What Would You Do????
Your phone alarm goes off at 4:40am – you turn it off and rest your head back on the pillow for a moment…You hear a slight rumbling noise very close to you…you roll over in bed and see an outline of a man digging through your closet – he is standing 2 inches from your head???
I screamed from the depths of my very soul! He ran out of my bedroom and out of the apartment very quickly…I just sat in bed for a few seconds in total shock…I still can’t describe what I felt at that moment…I soon got up and went into the den to see the door to my apartment wide open…It was still so dark outside that I couldn’t see anything but I heard people trying to unlock a door down the hall…I was the first, and thus far only, person to move into the newly constructed apartment complex but my landlords and their entire family (all 12 of them) slept in the building last night. When they got the door open they rushed out and asked me what was the matter? Apparently I screamed so loudly that people on the bottom floor woke up as well (funny thing is though that I felt like my scream was barely audible when it came outta my mouth) I explained that a man was in my apartment but ran out when I screamed. Some of the men went downstairs and everyone else came to my apartment. Once we were inside my landlord asked me if anything was missing… “I don’t think so!” – I hadn’t even gotten to that thought yet – I was stuck in some strange ‘shock’ mode. And right as I said that I turned and realized my laptop was gone…I just lost it then and there….That damn thing has my life in it…And right then another member of the family walked into the room with my external CD drive in their hands…They found it right outside my apartment door – thief must have dropped it on his way out…My landlords and their family spent about twenty minutes looking around the building in the dark – found nothing. I asked them to call the police and Ramesh said, “Just five minutes ma’am” I wanted to scream at him, “We are not in your fucking shop talking about when one of my skirts is going to be ready! Call the cops now!” But I just said he needed to call them immediately. And so they did – about ten minutes later – and then another twenty minutes for the police to actually get here. We came back upstairs and my landlords told the police what happened in Kannada – well sort of… You see all this happened b/c there was a piece of glass – a glass frame to be exact – that was not put on the outside window of my apartment – right next to my door…I had asked Ramesh about that yesterday when I was moving my things in and he told me it would be done that day…By 6pm it still hadn’t been done and I asked him again – he told me he was sorry there was so much confusion with getting ready for the big party they were having there that night – he told me it would be done first thing tomorrow – but not to worry b/c the whole family would be staying in the building that night and I was ‘perfectly safe’….At that moment I remember thinking about what Tina told me earlier that morning, “Krista don’t move in until the place is completely finished! Here in India things slow down once you move in and if there is something that hasn’t been done when you move in – well it won’t ever get done!” Then I thought, nah, it’s alright – all my shit is here now and it is a pretty small opening and the whole family will be here and my apartment is the hardest one to get to and any thief would have to walk past the apartment the Rashinkars will be sleeping in to get to me! “No Worries” Later that night when I was about to go to bed (happy as a little girl to be in my new place all safe and sound) I locked the door (the bolt and the two latches) and I thought how easy it would be for someone to come in my place with the window frame missing as there are bars there but no glass - the opening between the bar’s is indeed large enough to put your hand though….Then I thought, “nah, silly Krista…Ramesh is right…” and so I went to bed happily with the sounds of a lively party below me…Oh how stupid I was….So, the cops came and my landlords told the police someone came in and stole my computer…Then the cops asked me to explain exactly what happened! And so I told them that my phone alarm, which was by my head, went off exactly at 4:40am (5am shala time) and I woke up to it and turned it off. Then I laid my head down for a moment and closed my eyes…Seconds later I heard a noise behind me (as I was lying on my right side facing the bathroom – the closet was directly behind me) so I turned over and saw the outline of a man right beside me – literally less than 2 inches (his back to me) digging in my closet. Everyone seemed totally shocked when I told the police this…OmG he was that close to you!!!! And my landlord’s poor face fell to the floor when we entered the bedroom and turned on the light and she noticed a dirty hand print above my headboard (right above where my head was) – it seems