08-12-2019
Hyderabad
Mitra had never been much of a cell phone person. She would take a call once in every three times someone called her. She wouldn't text anyone continuously for more than a few dozen times and wouldn't spend more than a few minutes on a call.
That was with everyone other than Vishal. He was her only source of solace, the remedy for all her brooding thoughts, the secret-keeper of all her dark actions and past. She wouldn't mind spending hours chattering away when he called her and made sure to text him if she wasn't in a position to call him.
That night, there was no communication from her. She had texted him when she took off from work and assured him that she would call him once she was done with her dinner.
When it was past ten pm and there was no word from her, Vishal texted her, asking if she had reached home. The message didn't get delivered.
He waited for another thirty minutes and called her. Her phone was switched off. He tried multiple times at random intervals and the phone was off every time.
That's no reason to panic. Maybe her phone broke or the battery died. She will call me once she finds a way. His thoughts were on a rational side. It wasn't the first time it had happened. A few months earlier the same had happened with Mitra's phone being switched off for a complete day. It was a Saturday and she had been sleeping for hours, not checking her phone or realizing that it had been switched off for a long time. Vishal had been worried even then. She had reassured him after establishing contact the next day that it was something she didn't intend to happen. She just wasn't much fond of cell phones to keep checking on one all the time.
So, he waited. For hours till it dawned and there was still no response from her. It was a weekday and she wouldn't keep her phone turned off when getting to work. It seemed suspicious to him. Nevertheless, he went about getting ready for his work.
It wasn't until he turned on the TV while having his breakfast, to have a quick run through the morning news, that he got the shock of his life.
The news channel he had turned on ran a small news item covering the surfacing of the weird video and how it was going viral, along with the short police statement. They telecasted a part of the video for a couple of minutes.
Vishal was sipping in his coffee when he saw the video on TV. Despite the blindfold covering a part of her face, the girl seemed familiar to him. The lips, the small chain around her neck with a star shaped pendant, it was as if he knew the girl. Then he heard her voice.
"Who's there?" Followed by, "Anyone there?"
Vishal froze.
She sounded so much like Mitra. He panicked and ran forward towards the TV, looking closely at the screen with bated breath. As she spoke again, her voice ringing in his ears, he watched the movement of her mouth. It seemed so much like how Mitra always spoke.
He fumbled as he made his way panic-stricken towards the dining table where his phone lay. He snatched it and started calling Mitra. Her phone was still off. He tried multiple times to no avail.
Helplessly, he called Mitra's landlord who lived in the same apartment complex as her.
"Hello? Hello, Murthy uncle," Vishal spoke to the landlord with an urgency. "This is Mitra's friend, Vishal. Remember me?"
"Vishal? Oh, yeah. Tell me," came the answer.
"Uncle, Mitra's phone is off and I am not able to get in touch with her. Can you please see if she is at home? If she came home last night? Please, this is really urgent!"
"Okay, give me some time. I will call you back."
"If you see her, tell her to call me."
"Sure." The line went dead after that.
Vishal waited with bated breath for either Murthy to call him back or Mitra to get in touch with him. After about fifteen minutes, Murthy rang him up. "Her house's locked," he informed Vishal. "I asked the security guard and he said he didn't see her coming home last night. No one's seen her around since yesterday morning."
Vishal's heart sank. He was thoughtless for a moment before deciding to call one of Mitra's friends from her office.
"Hello, Ram? This is Vishal. Have you had any word from Mitra since yesterday evening?"
"No, Vishal. I spoke to her in the office yesterday before leaving for home. I didn't have any communication from her since then. What's the matter? Did anything happen?"
"I... I don't know. Her phone is off since last night, she hasn't been home at all and now, there's a video going viral of a kidnapped girl. I just am feeling very anxious."
"Are you talking about that white-and-black video with a blindfolded girl?"
"Yes. The girl's voice is so similar to Mitra's."
There was a pause. "Vishal, relax. Don't jump to conclusions. I am heading to office now. I am sure Mitra will turn up there. If we can't reach her by the afternoon, then we'll take action."
"Okay. Do call me when you meet her. Or if anything turns up."
"Sure. Bye."
Vishal was still in a terrible state of troubling thoughts and doubts. He turned on his phone and searched for the video across various news blogs. He played it over and over, trying to discern between his intuition that it was Mitra in it and a wistful hope that it may not be her.
The day progressed. He waited for positive news from Ram that Mitra was at her workplace as usual, that her phone was lost or stolen or broken which would explain the gap in communication.
A couple of hours later Ram called him.
"Ram! Did you see her? Is she there?" Vishal cried into the phone, anxious, tense, silently praying.
Ram sighed. "Sorry Vishal, she didn't turn up at office. I ran through almost every one of her colleagues but no one has a clue about her whereabouts."
Vishal felt his heart sinking. It was turning into a bad dream.
Before he could say anything, Ram tried to assure him, "Don't start freaking out. There can be a thousand explanations for her absence, we just can't be sure yet. Let's wait for a while and then inform the police if she doesn't turn up. We need to have at least a twenty-four hour waiting period before we can file a missing person complaint."
"Actually, that's not a requirement. We can file a complaint immediately," Vishal answered mechanically. "I will catch the next flight to Bangalore and be there."
"Sure. You can come to our office. Worst case scenario, we both will go to the police station and file a complaint."
"Sure. Thank you so much. I will start now."
Even as thoughts of horror crept into his mind regarding Mitra's disappearance, Vishal packed up his bag and jogged out of his flat to catch the metro train to the airport. Half the day passed in a haze as he called up his office to inform them that he would be taking the day off due to emergency, caught a flight to Bangalore and reached Mitra's office by late afternoon.
He had spent the time he travelled praying for Mitra's safety, hoping it to be false alarm, thinking of a thousand ways he would reprimand Mitra for scaring him like that if she was indeed safe and a million possible worst-case scenarios he could find her in. Accidents, abductions, assaults, there was an endless list of horrible incidents that could have happened to her. Topping it all off was the video he had seen.
He had viewed the video countless times, sometimes with his eyes closed and just listening to the voice to find out if it was really Mitra. He would try to find differences between the pitch and enunciation of the girl in the video and those of Mitra's. Every time he thought there was a difference, his heart would leap with hope. But it would subdue within moments when the next syllable the girl uttered would sound exactly like Mitra. It was a rollercoaster of hope and devastation.