Call from the Dead

What would be your reaction if you receive a phone call on a fine morning from someone who was supposed to have died during an earlier period of time? You would be shocked with a shiver or you would at least go unconscious, wouldn’t you? Sometimes, a hilarious smile might sprout at the tips of your lips from the simple thought of some friends who are trying to give your feeble heart a chill in the morning. But, whatever be the fiction, the same was the experience that one of my good friends faced a few days before.

You know him by the name Ronnie Raj; he was the one who accompanied me while I was on my partly unwilling visits to the dirtiest bar in my previous city as described in my nostalgic post. You have also met him as a seeker of stories in the heavily applauded (?) Girl on Crutches. 

At the same bar, we had met one person, Sanand, who turned out to be a man with great knowledge and experience in arts, films, drama, writing, music, etc. Though a multi talented person, his growth was hindered only by his habit of non-stop drinking. 

One day (quite in recent times, after my shift to this new city), I happened to hear that sad news from Ronnie Raj – Sanand’s death. The death happened in night, when he was hit by a speeding car, while he was on his wobbly walk after the routine visit to the bar. A common friend of Ronnie Raj and Sanand found him in an unconscious state, and though he was admitted in the hospital, his life was not saved, so was I informed by Ronnie Raj. 

One day Ronnie Raj called me and informed with no introduction, in his usual style,

“Buddy, today morning I got a call from Sanand!”

“What?” I clutched on furniture in order to save myself from collapsing, “Wasn’t he…dead?”

“Yes, I was about to delete his number, thinking that I might not need his number any more. So when I saw a blinking ‘Sanand Calling’ on my mobile display, you could naturally guess my excitement”, he said.

Since he couldn’t hear any response from the other side of the phone except some agitated heavy breathing sound, he continued,

“It was a wrong information, which I received from our common friend. Sanad was hit by a vehicle and was unconscious, but he was not dead. Now back to life with added strength, that’s all.”

I had almost the same experience during my college days. At school I had two friends with the same name, Amal. One died in an accident when I joined college. His death shook my heart and I caught fever for two days. I shared my sadness to another friend who was with us during the school days. 

“Amal died?” he had difficulty in believing me.

One day when he went to shopping, he met Amal on the way. Surprisingly he asked,

“Amal, aren’t you dead?”

Later he came back and happily said, “buddy, don’t worry, Amal is not dead. I saw him and talked to him”.

“Which Amal you met? The tall one?”

“Yeah, Amal was tall, don’t you remember?” 

“Oh,” I said, “the dead Amal was the smaller one, who sat with me in the front bench”

After a few seconds silence, with a slight embarrassment, he said,

“Oh, I don’t remember that Amal”.