the thief had some how leaned over to look at me while I was sleeping! That was new to me and most definitely added to the ‘what the fuck is going on’ factor I was experiencing…At any rate we went back to the den and showed the police where my laptop was last night…The two cops that were there didn’t seem to know their ears from their assholes…Go Figure Right? Anyway, they had me write, in capital letters, my name and the brand and model of my computer…THAT WAS IT!!!!!!! They left and I asked my landlords if that was all they were going to do. They explained to me that they were going to contact the head guy – police commissioner – but wouldn’t be able to contact them till 8am. Same with their architect who really is to blame for this mess – as he was in charge of this building and all the workers and new I was moving in Saturday and knew to have everything totally finished – especially the GD window frame…. Anyway, they let me be for a bit as it was only 6am by that point…So I went inside and started trying to contact Kwang…I called and called and called but he didn’t pick up his phone….For over forty minutes I sat in my bedroom crying, trying to call Kwang, crying, trying to call Kwang….Finally at about 6:50am he picked up his phone…It was really noisy in the background…He said he was at the jazz fest in Winter Park…I asked him to please go somewhere I could hear him…In the three minutes we spoke he didn’t b/c I just couldn’t hear anything but the heavy noise in the background. I told him someone broke in last night and stole my laptop…Didn’t, couldn’t tell him all the details – but it was quite obvious he didn’t care at the moment. He told me he was really sorry that happened, that I’d never get the computer back, but try to think positive that I needed a new computer anyway when I got home…He told me to eat whatever I needed to that day, and do whatever I needed to feel better. He also asked me what the landlords were going to do to rectify the theft of my computer….That was it….He told me he hadn’t driven but would try to get home soon and he’d call me as soon as he did….I let him know I really needed him today, I needed to talk to him, needed him, needed him, needed him…He promised he’d call me soon. This was 6:50am Sunday morning my time – I finally got a call from him at 7:50pm Sunday night my time…I just couldn’t pick up the phone…I’d spent all day calling him at his parents house and on his cell phone…But he had turned off his cell phone at like 9:30am my time all the way up to about 6:30pm…I had called sooooooooo many times throughout the day in desperation – I needed to hear his voice and talk to him so badly – it was the only ONLY thing in this whole world I wanted….But he never picked up…At some point in the day I left him a message – don’t know if he could’ve understood it as I was balling hysterically when I left the message begging him to call me….And then again at 6:30pm I simply left him a message not to call me…I’d never in our four plus years needed him more than I did today and he wasn’t there – the feelings inside me about him are indescribable….I just let him know to please not call me – I couldn’t bear for him to even try…I knew he had been out on Saturday night partying, drinking, partying….And I knew if he called me after 7pm my time (8:30am his time) that meant that he stayed out really late, got super wasted, and didn’t go home that night (or else he would have called me from home when he got there – i.e. sometime in the morning but most definitely not before 8am when I made my last attempt to reach him)…He’s been calling me since last night but I just can’t bear to speak to him….Anyway, so 6-8am crept by…I had missed practice, felt so scared, felt lonely, felt tired, felt tense, felt uncomfortable, felt helpless…And all I could do was sit in that freaking apartment and wait for 8am to arrive. And once it did, still nothing…So I took a shower and told my landlords I was going out for a bit….I came to Anu’s for about twenty minutes to get away and then my landlords called me to tell me the police were there. So I headed back to the apartment and arrived to see three brand new police officers there waiting for me. So for the second time we went upstairs and I told them what happened, showed them where, etc…..I asked them if it were possible to get finger prints as there was the hand impression above my bed, one on the wall right outside my bedroom, and I’m sure more on the glass table where my computer was as well as other spots in the room. But the cops said it wasn’t possible – as that is a favorite Indian phrase “sorry ma’am not possible” And while I realize this isn’t America, where there is a bit of order and organization to life, I certainly imagine getting finger prints in a crime scene is possible! So, after this shift of police tramped through and left I was told the commissioner was playing tennis and would be here as soon as they could get in touch with