Unknown Love

Logline:- Sanjay, a middle-class office guy, falls in love with an unknown caller Sandhya on his newly purchased second-hand phone, later discovering that she is already dead.

Synopsis:-

The a few glimpse of a boy's childhood who seems to talk to someone in the darkness of the room but when her very own elder sister calls her from outside, he moves out of there and we see there is no one except his shadow at the wall. 

Story of A decade ago in the 2012 winter, A lower-middle-class gentleman Sanjay in his 20s, Shifts to a metropolitan city from his town to pursue his newly joined government job as a computer operator cum clerk with a smile of self-confidence to handle the work load of initial digitalization.

As he is a responsibility-oriented guy he hardly spends a penny out of the limit of his pitty salary so a second-hand feature phone is perfect for both his formal pocket and his imitation leather or Rexine-made wallet and takes Rickshaw to have a blizzard-like second-hand motorbike out of a scrape garage, it is looking like a divorce ceremony between a most loving couple Sanjay and Rickshaw cause of arrival of a new Mistress the Bike.

One day, he gets a call from an Unknown number. He is in a meeting, so he couldn’t attend the call. Later as he is busy with his work, he totally forget about the call and thought that it may be some telemarketing call. In the late evening around 7:30 PM, he leaves the office and when he is riding, he gets a call again. Usually, he won’t attend the calls when he rides. So, he couldn’t attend this call too.

After a long ride, he reaches home, refreshes himself and has dinner. When he enters his room and takes his mobile, he notices that the call was from the same number. The time is almost 10 PM. So he just sent a message saying “Hi, I was travelling so I couldn’t attend. Can you call me now???” to that number with the thought that if the person really wants to speak with him they will call back or if that is just a telemarketing call then no problem…

He is very tired and eventually dozes off in bed… In the morning he wakes up very late, so he leaves home in a hurry… When he reached the office, he checks mails on his desktop and then checks his mobile with a notification “1 new message”… Yes, that was from the same number…

Unknown number: Hi Sanjay, no problem…

He replies back…

Sanjay: May I know who is this???

Unknown number: Really you don’t know who I am???

Sanjay: Of course, I don’t know… That’s why I’m asking you…

Unknown number: I’m very upset, catch you later…

He thoughts that some of his friends or cousins are playing with him from their new number… So he doesn’t give it too much importance and started to do his work… The day is filled with a lot of work and he doesn’t even get time to see the mobile… When he reaches home and sees his mobile notification “100 new messages” from the same number, he is shocked and takes it seriously… All messages were the same ‘Hi, please message me’… It started to bother him and he replies back…

Sanjay: Hey, who are you???

Unknown number: Still you didn’t identify me…

Sanjay: Hey idiot, already I’m in tension… Don’t play with me like this…

Unknown number: Oh sorry, you take rest then… I’ll catch you later…

Sanjay: First tell me who you are…

But then no reply and even when he makes a call, but it is left unanswered… The next day morning, he wakes up soon and reaches the office…

Unknown number: Are you alright now???

Sanjay: Yes, please tell me who are you???

Unknown number: Guess in three chances…

Sanjay: Hey what do you think of yourself??? I’m not in the mood to play…

Unknown number: (Silent)

Sanjay: Hey Anand, if it’s really you I’ll not even think before killing you…

Unknown number: I’m a girl…

Sanjay: What???

He has only very less friends with girls and none of them changed their number… he is damn sure as he is in touch with most of them… So he still feels that someone is playing…

Unknown number: Why this shock???

Also, he has a concern that if he starts believing that it’s a girl and at a later point in time if he came to know that it’s any of his friends then he will be teased to death… his friends will broadcast the conversation to his whole group of friends and family… So, he is very careful as he's already undergone a similar kind of embarrassment a few years ago…

So he doesn’t reply further and makes a call… As usual, the person leaves it unanswered…

Unknown number: I can’t attend the call now but I will talk to you soon…

Sanjay: Okay, what is your name???

