the passport saga

I was waiting for my turn at the Indian embassy in Chicago. I was feeling much better though I had a lot of questions for which I had no clear answers. How much time would it take to get a new passport, would I get a new project in Chicago or will I have to shift, if I have to shift what about the accommodation, what will I tell mom why I need to stay back for some more time, how on earth could I be so careless and so on. I had already made thousand phone calls and two trips to police station the previous day. I was too tired to even feel bad about anything. I reached the counter when they called my number. There was one lady sitting just behind the counter and a few others a little away behind the counter immersed in files and general chat. I explained to the lady sitting in counter how I lost my passport and wanted to apply for a new one. She stared at me for two seconds and said ‘your name?’. The moment I said Rashmi, everyone behind the counter looked at me and they started whispering. I could only hear ‘rashmi’ between the conversations. Someone called someone and he ran and got someone and finally a lady came to me with a navy blue pouch. It looked familiar. It actually took me a few seconds to realize that it was the same pouch that I had left in the cab and the moment I did, I was literally jumping. I stupidly thanked almost everyone at the embassy who was staring at me :D. I couldn’t believe that I was holding my passport. Everything had changed in a few seconds. When I fished through the pouch. I found a small little note along with my passport and flight tickets. The note had name, phone number, pick up point and destination on it. I immediately called up the number. It was the cab driver. He had handed over the passport to the embassy the previous day. I couldn't thank him enough. I had no words to express my gratitude. One thoughtful act of him had saved me from a lot of pain that I would have to go through for the next few weeks. This is yet another excerpt from my life where a mountain had turned into an anthill :D