When a Stranger Calls

• Venue – Boy’s Hostel(3rd year) ,No. –12
• Timing – around 11 pm ,December ,2009

KC , my 1st year roommate , comes to my room .He is a movie maniac. Whenever he entered my room  late at night , it was sure I had to watch a movie with him. That day he came with a pen drive and a movie in it. Without any discussion about which movie to watch , he plugged in the pen drive . It was horror movie name     “One Missed Call ”.
Movie was decided , so it was time to make room environment unfriendly for a horror movie. Lights were switched off , woofers were connected, door was shut and windows were opened as of making a bypass for spirits. Movie was started around 12 am .
Story was about a chain of people who received terrifying phone calls from themselves in the future in form of  voice mails that include the date and  exact time of their deaths. The death chain continues as the victim receives a call from the last victim. Some scenes were quite scary to have goose bumps. Well , the massage of movie was  “ Should you ever receive a phone call from yourself dated in the future , do not answer ! ”
The show  ended around 1:30 am ,and as usual it was time to have a brief discussion on it , the missing manual : what , why and how the  story proceeded in movie. The discussion went about one and a half hour, firing philosophy of ghosts by two of us .In the end I requested him to sleep on the bed next to me ,as ghosts of different shapes were performing ‘Tandava’ in my mind.
It was around 3 am ,when the silence in the room was pierced by nokia tune. My heart rose to my throat.It was an unknown call.  I looked at KC , he was also looking at me with his mouth open. He was in no mood of receiving the call , so I had to grasp it, answered “Hello” in a breathless voice.
“Is Sanjay there ? I want to talk with him”
came a girl’s voice from the other side. I took a sigh of relief, recalled, Is there any one named ‘Sanjay’ in my corridor : ‘No’ , Is there any one named ‘Sanjay’ in my branch of strength 30 boys : ‘No’.  I handed the phone to KC , thought, she might be looking for him. He stammered as he said “Hello” in a low tone.
“I want to talk with Sanjay , hand over the phone to him”
“Are Bengali phone rakhega, Sale ! sone do .”
 his irritation rasped in his voice as he hanged up the phone.
“He is ‘Bengali’ ,on the other side. He’s using some mobile app that is used to translate a male voice in a female one.I’ve seen it on TV”
 He explained to me that the person on the other side might be one of our batch mate “a bengali guy”. I thought he should be correct otherwise  my time was up as received a unknown call like seen in the movie. Meanwhile ,the phone ranged the second time, displaying same unknown number. I picked up again ,the same voice came
“Why don’t you let me talk with Sanjay ? Its urgent”
“There is nobody called ‘Sanjay’ here. Now, would you please stop ringing me at this time”  I replied.
“No, its urgent. I have some problems” she said again.
“Sanjay is nowhere present here, how can I hand over phone to him”
“OK, then you must help me . I am a 12th class student and I have some problem in solving H.C. Verma’s Physics book questions” she said like she had called in a Physics helpline center .
“Is this the time to ask  questions related to Physics , now , just get lost and let me sleep” I  replied in a harsh tone.
“you just get lost….” I could hear before hanging up for the second time.
 I looked at KC , who was about to leave my room because of disturbance. I pulled him back to bed ,as the phoned ranged for third time.
“Just help me to solve one question -   A man throws a ball with velocity 'u' and angle Θ,from a lift  which is moving upward with velocity ‘v’ .With what velocity does the ball touch the ground ?” she asked as I picked up the phone.
“OK its ‘v+u’ multiplied by cosΘ divided by under root sin2Θ plus 'u' by tanΘ” I replied in a random guess as KC was chuckling beside me.
“No, its not the answer , tell me the correct one.” she said after waiting for few seconds , might be checking the answer.
“Then I don’t know how to solve it . Now please hang the phone up and let me sleep , I have to attend morning sessions at College. If you have any more questions, call me in the morning.. no in the afternoon, I’ve classes in the morning.” I slammed down the phone without waiting for a response. Put the phone is silence and went bed thinking of that person who was more than just a scary ghost from the movie.

• Timing : around 8:30 am

I woke up , grasped the phone, looked at its screen. It displayed….
“+9197…….. 
39 missed calls” .