CYBER LOVE

Synopsis: Anjali falls in love with Vivek during their chatting over Internet. After they meet face-to-face Anjali gets a blackmailing mail from Vivek demanding ransom otherwise threatening to publish their romance photos on Internet. Anjali fights back revealing a totally different story…

(This is a translated story from my book ‘Cyberlove’. Since I am not native English speaking there may be some linguistic errors. I will be grateful if you write those corrections too in the review. )


Anjali was chatting on her computer. She used to chat when she felt exhausted from work. It was her daily practice. It was not a joke to head such a big company. She had found chatting as a good relief alternative from the daily work load and work tensions.
Suddenly a chat message came in-
“Would you like to be my friend?"
“Why not?" She sent her usual answer.
" What's your name?" Message came from other side.
" Anjali.. Yours?" She answered.
" Vivek"
" What are your likings?"
" Reading, Writing, Swimming and off course chatting" she replied.
" Wow ... What a coincidence... our likings are exactly matching..."
" Really?" She asked.
He would have sensed skepticism in her worlds.
" I swear..." He said.
“Could you send your mail-id please?" He asked.
Without any hesitation she sent her mail-id. Her chatting mail-id was different than her regular mail-id.
" O.K. then Bye... see you some time..." Message came from other side.
Before she could reply he had logged out.

Anjali was a Computer Engineering graduate. Her father owned an IT company. Due to his sudden death, the responsibility for such a big company came to her. Her dream was to take further studies in US. But her dream remained mere dream. After she had come to office she checked her official mails first. The mails, which were important, she answered those, she took prints of some. Then with leisure she started checking her friend’s mails. There was one mail from Vivek. He must be the same Vivek who met her yesterday on the chat. With this guess she opened the mail. There was nothing written in the mail. It was a blank mail. She felt curious about the sender. She was having a big friend circle. But why didn't know, she felt that Vivek is different than others. Suddenly she realized that ... Who is he? Where from he is? Black or white?... How old he is? ... or some old punk? .. She didn't know anything about him. Therefore she controlled her daydreaming mind. She decided that if she got her again on chat, she will ask him the complete information. Therefore she was checking in between on chat whether he is online. Her desire to chat with him again was reached to its peak. But she was not getting him online. Lastly she started his cyber search. His mail id was with her due to his blank mail. She got his information. Everywhere she found that his first name was written as 'Vivek'. Nowhere had he used his last name. On one Internet page she found the information about his age. Her eyes quickly turned to that information. So quickly that she felt blushed herself. He was 25. She felt relieved. But she didn't felt contented. Therefore she sent blank reply to his blank mail.

This morning, instead of checking official e-mails first, Anjali checked whether Vivek was online. As expected, he was not only online but had sent a message -
" Hi ... Good Morning ... How are you?"
She checked herself and made sure that whether she is not doing anything wrong and then cautiously replied-
“Fine"
"I wasn't here yesterday..." She felt as if he could read her thoughts.
"I see..." she responded dryly.
"Do you want to ask me anything?" he asked.
"You ask" she replied.
She felt like she was on a first date.
"You know the other day when I sent you a blank e-mail? It was because I didn't know anything about you... so I didn't know what to write... but I couldn't stop myself from sending you an e-mail... so I sent you a blank one..."
Then, taking the lead, he asked " Well... what do you do... I mean, are you studying or do you work?...."
" I am B.E computer and I am managing director of an IT company - G.H. Informatics"
" My God" he reacted from the other side.
" I hope you don't mind if I ask your age...no... I mean ... I read somewhere that women don't like to be asked their age..." He wrote.
" I'm 23" she replied.
" I knew that... I found it on your mail-id... I was just making sure... Actually when you told me that you were managing director of an IT company, a picture of a woman aged 45-50 came into my mind!" His hesitation appeared to have disappeared.
A pleasing smile crept over her lips because of his humorous nature. Knowing that he had checked her age, she felt happy because he was equally interested in her.
“You haven't told me your age?" she asked him.
"I have written my real age in my mail-id and chat id information" he replied.
Reading his reply once more she felt that he really was different to other men.

