You never forget your first cellphone. Nor did He. It was a Nokia X100. Black with a green display, small , what the girls called “cute”. Functional too. It could hold a whopping 50 messages in its Inbox, 20 people in the call registry, and a full 100 contacts!! He had worked his ass off to lay his hands on it. Being a poor masons son in a rich mans college meant all the kids had the latest N90 or GameCube mobile thrust into their hands by their daddys and mommies whereas he was forced to give the nearby STD booths number when a girl asked his number ( not that many did). So he toiled away at the mechanic shop, cleaned vessels at various restaurants and delivered newspapers. He saved money like a bird saving straws for the nest, even starving at college sometimes .. After a full year, he had the three thousand needed !! Not a high end phone, the fancy ones you see stars flashing around at Bollywood parties, just a small, poor one, like him. And then he met Her.
You never forget your first crush. She was the college sweetthrob. Fair, dimple- chinned, just tall enough and what the guys called “cute”. She was friendly too, spoke to almost every guy or girl in class, not like the other high class girls. She even winked at him occasionally . He sat behind her in every class he could, smelt her hair, and dreamt of the day he had her hand in his. The only problem was the college Hunk, who happened to be her boyfriend. Big muscled, rich dads kid, fancy cellphone, the kind of guy you loathed and wanted to be friends at the same time. But he was just a poor masons son, so he hardly found a place in any of the college “gangs”. Heads down, hands in his torn jeans (one of two he owned), he just stayed in the shadows and hoped to get through college as soon as possible. And then it Happened..
It was Valentines Day, a cold one at that. The English movie with the Ship sinking had caught on in a big way, and he had heard the rich kids rave about it. It was a love story apparently, with some huge ship that sank in the end. He had seen the posters of a guy and a girl spreading their hands and staring into the sun, beaming and obviously in love. He couldn’t afford to see it, but sometimes he did imagine himself on that railing, and only another person with him. Thankfully, dreams were free. He was sitting under the peeple tree near the canteen, pretending to read a library book but just staring at Her. She seemed agitated, and he even thought of checking on her to see if everything was all right, but then decided against it. He was too scared. From what he could make out, her friend was ratting on the Hunk, telling that she had seen him with another girl in the theatre, watching the ship movie. She couldn’t believe it, and tears of sadness ran down her face . She wanted proof! She flashed out her phone , a high end one, only to realize it had run out of charge. She looked around the canteen, looking for any acquaintance, and spotted him staring at her. She walked towards him, wiping her tears away, and spoke to him for the first time In nearly two years. .
“Hey can I borrow your cellphone?. I really need to make a call”. He couldn’t belive that she had spoken to him at last, and was about to mumble something stupid. But sense prevailed and he fished out his cellphone from his shirt pocket, where he had guarded it like a dragon does his treasure. He placed it in her hand, and gave her a sheepish smile. “ Aww it’s the X100. Cute”, she said, before walking away dialling the Hunk. He stared at her sweet face, the dimpled chin, the lips making words, and a straw of hair that fell on her eye. She was tearful at first, and then angry. She was asking the Hunk where he was, and he was apparently struggling for an answer. Then another voice came through, clear enough that even He heard it from a far ,”Honey, You are missing the climax!”, That seemed to be her boiling point and she started screaming into the cellphone. Hunk was screaming now too, calling her a slut and a whore from the other end. After a few minutes, she had screamed herself hoarse and her face had turned a dangerous shade of red. Her once pleasant eyes were now filled with tears of anger, and her lips made a snarl that made him look away. She screamed one last abuse and then he heard a loud smack! He looked just in time to see his precious new cellphone smash against the canteen wall and the pieces shattering in all directions. The battery, with “Made in Korea” embossed on it, spun on the floor and came resting next to his feet. The display shattererd on impact and the broken plastic case went flying past him. She was sitting on the canteen floor, her face buried in her hands and her tears echoing off the canteen wall. He was sitting down too, looking at his cell, unable to think. Her friends crowded around her, consoling her, telling things like “You will be Okay”, and “He was always an asshole”. No one came for him.
A few minutes later, the Hunk entered the canteen, and spotted her, sitting on a canteen chair, her friends still whispering soft words to her. The Hunk knelt next to her, and then tried to explain how another girl had come to the Ship movie with him. She pretended not to listen to him for some time, then looked at him and smiled eventually. They both hugged, there were claps all around and soon she was speeding off sitting behind him on his fancy bike. No one noticed the poor boy still sitting on the canteen floor, staring at the spot where his heart had been shattered, a single tear running down his cheek.
TEN YEARS LATER…
The years had been kind to him , thankfully. The hands that had wielded the spanner hand become taught, and his sweat and blood had flown with the engine oil. Lung cancer had caught up with his dad, but that had been the only blip on an otherwise smooth journey after college. He had opened a bunch of service stations all over the city, married off his sisters into high places, and his ailing mom had never been prouder. He was no longer a poor masons son, but a successful entrepreneur, a guy who had beaten the odds. He was still a bachelor though, for some wounds ran deep. He was walking from one of his service stations for his usual one o clock smoke a t the petty shop next to the bus stand, when he spotted her..
She had put on a bit of weight after college, and looked a bit more mature in her Saree, but her face was still pretty and the eyes still tinkled after she saw him. She walked up to him, smiled, and said “Hey, its You!”. She didn’t know his name, he was sure, but he didn’t want her to know it either. She asked him what he did these days and he told her.She mumbled on about how she had ended up marrying the Hunk after college, how he had turned up to a wife beating philanderer after all, and how she was now in the process of getting a divorce. The words hardly registered in his mind as he was staring at her eyes , that twinkle that still took his breath away . She asked for his number, and he took out his phone so he could have hers. She was impressed with his Iphone 5, and snatched it out of his hand. “Aww. So Cute”, she said, just like last time. He let her play with the cell phone for a while, for it was still not available for sale in this country yet. He took back his cellphone and was just telling her about his new service station opening in a month, when he saw the red Volvo bus with 500E prominently displayed by LEDs approaching the bus stand from the corner of his eye. All she felt was a gentle nudge on her stomach, and her two inch heels and gravity did the rest. The driver, despite having air brakes, had no time to react as the lady basically jumped out of nowhere and the front wheels ran over her, splitting her into two and splashing her guts all over the road.
Eyewitness accounts varied on how the lady came underneath the bus, and no one blamed the driver to be rash. Some said she jumped, others swore they had seen her talking to a man just before jumping in front of the bus. The media was not as forgiving though and the next days newspaper ran a half page story on killer BMTC buses. The police registered a case of death due to negligence and the driver was now behind bars.No one mentioned a tall dark man in a blue shirt who walked away from the scene, when the crowd gathered around the bus. If they did notice, they would have seen the man buy the cigarette from the petty shop and blow away a smoke as he walked away from the scene, a smirk on his face and a singular thought flashing across his mind, “ You never forget your first cellphone, Bitch!!”
