With each compose.

The first interaction

I bit my lips in contemplation as my fingers hovered over the "add friend" button.

Damn, only a seasoned writer could have touched so many shades of a simple topic in a few lines! and after 15 minutes of google surfing which even included the whole poem in the search bar because I craved to see the authenticity of the piece, I had to give credits to him as the sole writer.

"Rehan Purohit has added you as a friend, add him back!" pinged the notification.

I huffed a smile and quickly added him back, a strange tingle to know this virtual stranger more. Of course online interactions could be misleading but it seemed like the lockdown had slammed down all other options leaving this virtual mode open.

"Hey"

Woah this guy is fast, oh I so have to be wary of these people.

"Heya" I decided to play the short texter, the one who was less interested.

"Have you always found yourself through writing?"

Now. hold on. That was a cryptic way of approaching a stranger virtually, no "where are you from s" or "can I see your pic s?" but strangely, I liked it. Oh hell yes, I liked this approach a lot.

"I feel I am best expressed through this form of art"

"Rather this art gets expressed at its best through you, Chhavi"

Oh shit, referring to me by my name in the middle of a conversation seemed to be a kink I harboured. How the hell did he know? " Chill Chhavi, its a coincidence, calm your tits, he is still a virtual stranger for god's sake!" Yep! my conscience was turning into a nosy aunt who loved meddling with my head.

"Maybe...umhmm" I texted back, dreading the infant conversation to die a quick death thanks to my short responses but at the same time maintaining "decorum" that it was still him who was "more interested" I was officially in a conflict!

"Guria! lunch is ready beta, come downstairs, quick!"

"Comingggg" that's how 6 months has gone by, three people who had better things to do, stuck together, each involved in their own activities except for meals where we all gathered like a bunch of morose human beings and took the meal without a word to each other.

The usual silence haunted the dining room as we ate the rice and daal served with prawn curry.

"Rather this art gets expressed at its best through you, Chhavi" I choked on a morsel of rice mixed with the prawn.
What the actual hell was this?! I felt stupid yeah the feeling was stupid. Here was a guy, if a guy after all who had just hit me up on a random virtual platform, a bit of poeticism, some smart words here and there and look at me, I am practically hallucinating his texts! I took no time in blaming my state on the lockdown where my physical interactions had drastically reduced exposing me to the ridiculousness of online interactions with virtual human beings and secondly my limited contacts with the male species owing to my education in a girls convent and the boys I knew, well they were a different kind altogether. Thus, it might had been the first guy who shared a mutual interest of writing with me.

"Too bad he is a "virtual guy" my conscience whispered.

After finishing my meal, I took the dishes to the bassinet and kept it there. On being met with a disapproving glance with my mother, I took to washing them and with a roll of my eyes toward her I ascended upstairs, my footsteps being more eager than I would have liked.

I hesitated before opening the browser to go to textmeup.com. I did not like this eagerness, to be honest any alien feeling was unwelcome by me. My life was hella boring, and though I whined about it frequently, I liked the predictability it brought, letting me remain in control, always. The power to know what was going to happen next was exhilarating and that power being exploited by a person I had never met and texted only for a few minutes left me uncertain.