It Happened to Me Once
Posted by Harish at Saturday, January 23, 2010
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It was 2 AM in the morning. I was chatting with my friend in GTalk about the movie I saw the previous evening, ‘Unnai Pol Oruvan’. It was such a wonderful movie. Many of who have seen the Hindi version claimed that was better. But I was not bothered. I loved this movie and I was telling him about how it was. Every scene of the movie was green in my mind. The movie was literally flawless. As I was narrating him the story, my phone started ringing. I looked at the caller ID read ‘Private Number calling’. This was the first time in my life to see such an ID showing up in my mobile. It was such an unusual call at such an unusual time. But by the look of it, I was sure that call is not going to bring good times. Probably because of the movie I just enjoyed. The volume kept increasing and so was my pulse rate. My mind started making umpteen numbers of connections and calculations about the call. Who might it be? Could it be some terrorist like in the movie? What could be his motives? Will he threaten me about some bomb hoax? Or will I have to play the part of the reporter like in the movie? Or will I have to run for my life after the call? Or could it be something even worse? As I was hallucinating myself in these situations, the phone kept ringing. It was very strange. The night was very silent and calm. I was completely normal and when I saw the caller ID everything changed. I suddenly felt like I was the only person around in a lonely forest. I could feel my heavy breath and the sweat dripping on my forehead. Undeterred, the good part of my mind convinced me that it should be some routine procedural call from the service provider. So I picked up the mobile and answered it. Initially there was a horse noise. After a short pause I heard a voice. It said “Salaam malikum bhai!” Though the voice was very calm I felt the depth of evilness in it somehow. Maybe the sixth sense in me started working. The voice sounded like that of a murderer. So sinister it was. Just these three words uttered by the caller kept echoing in my mind. As it echoed more my heart was beating with increasing speed every second. Adrenaline was rushing through my veins. My spine became so chill all of a sudden, fingers started shivering and tongue became completely dry. I tried to speak but my vocal system was paralyzed to function. The good part of my mind was trying to boost me up with everything it could but sadly it was no match for the other side this time. Somehow I managed to ask the caller “Who is this?” After a brief pause, the caller responded “Listen to me bhai. I have something to tell you.” That was enough to set me in super escalated hyper mode. I immediately cut the call in a reflex, gulped down half a litre of water, put my mobile into my drawer, took the ipod and ran out of the room and to the terrace. My mind went completely blank and I was in goose bumps. In an attempt to calm myself down I played my favorite songs at full sound. Gradually after an hour I was back to normal physically though I was still terrified. As I was walking around I saw one of my friends having a talk with his uncle in the US. The call got cut for some reason and when it came again and I looked at the caller ID. What I saw there made my heart skip a beat. It was written ‘Private Number calling’! I was completely convinced that a terrorist from some foreign land had called me up. I immediately ran back to my room and took out my mobile. There was no number in the received calls but just a blank entry. I wanted to call up the police and ask for Z-level security. I did not care what that meant but as long as it saved me from whatever that terrorist had in mind for me I wanted it. When I looked at my laptop which was still on, my friend whom I was chatting with left a message and went offline. It said “Dude. You need to know that when I call your mobile using Skype all you get is private number calling!” 