Shop-gifting

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Last weekend I went to yet another shiny new mall that got started in Bangalore.
Little Side Commentary : We are bored of malls and eat-outs. We want beaches sans the humidity and the tsunamis.
So this was a huge place and we bought a lot of stuff over a wide variety.
Little side Commentary : We are bored of shopping as well and keep wishing we could buy everything online. We are thinking of monetizing this idea..so dont get any wise ideas.
My dotzy was with us as always and hung on to a small stuffed "Ducky" (that she had picked up from the toy's section) all through the mall. We approached the billing counter and started placing all the items we had picked up to be billed. I took the little "Ducky" too, inspite of the wailing protests, and kept it on the billing counter.
Later, we came out of the mall and I had a feeling that something was amiss. I did something which I never do. I went through the entire bill with some 50 items on it and couldnt find an entry for the Ducky. I have no idea why that dint get billed. Did we remove the article from the billing counter in a hurry or was it ignored by the cashier?
Would you call this shop-lifting or shop-gifting?

Register Police Complaint for my lost Nokia N-97 Mini

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Prologue :

22-Mar-2010 - Hubby convinces me that I deserve the new Nokia N-97 Mini and buys it for me (even though it comes with a price tag of over Rs.23000)
29-Mar-2010 - I fall in love with my Nokia N-97 Mini
15-Apr-2010 - I lose my Nokia N-97 Mini

Main Story:
All was well in my world till I got a mail at 6 PM on 15-Apr-2010 from my hubby. The first few words were "your phone is unreachable". My first reaction was to rubbish the claim and I put my hand out to reach my Mini. Dint find it. I looked up from my laptop and I couldnt see it anywhere near me. A sinking feeling started in the pit of my stomach. Had I lost it? No, someone must have played a prank and hid it. I frantically searched my bag and all around where I was sitting. Negative. I started to panic. I retraced my steps to all the places I had been to in the past few hours. I knew in my heart that I would not find it there. This could only mean one thing - I had lost it. I became agitated as I digested this information. The Mini had grown on me in the past 15 days and I wanted it back.
As I started for home, I became fearful of spilling the beans to folks at home. For one thing it was a costly phone and for the other it had been a recent asset. Most of all I was distraught about how my hubby would react. Being a proud owner of the Nokia ExpressMusic phone, he was always a wee bit jealous of my Mini. He was always inventing reasons to use it. He would be heart broken too.
I came home to find the Mini's box lying in my cupboard. It was a saddening sight. But I also noticed that it had the IMEI number on it. This propelled me into deciding that I would lodge a formal complaint with the police. Stealing is not cool and I will not encourage it even if the thief loves my Mini as much as I do.
I have never been to a police station in my life. I did not even know where the police station was near my house. The only station I knew was the one near my parents' house which is more often used in daily life as a landmark for directions.
The next day I used Nokia's Ovi Maps (on my hubby's 5800) to find the police station in my house's vicintiy. Ovi Maps gave me the location of the one nearest to my home and using the "Drive To" feature, we drove to the Jeevan Bhima Nagar police station. I entered the building feeling a little scared. I had seen such scenes in movies but there was nothing gung-ho about it in my experience. I dont know if anyone apart from policemen and lawyers feel comfortable entering these buildings. It doesnt matter whether one committed a crime or not, the guilt trip is triggered naturally.
At the police station, I spoke to the sub-inspector on duty and told him the entire story of how I lost the phone. I tried to keep it as matter-of-fact as possible but could not hide the desperation in my voice when I told him about the model. The sub-inspector then informed me that my house comes under the jurisdiction of the HAL police station on Airport Road. I was left a little confused as to how the police station closest to one's house would not govern it but there was nothing to be done as they refused to register my complaint there. I then came out and once again used Ovi Maps to direct me to the Airport Road police station. It was a very hot day (37 deg Centigrade) and energies were draining out pretty quickly. But I was unwilling to leave any stone unturned to get my Mini back.
At the Aiport Road police station I met the sub-inspector on duty. Here I was made to wait while he registed complaints about burglary and abuse of a daughter-in-law. When it was my turn, I was made to write out the details of the loss including when and where. I was also made to write the details of the phone itself including the model and the IMEI number. I again got a little emotional when it came to that. The officer then asked us to wait while he fed this information into the computer. He gave us an acknowledgement of the complaint and said they would do their best. I pleaded with them to do as much as possilbe to track it down. I must have told him how dear it was to me because I could see sympathy on his face too.

Epilogue:
I am still waiting for any update about my Mini. In the meanwhile I cannot console myself about
losing it. I have to acknowledge the big role that Ovi Maps played in aleviating a little of the pain during the entire process of lodging the complaint. I would have found it very difficult to find the police stations and the heat beating down would have onlymade it worse if not for this cool Nokia product.

Watch My Ovi Maps story :

Birthday Blues

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January brings with it a lot of apprehension. To understand why, you need to know T. But I will try to nut-shell it here. You see he is a very creative person and he exhibits this trait abundantly when buying me gifts.

January brings with it his birthday when I need to put my grey cells to use to think of what to gift him that he would also like. Its always an up-hill task for me because I would have given up on out-shining him from the beginning.

This year, I decided to use the power of social networking in order to capitalise on collective creativity for individual cause. I decided to ask my friends what they thought would be the ideal gift. The replies ranged from the being-useful-for-the-husband to being-useful-for-the-wife-in-long-term to absolute male fantasy! I thank all of them for their suggestive (he he) ideas. While it is not prudent for me to wax eloquently about the suggestion(s) I put into action, I will say this...it was insane...he loved it ;)

P.S:- Thank you Dev, Usha, Shruthi, Shweta, Prathima, Arpana and Sreen (you have given me an idea for the future)

P.P.S:- Could I use the same forum in the future?