Digital God

by Nikhilkumar Singh

  Ritika, on the other hand, was tearing apart a poor bird with her teeth.

  ‘This chicken masala tastes so amazing!’ she said, licking her fingers.

  So far, Ritika had been closer to Kanu. Now she appeared to him like a flesh-eating predator. A murderer.

  Darshu and Kanu stole a glance at each other and winced. Food does bring people together, she thought.

  The ride back home was tumultuous, especially for Kanu, what with a beautiful girl on each side. There was some confusion about who would enter the auto rickshaw after Darshu, but the relentless traffic did not allow them to debate the possibilities in detail. Ritika went in last.

  The back seat was crowded but nobody complained.

  When they reached Marredpally, close to the girls’ home, Kanu was eager to pay for the ride. But Darshu intervened.

  ‘I’ll pay. Here, 40 rupees.’ She pulled out the notes.

  Kanu did not look happy. ‘Spare me! You paid for the food as well.’

  ‘Some other day!’ Darshu smiled.

  The auto was gone. Kanu searched for his keys and pulled them out from his jeans pocket.

  ‘Oh, I forgot my Afghani scarf,’ he said.

  ‘Leave it for us. We will use it for dusting,’ Darshu said smiling.

  ‘I did not even check if the modem is working. I will come up and be gone in a minute.’

  ‘We know it’s working. After all, you’ve worked on it,’ replied Darshu.

  ‘You want me to go?’

  ‘Yes,’ Darshu smiled.

  Ritika was feeling tired. She said goodbye and went inside, leaving Kanu and Darshu behind.

  ‘I must say thanks. I never get an opportunity to get out of my cubicle,’ Kanu said, as he got on his bike and prepared to kick-start it.

  ‘Likewise. We wouldn’t have known about this place. Thank you!’

  Kanu got his old bike going, a few sidelights dangling from wires, stole one more glance at her and then he was gone.

  That evening, Darshu decided to go to the cyber café again. She told herself the reasons behind this visit: return the Afghani scarf, and her Hotmail account. However, when she reached the café, she had changed her mind.

  ‘I didn’t have any work and was alone, so I came. To browse,’ she said, returning the scarf to Kanu.

  Darshu was being honest. She found his company surprisingly relaxing. She was hardly ever drawn to strangers. They had first met for the purpose of a news story. This was their sixth encounter, and here she

  was!

  ‘What about Ritika? Where is she?’ Kanu asked.

  ‘She has this rocking group of office friends … in Banjara.’

  ‘You didn’t join them?’

  ‘I did join them once. But you know how it is. It really gets weird listening to drunken people. After a while, you curse yourself for going to the party!’

  ‘Hmm, but the cabins are all packed.’

  ‘Not a problem. I can wait!’

  ‘You can use my system, if you want.’

  ‘No, I’ll wait.’

  ‘Have a seat then.’ Kanu gestured to the visitor’s chair and sat next to her.

  While Bansi worked at the machine on the counter, keying away college reports, Darshu and Kanu discussed the e-mail sent by Pankaj.

  ‘I don’t know why Pankaj would send it. His message was weird. I don’t know what to do. Should I forward the mail to your account?’

  ‘That’s not needed. The truth is he has this thing for girls’ e-mail accounts. I think you must be his new victim.’

  ‘Really?’ Darshu was alarmed. ‘What do I do now?’

  ‘Nothing.’

  ‘What? Why?’

  ‘Any change you make will be sent out to your backup e-mail ID. I think you must be using the same password for every other account.’

  ‘How do you know?’

  ‘Well, everyone makes the same mistake. The only practical solution is to save contact addresses, maybe write them down on a paper, and discard the account.’

  ‘Damn!’

  ‘Or else, you can share your password with me. I will keep it safe!’

  ‘You are kidding, right?’

  ‘You think so?’

  ‘You are kidding, right?’ she repeated.

  ‘Okay, here’s another solution. You can try this two-step authentication set-up. When you log in with your new password, it will ask for a second level passcode, which you’ll receive on your phone. Now that can make your account more secure … Unless someone has already cloned your mobile number.’

