The year was 03. Amir was new to this
bustling metropolis named Bangalore. He came here from a nondescript town in
central India to realize the Indian IT dream and also to find true love. A few
months later and a dozen walk-ins old he realized it was hard to get any of
those. Standing in a never ending serpentine queue at a walkin interview in
which nobody was actually walking, he reckoned that it was not just him but a
million souls like him precisely looking for those two things in life. He lived
with Ank on the fringes of the city and civilization. Ank worked in a renowned
support center for a major international printer manufacturer and he had
realized one of those dreams. He lived nearby his office in electronic city due
to the low rentals and preferred finishing his majority of daily chores in
office, even during weekends. However on the subject of love, Ank was still
struggling and sometimes under the tutelage of old monk * he would pour his
heart out about the horrendous experiences in his search for love. Both were
unawares about the series of events that were about to unfold in the near
future which would have them change their views about finding love.
Some days later, a typical lazy Sunday
morning slumber was broken by the monotonic ring tone of Ank's mobile. Ank picked
up the call and the person on the other side was Ragini. She was
girlfriend/future wife of their common friend Luv Singh Chauhan who
incidentally was an early Bangalore migrator. She sounded concerned .
Has Luv come to your room.
No-said Ank.
But wasn't he supposed to.
There was a dead air from Ank's side for a
few seconds as he tried to reconstruct the events of previous night. Exposure
to old monk can result in haziness in thought process but surely there are no
hangovers. He looked at Amir and keeping his palm over the mic area of his
mobile said in a muffled voice-
She is asking about Luv.
Before Amir could think about Luv, he was
thinking that although mobile phones had a mute button, people were so much
used to handling landline phones that they still used the palm gesture in order
to mute the line. This brought a strange smile to his face much to the
annoyance of Ank. They both had invited Luv to have lunch with them and it was
possible he was on his way. He carried himself on a motorcycle which was
credited by his friends and colleagues as the reason for his success with
finding love so soon and so often. Ank unmuted the phone and said-
We had planned for a lunch. Maybe he is on
his way to my place.
Ragini said-I knew about the lunch. We
spoke about it last night
Ok. Let me call him.
I am trying since morning but it's out of
coverage area.
Hmmm... Let me try from my phone. He might
be travelling through such places which had no network coverage.
Although it did not make much sense to
Amir as to why Luv would deliberately travel through such places which had no
network coverage and moreover the technical feasibility to selectively travel
through such places was next to zero, still he nodded in congruence to what Ank
said out of his respect for Ank's degree in telecommunications engineering. Now
Ank dialed Luv. He got the switched off message from the other side. There was
definitely some issue. Why would Ragini get an out of coverage area message and
Ank get a switched off one. The phones were not smart enough at that time to
give messages based on whom you wanted to keep in touch. Ank called back Ragini
and said-
His phone is switched off.
In a deeply concerned voice she said-Is it
possible he left for your place and something unfortunate happened to him mid
way.
By this time she was almost sobbing. Ank
said-
Calm down.
I can’t calm down. Can you guys look for him?
I fear something untoward has happened to him.
Untoward? OK let me think towards what can
be done.
A gloom had covered their faces. In a
flurry Ank and Amir dialed in all the people in Bangalore who were common
friends with Luv along with them. None of them knew about his whereabouts. Out
of their obligation to friendship and their empathy for a suffering woman they
took a conscientious decision to find Luv no matter what it takes in terms of
effort.
* Old Monk is a cheap rum.
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