The Camera

Saturday, April 21 - 11:30

She rested her chin on the dining table, looking into the viewfinder of the high-end DSLR camera. She was perplexed. Over the past week, Nikitha had been encountering strange incidents through a series of pictures clicked on her camera. This one was the most intriguing; it had the image of the wall clock in her living room. The clock displayed 11:11. The late morning sun rays on the window curtains reflected on the glass of the watch.

How did the picture appear on the camera when the focus was precisely on the opposite side, the view of the community park of the apartment? She shuddered to think of the next day!

Monday, April 16 - 17:30

Nikitha’s long-cherished dream of buying the best digital single-lens reflex camera was finally fulfilled. The massive box from the e-commerce portal just arrived. She made herself a strong coffee and sat down to open the package and unravel the gift to herself. She had been saving for over a year, and had well and truly earned it. With the wrapping and the duct tape undone, she opened the huge box and removed the bubble-wrapped camera bag and set it on the table. The bag contained the extravagant camera, an extendable tripod stand, lenses, batteries and charger all neatly placed in the multi-slot sling bag.

She browsed through the user manual and put it back in the box. Carefully assembling the Camera Nikitha found something that caught her eye. The camera had the model inscribed on it DS2021F. She was sure it wasn’t what she saw on the box or the invoice. She checked the portal where she ordered for the piece – it said DS2021. So also on the box, the user manual, the invoice everything. Now, what was this additional ‘F’ printed on the camera?

She then set the memory card and battery in place and switched on the camera. The whirring sound of the autofocus started and stopped. She aimed at the flower vase on the dining table and clicked. Voila, the beautiful first picture on her proud possession came out well.

Nikitha then walked out in the park with her camera and clicked quite a few pics of the landscape, the children’s play area, the setting sun, the clouds and more. She was overwhelmed with her photography skills and decided to go to the botanical garden the next day.

Monday, April 16 - 23:30

Exhausted after a long day, Nikitha showered, prepared and ate a nice dinner and watched her favourite web series on Netflix for an hour. It was time to hit the bed. She then set the camera on the living room table, sat on the sofa and was admiring the marvellous piece. She then lifted it and checked the pictures she clicked in the evening, and they seemed beautiful. She then set the camera back on the table and got up to go to her bedroom, when the whirring sound of the camera autofocus startled her. She knew she had switched it off. She picked up the camera in her hand and checked, and it was set for a long focus shot. Not wanting to waste the opportunity to click the moonlit night sky, she trudged to the balcony and pushed aside the curtains, opened the French window and stepped out to take a shot at the stars.

Monday, 23:45

Nikitha aimed at the sky, opposite to the direction of the full moon and was about to press the button,

when the shutter clicked, and the camera switched off. She tried to switch it on, but it wouldn’t she walked back into the living room, set the camera on the table and sat down on the floor to inspect. The camera switched on in her first attempt. She quickly browsed for the last clicked picture in the gallery and was dumbfounded by what she saw. The snap displayed the darkness of the sky awash with a bright thick meteor-like streak hurtling downward. What was shocking was there was no such phenomenon in the sky at that time. She pondered over the strange picture and dozed of well past midnight.

Tuesday, April 17 – 10:00

The Alarm snoozed for the seventh time. Finally, Nikitha got up from bed after a night of disturbed sleep. She freshened up and sat in the hanging chair in the balcony, sipping her hot coffee. The clear cloudless sky was bright and blue. She got up and fetched the day’s newspaper and pored through all the pages. There was no news of the celestial spectacle she had captured. She browsed the internet with the keywords “meteor” “falling stars” “spectacle in the sky” and more… None got her any recent sightings or news. She decided to upload the picture on to her laptop and see if it made sense.  Soon she transferred the images captured in the memory card on to her computer drive. Most photos brought a smile on her face, but then the last one was where she wanted to stop. It was the most magnificent picture in the collection. Crisp and bright with very high-density imagery that left her happy and bewildered at the same time. She zoomed in to see the finer details, and they looked like sparkling golden and silver showers on the dark background. There was something she didn’t notice earlier on the camera. Something that caught her eye now and left her gasping. In the far left corner of the picture was the time 23:45 followed by the date 17.04.

