Accursed – I

17Jul11

I awake at 2:30 AM in the complete darkness of my bedroom. I know that the time is close to 2:30 AM even before I stretch to pick up my mobile phone. It usually glows with a helpful brightness when I turn it on, and I try to shield it with my body so that Varsha does not wake up. I see that the time is 2:39. I get up slowly and push the quilt aside. I think of going to the kitchen to get some water when Varsha’s voice whispers something that I had realized but not acknowledged yet. “They will call you, you know..”. I say nothing. I get up and go to the kitchen through my living room. One good thing about getting moonlight LEDs for my fishtank was that I could navigate my messy living room easily at night. And I have been getting up at night a lot these days. More or less at the same time.

I open the windows in my study room and sit down on the futon. I take another sip of water from the frosted glass that I had filled up. People find it odd that I have to use glass for drinking water in my own home but I have not found a compelling argument not to, yet. I look at the frosted glass and the weird design. I cannot recall when I bought this glass, but the design is kind of funny. Who would have thought that the glass engravings at the top of the glass would have some weird looking animals. I place it on the table and get up to power-on my laptop. As I do, I hit the table with my toe and the glass stumbles near the edge until it stop a few inches from the point where it would have fallen down. I sit on the futon again with a slight thump. Varsha would be worried, she has no reason to but she still does. I start to remember all the phone calls..

September 2002, 11:40 PM; Coimbatore Home

My mom wakes me up in a mood that does not mean well. She points me to the living room to say that there is a call, her tone a slight challenge. I knew that something was amiss – did I slept through my alarm and my mom is making up this reason to wake me up. I check the dials of my wrist watch and they say that it is 11:40 in the night. I instantly get up and walk to the phone. I now understood why my mom was in a bad mood. I had an exam tomorrow and it was my sleepy time. And she does not appreciate late-night calls. I pickup and say hello. It was Buttercup. It was not her name but I was used to calling her Buttercup. She never understood PowerPuff girls and vaguely smiles when I tell her the name was one of the protagonists, but I am sure that she secretly loathes this name that she cannot comprehend yet. Ofcourse, I rarely call her by that name in front of others but it still does annoy her.

“Hey, hi.. Did I disturb you?”. “Well, that’s fine”. “So, I did”. “I was sleeping”. “Oh, sorry. Now I understand why your mom was cold to me. I am so sorry”. “Tell me”. “I am trying to read DES for tomorrow and I cannot understand a word of it. You know how important this exam is to me”. I did not know really, but I half-nodded which I am sure she pictured far apart from her home holding the receiver. “Yeah… so I wanted to know if you can help me with it tomorrow morning. I just need you to tell me the ‘story’ of chapters 9 and 11″. “Ok. Let me see. Raghu has asked me to do it as well”. “Ok. We can join him”. “We?”. “Yeah, Vidya also needs your help”. “Ok, fine. 8 AM tomorrow? That’s the time I fixed with Raghu”. “Ok. Sure. Y-block verandah?”. “Yes”. “Great. Thanks da. I cannot understand how you can sleep so peacefully with all this pressure. I don’t think that I will sleep for more than 4 hours today. I envy you, you already have decent marks in the first two internals and now you are full-prepared”. “I am not, I need to get up at 4 tomorrow to study chapters 9, 10 and 11″. “What? You haven’t studied yet?”. “Yes, that’s what I said. I tried to but I was tired so I slept. I will get up and prepare tomorrow. I am not taking the second exam anyway”. I had an average of 28.5 out of 30 in the BES paper that followed DES and I was planning to skip the exam. “Oh.. you are sure that you can complete all? I can study Chapter 11 and give you the ‘story’. I mean..”. “No, thats fine. I will cover it all. I study fast”. “Ok”. The last Ok was a uncertain one that meant that she was not completely confident of my abilities to study 3 chapters in under 2 hours in the morning. I smiled a little inside – I kind of liked people underestimating me. I went to sleep 2 mins later, careful to set my alarm at 3:30 AM in the morning – I could not fail.

August 2003, 12:30 AM; Coimbatore Home  

My phone was ringing for a while before I could pick it up. I got up from what I believe to be a tug by my brother who was sleeping on the bed next to me. My mobile phone (which was actually my Dad’s but I had been using it to aid in my Placement activities) was ringing with a unknown number. A landline call at this time of the night. Dad does not gets call this late. I pick it up and I immediately hear her voice. “Hey, I got the job. They have selected me”. “Oh. Ok. Hmmm.. Congrats, I suppose”. “What Ok? Is this your enthusiasm? I got placed dammit. Atleast be happy that I would not be cribbing any longer”. “Yes, I suppose”. “Dammit, you are my friend. Be happy that I got placed”. “I am, in my own way”. “Get lost”. The connection dropped. I kept my phone close to my ear to hear the metallic sound that played when a landline disconnects. I slept with a sigh soon after.

February 15 2004, 2:30 AM; Chennai Room

I wake up in the hot and humid room in Chromepet. I had been living here for my final year project and I hate Chennai. I would never ever settle in this humid place. Unknown number. Bloody prank call – one more reason to hate Chennai. “uh-huh, hello”. “Hello”. It was her. Why is she calling me now? Her voice was slightly annoyed as she continued: “You had called me?” “Ummm.. no”. “Yes, you did”. “Oh, two days ago..” I did remember my call in a spite of desperation. I had been missing her since our fight in college but I had not been expecting a callback at this hour. “Yes”. Her voice was defiant and she wanted to hear more. I returned silence. “Well, if you have nothing to say…”. “uh-huh”. “Ok. Bye”. Line disconnects. My roommate Jagan who also happened to be doing the final year project with me, gave me weird looks when I said that the call was a prank call. Stupid me.

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