Hello Hello Folks!
The Imposter
"Does she love you too? "
Aarohi was startled out of her wits to
receive this Facebook comment from a stranger whom she had just added four days ago. Aarohi had merely been participating in a game, where you had to choose any status out of a set of given statuses and put it up as your own. "I still love my ex", she had written.
" Errrrm, why the choice of the female gender? ", asked Aarohi. " That is surely unusual for a stranger to ask."
"No-no, I was just trying not to be heteronormative so wrote the female gender", came the reply.
"When 90% of the population is straight?? Nobody speaks like this, not the most liberal or most woke person", said Aarohi.
Aarohi was not convinced. She felt something was fishy. She felt that this person, Sarita Bandyopadhyay, was a pretender. A fake profile. Although Sarita Bandyopadhyay stuck to her guns and to her argument, Aarohi was still not able to believe her. This was someone who knew about her, her past, her history of having been in unrequited love with a teacher for many long years. But she had no idea who it was. And of course the person knew the reality. By asking "does she love you too? ", they were taking a dig at her. But she had, of course, never been in a relationship with her teacher. She had just put up this status because, out of the ones from which the game allowed you to choose, she could at least link herself with it a little bit. And then, the purpose of the game was simply to mystify people. This same person had been making a lot of crass right-wing comments in the university teachers group as well. But nobody knew who exactly the person was. Some suspected that it may be a fake profile. Aarohi had no idea why she had actually added this person.
A while later, the person started talking to her in the chatbox.
"I got engaged today", said Sarita Bandyopadhyay. " I am a lesbian. But I had to get engaged because of my parents. But I don't want to marry. "
"Will you meet me at some common place", she continued.
Aarohi was horrified. She was absolutely sure this was some man in the guise of a woman. In any case, she was definitely not taking that risk. Especially after the kind of thing the person had said to her. She suddenly imagined reaching a particular meeting place, seeing a man there, and possibly even getting raped. Possibly, this was all a trap.
" There's no point", replied Aarohi. "In any case, our political orientations are at two opposite poles-- I don't think I can date you anyhow. "
"Oh, I can change my political orientation", replied Sarita Bandyopadhyay. " I have read Marx. "
"Eeks. Yuck. ", cried Aarohi. " That's even more despicable. Such a turncoat. I definitely cannot meet you or date you."
Then the person turned abusive and started saying absurd things. He/she said that Aarohi had a black and wrinkled face.
Yes, totally. Although Aarohi was proud of her dark skin, how someone can see wrinkles on the face of a 20-something year old woman is beyond imagination.
And then... "Fools like you and Rahul Gandhi like cartoons like Harry Potter. ", said the person.
This was simply absurd. Where did it come from, anyway? It was absolutely ridiculous. From where did Rahul Gandhi come in? What was the connection between her and Rahul Gandhi? And since when did Harry Potter become a cartoon anyway. And what was the link between Rahul Gandhi and cartoons?
Well... Aarohi blocked him/her, of course. What else could she do. She was sure this was a man. Besides, the feeling that this masquerading person was actually someone who knew everything about her was really insidious. The thought of who it could be was simply unbearable so she decided not to go in that direction.
Aarohi's friend Sangeeta had the last word when Aarohi narrated the story to her. Calmly glossing over all insults to Aarohi and all implied ramifications, "how dare he insult Harry Potter", she said, enraged.
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