Tuesday, 12:00

 It was almost an hour now since she started checking the settings on her new camera; the date and time formats were perfect. All the pictures of the previous day had 16.04, except for the last one. Did she capture something that’s going to happen later that night? Nikitha started sweating with the thought.

Tuesday, 15:00

The phone number she dialled was ringing continuously, lunch happened hurriedly, and the drowsiness continued. However, she could not sleep.

When she was about to hang up, it was on the tenth ring, the customer care officer of the camera company picked up the call. She checked for the model DS 2021F. The officer categorically said they had no such model; the latest model rolled out was the DS2021. The ‘F’ variant was unheard of. The serial number of the piece she bought matched with the manufacturer. They were from the same batch as thousands of others, but the F was an aberration, which the customer care vehemently denied having any cognisance of.

With no assurance from the company, Nikitha decided to stay put with her new tech acquisition.

In the evening she wasn’t in the mood to go out and click any pictures, she decided to put the camera to test at Eleven Forty-Five that night.

Tuesday, 23:30

The Alarm on her phone went off, and Nikitha got up from the bed. After an early evening shower and a light dinner, she was exhausted and crashed at 9 PM. Not wanting to miss the ‘sky show’, she set up a rendezvous with her camera in the balcony. As the clock ticked, she was getting excited and scared at the same time. The camera sat on the tripod and was all set for quarter-to-midnight. She switched it on, checked the battery, the zoom, the focus and watched the sky in the same position as the previous night, with the forefinger waiting on the click button.

At exactly 23:45, the sky lit up bright with gold and silver for about 2 seconds, and the meteor shower happened. Even as Nikitha tried to click the button several times, the camera went into ‘switched off’ mode. A few seconds later, the camera was back to ‘switched on’ way, and she was clicking pictures of the dark sky!

An hour later, she crashed in bed, shocked and exhausted!

Wednesday, April 18 - 09:30

The camera was silently sitting inside the bag. Nikitha was in the balcony, sipping her coffee and looking at the sky in bewilderment. Another night of disturbed sleep, she was woken up intermittently by the imaginary whirring sound of the camera lens focussing itself. 

The newspapers and the websites were full of news about the ‘surprise’ celestial event of the previous night. There were many pictures in various sites, some videos too, but none was as bright as the one she had on her camera, the one she didn’t click!

She rushed into the living room and got the camera out of the bag, set it on the tripod in the balcony and decided to click all day. She wanted to see what more surprises it held for her.

Wednesday, 10:00

She had her breakfast and left home for the nearby locality, armed with the camera. It was a bright summer day, and she had applied sunscreen protection, sunglasses in place and a crisp sipper in her backpack. There were lots to click, the brick kiln workers, the mint-lemonade sellers on bicycles, the children playing cricket in the park, the housewives chatting across the balconies, the whizzing two and four-wheelers and the cops operating the traffic. The town was full of life, and Nikitha was soon lost for choice as she clicked candid pictures of the people, the place and the greenery all around.

Wednesday, 12:25

After almost two-and-half hours outdoors, she decided to head home. The unusually incident-free morning was a welcome change for her. She walked into a roadside shanty selling sugarcane juice. She placed her bag and the camera on the wooden bench, which reminded her of her school. She wiped her brow, sipping the juice and looked at the deserted road. At that very moment, the camera came alive, whirred to focus on the street in front and clicked and shut. The juice seller was astonished: “What was that sound?”, he asked. “Just a faulty camera”, Nikitha remarked, muffling her shock and surprise. She paid the man, picked up her bag and camera and rushed home.

Placing the camera on the table, she connected it to her laptop and viewed the last clicked picture and screamed out in fear.

The time on the image was 12:34 – 19.04!

Wednesday 17:00

The policemen in the ACP’s office gave her water to drink. She was sitting for almost three-and-half hours there, famished. The chief arrived in his cabin and remarked “we have checked it thoroughly, there seems to be no forensic evidence. We shall, however, make sure there are enough cops posted at the junction tomorrow. You may take the camera with you. The Meteor picture too has been shared with the scientists at the space lab”.

Nikitha thanked the chief and the other policemen and got up to go. The picture clicked at 12:34 was on the table – the ghastly head-on collision of a truck and an autorickshaw was too scary. While there was no sign of any casualties or injuries to any humans, the front portion of both the vehicles were quite mangled.

The police had scrutinised the pictured and found no human captured from the angle it was clicked.

