(Continued from …. Bio-Chemistry in Delhi Metro! )
Sumit reached home, remembering those intimate moments of love and passion for each other felt by those two guys. He was wondering how people can be so blind and bold at the same time to have such acts publicly, that’s too in a country like India.
He kept his backpack on the bed, started unbuttoning his Shirt. After changing over to the sports vest and shorts that he usually wore while he was in his PG room (a kind of hostel with bread and breakfast), he Looked once again to his back-pack where he had kept those items of the unknown man he came across in metro ride. He was tired, and lonely. Too much of burden in itself. His eyes closed and he once again was lost in memories of that couple. How loving and cute they were. There were hopes and positive signs of finding love in memories of those two guys, which was a soothing experience as opposed to the harsh reality of life. He preferred to stay in wonderland with closed eyes.
Next morning, he woke up little late. The weekend allowed him some flexibility to extend his bed time without worrying for the clock on the wall, which was showing 8:05 in the morning. A decided to stay a few minutes more in the bed, embracing the pillow as if it was a person he was hugging to. His eyes fell on his backpack still lying on his bed on the other side. Curiosity was paramount now. He got up, pulled up the backpack and took out all those items in his hand. He thought for a moment, and then captured the image printed as monogram on the visiting card. He tried google the image for a clue, but it was useless. Nothing came in search results that could help him identify or give him a clue about that person or the monogram.
The USB Pen drive was the last option now plugged it in his computer and started exploring the files. The files were pretty well organized in sub-folders. A looked like a backup from some office-computer. He noticed a sub-folder named “mailbox”. Expecting it to contain his identification clues or contact details in his signature. he directly jumped on to explore the mailbox. There were around 60 emails saved in “imp” sub-folder inside the mailbox. He started going through important emails saved in “imp” one by one. These were saved as HTML or PDF version, saved from Business Gmail account. After reading around 10 emails, he was confident that this guy has to be the one named as “Shashwat” and his mobile number and board line extension was part of his official email signature. From domain name of his email address he googled about the company. It was a creative design company, not a big name though, but had gained quite a good momentum in acquiring clientele of repute and recognition in a shorter span of time within just a few initial years.
From whatever he could quickly go through in the emails to ascertain his identity and to find his contact details, it looked like PEN drive could have vital and confidential data in it. He came back to the root folder. He then noticed “Personal” another folder down the line below the “mailbox”. Intrigued, and curious to know more of him, he couldn’t stop himself by looking what was “Personal” for Mr. Shashwat. He drilled down to “Personal” folder, which had further sub-folders, one of them being “Pics”. There were hundreds of pics of this person, whom he assumed to be Shashwat in different places. A few of them from corporate events while receiving awards, at different places and different events, some pics from his various tours around India, and probably Thailand, and some pics while traveling to beautiful hill stations and places of astonishing natural beauty. He liked the taste of Mr. Shashwat, and praised him in his mind for his choice of locations for tourism. They were very calm, not heavily crowded and a piece of live-art by nature itself. The strange thing was, these were not selfies from mobile camera, and he was a solo traveler, in almost all his tours except just a few where he was accompanied by a few guys, probably his colleagues, Sumit guessed.
Sumit had not got a chance to look at him properly when he was standing in front of him during the Metro ride. But it was a private moment for him to explore this man’s looks leisurely. He looked attractive though he was in his middle age. He was dressed in a presentable way, even in his personal pics. He had adorable looks, but the most appealing part of his personality was his smile, which was very welcoming and natural.
Sumit looked at the clock, which was ticking at 9:55 AM. He now had two types of information to contact him, his official email and his mobile number. He thought for a moment and then reached out to his mobile phone lying close to him. He preferred to call him instead of email. He thought such email about loosing the classified and sensitive information could have an adverse effect on his career if got highlighted in scrutiny.
He dialed his number, and waited for the call to be answered. There was a little delay from other side.
“Hello”, a soft but manly voice echoed in his ears.
“Hi !”, said Sumit in reply.
“Yes?”, after a little awkward silence the person on the other side said in an enquiring tone.
“Is it Mr. Shashwat?”, asked Sumit. He wanted to be sure that he was talking to the right person.
“Yes, … who is this?”, this time it was curious tone from the Shashwat, which was but natural when he received a call from an unknown number.
“Hi… I am Sumit. I was traveling with you last evening in Delhi Metro in same coach. I have a few of your items, which you probably accidentally dropped before leaving the Metro. It includes a few cards, a key with a USB Pen drive, and few Rupees”, told Sumit.
“Phew !”, he heard Shashwat exclaiming as if it was a big relief to end all his woes.
“I am sorry, I had to dig down your data to find your contact details. Believe me, there was no other option,”, apologized Sumit.
“You don’t know … you have come to me as an angel, Sumit”, said Shashwat with a sense of gratitude. “This was really critically important and confidential data for me and my future depends a lot on it. Hope, you would have seen it yourself when you looked into data on my pen drive”, his voice sounded a little concerned this time.
“Don’t worry, Sir ! I understand your concern completely as I am well aware of corporate InfoSec (Information Security) practices. Rest assured, your data is still safe with me and I haven’t misused it. My intentions were only to find your contact details through it.”, reverted Sumit.
“Yes, I know. Would you mind telling me where and when can I collect it? I would really appreciate if it can be done today itself.”, asked Shashwat.
There was a little silence now. Sumit could not decide “when and Where”. He did not want to call him to his room.
“Please don’t take it otherwise, I cannot repay your deeds but I would be more than happy to help you anyways I can”, Shashwat said again after he sensed a little awkward silence from Sumit.
“No.. No.. not at all, Sir!”, said Sumit. “My apologies for delay in responding to your query, but actually I was just thinking about it When and Where. It was my moral duty to return it to you after you dropped it on me last evening.”, Sumit felt a little embarrassed this time. His silence was mis-understood as a “Demand” in return of favor.
“Where do you live?”, asked Sumit.
“I live at G K -1 in Delhi”, replied Shashwat.
“Great ! I have to go to Nehru Place today. Will you be available in afternoon between 2 – 4 PM to collect it?”, asked Sumit.
“Anytime you say. Just give a call half an hour before you reach there”, Shashwat replied.
“Excellent !”, said Sumit.
“See you around 4 PM then..! I will call. Bye.”, said Sumit before hanging up.
He started exploring his “Pics” once again, and copied it to his laptop. “Why? he couldn’t justify to himself. He felt a need to copy Shashwat’s pics folder before returning his pen drive. He went back to his local folder where he had copied the pics to see if it was copied correctly and noticed there was a hidden sub-folder named “Malebox” inside “Pics”, along with a few other sub-folders. Curious enough, he opened it and found a few images of gay kissing and smooches downloaded from some porn site. It was all of young gay models with a mature man.
