Pritam just couldn’t wait to open his laptop, the moment he reached his office. The peon, Babulal (joined at the Trinity Infotec after he quit the IG’s work) was not quite surprised to see Pritam rushing to the office, hurriedly swiping his ID card …in the tune of fumbling like a novice! But Babulal, having been with the forces for 22 years, had learnt never to question or bother about anyone around him! It was worthless to sympathies with the Saab category who anyways would look through him!
Pritam rushed to his cabin or rather cubicle! Put the laptop on the docket machine even before taking off his bag from his shoulder! He sure had something important in his mind to tackle!
While the system booted, he wondered …why it was taking so long today! He thought, getting a little anxious and placing the bag on the side table. In all the hurry he had completely forgotten that his friend and project manager Subhas was already in the cubical and was now coming towards him.
Still engrossed in his own world and thougths, Pritam clicked the browser icon, messenger and finally the skype. He need not think the mundane few steps as his brain and body coordinated in the most bug free programmed executable file as part of the autoexec. POP! POP! POP! POP! POP !…and there was a wide smile on Pritam’s face …..his body was suddenly feeling the tingling sensation… he could feel the euphoria travel from his brain to his heart down to his groin with that strange yet pleasant feeling ! His senses all on extra sensing mode, as if to grab even the last bit of radiation coming from the lcd screen into his body. Those lovely messages on the screen popups have been ruling his heart since last one month! And yet the irony of the virtual world was that he did not know who the sender was!
A month back while he was chatting with a friend on a popular messenger at his home, he found a request waiting to be accepted! The name was “try_me”! A normally cautious Pritam, accepted the invitation from the stranger at the other end. He switched off his online virus scan software as it made the whole chatting very slow and made the blunder of his life!
She had caught his attention with her interesting messages, that seemed lucid on one hand yet there was a sense of mystery , that was slowly capturing his mind! She had sent several poems and files to him that did their job ! These files had in parts setting up a virus into his laptop, appending one by one behind each file to form a deadly program. The program was designed not to take control of the laptop, but a mind hacking virus that would hack and take control of the person operating the machine by hypnotising him/her! Thus leaving no trace of an outsider hacking into the network when ever the laptop was connected into the intranet of Pritam’s company! A company that was sourced to code highly secret code for a defense project.
The more he chatted with her, the more he wanted! They would chat for hours until the wee hours, only to be jolted back to the reality by either the sound of the chirping birds or some honking vehicle! Even then he would be left unsatisfied, thinking of her the whole day, every moment of the day. Suddenly he would smile in the most serious and sleepy presentations, with colleagues nudging him to take control! Even while at the lunch table in the office canteen, he would be eating and thinking of her. Every piece of fruit on the plate somehow had him smiling, her witty messages, her laughter engraved on them.
He started to read the messages when his PM called out, “Pritam, Good Morning! You sure want a good appraisal this time, eh? Shocked! Pritam clicked the screen behind on the browser in the background. Thanking himself that he was seated in a corner where no one could come from behind and peep into his screen, uninvited!
“Well, you are the boss, all is in your hands.” Pritam said trying to smile.
Even the project manager could sense the urgency from Pritam’s body language. Without initiating any other topic, Pritam quickly gulped the dark and bitter sugarless coffee. He waved to his friend and was back at his seat in exactly five min!
Pritam opened the messenger program again. Blood gushed up his brain as if he had, had a dose of silagra with coffee that was working anti gravity for a change!
The messages were in english but the positioning of the letters were strange … they were more like a beautiful tunnel with several concentric tunnels inside! The fonts were also colored from outer tunnel dark shade to light to lighter to a bright light at the far end …giving that perfect feeling of one traveling into a final destination of pitch darkness… as if he was slowly being sucked into the core of a chasm. He could feel first his head being sucked in, and then like a quick gulp, his whole torso followed in, diving deep into the dark yet surreptitiously doped abyss of phantasm. He could feel his eyes fixed, as if stoned! Slowly both his iris were dilating wider for the want of that extra light to see more, to see the unseen, to find out the figure that seemed to be on the other side of the tunnel, calling him, luring him!
His fingers were typing away like a possessed puppet! He did not know what he was typing any more. He did not know that he was now on the sensitive section of his office database. Only two people had the password to the file he had already logged into! One by one the files were sent through the hole in the secured firewall that was yesterday opened by Pritam in the similar fashion. The firewall would open for exactly 20 sec and allow the data transfer and then close automatically for another 55 seconds. Again it would open for 20 sec and allow some data transfer and close down for next 55 sec. Today was the final upload and last day of transaction! All the sensitive files, all the client account data were copied to the far end of the tunnel! The last set of instructions took care of the log files that had been dutifully logging Pritam’s activites since this morning then went to his registry and cleaned a few more entries…clean and done.!!!!!!!!
After the last byte…the screen blinked for a nano sec and was displaying the most mushy poem …written for Pritam by his unknown admirer! He could feel that finally he was falling in lov too. Having been into the geeky world of nerds and computers, he had left his heart and its call six years behind when he chose his career over his lov, leaving Mithu behind for United States of America! Now after six years a faceless id was making him feel what he did not feel even in his younger days! He would blush or smile all of a sudden when those lovely lines would flash in front of his emotionless face. Is this lov or what? How can he fall in lov with someone he had not seen, not met or even talked to! Is this real or was he dreaming! Yet he was not ready to come out of the memorization. As if she was ruling her mind. Making him dance to her tunes. Heck! What the hell! He loved every moment of his early morning rendezvous with his unknown admirer!
The next morning was his happiest morning, as he was finally going to talk to her! She had promised to give her contact number to him. Babulal as usual did not bother much and saluted him in the typical orderly style, when Pritam swiped his Id Card.
Pritam was twenty minutes early this morning! He wanted to get her number before the project manager turned up into the office!
POP POP POP !!!!!!!!!! …. again the screen was as though turning itself into the familiar tunnel,… but wait ,…today he could see a very pretty face though not very clear … his pupil wide open…. he could sense deja vous, the moment he saw her face…. his fingers typing away a mail to his father , then another to his friends and finally to his office ! He clicked send. Still stoned he got up from his chair and out of the office into the lift.
Soon he was driving his power machine tata safari on the haryana – jaipur highway. .Where was he rushing to, who was he meeting was not clear even to his logical mind, neither did he bother much, as of now. He was, as if controlled by some mind freak, that his speedometer was now reaching the maddening speed of 160 KM/hour in the broad daylight, on the highway. A truck coming in from the opposite side dippered for a long 30 sec and passed by his vehicle as if a hurricane just went by! The deafening noise of the truck hitting the tree which was jutting out of nowhere jolted him back into the reality!
Yes! now he remembered where he had seen that face! That face was none other than Mithu’s, his girlfriend from his engineering days! The face on the screen had winked at him and smiled in that very familiar Mithu style! How much she had pleaded with him but all in vain, Pritam left her in tears, severing all knots with her, only to find her in the strangest place! As if she had been tracking him all the while! Pritam smiled. Oblivious to the huge truck that was coming head on ….
PS all pic are downloaded from internet, not mine…
