All Yours, Stranger: Some Mysteries are Dangerously Sexy

by Novoneel Chakraborty

  Whatever you wrote in the email, Sridhar replied.

  Which email? Rivanah’s heart was already racing. She was expecting a WhatsApp reply but Sridhar called her instead.

  ‘The email you sent me a couple of nights ago.’

  ‘But I didn’t send any email to you.’

  ‘Come on, Rivanah. It was from your office ID. You don’t have to feel shy. It’s okay with me.’

  Knowing fully well who had sent that mail, Rivanah was disgusted.

  ‘I want to read the email. I’m coming to your desk,’ she told Sridhar and cut the line. Before she went to Sridhar, she quickly went to her desktop and checked her Sent Items folder in her office mail account. There was no email from her side to Sridhar or Bitan—by now she had guessed why he had approached her. She dashed to Sridhar’s cubicle. The latter was waiting for her with his email open on his desktop.

  ‘Now don’t tell me it’s not you. See, it has come from your official email ID. Dated day before yesterday; the time was 7.30 p.m.’

  Feeling a knot in her stomach she went close to the desktop computer and read the email that she had supposedly sent Sridhar:

  Hi Sri,

  I have a confession to make. I’ve started having this thing for you, like a wild animal has for a forest. Will you let me explore the forest?

  XOXO

  Rivanah

  The first thing she did was delete the mail.

  ‘What are you doing?’ Sridhar said, trying to push her away but by then she had deleted it from the Recycle Bin as well.

  ‘Why did you do that?’ Sridhar looked at her, clueless.

  ‘My office mail was hacked. I never sent this email,’ Rivanah said.

  Sridhar looked at her for some time and knew she was telling the truth. The email was too good to be true.

  ‘Hmm. You did the right thing by deleting it. But we must catch whoever executed this vulgar joke. I’ll register a complaint with the HR.’

  ‘I know who did it,’ Rivanah said in one breath.

  ‘You do? Who is it?’ Sridhar sounded amazed.

  ‘I don’t know the person yet.’

  Sridhar frowned and said, ‘You know who did it but you don’t know the person yet?’

  ‘Never mind. You can complain if you want to, but I don’t think it is going to help.’ Rivanah turned and slowly walked back to her cubicle, leaving a confused Sridhar behind.

  Every yes or no has consequences, the stranger had told her.

  In the evening, when Rivanah opened the door to her new flat and stepped in, a whiff of something familiar stopped her dead in her tracks. It was the smell of Just Different from Hugo Boss. The next instant she groped frantically for the switchboard, realizing the obvious: the stranger was in the room; but none of the switches were working. Her first instinct was to run but the stranger’s voice stopped her.

  ‘Chill, Mini. I won’t harm you,’ the stranger said. It was a male voice not matching with any of the ones she had heard till now. Though the voice was slightly mechanical, she could sense he was in the room, only a few feet away from her perhaps.

  ‘Just close the door.’

  Rivanah took her time but eventually closed the door to let the darkness engulf the room and her totally.

  ‘You hacked into my office email,’ she said, knowing that was obvious. And also knowing how much her voice trembled with fear. Add to it her temporary blindness.

  ‘I could have done worse. You know that.’

  ‘Can you, for God’s sake, tell me whether you are a friend or a foe?’ Rivanah slowly pushed herself against one of the walls in the room, feeling slightly claustrophobic in the darkness.

  ‘If I was a friend then I wouldn’t have hacked your email.’

  ‘Exactly!’

  ‘But if I was a foe I would have sent Sridhar the video I have of you. You know which video I’m talking about, right, Mini?’

  Rivanah knew it was the same video that he had made when he attacked her in the flat, tearing her clothes off and tying her up.

  ‘Then what are you?’ she gasped.

  ‘I’m neither a friend nor a foe. I’m what you want me to be.’

  There was silence. Rivanah could feel her throat drying up as she said, ‘What if I still don’t resign?’

  ‘People in your office will get more emails. Maybe this time with a video attachment.’

  Exactly what she had feared a moment back, Rivanah thought as she swallowed a lump.