Unknown number: I told you to guess…

Sanjay: I’m very weak in that, so you say it by yourself…

Unknown number: Okay, don’t cry…

Sanjay: I’m not crying…

He gets frustrated and sent a message with full of foolish guesses “XYZ”

He doesn’t get any reply from that time and he is very happy… But in the corner of his heart, there is an eagerness to know who it is… No messages or calls from that number for consecutive two days… he is very much relieved but at the same time he enquires all his friends about that number and even checks their mobiles and no one had that number… it is very much confused and also feels ashamed for the way he behaved to an unknown person… So, he messages…

Sanjay: Hi, I’m very sorry… I thought that my friends were playing… So only I got frustrated…

Unknown number: No problem…

Sanjay: Thank God you forgave me…

Unknown number: I didn’t have any anger on you… As you got frustrated, I didn’t disturb you for some time… That’s it…

Sanjay: Thanks, at least tell me now… Who are you???

Unknown number: We met long back on a road…

Sanjay: In a road???!!! Sorry, I don’t remember you…

Unknown number: But I can’t forget your help…

Sanjay: First please tell me your name…

Unknown number: Sandhya…

Sanjay: How did you get my number???

Unknown number: That’s a secret…

Sanjay: Okay…

Unknown number: Friends???

Sanjay: Yeah sure, tell me when you are free… I’ll call you…

He starts to imagine many things, but still, he has a small doubt… So, he is waiting for her call to confirm… One day, she calls him…

She: Hi…

Sanjay: Hi…

She: How are you???

Sanjay: I’m fine…

She: Good… Then??? At least do you believe me now???

Sanjay: Yes, but no mimic right???

She: Hey really it’s my original voice… Why this much doubt???

He explains funny reasons for his doubt and within a few minutes of their talk, they are able to understand each other… From then on, he started to speak daily over the phone and chat regularly over IM… Day by day, she became close to his heart and he saves her number in the name of “UNKNOWN LOVE”…

She is very innocent, very kind, very caring and very affectionate. He totally gets impressed and almost falls in love without even seeing her. But as every guy wishes to see his girl, he also wanted to see her… Hence, he messages her with lot of hesitation and asks,

Sanjay: Please don’t get me wrong but can I get your photo???

She: Why do you ask for it suddenly???

Sanjay: Just want to see you, nothing else…

She: Won’t you talk to me if I’m not good-looking???

Sanjay: Hey it’s not like that…

She: Then???

Sanjay: Just wanna see you…

She: Get lost SANJAY… At last, you too proved that guys will give preference only to appearance… Don’t talk to me…

He tried reaching her by phone many times, but fails… he is very much worried and doesn’t know what to do…

After two days,

She: (Blank message)

Sanjay: I’m very sorry…

She: Sorry…

Sanjay: For???

She: I scolded you a lot though your expectation is correct… It’s natural but I guess I overreacted…

Sanjay: No it’s my fault only…

She: Okay forget it…

Sanjay: Then… Photo???

She: Idiot…

Sanjay: (Sent blushing smiley)

She: Okay check your mail, I have sent you the pic…

Immediately he rushes to a cyber cafe to log in… She is very cute and pretty…

Sanjay: Hey, you are damn cute…

She: Enough don’t blush…

The very next day after tomorrow is her birthday… So, he decides to surprise her… After a long struggle, he found her address through his friend who worked in a telephone office… Luckily, it was in her name…It was less happy that his sister also comes to meet and stay with him for some days with her little son who is very loving of his uncle Sanjay. The kid often plays the Snake game on his mobile.

On her birthday without informing her, he visits her house… An old lady opens the door and an old man stood a few feet away behind her and enquires him… After he told them that he came to meet Sandhya, they took him to a room at the corner of the hallway… There….. She, Her SANDHYA, stilled in a pose with a cute smile and carries a naive look in a photo hanging over the wall with a candle lit in front of her…

He throw a puzzled look at her parents, they explained everything in just some murmurings as that happened… Yes, now only he remembers…As she said earlier, he met her on the road only with a face full of blood, injured badly, rushing to get help….

