At the peak of incongruity!

There have been many instances when I've been off-key. Sometimes this has put me in embarrassing situations . I recollect a few of those here.

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1. Sixth semester - someday: I was at the Internet café filling up an application form which was taking a lot of time. After about three hours' time I felt for my Honda Activa’s keys. I did not find it. Then I rushed to my bike which was parked outside. The key was sitting pretty on the bike’s belly. Heaved a sigh of relief. Anybody could have easily stolen my bike that day!

2. 2008 - I was purchasing some articles for Sankranti(South Indian festival) celebration. As I was selecting the mango and neem leaves I realised that the my Activa's key was still on the bike(yeah, again!). I rushed toward my bike which was parked a few feet away. Fortunately, the bike and the keys were safe. But, I still had the leaves in my hand and I had not paid the vendor yet! I returned to the shop to pay him the money. Fortunately(again), he was busy with other customers and had not noticed me walking away with the leaves. Otherwise he would have thought I was some kleptomaniac on prowl!

3. Final year of Engineering - someday: I was supposed to pick up my friend en route to college. I had totally forgotten about that. She must have stood there in disbelief when I rode past her without even checking if she was waiting there! This meant she had to walk back to the bus stop which was a little more than half a kilometre away. Consequently, she was late to class.

4. Eighth semester final exams: I think it was Embedded Systems paper. The invigilator handed out the attendance sheets to me. As I was signing I felt I was signing on more pages than I did for other subjects. ECE students were supposed to sign only on the first three sheets. I had signed across some Computer Science student’s USN on the fourth page! The invigilator later resolved the issue.

5. Best friend’s birthday last year: That evening, I was chatting with her on phone just as on any other day. After the chat ended, another friend asked me for her contact number to wish her. It never occurred to me till then that it was her birthday! Then I called my friend; except a sheepish ‘happy birthday’ I did not know what else to say.

6. A couple of months back: While riding my bike I asked my brother if the new footwear shop in our locality sold good goods. There was no answer. I repeated the question. Still there was no answer. Then I pulled up and looked back. Bro was not there. Where was my little brother? I was scared to death. My eyes were moist. Since I had forgotten to carry my cell phone, I could not even call home to find out if he was there. I rode back as fast as I could. There I saw him laughing at me.

He had got off the bike before I started to ride and I hadn’t realized that. You can’t blame me for this. He practices stealth techniques of martial arts. I could not have known when he got off.

7. Last month: After a twenty minute walk from my hostel room to training centre at the workplace it struck me that I had forgotten to carry my I-card. Since I did not have enough time to go back to my room and get the I-card, I proceeded to attend the lecture and swiped in late at lunch break.We are given attendance based on the number of hours clocked between swipe-in and swipe-out. Since I had not clocked in the required minimum number of hours that day I lost a day’s leave.

Nowadays I spend a few seconds to check and re-check to make sure I have not missed out on things :)