Earlier, Nikitha had rushed with her camera to the nearby police station, who took her to the ACP. The chief of police, in charge of the town, was a genial man and gave Nikitha a patient hearing and promised to help her. She told them the entire sequence of events, including the mysterious ‘F’ on the camera. The cops jocularly called it ‘future’! She wasn’t amused but realised they just had stumbled upon something that could be true.

Wednesday, 20:00

It was yet another exhausting day and Nikitha who was starving since morning, showered and prepared a heavy dinner. She packed the camera into the bag, ensuring that the battery had been removed from it. She soon had her dinner and went to bed with her mobile phone. Browsing on paranormal activities across the world, she was surprised there wasn’t anything like she had experienced. It wasn’t long before the mobile slipped from her hand and she dozed off.

Thursday, April 19 - 09:00     

The day began on a lazy note. Nikitha was a bit more relaxed after the previous day’s interaction with the cops. However, she was worried to have to be present at the ‘scene of the incident’ later that afternoon.

After a sumptuous breakfast, she read the newspaper and was surprised to see an updated version of the web stories on the meteor shower, with the picture from her camera. The scientists couldn’t but help using the ‘best’ picture. There was no mention of the “source” though.

At around quarter past twelve, she got a call from the ACP’s office. She locked her home and took the camera along as she walked to the junction. There was a posse of policemen, an ambulance and a few other cameramen too. The wait from 12:30 to 12:34 seemed long.

Part of the road was barricaded to avoid vehicles crossing each other. They all waited as time passed. Nothing happened till 12:40. Heaving a sigh of relief, the teams decided to abandon the post and leave for their respective places. Just then the walkie-talkie of an inspector crackled. There was an accident at the next junction, less than half a kilometre away—a similar one as they had seen in the picture. The autorickshaw and the truck had a head-on collision and both the vehicles were heavily damaged. Neither of the drivers was injured and had jumped to safety.

The two drivers were taken to the police station and were quizzed, and they had both not seen the other vehicle until they collided.

The picture from the camera was scrutinised, it was then they realised the focus was zoomed too much farther than they had deciphered initially. However, the unanswered question was, how did it get captured 24 hours ahead in the camera? Answers Nikitha badly wanted, it was now getting scarier for her. What next?

Thursday, 20:00

What Next? The question was haunting her for most of the day. She gathered some courage and clicked a few pictures of her home, the backyard kitchen garden, the multi hues of flowers. It was a refreshing change of mind. The images were outstanding. She had the best camera ever, or was it better than the best? She let the thought drift.

It was almost four days since she attended any of her work. For the most part, she was a psychological analyst and other times, an adventurer who did travel blogs. The camera was just the newest addition to her favourite hobby.

She packed the camera in the bag, fastened the belt and left it on the living room table. Finishing her daily chores, she had a relaxed dinner and hit the bed by 10 PM.

Friday, April 20 – 08:00

The accident on the 4th Cross was a small news item in the inside pages of the newspaper. Nikitha passed it and moved on to the sports pages. The coffee smelt better today. Even the air in the balcony was refreshing. After an hour of lazing in the hanging chair, she moved in to watch some web series over breakfast.

Sometime later, she decided to go out for a stroll with the camera. Oh! The camera wasn’t remembered since morning. She unbuckled the bag and removed the camera and set it on the table. Switched it on and focussed on the sparrow sitting on the window sill. After a few cute pics, she checked the gallery. They looked pretty, scrolling backwards she stopped. Aghast!

00:00 – 21.04 read the blank image! She loaded it on her laptop and zoomed to see if there was anything visible. It was a fully dark black image. Clicked inside the bag last night? Well, the date surely was for midnight later. Now then, her mind was racing for the possibilities. She realised the battery wasn’t removed the previous evening. But what did the photograph signify?

Friday, 12:00

The camera was lying still on the table. She wasn’t sure what or why it was behaving thus. Was there a hidden message in the pic? Should she wait till midnight? Should she call help? Will the cops be needed?

Lost in those thoughts, Nikitha fell asleep in the chair. After half an hour, she was woken up by hunger. The wait till midnight to discover the latest ‘incident’ in her life was excruciating. She made lunch, had a shower and relaxed in front of the tv. The late afternoon Hindi retro music was soothing. Was this all filmy? Where is this going to end? More thoughts crossed her mind.

