“Hi”
“Hello, do I know you?”
“My name is Tiger”
“Is that your real name?”
“If it is Jackie Shroff’s son, you wouldn’t ask him this
question. Why are you asking me?”
“But you are not Tiger Shroff”
“Maybe I am”
“Oh come on…. But seriously, what is your real name?”
“I told you, my name is Tiger”
“OK… I give up. So Tiger, what do you do?”
I
bet everyone today of my generation can relate to the above lines. We like to fantasize and live in a virtual
world rather than our real world. Reema is also from the same cult, so what’s
the big deal?
Reema
is a beautiful name with a beautiful face. So, it is quite natural her online
profile gets so many likes, comments and friendship requests. Even if she posts
that she has flu on her page, she gets thousands of likes and comments and
prayers for her speedy recovery.
Anurag,
Vasu and Rajesh are as usual at their favorite cafe near their college. Results
of fifth semester were out today. Rajesh is gloating at his 8 points as always
and our five-point-someone; Anurag is again worried about what his father would
say. Our easy going chap Vasu is cool
with his 6 or maybe 7 points. They are waiting for Suma and Devika. They join
them after some time. Devika, Vasu and Anurag were friends from their school
days. Rajesh and Suma had joined their gang when they had started college.
Nevertheless, these five were buddies. They take a selfie and post the pic with
the status “Fifth Sem Results Out – Mixed Feelings”. Within ten minutes, 56 likes come with 25
comments. World is moving really fast, isn’t it?
On
the way home, Devika notices that Vasu is not talking much today. He is
listening to her chit chats but he seems distant. These two stay nearby and
usually come and go together to and from college. Devika asks him why he is
silent today, his results were okay. Vasu shrugs off and tells her she is
imagining things.
When
Devika reaches home, she immediately sends a text message to Suma to come
online. Suma and Devika discuss about Vasu’s behavior and decide to call Anurag
and Rajesh. Anurag, Rajesh, Suma and Devika all start chatting online and come
to a conclusion that they should talk to Vasu together the next day. Anurag
suddenly remembers that Vasu had told him about some girl with whom he is
chatting nowadays and might have fallen for her. How could he keep secrets from the Gang? So the gang decides to
confront Vasu the next day for sure.
Next day at the cafeteria after
the 4 PM lecture, the three guys are waiting for the girls to join them. They order
Samosa for the three of them. They know the girls would rather die than eat the
fattening samosas. The girls arrive with an announcement that they are going to
bunk classes the next day as Salman Khan’s movie is releasing. Rajesh and
Anurag jumps with joy as Friday is already here, and they also agree to come
along. Rajesh tells, “Hey, we can go to the multiplex theatre near my place, I will
buy 5 tickets for the 11 AM show and you guys please be on time. OK?” Everyone
agrees, but after a few minutes, Vasu says, “Hey guys, I just remembered that I
have some pending work tomorrow. So, you guys carry on. I will join you guys
some other time.” Hearing that, everyone else looks at him squarely and
confronts Vasu about his pending work. Vasu feels like he is a lone prisoner of
war at that point of time. Devika, Rajesh and Suma, asks him together, “we got
to know that you are hiding something from us. So, who is this girl you are
chatting with nowadays?” Vasu stares hard at Anurag, but Anurag looks away.
Devika asks him more forcefully, “tell us who is this girl, you are going out
with”. Vasu says, “Guys, it’s just the initial days. I have been chatting with
her from sometime”. Anurag asks, “So when did you guys meet?” Vasu gives him
one harder look this time, but replies, “we met on Facebook five months ago“.
To that everyone shouts in unison and accusation, “Five Months? And, you didn’t
tell us”. Vasu answers them sheepishly, “I was going to”. Suma asks, “What’s her name?” Vasu looks forlorn
but knows that his friends were not going to let him go unless he gives them
all the information they need. He replies, “Her name is Reema”.
“When will you introduce her with
us? Show us her Facebook profile. We would like to meet her.”
“I haven’t met her yet in person.”
“So you have never gone on a date.”
“No.”
“What is her mobile number?”
“I don’t know. She has not yet
shared hers. Guys, maybe she needs more time.”
“What about you?”
“I have been hit hard guys. It’s
real for me.”
A hooting sound in unison and
Vasu becomes all red faced.
“Ok, ok, show us her Facebook
profile.”
“Guys, this is Reema.”
Devika and Suma approves of Reema’s profile, “Wow,
such a pretty girl”. Rajesh agrees but Anurag looks a little doubtful, “her
face looks familiar”. Suma scolds him, “Yeah Fatso, you know all the girls”. Hearing
that, Anurag makes faces at her. The friends then depart for their respective
places with the promise to meet at the theatre tomorrow.
At the theatre
the next day, four friends meet. It was a Salman Khan movie, so huge crowd had
gathered and it seemed everyone had bunked classes from their colleges. After
the movie, all four of them decided to go for lunch at the nearby Kabab center.
Anurag again points out that Reema’s face seem familiar to him. Devika, Suma
and Rajesh ignore him and concentrate on their chicken biryani. But Anurag
again try to hold their attention, “Guys, you are not paying attention, that
profile pic Vasu showed us yesterday seem unreal”. To that, Suma asks him, “So
you mean to say, Vasu is lying”. Anurag
replies, “No, I don’t mean that. But I guess that girl is fake“. The other three stop eating and stares at him
as if he has gone mad. “Seriously guys, I mean it. The profile looks fake to me”.
Rajesh asks him, “How can you say that”? Anurag replies, “I checked her profile
last night, apart from a display pic, she doesn’t have any pictures, like of
her family, friends, etc. She has more
than 1000 friends in her profile“. “So what, many people do not like to post
their pics online and it doesn’t mean you cannot have more friends. And she is
such a pretty girl, she might be getting many friend requests”. “Exactly, my
point. If she doesn’t like to post pictures why has she put her picture in the
display profile when she knows people will send her friend requests looking at
her pic”? Devika and Rajesh look cautious now but Suma still is unconvinced, “Anu,
I think you are imagining things”. Anurag replies, “My gut feeling is telling
me that the girl is not real and if that is the case, we need to save our
friend before he is too deep in that shit”. Everyone look so torn now with conflicting
emotions that the fun about the movie is all forgotten.
Next day, Vasu
doesn’t come to college. So naturally his friends get more worried about him.
They decide to visit his place on Sunday and decide that they would ask him to
be cautious. They hope that Vasu doesn’t misunderstand them and their good intentions.
They are sad for their friend. All four attend college and go home with a heavy
heart that day.
When they visit
Vasu on Sunday at his place, they find him with puffy eyes as if he had flu or
he had wept the whole night. Vasu’s mother informs them that he had not taken
his food the whole of yesterday and he had been upset about something. She is
happy that they have come for a visit today. Anyway she is going to prepare
Chettinad Chicken curry, so she asks them to stay for lunch also. Vasu might
also eat in their company. All four look at Vasu. Vasu shrugs and asks them to
come to his room.
Once inside his
room, Vasu is bombarded with questions. “Why didn’t you come to college
yesterday”? “What has happened to you”? “Why haven’t you eaten anything”? “Why
are you looking so pale and ill”?
“Guys, it’s over
between me and Reema”. All four stare at Vasu and shouts in unison, “WHAT”?
Vasu sniffs as if he is still weeping, and says, “Yeah, she said, she never loved me, and she had always considered me as her friend.
All these months, I made a fool of myself”.
Vasu runs to the wash room saying, “Guys excuse me for a moment please”.
Other four looked at each other with disbelief. All of them heave a sigh
of relief and start smiling at each other.
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