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Saturday, August 23, 2008

03328320421 calling.....

A loud whrrring noise woke the dozing Ahsan up.....Ahsan, your typical boy next door, 22 yr old, Kolkata resident, engineering student, well mannered (atleast as well mannered as a self respecting engineering student could afford to be:D), has lots of friends and is fun-loving. Single, not desperate to mingle but wouldn't mind an encounter with love.

Waking up, he realised that the whrrring noise was his cell phone (in vibration mode) announcing a call.....Reaching out for it he secretly hoped it wasn't a close friend asking him to go out for an evening chill-out, he was seriously in no mood for that.

03328320421 calling...



One look at the number and a tizzy of emotions washed over him in an instant. Memories, look hoped to have been buried in a deep chasm rushed back to engulf him.....Emotions, long banished by the logical brain swirled back into an unnerving existence.....and unbeknownst to even himself, those whirlwind 36 days flashed upon his inward eye.

He had met her in the virtual world. One Monday afternoon, bored to death, a username caught his eye and he fired off an IM as any boy would.

Leosrule07 :- y r u hell bent on making the whole world diabetic:D
Sweetdreams4all :- bcoz being diabetic is better than having nightmares
Leosrule07 :- an interesting but mistaken observation
Sweetdreams4all :- how, if u care to explain
Leosrule07 :- for d simple reason k d effects of a nytmare may last 4 an hour @ max whereas u bcum diabetic 4 lyf:D

N so they kicked off a conversation which lasted for an hour and a half.....in the course of which he came to know Zeba, 19 year old B.Com student also from Kolkata, brought up in a secluded all girls environment, she has hardly ever talked with any boy casually.

More conversations followed with their duration becoming lengthier every time and they started to enjoy their tit-for-tat replies to each other...she was his "deer" and he her "mangy lion":D.....soon their "talk time" became the highlight of their day with both just waiting to log on. About two weeks from their 1st chance encounter in the virtual world, their conversation moved on the cellular world when Zeba called up Ahsan to cancel a pre-set virtual meeting.....She did not own a cell and was calling up from a public booth, the conversation stretched on to an hour and 13 minutes.....with the last 13 minutes constituting their 1st tiff as such reason being Ahsan's not liking her wasting so much money (he became aware of the public booth angle only an hour into the conversation).


That tiff just added to the growing feeling of connect that seemed to be engulfing both of them and just 4 days later on another phone conversation Zeba, unable to suppress her feelings anymore, ended up utterring that so-used phrase of the English language..."I Love You"...and so started a love story.


They couldn't meet coz there was no way that Zeba could go out of her house alone, in fact her calls to Ahsan were made in the borrowed time which she extracted from her tuitions. The next two weeks constituted two sightings of each other from across the road (wherein each tried to engrain the other in their inner eye) .....endless whisperings of sweet nothings in their 10 minute conversations.....feeling a sense of bliss every waking hour engrossed in each other's thoughts and their 1st "love fight" (which resulted in a sleepless night for both, shed tears from Zeba, unshed ones from Ahsan and ended with both saying sorry the other day blaming oneself for the fight).


03328320421 calling...

The loud whrrring broke his reverie and he received the call....." This is Esha from Reliance Communications, Sir...would you like to know about our......" the call tuned out as his mind went back to his reverie.....it has been 3 n a 1/2 months as of today since Ahsan last talked with Zeba.....she disappeared from his life without a trace and he had no way of finding her.....countless offline mesages and e-mails went unanswered.....it was as if he had lived a dream, a wondrous dream but reality struck back...n how harsh it was.....just then he realised how wrong his comment was about nightmares lasting for an hour @ max......"sweetdreams4all" had given him the worst nightmare of his life...a nightmare which he was living every waking hour of his life and would be living for he knew not how long...



Ever since every call on his cell phone from a 033..... (public phone booth number) evoked sharp memories and moments of gloom within, a painful reminder of what was, what could have been and what actually is.....as he pressed the red button on his cell phone to disconnect the call, he remembered a couplet which seemed just so apt...



"Woh na aaye, unki yaad aakar wafa kar gayi
Unse milne ki tamanna sukun tabah kar gayi
Aahat hui, socha asar dua kar gayi
Darwaza khola to dekha mazak hawa kar gayi"
{ her memories remain faithful to me, not she
wish of meeting her has destroyed my peace
a knock on the door, and I think my prayers have been answered
I open the door to see that it was just a cruel joke played by the wind }

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50 eulogies: on "03328320421 calling....."

