Chapter 1
’The call’
I was sitting in my room, occupied with my thoughts when my phone started ringing, it was an unknown number. “Hello, ” I picked it up and said. There was silence on the other end. I again said hello, there was no answer and the call got disconnected. I put my phone aside and again went into my thoughts. After a few minutes my phone started ringing again, the same number was flashing on it. I thought for a few seconds whether to pick the call or not and it got disconnected again. And then the damn phone started ringing again for the third time, I picked it and said hello with some annoyance but again received silence. I was going to disconnect the call when I heard a very soft and tender voice of a girl from the other side.
“Hello”, she replied.
“Who is this?” I asked. After a muteness of a few seconds, she replied in the same genteel manner,” May I talk to Riya?” There was shyness and tenderness in her voice and for one moment I wished myself to be Riya so that I could continue my conversation with her but that was not possible and by that time I realized, she dialed the wrong number.
After a pause of a few seconds, she asked the same question and now it was my turn to stay silent. I was in quite a dilemma, neither could I say “Riya speaking” nor I wanted her to disconnect the call, so I tried to act smart and said,” Maybe, maybe not if you just tell me who exactly Riya is.” She went silent for a few seconds and I got anxious by thinking that she would cut the call but she didn’t and replied in her same sweet voice without any tinge of vexation,” She is a friend of mine. Now I was left with no tricky words to keep that call in continuity. I was left with no choice but to tell her that it was a wrong number that she had dialed.
“Okay”, she replied and went silent but didn’t disconnect the call which made me confused. There was stillness on both sides. It was awkward, but it was good awkward.
“Sid, come downstairs, we are getting late for the market,” my mom called me and broke that muteness. Oh yes, this is my name, Siddharth by birth and Sid because Siddharth is too long to pronounce.
“May I know your name?” I tried to have some conversation.
“Maybe the next time”, she replied. ‘So there was going to be the next time’ I thought which made me relieved as well as happy. I was not sure why I felt happy, but I was sure that I was looking forward to talking to her again.
“Okay, as you say”, I said.
“Bye Siddharth”, she replied.
“Bye”, I answered and she disconnected the call. I was just going to come out of my room when her words rang in my ears “bye Siddharth”, how could she know my complete name when she heard my mom calling me Sid? But then I ignored my suspicion by assuming that Sid is a very common name for Siddharth and went downstairs to join my mom, she was waiting for me at the door. I finished shopping with her as quickly as possible and even missed a few items just because I was quite in a rush to come back and continue my conversation with that girl. We came back home within an hour and I straight went ahead into my room. I settled myself on the bed and took out the phone from my pocket. First, I saved her number with the name “Wrong Number” and then started searching for her on Watsapp. Her number was there, but I couldn’t see her profile picture, ’She might not have saved my number yet, I thought. I sent her a text saying ‘Hi’ and started waiting for her reply. After a few minutes, she replied to me with the same text ‘Hi’.
“May I know your name now?” I repeated the same question which I asked her before leaving for the market.
“Exactly why you want to know my name?” she texted back.
“I think conversations are initiated by knowing each other’s name”, I wrote.
“Why you want to have a conversation with me? Are you such kind of person who once knows there is a girl on the other side of the phone and starts bothering her with texts and calls?” she texted. It was quite an impolite remark on my disposition, but being a girl it was not a wrong question to ask. I could understand her concern as most of the guys do that all the time, I had seen some in my college doing the same but another truth was not all guys were the same.
“No, I am not that kind of person. I won’t text you if you say me not to bother you again, I promise”, I wrote back. My self-respect was important for me so I was ready for her any response, whether that could be in my favor or not.
“Okay, let’s just say you are not that kind of person then why exactly you want to know me? What is your real purpose behind it?” she texted back. I kind of started feeling she was interviewing me. I was not ready for any such questions. I simply wanted to talk to her, nothing else.
“I don’t know”, I gave her an honest reply.
“Okay then, when you get an answer for that, we will talk again. Till then, good night”, she texted and left me staring at my phone while thinking, what just had happened.
