This is a story of Parul and Rahul. Parul, a 25-year old workaholic who is working in a software firm. Parul came to office at 9 or 10 in the morning and left at 11 or 12 at night. Even on weekends she would come down to office. She had no social life, no friends. The only people she use to be with were her project mates. But there was no assurance that she would be having her lunch or tea with them. Basically she was all a loner. There was no love life in her life and she had no time for love. All her time was devoted to work

Rahul, use to be a workaholic like Parul 2 years back. But now things had changed. He was no more workaholic but still he use to stay in office. Office had become home for him.

One night while Parul was all alone and working at the office a mail popped up in her mailbox. The name of the sender was Rahul Mehra. She had not met him, never heard about him. Just out of curiosity she checked his mail. The content of the mail was

Hi Parul,

I see you every night sitting in the office till very late. Don’t you have friends? Don’t you feel like talking to your roommate?

You should not sit very late in the office. this is a genuine advice from me.

Thanks,

Rahul Mehra

After reading the mail, Parul was very angry on the sender. She simply deleted the mail and said to herself “who is he to give me any advice?”. She again got back to her work.

After that night, every night Rahul would keep sending her mails and Parul would simply delete them without even reading the content of the mail. But one fine night the subject line attracted her and she had to open the mail. The subject line of the mail was “Hi Gorgeous”

Hi Gorgeous,

Yes today you are looking very gorgeous in this red saree. I know you don’t read my mails as you don’t like the advices I give you.

So today I wont give you any advice, I will just say that I am love with you. You know you are very beautiful and if you take care of yourself many men will fall in love with you.

I am sure someday you will also fall in love with me. And then we will go out for a date.

Oh before I end the mail I must tell you that the best thing about is that smile. Or is it those intense which needs some sleep at the moment.

Take care dear.

Love you.

Rahul Mehra.

After reading the mail she was shocked. A person she had never met, never seen, never spoke to was saying that he was in love with her. She started thinking was this always in his mind. How did he get her id? Where had he seen her? Many questions like this came in her mind. Finally she thought of giving a warning and replied to his mail.

Hi Rahul,

I don’t want to spoil your career but if you don’t stop sending me mails I will raise an ASHI against you.

Thanks and Regards,

Parul Jain

After this mail, the mails from Rahul stopped coming in Parul’s inbox. She thought that finally Rahul has got scared and wont be mailing her again. After several nights, Parul was resting on her chair and her eyes closed. When she opened her eyes she saw Rahul’s mail in her mailbox.

Hi Gorgeous,

With your closed eyes you were dreaming about me, right? Oh sorry for not sending any mails in the last few days.

I was a little busy. I am sure you would have missed me a lot.

One more thing before I forget I want to say that I am not scared of ASHI. An ASHI cant be a reason to stop loving you.

Love you.

Rahul Mehra

Parul was twisting her hair and putting them behind her ears. At that moment itself another mail came from Rahul,

Now stop playing with your hair and leave the office. it is very late.

Love.

Rahul Mehra

Parul was shocked as to how did this person know what she was doing on her desk. She got up to check whether anyone was there in her floor but could find only empty cubicles. She thought maybe he made a wild guess and decided to leave the office. before leaving she saw another mail from Rahul.

Hi Parul,

Searching for me??? You have started falling in love with me. J

Love you.

Rahul Mehra

Parul was shocked and scared to hell. She simply switched off her machine and ran outside the office. in the next few days she would not open any mails sent by Rahul. One night a mail with subject line “Don’t be scared of me” came to her mailbox. First she thought to ignore the mail then she thought lets see what has Rahul written this time.

Hi Parul,

Don’t be scared of me. I can say that you are scared of me because of the way you ran out from the office the last time you read my mail.

I know few minutes back you had gone to have coffee. You are thinking how I know this because I can feel you around me.

Only once you also start feeling me you will know that I am near to you. Very near. Just sitting next to you.

I will wait for the night when you start having the same feelings for me.

Will always love you.