  ‘Cloned what?’

  ‘Cloned your mobile number.’

  ‘Why would anyone clone my mobile number?’

  ‘For the same reason someone would hack your e-mail account.’

  ‘So what should I do?’

  ‘I told you, give me your password. I will keep it safe.’

  ‘You are kidding, right?’

  Kanu smiled.

  The next day, she ran into Kanu at the Secunderabad branch of Oriental Bank. The place was a walk away from her office. She spotted him in a queue to deposit money.

  ‘Is that black money you are holding in that bundle?’ she teased.

  ‘That’s correct! How did you know?’

  ‘I know instinctively when things are illegal.’

  ‘Ah, like that!’

  ‘Yes, like that.’

  She got a token from the next counter, for which there was a long wait, then took a seat in the waiting area.

  After he had finished, Kanu walked up to her and whispered, ‘It’s a very long queue for depositing a demand draft. Do you want me to hack the queue?’

  ‘Really? How will you do that?’

  ‘Let me see.’ Kanu put his hands into his trouser pockets, as if searching for something. ‘I thought I had the bank manager in my pocket. Where did he slip away?’ he said, blinking sheepishly.

  ‘Thanks for your effort. I will manage.’ Darshu smacked his arm mockingly.

  ‘You know, sometimes having a good contact helps. Take my example. People don’t value my worth. But, you know, a time will come when people will salute me for having done the right thing.’

  Kanu took the seat next to hers and continued explaining his virtues. The wait was long and Kanu was pleasant company, always ready with his expert opinion on everything. They discussed PayPal and online transactions while waiting for her turn to deposit money for her online course. Kanu wasn’t convinced about the online examination format.

  ‘But you can cheat in an online exam, right?’

  ‘No, you can’t!’

  ‘But while you are in front of your computer, they are in, let’s say, some place in Germany, you can open a book and write. How will they know?’

  ‘They assign a computer institute where they will have their dedicated computers. Exams will be conducted online.’

  ‘Okay, I get it. But still, the screen can be shared. Right?’

  ‘I don’t know about that. But it’s a language course. Why would anyone want to cheat?’

  ‘Language? Okay, what about the keyboard?’

  ‘It’s French. Same keyboard.’

  ‘Last I remember, you said you are learning German?’

  ‘I am learning German. The exam is for French language.’

  ‘How many languages do you know?’

  ‘Five. Maybe six.’

  ‘I know six languages as well. Telugu. English. Hindi. And my computer languages include Cobol, C++ and JAVA.’

  ‘Yeah, add body language to the list. That will make it seven.’

  ‘Good idea!’

  After submitting her form, they spent most of the day together, eating lunch, watching an inter-school cricket match at St Patrick’s School, visiting St Mary’s Church and finally, went to meet Ritika outside her office.

  Darshu enjoyed the time they spent. She felt they had a connection, some kind of bond, and the conversation between them was easy and unforced, as if they had known e
ach other for a long time.

  When Ritika walked out, she was surprised to see Darshu and Kanu waiting for her.

  ‘You guys called me almost two hours back. You’ve been waiting since then? You guys have no work or what?’ Ritika asked.

  ‘You know me. I am a journalist,’ replied Darshu.

  ‘Should have told me you were waiting. I could have come out earlier,’ Ritika said.

  ‘I wanted to show him our office. Why don’t you come along? The other day, you wanted to meet Ayesha.’

  ‘Ayesha, yes. Just for PR! But not today.’

  ‘Why not?’

  ‘I am not prepared. I will join you some other time.’ With that, Ritika left with a few of her colleagues.

  Darshu and Kanu walked to the Deccan Courier building, which was not far away from ITCC. The office wasn’t fancy. A big room was divided up with glass partitions into editorial and marketing divisions.

  They sat in the visitors’ room and she began to explain to Kanu the process of newsgathering, filing reports and page-making.

