A Ghastly Nightmare of a Day!

Thursday, March 7, 2019

Bombay

A Ghastly Nightmare of a Day! 

            

Namaste from Bombay!

You roll along, merrily, merrily...never guessing when things are on even keel, that something will happen so expectedly, literally from out of left field, to bring you to your knees.  Well, that’s the kind of day I had. And I am not out of the woods yet.  So steel yourself to be gobsmacked.

Panic Station!

     I awoke, as usual, at 6.00am and began blogging.  When I was done, I decided to download the pictures from my camera (I use a Canon Sure Shot) that I had taken on my trips to Nagpur and Kerala in order to empty my camera to take pictures going forward. 

However, when I inserted my camera’s memory card into my laptop, the pictures could not be imported because the laptop told me that I did not have sufficient disc space to download them. I was advised, also by my computer, to delete some files to make room for my pictures. (In the back of my mind, this scenario seemed familiar. I have been in positions before where the amount of space gobbled by the downloading of pictures left me hungry for disc space on my laptop). 

     Ok, so I decided to start downloading Word Documents that have been on my computer for ages and which I had no further use of.  Except that I noticed I had two Documents folders on my laptop and both seemed to have identical files in them.  Why do I need two Folders containing the exact same Documents, I thought? If I remove all the documents from one of the folders, there will still be duplicates of them in the other folder, right? So that’s what I did. I deleted all of my Word Documents from one Folder and then when they were all in Trash, I emptied my Trash bin as well!!!! Yes, I did! That’s when I noticed that the duplicate Folder that I thought still had copies of the Documents I had deleted, complete disappeared from my computer! I tried to stay calm and retrieve and go back, back, back, through all the steps I had just gone through. But to no avail. All of the Documents on my laptop have disappeared! Gone! 

     I can try, as a writer, to describe to you what I went through in the next ten minutes...but I would not be able to do it justice. I had a pathological reaction when shock set in. In fact, I started to have a panic attack. I stopped breathing and my heart started palpitating. Keep in mind, that this loss represents years of work, of thought, of research, of writing, of scholarly and personal musing...you name it, I had it on that computer. Because when you are an individual scholar, your life is basically on your computer. I have put my laptop in safes to ensure that I do not lose it. And then I go and do this totally dumb thing that robs me, literally, of my breath. I was a mess. 

     So what did I do? Of course, I tried to call Llew! But it was 9.30 pm in the USA and Llew had retired for the night—he has begun to get to bed early because his body clock is waking him up, without fail, at 4.00 am daily! I then turned to the other person I know—the computer angel in my life—Meredith, in New York, who started out as Chriselle’s college classmate but became a very close friend of mine.  She is the designer of my website and my blog and she has walked with me through difficult computer paths for years. 

     She heard the panic in my voice and told me, first of all, to take a deep breath. I told her I could not breathe and had difficulty talking. She tried to calm me and asked if I had any kind of back up. Of course, I had none! She then told me this: Even if you have emptied the files from your Trash bin, they are still someone in your computer—they do not dissolve into thin air.  The secret now, she said, lies in finding out where in your computer they reside and how we can retrieve them from that spot and bring them back. That process, she explained to me, is called Recovery. She told me she would Google it, find me a link to Recovery of Trashed Documents and that she and I should watch it at the same time. She got off the phone so that we could watch it together. 

     It took only a few minutes to watch the video and...it seemed to offer some hope that one could, in fact, retrieve lost data from one’s Mac if one knew how.  Depending on how many files would need to be recovered, the tutor said on the video, one might need an external hard drive to which to transfer the data.  I had none, but I could buy one.

However, in order to retrieve the data, I would need a software recovery  system that would cost me a pretty penny. I was willing to pay anything! So with Meredith still on the line, I downloaded a program called Stellar Data Recovery Program that cost me $100. I paid for it and was given the Key that allowed me to access it and started the retrieval process.  Through all of this time, I am hyperventilating or in modern day jargon, freaking out.

We started the Recovery process.  Meredith got off the phone and told me to call her back when the scanning process was done.  It took only a few minutes and seemed to indicate that about 400 GB of data was marked and ready to be transferred. But, of course, I had no external hard drive on which to transfer it. So...

