BUZZ...a short story

The morning sun has just bathed the small and dark room of Ravi with bright light. His mother has just pushed the window curtains apart and shook him awake with a grin on her face. Ravi liked to be woken up with the dazzling sunlight washing his dreams away and her mothers smiling face opening the doors to the new beginning. In just half an hour he got ready for his college with ironed blue jeans and full sleeve shirt whose sleeves are folded up to the elbow covering his wheat colored skin and his hair perfectly combed with the help of a little hair gel. He checks himself out in the mirror to find a young, average looking guy in his twenties with a prominent nose.

Before his mom would lay the dining table with the freshly cooked brunch – roti and sabji – Ravi as always decided to check his mails. As he booted the machine and tried to connect to his ISP, he was facing problem which he soon rectified to be the broadband cable unplugged from its socket in the back of the cabinet. “Mom, how many times did I ask you to tell the maid to clean my room and especially the back of the computer table more carefully than anything else. She managed to clean it so hard to disconnect the internet cable again.” His mother is so preoccupied with her chores that she easily manages to ignore Ravi’s complain. Expecting no response from his mother, Ravi has already plugged in the cable and started with the surfing. After checking his mails, Ravi clicks his favorite icon whose name says “Yahoo! Messenger”. When he sees that none of his friends are online he tries to fish somebody out by sending a group message, ‘You can talk to me, if you are trying to be invisible’. A weird message but young people like Ravi have weird friends who set their stealth settings as ‘Invisible’ to avoid interaction but when somebody sends a message as Ravi then they tend to show up as if the other person can actually see him and has found out that he is trying to hide. Nothing of this sort happened today. Instead an unexpected event occurred.

A window popped open on Ravi’s monitor followed by an irritating ding vibrating in his speakers. The message in the window said -

“Niz: BUZZ “

“Niz: Hi! How did you find out that I am trying to hide.:)”

Niz! Ravi thought. His friends list did not contain any such contact. He typed

“Ravi: I don’t recognize you.”

“Niz: You don’t know me. I have found out your id from a website. I felt like talking to you. Therefore, I pinged you”

Ravi thought that this might be someone or some Bot marketing there website or product. People have adapted to such kind of marketing strategies now-a-days. However, for reasons unknown to him he kept the conversation on and had started inquiring into the person. Soon, he found out that the girl on the other keyboard was Nisha better known as Niz in web communities. She was a student of first year arts at KWM college. They both belonged to the same city. She found out about Ravi on a friend finder website when she searched people from her city. After having a 30 minute long chat when they talked about college and studies and weather and everything unnecessary, Ravi was quite convinced that she is a normal and interesting girl and no marketing Bot or sales girl. But, his food was laid and he had to leave for the college after the breakfast. He told her that he will be online in the night and they can chat at that time. She agreed and Ravi left for the college.

Ravi was thinking about Nisha the entire day and desperately wanted to talk more. He returned earlier in the evening canceling all his important appointments with friends at hang outs full of gorgeous girls. He told his mother that he doesn’t want to be disturbed and went to confines of his room and booted his machine. He quickly searched for Niz in his friends list and found that she is offline as the icon showed her. He still pinged her and when no reply came for 5 minutes and 7 Buzz’s he thought that she is genuinely not there or she is not interested. In the very next moment a window popped open.

“Niz: BUZZ”

“Niz: Hi! U there? I just came, saw ur message”

They chatted for 4 continuous hours. They yakked about the university exams, Hrithik’s career, Rani’s acting in Black, Sania’s tennis strokes, Kartikeyan’s strategy and his chances of winning Formula-1 in next 5 years. They spoke about their friends, teachers, subjects and hangouts of their city. They wondered how they both were present at a place at the same time. They found that they had many similar interests and yet they both had different opinions on certain topics. They spoke about crushes, ‘girlfriends’, ‘boyfriends’ and love. Ravi displayed her many different snaps of his in the chat window using ‘display image’ property of the IM. When he asked for her snap she said she doesn’t have any in digital format. Ravi shifted her id from normal list of friends to a newly created category – very special friend.

In the next few days Ravi was spending more and more time in front of the machine than doing anything else. He used to talk to Nisha in the beginning of the day to the end of it. His speakers played all romantic classic songs of 80’s and 90’s by Elton John, Chris de Burges, Anand Millind, Jatin-Lalit all the time. And he was not checking his mails too. All he did apart from eating and attending college was tapping the keys of his keyboard interrupted constantly by a thumping noise of hitting the ‘return’ key. Ravi was surely in love. It seemed like Nisha was feeling the same thing since even she used to be always there or would show up in few minutes whenever he wanted to talk to her, i.e., all the time. It appeared like they both were following a very well synchronized life. After such long chat relationship, Ravi wanted to take it a little further and wanted to meet Nisha.

It was a Tuesday night. It was thunderously raining and the moon was hiding under the thick cover of clouds. Ravichecked the weather to find a moon since he wanted to get a little inspired before he typed his feelings to Nisha. Just when he sat in front of the machine after closing the curtains, a chime filled the speakers indicating a new message in the IM window. He closed the browser window where his e-mail site was not opening up. In fact no website was opening for last 2 days except the messenger where he only spoke to Niz. He switched to the IM window.

“Niz: BUZZ”

“Ravi: Nisha, I wanted to say this for long…I think…no…I know…I love you…I want to meet you…what say?”

After typing and sending it in, Ravi was nervously staring the monitor. The chime came after a minute.

“Niz: Ravi…Even I think you are more than just a friend for me…where can we meet?”

Ravi was dancing like a small kindergarten kid who just finished his school and is running towards the way to his home. It was during this waltz of jubilation that he saw something dangling off his computer table. When he further examined it more closely he realized that it the broadband cable. He immediately called his mother to ask if the maid had cleaned the room again.

”It’s not the maid. The broadband cable guy visited again. He wanted to check whether the fault with the connection is fixed or not. He may have left it unplugged.” said his mother.

“Fault, what fault?” Ravi enquired.

“The fault they are trying to recover from last 2 days. Our complex is not receiving the broadband services.”

“What are you talking about? I am using the net now and I used it yesterday also.” Ravi retorted.

“I don’t know then. Maybe the fault is finally fixed. I don’t care Ravi. I have got other works to do. Anyway, I never understood these computers and internets of yours.”

Ravi was in a shock. He cannot believe what he just heard. At that very moment the chime came again.

“Niz: BUZZ”

“Niz: Tell me the venue…smarty…and tell me what u want me to wear.”

Ravi was horrified. He just stared at the message and then back again at his hand holding the broadband cable. His hand was shaking and he started sweating. An earsplitting thunder struck outside his window and the speakers chimed again.

“Niz: I love you Ravi…I really do…oh!...u don’t know how I am feeling”

“Niz: :)”