Atongla Rothrong
Couple of nights ago, I was having a conversation on the phone with a bosom buddy of mine who is on a long hibernation hiatus from his busy work schedule. It began this way “Hey man! Long time no see, how are you holding up in that godforsaken place you call hometown and blah! Blah! The voice on the other end didn’t sound human at all, and I thought to myself ‘even tigers use mobile phones or what? Nah! Not at all possible, and so I tried to confirm it by asking “am I talking to YOU? (Whateva his name is) and he roared back “Of course my dear girlie, who else but me”. Now that did ease my mind a wee bit. But by Jesus, the voice really did make my heart flip as in scared the hell out of me. It was worst than a roaring thunder. Then again I thought not. So I asked him “Are you feeling OK? Are you having problems with the throat? Then he says ‘Nah! Nothing of that sort.”
Something just didn’t seem to click, so I told him that I had works pending and that I’d call him up later (in the meantime to reach my own conclusion on what brought about the sudden change in his voice.) But by the time my job was done and it was pretty late, thus I sent him an SMS instead (I won’t tell you what the message was all about). The next morning I woke up to find that he had replied back the message, and me thinking maybe he is sorry about last night’s conversation, I switched on the message button and lol! He had written “Lady, wait till I reach Dimapur, I’ll catch you then, you just wait”. Reading it made me all the more panicky and lethargic. Because I didn’t know what he meant by it.
The next day, first thing I did was giving him a call, and then surprise!!! He sounded like the humans do, as normal as can be like the guy I knew. Now, that kept me wondering as to what really happened on that fateful night to make him sound godamn raucous. But hey, have any of you seen or know of a masculine lady? You know, how can a lady be not feminine, but masculine? Gaud! What is this world coming to? All things are turning topsy-turvy. A lady, and masculine, that too 2 in number, he had for company, pooh!! As though I’ll believe that. Of course deep inside me I know he would never ever do that, because I know him to be a one woman man, he, he (as far as his reputation is concerned) And he said they were playing pokers (cards) so I suggested why don’t you guys play Rummy, since I find it’s more interesting but nothing doing. He wouldn’t budge an inch.
There and then, I thought ‘if only he was within reach, I’d relieve the itch on my fist by aiming at his flaring nose’ but so sad, he’s some hundred kilometers away from the intended punch, thus I’ll have to save the strength for when I come one on one with him. Hopefully, the chance is just around the corner, that is but provided he gets me the ethnic gift I asked (or should I say demanded) for, on his return. Let me also remind you that he describes himself as very, very ETHNIC!! Now isn’t that crazily cute? But as I reached the end of my tale, I got to know the reason why he sounded like a wounded lion, it’s something not very weird but can’t share with you guys, so maybe next time when things turn out easier said then done, I’ll shout it out! Because he is so busy, and I feel godamn tired.
