The mysterious phone call

                                              

 It was about 7 PM in the evening. I was sitting in my room, deep in thought, when the phone rang.

An unknown number.

Who would it be?

I picked up.

Me: Hello!

The other person (Let’s call it ‘Op’ in short): Hello! Am I talking to Mr. Ashmur?

A girl voice! Strange ‘cause very few people, that too only my close friends, call me that. Who is this then?

Me: Yes. Tell me! Who’s this?

Op: Never mind who I am. I wanted to talk to you.

Me: Sorry? Talk to me? About what? And why should I talk to someone who I do not know?

I felt strange. A sweet girl voice. An unknown number. Not revealing their identity. Must be some friend of mine who’s playing with me.

Op: About something important. Please listen to me. And if it’s important, my name is Lavanya.

Lavanya? I only know of 2 Lavanyas and I could confidently say that it was neither.

Me: Lavanya? Which Lavanya? Stop playing with me. Tell me who is this and what do you want?

Op: I told you. My name is Lavanya. I know you from your blog. I follow it. And I do know things about you that no one else would know.

That’s strange!

Me: Like what?

Op: Like you just watched the Nirbhaya documentary ‘India’s Daughter’ and you are disturbed because of that – especially the graphic reconstruction of the horrific event.

I was taken aback. How did she know that? Did I write about it somewhere? Oh yeah, I tweeted about it. Must be following me on Twitter too. But I don’t recollect any Lavanya following me on Twitter. And how did she get my number? By now, I was convinced that it was a friend who was trying to play a prank on me.

Me: You must be following me on Twitter. But tell me, who are you? Who gave you my number? Stop playing with me. I don’t have time for this. I am cutting the call if you don’t reveal your identity.

Op: Stop! No. Don’t cut the call. I’m serious. I’m not any prankster. You do not know me, but I know you. Beyond Twitter & blog too. I know you because I have seen you. I’m a journalist. But that’s what the world thinks I do. I moonlight for the intelligence bureau. 

Me: What? Enough of this kidding. Tell me who this is. Or I’m cutting the call now.

Op: I know you won’t believe me. I’ll tell you something about you that no one else in this world would know. You’d probably believe me then. 

She told me. I was stunned.

Op: Hope you believe me now. Just listen to me. The reason I picked you to make this call is because I felt that you are the most responsible of the 3 persons I had in my list. Now, I want you to do as I say.

By now, I was numb. Is it for real? What’s happening? Whatever she told me, stunned me to say the least. How could she know? Like she said, no one in the world knows.

Me: I dunno what to say. Please tell me. 

Op: I am recording this conversation. I’ll send you the audio file once we end this call. I’ll send it via mail. You are to write about this phone call in your blog within the next 3 days. Please quote me verbatim in the conversation. 

Me: What purpose will that serve? 

Op: It holds a cryptic message to what we are doing. I’m involved in an assignment with the IB. We are tracking down some cyber attacks. In that fight, we post such messages in some random blogs. That’s all I can say for now. 

Me: What you say is scary!  What if you are just lying? What if I’m being used as a pawn here? What if you don’t belong to the IB but some terror network?

Op: Even if that were the case, do you have a choice?

Now, that was really frightening.

Me: What do you mean?

Op: I mean to say that you’ll write it anyway, irrespective of whether you believe me or not.

Me: What?

Op: Yes, you will. Open your mail now. Your personal mail, not your institute id. 

I hurriedly opened my mail in my laptop, while the call was still on. There was a mail from someone called Lavanya. I opened it.

 

Hi Ashmur,

It was nice talking to you on the phone. PFA the audio file recording of the call.

Regards,

Lavanya

And there was an audio file attached.

I was a little shocked. I got back to the call. 

Me: Hello?

Op: Got the mail? Fine! Let me assure you that there’s nothing for you to worry. This is a routine intelligence exercise. Just write the blog post and that’s all. 

Me: O...O... Okay!

Op: Now Ashmur, enough of my business. Let’s talk something else. 

Me: Wh...What?

Op: A word of advice. Do not worry about the days ahead! I know you are evaluating 3 choices in your mind. Go for the second one. That’s the best for you.

Me: WHAT? HOW DO YOU KNOW ABOUT THE CHOICES?

Op: I told you I know more about you than probably you yourself do. 

Me: But... But this?

Op: Ha ha ha!

She laughed loudly

Op: Don’t worry about it!  All your info is safe with the IB. Now, I’ll end the call. Don’t try to trace the number for you won’t find such number anywhere in the world! We use a cryptic app for calling. Also, you won’t find the mail id anywhere. So do not worry about it! Plus the mail will self-destroy itself in an hour. So download the audio file before that! Do not try to take any screenshot of the mail! It won’t work. We have fed a worm into your system that will disable the action. Again, do not worry! The worm will kill itself once the mail destroys itself. And that’s not all. The worm will destroy the audio file and all traces of it too.

Me: A well laid out plan?

Op: Ofcourse! It’s time for me to go. Just listen to the audio soon and blog about this whole conversation within 3 days. Your job is done. We won’t bother you again.

Me: But there’s hardly anything in this conversation that sounds secretive. It’s as plain as anything else.

Op: Well, that’s the beauty of it. It appears plain to everyone. But not to cryptologists like us. Just do what I say.

Me: O…O… Okay! 

Op: Fine then! Nice talking to you, Ashmur! Looking forward to your blog. Keep writing! Bye!