As days pass by their mailing went on increasing. The lengths and breadths of their mails went on increasing. Sending photos, sending jokes, sending puzzles... they were having so many reasons to send mails. Gradually Anjali realized that she had been felt in love with him. But neither Vivek nor Anjali ever expressed about it. With every mail, with every sentence in the mail, with every photo, they were sharing every aspect of their personality. And Anjali found herself more and more immersed in his love. She never stopped herself. In fact she was enjoying the immersing rather than controlling herself. But as far as expressing love is concerned she was cautious. She had a reason that still she has not seen him. It was not the case that she was unaware about his love. But may be he was also equally cautious, may be with the same reason that he had also not yet met her.

Her excitement about meeting him was increasing day by day. She used to wish for a suitable occasion to meet him. At last such an occasion had come. Anjali was to go to Mumbai for a day for work. Vivek was working on his Phd at IIT Mumbai. She decided, she didn’t want to miss the chance to meet him. She informed him by mail in advance and in detail of her day of arrival, check-in place, meeting place and meeting time.

Versova beach was her favorite place in Mumbai. As a child, she would come here often with her father. Her memories of her parents began choking in her heart. The noise of the large ocean waves was unsetting her. She had given Vivek a meeting time of 5.00pm. But it was now 5 past. Why hasn’t he still arrived? A thought crossed her mind.

A young boy was throwing something far out into the sea, and letting the sea waves bring it back to the shore. Again and again he threw it into the waves. She remembered that her father always said “Look Anjali, look at the boy. He is trying to throw it again and again, but it comes back.
In our life, grief and joys are like this. We throw our grief from us, and for an instance they have gone away and it feels as though it will stay gone forever. But grief is not like that. The force you throw it with is the force it will return to you. There will be a time when the boy is so immersed in his playing that he will forget the thing he is throwing. Then he will remember, and even after searching he will be unable to find it. If we could face both grief and joy in an unbiased way, then we will not suffer. There will be pain but to suffer or not to suffer is up to you!"
It was how her father turned small things into big things that she remembered.

When she came out of her thoughts, she found Vivek standing in front of her. Tall, tough, an everlasting smile on his face and his every movement used to reflect lot of enthusiasm. She kept looking at him for a long moment. She was getting immersed into his mesmerizing blue eyes. Some moments passed without knowing what to talk. Are we the same who had communicated with two-two, three-three pages of emails? For a moment they doubted. He took a lead-
"Today traffic was too horrible..."
" I was waiting for you since 4.30" Anjali said
“But if I am not wrong, you have given me time of 5.00" Vivek said.
As they went on talking they started to walk along the beach. While talking gradually when their hands get entangled they did not know. --- Since long they were walking on the beach. Sun set was over. Now it was getting dark.
Suddenly he seriously asked,
"Anjali... shall I ask one thing?"
She looked at him affirmatively.
“Will you marry me?" He asked straight.
She bent her head in shyness.
After some time she said “Come on ... we should go now”
" ...But you have not answered my question.." He was stuck up with the same question.
“Come on ... let's go ... I will drop you" She said.
“Still you have not answered my question..." It seemed that he was not ready to leave her without the answer.
Her face was becoming red because of shyness.
She kept her head down and answered " I never said no..."
He could not stop to hug her lovingly.

She was driving the car. Vivek was sitting beside her. She stopped her car in front of a posh hotel.
" Just 2 minutes ... Actually I forgot my mobile... I will get it and then I will drop you" She got down the car.
Vivek also got down and started walking behind her.

She opened her suit door and asked Vivek to come in.
Gesturing him to sit down she said " Sit..."
Sitting beside him she asked “What you would like to take ... Tea... or coffee"
She extended her hand to give an order. Vivek tenderly pick up her hand in his hand. Anjali looked at him and smiled with blush. She was not able to try to release her hand. As if her hand and mind became numb. He took her in his embrace. Vivek put his hot lips on her shuddering lips. Anjali's one mind was saying to resist. At the same time other mind wanted to defy and break all restrictions. He was overbidding her and she was irresistible. She realized that now its a last moment to control.
Suddenly she got up. She enwrapped the bed sheet to cover her body. Facing wall she said " Vivek please go away .... Please leave me alone"
There was firmness in her worlds rather than anger. Vivek get up.
Recollecting and gathering himself he said " I am sorry"
And he left the place.

