'Tonight is the night of love...'
Rivu declared huskily over the mouthpiece...
'Come ye callers! I'm waiting to hear your stories of love...'
He said before announcing the number to which one can vent one's stories.
Twelve thirty...
The digital clock on the wall showed the time in red dots.
Rivu looked at the console and to pep up the tempo of the night talk and song show, he chose Elton John's greatest hits.
'Come ye all you lovers...you might be young...you might be old...but there's a lover sure within you...'
He whispered again...spreading the vibes.
Soon the line rang. It was one Debapratim from Dum Dum.
'Hi! Debapratim! how was your exam?'
Rivu asked, in an all knowing vein.
Debapratim from Dum Dum is one of those frequent callers who usually hook into the f.m. channel whenever they can...they are real jabbers...Rivu loves to talk to them no doubt but tonight he wants someone new...a new voice...a fresh one...telling fresh stories...of life...of love...
So...he did not allow the conversation on air for more than three minutes, cutting in by a love song, quite hurriedly.
'I feel it in my fingers...I feel it in my toes...love is all around me...and so the feeling grows...'
Rivu clicked on the console to play this number by WET WET WET.
'Who's there?'
He asked with practiced elan seeing the light blinking on the phone.
'Hi...I'm Shreyoshi...from Ultadanga...'
Another frequenter...Rivu thought.
'Hi Shreyoshi...how are you? a long time after...'
Rivu continued.
'Yea...Rivu da...a long time after...actually went to my aunt's place...at Bangalore...there...actually met someone...and my god! you can't believe it...I'm head over heels!'
Shreyoshi gushed.
Rivu distinctly remembered on the last pre-valentine day show Shreyoshi gushed exactly in the same manner about another boy whom she had probably met in Delhi.
Some people love so much to fabricate stories...but no harm's done as long as they keep the show running.
Rivu thought and actually allowed Shreyoshi to gush more on air...in fact he helped her to embellish her story by supplying occasional anecdotes and innuendos.Shreyoshi surely enjoyed that for she kept on talking more...taking more than allotted five minutes, which Rivu usually allows a caller.
A few more callers chipped in with their stories of love- discovered...uncovered...supplanted...replaced...vanished...whatever...it be...
At five minutes to one, Rivu was unsure whether he would take another caller in...the last caller of his song and talk show.
He looked at the phone. It was lying dumb.
He looked at the console.
'Lady in red' was being played.
Lady in Red...
Rivu remembered this song being played at a party. He had been dancing with his girl...the girl who had come to his life like a meteor and went away like that.
The girl...with an oval face...soft pink hue over lips...that night she was so beautiful...
Rivu got into a hibernation of sorts.
Just then the phone blinked...at first he thought shouldn't take the call...he looked at the glowing digital watch across the shaft. It was only three to one.
What's the use of taking in a caller for only three minutes?
But then...it might be that last fascinating call! that last call of the programme which could turn it into something avant-grade! something really exceptional...
'Hi there! who's my last caller of the night?'
Rivu asked, kind of tired though, almost yawning.
'Hi...'
A female voice reciprocated.
'Yes...who are you? our programme is almost at the end...so please vent your idea out about love...madam...whoever you are...'
Rivu implored, thinking the last caller to be one first timer who has no knowledge of how to talk on air in a radio show, feeling nervous all the time...
'Yeah...I wish to keep my name undisclosed...will it do?'
The female voice asked politely, faltering a bit.
'Err...yes...you can...now tell us about your love...'
Rivu pressed the fast forward button.
'Well...to me...love to me... is like a dance with my partner...actually...that is the long standing memory I got of my love...dancing with him almost half through a December chilly night on a terrace of one of my friend's party specially thrown for me at that time...for I would be leaving for another country the next day...all my friends were in a happy mood...they were sad also perhaps...but my man...he was not a man even then, to speak rationally...just a love sick kid...who could never express himself thoroughly...we danced...I looked at his eyes...they were glistening...his eyes had all the yearning... I thought he would at one point ask me not to go away...but he didn't...he allowed me to go...he sacrificed himself...and by doing so he proved his love even more strong...'
The lady stopped, her voice quavered almost to a choke.
Rivu said nothing.
He just looked at the number on the phone's caller id display.
25587098...
Two Five Five Eight Seven Zero Nine Eight...
He mumbled unconsciously the number...
Is she back?
His girl?
Rivu thought hard...he thought...fully perplexed...
But by that time the woman hung up and that Chris de Burgh song had also stopped.
