Episode 1 - Not a Happy Birthday

     Nine minutes after midnight. Ram was sitting in front of his laptop, staring at the dark screen. He could see nothing as the lights were turned off. The silence inside his room made the ticking sound of the clock louder than usual. He seemed depressed and worried, sitting on a red Nilkamal chair, he understood that there is no use in staring at the empty screen. He shut the lid of his 2 years old Acer Nitro 5 down. He stood up and walked towards the washroom. His face was dull, eyes were red and swollen. His bloodshot eyes were flooded with emotion that made him hard to breathe. He filled the sink with water and splashed it on his wet face. The salty water in his face was replaced by the one in the sink. He was in extreme pain which made him avoid looking at the mirror. A sudden flash of light hit his eyes which attracted him towards the window. The glowing lights of the city greeted him. The road was still populated with some vehicles. The air from outside composed him, brought some smile and peace on his face.

    He noticed a buzz from his phone. He gently unplugged it from the charger and pressed the power button. The blue light from the phone filled the room with blue. His phone was flooded with notifications from various applications. He started swiping right the useless ad promotions from the food delivery app. Then a popup came in front of his eyes. ‘129 messages from 29 chats.’ He clicked on it which opened his Whatsapp, ‘Happy Birthday Ram,’ a message popped up. Yes, it was his birthday but, it wasn’t a good one. The message he received was from his friend Jo, his schoolmate. ‘Thanks, da,’ he replied along with a big red heart. He was surfing through the wishes he got from every Whatsapp group. Despite the hundreds of wishes, he was not happy. Among those chats, he opened a group chat called, “Be one 4 ever.” It was a group from his school days, also the first Whatsapp group he joined after entering Whatsapp. The group name remained the same as, “Be one 4 ever,” None took time to change the group name and display picture. Inside, there were a couple of birthday wishes. One was from Jo and the other was from Mani. He dropped a red heart followed by a thanking message. He opened the message info, his thanking message was seen by 15 members, but none wished him. This dozed off the sprinkle of a smile from his face. Then he opened the group chat where his college friends wished him every fortune without even knowing what he was going through. He dropped a thanking message followed by a red heart. He left the chat behind and started scrolling, ‘How are you?’ a message from Zee was there. He clicked to open the chat, Zee was his friend from college. She changed her display picture for his birthday, a photo of Ram and zee, arms in their shoulders. ‘I am not,’ he typed, but he deleted that message and replaced it with an emoji of a warm smile. Bluetick appeared as soon as he sent the message and she started typing on the other end. Ram waited till she completes her text.

    ‘I know it will be difficult for you to overcome this phase. But, listen, Ram, you are ruining your life. Please come back to college, and, Happy birthday.’

    The message from Zee brought back his lost. She was online, waiting for his reply. ‘I am doing my best,’ replied Ram, followed by a thanking message and a blue heart. He noticed that she was typing something,

    ‘What’s your plan for the day?’ she asked.

    ‘Nothing,’ replied Ram.

    ‘Um, can we go out?’ she asked.

    ‘I am not interested in celebrating,’ said Ram.

    She saw his reply, the bluetick proved that. This time, she was not typing a reply, instead, she went offline. He came out of Whatsapp and long pressed the button on the right of the phone to doze it off. It took away the blue light that filled the room. He kept his phone on the table which was bearing a photo frame. It was his photo smiling, beside him there was a girl, but her face was not visible as he hid that with a sticker, “thank you” written on it.

    He felt it hard to breathe inside, so he moved towards the open window. In a distant street, he saw a group of teenagers making noise. It was a birthday celebration, and they were celebrating their friend’s birthday. The happy birthday song they were singing fell into his ears and triggered his emotion. Despite feeling difficult to breathe, he closed the window. Not willing to sleep, he sat on the chair which was holding his ass a few minutes ago.

    He could not breathe anymore inside his room. His lungs were starving, his heart started burning without oxygen, his eyes dozed him down, the room started spinning. He could not tolerate it anymore, he took his dead phone and the key of his ride which was held together with a locket. He sneaked out of his room, taking every step carefully. He opened the main door, the entire colony was silent and drenched in darkness. His ride was parked in the parking area, covered with a sheet that was used to cover vehicles. He removed the sheets slowly as it revealed the logo of his black coloured Honda CB350. When he stepped on the kicker, the firing sound of the engine emerged out like a dragon’s rumbling growl. He started his bike and set out for a ride.

    He was riding for the past six hours, the wind blew off the tears from his eyes. The ride gave him inner peace. But that inner peace didn’t last long. He noticed that the fuel level was too low. He had to refill to go back. So, he parked his bike under a tree. He took his dead phone, by clicking the power button, he gave life to it. A smile greeted him from inside of the screen. It was his face, but a happier version of him. A sudden pop-up hit the screen, hiding his happy eyes. It was a notification from google photos, reminding this day a year ago…