Mobile dating

They say empty mind is a devil’s workshop. It was none the more true for Shyam as he idled away his spare time playing mobile games. One really could not have blamed him, for he was having vacations from college and there was nothing for him to do. Then suddenly, he saw a little icon on the bottom right corner of his mobile screen in which the sim card specific services could be availed. Upon selecting it, he was amazed by the plethora of services which he could avail, ranging from downloading games, ringtones, logos, screensavers and much more. There he saw a small heading- Dating. Naturally Shyam was excited. Anyone who has never even talked to a girl would be excited on the prospect of ambiguous dating. After all, it is only here that he could pass any lewd comment on any girl and still get away with it as the other person did not have any trace of his. He selected the option. The next steps asked him to enter various details like his user name, first three letters of his city and his age group of ‘choice’. Shyam smiled inwardly at the idea of actually choosing a girl for dating. He loved his service provider for providing such a wonderful service.

He sent a message which yielded him a list (he called it menu) of girls who were supposedly dying to meet him. At least that was the perception in the twisted mind of his. He chose one name he liked- vanita, and sent her a cheesy message

Hi darling! Wanna meet me tonight?

In real life, had he dared to say this to a complete stranger, he would have been slapped, first by the girl, then by the bystanders and then by her relatives. But here, he was completely safe, shrouded by the covers of ambiguity that this service provided. He didn’t get a reply for the whole day. Naturally he was disappointed. Soon, he forgot about the mobile and his brief brush with dating.

However, a surprise awaited him the next day as he opened his inbox and saw five messages from vanita:

Yes darling!

Waiting for you tonight!

Be my boyfriend!

My love! I wanna share a secret!

I am gonna die tomorrow! Gonna commit suicide! Only you know it!

The last message blew the lights off Shyam. The first four messages indicated some great deal of fun for him, but the last one simply chilled his mind. That girl, whose real name he didn’t even know, was going to commit suicide and she was telling that to him, whom she has never seen or has never talked with! Somehow, Shyam felt responsible for the girl. After all, he was the only one in whom she had confided what was perhaps her darkest secret. He decided he would try his best to save the girl. He messaged her again:

Darling! Won’t you meet me once before you die? Wanna see your face!

He knew that such a bait could lure any girl. He hoped get atleast some response from vanita. Unfortunately, he didn’t get any. He then decided to try to talk with the company. Perhaps they had any trace of the girl.
He went straight to a service outlet and related his problem. They replied straightaway that they could not help him as he could be a stalker out to harm their client. No matter how hard Shyam tried to convince them, they didn’t budge. Finally, tired of his pestering, one of them told him to contact their head office in Mumbai. Shyam talked to the executive there and related the seriousness of the situation. He repeatedly told that he was no stalker and that he only wanted to save vanita. The executive finally relented and asked Shyam to give his mobile number and said that he would contact Shyam if any details about vanita are found. Also, he thanked Shyam for allowing them to help him. Shyam cursed under his breath.

Time ticked on. No information about the girl had yet reached Shyam. He was desperate, but was totally helpless. What had started out as a pastime had become a matter of life and death for someone with Shyam strangely playing the part of a middleman. The whole day passed without anyone notifying Shyam. He helplessly went to sleep with a feeling of having betrayed the trust someone had put in him.

The next day, Shyam was a part of almost all the newspapers, but not in a way he would have wanted. The papers didn’t show him smiling or lauded him for saving an unknown girl’s life, as he would have wanted, but rather showed his dead body, with wailing relatives all around. The papers screamed only one headline
19 YEAR BOY COMMITS SUICIDE UNDER MYSTERIOUS CIRCUMSTANCES

The police investigation that followed threw up some startling facts. Shyam, who was a second year medical student, was taking therapy for Dissociative Identity Disorder or DID, which is commonly known as split personality disorder.
His doctor told the police that Shyam was actually a mix of two people, a boy named Shyam and a girl named vanita. It had so happened that in his first year, the seniors had ragged him by asking him to pose as a girl complete with sari, bindi et al. they called him vanita which was the name of a girl he liked in school. That was the reason of him suffering from DID. He was Shyam in the day and vanita at night. This ‘vanita’ even had a separate mobile number of her own. The reason for Shyam/vanita’s suicide was not clear, but was attributed to the fact that the ‘vanita’ side of Shyam’s personality was too emotionally disturbed and wanted to end her life. Unfortunately, she even took the life of the person whose body she occupied- Shyam.