Hunt for 80 cents

A new place, a whole new world waiting to be explored. However, after some of the exploration is done, and you are quite intoxicated by the very ‘newness’ of the place, things tend to fall into place, back into routine. It is as if you wake up to a horrible hangover after last night’s partying. And it was quite something like that when I realised I had a lot of chores to do, after a week of roaming about in the streets of Singapore.
Now, had it been back at IIT, I’d have just quoted Shoban, “Packitz”, and gone along on my merry way, leaving the laundry and stuff to be done by a particularly overworked washing machine at home. Once in a while, when it comes to the dangerous situation of not having a ‘clean’ T Shirt ( note: ‘clean’ includes T Shirts which have been worn repeatedly atleast thrice in a week), I pack up my bags, and leave for home to finish off my laundry. And I didn’t really have to do it; everything was pretty much taken care of.
Sadly, things weren’t quite the same here. The general IITian kuntryness wouldn’t work out here; carrying the institute’s reputation on our shoulders, I had to be a bit more conscious about myself ( Or so I told myself). So, doing the laundry was a must. Since home was not a twist of the accelerator away, I also had to do the laundry myself. Every bit of it. From the Detergent to the Dryer.
So began my woes regarding laundry. After dillydallying the whole of a week as to when to do the laundry, I finally got around at it on a Sunday. I packed a bag full of the smelly stuff, and headed to the laundry.
At the laundry was a girl, a lone girl, at a machine, taking out her clothes. Pretty much not wanting to scare her off staring at empty space, I went forward and started inspecting the machines like a washing machine repairman. Halfway through my inspection, I was rudely interrupted by a very enlightening thought: I had forgotten my detergent in my room. Cursing under my breath(the girl was still there), I trundled back along a flight of stairs, carrying a bag loaded with dirty clothes, straight to the elevators(cos I live in the seventh floor). The elevator arrived, and I went in, only to surprisingly find myself staring face to face with the same girl in the laundry. I must have looked a real clown, gauging from the look she had on her face, for me having climbed up a flight of stairs to catch an elevator when I could have done that from the laundry level itself.
Anyway, after having taken my brand new box of Fab detergent, I went back to the laundry room, and selected a machine which chose my fancy. That was when I noted a curious thing. None of the machines had plugs; they were just wired inside some box. Not wanting to guess what was inside, I looked around for an instruction manual. Sure enough, one was pasted on the wall. Seemed, I had to put in 40 cents for a wash, and 40 cents for a dry. Worse, the only denomination accepted were 20 cent coins. I fished around in my wallet for 20 cent coins: nope, there were none, me having gallantly given them all to a shopkeeper in exchange for a neat one dollar coin. As it can be understood, I trundled back to my room, vowing to find 20 cent coins before the day ended. And immediately walked down to the cafeteria, to order tea, and to get some change.
At the cafeteria, more ill luck awaited me. As I took my cup of tea, and handed him a two dollar note, I was feeling jubilant about my commonsense. Imagine my horror when the shopkeeper returned back the change, all in 10 and 5 cents!I was mortified. I asked him for 20 cent denominations, but no, he didn’t have them. In fact, he didn’t even have 1 $ denominations; and he had just pooled all the coins he had, and dumped them to me. Having made my wallet heavier by a few hundred grams, I came back to my room, defeated. The day went by soon.
Today I finally managed to make 4 20 cent coins. That makes 80 cents. I have vowed to save a 20 cent coin everytime I get 4 of them; that way I’ll have a constant supply of them. And now, finally, I can do my laundry.
Please don’t be pained if this is a crappy post. I just felt bored to continue, so ended it up abruptly. But will definitely not continue this post