Chapter: 3

LOST AND FOUND
May 10th 2003

I sat in front of my PC at odd hours trying to pass away the time. I logged onto Yahoo Chat and started chatting with few people present in a Chat Room. I always had this fascination to talk to new people but because I am somewhat shy by nature and since I can covey my thoughts better in writing, I started chatting a year back. So here I was trying to initiate a few talks with people present and suddenly one ID caught my eye. But unfortunately by the time I could message, that person had left the room. So I tried to follow that person and after changing 2-3 rooms landed up in another Chat Room. I thought to myself that finally I would be able to talk to someone active atleast. Dunno if people are aware but in all chat rooms either people are shouting slangs on main screen or they are nestled somewhere in their private shell and are not keen to talk to fellows they don’t know. Then why do they visit public chat rooms if they are not keen to talk to strangers.

Anyways I located the ID I was looking for and just when I was about to send my first message an IM window pops up on my screen from ID called ANGEL saying Hi and ASL (for those who don’t know the full form it stands for Age, Sex, Location). Whoa that really annoyed me, because most of times if you get a popup from an unknown person then it is obvious that some guy got confused looking at my Chat ID and is thinking I am a girl. So, quickly I messaged back MALE HERE to ward him off and shut down the window. Pat came the reply I know that. Boy this was too much but still as a matter of extending courtesy told 19/M and asked the same question back and tried to concentrate at the other ID. Ting Tong, another message 16/F here. Alright I have had enough; I thought to myself that this is definitely a guy who is pretending to be a girl. And I asked a stupid question –

Me: Are you sure?

And all hell broke on the other side. And I was flooded with a barrage of responses. What do you think I am a guy who is using a female id? Why do you say such a thing? What do you think of yourself?

Me: Alright lady listen I am in no mood to have an argument here but I guess I will clarify why I thought you are a guy. Generally trend says that in a chat room of 50 people 45 are guys and 5 are girls. Out of those 5 girls, 2 or 3 are fake and remaining 2 are not really interested in talking to strangers. So it was a little bit of a shock for me that you being a girl would ping a guy first and even more shocking since I am not active on the main screen, and you chose me to talk to out of all remaining people.

I quickly glanced at all the other IDs present in the room to see why she picked me as obviously there was nothing magical about my id for sure. But wait a second, where the hell is she? I mean why I can’t locate her in the room. Damn it who is she and how she found my id if she is not even in the room.

So I asked another stupid question – How did you find me? I mean in which room are you located? I can’t seem to see your id in my room.

Guess she was a little angry but nevertheless came reply – I am in Lounge Chat and I saw you joining the room so I messaged you as you were the newest member otherwise no general reason as such. If you don’t want to talk its ok.

There you go didn’t I tell you nothing magical about my ID just pure coincidence. But boy what a big one for sure, she found me when I was following the other ID and definitely I wouldn’t have stayed in her room for more than 2-3 seconds. But she spotted me in such a short span of time.

I realized I was definitely rude to her.

Me: Sorry if I was rude, I really didn’t anticipate your message and usually it’s considered strange here if a girl pings an unknown guy. Hey aren’t you feeling sleepy?

Now where did that come from, why I have to ask this question here. I don’t know I have this feeling that girls don’t generally stay up late and that too for chatting. Alrite you got me, I was still trying to be sure that she was not a guy. Don’t know why I behave like a skeptic sometimes.

Angel: It’s Ok. I guess I really should not be here. My brother stops me from chatting. He says it is not a nice place. And No, I am not sleepy, I stay up late usually.

Me: Your brother is right. This place isn’t good; hardly you come across any nice people. Anyways so why do you chat?

Angel: Mmm Dunno, to meet new people… make friends.

Me: Friends…hmmm interesting. I am chatting from last one year and definitely haven’t made any friends. Since when are you chatting?

Angel: Just stated 2 days back.

Me: Oh really, Now I mean for you it will be very exciting and all to see so many people at once and getting a chance to talk to them.

Angel: No, not really I don’t really go out and talk to strangers myself.

Me: But you did in my case. Remember?

Angel: Hmmm...Right but dunno why?

Our Conversation continued for good 2 hours more. Her real name was Anie. After finishing the conversation, I felt a little weird. You know when you talk to a person on Internet you always try to make a faint picture of that person. But in this case, I had a clear picture in my mind. Cute and Sweet looking face with a definite glow, big eyes with a sparkle, innocent smile of a baby, long dark hairs. Gosh, I was scared to death, I could actually see her. How? I don’t know but one thing was for sure this definitely wasn’t any stranger - I definitely somehow lost her all this while and found her today. My Friend, My Angel.