The art of being at the wrong place at the right time
In any city, there are dos and don’ts. Trivandrum also is no exception. For example, I won’t dare walking alone through any small roads in Tampanoor or roam around sanghumugham beach after 10PM. In Kerala, women in general normally don’t walk around the streets after 8PM. There are places that are safe and there are places that are not safe. You need to be aware of them.
When we go out to other places, we tend to be ignorant and foolish. I will tell you about a foolish thing that I did long time back ( I was 24, and at that age, guys are expected to be foolish). 
It was about 7 years ago. I was sent on a short deputation to London from TCS. It was an exciting time. Our client office was at a plce called Maidenhead outside london. I was staying at a place called Marlow (the rent was dirty cheap there) which was about half an hour by train.
There were only two guys at the client office from TCS. So soon we became good friends. He was staying at Maidenhead itself (he was a party animal!). On every friday we used to visit the local pub and then after a while I used take the train to Marlow at around 9PM.
One day as usual we were drinking beer and watching football (The guys there are ready to die for football) at the pub. My friend normally drinks 5 times more beer than me. This day due to some reason we went on drinking till 11PM. Then suddenly I remembered that the last train is at 12! So I hurried home with my laptop (It was company given a laptop).
[Now you would be wondering what made me continue drinking till that time? I had a bad moment at office. My boss (client manager) had caught me accessing porn site. Trust me guys, I wasn't accessing it intentionally! But when I closed the browser I saw my boss standing behind me laughing. He was a middle aged british guy from manchester. He was very cool, and became very friendly from that day, which ofcourse helped me when our code bombed on the production server.]
So coming back, I was at the Maidenhead station around 11:30. The train is yet to arrive so I wait there. It was pretty cold and I could see some white guys coming to the station. All drunk like me. Then I noticed another guy (politically correct term : of african origin) sitting beside me. I smiled at him (”Fosters” makes you a very friendly personality).
Train came around 11:45 and I occupied that last seat on the compartment. I wanted to avoid the drunk fellows who were getting inside from the front. There is always a slight risk of getting kicked by racists in UK. I kept the laptop on the window seat and was sitting on the aisle seat.
Suddenly the guy I smiled at before appeared beside me. His both hands were inside his jacket (quite common due to cold) and was saying something to me. Fosters were having more impact on me and I was wondering what the he** he is saying. Then I guessed - He is probably selling drugs. So I tell him “man, I don’t do drugs, Thanks”. You see, in england you should suffix every damn thing with “Thanks” and “Please”. He seems adamant in selling drugs. He is not going and I repeat my words.
Then he points me to his pocket. “Oh, man I don’t want drugs” and I look at the pocket. To my horror, I see a shiny little knife there..
Ok. Now it is better to listen. So I listen - he was saying “Gimme ur laptop, or i’ll stab yaa”. Immediately I look at my laptop. It is not my laptop, it is company’s and is probably worth over a lakh. Damn, I am not going to give it and loose 1 lakh from my pocket.
So I tell him back. “It is not laptop, it is a bunch of computer books” (You see, this is why I love Fosters - It decreases your IQ by 80% and makes you a common man). Now it was his turn to become confused! He waited there for a few seconds and seeing that some white guys were coming in our direction ran away.
Slowly Fosters effect was going down and I became scared. I was thinking what if he is on another compartment? What if he chases me when I get down at Marlow (I had a 20 minute walk from station to home). I could hear my heartbeat for the first time (It beats pretty fast guys!)
So when the train reached Marlow, I waited at the door for the last minute. Just before automatic doors closed I jumped out of the train and started running at my top speed (Still I could see the weird expression on the face of the guys who were standing at the train door). I think I covered the 20 minute walk in around 3 minutes flat.
From next day I never took the laptop back home.
PS : The laptop was insured. The guys at the office told me that I am pretty lucky not to get stabbed (probably the guy was an amateur).
