Do u know me?? Part-2

It took me sometime to regain my composure. And they being the nice people that they are, patiently waited for me to say something, talking to each other, probably to decide what they could do with the alien in their house. I knew I had to quickly think of something convincing enough to prove them that I belong there.

It was no rocket science; it was much more than that.

I could tell them everything I had known about them for last so many years, the various incidents, and the things which only a close friend would know, I thought. Bingo, came back my smile. And I narrated each and everything I knew about them. Right from their family origins to their mobile numbers, from their electricity bill of the last month to the salary that they were currently earning.

I thought I would tell one of them his ATM pin number. But then I resisted myself from doing that, fearing that they might misunderstand me as some well trained thief with a foolproof plan to loot them. (I wonder, what made me fear that, they were no Bill Gates!!).

I told them about the various trips we had been to and the fun we had there. They of course remembered all the trips but all without NIKET. And when I suddenly told one of them the folder path where he kept all the xxx movies in his laptop, he had his mouth wide open!

They were stunned to hear the things from me. And one of them touched me again to re check if I actually was a human and not some ghost or some soul residing at their house for long. I asked them to ask me questions, the answers for which only they knew amongst themselves. The kind of secrets only friends know about each other. Like, say the first kiss. The 1st, 2nd, 3rd,... nth crush that they have had on various girls right from their school to office days. And lot of other stuff.


They started shooting crazy questions.

"Tell me if I smoke".

"Tell what we had in dinner last night".

"Who all drink here"?

"Tell my ex's name". Blah... Blah... Blah...

100/100 was my score at the end of around an hour session. (How I wished it would have been my CAT score). They had rather taken more time to frame questions than I took to answer them.

"He is either following us for the last ten years or he is our friend for years", declared one of them, with a dazed expression on his face. "And obviously the former cannot be possible".

"Now that he knows us as much as we do about each other, we have no other option but to believe him for the moment".

"But that does not solve the problem. We still need to know, that, if he belongs here, why none of us remembers him. Why do his parents refuse to recognize him? Or why we do not see even a single stuff here that belongs to him, except for his own body and the clothes wrapped around him", said one of them with an expression, as if suggesting he was there for the auditions for the role of James Bond.

They had just started believing me bit by bit. I could see three muddle-headed persons in front of me. Their body language had a lot of confusion coupled with sympathy towards me. The strange fact that "I have been erased from everyone's memory" had just started sinking in. And all my mind was thinking now, was of a way out.

They left me in my room, one by one, probably giving me some time to think. (But they made sure that they had an eye on me all the time.) Sitting on the bed, I kept on thinking for long time till i fell asleep.

"Lonely, i am so lonely, I have no body..." - my cell phone ringtone woke me up suddenly with a jolt. But it was not working sometime back, as far as I remember! How was that possible?


"Unknown calling..." the display prompted. I kept on looking at the phone and did not have the courage to recieve the call. The call went silent after a while. I was frightened.

I looked around, trying to make sure that I was not dreaming. I picked my phone and saw that it was dead blank as before. What is it!? My perplexed mind thought. I got up to check out if those three were there around. And there I saw my slippers, right where I left them last, next to my bed!!!

"Woo-hoo..." was my reaction with my eyes wide open (As if I had just found a lost diamond back!!). I quickly went out to the hall and checked the other room. But I did not find anyone there. They would have left for office probably. But how could have they left me, a stranger to them, in their house just like that. Was something wrong again? It could not have been. The worst had already happened, I thought.

I kept standing there wondering what to do, when suddenly I realized how silent the surroundings were. I checked the clock on the wall which showed 2:00 PM. There was absolutely no noise from outside. I came out of the house and what i saw were deserted streets. I could see the shops open but no people around. I could see the different vehicles parked on the road side, but not even one moving on the road.


There was not a single living soul around. No human beings, no animals and no birds. I had my heart in my mouth out of fear. And with so much silence around, all I could hear were my heart beats. I ran back inside and came to my room. Slowly I could see my belongings(which were missing earlier) in my room. I took no more than 10 seconds to open and check my cupboard. I was both relieved and bewildered to see all my possessions back in there. My clothes, my laptop and my books, just everything were there placed as they should have been.

It was getting scarier. I felt like I was the only creature on the whole earth. The city was dead silent. And the silence was broken by my phone ring again. "Unknown Calling..." again.

