It happened on our excursion to Kerala. We were sipping
toddy in the coconut grove playing “ Truth or Dare “ – the game that’s best
played when drunk. The dark clouds that we were intentionally ignoring till
then broke out to a heavy downpour. We ran towards our resort. No one saw my
mobile slip from my pocket. The thunderstorm raged for 2 hrs. I came back with
Latika to look for my phone praying that it was water resistant as they claimed
and that it had survived the thunderstorm. The coconut tree under which we had
been sitting had been struck by lightning and my phone was nowhere near. Just
when I was about to give up, Lathika found it with the display ‘battery low’.
Lathika ‘s my best friend and roommate. We knew each other’s
worst secrets and stood for each other. Lathika’s the feminist, the college
adored. When she believed in a cause,
nothing on earth could shake her. She took classes for the poor kids in the
neighbourhood on weekends. Her only weakness was that she
believed people easily. She couldn’t judge a person even when they showed her
their worst. A week later, back in Delhi, we were getting ready to go out for
our late night “Vada Pav”, when it happened. I turned on the flashlight on my
phone and waited for Lathika to show up.
She came out and started looking around calling my name. When I asked
her to shut up shouting at the top of her voice as I was right beside, a look
of horror came on her face. She turned to sped back, but I turned off my flashlight
, held her hand and asked what had happened. She stammered and I could vaguely
make out that she couldn’t see me anywhere earlier. Attributing it to her poor
sight, we started walking. When the flashlight was turned on again, she
screamed. She said she couldn’t see me. Now even I couldn’t see my legs. After
a few minutes, we figured out that
whenever I turned my flashlight on, it made me invisible.
Running back to room, we began analyzing my phone s weird behavior.
We concluded that probably when the lightening struck, the phone had absorbed
its power and that when the flashlight was used, this could be utilized. The
lightning is so blinding that its beginning can never be seen when it strikes.
Also, looking at it, one can never see anything else around for a while.Since
it used the lightning’s power, the souce, the phone couldn’t be seen and the
wavelength transmitted is too high for normal eyesight to observe. Also, when switched on, it makes only living beings
within its 1m radius invisible because of the thermal radiation emitted and
anything covered in white- White being the colour that reflects light, refects
it off the surface and hence even other objects are made invisible. We decided to
keep it our little secret. Soon, we were having fun.
We would conduct magic shows for the kids she taught, sit
quietly and listen when the gossip gang gets together, bunk classes after giving attendance (leaving the teacher
confused whether we were actually there)… We were up to date on the latest
gossips and everyone’s dirtiest secrets and considered ourselves to be the
coolest. Lathika, meanwhile ran for the college Student body Presidential
Elections. The tide was in her favour. One of the major opposition was Rohan
Sinha, the minister’s son. Everyone secretly hated him for harassing and
bullying other fellow students but no one had the guts to stand up to him.
We were all preparing in the eleventh minute for our final
exams the next day, when Lathika got a message from Rohan to meet him to
discuss regarding the election manifesto. Having slept right on my book,I woke
up to see terror stricken Rashi s face. She stammered that Lathika had been raped a few hrs ago and was now lying unconscious
in hospital. I rushed to her only to find that she had been beaten and had
bruises all over her body and that the police had no clue regarding the
culprits responsible. I searched for her phone to use it as an evidence against
Rohan only to find that it had been smashed into smithereens. I was overcome with rage.
Dressed in a white salwar, I used my phone s invisibility
mode and entered Rohan’s room. He was boasting to his gang that he had taken
care of Lathika and that now his victory will be unanimous. After a few drinks,
his friends left leaving him alone in his single room. Using the Mimic App that
imitates a person ‘s voice whatever be the text typed, I called out his name in
Lathika’s voice. He floundered around the room trying to get sober. I used the knife on his table to give him a cut in his arms to prove he wasn’t
dreaming. I told him that I’ll make him bleed to death. He ran out like a
maniac and went to the police who were investigating below and confessed to the
rape and submitted his mobile as evidence. I saw them take him away from
Lathika’s hospital window. Her blood pressure was slowly returning to normal and the doctor assured us that she will
be alright soon.
When Lathika bounced back, she was stronger than before. We
both knew that things will never be the same. We no longer used the mobile for
silly pranks or for listening in on gossips. We knew that using it, we can use
it to get evidence where justice was pending, to disguise ourselves and follow
guys who lure naïve girls and teach them a lesson, to restore faith by gifting
money anonymously to the poor in the hospitals.. I now understood there was a
reason, it was my phone that got the
superpower that day.