  ‘This is blackmail,’ she mumbled.

  ‘This is me for you.’

  A moment later Rivanah said meekly, ‘Will you actually send that video out?’

  ‘Don’t you try me on this, Mini.’

  Rivanah knew the stranger had made her helpless once again. She would have to resign. She would have to let go of the most important thing in her life. Her job. Her identity. A symbol of her independence. And who knows when she would get another job? What if she did and had to return to Kolkata? No, she couldn’t just resign. The dormant rebel in her suddenly woke up. The stranger was only few feet away. If she rushed at him while screaming, he could probably be caught. Yes, he could be caught! And in all probability, it was Argho Chowdhury standing somewhere in the darkness around. On an impulse Rivanah sprang forward without really knowing where the stranger was in the room. She hit a centre table and fell to the floor shrieking out in pain. The lights came on. She turned to look all around the room and at a corner by the window she saw a mobile phone and a tiny speaker attached to it. Her leg throbbing, she almost crawled to the phone. She picked it up only to notice the call was still on.

  ‘Exactly by noon tomorrow you should resign.’

  14

  Rivanah went to office an hour later than usual. From early in the morning she kept looking at her watch every minute. And with every second she only had one question in her mind: would she actually resign?

  The protocol for resignation at her company was simple: anyone wishing to resign had to log on to their internal company portal, log in with one’s unique credentials and then click on the Resign button. The employee could revoke it only within twenty-four hours after he or she clicked on the Resign button. She kept staring at the button but couldn’t summon enough courage to click on it. Yet. At 11.30 a.m., she messaged all the numbers she had of the stranger.

  Can we please do without my resignation?

  The next second came a reply from one of the numbers:

  Sure, we can.

  For a moment Rivanah couldn’t believe her eyes. She relaxed, gulping down some water from the bottle on her desk. She finally started her work for the day. Sometime later she got a message from another number which too she had saved in the stranger’s name.

  But whatever we do . . . has consequences, Mini.

  Rivanah glanced at the watch. It was 12.01 p.m. Past noon! She looked around to see if she could spot something amiss. The stranger won’t circulate the video. He may say whatever he wants to but he isn’t her foe, she thought. It was precisely then she saw Sridhar walking towards her. Had the stranger forwarded him the video? Damn, she muttered under her breath, feeling her throat go dry.

  ‘What’s up, Rivanah?’ Sridhar inquired.

  Rivanah stood up from her chair.

  ‘Why did you resign?’ he said.

  ‘What?!’

  Rivanah turned in a flash and logged on to the company portal as quickly as she could. As the page loaded, her phone flashed a private number. The page loaded and she noticed her Resign button actually read Revoke which meant someone had already clicked on the Resign button. She immediately was in two minds whether to pick the call up or not. Slowly she answered her phone while taking the mouse to the Revoke button.

  ‘You click the Revoke button; I’ll click the Send button on the email with the video attachment.’

  The line was cut.

  ‘Now don’t tell me someone hacked the system and resigned on your behalf,’ Sridhar said, expecting Rivanah to come up with a v
alid explanation.

  A few seconds later, Rivanah removed the cursor from the Revoke button and looked at Sridhar guiltily. The latter shrugged.

  ‘No, it wasn’t hacked. I’ve actually resigned.’

  ‘What? Why?’

  ‘I don’t know. I’m sorry. Please excuse me.’ Rivanah stumbled to the washroom like a ghost and, locking herself in one of the toilets, cried her heart out. Her notice period would begin soon: a total of thirty days. After which she would have to stop coming to office. What would she do after that period?

  When she went back to her cubicle, two of her teammates told her the same thing: This is your worst decision, Rivanah. Sometime later, another teammate came to her and said, ‘I know you must be joining another company, otherwise who resigns just like that? Could you please forward my CV there too? I won’t tell anyone here.’

  ‘I’m not joining anywhere else.’

  The teammate stared at her and then went away, probably sensing something was wrong with her, and acting as if that something could well be infectious.