him…. Oh boy… In the meantime my landlords came in shifts to grill me for questions about what happened….My God it seemed their family got larger by the moment – and indeed they did as more people from their family arrived to ‘check out what happened’….And soon enough police men group three showed up….Same as before, upstairs, show, speak, “sorry ma’am not possible to get prints”….More family – they insisted I come downstairs where they were congregating and so I did, but it only made me feel worse as they just kept saying it was a shame this had to happen…Sorry about the computer…at least I was alright. All true, mind you, but it just didn’t help at the moment..I felt like they were too concerned about their liability issues to worry over me…and finally the commissioner arrived in his spiffy brown suit…He came upstairs and saw my apartment, listened to what happened, mainly by my landlords, and he too told me it wasn’t possible to get prints…Then he left…This guy was apparently the police commissioner of Mysore – but my landlords informed me they were trying to contact however was above him as well. And then the third set of officers came back to the building to tell me I needed to go to the station to fill out an official complaint….Ok…Well my landlords told me to wait till the commissioner got to the station as it would be better and people would pay more mind to this issue if it came through him…Ok…And so I waited…and waited…and waited…Don’t know why it took the hour and ½ it did for the commissioner to get back to the station – but that’s how long I waited on the steps of the apartment…I had again gone inside to sit with my landlords, but again had to leave after about fifteen minutes as I was not much company…I couldn’t handle hearing “don’t worry well get your computer back”
“don’t worry, everything will be fine” “just ten more minutes ma’am an well head to the station” “have you had your breakfast” “please don’t cry” “it could have been worse”…..one more time….I know they meant well but I just couldn’t deal….So I sat outside by myself in the fresh air and waited, and cried and cried, and waited, and tried to call Kwang, and walked off in the grass and sat and cried and waited and tried to call Kwang and cried and waited and tried to call Kwang and cried…And then the same third set of cops showed up again and insisted I head to the station….Ok…But my landlords wanted me to wait still…Then, about five minutes later we finally got in the car and headed to the station – which to my surprise was literally three minutes away… “Commissioner must have taken the LONG way to the station 
” And the station was simply another three hours of hell on earth… Hum, where to begin on this one…Well, I was accompanied there by Ramesh and his three brother in laws…His architect arrived soon after so I was sitting in a room at the Mysore police station with five middle aged Indian men who were only there b/c they were worried about their own asses…Silence chocked the air as we waited still for the commissioner to grace us with his presence. Finally, he came into the room…then the talking began – all in Kannada mind you…Funny though that every single man in that room is HIGHLY educated, and quite wealthy – they all speak English well but insisted on speaking in a language I can’t understood. I asked that they explain what is going on in ENGLISH, but I was merely blown off by a slight wave of the hand as the commissioner proceeded to address the men in the room in Kannada….After about ten minutes of this I had officially lost my sanity…Then, right as I was about to get up and leave the room due to my inability to hold back tears, the commissioner brought in three photographs and asked me if I recognized any of the men….I so wanted to say to him, “NO YOU FUCKING MORON! I was pitch black dark in my room at 4:40am in the morning and the thief had his back to me….Like I told you and every other police officer in this city, I only saw the back of him, he was very skinny, short hair, seemed young, was tall!!!!” But I refrained from cursing at him…I simply said there was no way to tell from the frontal shot he had of these men – that was only from their waist up! Then the retched architect butted in and told me it had to have been a thief that is well known for stealing computers – and apparently thee three men from the photographs have each stolen electronic equipment before (OMG you’ve got to be kidding me!)….I looked at him and explained that that was absurd – the thief had to have been one of HIS WORKERS who knew 1) that I had a laptop, 2) that my apartment wasn’t totally finished b/c they hadn’t finished it, 3) that saw me moving in on Saturday while they were working, 4) that knew I was a female alone in that apartment, 5) that opted not to finish the work Saturday for this very purpose!