Story of the Blue Folder

“I pulled out box after box, setting them haphazardly around the room. My organization lacked something -- like, say, organization ...” - Richelle Mead

It was July 2014, and my husband and I were supposed to apply for our visas to move to the US from India. There was a form to be filled online, and my husband had been reminding me to complete it, for over a week. I, of course, had been postponing it for the last minute, as is my nature. The problem was that the last minute came all of a sudden.

“Have you filled the form? We need to submit it!” My husband asked me.

“Err...no, not yet. We still have some time, right?”

“Let’s see, today is Thursday, we are traveling tomorrow, and we need to submit it by Monday.”

“Great, so we have the weekend? I will finish it then!”

“We will be traveling...are you sure?” He looked at me with narrowed eyes.

“Oh, sure! I will carry my laptop, and we will have internet. No problem.”

“Okay. At least go through the form today, and see if you have all the information available with you.”

“Will do.” I assured him.

I did go through the form the same day. It was a looong form, with ten or so sections, but it seemed fairly simple to me. After looking at three-four sections which asked about my personal details, I was confident I had all the information available with me. I saved whatever details I had filled, and closed the website.

Cut to Sunday morning, which was the last day I had to fill the form. We were at my in-laws place, and I decided to finish the task after breakfast.

I sat down in a corner of the living room, switched on my laptop, opened the website, and jumped to the section I was to fill next. It was related to my work experience. That should be easy - I thought.

It was, except that I needed the exact dates when I started and ended employment with various organizations. Now, I kind of remembered the months and years, but exact dates? I needed my relieving letters for that. And of course, I was not carrying them. What was worse, was that my husband had been telling me for the previous one year that I should scan all my certificates and important documents and keep them online for reference. And what do you think I had done with this advice?

Exactly. Nothing.

So, once I realized I could not fill the form without getting back home, I started to freak out. I was extremely scared of breaking the news to my husband, because I knew that if I was in his position, I would have been ready to kill. But I had to tell him. And with great difficulty, I did.

“Hmmm.” He looked at me, calmly. Thankfully, he had been reading some books on spirituality lately, and seemed to have taken the lessons seriously. So he didn’t get angry, much to my relief - and guilt. With me, it is tougher when people don’t get angry - I feel worse about my mistakes then. 

“Okay, that’s fine. We will submit the form on Tuesday instead of Monday.” He paused. “But, do you have the certificates back at home? Or are they with your parents in Gorakhpur?”

I thought carefully. I distinctly remembered that while moving to Hyderabad from Delhi after my wedding one year ago, I had packed my certificates in a blue folder, kept that folder in a carton full of books and stationery, and sent it off to Hyderabad. Owing to my laziness, once again, I had never really gotten around to unpacking that carton completely in Hyderabad in the last one year, but I was fairly sure that the blue folder was sitting in that unpacked carton at home.

“Yes, I am sure. I have it in Hyderabad.” I told him.

I promised myself that the moment I got back on Monday night, I would take that blue folder out of that carton, and only then go to sleep. After all, what if...

Monday arrived, and we flew back to Hyderabad. We got home after 10:30 at night, and though I was too tired, I wanted to just take that folder out so as to sleep peacefully. I walked to that unpacked carton, and started looking for the blue folder. I fumbled through the pile of books, notebooks, files, etc. - and I could find everything else, except for that ONE. BLUE. FOLDER.

I vividly remember that moment, and am unlikely to forget it, ever. For the first time in the last few months, I really started to panic. The blue folder with all my original certificates (for which I had not even made copies) - was missing! I didn’t know what to do, I didn’t have the courage to face my husband, and it was not even about just the visa application anymore. ALL my certificates were in there, and I could not even begin to imagine the consequences of what would happen if I didn’t find that folder. I was nearly in tears, when my husband came to see what was going on.

“It was here! I am telling you, I packed it in this box!” I was ready to howl.

“Okay, okay, calm down! Look again. Take everything out one by one, and keep all of it outside the box.” He said.

“Okay, yeah.” I said, took a few deep breaths, and started the search again. I took everything out - kept the books in one pile, notebooks in another, pens in a different place, and so on. The box was getting empty, with no sign of the blue folder. And then, I found a plastic bag. I opened it, and there it was - my blue folder!

I almost collapsed with relief, hugged the folder, and muttered urgent prayers thanking God. My husband looked at me, smiled, shook his head, and walked away. He didn’t say a word.

But that was the moment, when I decided that enough was enough. I was done with being so disorganized and cluttered in my life. I was done with losing track of things. I was done with putting important stuff off till the last minute. For my own peace of mind, I had to get organized.

Since then, I have scanned all important documents for backup and online availability. I have decluttered my life quite a bit - got rid of things I was not using, stopped buying things till I actually needed them (the fact that we were moving to another country did help a lot), and as the latest development, have even started planning my weeks and days meticulously. I will write more on this topic in future posts, but for now, I would just like to say that this has definitely helped me be more at peace, and now I know exactly where that blue folder is.