She flipped open the laptop and went to the e-commerce site and checked out the Return Policy – Yes, the camera was to be returned. She made up her mind and filled out the form, ticked ‘No replacement’ and submitted. The company would take 24 hours to revert. Thus, the camera would still be at her home till late afternoon the next day. The thought was disconcerting. She dismantled the lens and removed the battery, the memory card and placed them back in the bag. She had had enough!

Friday, 18:00

The barefoot summer evening stroll in the apartment park was soothing, and the mild breeze was refreshing. The children were playing ball and engaged Nikitha in their game by throwing a catch at her. She loved the time spent with the kids, and that helped her forget the camera ordeal. An hour later, she returned home smiling. A quick shower then, she prepared her favourite pasta for dinner and opened a bottle of red wine. The music on the telly made it pleasant.

Around 9:30 PM she got into bed, set the Alarm at 23:50 and soon dozed off.

Saturday, April 21 – 00:00

There was no movement near the living room table, and the anticipated whirring noise was non-existent. She slowly moved close to the bag, unlatched the belt fastening it and peeped inside. Her heart was pounding. The calm of the night was eerie. For the next fifteen minutes, she sat still and then nervousness passed. She slowly got up and went to bed.

Saturday, 10:00

It was two hours since she woke up and finished her daily morning chores; she was humming her favourite song and was back to her usual chirpy self. She skipped the newspaper, which had a box item about the total grid failure and blackout in the entire district earlier at midnight. The phenomenon had the whole official machinery scurrying for solutions. Power was restored an hour later at 1 AM. Most citizens weren’t aware of what happened during the night. Nikitha, thankfully, didn’t realise that she would’ve known what was unknown, much earlier!  

  

With nothing much to do, she picked up her mobile phone and sat in the living room, browsing social media. There wasn’t anything exciting but for some random forwards. One message caught her eye. “Photo contest” – Click your surroundings and win a surprise gift. It was from her Apartment association group.

Nikitha decided to use her camera one last time to click some fabulous pictures. It was around 11 AM, and she set the tripod in the balcony and arranged the camera to capture the children playing in the community park of the apartment complex. The sun was bright, and she decided to take the camera in and shoot from her living room, with the window open. She placed the camera on the dining table, set the focus on the play area and was about to switch it on when the front doorbell rang. She walked to the door and opened it, it was the neighbour’s kid who was playing in the ground, and he had come to ask for water. She gave him a bottle of chilled water from the refrigerator and shut the door behind her.

Saturday, 11:12

As she approached the table, the camera was facing her. It was focussed on the opposite side and had turned 180 degrees. She picked up the camera and switched it on.

It had the picture of the wall clock in her living room. The clock displayed 11:11. The late morning sun rays on the window curtains were reflected on the glass of the watch. She downloaded the picture on to her laptop and dismantled the battery and lens and put back the camera in the bag. The zoomed-in image displayed the time 11:11 – 22.04!

She started sweating. This scene of crime seemed to shift into her house this time. She called the e-commerce portal office and requested that the camera be picked up early, as she was leaving home soon.

Saturday, 13:00

The delivery boy from the shopping portal came with his huge backpack, inspected the camera with the box and the bag and all accessories. He got Nikitha to fill up a form and gave her a signed copy of the same and left with the camera. She was informed that the full refund of the amount she paid would revert to her bank account in 4 working days. As the man left, she crashed in the sofa heaving a sigh of relief. There were tears in her eyes—tears more out of fear than relief.

Later that evening she informed the ACP about returning the purchase of her camera and also about the incident at home. The police asked her if she needed any assistance, she refused.

The evening and night passed off silently, and she tried her best to be calm and forget the happenings.

Sunday, April 22, 11:10

She had been waiting for the past one-and-half hours sitting at the dining table watching out of the window. Partly scared, partly excited about expecting the unknown.

As the clocked moved to 11:11, a tennis ball swished through the window, brushing past the top of the table and landed in her room. The kids who had been playing cricket in the ground had hit the ball right through the open window. She realised the ball might have hit the camera and swerved to face the clock and clicked even as she was at the door serving water to the boy.

The doorbell rang, and the same boy came to fetch the ball.

As she bent down to pick up the ball from under the table, she found a shining silver ‘F’ engraved on plastic lying beside the ball. 

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Pics: Internet