Wo Kaun Thi

Do unknown callers bother you or do you dismiss them often considering it a mere trifle? Whichever category you belong, you always wanna know how the person came to know about you. Isn’t it?

Ever since I wrote the book, I would get messages, though occasionally and sometimes, unexpectedly, complementing or asking questions about the stories or publication process.

Texting is a lot easier than confessing something in person. I realised it the day she asked me to say whatever I wrote on the chat the previous day while looking into her eyes. I ended up saying ‘I like you’ instead of ‘I love you’. Had I been a bit courageous that day, the story would have been different today.

Can I place the choice of ‘calling’ in-between ‘texting’ and ‘meeting’ in person?

On one of the weekend nights, while taking a walk and talking to a friend on the phone, I received another call from the number that my contact list failed to identify. Before I could slide the receiver on the screen up, and put that friend on hold to begin the new, the call was disconnected. Most of the time, such a call turns out to be a hoax, wanting to talk to someone whom I don’t know door-door tak. Even when denied the first time, they usually call again and with heightened hope only to be disappointed. However, this time, the call wasn’t repeated. As always, I failed to ignore it and reverted back. The call was received when the last few rings were remaining and was about to get disconnected.

“Hi! Is no. se call aaya tha” I asked as soon as the call was answered.

“Hello! Is this Shashank I am talking to?”

A low-pitched-melodious voice answered from the other side.

“Yeah! Shashank here”, I said in the tone that my answer had an inherent question.

“Ah…extremely glad that you answered my call. Is it the right time to talk to you”, she asked.

“Well I am not busy so yes, we can talk”, I said calmly.

“Came across some of your stories on the blog, felt inspired by them and decided to get in touch with you”, she said in excitement.

“Indeed, grateful, friend”, I said, ” But It’ll do good if you tell something more about yourself”

“I am Aliya, st…..uyg in University of Roorkee. I be…l..ong to Dehradun but c…..l….ty living in Delhi”

She introduced herself briefly in which half of her voice was lost, presumably due to a network error.

“Hi Aliya! Thanks for reaching out. Means a lot to me. But you’re not audible properly. Seems like a network error”, I responded to her introduction.

A pause!

“It seems there is some network issue from my side. Wait”, she said, followed by a pause.

“Hi! Am I audible now”, she asked after some seconds.

Her voice was still coming in fragments.

“Yes but it’s coming in fragments”, I said and asked, “Is this number on Whatsapp? I’ll place a call there so that we can talk properly.

“I am afraid, it’s not on WA”, she replied as if she were in some kind of noisy atmosphere.

“No worries. Btw from where did you get my number? Asking for info only”

“It’s ……. Li….edin”

I was not sure whether I had made my number public on any of my social networks, hence, kept the conversation going.

“Oh great! Also, I used to share my posts on social networks. Since you liked them, would you like to be added to any of them? You’ll receive the updates every time I add something new”, I said.

“I do…n’t use soc…ial media much”, she said.

The network issue persisted which was interrupting the conversation.

“No issues, Alia. I can’t hear you properly”, I pointed out again.

“Oh yes! Sorry. The issue is from my side I think”, she said, “Can we talk tomorrow?”

“Sure! I am grateful that you took the trouble to compliment me by placing a call”, I said politely.

“Pleasure is mine! At what time should I call you tomorrow?”, she asked in a soft and polite tone.

“Tomorrow is Sunday so I am mostly free. So, any time suitable to you”, I said and added, “If I’m free, I’ll answer otherwise I’ll revert you back whenever I get free”

“Okay”

She said and the call was disconnected. It lasted for 1 minute and 13 seconds.

The last two lines from her were clearly audible. I wanted to say that your voice is now perfectly fine and we can continue with the conversation but withdrew due to certain reasons. After the call was disconnected, the first thing I did was to scrutinise my LinkedIn. The fact that she is studying at the University of Roorkee made me apprehensive. There is no university in Roorkee as such. It’s only the IIT Roorkee which bears all three titles; started as Thomason College of Engineering, followed by University and was finally designated as IIT. Even if I assume that she is studying at IIT Roorkee, how come she is living in Delhi at the same time?

As expected, neither did I add my contact number nor did I find any connections with the name Alia in my list. I thought someone from college was playing tricks on me. Getting contact no. when you belong to the same organisation is easy as you’re part of several identified or unidentified groups. I verified her number in the several groups I was added to, but no luck. I asked a few colleagues of mine with whom I shared my book that they had given it to someone for reading recently but their reply was also negative.

The next step was to verify her name. I was anticipating it to be wrong. I installed True Caller and verified her number. Contrary to what I expected, the user of the number was the same as she said i.e. Alia Singh. I saved her number to check whether she is on any social networks. To my surprise, I could see her contact getting reflected on WhatsApp. It even had a dp but not hers. A picture of nature instead. But why did she lie to me that she is not on WA? Perhaps, security reasons.

I did everything to verify her identity but couldn’t find anything concrete. I settled on waiting till tomorrow for her call which I knew wouldn’t come.

As expected, her tomorrow and the call never came.

After a few weeks, I even sent her a message but that also went unanswered.

I consoled myself with the fact that it must be any of my two seniors to whom I gifted my book on completing their doctorate that day.

©Shashank