This post has been written as a part of Blogadda's #CelebrateBlogging. My team is "Tandem Tensome" & this is the fifth chapter in the series. You can read the previous chapters here : Part-I , Part-II , Part-III , Part-IV. Ah! let's proceed then..
Chapter V: "The Perspective"
"Honey,
whassup!! The evening plan is on…” – a free-flow of elation spouted out of the
WhatsApp chat window. Jennifer was taken aback; the “perfectly imperfect”
timing it was.
“Not
sure”- She impetuously typed.
“What the
hell do you mean? We talked about this….right? ”- the exultant flow was
abortively disrupted; the first signs of a sinking canoe on a perfectly bright
and sunny day.
“Listen……forget
it. TTYL”- Jennifer’s impulsive reply followed. She was not in a mood to
squabble; every passing minute was unbearable, every drop of sweat was being
guzzled….it was literally acrid, tortuous. She clinged on-to the most precious
entity of her life, the swanky Canon 5D Mark III, almost unflinchingly; the
‘second in line’ was of course getting impatient at the other end of the mobile
chat window.
“GIRL!!
Are you kidding me? You know what this means to me…you do right?!! Okay tell me
where the hell are you??”- a series of spasmodic wringers followed. He was
certainly getting antsy out there, they were planning for this meet for over 2
years now.
No response.....
“Jesus
Christ lady!! Why don’t you understand…we haven’t met each other yet, I have
been fantasizing this…...” – The vestige of ferment echoed through his words;
the edginess had given way to a downer. He had never imagined this, it was
almost like a trance this….not a likeable one though.
“God is
too busy…he can’t help. So am I! ”- Jennifer finally broke the trance.
“Listen,
this is not funny. You know that I have already talked to the travel agent. We
had planned to surprise mom with this….”- He sounded sanguine on this one, he
had indeed outlined a prospective roadmap for this not-so-theatrical hook-up.
It was rather a bizarre one.
“Oh hello
Mr. Cyrus! It’s a retweet-steered-liaison if you remember…don’t be so ambitious”-
Jennifer sounded flustered for the first time in this broken conversation. It
was turning into a melodramatic one – “Yes, I owe you for that gyan on
intellectual property rights when I needed it badly. That doesn’t mean you can
go on…” – She continued. The brewing nervous tension was slowly overpowering
her instincts, she was almost numb, uncomfortably so.
Well, this has been their story…yes, you
heard it right; Jennifer, the classy photographer and ‘acclaimed twitter
celebrity’ and the not-so-social-network-savvy law-scholar Cyrus got introduced
to each other as a trail to an unlikely retweet. Jennifer had sent across a
tweet stating her exasperation over the case of a stolen photograph, it got
retweeted 30 times and eventually reached the twitter-newbie Cyrus. And they
got started…Cyrus had extended his whole-hearted (virtual) support in terms of
sensitizing the lady with the intricate details related to intellectual
property rights (IPR), investigated and they did manage to start the process. It
was a beautiful photograph that Jennifer had shot on her last biking-expedition
to Ladakh, that too in the cutting cold; yes…she is quite a fanatic. It goes
without saying that this particular shot taken at the Likir village was very
close to her heart, the fact that her treasured snap-shot was stolen- downloaded,
processed, de-watermarked and reproduced without permission had turned those
screws-of-defiance. And ladies and gentlemen, wait for it…because the tampered
image was published in one of the leading newspapers, just below the editorial
column…that too with an in-house copyright, the name of the “photographer” was
deliberately omitted. Jennifer had put forward her best efforts, trying to
reach out to the head-quarters, but in vain. Nobody had responded to her
unremitting strife, her raving calls went unanswered. She had even shared the
original Flickr link of the image on all the possible social networking sites
demonstrating the original EXIF info for the shot, aperture: f/8.0, exposure:
1/250, ISO: 100 etc. just to prove the authenticity of her claim; she wanted to
get hold of the “criminal” ASAP and file legal charges against him...who cares?
All she managed to garner through her posts was an array of pragmatic
recommendations, nothing of substance though. She had spent sleepless nights
imagining her cherished work being featured to someone else’s credit; it’s a
terrible feeling. It’s almost as if you have landed into a stinking trench
in-spite of knowing the coordinates, the sinking feeling. She had almost
resigned…. Until….
