The CNBC channel had organized an investor meeting on the 4th of January. Being an avid investor in the stock market, Raj decided to attend the meeting. Destiny played its part and he was seated beside a beautiful neighbour Aditi, who too was a keen investor. They got along instantly with the initial conversation veering around stock markets and their portfolios.

The very next day, Aditi received a message from Raj, “The market seems to be going up, which stock do you recommend.”

Aditi replied, “Infosys.” And she rattled off the numbers of the stock – the PE ratio, yearly sales figures, among other financials.

A few days later, Aditi sent a message to Raj, “I am planning to leave my job, and wasn’t sure who to discuss it with, do you have a minute?”

“I always have time for my friends. Tell me do you have a job in hand, or are you leaving without one?” Ajay replied.

“I don’t have a job in hand, but my boss at office is a big jerk and I can’t stand him anymore. I have to leave,” Aditi remarked.

“Correct me if I am wrong, but I think you have an EMI on your house. The one you had recently purchased?”

“Yes, I do have it, but I am sure I will land a job in a month’s time, so I am not worried about the EMI,” Aditi wrote back.

“What if you don’t get a job in Mumbai, are you willing to relocate?”

“I have got a few interviews this week and something positive should turn up,” Aditi replied.

Aditi felt lighter after discussing the matter with Raj and realized that all she needed was someone she could confide in and discuss her inner feelings with. She had already taken the decision, but talking to Raj convinced her that she had made the right decision.

On the other hand Raj was cogitating with himself that he generally never talks like this with others. Why so with Aditi?

Moving on, no day was complete for either Raj or Aditi until they had talked to each other. Aditi would make it a point to discuss all her day’s happenings with Raj. She would tell him not only about the stocks she was interested in, but also about her problems at home, the never ending demands that her siblings were placing on her. He became her sounding board and she found herself going to him for any problem she was facing.

Raj too would discuss his dreams with Aditi, he was looking to get a green card and settle down in the USA. He had big dreams of becoming a multi-millionaire and wished to get married.

It had been over a year and both had become thick friends. On given day, Raj happened to have an argument with Aditi.

Raj said, “My colleague broke up with his girl friend of a year through a SMS. A text message is all it took for him to communicate the end of their relationship.”

Aditi appeared very relaxed and was not even a bit surprised about it.

“Don’t you think that what my friend did was wrong? Are relationships so fragile that a text message is all it takes to break it? How can someone break a relationship so callously, when one has spent so much time together with the other discussing their dreams and problems, the good and the bad?”

“Why are you getting so emotionally involved in someone else’s life? You need to realize that such is life, where people turn from strangers to friends and back to being strangers. These things happen in everyone’s life.”

“Can you do something like this? Can you see us being strangers Aditi?”

Aditi had not expected things to turn personal; she was enjoying Raj’s company and wanted the status quo to remain for as long as possible.

When she could no longer take in the emotional tirade of Raj, she said lackadaisically, “Relationships these days are fragile. All it takes is pressing the delete key and someone is out of your life.”

Raj was shocked to hear Aditi talk like that. He retorted, “So you think that pressing a delete key is all it will take for you to forget me?”

Aditi replied as a matter of fact, “Do you think that I am your friend, ours is just a casual relationship. The day I get bored, all I need to do is press the delete key and you are out of my life. In these days of messengers, chats and social media, these virtual relationships don’t hold any importance. I think we are just screens in each other’s lives, and screens after all have no importance in the lives of human beings.”

With that, she hit the delete key and that was the end of the virtual relationship that she shared with someone whose “Screen” name was Raj.

Pooja Shah   is a chartered accountant and works as an IT Consultant. Writing is her hobby and through short stories she expresses her opinion on interesting social aspects that govern our lives today.

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