Mo Yaling

The Familiar New Man

No doubt it was MY mobile phone! I rushed to pick it up, but it stopped ringing before even I could reach it. I took it in my hand. At first I didn’t remembered how to handle it. Then slowly I recalled the operation. I pressed the side button. The screen lightened up. A message popped up about a missed call. I touched the message and it showed that some ‘sweetheart’ had called me. It was needless to say that I couldn't recollect any memory of any ‘sweetheart’. I felt very bad. The call must have come from someone very near to me. I tried to call back that number. But there were no signal. I checked the call list to see the names there. There were names like sweetheart, Shankar, Old dove, Prema, Father, Mother – but none of them could stir my memory. A pain crept up inside me. I felt really really sad. I stood there like a rock sculpture. My conscience, after sometime, came back with a soft touch on my shoulder and I realized that tears were coming down from my eyes. Thera asked me to keep the phone down as it was with a blink of an eye. Then he took my hand and let me out. The people outside including Tai just moved away with a panic. Thera gave a short speech addressing his people to relief them. They all listened but weren’t convinced enough as it seemed to me.

The feast had been ruined and ended in the middle due to the chaos. It didn’t re-congregated. The rhythm went off. The peoples scattered into small groups and started chitchatting among themselves. Naturally they were little agitated. They have not seen a thing like a mobile tablet in their entire life. But what was disturbing me was my helplessness. I could recall a mobile phone. I could recall how to operate it. But neither I could recall any of my contacts, nor I could recall anything about myself! A discomfort  was eating me away. Thera was sitting next to me and calmly rolling his hand on my back. It was so soothing that I fell asleep after some time. Usually these peoples sleeps outside. They only sleeps inside their huts when they are only sick. I had been sleeping inside that hut for so long. Thera didn’t said anything when I slept outside.

An uneasiness woke me up. I looked at the sky. There was a faint glimmer of upcoming sunrise. I looked here and there. Almost everybody around me was waken up. They were looking around hesitantly. I couldn't understand what was happening to me. Once it felt that something was churning inside me, the next moment it seemed that an aeroplane was circling on the sky. Then I felt a wave of electricity, very mild though, passed through my body, followed by a buzzing sound of bees like last night. The last experience reminded me of the phone. Does this buzzing sound has anything to do with the last night’s call? I ran towards the hut. The phone was still there where it was. I kept looking at the phone. Nothing happened. I took the phone in my hand and pressed the side button to turn it on. The signal was perfect. That made me very excited. I was expecting the last night’s call any moment. Then it all stopped abruptly just as it started. And the signal of the phone faded out. Suddenly I became very upset. Oh! What I have done! I could have called back to that sweetheart’s number! I felt very angry with myself for my foolishness! I didn’t wanted to lose a second chance and decided to keep the phone with me all the time. I searched for a pocket, but those traditional dresses had no such kind of things! I collected a piece of cloth, wrapped the phone in that and tied it with my waist belt. I will never do the same mistake next time.

It was a bright sunny day and everything felt new to me. I started walking around. People has already became normal again. They looked at me and greeted me with smiles. The village was placed in the middle of a valley. Everywhere I looked there were high mountains and jungles around. It was a very small picturesque village with merely thirty or forty huts encircled by paddy fields. The huts were beautifully decorated with designs and motifs in red colour and arranged with a lots of space around them, surrounding the spacious yard – where we had the last night’s ceremony and feast. The thing that amazed me most was the usage of red colour. These people use this colour mostly, even in their skins! Adjacent to each house there were small gardens, kitchen gardens basically, but some has flowery shrubs also. I couldn't remember the names. Large mango, jack-fruit and guava trees were scattered throughout the village. I was surprised to recognized the trees! The matter of recognizing or not recognizing was making me worried. What actually had happened to me? How did I came here? From where did I came here? And how? I hadn’t seen any conveyances except a few bullock carts here! When did I came here? What day it is? I didn’t knew how many days I have spent in that hut. Was it a few days? Or weeks? Or months? The distressed calculation started spinning inside my head.

I walked around the entire village and came back to that yard once again. Thera was probably waiting there for me. He beckoned me near him. I went to him and sat down. He had two covered round trays in front of him. I felt a little curious. He called a child from among the people next to him and explained him something. The child then sat in front of a covered tray. Thera lifted the lid of his tray a little and did something. Then he removed the lid totally. There were seven or eight very common regular items like vegetables, fruits, leaves or stones arranged on that tray.

‘Kong! Anye! Hinge! Piilye! Yango!’ Thera counted five along with the movement of his five fingers and covered his tray again. The child then opened the lid of her tray. The same items were there in a scattered manner. The girl recalled Thera’s arrangements and arranged her tray accordingly. When she is finished, Thera opened his lid again. The arrangement of the two trays were exactly the same. Everyone clapped with cheers. Thera then pointed me to sit on that child’s place. I felt a little thrilled. The game started. I made only six out of eight. The next move began. After a few moves Thera replaced himself with another. The game continued. The number of items increased from eight to twelve followed by twenty. It became so thrilling that we were in the thick of the game in no time!

Suddenly something stuck in my mind. I opened the truss from my waist and took out my mobile phone. Everyone surrounding us moved back in fear. I turned the phone on and noticed the battery icon. It was showing six percent. With this state of my memory I hadn’t used the phone – that’s for sure. So I calculated like this – that if the phone was fully charged before my memory loss and I hadn’t used it – the battery charge will remain maximum for four to five days! Thus it is not more than five days I have arrived here!

‘Kong! Anye! Hinge! Piilye! Yango!’ I shouted in joy.

I was feeling quiet relaxed. I was having a feeling that my memory will come back within a few days!

The weather was very nice. The sky was shining with the moonlight. I sat with Thera and kept on talking. I didn’t cared that he was understanding me at all! Suddenly one person came running and said something excitedly to Thera. Thera immediately got up and started walking. I followed him curiously. We walked at one end of the village and saw that a tiny fireball was approaching towards us. The fireball turned to a torch within a few moments. We could see four or five people were walking through paddy fields towards this village. When they reached Thera forwarded and hugged the other team leader and greeted them. He invited them towards the common yard and instructed somebody to arrange something for the guests.

Few torches were brought along with the foods and drinks. They were talking some serious issues. I couldn't understand the words, but from their body language it seemed to me that these new peoples too had the same kind of experience last night and this morning.

One of them was looking at me for a long time. I was feeling a little awkward. I decided to leave the place and got up. All of a sudden he got up and came near me, dragged me near a torch and looked at me as if he was searching something at my face!

‘What!’ The word went out of my mouth in embarrassment.

The man seemed to play a jolt. The next moment he hugged me tightly and laughed his heart out. Thera and others looked at us in astonishment.

‘Really!’ The man spoke in MY language! ‘Is that YOU darling!’

I felt as if I was struck by lightning!

‘PROFESSOR!’ I shouted with all my might!