for the moment. But more than that, what we got to realize today was that like Razia’s dial top, there could be many more lost valuables lying around, hidden in the Garden which their owners have given up on. Today itself, while on our search mission, we discovered a beautiful faux gold bracelet, but badly caked in mud, lying half-buried in the ground. It is just possible that there could also be some genuine gold ornaments and gems for the picking in the Garden – should someone seriously care to look around.