Three days passed - after meeting Vivek. She did not receive his mail nor was he present on the chat. Did he get angry? Anjali sent him a mail to console him. Ajali was feeling bad about the incidence. I should not have taken him to the hotel. If I would have stopped him outside, this incidence would not have happened. Anjali was thinking. Suddenly she realized that there has been Vivek's mail in the mail box. In hurry she opened it. As she read it she became stunned. This also can happen... She was not able to believe. Vivek had demanded the ransom of 50 lakhs in the mail. If she won't give he had threatened her to publish the photographs he has taken in the hotel on Internet. He had also attached a sample photograph with the mail. It was their embracing photograph. She was surprised of the fact that how he had taken these photographs. Then she realized that she had given him all information about her day of arrival, venue of stay in advance.
It was literally blackmailing. Behind Vivek's innocent face there was one more dangerous and cruel face. She was still not able to believe the fact. He had given 2 days time for arranging the ransom. Where the ransom had to be sent and other details he was to give just before time.
50 lakhs was just a negligible amount for Anjali. She was feeling bad about his deceit. At least she had realized his real nature before marriage. She pacified herself. But after paying this amount what is the guarantee that he will not demand again. Her thought wheel started running. She came to the conclusion that she should give another try to appease him. She had decided that even if she had to pay she will not pay so easily.
Anjali again tried to persuade him but in vain. His second mail came. He wrote that there were only 8 hours remaining for payment. He wrote in detail about the place where the ransom was to kept. She expressed her doubt that after paying this ransom, what was the guarantee that he would not blackmail again. He replied that there is no other way than to believe him. And really she was not having any other option than to believe him. When the reverse counting reached to 4 hours he sent one more mail. Attached to this mail he sent an another photograph, in which Vivek was kissing her lips. She was feeling disgusted about the photograph. How much was the difference in the emotions now and when he kissed her lips. As he told she had arranged for the ransom to reach the place told by him and she exhaled in relief. She thought may be at the cost of fifty laksh the issue had been closed once for all. But was it really closed?

It was not her style to keep quite after giving money. When his blackmailing mail had came, Anjali had sent a mail to persuade him. With that mail she had sent a program attached with it called 'Sniffer'. Her intention to send 'sniffer' was to know Vivek's email password. As soon as Vivek happened to open his email, that program was to run and his password was to come to Anjali.
When Anjali had got Vivek's email password, Anjali opened his mailbox. She encountered such mails in his mailbox that she got stunned. There was some shocking information in those mails. Her thought wheel started running. Would this information be useful to us? Suddenly an idea stroked her. She decided set a trap for him. She was confident that she would be successful in her plan. Why she should not be, eventually she was a successful computer engineer.
Mere eight days passed after paying fifty lakhs of ransom. She got Vivek's another blackmailing email. Now he had demanded ten lakhs. As Anjali read that mail a eerie smile creped over her face. Her trap had started giving results. She replied him. She had asked the mode and place of payment and she closed the mailbox. Her face was beaming with expression of victory. .

A multinational company had organized the 'Ethical hacking' contest. Anjali was invited as a chief guest for the prize distribution ceremony. Recently she had bagged the prestigious award 'IT woman of the year' from Computer Society of India (CSI). It was the recognition of her work in the IT sector in such a young age. During her father's tenure the company was on doing well. But she took it to the top. Suddenly she went in future thoughts....

After ten lakhs demand there was no mail from Vivek. He might had changed his intension. In the mean time Anjali was not sure about her trap. But now she was again confident about the trap set by her. When she was wandering in the thoughts, suddenly her vehicle stops and she came out of her thoughts due to the quiver. The place was arrived where she was invited as a chief guest.

