To my beloved Reader ♥️,
A true story close to my heart…
There’s something timeless about the color black, it’s bold, elegant, and quietly powerful. Maybe that’s why I’ve always been drawn to it. My mom, knowing me so well, once gifted me a beautiful black handbag. But this wasn’t just any handbag. It was adorned with vibrant, multicolored flowers that seemed to bloom right off the surface. It was joyful, striking, and full of life, just like her love.
But life, in its unpredictable way, decided to pull that thread, everything changed in an instant.
One night, my husband, daughter, and I were on our two-wheeler, riding over a flyover in Chennai. As usual, I had placed my beloved handbag in the front. Out of nowhere, two men on a bike came from the opposite direction. Before we knew it, they snatched the bag and sped away. Just like that.
My heart dropped.
We filed a report, but because the robbery happened on a flyover that cut across jurisdictions, there was confusion. Officers from both divisions showed up and debated over who should handle it. Eventually, we found out the case belonged to the Chrompet police division.
That night was restless. I eventually fell asleep, but my heart was heavy. I couldn’t shake off the sense of loss, not just of the things inside, but of the gift itself, it was part of my identity.
The next morning, we went to the Chrompet station to file an official complaint. A lady police officer there looked at me and said, “There are so many crimes happening… is it so important to find your handbag right now?”
Her words were blunt, but I understood. The world is busy with bigger problems. So I quietly let it go, despite the ache in my heart.
Then one day, while I was on leave, my phone wouldn’t stop ringing. First, calls from HR. Then my manager, Nitin. Then Priyanka, a junior colleague. Finally, she asked, “Did you lose your purse?”
I was stunned. I hadn’t told anyone.
What followed felt unreal.
The connection came from an unexpected place—a local government school. A student had found items floating in a nearby lake: my handbag, my red purse, my ID card, a handkerchief, and a few other things. When the school principal saw my ID card, he panicked. He thought something terrible had happened to me. Another young woman gone.
His wife happened to work in the same office as I did. Through her, they reached HR, who traced it to my team. Priyanka recognized my name immediately.
That’s how the calls began.
Soon after, I was asked to go to the school. I arrived with a mixture of curiosity and nervousness. The headmistress welcomed me, but before showing me anything, she asked me a few questions, just to confirm my identity. She later told me how relieved she was to see me alive. “Your handkerchief was folded so beautifully… I really thought something had happened to you,” she said, with visible emotion. It hit me then, this wasn’t just about lost property. It was about people caring, strangers worrying about someone they didn’t even know. Humanity♥️
And then, I saw my handbag again.
I caught a glimpse of it, and my heart soared. Surreal.
Though it had been thrown into a lake, somehow most of my things had survived. My red purse, my absolute favourite chosen by the person I truly adore the most, was still there. My ID card, some basic cards, and even the handbag itself. My daughter’s mic had been damaged, which saddened me a little, but thankfully it wasn’t something sentimental.
But the handbag and the red purse? Mom and Me, Those mattered. And they had come back to me.
In that moment, I felt something shift.
Life had circled all the way back, not just with things, but with feelings. With faith.
There was something profound in that moment. A realization. Sometimes, even if things travel far from us, physically or emotionally, if they truly belong to us, they find their way back , it feels like a warm hug from the universe.
What’s meant for you, truly yours, what carries your heart, always finds a way home. No matter how far it goes. No matter how unlikely the path. No matter how far they drift - always finds a way back, through kindness, through fate.
My heart was full. Love to the kind strangers who didn’t know me.
The inspiration behind this story traces back to a deeply personal moment from years ago, when I lost my red Nokia flip phone, a precious gift from my father. It was stolen from my workplace, and though the management was kind and even offered to replace it with a better model, I didn’t want better, I wanted mine. That exact phone, with its memories and meaning. During the inquiry, I made a simple request to everyone at work : if someone had taken it, they could quietly return it, no questions asked. The next morning, like magic, it was back. What I never told anyone, though, was that I had seen a small video clipping in the phone that gave away who had taken it - a safeguard working there. But I chose to stay silent. The video featured his little daughter singing and dancing, and it was so beautiful, so innocent, that I couldn’t bring myself to say a word. I kept that video safe in the same phone, a quiet reminder that sometimes compassion means more than confrontation—my silence was a return gift for the understanding he showed toward the depth of my attachment to that phone. That moment taught me that when something truly belongs to you. When it’s connected to the heart with stubbornness, it finds its way back. And years later, that same belief echoed through the return of my mom’s handbag and my admiration’s red purse.
P.S: I love you Ma & Pa ♥️