Parul Gupta said...

a sweet love story with a tragic end..but i really hope n pray it is not the end,,,n soon turn into happily ever after story.....

cheers
parul

Rià said...

hmmm quite a piece of fiction. Dint like the ending....i dont like love stories with sad endings. :(

Aphrodite said...

thankx for dropping by me blog...very touchin story...hopefully not ur own...kolkata boy..tht place is close to me heart!!! :)

Vyzz said...

hey

virtual world doe shave interesting stories, once upon a time it was the place to be, to hook up..lol..yea phone friends..but i have 2 friends who i met online..which still remain virtaul coz they live a million miles away...the story of ahsan, is darn cute..it's tragic. it's profound. it's the story of youth. but I guess it's better to take a hit from reality, and survive. than take a blow from virtuality, who we can't question.

:)

Keep ur spirits high, brother, life's a great pastime ;)

Vyo

Ferrin B said...

that was a beautiful story saim..very well written. i understand perfectly the pain the guy went thru...and maybe even the girl, whatsoever her reasons.
virtual world is one hurting world. sometimes even more than real world, and thats surprising, dont you think?

ps. was that fiction? or...?

Ipsita said...

thanx 4 dropping by....so???...was it fiction??...net romances dnt last....passed thru sumthn similar....can gv u an absolutely original filmi plot 4 u're next virtual luv tragedy write-up!!!!:P

rantravereflect/ jane said...

:(
ya made me go numb once again..
i've gone through this before, n ya know what was the tragedy after this kinda state..
it's even worse!
the guy'd stopped talking altogether, n suddenly, he wanted to get back into my life, whn i was with someone else!
phew,his loss..

it's a sad-arse life, n sometimes, it's way too complicated!

i loved the couplet in the end; many a time, it's amlost as if that someone is waiting at the door, but hallucination can be a harsh penalization!

DMulan said...

nice story... sounds real too... and neatly written... manages very well to keep the reader engrossed.. good work!

Keshi said...

has happened with me too...sadly...

love doesnt always have a happy ending...

Keshi.

Ferrin B said...

hi saim, i've changed the url of my blog..now its www.maryangelzzz.blogspot.com

ciao

Ferrin B said...

hi saim, i've changed the url of my blog..now its www.maryangelzzz.blogspot.com

ciao

Ratzzz said...

wasnt ahsan comfortably numb enuf???

sighs....
Zarasa suhana sapna sach hogaya...
or was it a nightmare for life..

Whats in a name.......... said...

i kno life is not always a a bed of roses...... but i still like stories with happy endings......

Saim said...

@parul
all I can say is tht "if wishes were horses, we'd all be charging stallions"... but alas they are not!!!

Saim said...

I guess it's better to take a hit from reality, and survive. than take a blow from virtuality, who we can't question.....so aptly put vyzz!!!
even I hv sum gr8 virtual frnzz.

Saim said...

@ferrin
u r ryt dear...virtual world is sumtymz more hurting coz u can't question it:(
p.s. fiction or *** ...I know not:O

Saim said...

@harmonic
welcum 2 my space!!!
fiction or *** I know not!!!
net romances dont last...period!!!
orginal filmy story...plz, am waiting:D

Saim said...

@jane
definitely d guy's loss!!!
sad life...yeah, completely!!!
hallucinations can b a harsh penalisation...how so true!!!

Saim said...

@sachi
will surely update mah blogroll wid ur new url!!!
p.s. no comments on d post:(

Solitaire said...

What a tragic end! :(

What happened to her? I think she got married against her parents' wishes.

happyz said...

I hate sad endings for a love story... as the saying goes.. I am a lover by heart.. and love to love the love stories with lovely endings..

Cheers
Happyz

Anonymous said...

Hi ,

I was reading ur blog posts and found some of them to be very good.. u write well.. Why don't you popularize it more.. ur posts on ur blog ‘sepulchre of high hopes ’ took my particular attention as some of them are interesting topics of mine too;

BTW I help out some ex-IIMA guys who with another batch mate run www.rambhai.com where you can post links to your most loved blog-posts. Rambhai was the chaiwala at IIMA and it is a site where users can themselves share links to blog posts etc and other can find and vote on them. The best make it to the homepage!

This way you can reach out to rambhai readers some of whom could become your ardent fans.. who knows.. :)

Cheers,

Keshi said...

CN why d u hv a Graveyard template? I dun mean to interfere with ur preferences...just asking ok :)

TC n HUGS!

Keshi.

Saim said...

@happyz
we all are lovers of love but one can only appreciate love whilst knowing it's shortcomings:(
btw...welcum 2 my space

Saim said...

@keshi
d graveyard template goes wid d name of d blog "sepulchre of high hopes"
n u can ask nething, no need to be defensive dear...:)

Saim said...

@keshi
award...zipping through my blogroll to reach ur page as soon as Mozilla loads it:D

bondgal_rulz said...

"shed tears from Zeba, unshed ones from Ahsan."....Beautiful line. Great post.

Cool template btw.

Cheers.

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