There was a huge crowd for the contest. The participants were over hundred. Other than participants there were guests from other companies, experts and the major chunk of the crowd was of the audience.
Prize distribution ceremony started. Anjali was standing on the dais for prize distribution. The winners were called one by one on the stage. Initially ten encouragement prizes were distributed the ten participants other than winners. Then the winner bagging third prize was invited on the stage. Fifty thousand cash and memento was the prize. Someone named Amol Rathod had bagged the third prize. After he left the stage announcer announced the name of second prize winner. She was a girl - Anagha Deshpande. Anjali was feeling very proud while handing over this prize, may be because she herself was a lady. Prize was seventy five thousand cash and a memento. Lastly the moment came for which everybody was eagerly waiting for- the moment of distributing first prize.
"Atul Biswas" the announcer announced
Really his success was suitable to his name 'Atul' means non comparable. There was a rare confidence in his walking style. There was one kind of aura around his face. His blue eyes for a moment reminded Anjali of Vivek. As he came on dais, the whole crowd started applauding. 2.5 lakh cash and memento was the prize. In addition to that there was an offer of high paid job from the organizer company. The applause was not stopping. Anjali was waiting for him to come closer to hand over the prize. He stared at Anjali with a mesmerizing stance. As he stand in front of her, he lost in her beauty. He got awaken from his thoughts by a powerful slap. Not only he nobody in the hall believed what was happening. Anjali had hit him a powerful slap. The whole hall became still - a pin drop silence.
" Yes I slapped him ... and he deserve it... because he is a blackmailer ... not only blackmailer ... he is also a cracker" Anjali's fuming words broke the silence in the hall. Anjali was speaking fast. There was fire in her eyes. Her body was trembling due to anger. Inspector Kawaljeet came onto the dais and arrested Atul. He also slapped him with fury.
" Now you tell this crowd ... what happened." Inspector spoke.
He put his head down. He was realized that he had been trapped badly. Nobody can trap us - this confidence was disappeared from his face. His resistance was finished. He started speaking ...

I had finished my engineering degree. ... Since I was in college chatting was my favorite hobby. One day while I was chatting I found Anjali and Vivek chatting in the chat box. There I found that Anjali is owner and managing director of a reputed IT company. That instance I realised that I can gain something from this information. Anjali's chat-id and mail id was same. I took her mail id. Then I was staying in chennai. I broke her password using 'brute force attack' method. I read all Vivek's mails from her mail box. Afterwards I tried to break Vivek's password also with brute force method... but it won't break. Therefore I sent a sniffed to his computer through a spam mail. The sniffer sent me his password. In his mail box I could read all Anjali's mails. Everyday I started to read their mails. One day I came to know that they were meeting at Mumbai on a Versova beach. Through Anjali's mail I got all the information like when she is comming, in which hotel she is checking in and where they are meeting. I reached Mumbai in advance. I was always behind them. On beach I took their photographs without their knowledge. I was having their other photos which they sent to each other through email. I followed them to the hotel. I saw them entering a suit. I was unable to take the photographs inside the suit. But whatever happened in the room I could see through the key hole. After Anjali checked out that hotel, I took the photographs of her empty suit. "
Whole hall was listening carefully to him.
Atul continued...
" Then I kidnapped Vivek through hired kidnappers... Therefore next three days Anjali could not get his mail. Using image processing software I had prepared all possible positions of Anjali and Vivek in the hotel. Whatever I saw in the suit and the photographs taken on the beach, photographs they sent to each other and the photographs of the empty suit proved useful for this purpose. And then I demanded the ransom of fifty lakhs. In front of Vivek I was successful in portraying the picture that Anjali's relatives had kidnapped him to warn him to stop their affair so that he should leave the thought of marrying Anjali. Through Vivek's mailbox I also sent mails to his friends that he has gone to his relative for a week. I also sent Vivek a email through Anjali's mailbox. I wrote in that mail that he should forget her, and its better for both of ours future. During kidnap period Vivek was provided with a laptop. He was permitted to check his mails only. He was not permitted to write emails. I used to decide in advance which mails are to kept in his mailbox and which are to be deleted. On eighth day I demanded once again a ransom of ten lakhs. But without any hesitation she agreed. I got a doubt. Therefore I did not contact her again. I released Vivek warning him that if he try to contact Anjali it will not be good for both of them."
Inspector Kawaljeet instructed one of his assistant to take away Atul from the stage.
“ Now I request Inspector Kawaljeet to tell the audience about how he found the kidnapper ... and in his inspection process how he had been reached to Atul..” the announcer announced.
Inspector came on the dais and said in the microphone “ I think it will be better and more effective if Anjali tell the rest of the story”. He handed over the mike to Anjali.
Anjali started telling...
Initially when I got the mail of Vivek demanding ransom of Rs. 50 lakshs, I could not believe that a single man can have two such a dangerous faces. I considered Vivek the victim. But when I sent a mail to persude him I sent a sniffer program with it. Due to which I got his password. When I opened his mailbox , then I came to know the truth that the blackmailer is not Vivek but someone else, because in his mailbox I found some mails which were sent through my mailbox but was not sent by me. Who was that third person - I started investing about it. For this job I got very good support and help from the entire police department and specially inspector Kawaljeet helped me very much. After victim’s third mail we tried to trace his each and every mail. But befor police reaching to him he used to vanish. Every time he used to mail from different cyber cafe. Therefore it was very difficult to find him.
From Vivek’s mail box I had got an idea that he was been kidnapped. If I did not pay Rs 50 lakhs ransom there was threat to Vivek’s life. Therefore I made an arrangement to reach the ransom at his specified place. I felt relieved when he released Vivek. But an attempt to meet him was like making the criminal vigilant. Therefore I was waiting for the right time. As I guessed he demanded a ransom of Rs 10 lakhs again. But here I made mistake... Since I agreed immediately to give him the money, he had a doubt. He became vigilant and he broke all contacts with me. He tried to destroy all the evidences deleting all mails and photos. But inspector Kawaljeet told us that to catch him still there were some clues. My friend Dinesh who is working in my company as a network security expert suggested me a trick. As per his trick with the help of this company we organised a contest on ‘Ethical hacking’. We were expecting that the criminal will participate in this contest. In the first round 2.5 lakhs participants took part. It was almost impossible to search a culprit among this many participants. Earlier when inspector kawaljeet had traced to the cyber cafe twice, in an attempt to catch the cracker, he was recently left the cyber cafe. And both the times he found mouse kept on right hand side of the computer. That means the cracker was left handed. We used this information... in the form for applying for the contest we asked this information ... Among all application there were only 23 applicants who were left handed. We were sure that the culprit is among these 25 participants.”

