The cable post should tell you that after my first shopping experience in MG Road, I was left with only nine and a half bucks. In coins.

The bus fair to reach home from office is ten bucks.

I was supposed to withdraw money from ATM. But I remembered it only when I was there at the bus stop. There's an ATM close to my office but at the bus stop I could not find any. Ah, why did I forget?. It was 6:30 PM. Bus no. 201 would reach any time. If I missed it I would have to wait for another half an hour for the next bus. But then there was no other option but to walk back to that ATM near office, withdraw cash and then come back to the stop. There was no other option, unless of course, I generally went and asked someone to lend me fifty paise. :)

I wished I were in IIT where it was really easy to spot people anywhere, people whom you knew and could ask for money when in such conditions. I looked around. I saw a logo. It was the IIT Madras logo! Were my eyes playing with me? I noticed the t-shirt which was sporting that logo. I had seen many people wearing that t-shirt back in insti. This whole thing was real! The eyes were not playing! I looked at the guy wearing it. Hell, I knew him! He saw me. We waved at each other. He was coming towards me. The t-shirt was the latest hostel jersey. He was a hostel mate, a Civil junior. God is Great!

But of course, the first thing that you do when you run into a known face in an unknown place is not to ask him for 50 paise. In fact asking for 50 paise is too cheap a thing to do. You should at least ask for a rupee coin. :P

I greeted him. We talked about each other's internships and few more things. I didn't mention anything about my need for 50 paise. We were still talking when I saw 201 pass by.

Hey that's my bus. I gotta go. Do you have a rupee coin?
What?
A rupee coin.
Yeah sure.

I took that coin from him, rushed to catch my bus and waved him a goodbye while still running. There was no time to explain the situation to him and I guess I left him totally confused. When inside, I paid 1o bucks. All I was left with now was a 50 paise coin. I held it with my right hand, looked at it and said to myself, 'God is Great'!