Thursday, February 4, 2010

A Series Of Phone Calls

‘This is a work of observation. All characters and events are the product of the author’s real life observations. Any resemblance to real persons, living, not dead, is entirely intentional.’
First let me give you a brief introduction to the main characters and the scenario involved:
Milan, my roommate, a Wiproite.
ChandraSekhar, another friend of mine.
The time : 8PM
Situation : Milan had a night shift and was waiting for his cab. He had just received the call from his cab driver and was expecting him anytime. Just then he received another call. An unknown number and a girl on the other end.
Milan : ‘Hello.’
Girl : ‘Ya hello. May I know who I am speaking to.’
Milan : ‘Strange. You have called me up. You should be knowing whom you are calling. Tell me who you are. Tell me your name.’
Girl : ‘Mmmmm…’
Milan : ‘No problem. No need to think. You can tell me any name. Doesn’t matter as I don’t know you.’
Girl : ‘Actually I called you up because I wanted to make friendship with you.’
Milan : ‘With me ? Really !! So you must be knowing about me. Okay tell me my name.’
Girl : ‘Come on. I know that you are ChandraSekhar.’
Milan : ‘ChandraSekhar !!’
This one name brought a thousand questions to his mind and his immediate thought went to our other friend ChandraSekhar. Probably some girl got Milan’s number by mistake. Anyways what does he have to do with all this. The girl wants to make friendship with ChandraSekhar.
So Milan responded : ‘For your kind information, my name is Milan . I will forward your message to ChandraSekhar and ask him to call you back.’
With this he disconnected the phone.
A minute later he received another call from an unknown number, this time a boy. The boy spoke Hindi with much difficulty.
Boy : ‘May I know who I am speaking to ?’
Milan : ‘Strange. Everyone is calling me and asking me my identity. If you have called me, tell me about yourself. I won’t say anything.’
On listening to this the boy disconnected the phone. After all this drama, what Milan did was save the last entry in received call list as ‘STRANGE_GUY’ and the one previous to it as ‘CHANDU’S_GIRLFRIEND’. Then the cab arrived and Milan went for his night shift. The next day he called up ChandraSekhar and gave him the number saved as ‘CHANDU’S_GIRLFRIEND’. ChandraSekhar called up but it was not picked up by any girl as expected but a man, probably some kannada guy who knew very little of English and no Hindi .
In the evening, the next day, Milan received another call from an unknown number. Now Milan’s number is 9916428560 and the number from which he received the call was 9916482560.
‘A jumbled version of my number. Cool !!’ said Milan to himself as he picked up the call.
Guy : ‘May I know who I am speaking to ?’
Milan : ‘God ! Not again. Who are you guys. Why are you troubling me. I won’t give my identity. You have called me so if you want to disclose your identity you are welcome.’
Guy : ‘See sir. I have been receiving messages to call up on your number. So I called up. As far as identity is concerned, I am a student of Vishwesaraya Institute Of Technology and my name is Chandrasekhar.’
Milan got confused. What was this going on. Probably the girl who had called up yesterday wanted to make friendship with this Chandrasekhar . But how was Milan thrown into the whole scheme of things. Anyways he explained the previous day’s incident and gave the girls number saved as ‘CHANDU’S_GIRLFRIEND’ to this guy and disconnected the call.
It was around 7:30 PM. As Milan was waiting for the cab driver’s call, a number flashed across the screen of his mobile : ‘CHANDU’S_GIRLFRIEND’.
‘Oh..She has called again. I will finalize everything once and for all.’
But the response from the other side shocked him like hell.
Man : ‘Hello sir. Cab driver.’
For a moment the whole world became blank for Milan . From that moment till the time he reached his office, he kept on analyzing as to what had happened. Then the facts started appearing slowly. The girl and the boy had called from the same number and prior to that the cab driver had called up. But because of ‘Applying Thought’, more than what was required, he had saved the last entry as ‘STRANGE_GUY’ and the one prior to it as ‘CHANDU’S_GIRLFRIEND’.
And now the tragedy. He had given the cab driver’s number to both the ChandraSekhars.
Now there are a few unanswered questions :
Who sent messages to 9916482560 to call 9916428560 ?
Did the guy tell the truth ?
How was the boy, who called up from the girls number related to the girl ?
Who was the girl in fact ?
These questions and many more continue to remain a mystery so far.

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