Missed Call - Home Sweet Home

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Series 6

She guessed it to be an early birthday wish from Priya in New York.
He kept watching how she had hold on to the hot burnt maize between her thin lips with a desperate attempt to open her leather bag and pull out her mobile. Her gestures were making his adrenal run faster than ever.

Sharmilee was awestruck. Her mobile display screen showed ‘Anurag Calling’ ….This contact detail was dormant for so long that it took a while to believe. She accepted the call and softly lifted the handset to her ear length. ….

- “Hi” – her greetings was as short as the first day. Anurag lost no time.
- “Can I have the pleasure of having you in my car? I am right here in-fornt of you.” – saying so he opened up the door of the chilled car.

Sharmilee slowly walked down - very unlike her hopping style that Anurag could recall. She peeped in once to see the man in the car. She couldn’t have expected destiny to offer any better a birthday gift. Only eyes can express what one feels to meet a special friend in an alien city.

It was more than marine breeze. They exchanged two years in twenty minutes. Anurag had more to say and unassumingly Sharmilee spoke less. Her belonging-ness with Mumbai was in a semi-baked state and hence she openly let Anurag steer the reunion. The car parked in-front of Apex apartment.

The ambiance was too new for her and so known to him. He wanted to make her feel at ease. It was still evening. Anurag was trying to kick off a communication which would make things easy to out-break. He slowly turned the audio system on. The two bedroom furnished apartment started reverberating the soft melody.

- “How did you like Mumbai?” – Anurag threw a wild card.
- “Lonely”
- “That is because you didn’t meet me.” Arurag sounded very romantic. He paused to reorganize with more vigour . Sharmilee was unprepared but didn't feel unpleasant. Some dark evenings are more promising than bright mornings!

“You must be tired after day long training”, saying so he pulled her to his casually laid bed room. “This is all yours!” - Anurag boldly offered.

Sharmilee’s confidence was building. The city was new but the man seemed the same old one. She gathered courage to be herself the one that Anurag may comprehend better.

With mystic gesture she became vocal - “Two years back you dared to close the door with me in the living room and here you say that your bedroom is mine?” - Sharmilee looked deep into his eyes.
- “I am grown-up!” - Anurag confessed.
- “Really?” - Sharmilee threw catalytic look.

Anurag stepped closer; it was centis, then milis and then nanos and finally it was the cork that busted off the bottle of too hot an emotion to handle. The sun was setting with a relief to have set free two hearts in divine pleasure.

That night she didn’t return to guest house. Even she didn’t return by train the next day. It was a remarkable birthday that Sharmilee celebrated in Mumbai with everything around her too special.

...Mumbai in some years became the best city in the country for her. Today this is the city which she calls her home, where she leaves with Anurag Gupta, Director of “Or Ek Peg” group of companies and Vasundhara - her two years old daughter who keeps busy playing with papa’s laptop and moves lips in faint attempts to whistle like mummum.

Yesterday, she curiously pressed Sharmilee’s mobile buttons and unknowingly made a call to Mr. Agnihotri – Anurag’s business partner. Agnihotri noticed this as a missed call, later in the day. It was only the next day morning when Sharmilee was lazily buttering the bread slice on the breakfast table that the door bell buzzed. She opened the door to see Agnihotri. Greeted him with a smile. In no time, Vasundhara came rushing from the dining room to join her mother.

Agnihotri gave a humorous look and lifted the toddler to say - "I received a missed call from your mother's phone yesterday . I thought you must be looking for me.." saying so he offered a box of chocolates ..and continued with a childish romanticism - "Do you need a mobile to call me ?"
Vasundhara nodded with innocence smudged on her face.

Sharmilee gave an embarrassed look being aware of what must have happened all in mischief. She invited her guest to join Anurag for a cup of tea over breakfast....

Delhi Kolkata Mumbai ..... Many more cities meet courtesy Sharmilees and Anurags of the world , breaking barriers and bias .. Missed Call - an ode to countless such home-makers..

Missed Call - Lost In Time

Story Board – Series 1 Series 2 Series 3 Series 4
Series 5
Two Years passed by. A call from the commercial capital of India to the capital of the country. This is what would be displayed on the call details of the itemized bill for Anurag. But for now it was an usual morning call between mother and son. Command and demand follows a very tricky lane in this relation which only a mother and a son can relate.

- “When do you plan to come down to Delhi?” – The voice was very accommodating.

- “Not sure ma” – Anurag said

- “Beta, it is long time and both of us feel you should get married” – a helpless mother continued.

- “You carry on with my bride hunt, sincerely I have no time". Anurag candidly replied.

Such answers do hurt his mother’s sentiments.To lighten her mood he put forward not so urgent an interrogation immediately.

- Did you go out to dine with papa yesterday?” – Anurag asked with added care in his voice.

- “No, but your Srivastav uncle had turned up yesterday. ……..” She opened up a can of stories, but what struck Anurag was the name Srivastav uncle.

Some names are tied to some more! Sharmilee’s smiling face flashed his mind. He fiddled with his mobile and pressed the joystick up and down the contact name – “Missed Call”.

Last night he had a terrible headache and had decided to take a day off. It was Diwali - a long weekend, a good break to rejuvenate. He lay off to sleep after a light lunch. In the master bedroom of the 21st floor of Apex Apartment, Mumbai, Anurag laid in deep sleep.

At other end of the city a training session just got over at Pentacle Building in the same city. It was organized by an upcoming organization that would open up call centers for counseling emotional conflicts. One among the trainee had put up at ‘Guest house’ for Auditors association in Bandra.

