One day I was at the boarding gate and suddenly noticed that I do not have my PAN card. Luckily I had another govt ID proof and that was good enough to sail through my trip. After coming home I checked everywhere and I realized that I had lost in transit. After some drooling and beating myself up I decided to log into the portal and apply for a duplicate one. The URL was very much inviting with easy to navigate the process. Somehow I was not getting the motivation to move forward in that direction. Also, my fingers did not move across the keyboard. I gave up and decided to try one more time.
I realized that there are two places where I show PAN card, one at the entry gate and second at the flight counter for check-in. I decided to give it a shot on my next trip. I could not harbor courage to ask the security guys for my lost pan card so that was a nonstarter. The only option was now at the check-in counter. I recollected where I traveled in the last 10 days. At that point in time, I was in my native place. I checked first with the lady over the airport counter. In spite of being busy, she confirmed that it was not there and then she gave me the idea that the staff takes good care of ” lost” items and they normally courier it on the address. I was again concerned what if they have couriered it to Delhi where I had taken the PAN card and never bothered to update the current address. Anyways I did not have any choice, the next check-in counter was Pune and somehow I was having an intuition that I must have misplaced it here in Pune.
She gracefully handed over my boarding pass and I asked if you can help me locate my PAN card which I missed a week back in Pune without an element of doubt. She did not ask me “are you sure” thankfully as she didn’t know I was taking a slingshot in the air. What impressed me in the next 5 minutes was beyond words. She quickly asked all the staff to check the lost and found boxes. Everybody reported that my pan card was not there in those boxes. She was about to declare from her side and in an instant, she turned around and told me, “Let me have one more look at that counter, I am getting a sense (intuition)that it is there. I had any given up and was looking the other side and URL image was this time daunting me. After a brief spell which lasted for 15 minutes where I went through some feel-good moments where she was moving around and checking once again all the boxes. That in itself was very pleasing and these are moments which you will remember about that person and how she made you feel special.
In a flash, she appears in front me and hands over my PAN Card. She told me, “ Mr. Das you don’t worry anymore, have a nice trip”. I asked her name and I thought I will remember her name. A few days back I saw that same lady going past me when I was on the escalator coming down to get into the bus, I felt so bad that I couldn’t remember her name. Understandably, she did not recognize me. I had a sense of guilt that I should not have forgotten her name. I felt bad and I decided that I should acquire the skill as part of my next 66-day challenge starting this Dec 28th. So yesterday I interacted with few people and they made me feel special I immediately jotted down their names on my smartphone notes ( Can turn it into a blog someday).
So next time if you lose something to think twice, use your intuition and then get out there and search for it everywhere. If not you always have an option to get a new one. In the process, you will come across very special people and they will make you feel good and give their best to help you. I have decided to make someone special every day. It could be through a call, WA message, Blog, vlog, and smile.
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