“The Day I forgot my I.D Card”
When you join school or college many things make you known without which you are incomplete, quite similar is the story of our I.D card . . . yes it becomes a big story when you actually forget it.
Just after 15 minutes of leaving home I realized that the adornment of my neck was missing . . . my I.D card without which entrance in school is strictly prohibited, forget it and the school entrance will forget you . . . or you end up writing an application to the relevant office requesting them to puhleeeeease let you in because you never want to take the risk of an absence in a city where it rains whenever it feels like and where the baby tantrums of a buffalo echo with his crocodile tears leaking all the way from England . . . in such situations absences become inevitable.
Ok so I was panic-stricken and started texting friends and classmates while thinking to be honest with the guard and tell him/her that I forgot my I.D card or lie and enter wearing someone else’s card around my neck . . . Thankfully I had credit and an SMS bucket. My first text message read:
“Hey Sassi I am doomed! Forgot my I.D card. Kiya karoon?”
Sassi Replied: “Try showing them the library card ya office se take permission.”
I didn’t even have my library card . . . actually didn’t apply for a new one yet for MBA . . .
I had sent various messages to quite a few people, another one read:
“Hey Aaqib, I forgot my I.D card can you arrange some girl’s card for me?”
I was confused whether to be honest or to fake it out and take someone’s card and show it as mine. None of these people were at school that very instance and I did not know what to do. Being a part of MBA makes you feel dispersed with no one around that you know that well and thus there were a lot of new faces that I couldn’t ask for a favour which actually was totally wrong. I then tried asking two more friends and later came to know that one of them had forgotten her phone at home. One of my last text messages read:
“Farhan I forgot my ID card. What to do?”
And Farhan had the best advice one could ever give a friend without an ID card. He replied:
“Oh . . . take someone else’s card to get in.”
I was thinking along those lines while approaching 100 and had been walking with a snail pace to find someone for help and I still didn’t know what to do. Part of my mind was thinking of telling the truth and wasting a lot of time in requesting entrance and writing an application while most of my mind was urging me to cheat and seek refuge in some female friend’s identity. But where were all those girls? Just then someone went by and I did what I had been doing throughout my bus ride this evening . . . I typed another text:
“Hey Maaz look back!”
Unfortunately Maaz was on the phone and kept on walking oblivious to identity less surroundings. What the hell was I thinking? Getting in with a male friend’s I.D card while trying to convince the guards that this is what I actually look like or probably looked like in my past or maybe just now?
Just when I was replying to his text, “Kiya hua?” I found out that he probably had walked back from far away (90) to reply in person while locating my message that reached him some time ago, the proximity of which would identity my obese self in exactly the same place where I sent him the text message from . . . There was no one else around whom I knew, everyone else had seemed an alien for my helpless situation.
Well, he too suggested me to tell the guard that I forgot my ID card and that I have to get in for my class but I liked Farhan’s advice better it was just too cool to be ignored . . .
Okay! I joined the ‘human line’ entering the metal detector . . . whatever you call that . . . There were two girls in front of me who after getting their bags checked were extracting their jewel from, the ID cards because they obviously didn’t like displaying them and thus undermining their beauty. Some people especially girls don’t prefer ID cards to be there around their necks I don’t know why but why should they display? Well they have to. Why?
Just as he was returning my checked bag by the female guard he gave the same intructions to me he had given a few seconds ago to those girls (well they had their ID cards in their bags, I didn’t even have that): “Ma’am please wear your ID card around your neck while entering, don’t keep it in your bag, it should be displayed.”
I obediently nodded to his words and just barged in since he thought I had my card in my bag as well. He just didn’t realize how much I was perspiring and how pale I was with my speechless attempt at lying. DAMN! I just rushed in!
Just as I was entering another guard was scolding a girl who had forgotten her card and was faking it out telling him that her card was in her bag. Well . . . he had demanded that she get it out and show him in order to enter. Oh my God! Thank you for saving me . . . my self respect is more important than a mere ID card . . . but then we are all here to do the work assigned to us and so we should accept this attitude from dutiful guards as well, this one had the right to be angry. Oh my card!
Right now this card of mine is close to me, so close to me . . . very close to me . . . it’s hanging on this chair, I probably would even sleep with the card under my pillow and have ID card nightmares but I think I should keep it in my bag already!!! PHEW!!!
May I never forget my ID card again . . . may my self respect always be in the hands of God! Ameen! This is the self respect I was once willing to drop a course for . . .
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