When the phone rang...

I was threatened to write this post. There is no iota of doubt in this ... I type on the keyboard with a Jerifo 941 F 9mm gun pressed against my temporal lobes. Writing this post meant, dusting off some of my old mischievous moments, and re-living those horrible experiences again.

This was in school ok, I was in 10th. We used to have trouble in gender-identification in our class, as most girls were too loud and tom-boyish. But of course, we found solace in the neighboring bunch of juniors ... the 9 'A' class ... they hosted some of the cutest girls of our school ... they were a complete package ... smart ... stunning to look ... and the next-door-girl feel. Stealing their phone numbers used to be our extra-curricular activity, and a lot of bribing, threatening, and peeping was involved in the process.

After some really hard work and smart-thinking ... my friends smuggled the number of a girl whom we shall call "A" ... since I was the only one who boasted of a phone which I could use to my wish and will (long phone bills not being such a major issue at home) ... the number was given to me ... to try my luck ... !!

There's this other girl ... you know, the kinda girl whom every guy at school wants to seduce ... she's on Orkut, and her name begins with "N" ... so you can still try your luck ... so, we had tried calling this girl too, but 10 out of 10 times, her mom picked up the call, and conversations went like this:

Me: Hello
N's mom: Hello
Me: May I speak to "N" ?
N's mom: Why ?
Me: Huh ?
N's mom: Why ?

That's it !! And i was pretty damn sure my conversation with "A" would just be the same. Or so I thought. I had to use a fake name ... obviously !! I made-do with "Rahul". Why Rahul ? That was a trendy name ... Rahul was there in Dil Toh Pagal Hai ... Rahul was there in Kuch Kuch Hota Hai ... Rahul meant 'cool'. And surprise surprise, "A" fell for it. I asked whether she'd like to be friends, and she says "Yes". It felt for a moment, that someone punched me on my ears. Was this really happening ? Oh, yes it was. And there began our conversations ... talked about a whole lot of rubbish ... "A" began liking Rahul's character, but was she liking me ?

She realized that "Rahul" was a fake name ... who wouldn't ... especially after you call home, ask for Rahul, and you hear "Wrong Number". I knew my demise was nearing ... yet I tried to hang on ... and then came the fateful day ... Valentine's !! Valentine's Day would have been just any other day ... I would have had a bad-hair-day ... my shoes would become muddy for all the football i play ... i would forget to brush my teeth that evening, again ... Math would get more puzzling ... and I would sleep after I watch Dexter's Lab ... bottom-line, Valentine's involved nothing pertaining to what it was meant to be !! But this Valentine's was going to be different...

Got a call around 4 in the evening - sweet voice ... caller asks "Will you be my Valentine ?" Ok i'm used to getting calls from banks, from insurance companies, from friends who have a problem with Pythagoras theorem, but not this. I lived a very simple life, and this was not meant to happen. I borrowed some time to decide ... and kept the phone. 2 minutes later, another call ... another name ... same voice ... same question. And then, the phone kept ringing. Johnny Depp wouldn't have received as many calls as I did that day. Dad gave me such looks ... I was sure another call, and I'L have to sleep on the foot-path that night.

Sometime late evening, when I wasn't at home, this girl calls again. Talks to my mom, asks a few questions, confirms my identity ... and the game's over. I'm caught. I dunno what made "A" give my number to her classmates, I was pestered with phone calls that evening, but in the end ... my secret identity was exposed. "A" remained cool ... she wasn't going to the police station ... but that put an end to our phone-call business ... school was over ... I never saw her again ... "A" mails me once in a while ... i miss everything of school now ... i'm hoping "A" has forgiven me for that stupidity ... but i still feel ... if mom hadn't wrecked my carefully built sand castle ... "A" and me would have been married ... and she'd be giving birth to her 11th kid ... we'd have 5 sons and 6 daughters ... and i would name my last daughter in the memory of "N" ... the girl with whom my phone conversations never started !!

I'm guessing the gun's off my head now ... am glad its out of my system ... i wouldn't want "A" to bear this grudge over me about what I did ... and run me over with her Scooty Pep or whatever ... so Miss. "A" ... happy now ?