mojo adventures. casefile: PendriveRecovery.

there arent many professions i fancy i can do well in, but i honestly believe i can be a pretty good detective.

it started when i was about 8 or 9 years old. two of my friends [lets call them teapot and starfish] were small time enemies. you know, kids fight all the time. starfish had recently gotten a new bicycle, a purple colored girlish thing whom we were all in awe of since we were kids and were ignorant of the fact that stuff like hayabusa exists. anyway, it just so happened that during one of the quarreling fests, teapot stormed off to the lane where starfish's bicycle was parked. all of us remained behind, blissfully ignorant till suddenly starfish screams that she knew teapot was going to shove her bike to the ground which would cause scratches on the body of her newly acquired mode of transportation. (yes, it was a big deal, WE WERE KIDS!!!)

we ran to her bike and there she was: standing tall as ever. (the bike not starfish). but i knew better than to believe what i saw. what if it had been shoved to cause those fateful scratches and been picked up again to hide the crime? i went to it, bent down and looked at the ground where the stand was. you know, the stand you have to push with your foot so it slides down and the bike leans on it? and there i saw it: proof that the bike had indeed fallen down. the stand, due to the weight of the bike, had caused a sort of hole in the ground (fortunately there was mud, so i could see) but instead of one hole that would mark parking cycle one time, there were two!!!! which means it had been picked up and made to stand again!!!

i dont know whether thats awfully clever or something, but its pretty darned good for a kid in 4th grade. in any case, i think im good at putting things toegther. see whats making me write this awfully lengthy entry is the fact that a few months ago, a very precious thing of mine was lost: my 8 GB pendrive. now the fact that it had almost all of the photos that i had taken since i came to live where i am living right now (annual function, farewell practice, holi, random cute pics, etc) is not the only thing that makes it precious. the soclidng that i got from my parents... PHEW!!

anyway, all people who know me know that i lost it for i have been whining about it ever since.

now let me tell you exactly where and how i lost it.

i'd lent it to a friend who thought it would be a marvellous idea to return it to me when we met in the evening for our daily rounds of playing bandminton. no, not return it, shove it in front of my nose when i was reading a slam book, just so i could know she had indeed, brought it, and then throw it carelessly in my bicycles basket ( and not tell me she had done so) as we walked together to the cycle stand place.

anyway, i put the slam book in the basket, hoping it would be safe, and we went for playing badminton. and when we returned to my bike...

the slam book was on the ground, in the mud, i was pretty amused by that... till i returned home and told double ess she had forgotten to give me my pendrive and she said she'd put it in my basket. THATS when i freaked out. beacuse there was no pendrive on the ground/basket.

anyway after a lot of accusing/tears/fights i was able to forget about it. its almost been 3 months since and now: the mystery has raised its head again.

theres this really sweet junior that i have. REALLY sweet. TOO sweet for it to be real, as i later found out.

one day in school, 3 months after i lost my pendrive:

him: hey, u lost ur pendrive right?
me: yeah, how dyu know?
him: *little pause* double ess told me
me: oh!
him: the pendrive had "ska" written over it, right?
me: YES!
him: hehe, i saw a black guy pick it up (note: black here means dark complexioned)
me: what!?
him: yes, he was fiddling around with it but it was too dark so i couldnt notice his face... i was far away.
me: oh? what else did you see? what did he do? are yu sure he picked it up?
him: *shifty* sorry cant tell you anything else
me: *suspicious look* u seem to know a lot
him: hehe, gotta go

anyyyyway. so besides his shifty looks and nervous gestures, theres somethin else you should know about
1) double ess didnt know him. she couldnt possibly have told him bout the pen drive
2) he was so far away he couldnt notice the guys face, but he did read the tiny letters (ska) written on the drive?
3) he is NOT as sweet and innocent as it appears. i am usually pretty good at recognizin people. but MAN can he ACT! i kinda had doubts that he was the inncoent child he appeared to be when i saw him lying on the phone to his father, and drinking something that looked like cold coffee all alone in the local market, i mean ...that requires some level of ...not being slow.

he had made the folly of telling me about one of his old enemies, though, who doesnt live here anymore but is my friends brother. so i decided to do a little investigation, contacted the enemy and found out about the sweet guys past: he has a record of stealing and in general, talking behind peoples back,etc. he stole a cd once!

you know what im gettin at right? its mean to label someone as a thief so i wont do that. i have just told you all the ...evidences that make the needle of suspicion tilt a little towards him.

but in any case i dont know what i can possibly do. any hints/ideas/chocolate cakes? leave them right here!