Whole hall was listing as if the climax of the story was going on. There was pin drop silence in the hall. Anjali took a swig of water and continued ...

When inspector kawaljeet raided in the cyber cafes he seized the logbooks. Due to which we were holding culprits handwriting. We matched the handwriting of those 23 left-handed participants. Atul's handwriting was matching. Now we were sure about the criminal. But we were not having sufficient evidences to sue him. While the contest was going on here we checked his computer. But we could not get anything, since probably he had formatted the hard disk. Then we decided to use our company's data recovery tools. And we were successful in recovering the data bringing the hard disk to the previous state. In the hard disk we find my and Vivek's processed and unprocessed photographs. In this way we caught the real criminal with the sufficient evidences."
Eventually Vivek came in the hall. Inspector kawaljeet would have told him the complete story. His searching eyes stopped on Anjali. Anjali signaled him to come on the stage.

Anjali and Vivek were standing before the audience. Holding Vivek's hand in her hand she said
" From our love story definitely you can take one lesson that... we should use our talent in the right way ... otherwise you have seen the consequences... Atul is cleaver there is no doubt about it ... but he misused his talent. "
Holding Vivek's hand more firmly she said
"This is our cyber love... we thought at least there will not be obstacles in this ... but it seems there are always obstacles in the path of love... but whatever happens.... at the end love wins"
All the audience in the hall started clapping. It seemed people were not ready to stop clapping. Rounds of clapping were going on and on....

Sunild, first you need to join a Group so you can post your work there, and be able to remove it afterwards. By posting it here it is perminant unless you ask the Site Administrator to delete it.

Second, if you want a critique or review (we don't do copy editing, as a rule), you need to reciprocate: ie read and review other members' work in your Group.

- N


<Added>

PS, most pieces posted on the site are in the region of 1500 words, where as this is 4500+ words.

Sunil, welcome to WW.

As Naomi says, this is the wrong place to post your work. (but don't worry - you're not the first one to do it! ) If you click on ‘upload work’ at the top right hand side of the screen and follow the instructions you can upload some of this piece there and then post a message in the ‘introduce your work’ forum asking for feedback. As a general guideline it’s best to keep it to under 2000 words if you can, especially for your first piece until people get to know you.

Dee