Yes, my friend… Enter Mr. ’To-Be Advocate’ Cyrus…who exactly knew which button to
press and there you go, the basic foundation of a concocting chemistry had been
already laid. It started off with germinating levels of interaction on the
140-character platform; it was not long before those ‘contrived praises’
started to hit the right chords. Cyrus used to “favorite” every possible image
that Jennifer posted on twitter, not that he had a smooth ride with 50 others
replicating the same…but as they say, you need to be consistent in every game
of life. Cyrus, to be honest, had no interest in photography but then he had to
go down to the roots to establish his bridle…his research did yield rich
benefits in the long run. One fine morning, he got a couple of notifications on
his mobile phone that read “Jennifer @Jenni_Joseph followed you on twitter” and
“@Jenni_Joseph sent you a direct message”. The EUREKA moment was here….Jennifer,
the “twitter-celeb” with 7000+ followers following somebody with a two-digit
follower count was quite an indication; she had asked for Cyrus’ mobile number through
direct messaging and as you would have prognosticated, they ‘took it forward’
from there. But believe it or not, they haven’t met each other till date…perhaps
there was an implicit non-disclosure agreement between the two “lovers”, who
knows...! Who said that technology can’t sew a nexus….? Butterfingers mate, it
has been observed many a times that technology has proved to be the advocate,
and in this case, it ‘beguiled an advocate’! Things had to change though, and
it almost did…. they realized that they had to ‘break through’ into the
‘screens’; 2 years of a virtual manacle had to be outstripped. But…..
“Jenni,
listen to me….what about that video chat….?”- Cyrus ‘sounded’ athirst. This is
the only problem with the implicit medium…you don’t get to see each other’s
expressions. Plus, there seemed to be a sudden dearth in the smiley counter
from the other side. Cyrus was certainly in a soup.
“Cyrus!!!
Freak…that was your plan…You persuaded me…I never wanted to undress in front of
the….! Gah…Whatever!! ” – There was a sudden flow of steam from the other end
of the screen. Jennifer was vehement, she never wanted to do this. Her grip
tightened, she was restlessly holding on-to her hallowed National
Geography-accredited DSLR bag in one hand and typing with the other. It was a double-bummer
for sure…the aggravation of an ominous interview clubbed with the relationship-woes,
she was literally drench in the ‘sudor of turmoil’. “Ah! He is trying to blackmail me.” – She murmured.
“Are you
trying to tell me that you weren't interested? Lady, this is…” – He was
interrupted in-between.
“I guess
I expected a bit of sanity from a quote unquote student of law…..anyway…I guess
this is it, I don’t want to talk about this anymore. And remember, you STILL
haven’t managed to hunt down the plagiarist...and I have no hope! Don’t try to
call me”- And she switched off her data connection in a jiffy.
There was no-way that she could have
carried on with this untenable conversation, the “bigger target” was lying
right in-front of her…her passion, her indignation, her zest. She had been a
chain smoker right from the school days, the pre-mature loss of her mother had
dented deep. Her step-mother was a kind lady, but Jenni never “synced
in”…she simply couldn’t. The camera was pretty much her privy guardian…she
could see the world “through her lens”…she could seek solace through the
view-finder, she could find inner peace through those inscrutable macro-shots,
she loved concept of ‘bokeh’ capturing those ‘esteemed imperfections’ of life.
Yes, your perspective of life changes when you look through the lens, it’s elementary
that one has to ‘focus’ on the positive aspects with the impugning idiosyncrasy
lying in the background, blurred and indistinct. Yes, Cyrus’ presence did fill in the void to
some extent but it was not to be. She had to move on…
“Jennifer
Joseph? I repeat Jennifer Joseph..please report
to the VC Room” – The
coarse announcement broke her daze. The dreaded call had arrived. She stood up,
as if in riposte, rubbing off the slight tickle of moisture from the edge of her eye..
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| Presenting the team logo: "Tandem Tensome.. " |
* Me & my team are participating in "Game of Blogs" at BlogAdda.com. #CelebrateBlogging with us. Cheers!
P.S. I'm sure that you are dying to read the next part of the story. Here it is...
