No Reply

Jack was standing in front of a shiny BMW car. It's a black car, and the glass was also black. The raindrops falling on the windshield was looking awesome.

"Damn, the wiper dude'll have a tough time wiping off the raindrops tonight".

"Hmm...can I even call the wiper a dude? Dunno..could be yes"

Okay, enough of self talking, thought Jack. He remembered, there used to be a proverb in English, that'd say raining cats and dogs. But modern English has progressed, and cats and dogs got substituted by Torrents. Does it have any resemblance with bittorrents? Who knows? Who cares? Don't be afraid of the elements, said the commercial. But once his faithful M65 got exposed to water, and the cell phone hanged. It's kinda irritating. As if Bill Gates wasn't enough, with the damned blue screen error. The blue screen error goes away with Windows XP, and now comes hang-incidents in cellphones! A deep breath escaped himself. The sigh was a tribute to a longtime, retired friend--the 3310 that is now resting in peace, safely deposited inside the confines of the last drawer of the cabinet.

"It served me well. In sleep, I slapped it off the bed. It fell down with a bomb-dropping noise, and yet it was working. It was faithful in waking me up, with the repeat alarms. The vibrator never failed--5 years have passed, and it's still as good as a new handset.

But.......

"I was in a group gossip, and suddenly the blunt and ancient monophonic tone came out from my pocket. Joe was just in the middle of a good joke..people were just preparing for the "laughing" part..and then rang the phone. Suddenly I became the killjoy of the group. People started giving me weird looks".

The same thing got repeated again, in another occasion, and Jack got the new phone. Not being afraid of elements, Jack brought out his cell, and pressed the first few digits of the number that he has been dialling for the last 5 years. The first number he called was this same number. He thought "Hey, both of us are loyal customers. We are using the same number for 5 years. At least we got something in common". He pulled off this joke successfully, in multiple occasions. The thought brought smile in his face, perhaps for the first time in the whole evening.

3 hours, he thought. Standing in the rain, getting wet, and trying to reach that particular number. All in vain. He called the home number, and got the reply "She's not home, call later". He tried to reach the cell again, but heard the boring t-mobile voice.."Sorry, blah blah blah can't take your call now. After the tone, kindly leave a message or you can just hang up".

"Bitch...I know I can hang up"

Robert Bruce and the Spider Web story was no longer inspiring. He was drenched, from top to bottom. The cell was still in the warranty period, but he wondered whether he'll get a replacement/free servicing if they get to know that he deliberately let it get wet.

A car screeched by. A speeding Jag. There was a momentary vision blurring, due to the bright headlight. After the car got away, Jack found himself wet to another extent. The driver was kind enough to speed over a puddle of water, and the water was dynamic enough to jump up and attack him.

"Damn, I'm going home. Let Susanne and that BMW dude rot in hell"

"More water pouring down, or more water running down the drains?

More water pouring down, or more water getting lost in the form of tears?

More cats and dogs, or sorrow?"

He saw him get in, but he never saw him come out, and the cell was turned off. Maybe, forever? "5 years is a long time, and its about time I change my number, too."

This story is a tribute to the famous Beatles song, "No Reply". And as dheki shorge geleo dhan bhane, my story also has a lot of mobile stuff in it! Pardon me sire :D"