Rahul was late, but then that was a norm rather then an aberration. Being an out-of-towner and a bachelor, he could spend an obscene amount of time at office and no one would care. After a long time the wind was not carrying the summer heat and the weather was pleasant. This prompted him to ditch the company cab and walk the two kilometers to his rented flat. “After all I need to burn off the pizzas and the beer“, rued Rahul.
He heard the sniffling first, and then the sobs made their presence felt. It being a particularly dark stretch of road, the visual confirmation came last. Sitting on the pavement was a girl, with her head in her hands and crying incessantly. For a hopeless romantic at heart, who always envisioned and planned for scenarios lifted from movies, Rahul was surprisingly at a loss for words.
Finally he mustered enough courage and ventured, “Are you ok?“
This resulted in a baleful stare and an equally scathing reply, “Oh yes! I just adore crying in dark alleys“.
“I am sorry for the inane question. What is wrong? Can I help you?” was Rahul’s breathless apology.
The girl had a much milder tone this time, “Everything is wrong! I am hundreds of miles away from home, I am stuck with a job I hate, today morning I lost my cell phone, my boyfriend dumped me about fifteen minutes back, and I am really hungry.“
Rahul was unprepared for this barrage of information and could only offer, “Huh?“
“Sorry for the outburst, I am going through a bad time and today took the cherry“
Rahul again offered a helping hand, “Should I walk you to your place? I cannot leave you crying on a sidewalk“.
With a few tears still in her eyes, she replied, “Thanks for the offer, but I’ll call my roommate to pick me up. Can I borrow your cell?“
Rahul gave his cell and watched her deft fingers scramble over the keypad. He heard a distinct ringing sound, a “Hello!” and she piped up, “Say isn’t this a Nokia N-91?“
Before Rahul could reply, she was back on the phone giving her whereabouts to the roommate and pleading to be picked up. Soon she disconnected, and again asked Rahul, “So is this an N-91? Should I get this one?“
Rahul nodded, feeling good that the girl was moving on, already thinking of buying a new mobile. The next 10 minutes were spent in Rahul proudly showing off all features of his cell phone while the girl played around with it learning the functionalities. Her roommate’s arrival broke their conversation. The girl thanked Rahul for his help, memorized his number and promised to call him soon. She returned the mobile, gave Rahul a quick peck on his cheek, got into her roommate’s car and disappeared in seconds.
Rahul was still in a daze. His feet carried him to his house, where he re-winded and relived every moment – a girl had shown some interest in him! He wished that he should have at least asked her name. He fell into a sleep filled with the nameless girl’s dreams.
The next morning as he was going through the city section of the newspaper, he read the article, “Con girls on the prowl. A gang of girls is going around in the city, conning unsuspecting strangers into lending them mobiles and then returning them a case of same-make mobile with some weight put it to resemble the cell phone, allowing them enough time to make their getaways. Further reports….“
Rahul immediately searched for his mobile and soon found the N-91 case with some weight put in it. He re-winded and relived every moment of last night, but now, for a different reason.
Technorati: Hyderabad
I write! Topic does not matter, can be my life, or my travels, or any match I saw, or the Hyderabadi life, or reminiscing about Raipur, or penning Short Stories & 55s.
Brickbats & Bouquets