     It was then about 11.00pm in New York and about 9.30 am in India. I would need to nip out to a store to purchase a hard drive with, Meredith said, about 250 GB capacity. The stores in India do not open until 11.00 am (if you can believe it!) That meant that for a few hours I would have to stew in anxiety and it was doing a number on my mental equilibrium. 

That was when I told Meredith that I did not feel capable of completing the recovery task and that I was simply going to give the laptop to a computer professional in Bombay. I happened to know a guy named Himanshu who had helped me in a similar crisis ten years ago.  Yes, fortunately, this sort of thing happens only once in ten years or else I would be a walking wreck! But I had to get a hold of Himanshu’s phone number, talk to him to find out if he could help me. I did not have his number but I realized that I might have written it in Dad’s phone book, ten years ago and would likely find it there. I also had an interview scheduled with Fr. Nereus Rodrigues at Mount Mary’s Basilica at 10.30am—although I wondered, in my state of mind, whether I would be able to function with all my faculties!

I rushed through a shower, then went to Dad’s and, glory be! I found Himanshu’s number and he responded on the second ring! Glory Be again! I told him my problem and he told me to bring the laptop to his shop after 1.00 pm this afternoon. This worked for me as I had the interview to do and lunch at Dad’s place as he had invited my brother Roger and his family over. 

Doing An Interview in a Befuddled State:

I left my computer bag at Dad’s place and took a rickshaw to Mount Mary’s. There, I had a really satisfying interview with Fr.Nereus who had founded the Zonals in St. Andrew’s Church in 1953 when he was the parish priest there—a phenomenal that went viral. Today, the Zonals are perceived as the talent scouting ground for all of the music and dramatic talent among Catholics that the city of Bombay has produced over the past half century, if not longer. This was a subsidiary area of my research and I needed to explore it. Since Fr. Nereus (who is 95 years old) is the last surviving founder member of the Zonals, it was essential that I speak to him. 

And I was astonished at how articulate and lucid he is and how sharp his memory is for the cultural activity that was entirely his baby. I quite forgot my computer predicaments as I sank myself fully into the tenor of our talk and frantically took down every thing he said. It was just amazing. We spoke for over an hour during which time he told me that he got his Masters degree in Education from the University of London and his Doctorate in Canon Law from Urbano University in Rome. Like I said, Amazing! I thoroughly enjoyed our conversation and came away from it fully gratified that he managed to speak with me and give me so much follow-up information.

Ordering a Salad at Bandra Gymkhana:

My Dad had told me that Roger and his family would be bringing an entire fish menu home—they were going to order from some place. Dad requested me to get a salad and since I did not have the time to make one myself, I simply ordered Greek Salad from the Bandra Gymkhana on the phone and then went in a rickshaw to pick it up.  The Salad was ready when I reached there and with them I walked to Dad’s place.

A Fish Lunch at Dad’s:

True to his word, Roger returned from a place called Ferry Wharf at the Bandra Reclamation with Steamed Rice, Prawn Curry, Tandoori Pomfret and Fried Bombay Ducks. With those items and the Greek Salad on the table, it made a very good meal that everyone enjoyed. In addition to Roger’s family, Lalita’s sister Pearl, who is visiting from South Carolina, was also present. We had a very good meal and when Pearl decided to leave as she was taking a rickshaw to Linking Road to get some work done, I asked her if she would drop me off at Turner Road to get to Himanshu’s shop.  This she did and I was in his shop very soon.

Consulting with Himanshu:

Unlike Meredith who was very optimistic and gave me hope that I’d be able to recover my lost files, Himanshu was non-commital. He said he would try.  He said he would take things one step at a time.  He told me not to buy an external hard drive right away as he needed to find put how much material had been retrieved and how much could be transferred. He said that he would use his own hard drive and that he’d be able to buy me one, at a far more reasonable rate, if I could wait till tonight or tomorrow morning. Thinking that I was in Bombay for a short visit, he asked how long I would be staying.  I told him I was here till at least the end of May! He relaxed somewhat then as he felt that the urgency had been lifted. However, I told him how anxious I was to know where I stood and all he said was that he had to leave immediately for a meeting but would let me know by the evening how I was placed. 

I suppose you could say I left with some optimism—but only a little glimmer. Inside, I was quaking  although on the exterior one would have no indication that I was so devastated.