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Oh if only I could’ve acted out on the thought I had at that moment to rip his fat ass into shreds…But then I realized my poor mother would have a heart attack had she gotten word that I was in jail in India for assaulting a man while at the police station filling a report of a robbery and breaking and entering that occurred during the wee hours of the night….In fact, I am truly worried that she may have a heart attack when she reads this blog entry…..“Mama, I am sorry I haven’t called you – I just couldn’t call you yesterday in the state I was in – I knew it would have torn you up inside and I didn’t want to worry you …Please just know I am alright mama! I love you!”Needless to say, I didn’t rip his fat ass into shreds – but he did deserve it…He, and the rest of the men in that room were too worried about their own asses – their bottom line – the money in their pockets – their reputations….Poor guys were sweating bullets…But this lonely little foreign girl didn’t matter much….Well that is a little harsh, I have to say that Ramesh and all three of this brother in laws were sincerely sorry this happened to me, but I do know that they would not be there had they not been very concerned about the legal issues behind this and what it meant to them personally….Well, after looking at the pictures the commissioner asked me to write up what happened on a piece of paper….Didn’t really know exactly what to say – did the best I could – simply explained what happened – and funny thing – he told me to write it in English – so I had to be a smart ass and respond, “Well sir, then can you all speak in English? You all know it well, it is your national language, and you seem quite fluent!” No response from Mr. Commissioner Man….Having written the report, I handed it to him and he read it…Then he asked me my age! “24”…Then he asked me for my father’s name!! Tears began to whelp up in my eyes as I said, “he is deceased, does that matter?” Every one of the men in that room suddenly grew very still – they all have daughters – I’ve personally met each of their children and I could sense quite a bit of discomfort in that room…I thought to myself, “Really! You guys can’t be thinking about your daughters right now! Hum, maybe you are thinking – OMG what if this were my daughter in a foreign country and this were happening to her…” All stayed quiet for what seemed an eternity…It was really strange….It was like they stopped thinking so much about themselves for a moment and actually thought about me – actually thought about that man being so close to me in my room – thought about the fact that he had leaned over me while I was sleeping – thought about how he invaded my privacy, stole the most important thing I own, thought about how distraught I was, thought about how I was here in India alone and that I don’t even have a father back home to console me or help me figure this out…..The one and only gratifying moment in my day – discovering these men were not total monsters…After that was done – the head head guy arrived – don’t’ even know his name now as every word was spoken in Kannada (well not every but almost every)…When he arrived all the men showed immense respect for him – we were taken to yet another room to speak to him…He took a moment to hear them out in Kannada, then he spoke to me – asked me my name and age and fathers name and what kind of passport I held. I gave it to him and he looked it over thoroughly (at that very moment I couldn’t help but laugh inside as everything seemed totally surreal to me – I literally felt like I was in a movie – a foreign film to be exact – as I stared at the head dude and then at the commissioner who had seemed like such a bad ass moments before but now he stood looking like a puppy in front of his boss…)…Anyway, moment of unreality over, I came back to the head guy (love that that is all I can call him) and he handed me my passport…Then he asked Ramesh about his property…What happened…Etc….It was all spoken in Kannada but I got the just of some of it (getting better at this) and they did add some English words in now and then…I know for sure that Ramesh got ripped into asshole by this guy b/c he had not filled a report with the police letting them know he’s renting his property to people – specifically foreigners…Apparently that is something you MUST DO…The shit for brains architect tried to butt in and say something about me registering here – but the head guy said plain as day that I didn’t have to do anything of the sort – I was here on a tourist visa, etc……Anyway, felt like this guy actually gave a shit about me – finally somebody! After some more talking to them he asked me what happened and I told him (began to feel like a broken record though)…The same cops that had been such hard ass tough guys earlier brought in cookies and chai for all of us while we were in the presence of this ‘big man’….Almost wet myself…Really too comical for me at that moment!After the ‘big man’ ate a biscuit and had his chai we all rounded up to leave…Didn’t know it at the