Anandita seemingly was in love with him but he did not believe in love. He thought of love as just electrical impulses and chemical reactions in the brain but Anandita had left no stone unturned to let him know she liked him. They had met on a social network and had started talking soon after. They used to bitch about others on that social network, talk about universe and travel. He believed in transcation two people fulfilling each others needs and she was searching for her prince charming. his dark persona on the network attracted her and unlike him she was honest except for one thing, her weight. She was overweight and she hid it from him, why to reveal my only kryptonite in front of him, she thought. He was in his own world, thinking about the philosophies that run the world and thought of Anandita as a source of fulfilling his needs. We are giving each other what we need and that's enough, he used to think to himself. They kept talking, countless hours, and Anandita had started weaving the dreams of them being together. He was content talking to her but he wanted more, how strange for a man who thought of love as just electrical impulses and chemical reactions in the brain. He was about to fall in love and know that love is not what he thought of it to be, it was way more than that. He met Moushumi on the same network he met Anandita on. Do you know how a person feels when he is extremely thirsty and finds a lake of sweet water after walking miles in the scorching Sun? This was what he felt when he met Moushumi. He realized that it doesn't matter if love was just chemical reactions and electrical impulses in the brain. Moushumi made him realise that there was something in him that he didn't know even existed. He used to talk to Anandita about the universe but with Maushumi it was like a perpetually flowing galaxy of mishti doi connected their souls together. But he was arrogant and didn't want to give up on his beliefs, and yet he made an exception for Moushumi. He lied to Moushumi just as Anandita had hidden her kryptonite from him. He did not tell her that he was not as cool as his network persona. Moushumi worked in one of the biggest media corporations in the country and he was just a son of a farmer who wanted to be a writer. He never realized that he did not even need to tell this to Anandita, she never asked, it did not matter to her, and he never realized how rare it is to get a woman who doesn't care about a man's social standing. He was just too busy with Moushumi because she had made him a whole different person and he liked what he was when he was with her. He was unaware that he was about to wake up from this beautiful dream. And so it happened. Anandita and Moushumi started talking to each other and he, unbeknownst of this event, kept talking to both of them, Anandita, because it was a habit by now and Moushumi, because he was in love. One day Anandita told Maushumi whom he was in love with, the coolest guy on the network. It was a rude awakening for Moushumi who thought she was in love but she did not tell anything to Anandita. He was going to pay for breaking her trust in ways he can't imagine in his worst nightmares. She was a mediaperson and it was not hard for her to gather information about someone she had known only on a network and by phone calls but she decided to confront him for once. She called him and inquired about Anandita, he taken by surprise didn't know how to respond and he snapped at her and disconnected the call, he had suddenly realized that he was just a son of a farmer who faked coolness on social media behind a made up character and Moushumi was an actual big deal. he thought he will go offline for a while and talk to Maushumi when things calm down a little bit. He deactivated his social profiles and blocked Maushumi's number, and thought he will get in touch with her and resume that unprecedented romance when she calms down a bit. On Maushumi's side, this was never going to happen.
Abhay was lying on a cot at his farm holding a smartphone. His network persona was his only relief from the drab farm life. He dreamt of becoming a writer and did all sorts of cool writer tricks on the network, he wrote poetry, microfiction and clever oneliners on the network, and it was the same network he had met Anandita and Maushumi. He was unaware of what was about to happen to him and Anandita was as relentless as ever, Maushumi has started talking to him again but the romance did not had the spark as before. it didn't matter to him, he loved her and that's all that mattered to him. He thought he will get her on same page again, the mishti doi galaxy was not flowing again between the souls but he had his own mishti doi galaxy intact and thought Maushumi is just angry for a while and it will all be alright. There was a good news too, he was accepted for a job in a publishing firm in Indraprastha City, the city in which both Maushumi and Anandita lived and he was about to get a break from this boring farm life of his small town and actually live and work in a big city.
The day arrived. He reached Indraprastha City and the first person he called was Anandita. He couldn't call Moushumi, because he was self-conscious. She was a big deal for him. But Anandita, he had always taken her for granted, she was his friend, a friend with whom he can share everything. Everything, except love. In IP City, Anandita did everything for him, from settling him down in a new house to shopping for grocery and daily needs. They made love too, of course him thinking that he was fulfilling her needs by doing that. In the meantime he kept texting Maushumi the most romantic songs he could find. He was busy in his job in the day and in the evening he and Anandita went wandering around the city, Anandita showing him wonders of a big city. The life was good. he was dreaming of meeting Maushumi and winning her over so that they can live happily ever after.
One day he was working at his office and police arrived there. They went straight into his boss's office. He was wondering the reasons of the arrival of police when the boss called him in his office. He adjusted his tie and entered the door of his boss's cabin shutting the glass door behind him. "Are you Abhay Anand?" the police inspector asked him. "Yes," he replied trying to make sense of the situation. "You have to come with us," the inspector said to him very rudely. "But why?" he asked becoming more and more incoherent. "You will know," the inspector said with almost as much rudeness as before. Abhay looked at his boss. There eyes met and his boss said, "I did not expect this from you." Abhay felt the blood leaving his face and his palms tuned clammy instantly. He knew something was very very wrong. He decided to go with Inspector without uttering a word further because he knew that he was not able to speak. He thought what is the worse that can happen to a normal person like him, he has never even hurt a fly in his life. The police put him in the van and brought him to the police station. He saw two men in suits were sitting and waiting at the inspector's desk. They saw him entering the Inspector's office with the inspector, looked and him and then inquired, "Is he the guy?" "Yes," the inspector said.
The inmate number 1268 was called upon, someone had come to meet him. This was Central Jail of IP city and someone had come to meet inmate number 1268. Abhay, now bearded and his hair disheveled, walked towards the meeting room. His eyes were dead from the torture Intelligence Bureau and National Investigation Agency had inflicted on him for the past 2 years. Two month ago the court convicted him of being one of the masterminds of a Bomb Blast in Ramnagar in which 37 people had lost their lives. For the court he was Ashfaq, a muslim convert working for Islamic State. Everyone believed the police, even his own parents, everyone except, Anandita. She still brought him homemade lunch every Saturday and today was the Saturday. He entered the meeting room and was shocked to see Maushumi. "Hi there handsome," she smiled at him. Memories of Maushumi came flooding in his brain but he was just too tired to smile. All he felt was relief. Relief that Maushumi was still here. He sat on the chair facing Maushumi and looked at her, not speaking at all. Maushumi looked at him and smiled again. "Do you know how easy for media people is to prove someone a terrorist especially when they have relatives in the intelligence?" She clicked her tongue and spoke again, "And you know what happens when a small town gawar farmboy tries to trap a rich big town girl?" She said looking into his now dead eyes. "I will leave you with these two thoughts, farmboy". She let out a laugh and left the room leaving him staring at the window of the meeting room where he could see Anandita waiting in a line with a tiffin box in her hand.