Trying to Cope:

Finding coping mechanisms  for my anxiety was the most challenging part of my day.   I tried to take a nap when I got home at 3.00 pm but my mind was too disturbed and I could not sleep. I tried to return to the book I was reading, but my mind would not let me concentrate at all. In desperation, I realized that I could not stay alone with my thoughts as they were destroying me. I needed to be with someone who could divert my mind from the problem at hand and cope. It is only when you are in a catastrophic situation just as this that you realize how much you long for the close comfort of your loved ones. Needless to say, I missed Llew dreadfully.  

I tried to reach my friend Shahnaz to tell her that I would be dropping in; but then I realized that she is on a short holiday in Darjeeling. My other good friend Nafisa is too far away in Byculla. I tried my friend Marisa (who works from home) and she told me that she was leaving in a half hour for her aunt’s month’s mind mass. However, she was more than happy to offer comfort on the phone and I stayed on the line with her for about twenty minutes. Marisa said all the right things. She told me to take a step back and try to think of those things that were imperative to my life right now which I think I might have lost and if there are other sources through which they might be retrieved.

I was most worried about the 300 page manuscript of my forthcoming book—one for which I have just signed a publishing contract. But then I remembered that I had emailed the entire completed manuscript to my Indian publisher—so it would be in my Sent folder in my NYU email. I checked my NYU email and there it was! Intact! All of it!  All 300 pages! Phew! So I could retrieve my manuscript! Just imagine if I had lost my entire next book!

         I then thought about the 40 Fulbright interviews I have conducted in Bombay. All of them had been transcribed from my notes and were on my laptop—with no back up whatsoever! Marisa asked if I had still kept my Notes and I said I have every single one of them! She then said, well, there you go.  They are not all lost. If, worst case scenario, you cannot retrieve your Interview files, you can transcribe them all over again.  Yes, it will mean a huge amount of work...but it is do-able and you will have all your intereviews again. That was very comforting and I felt better. 

I next thought about my CV—as many of you might know, academic CVs go into 20-25 pages as we, academics, put down all our publications and all our conference appearances in our CV. Mine is about 20 pages of information collated carefully over three decades! Well, great news! Only two days ago, after updating it completely, I had emailed it to a Fulbright colleague—so that too, I could retrieve. I realized then that a lot of my Documents had been sent out officially through my NYU email and that I could never lose those. I also emailed a copy of my monthly newsletter to myself—so those too would be in my NYU account. So all said, a lot of really important information that I would not do without, were actually retrievable. There was a modicum of comfort in that thought.

Marisa told me that she would pray. Needless to say, I had already begun praying hard to St.Anthony who is the patron saint of lost things. I  left things in the hands of the Lord and His Mother and decided to stay calm. 

     A little later, I called my Fulbright friend Michelle who is also a computer whiz. I discovered this while we were together in Munnar.  She told me to come over to her place—which I did.  I actually carried my decaf teabag and lemon and went over to her’s so that I could help take my mind off my worry. Luckily, Michelle lives only five minutes by foot down the road where I reside.

Over tea, as expected, Michelle explained things to me as Meredith had done. The files were still in my laptop, she said, but it would take an expert to retrieve them and it seemed I was in good hands. Meredith called while I was at Michelle’s to get an update. She reassured me again that all was not completely lost and I should not be desperate. 

     Well, the long wait began.  Until I heard again from Himanshu, I had no way of guessing where I stood. At 6.45 pm, I left Michelle’s and went to church for the 7.00pm Mass. Naturally, I offered it up for this petition—to get my data back. Dad and I walked back home to his place as Russel had something exciting to tell me—the had done all Valerian’s exercises (including the one with ankle weights) and had walked about the flat plus had learned how to lie on is stomach to be able to do back muscle strengthening exercises. I congratulated him warmly and was just delighted at his progress.

When I got home, I fixed myself some dinner—dal with cauliflower and peas and chicken curry and watched The Sinner—it is very dark but the acting is great and the plot is compelling. At about10.30, after having sent two messages to Himanshu to request a status update and getting nothing in return, I spoke with Llew. He was supportive and encouraging and told me to try not to stress but to wait and watch and hope for the best.  With his soothing words in my ears, I went to bed. 

     How was I feeling? Well, better than I did in the morning, but (as I said) not quite out of the woods yet. I am requesting prayers—earnest, fervent prayers, from all of you, my good readers.  Pray do pray for me!

I hope I will be able to offer you good news in 24 hours’ time. 

     Until tomorrow...