The story of a lost passport

Well people tell tales of what they did right and how did they accomplish some thing. My tale is neither ...mine is a story of a lost passport.. once in a life time opportunity (hopefully) to experience the adventure and fun (many dont even experience it once.) It all started when I landed back at Delhi from London on that eventful night of 9th June. I was happy to be back and very excited that i will be meeting my family soon. I came out and booked a pre paid taxi (which was a very wise move) to Gurgaon. I landed and sure enough my aunt was waiting there for me at 12 in the night. I had a very good night talking through the night with my aunt and then took the next days train to Bikaner at 9 in the morning. My train was delayed by about an hour during the journey and I reached home at around 11 in the night. As soon as I stepped in the house I had a funny feeling that I had lost my passport. I took bath and started searching for it in my luggage but could not find it. I put the issue on hold for the morning and had an enjoyable talk with my parents and siblings deep into the night and slept at around 4. I woke up at 8 and searched for my passport but to no avail. I called up my aunt and asked her to check at Gurgaon in case I had left it their but again as I suspected no success. We were all worried at this point as it could be misued and secondly duplicate passport can be issued only after great effort. So after some delibration I booked a train ticket back for Delhi the same day. (I was at home for less than 15 hours my shortest stay ever.) I reached Delhi early morning and booked a hotel and slept for some time. I went to the airport and talked to the airport authority and the airport management but to no avail. Finally I went to the pre paid taxi stand and asked the police their to give me the number of the taxi which I had taken that they. They came up with the information after searching the register where the list of the passenger driver and taxi number goes. I talked to the taxi union about the taxi and the driver and they were able to guess that the taxi should be in the airport stand itself. I walked to the stand which was about 500 meters from the departure and asked for the driver and sure enough was able to find him there and so was the taxi. I searched the taxi and got sure enough there it was in front of me. Lying under the seat was teh passport inside the blue pouch I recognised at once. I was breathing normally again as citizen of India. But the two days are definitely unforgettable for me. It just highlighed how careless I can be and what effects it can have. It was something that could have been much worse but well I was saved by some prompt action. Lessons to take from here are be careful and be prompt action. Together they can save a lot of stress.