It happened nearly two weeks ago. I heard some voices late at night, while I was in bed and preparing to go to sleep. Some of them appeared to be talking to me/mirroring my thoughts or replying to them. So, I got up, hooked my ‘Moola’ to my belt, concealed it in my clothing, and stepped out to follow the voices.

Some of the voices seemed to get on to the lift in the building and move towards the ground floor, from the fourth floor where my room is (as I have mentioned in earlier blog posts as well). I decided to take the stairs and, if possible, meet up with them at the ground level to see if they had something to say to me directly, even though they do not do that usually.

However, when I got to the first floor, I heard some voices saying similar things or making ‘standardised’ comments, such as, “paaThh kar rahaa hai.” (“He is praying.”) I followed the voices to the flat closest to the staircase. A light was on in the hall and the curtains at a window were slightly open, which enabled me to peep inside.

Two young men, whom I recognised well as residents of the hostel where I live, were seated on a sofa and one of them held an iPhone 6 in such a way that its Screen was visible to the other as well. The one who held the mobile phone made comments intermittently, even as I stood at the window, watching intently.

Soon, they were joined by a third young man, whom I also recognised and who always seems to have his shoulders hunched and to bend slightly forward at the waist. The first thought that struck my mind upon seeing him was, “The Hunchback of Notre Dame.” Almost as soon as the thought crossed my mind, the fellow who held the mobile handset read off its screen and muttered, “The Hunchback of Notre Dame!” (clearly audible to me) as the other two also looked on to the screen and then they laughed together.

At that moment, it became clear to me that just as I had suspected all along, ‘they’ read my thoughts via mobile devices. I, for one, do not require any more proof of that even as most people would, obviously, find my claim outlandish.

What I still do not know, however, is whether my thoughts are transferred to their mobile-phone screens through SMS or some other kind of application such as instant messaging, from the device that actually ‘reads’ the thoughts, probably by ‘listening’ to the extremely low-decibel sounds produced by changes in my breathing pattern when I think something. I suppose that could be clarified by interrogating any of ‘them’, but I have no feasible way of doing that at present.