I just kept gazing at it and mustered all my courage to answer the call.

"Hello...!"

"Hello, who is this"?

"Hello Niket. I am sorry; I cannot describe who exactly I am. And to be honest, it does not matter."

"What does that mean? Where are you calling up from? Is it because of you that I see no one around me right now? Who are you? Come on tell me. My phone was not even switched on. Then how is it that you could call me up?"

"Calm down Niket. Calm down. Sit down comfortably on the bed. And take a deep breath. Stop worrying and relax. I am not going to harm you in anyway. I am here to talk to you, to bring you out of your problems. All you have to do is to trust me and listen to me patiently."

It’s amazing how someone who was not even ready to share his identity, was asking me to trust him in finding my way out of the zillions of problems I was in.

"Alright go ahead", I asked him to.

"You agreed because you anyways do not have any other option. Is it not?? But that is fine with me. I shall come straight to the point."


"So Niket, when was the last time you talked to your father?"

(Hmmm!! Two weeks back or maybe more than that. But how does that matter.)

"When was the last time you expressed your respect and care towards him?"

"Can you remember a few instances out of many, when you were rude to your friends for no reason?"

"Do you think that not talking nicely with small people around you, is something you were taught in your childhood?"

"And when was it that you went ahead and told people that you love them"?

"Niket, you are good at heart. And you love your parents, your friends and all your close ones. You know that well. But have you ever given it a thought to express it to them?"

(Is it not obvious that they will know it, I thought again!!)

"No, it’s not obvious, Niket. You need to express it. You love someone, you tell him/her in words along with your actions."

"Every time you do something wrong and every time you miss telling someone how much you actually love and care for them, you lose a part of your existence. And this is how you lose your being gradually. Once you have committed your fair share of mistakes, your existence is erased. You are wiped out off everyone's memory. And now, though you are not dead, you do not exist even when you actually do."

"Humans are prone to mistakes. But they ought to realize it. "Making a mistake" is not a mistake, but "not realizing it" is. And so time and again, everyone gets this wake up call to make them realize what wrong they are doing. Little beautiful things that they are missing in their only life. To make them realize how life is about just loving the right ones, respecting and caring for your close ones and not about hating anyone for their deeds. You live only once, and you ought to make the most out of it."

"Everyone gets this wakeup call and only a few are given the option of remembering it throughout their life. So they can share it with others. Making them realize the things that they should be."

"You are one among them. The chosen one. Why You? Do not ask me that. But now that you have been chosen to remember this incident, I would want you to share your experience with others. And as it might turn out to be, most of them will label you as Mad. But as i told you before, you ignore them. Because life is too short to make impressions on everyone."

"Now you decide either to share it for the benefit of others. Or, you keep it to yourself with the fear of people not believing it and labeling you mad. The choice is yours."

"I am done and I would take off. And, I am happy that you listened to me patiently and would be happier to see you changing a few things about the way you were living your life."

"Love people and let them love you. Stay happy, so that you can keep others happy. Take care boy."

"hello... err... But at least tell me who are you?".

"hello?? hellooooo??"

No one answered. I looked at my phone and it was switched on. I could suddenly hear the noises outside. I could hear the vehicular movements out on the road. I just kept sitting on my bed for some time to realize how things around were looking pretty normal unlike few minutes back. It was as if, I just came out of a pause in my life.

I called up my parents and was relieved to hear them talking to me the way they normally do. My eyes were filled with tears while talking to them. My mom kept on asking me "why is it that you are crying beta”? And all I could say was that I was missing them. I told them how much I love them and it was amazing to feel the immense happiness that they had in their voice in response.


I was now (im)patiently waiting for my friends to come back home, so that I could be sure of getting back my existence, the way I was finding my stuff back at my house.

Things started settling down with each passing minute and with everyone back to home, talking to me like a friend, I was relieved and happy more than anything else. It looked like I had peace and tranquility back in my life.

It’s strange the way it takes so much for us to realize the importance of relationships in life. The importance of love and other little things in it. I kept reminding myself, the things told to me by the unknown caller. And for the next few days, I kept calling and meeting people I love the most, along with my normal schedule work.

And then one fine day, I sat down to write this blog, to share it all with you.
Not to teach you lessons that I (Niket) learnt. But to tell you that how much I love you for all the little ways you have touched my life.

Love you all. Thanks for being there.