At that moment, he feels being carried away miles back, to the day when he met her… he is able to see only the faded part of his memories but still he clearly saw her face covered with blood… Suddenly, his body jolts out of fear and he is already sweating here and there all over his body and he comes running out of that room… Only then he remembers to take a breath but still, he is suffocating to death… When all the unanswered questions that were running through the thick and thin of his nerve started killing him slowly, he decides to leave the place…

That’s when he sees the two old faces that followed him with a puzzled look for a second and then the old lady went in back to her room again asking him to wait… The old man who is standing with me kept glaring at me blinking his eyes often but his glare seemed to carry thousands of meanings it which I couldn’t interpret… After a couple of minutes, she comes back with an envelope in hand and handed it over to him…

He gets that cover with his shaky hands and rushes back to his bike without turning back even once and without informing them that he's leaving… he quickly kick-started and drove back to his residence… On his way, her face keeps coming back to him even while he didn’t make any effort to remember her… he literally runs to his room to avoid her sister but returns back in anger when he doesn't find his phone in his pocket and room to her smiling nephew playing the snake game, the kid smiles he snatches, checks there is WHOLE PHONE DATA ERASED, he slams him and the door and slides down behind the door… But her thoughts haunting him…

He was on the way to his office via one of the calm roads of the city early in the morning, a girl is begging for help in the background to the people and suddenly heard a loud noise… he turns to see a vehicle which has just moved out of his front had hit the girl, she falls aside… Before he could do anything, the vehicle leaves but She wakes up running the help seems towards him, he stops a taxi and runs to her when he is letting her inside the auto he feels that she is gasping for breath. she slowly looked at him… Immediately, without wasting time he gives her first aid with the kit inside the taxi…

she was holding his hands and he too didn’t want to let her hands go… On the way, he saw how desperate she was to live… At that moment, he understood what’s life… When there are people on earth who always complaint how complicated life is and even decide to throw it away, there are also people like her who knows the value of life, how pretty it is and wants to live it desperately… he admitted to her, informed her parents with the number in her mobile and left the hospital…

Tears start flowing down his cheeks and he is gasping for breath… Then he realises that he was still holding something in his hands… he slowly opened the letter that the old couple gave him and it read,

“Thank you so much. It’s only because of you that I’m blessed to see and talk with my parents for one last time. I’ll never forget you even after my life and I wish you a wonderful life ahead. Drive safe.”

When he just ended up reading the letter, he gets a call… his hands were trembling with fear and he slowly reaches for his phone in his pocket and attends the call…

She: Hey idiot, won’t you even wish for my birthday???

A shock of love and fear at the same time on his face

He comes out and rushes to the cyber cafe to get assured by seeing her email.

He returns to his residence in the late evening with a smile of the unknown, and hands over his mobile to his upset nephew after saying him a heartfelt sorry.

His smile discloses. What he has found today.

He has seen her email and photo present on the email server, he firmly believes that she is alive with this unknown confidence he finds her at the railway station sitting in the wait to leave the city cause of her fear of the unknown. She explains to him that that day some goons attacked her with acid before the vehicle hit her, she had fallen in love when only he help her but after the day he asks her about my address she has gained an unknown fear that if he see her after the acid attack and because of her, his innocent heart will be broken, a nice human like you will get paid because of her, she was not afraid of rejection but due to the surety that he will accept her after keeping his own choice and expectation aside... that's why…He replies

"any way you did the same" he points to the beautiful pictures and statues of advertisement and says

"in bezaan khoobsurat chehron ke sahare jindgi nhi bitayi ja sakti uske liye yhan inside heart, feelings ki jrorat hoti hai Jo unknown ho phir bhi apni lge"..

..(We can't live with these still beautiful faces...For this, we need an unknown feeling..Here inside the heart which would seem our own).

He again holds her hand…She smiles. Both smile. The train leaves in front of them.

We see the little nephew playing the snake game and the mobile falls down. He quickly winds up and runs to his uncle to hand over it. He is driven in his thoughts that's when he gets the call from Sandhya he starts talking with great pleasure same as the kid had in the beginning. The elder sister is banging on the door eventually he sees his brother talking on his phone her face is motionless and we see the battery of his phone in her hand...

And we realise that he's the same boy who grew young with his unknown love...

–ENd.

Writer's Note:-

The aim of the story THE UNKNOWN LOVE is not only to show love without face but also the faceless crimes, ignorance and mentality of our society. It together shows the unknown struggle of a particular class and their ambitions, the unknown fear of a girl due to social devils, unknown ignorance and acceptance of society for helping the needy and finally, our hearts drenched in self-fear or inferiority complex as a society and its individual part.