  Kanu liked her, more so when she tried explaining things that were stupid and uninteresting. Why don’t they switch to desktop publishing? he wondered. ‘Is that your number?’ he asked, looking at the notice board that had a list of reporters’ names and numbers pinned to it. ‘What kind of number is that, ending with 6969?’

  Darshu did not say anything for a while. Then she smiled. ‘I thought it was easy to remember.’

  Later, just before reaching home, Darshu checked her mobile. She had a text message from Kanu: rchd home?

  She smiled and replied: not yet.

  After about five minutes, she got another message: n now?

  Darshu had never been much into texting. She preferred phone calls. It was easier to have a clear conversation that way instead of messaging back and forth. But this was a slightly more complicated situation. So she messaged back: why u don’t have any work or what?

  She did not get any reply until eleven that night: thx for reminding abt work. got it done. no work now ;)

  They continued exchanging texts until he asked her to come online for a Yahoo! Chat. He gave away his avatar: DIGITAL_GOD. Darshu added his ID to her messenger and pinged him:

  11.41 p.m.

  DARSHU: hey, wassup Digital God

  DIGITAL_GOD: hi. nothing much. at home and u?

  DARSHU: hahhaha …. No … at this time i m in my office! damn!

  DIGITAL_GOD: good for u … you got to report so many things … we are … *ahem* … criminals. no work. so always at home

  DARSHU: hahahaha ….. GYAN!

  11.49 p.m.

  DIGITAL_GOD: anything new happening?

  DARSHU: was thinking of going home this Wednesday ... christmas holiday

  DIGITAL_GOD: where is ur home?

  DARSHU: dehradun

  DIGITAL_GOD: wow … it must be cold there ...

  DARSHU: yup bus ghar jaooo khayo piyo so jaooo yeh hi plan tha but no leave :(

  DIGITAL_GOD: know what. i like that concept … hunt ... for food ... sleep till you feel hungry again. repeat

  DARSHU: hahhahahhaha i like the *repeat* part

  11.57 p.m.

  DIGITAL_GOD: so what r u doin tmrw?

  DARSHU: don’t know. hav to attend 1 conference

  DIGITAL_GOD: wher is tht conference

  DARSHU: kakatiya. i will call u if i m close to ur area its getting late. 12 already

  DIGITAL_GOD: ya, time for me to start working

  DARSHU: gud. ur office time begins now … *ahem* … criminals after all. hahaha

  00:02 a.m.

  DIGITAL_GOD: chalo gudnite :)

  DARSHU: gn. sweet dreams :)

  Darshu logged out.

  The next day Darshu was tasked with the additional responsibility of visiting a school function at R.P. Road before covering the Kakatia conference. Obviously, she was not very happy with the arrangement. By the time she finished her day’s work, it was already seven in the evening. She thought of calling Kanu, but instead took an auto rickshaw home. At 7.40 p.m., she got a text message from him asking her to get ready for a paav-bhaji session.

  rchng ur place in 15 min. hittin u wth paav bhaji today!

  She messaged back: whr s this paav baji place agn?

  He replied: u ll know

  Darshu had been single for as long as she’d been in Hyderabad. It was not as if she was never approached by guys. On the contrary, she was besieged with inane requests: Can I get your phone number? What’s your Yahoo! ID? Where do you live? Can I book you for a movie tonight? Can I walk you home? Are you free this evening? You are very pretty. Has anyone ever told you that?

  The ones who expressed a romantic interest did not appeal to her. And the ones she flirted with – made eye contact and smiled at – never seemed to respond.

  All that was about to change. Get ready for a late-night paav-bhaji date? Why not!

  Kanu arrived outside Darshu’s flat early and called her. She did not answer. He tried again, impatient, but disconnected when he saw her walk towards him. She smiled and flashed her phone at him: Hacker … calling, the screen said.

  ‘For God’s sake! I have a name!’ said Kanu, trying to snatch at the handset.

  ‘Bad manners!’ Darshu said, and slipped it into her purse. ‘Very bad manners to snatch things from a girl!’

  Kanu kick-started the bike, put it into gear and waited for her to hop on. ‘I have a name. And it’s a really simple one,’ he said.

