“You and I in this beautiful world… green
grass… blue skies…”
I took my mobile reluctantly from the left
pocket of my trousers. It displayed the caller’s name… hmmm…It’s her…
“Hello…” I said eloquently.
“Hey… sorry… I’m stuck in traffic. I will be
there in 15 minutes for sure,” she elucidated to me.
I saw my watch. It showed the time as 16:03.
“Alright, No big deal,” I said, in a sweet
tone to hide my sarcastic words, and dropped down the call. These girls never keep up the timings.
However, they always smartly, in one way or the other, find a reason for their
delay.
What can I do for another 15 minutes – which
is like 15 days or even more when you are waiting for a person all alone?
Should I sit simply gazing the trees or the men
selling groundnuts or the people near me who actually are busy with their
respective works – which I’ve been for the past 15 minutes?
No, I can’t do it anymore. I kept the
greeting card that I was holding in my hand till now aside and closed my eyes. All
those things that happened yesterday came circling my mind.
It’s better to tell you those so that the
rest 15 minutes won’t be boredom for me, hopefully.
Just hang on for few minutes and listen…
------
When my phone rang yesterday evening at half
past four, I thought it would be none other than her, as usual. But I got
disappointed for the 7th time, 21st in total since that
incident had happened. It was a disquieting incident that took place exactly on
the same day (to be specific, it was Saturday) of last week.
I threw my phone indignantly, which showed
its strength even after hitting the hardest thing in my room – the marble
carving – that was presented by her on my 21st birthday. After few
seconds, I unruffled myself and ran towards the phone not to check it (for any
damage) but the marble carving.
I thanked God for not causing any damage to
the most precious, cherished thing in my room (only from 21st June
2008, until then it was my tricycle that my dad presented me on my 5th
birthday). I wiped the area of the marble where that fucking phone had hit, and
put my lips over it to feel the pain. Luckily, there wasn’t any indelible mark.
AT that moment, I felt myself as a duffer (it doesn’t SUIT me though).
I felt discredited for showing my anger
towards the one – the mobile phone – which I have been thinking as human’s best
ever invention as every lover in this world would think. It wasn’t my fault. I
was prone to do that. The reason was simple. Yes, you guessed it right; it was
her, not alone though. She, along with that so called customer care of the
India’s leading mobile service provider.
You might wonder what connection these two
have. Actually, they don’t have any connection directly, but they do,
indirectly, in my case. You will come to
know about it later. The ‘customer care’ helps us a lot when we are at
their doors, but that’s not the case when they come to ours. They nearly kill
us, you see.
Alas! Yesterday wasn’t my day… as nothing
worked in my favour. It might be a coincidence, as all negative things,
together, happened to me yesterday – be it the repeated calls from the customer
care for activating HELLO TUNES (why the
fuck should I spent 30 bucks per month for someone to listen to a song while calling
me? Just to please them? I hate this to the core) or no calls from her for
the past 7 days or whatever. Maybe I was doomed to meet such things, after all.
I remembered PAULO COELHO’s lines in his book – “The Alchemist”. It is “There
is no such thing as coincidence”. But at that point of time, my mind found it
hard, too hard, to accept it.
I came back to the hall and sat in the couch.
I tried to be out of this, but my mind didn’t. It started thinking about the
incident that happened on the other day (the same day of last week, as I said
earlier). Had she been in that place some five minutes earlier or had I been
there some five minutes later, this day wouldn’t be like this. Not only this
day, even the past seven days wouldn’t be like this.
As I was thinking about that disquieting
incident, that fucking phone rang again for the eighth time. “You and I… in this beautiful world… green
grass… blue skies…” I thought I shouldn’t have had this as my ring tone
since it drastically induced my eagerness to talk to her further more.
It was an unknown number just like my past three
calls. My hand was hardly moving towards it as it wasn’t agile anymore. But my
heart activated my brain to move my hand towards it. Shit! My hand obeyed its
boss’s order though it didn’t want to do so.
It was a girl’s voice, but certainly not
hers. The girl on the other side, at her best, was giving instructions to
activate HELLO TUNES. The anger that I was trying to control constantly rose up
in proportion to the girl’s voice. Few seconds later, I started to shout at her
as I forgot it was a recorded call. I was arrantly in a state of lunacy. I
hardly spoke any good words, as almost every to-be-censored words came out
without any speed breakers and hurdles. (Sometimes,
as in this case, chatting among friends helps a lot.)
It took nearly a minute for me to realize
what exactly had happened. I dropped the call. My hand was on the brink of
doing the same mistake that I did few minutes earlier. Luckily, my mind worked
in favour of me in a positive way and my hand had no other option than to obey
its boss’s order.
I decided to switch off my mobile rather than
to answer any unknown girl, and did the same. Meanwhile, the clock in the hall
struck 5 times indicating the time as 5 P.M. My mind thought it’d be better to
have a nap to come back to normal. It wasn’t a profound idea, I knew. But it
wasn’t a daffy idea either. I went to my room with the dead mobile. I kept it
on my table and fell on my bed. Wow! This time my entire body responded to its
boss’s order – to sleep.
The knock at the door made me to wake up. It
was none other than my mom asking me to come for dinner. Without opening the
door, I replied her in a manner that a studying son would exactly do. Ah! My sweet mom, she never suspects me…
The clock in the hall struck few times which
I couldn’t count exactly as I was still in a drowsy state. I saw the time in my
table clock. It showed the time as 7 P.M. Well, I had a good nap for nearly 2
hours. As I was about to get up, human’s greatest invention glittered due to
the reflection of light rays from the bulb.
This time before my brain’s order, my hand
took it and switched it on. I was staring the phone for almost 2 minutes like a
teenage guy who would stare a beautiful girl crossing him. It was my mom’s
voice again which made me to move towards the door. As I was about to open the
door, human’s greatest invention screamed again with its ring tone… I smirked
and went back to check who it was, this time with no expectations. It was an
unknown number again. I did cut the call immediately and turned towards the
door. It was when I kept my fourth step my phone screamed again.
It, too, was an unknown number, but same as
the previous one. I did the same as I did for the previous call. I was about to
switch it off, but there was a call again that too from the same number. This
time unlike the last calls, I attended the call and waited for few seconds to check
for the customer care, but there was a dead silence at the other end.
I broke the silence and said, “Hello…”
“H…i…” the voice drawled at the other end.
I recognized the voice. I was besieged. Meanwhile
it continued, “Hi… bunny… it’s me, Nisha. Sorry for whatever happened…”
----
“Hi bunny…” The same voice… Yes, it’s
Nisha’s, but not in the phone.
I turned back …
Ah... She is here. I can’t continue anymore
about what happened yesterday after that. She will screw me. I am not ready to
experience the same misery once more. The time now is quarter past four. She
had come fifteen minutes earlier. I am waiting in this park for nearly 30
minutes by now. It seems I am over punctual today. What to do? Okay, I will
continue on some other day. Sorry…
“Hi…”
“How long have u been waiting here?”
“It’s almost an hour by now dear… ”
“ ”
“Hey… this is for you…” I gave the card to
her to show her how much I missed
her… I can see her eyes filled with tears… (Ah,
this is working for me… great…)
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