Rivu declared huskily over the mouthpiece...
'Come ye callers! I'm waiting to hear your stories of love...'
He said before announcing the number to which one can vent one's stories.
Twelve thirty...
The digital clock on the wall showed the time in red dots.
Rivu looked at the console and to pep up the tempo of the night talk and song show, he chose Elton John's greatest hits.
'Come ye all you lovers...you might be young...you might be old...but there's a lover sure within you...'
He whispered again...spreading the vibes.
Soon the line rang. It was one Debapratim from Dum Dum.
'Hi! Debapratim! how was your exam?'
Rivu asked, in an all knowing vein.
Debapratim from Dum Dum is one of those frequent callers who usually hook into the f.m. channel whenever they can...they are real jabbers...Rivu loves to talk to them no doubt but tonight he wants someone new...a new voice...a fresh one...telling fresh stories...of life...of love...
So...he did not allow the conversation on air for more than three minutes, cutting in by a love song, quite hurriedly.
'I feel it in my fingers...I feel it in my toes...love is all around me...and so the feeling grows...'
Rivu clicked on the console to play this number by WET WET WET.
'Who's there?'
He asked with practiced elan seeing the light blinking on the phone.
'Hi...I'm Shreyoshi...from Ultadanga...'
Another frequenter...Rivu thought.
'Hi Shreyoshi...how are you? a long time after...'
Rivu continued.
'Yea...Rivu da...a long time after...actually went to my aunt's place...at Bangalore...there...actually met someone...and my god! you can't believe it...I'm head over heels!'
Shreyoshi gushed.
Rivu distinctly remembered on the last pre-valentine day show Shreyoshi gushed exactly in the same manner about another boy whom she had probably met in Delhi.
Some people love so much to fabricate stories...but no harm's done as long as they keep the show running.
Rivu thought and actually allowed Shreyoshi to gush more on air...in fact he helped her to embellish her story by supplying occasional anecdotes and innuendos.Shreyoshi surely enjoyed that for she kept on talking more...taking more than allotted five minutes, which Rivu usually allows a caller.
A few more callers chipped in with their stories of love- discovered...uncovered...supplanted...replaced...vanished...whatever...it be...
At five minutes to one, Rivu was unsure whether he would take another caller in...the last caller of his song and talk show.
He looked at the phone. It was lying dumb.
He looked at the console.
'Lady in red' was being played.
Lady in Red...
Rivu remembered this song being played at a party. He had been dancing with his girl...the girl who had come to his life like a meteor and went away like that.
The girl...with an oval face...soft pink hue over lips...that night she was so beautiful...
Rivu got into a hibernation of sorts.
Just then the phone blinked...at first he thought shouldn't take the call...he looked at the glowing digital watch across the shaft. It was only three to one.
What's the use of taking in a caller for only three minutes?
But then...it might be that last fascinating call! that last call of the programme which could turn it into something avant-grade! something really exceptional...
'Hi there! who's my last caller of the night?'
Rivu asked, kind of tired though, almost yawning.
'Hi...'
A female voice reciprocated.
'Yes...who are you? our programme is almost at the end...so please vent your idea out about love...madam...whoever you are...'
Rivu implored, thinking the last caller to be one first timer who has no knowledge of how to talk on air in a radio show, feeling nervous all the time...
'Yeah...I wish to keep my name undisclosed...will it do?'
The female voice asked politely, faltering a bit.
'Err...yes...you can...now tell us about your love...'
Rivu pressed the fast forward button.
'Well...to me...love to me... is like a dance with my partner...actually...that is the long standing memory I got of my love...dancing with him almost half through a December chilly night on a terrace of one of my friend's party specially thrown for me at that time...for I would be leaving for another country the next day...all my friends were in a happy mood...they were sad also perhaps...but my man...he was not a man even then, to speak rationally...just a love sick kid...who could never express himself thoroughly...we danced...I looked at his eyes...they were glistening...his eyes had all the yearning... I thought he would at one point ask me not to go away...but he didn't...he allowed me to go...he sacrificed himself...and by doing so he proved his love even more strong...'
The lady stopped, her voice quavered almost to a choke.
Rivu said nothing.
He just looked at the number on the phone's caller id display.
25587098...
Two Five Five Eight Seven Zero Nine Eight...
He mumbled unconsciously the number...
Is she back?
His girl?
Rivu thought hard...he thought...fully perplexed...
But by that time the woman hung up and that Chris de Burgh song had also stopped.
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