  ‘I know, Kanu,’ she whispered. ‘By the way, what kind of name is that? Kanu?’

  Kanu accelerated as he hit the main road. ‘My mom used to call me Kanu –’

  The wind and the traffic drowned his voice and Darshu couldn’t hear the rest.

  She felt heady with the excitement of riding pillion. She could feel her heart beat faster as she pressed her body against him for support and gripped his shoulders. But before long, he had stopped in front of the food court on Necklace Road on the banks of Hussain Sagar in the heart of the city.

  He put his bike on its stand and gestured to the food joint.

  ‘Paav-bhaji paradise.’

  ‘This is Necklace Road. I have been here many times before,’ she said.

  ‘There, that shop you see. They will serve me free food if you want.’

  ‘Really? Is he is your uncle, that old man? You must be coming here often then?’

  ‘Nah, he’s an old client. I wrote an article for them. Come here often? No, that fellow will pester me to hell. That’s the reason I don’t come here at all.’

  ‘Oh, like that.’

  ‘Yeah, like that.’

  ‘If I were you, I would come here every day. Free food!’

  They carried on their small talk, debating the merits and demerits of a free lunch, but the place was packed. Far from the sitting areas, they found a wooden bench for visitors that not many knew about.

  ‘Killer lake view, isn’t it?’ he said.

  ‘Yeah!’

  ‘See there, Lord Buddha is blessing the tourists only after they’ve left,’ he said, pointing to a boat sailing by a gigantic statue of the Buddha. ‘Which means he does not like to be disturbed by tourists!’

  ‘That’s not a tourist boat. That’s some promotional thing. I think they are planning to put up a show or something.’

  ‘If you are thinking I set this up for you, you may be right!’

  ‘Shut up!’

  ‘You shut up!’

  ‘Shut up!’

  ‘You shut up!’

  The troupe on the boat started performing, just in time to distract them from their fight.

  They sat there in that near-isolated area for about twenty minutes, admiring the view and the performance. By that time, there was a free table at the joint and they eagerly went ahead and claimed it.

  On their second date, they went to a dhaba on the outskirts of the city, where they were served steaming jowar roti with chilli chutney. Darshu was happy
to note that Kanu shared her culinary tastes completely. They laughed over their mutual obsession with melodramatic Hindi films, and he promised to share his movie collection with her.

  But instead, he took her to a movie on their next date. And they argued over the climax of the plot and how far-fetched it seemed. The argument began at a dine-in restaurant and continued till the time Kanu had dropped her to her apartment. Yet, it remained unfinished. After he’d left, he texted: OK, u win d Christmas treat.

  On their next date they went go-karting at Kompally. Kanu had lived in the Kompally neighbourhood before moving to Secunderabad. Almost everyone at the go-karting circuit recognized him instantly and took a keen interest in Darshu. She had never been behind the wheel of a go-kart. Now, all of a sudden, she was in the driver’s seat.

  He held her hand to calm her as she nervously attended to the instructions of the guide. He leaned in and sneaked a kiss on her cheek to reassure her. She smiled and raced ahead as he stepped back away from the vehicle.

  She could feel his moist lips long after she had crossed the finishing line.

  Later, as they hung out together in the track field, talking about movies, music and books, two SISI men kept a close watch on them. It was their job to keep track of Kanu, who was on their watch list. While Kanu and Darshu walked the circuit, stopping at the souvenir shops on the side paths, the men followed them at a distance.

  The couple remained seated on the bench, near the finishing line, long after the sun had set. They almost looked like teenagers who had lied to their parents to be there, doing things that they shouldn’t.

  From a distance, the SISI men saw them kissing. At this point, they decided that the best thing for them to do would be to leave the lovebirds alone!

  FIVE

  20–23 December 2006

  I

  n the conference room on the fifth floor of the Deccan Courier office, Gaurav Rathod wrote four distinct words on a whiteboard: Increase Revenue and Readership. The only other person present was Ayesha Pathan. Normally, Ayesha would just shut up and bear the insufferable presentation. But on this day, she had been summoned for a special assignment.