With that she cut the call. It took me 5 minutes to regain my senses. 

I opened the mail again and checked the id. It said Lavanya <no-name@nomail.com>

I tried to take a screen shot. It was not functioning. My snipping tool was also not functioning. I took my phone and tried to take a pic. All that came in the pic were some blurred lines. Looks like the worm had taken care of this too. The screen resonance was at its highest, that hardly anything was visible in the phone cam. I downloaded the audio file and listened to it. It was for 7 mins. Once I was done listening, the ‘blue screen of death’ appeared and the system restarted. 

When I logged in again, the saved audio file was not to be seen. The mail was also gone and no trace of it remained. I checked my phone. The number was also not to be seen in the call records.

What kind of sorcery is this?

I went to sleep thinking about it. 

When I woke up the next morning, I once again checked everywhere. No traces were to be found. Was this all a nightmare? 

Must be! I forgot about it for two days and carried on normally until today afternoon when I got a message from an unknown number.

Hi Ashmur, hope you are posting that blog. Today is the third day. Wanted to remind you. By the way, your phone will restart in another 30 seconds.

As soon as I closed the message, the phone mysteriously restarted. When it started again, the message was not to be seen. 

I was now convinced that I had to write the blog. And hence this post.

-Ashmur

 PS: Lavanya, here's your post. I know that can't be your name. But, I've kept my promise. So don't bother me again.

PPS: Truth is stranger than fiction.

PPPS: Nothing stops you from thinking that this is just a fiction. I'd love to think so too. But what if it's real?

It’s a GIRL

 “It’s a GIRL. IT’S A GIRL. IT’S A GIRLLLL”. 

Sounds happy right? This could be what expectant couples might sound like when they welcome a new member into this world. Except that it’s not the same sound with every couple, especially when the new member is a girl. 

You may now have got an idea as to what this post is all about. Yes. It’s about a malaise called female foeticide/infanticide that exists in our society. 

For any couple, the birth of their child ranks as the happiest moment in their lives. Except that in many cases, the happiness is not the same or missing if the child turns out to be a girl. This is terrible. What has the young baby done to earn the displeasure or wrath of their parents/relatives? 

You may think that this happens only with illiterate parents in rural areas. No. This happens everywhere.  Alarmingly, the no. of such cases is high in urban areas, that too with educated couples. I personally came across one such case.

Back in Tuticorin, we were being taken on a visit to one of my former company’s CSR camps. I was with a colleague, a nice guy whom I got to know a couple of weeks back.  We were chatting on the way when he received a call. I could sense that it was a call conveying some news, something good. His face lighted up after the call and with delight he informed me that his cousin had delivered twin girls. I had no idea as to who they were and all, yet I felt delighted. Such is the joy that a young one brings. Yet it was short lived. 

After sometime, he again got a call. This time I could sense that the voice on the other end was sombre and his replies were angry in nature. Sitting in a bus next to him, it wasn’t difficult to hear and figure out what was going on. Apparently their cousin’s family was dejected it seems. They were worried that it was a girl, not just a girl but girls. WHAT THE HECK!!

Again I could sense something stir inside me. It was a rage that I kept under control. I felt like grabbing the phone from him and blurt out all the cuss words that came to my mind. Thankfully, he was very sensible enough to chide them in the strictest terms and this calmed me down.

 I sat that day, wondering how they could do this to the little girls. What have they done to earn this displeasure right at their birth? Will they be brought up well considering that they were disliked right at their birth? How will they react if they come to know that they were unwelcome additions to their family? 

It was then that I read about this problem. I was shocked to learn how prevalent this malaise was in our society. Aamir Khan, for his part, shed some light on this issue in Satyameva Jayate. Yet, I feel that this problem can’t be solved unless people themselves realize, welcome and embrace the girl child.

My mom says that in the olden times, people preferred boys as bringing up girls were considered to be expensive. What crap!! These days bringing up a boy is equally expensive, if not more. I once asked my mom as to what she’d have done if I had been born a girl. She replied that she’d have loved me even more. That cheered me up.  I could feel proud of my parents. In fact, my mom told me that my dad was visibly disappointed when my brother was born, as his second-born also turned out to be a ‘he’ instead of a ‘she’. Yet it was just a short lived disappointment and they showered us with all the love and care that we could hope for in this world.

I always wanted a girl for a child. Whether it was the absence of a sister in my life or something, I do not know. But I always wanted a girl child. Once when my colleagues were discussing as to what child they would prefer having, I categorically stated that I’d like to have atleast one daughter. Where it came from, I do not know. But I said what I said and realized that’s what I wanted. 

Wanting a daughter doesn’t mean that I’d hate my child if I end up having a son. Every child is precious. A girl child is even more precious. All educated couples should realize this and educate others too. 

I know a lot of couples with daughters who have been brought up like princesses. Their happiness is proof enough that girls bring unforeseen joy into the household. The joy that you experience when your young daughter smiles at you, is unparalleled, I’m told. 

Support the girl child and she’ll make you proud one day. 

This post is dedicated to all the wonderful women who I had the good fortune of getting to know in my life namely my mom, aunts, grandmas, cousins, friends, colleagues, teachers and every other woman who has inspired this world to be a better place

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Perseverance, Patience and Love, thy name is Woman!!

-Ashwin Murali

PS: I have used myself as an example at many places in this post just to drive home the point. That should in no way indicate that I’m looking for a girl or marriage is around the corner :-) Marriage is atleast a good 4 years away ;-)  :-)