  Rivanah knew she would soon have to find another job for herself or else it would be difficult for her to survive in Mumbai. And this thought gave way to another thought which felt like a stab: did the stranger want her to leave Mumbai? She sent a message—I want to talk—to all the numbers she had of the stranger. But didn’t care to check if the message was delivered or not. Her mind was trying to crack the reason behind why the stranger would want to push her out of Mumbai. And where to? Kolkata? Or . . . wherever Hiya Chowdhury’s family was?

  She got a call from a private number. She took the phone and moved out into the smoking zone where there were only a few people. Once there she answered the call.

  ‘Hello, Mini.’

  ‘Why do you keep giving me such pain?’ she asked.

  ‘Let me tell you an amazing thing about pain.’ The stranger spoke in a woman’s voice this time. ‘You give it; you’ll get it.’

  ‘How have I given pain to anyone?’

  There was silence.

  ‘Okay, now that you have made me resign I want that video of mine. I can’t allow this blackmail to continue. Or else I’ll be forced to involve Inspector Kamble once again.’

  ‘It was you who said you will kill yourself if I don’t come back. It’s not good to complain about the chicken you hatched yourself.’

  ‘Every time I start to believe you are a dream, you push me to believe that you are a nightmare. Why?’

  ‘I’m neither your dream nor your nightmare, Mini. I’m what you want me to be.’ With this the line went dead.

  Rivanah realized it was useless, simply useless, to talk with the stranger about what his intention was. The sooner she reached the truth behind Hiya Chowdhury, the quicker she would be able to decipher what the stranger was all about. But how could she know the truth about a person she remembered nothing about? Not even how she looked. And Hiya Chowdhury was supposed to be her batchmate in college. Or so she had been told.

  15

  Rivanah came straight to her flat after office. Without caring to switch on the lights, she slumped down on the bed in her room. On her way she called Danny once but there was no answer. But a minute later came a WhatsApp message saying he was in a shoot and would call her at night. Reading the message she did feel bad that she hadn’t responded positively when he had messaged her a few days back when she was in Meghna’s flat. She didn’t even know if Nitya was still living with Danny or not. It was not that if she wasn’t, Rivanah would go back to live with him again. Somehow, living in the flat alone now, she was having contradictory feelings. A major part of her was happy to get a private space for herself where Danny and Nitya were no longer in her sight. That somehow plugged her insecurities to some extent. It made her happy. But she was also scared because she didn’t know whether she should be really happy about it.

  She yearned for Danny’s lap, but she didn’t want to call him. She wanted him to realize it and come to her. And the last few messages between them told her it wasn’t going to happen anytime soon.

  ‘They say my tea has magic in it.’

  Rivanah was startled by the sweet voice she heard. She immediately sat up on the bed. By then the tube light had stopped flickering and was on. She saw a young girl standing by her bedroom door with a smile which was even sweeter than her voice. She was slightly frail but had a radiant face and looked like she was twenty or twenty-one years old.

  ‘Who are you?’ Rivanah asked.

  ‘Tista Mitra. I shifted here this afternoon.’

  ‘Oh, hi. I’m Rivanah Bannerjee.’

  Tista came forward and shook Rivanah’s hand.

  ‘Nice to meet you, Rivanah di. I’m lucky to get a Bong roomie. Should I prepare my magic tea? I think you need it.’

  There was a pleasant aura about Tista which Rivanah found herself envying instantly. An aura which existed only in those people who were yet to lose their innocence, who had not seen the ugly face of life like she had a year and half back.

  ‘It’s okay. I don’t—’ Rivanah started but was cut short.

  ‘I will make it for myself anyway.’

  ‘Okay.’ Rivanah found herself smiling at someone after a long time.

  Tista disappeared into the kitchen. Rivanah washed her face and went to the drawing room to find Tista sitting on the couch, stirring one of the two cups of tea with a spoon.

  ‘Here,’ she said, holding a cup up for Rivanah. The latter took it and sat down beside her. She was about to sip the tea when Tista stopped her, saying, ‘The first sip should always be with eyes closed. Your system should feel that something amazing is going to invade it.’ Tista herself took a sip closing her eyes. Rivanah did the same. The tea definitely had something different in it. It made her feel refreshed with the first sip itself.