Tomorrow is her birthday. She would board Kolkata bound train the next evening and hence a very different birthday morning was expected – with no dear ones around. This city is new to her, as new as her printed salwar suit. With help from local people she took a bus to marine drive. That was a gift that she wanted to pamper herself with, on the eve of her birthday – a celebration that is planned later back at home. The sun was shimmering on the clear water which had no boundary. She recalled so many faces – standing all alone by the sea she was crowded with memories.

In the deep sleep…he was on the last but one ring of a tall ladder with colorful balloons all across. In an attempt to place his foot on the last ring he realized he had nothing to hold onto. His hands were groping in a vacuum and finally unable to balance. A nerve cracking feelings and he fell off the ladder deep down …..He woke up drenched in sweat. He sat five minutes on the bed and then to the wash room.

Anurag desperately wanted to refresh. Sat still for a while and then picked up the key. Left a compact apartment behind and stepped into the lift that headed for the underground garage. And finally set for a drive to the queens' necklace. Fresh salty breeze is the beauty of this city. He had been there in good and bad days to share lonely moments. Every time he has returned back - marine fresh.

He was driving slowly unlike other days. Unmindfully he cross-passed the road-side open van where a local vendor was selling burnt maize. A profile that he saw by the van bumped his reflex. He pressed the brake and carefully geared back.

Yes, he knew the girl busy paying off the vendor. A quick press on the mobile touch phone. Eyes were glued to observe her.

Look Fwd >> Series 6
Home sweet Home
She guessed it to be an early birthday wish from Priya in New York.

He kept watching how she had hold on to the hot burnt maize between her thin lips with a desperate attempt to open her leather bag and pull out her mobile. Her gestures were making his adrenal run faster than ever.

Sharmilee was awestruck. Her mobile display screen showed ‘Anurag Calling’ ….This contact detail was dormant for so long that it took a while to believe. She accepted the call and softly lifted the handset to her ear length.

Missed Call - Shakers and Movers

Story Board - Series1 Series 2 Series 3
Series 4

He lightly placed the laptop on her lap and kneels down by her to click the video clipping. A strange feeling was engulfing him - to be with a young lady in a semi dark room and sizzling movie ahead.

Yet the movie continued with both silently watching it together. Her broad beautiful eyes were steady during the ten minutes show. Her body was stiff with all resistance to any odd probability. Nothing unpleasant happened.

Watching men drinking Puff and turned on to feel women by their side - itself instigates basic instinct.

“Relax!” – It was Anurag’s turn; he thought somewhere he is on the winning side of the evening. “So any solution….?”
“Invite all spouses to your party, don’t take tension! Things are bound to be within control” – Sharmilee said in a cold tone.
“What?” – Anurag was unable to digest. Was it such easy a solution!
“What is your mobile no?”

Without any further thought he answered – “98……..”
Sharmilee was pressing the number buttons swiftly and finally made a call.

A common ringtone buzzed once and came to a sudden end.

“Don’t pick up – that is a missed call. Save my number. Call me whenever you have some work to share. “

Anurag didn’t know if the solution would work but he wanted to thank her for such a nice evening. He saw a new way to look at things – ‘out of box’ they say in books. It never clicked him.

“Anurag, l am getting late for the day. My parents are not at home and didi is busy chatting with my probable Jiju on hamarashadi.com. All non-sense talk! What is your favorite color and what is your favorite place – sea or hill? Stupid aren’t they?

Some string in Anurag’s dormant mind had resonated. He just said – “Yes”.

She picked up the last node and continued - “Next time when I feel like having a chat with you I would call you up. Don’t pick up the phone. Treat it as missed call. Step up to the roof – No fear of closing doors….” She paused for a while, took a long breath to give the last finishing comment – “And keep your problems in the laptop; don’t carry them to the rooftop….Bye”. The bundle of energy rolled down the steps.

While he stood once more behind the closed door life seemed to be refreshing than the evening shower, much more intoxicating than the open beer bottle, more promising than the launch of Puff ahead…..

Anurag saved the number as ‘Missed Call’ in his phone contact book.

The city was no more alien to Anurag. The other day he called his mother to say that he had been on a joy ride to second Hooghly Bridge. Only part of the story that was nicely crafted and hidden was he had Sharmilee with him. It was still a missed call friendship. The other day they were debating on what makes a city great to an individual?

Sharmilee said – “You love a place not because of the place but because of some people, some memories that you linger to cherish, associated with that place. “

Anurag was spellbound. He was no way prepared for the question next –

“When you would run from one city to the other spreading the enchantment of Puff, will you remember this City?”

Anurag could have spoken a lot, but he just said – “Yes”.

Little did he know that the very next week he had to bid a sudden farewell to the city and fly to Latin America? Memories of Kolkata, Vasundhara apartment, sunset by the Ganges, cricket match in Eden collected the dust of time and fresh pictures got clipped on the canvas of life. Contact Book still had a name – ‘Missed Call’. No call was made to this number.


Look Fwd >> Series 5
Lost in Time
Two Years passed by. A call from the commercial capital of India to the capital of the country. This is what would be displayed on the call details of the itemized bill for Anurag. But for now it was an usual morning call between mother and son. Command and demand follows a very tricky lane in this relation which only a mother and a son can relate.

- “When do you plan to come down to Delhi?” – The voice was very accommodating.
- “Not sure ma” – Anurag said
- “Beta, it is long time and both of us feel you should get married” – a helpless mother continued.
- “You carry on with my bride hunt, sincerely I have no time.” – Anurag candidly replied. Such answers do hurt his mother’s sentiments.
To lighten her mood he put forward not so urgent an interrogation immediately.
- Did you go out to dine with papa yesterday?” – Anurag asked with added care in his voice.
- “No, but your Srivastav uncle had turned up yesterday. ……..” She opened up a can of stories, but what struck Anurag was the name Srivastav uncle.

Some names are tied to some more!