When B(h)enji accepted the Impossible Mission

My mission, should I choose to accept it was to locate Bagwati and ensure it’s safety.

Okay so story time. A little while back (it feels like centuries ago) when the pandemic had eased out and life was slowly crawling back to normal, my maa came home after a little rendezvous with two of her close friends. I sensed a happy mood, maybe I could slip in a request for a set of acrylic markers. Alas, before I could make that request maa realised her wallet was missing from her handbag. Let’s name it Bagwati because ZNMD feels during the lockdown 🙂

Lo and behold, my panicked mother was now sweating profusely, tension lines all over her face and her blood pressure levels shot through the sky. Needless to say, Bagwati had a lot of important identification cards along with the obvious cash. Okay…think back. Maybe she left Bagwati in the car? Not there. Maybe one of her friends mistakenly took it with themselves? Called and verified. Nope. They were clueless as well. So now only two clear options remained on the table. First- someone had nicked Bagwati. In that case should we get started with getting the cards blocked? But what if it was the second case- Bagwati had been left behind somewhere unintentionally. Before jumping to conclusions, lets see if we can trace back the steps.

Also, side note. I’m walking you through this at a very slow pace. By this time my dismayed mother had hijacked my sister and they ~nearly flew~ to the mall that had been the venue for my mother and her friends’ outing.

All the while, I am left sitting behind at home. Kaafi FOMO. So, what did I decide to do? I used the two things I am always rebuked for using. My laptop and my phone. A quick search on the internet to get the Pantaloon store’s number. Listened to the entire corona warning caller-tune just to know the number wasn’t valid. I’ll have to think bigger now. Mall’s phone number. Hopefully some one will pick that up. To be honest I never thought that’s a phone number I’ll have to dial. An annoyed person did answer the call probably expecting some inquiries about a lost child somewhere in the mall. To annoy him further it was just a weirdo asking for the Pantaloon store’s number with such urgency. I am so sure as soon as he got off the call, he must have thought to himself that he doesn’t get paid enough to deal with such weird requests.

After another round of the corona caller-tune, hello Mr. Pantaloons guy who was probably just a salesperson at the store. Who was at his home. Chilling on his day off. Thankfully he sympathised with the predicament and was kind enough to direct me towards calling the store’s manager who was on site. As if the manager had gotten his call-that-turned-him-into-a-superhero, he jumped right into the role of the protagonist of his life and within the next two minutes I got a call back saying they had located the missing Bagwati. Another corona caller-tune suffixed with a quick call to my mother and sister to inform them that I (damn you, English grammar. I wanted to capitalise ‘I’ as a way to emphasise my contribution but now it just looks like another ordinary ‘I’) had located the adventurous Bagwati all the while being seated in a chair.

If you get the vibes of the super-important tech guy in movies who has like a bazillion screens in front of him, headsets on and eyes glued to a screen all the while spiting instructions into a microphone, you’re not the only one my friend. I never knew being the supporting character that is usually huddled up in a chair in a shady van could be so satisfying. If the Pantaloon’s manager had his hero moment, I had my side-hero moment at home. And before you ask, yes I imagined some audience applause for me. (My entire life is The Office and I fluctuate between being Jim and Kelly) Cue some Mission Impossible music please.

Hello new set of acrylic markers. Nobody’s gonna deny my request after I ensured Bagwati’s safety.

P.S. Too many movie refences, haina? But come on, the pun in the title is so good that I risked the self-burn.

P.S.S. If you are unaware, please google ‘Benji from Mission Impossible’. Thank you.