Rahul Mehra

Now Parul started thinking was Rahul really in love with her? What he was saying was it true? But how could he know so much about her? How could he say what she was doing and what not? Parul thought lets give a try and see whether Rahul is always in love with her or not. From that night she also started replying to his mail.

Hi Parul,

Do you feel bad if I call you gorgeous?

Love you.

Rahul Mehra

Parul’s reply:

Yes Rahul. I don’t like this word.

You can address me as Parul, isn’t it short and simple. and I love my name a lot.

Thanks and Regards,

Parul Jain

Rahul’s reply:

Point noted Parul. But when I am happy, excited I would call you with some special name at that time.

Tomorrow you have your certification so all the best for that.

Love you.

Rahul Mehra

Parul was again shocked as to how does he know about her certification. She had never told him. She replied

Rahul,

Who is the person who is giving you details about me? I had not told you about my certification how do you know it?

Thanks and regards,

Parul Jain

Rahul replied back to her

I know it because I in front of you. Cant you see me? Cant you feel me close to you?

I also know that after 3 days you have your appraisal. Now this you have not told anyone. Just your PM knows about it.

Do you think your PM will give me all these details?

Love you.

Rahul Mehra

Parul not sure of the answer. She knew her PM would not have told Rahul all this but how did Rahul know so much about her was a mystery for her. Finally she thought she will talk to her PM, Rohan.

Next day, she went to her PM’s desk. “Hi Rohan. I wanted to ask you something”.

Rohan:- “Sure Parul. Are having any issues?”

Parul:- “No. actually I wanted to know about a person named Rahul Mehra.”

Rohan was shocked on hearing that name. PM:- “How did you come across this name. has anyone told you about him?”

Parul:- “No one has said anything to me about him. Few days back he started sending me e-mails. First I ignored but then he would give such details which I did just few minutes back. He even knows my appraisal date.”

Rohan:- “Are you sure you got mails from Rahul Mehra only?”

Parul:- “Yes very much. But why do you looked shock?”

Rohan:- “Because Rahul Mehra died 2 years back. He use to sit at the same place where you are sitting. How can a dead person send mails to you.”

Parul was shocked. She didn’t know how to react to this.

Rohan:- “If you don’t believe me then you can try finding his name in the telephone directory. Maybe someone told you about him and because of work stress you started imagining that he is sending you mails.”

Parul:- “I am not imagining anything. He has really send me a mail. I can show you in my mailbox.”

Rohan:- “Okay Parul I believe you but still I think you should take a break and go home.”

Parul was still in shock with the news she got from Rohan. She just did a search on telephone directory for a name with Rahul Mehra and page returned no records. She again checked the mail id and employee number details. She did a search many times that day by putting various combinations but the search page displayed the same message “No matches found for the given search criteria”. She could not believe that someone could hack the system and send mails to her from an non-existing id. She attached the mails sent by Rahul and sent it to Rohan as a proof that she was not dreaming.

On seeing the attached mails even Rohan was in shock. He came to Parul’s desk. Rohan:- “I think by mistake his id has not been deleted and someone who knows about it is playing with it.”

Parul:- “But I checked the details on telephone directory there are no records available for this id.”

Rohan:- “Talk to the CCD people and see what they have to say.”

She called up the CCD people. They took control over her system and looked at the mail sent by Rahul Mehra. The mail was sent from the from the same computer which Parul was using. The time stamp at which the mails were sent Parul had logged in. Also there was no evidence that a remote desktop connection was made or mail was sent through web mail. Even the CCD people were clueless as to how a mail has been sent from a non-existing id and from Parul’s system itself. There were no viruses or torjans or any other kind of threats on Parul’s system. Her anti-virus was upto date. The whole day was gone in finding a loophole as to how did Parul get such a mail in her mailbox. Parul was tierd from the day’s happening and so she decided to leave early from the office that day.

The next day when Parul came back, she saw a mail from Rahul Mehra. She didn’t know whether she should delete that mail or read that mail. She was scared to open the mail. Somehow she gained some courage and opened the mail. The context of the mail was:-

Hi Parul,

Good to see that you left the office early tonight. I know Rohan told you about my death.

I was