I have been feeling very drowsy for the last couple of days. So unlike other times when I’m reading in the bus on the way home, I dozed off for a while yesterday. My specs were placed vertically in my chic checked shirt with a vertical pocket, from where they fell and slid two seats ahead. Without making any correction, I once again placed them in the pocket.

After a short nap I alighted from the bus and started walking home. It was drizzling, I could not see clearly so I reached my pocket for my specs. To cut a long story short and avoid a lot of adjectives that mean being shocked, I had dropped them and was feeling awful about it. It had cost me 3600, of my own, rupees. The bus was around the corner, so I got in again to check if they had fallen in the bus itself, but no. I carefully watched the path I had walked, but I couldn’t see anything (How could I without my specs?) I gave hope (too soon na? but I had only walked 100m), started walking home and something made me turn back. I could see an object reflecting back at me, it were my specs! They looked like the sun over the horizon, throwing back red light it received from an auto.

I couldn’t believe myself! They had been lying in the middle of the road for over 5 minutes, and not one of several cars, bikes, trucks, buses, and people had run over it. It had taken the survival test on a busy road and survived, thereby saving me some money in the current economic turmoil. I really felt lucky!