Lover of the past! (Part - 1)

It was a wonderful evening. All the eyes in the auditorium were awaiting an awesome scene. Vinay was bit restless and tensed. But, he made sure he appears composed. With the President of U.S.A on one side and Microsoft Giant, Bill Gates on other side, how can one rest his feet on earth? How can one’s heart beats only 72 times a minute? And that’s what this little chap was undergoing. He was about to be presented with the “Techy Geek” award, the most prestigious award similar to Noble, but confined to IT. The moment arrived and he stood up to touch and feel the statue. He could see the whole of the auditorium applauding, but could only hear his heart beat above that. He could understand that the droplets of sweat were about to fall from his forehead. He saw the statue sparkling in the hands of President. He couldn’t believe that in the next minute the statue will be sparkling in his hand. As he extended his hand, he woke up with a thud.

“C’on yaar you are getting late to office”, shouted Sushma with a straining voice. “It’s already 7.30!”, continued Sushma.

“Oh god! My award…”, blabbered Vinay and he appeared befuddled.

“What happened dear?”, said Sushma and smoothed him.

“My techy geek award…”

“The what?”

“My award. I was about to receive it from President.”

“From our President?”, exclaimed Sushma.

“No! From the President of US. I am sure Bill Gates was by his side.”, sighed Vinay and continued, “It was for the data protection technique that I designed for Pentagon and I was about to receive the award”, finished Vinay.

Sushma couldn’t control herself any longer and she broke out laughing like anything.

“I thought you had a worse night mare and that some ghosts were chasing you. But, I never thought that you would have had such a worse night mare than ghosts and that too with US President?”. Sushma still couldn’t resist her laughter. Vinay felt bit humiliated, but reminded himself that he is a normal chap working in Infy among thousands and thousands and for a client not much renowned in US.

He got up and went to the bath room. Got dressed up and kept staring at him in the mirror for a while, thinking about the dream. He just threw a smile to himself and left to dining table.

“Kelloggs? Today also? Can’t you make some dosa or upma?”, questioned Vinay.

“Dear this is very good for health. You should reduce carbohydrate content and increase fibre in your food. That’s the healthy diet”, smiled Sushma.

“Hmm.. You and your Home Science facts!”

“I am a gold medalist in Home Science. Don’t forget that.”

“Never I will. Not even in my next 7 births.”

“So nice of you!!!”

Vinay just smiled at her and gulped the remaining milk in his cereal bowl.

It wasn’t a heavy day for him. So he had time to surf through the net for some news. He read about a train collision near Vijayawada. It was a worst mishap, which swallowed 130 lives. The pictures were intolerable. He felt pity for a minute and thanked god for having gifted him a beautiful life. Then he got back to his chores. While driving back home, he felt fortunate about Sushma. As he was recollecting his funny moments with Sushma, it started to drizzle. He slowed down the speed purposely to enjoy the evening. He was racing through his mind to surprise Sushma with some gift. As he was sorting out various gift items in his mind, the car stopped abruptly. Vinay tried to start it, but no reaction from the car. He opened the bonnet to find out what went wrong. But, everything seemed perfect. He could only do is to scratch his head. He was reminded of Sushma and thought of informing her about this. He got into the car and took the mobile. Before he could dial, he received a call from an unknown number.

“Hello”, said Vinay.

“Hi Vinay. How are you?”, a sweet voice from other end.

“Good! Who is this?”

“Oh… So you forgot me dolly?”, continued that voice.

Vinay froze still for sometime. The word ‘Dolly’ reminded him everything - his college days, friends, 1st cross street and most importantly Divya. He couldn’t speak a word. Every word that he tried to pull out got buried under his throat.

The voice at the other end is definitely Divya.

“Divya”, uttered Vinay.

“So you got it huh?”, laughed Divya and the call ended.

He was panicked and paralysed for a minute. He regained his conscious and called the number back. All it said was, “Number doesn’t exist”.

to be continued....