Minor occurrences

Some days back I saw a child rummaging through the lost and found box for a water bottle that he had lost two years back. I informed him confidently that two years is a long time and objects missing for two years will not be found in the lost and found box. He then tried to find the water bottle that he had lost six months back. I politely shooed him away. That evening, I wrote the incident down and posted it in this blog. I smiled at the naïve hopefulness of the boy as I pressed the 'publish' button. The next day as I walked out of the dining hall two boys came running towards me. One of them held up a bag and talked excitedly "Look at what I found". I asked "What?" He responded "I found the shoes that I lost a year back in the lost and found box".  I was stumped and did not respond for a moment. The boy was disappointed to see my reaction. He waved the bag in his hands and repeated "I found the shoes that I lost a year back in the lost and found box". I forced a thin smile onto my lips and said "that's nice! You mean you lost this pair of shoes a year back?" He responded "yes". I continued "... and you found it in the lost and found box?" He responded "yes, yes, yes". I asked "can I see the shoes?" He opened the bag and brought out a pair of sports shoes. I said stupidly "you are right; these are shoes". He agreed "Of course". I said "That's good. Yeah. Cool. I gotta go". As I walked away from the boy I hoped that the boy I had seen the previous day searching for his water bottle in the lost and found box would not hear this news.

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I did not notice the little boy on the path perpendicular to mine till he stopped to check the sole of his right foot. Something on the sole was bothering him. He wiped it with his hands a few times but he was not happy with the result. He wiped his leg on the path tentatively. He started moving slowly but halted from time to time. He dragged his right foot over the stones that paved the path. As I reached closer to him, he started walking faster. I saw that he was wearing a yellow t-shirt with black stars on it. By the time I crossed his path he had gone ahead some distance. His walking had become normal and I decided to not ask him if he had an issue with his foot. I continued on my way to the office. On the way back, I saw the boy going in the opposite direction. He was now skipping down the path with a happy smile on his face.

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The boy had a sheepish expression on his face as he walked out of the toilet. He looked at me and said "there was a frog in the toilet. I felt scared". I said "The frog was probably scared too. What did it do?" He responded "Nothing! It was just sitting there. I squirted water using the faucet. It went away". I smiled at him. He smiled back and went away.

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On seeing me he asked "Should I attend the workshop this weekend?" I responded "I hear it is a good workshop. You should try and attend". He pondered at my response for a moment before asking "Are you planning to attend the workshop?" I responded promptly "no". He asked "Why?" I said "I don't have the time this weekend." His face brightened as he said "I too am occupied with other activities this weekend and so will not go either". 

As I was having my breakfast, a colleague looked at me and mentioned "I hear the workshop this weekend is interesting. You should attend it". I responded with a noncommittal "Oh is it? How interesting!" Later, as I was leaving she asked "So can I confirm that you are attending the workshop?" Her question should have surprised me but it did not. I responded without hesitation "No. I am tied up this weekend".

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She said "Updation is happening". He looked at me and asked "is updation a word in the dictionary?" I felt confused because I thought it was and that I had used the word at some point of time in my life. I searched Google for the word. The top entry in the result page read as follows. 

updation

/ˈʌpˌdeɪʃ(ə)n/

noun: INDIAN

the process of updating something.

"the deletion or updation of data"

The word 'noun: Indian' seemed interesting. On searching further, it was mentioned that the word was not a part of the Oxford or Merriam-Webster dictionary but it is believed that the word is used by Indians. I felt updated.

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