Resurgence

The sun was unusually harsh that day. I wiped a few pearls of water from my forehead and cursed my decision to venture out in this weather. It wouldn’t have been better at my room either, which stood at the top floor valiantly fighting the sun and the wind throughout the year, in the absence of an AC. I had almost completed my work. I consulted my watch to find the time to be quarter past two. I called Gulati – ‘Have you taken your lunch?’ I asked. ‘Nope. I was going to have it.’ ‘Good. I am coming to your place in next 15 minutes. We will eat at the Dhaba next to your house.’ ‘Okay.’ I thought of hiring a rickshaw and then decided against it – ‘I would rather walk’, I thought. Walking is my way of fooling my body that I am doing enough for it to regain its original ‘slim and trim’ form. The heat was becoming unbearable and I was regretting my decision to opt for a walk. Suddenly my mobile phone buzzed with a message – ‘Please call urgently. If you don’t, it will be bad....

I disconnected the call, switched off my phone and went to sleep. Lady Sleep, who usually is kind to me, was in off mood and served me quite late. I woke late. It was the weekend and hence there was no rush. I took my time to freshen up and switched on my phone – it showed 114 missed calls from unknown numbers.  I was numb. I called Gulati – ‘Dude, it is getting on my nerves.’ I filled him with details before deciding on what to do next. ‘I am going to Police. It is a case of harassment- why!! It is full-fledged stalking.’ ‘And what would you say to them? A girl is harassing you by calling you from more than 100 different numbers. And what is her interest in a not so attractive guy? – She likes his voice. Dude no one is going to believe you.’ ‘I need to do something.’ I was feeling the heat somehow. ‘Shall I ask Shekhar to help?’ ‘Dude!! Calm down. You are panicking for nothing.’ ‘But he is…’ ‘A famous crime investigator. But there is no crime here. And he is a...

‘What?’ there was disbelief in our voices. ‘You mean to say he made up all these. He did not receive those calls. But, I can vouch for him. I have seen some of the numbers…’ Gulati was the first to react. ‘I never said that he made up all of these. I just said that none of the numbers actually exists.’ ‘But how can both be possible at the same time?’ It was Mithilesh’s turn to intervene. I was too shocked to react. ‘After talking to him, I pulled out the data from the network operator – his story corroborated. Not that I had any doubts previously. But, when I enquired about the origin of the calls – everyone was in for a surprise. These numbers do not exist. This is some hi-tech stuff. What are you up to Rahul? Why would someone harass you with hi-tech stuff?’ ‘Sougata’ I muttered under my breath. ‘What?’ ‘Nothing.’ ‘Anyways, I have involved the cyber department into it. They have not been able to find any trace as of now. But we would nail this soon.’ ‘This is...

‘What has happened?’ asked the rider. ‘Don’t know. The car went dead abruptly.’ said Mithilesh. ‘How come you guys are on this road? This is generally not used during this hour.’ the pillion looked suspiciously at us. I noticed that both of them were carrying guns. ‘We were getting late for a party. This is the shortcut and so we took it. Who knew that we would be trapped in this way?’ Arvind explained. We were all in our dapper best- the reason could have looked genuine. ‘Let me have a look.’ said the rider after a moment. Probably he was evaluating us. He scrambled for a few minutes and then looked triumphantly at us – ‘Here’ he showed us a disconnected wire. Mithilesh and Arvind had done a good job. I admired their thinking and guts. He fixed it and the car came back to life. ‘The area is not safe. Go and I do not want to see you guys a mile within this area in future.’ the rider said showing the arm he was carrying on his shoulder. He appeared kind enough...