moment but he too was gonna go scope out the crime scene…And so we headed back to the apartment. He came up to my apartment and saw the door and the window frame with no glass and just shook his head. Then the Rashinkars showed him where to computer had been when it was stolen….then he asked me where I was so we went into the bedroom and he said, “oh god! He was that close to you???” He saw the dirty handprint on the wall above the bed and he immediately ordered his men to call in the finger print guy! I thought, “FINALLY, a little action!!!” He spent a little more time inspecting the place and then he told me he was sorry about this, he would do the best he could to retrieve my stolen computer, and he would see to it that more security measures were taken in this building…And then he was off…. That was the last of the police for the day – thank goodness…But I just couldn’t stay there…More and more friends and family of my landlords were arriving for yet another Puja they were having at the building that afternoon and I wanted to have nothing to do with it. So Girish – who had just gotten back from Bangalore – came and picked me up….We went to a chai stand and just sat for almost an hour…He filled me in on his sick grandfather, his deceased Uncle and his uncle’s wife and children, his own dad who hadn’t spoken to his Uncle in years before his death, Girish’s new responsibilities now after all this, and that he had to go back to Bangalore tonight to deal with more family BS….Then I filled him in on what had transpired…he felt really bad b/c he’s always around looking after me and the one day he wasn’t this happened…I tried to tell him “I” was the least of his worries and to please not even think about me or this….He is a really good friend! Anyway, spent about an hour with him and then took a long long long long long walk…Just walked and walked till I couldn’t anymore….When I came back they had fixed the door – thank god….but I didn’t want to be there….My landlords stayed there again Sunday night to be there with me so I wouldn’t be alone…And they had a security guard outside as well…But I still didn’t feel safe…I locked the doors and went to my room – while I waited for the water to heat up I just sat in my bed wondering how I was going to sleep here tonight – first time I’d really thought about it all day! After my shower, I had my first bite to eat all day – just couldn’t eat earlier today – no appetite whatsoever…then I sat in my bed staring at the wall in front of me debating about weather or not I should turn off the light…Ten minutes later I mustered the energy to do it…And then they came right back on b/c I swear I could see the outline of that man next to my bed…I tried once more a few minutes later but still no good….Ok! So I kept the lights on and fell asleep at some point in the night. But I was up and down up and down all night long..Finally woke for good at 3am…Just couldn’t handle the dreams and the noises and the dark….The worst part was trying to leave my house!!!!!!!!! I needed to leave by 4:45am shala time, which is right about the time all this happened yesterday morning…From 4:20am onwards I’d walk to the window and look outside it…Look at the door…Go back to my room…This went on for twenty minutes…Then, finally at 4:50am I told myself I needed to open the door…I needed to head to practice….That felt like the longest moment of my life…I was shaking as I unlocked the door – I half expected someone to push the door open and knock me down in the process. Stupid I know – and I was and am angry for feeling like this – I am strong damit and this kind of stuff doesn’t shouldn’t just can’t affect me like this….
November 13th, 2006 at 3:20 pm
Wow…I could easily type a reply that’s as long as this blog entry. As you know, I have some training in these things, so if you want to talk, you know how to find me.
November 13th, 2006 at 5:43 pm
I just wanted to give you a {{HUG}}. I read this whole entry and feel your pain. Wishing you peace.
November 13th, 2006 at 8:29 pm
Hey, very very sorry to read about this, hope your luck makes a turn for the better very very soon. Dedicating my practice to you today!
-Steve
November 13th, 2006 at 8:47 pm
Sorry to hear about your experience. It is truly violating to have someone in your house especially when you are there sleeping! It has happened to me – three times now and the first I felt just like you said, I too was alone in a foreign city far from friends or family in a new apartment. I remember every noise in that old place woke me out of my light sleep for a long time. do you have anyone who can stay with you for a little while? at least to help you sleep in peace and realise that it probably will not happen again?
I stayed alone while in Mysore in a small apt. attached to a empty house. I had a very strange ’security guard’ but just that extra body sleeping on my front step seemed to help and I never had problems.
be well, thoughts are with you