  ‘Isn’t it good?’

  Rivanah nodded with a smile.

  ‘It is wonderful!’ She was happy to have someone who made her smile for a change.

  ‘Are you from Kolkata, Rivanah di?’

  ‘Yes. And you?’

  ‘Same. But originally I’m from Tezpur, Assam.’

  ‘Working or studying? You look very young.’

  ‘Thank you. I just turned twenty-two. I’m working in Stan Chart. What about you?’

  ‘I’m in IT.’

  The more Rivanah started knowing Tista, the more strongly she realized that Tista was what Rivanah had been a year back: naive, simple and ignorant. And because she was all those things she seemed happy all the time. Had she not come across someone like her, Rivanah would have concluded happy people didn’t exist.

  Tista worked as a relationship manager and had fixed working hours. She was there in the flat when Rivanah left and she was there before Rivanah came back. Though Rivanah hadn’t opened up much to her, with each passing day, Tista did so without much fuss.

  Neither of the girls entered the other’s bedroom without knocking. This was something Tista did to begin with, which Rivanah followed because she liked it. No matter how close one gets to someone, they should always respect the other’s privacy. One night, however, was an exception. Rivanah had left a particular book on the dining table but couldn’t find it.

  ‘Tista, did you see the book I put on the dining table?’ Rivanah said, pushing the door of Tista’s room open to see her lying on the bed in front of her laptop. Tista looked at Rivanah once and then at her laptop screen to say, ‘My roommate is here. Give me a minute.’ Tista climbed down the bed and came to Rivanah.

  ‘I have the book with me.’ She picked it up from the table beside her bed and gave it to Rivanah who took it without much curiosity about who she was speaking with. Half an hour later, when Rivanah was reading the book in her room, she heard a knock.

  ‘Yes, Tista.’

  Tista came in and sat beside her roomie on the bed.

  ‘It was my boyfriend.’

  ‘Huh?’ Rivanah didn’t know what she was talking about.

 
‘When you came to my room I was Skyping with my boyfriend.’

  Skype . . . boyfriend . . . it wasn’t an unknown territory for Rivanah but it was definitely one she did not want to think about.

  ‘It’s okay,’ she said, hoping Tista wouldn’t prattle further on the topic.

  ‘I love him a lot.’

  ‘That’s good,’ Rivanah said and wondered why Tista wasn’t shutting up. She was in no mood to discuss boyfriends.

  ‘But I find him very cold towards me,’ Tista said. A silence fell which told Tista that Rivanah was trying to understand what she had told her.

  ‘Doesn’t he love you?’ Rivanah found herself asking.

  ‘He does. I’m sure he does, but there’s something that stops him from surrendering to me completely.’

  ‘Where did you guys meet?’ It was for the first time since they met that Rivanah had asked her new roomie a personal question.

  ‘Actually, we are engaged. He is my fiancé. It was an arranged thing which our parents decided.’

  ‘Nice.’

  Some people go the simple way by letting the parents choose their life partner, Rivanah thought. And probably that’s better than trying to go after the illusion of getting Mr Right and ending up in a shit pool like she was in.

  ‘Can you please guide me, Rivanah di?’ Tista said, breaking Rivanah’s trance.

  ‘Guide you?’

  ‘This is my first relationship. And I really don’t know what guys want or like when they are in a relationship.’

  Tista’s innocence made her wonder: how nice it would be if Rivanah too could marry the one with whom she was in a relationship for the first time! Suddenly that fairy tale called first love seemed so painfully desirable.

  ‘Why don’t you talk it out with him?’

  ‘I tried to, but he says all’s good and that he loves me a lot.’

  ‘Hmm. Are you sure there’s no other girl involved?’ This came out straight from her experience. A year back she wouldn’t have asked Tista such a question.

  ‘I trust him.’

  Rivanah looked at her for a moment. That was when she fully realized the difference between Tista and her: Rivanah could no longer say that for anyone even if she wanted to. A momentary sadness clouded her but she was careful not to let it show.