Rear (Incognito) Window — Part 1 & 2

Foreword — This is an attempt at a modern adaptation of Alfred Hitchcock’s classic ‘Rear Window’ which was based on Cornell Woolrich’s short story ‘It had to be Murder’. What if this happened today, in this digital era where the entire world has become our Rear Window, through which we can watch the LIVES of everyone, silently. Infact in this 1954 classic Stella says “We have become a race of Peeping Toms. What we need to do is get out of the house and look in for a change!!!” Isn’t that truer today than it ever was? Hence, the attempt. Enjoy.

Part 1: The Peeping Tom

It was a particularly hot day. He was sweating profusely. It was the 10th time this morning that he was browsing his Facebook wall and Instagram feed to see what everyone was up to. He had been bed ridden for a month now because of the broken leg. The photo of his plastered foot fetched only 127 Likes and 15 comments on Facebook. He had been particularly happy with his update ‘Here lie the broken bones of JC’ but people didn’t get his Hitchcockian reference.

His favourite pass-time nowadays was to look at the updates of his contacts and analyse them. He wasn’t interested in the content by the likes of Netflix and Amazon Prime. He found his thrills in real life. He loved psychology and had decided to write a paper on the influence of social media in our lives. He had carefully labelled his contacts into Influencers, Showoffs , Fakes , Wannabes , Bores, Bullies and Suck-Ups ( ofcourse each person could get more than one label). But of all the contacts, there were just a handful that had caught the fancy of his roving eye. These were his test subjects.

1. The Voluptuous Dance Instructor — Mira put out a daily set of new pictures/ boomerangs in skimpy clothes and provocative poses. JC really despised her but couldn’t look away. While the photo of his leg’s cast had fetched only 127 Likes, even a photo of her toe nail fetched her atleast 5K Likes and Hearts! Yeah, she was a wannabe actress, so her profile was public and most of her followers were guys who kept commenting “Add Me”, “Nice Pic Baby”, “Let’s be Frands” etc.
2. Then there was Rhea, the whacky ex-colleague, who put out cat photos and Memes about Unrequited-Love with sad smileys and hashtags like #FML. She shared almost everything she found vaguely mushy online. JC had pegged her daily post average at 16. Her all time high was 28 posts on the last Valentine’s day. She also liked and commented on practically all her friend’s posts. She boosted everyone’s ego. Once, JC put up a post just to figure out her reaction time. He posted a photo of Anil Kapoor with a pot in his hand and wrote “Hairy Potter” on it. Rhea rheacted in less than 20 seconds! ( BTW, a newspaper picked this post up for a Listicle later.)
3. The 3rd was actually a couple, Megha and Harman. Yep, a lovey-dovey couple who got married recently and then created a single account for themselves named The Royal Couple #MegnHarry! It started with 655 pictures from their honeymoon displaying everything from the ceiling in their hotel room, to them canoodling in the Jacuzzi. And yeah, who can forget those selfies with the swan shaped towels. Now, they regularly updated the page with kissy-face photos and moonlit dinners #ForeverAfter. Megha’s dad was a Multi-Millionaire. JC was quite sure all they did was travel and bone. JC regularly shared their mushy posts with his Girlfriend Sam on Whatsapp accompanied with a Puke Smiley.
4. The 4th one was Madam Sodawala. She was JC’s teacher from his Graduation college. And had a surprisingly active social life for a 45 year old single woman. JC was quite sure that she was extremely lonely and depressed. He could see past the Dinner Party Selfies and Coffee Shop Food/Drink pictures. While the photos always implied that she was with someone and had 50 hastags like #PartyLife #FriendsForever #NightIsYoung #LoveMumbai #DanceFever etc etc, he just knew that this was all staged. JC had even tried to set her up with another professor some time back, only to see her heart broken in 2 weeks. He had promised himself never to get involved again.
5. And finally, an acquaintance called Kabir. Kabir was part of the sales team of a reputed FMCG company. He travelled across the country and kept putting updates of deal closures. His Wife Michelle, was really sick. He had created a Cause some years back to crowdsource donations. Michelle needed a new kidney and it was really expensive. Some friends did pitch in, but it was never going to be enough. He remembers this because one smart friend had commented “Do you want to buy a kidney, or are the donations for a new iPhone?” The backlash was swift and nasty, with a lot of people calling the smart friend insensitive. JC had reacted with a ‘HaHa’ smiley at first ( he genuinely ROFLed on the comment), but quickly reverted fearing repercussions #SmartMove. Anyway, Michelle went under the knife, but didn’t get a suitable kidney, so had to make do with the old one. Now, she was completely bed ridden and Kabir, an avid gardener, posted lovely flower pictures on her wall everyday. She in turn had turned into a bitter wife, always putting sarcastic comments on those pictures, like the other day when he put a Rose on her wall, she commented saying “Hope the thorns aren’t poisonous!” … Ouch. But, regardless, he kept putting up those photos for her everyday. His love for Michelle was so legendary that a popular MEME amongst his friend circle was ‘I want someone to look at me, the way Kabir looks at Michelle!’

The Famous Five, as Sam called them, had become JC’s obsession. He had Followed their Profiles and set up Notifications for their posts. Sam was quite sure that if you asked him, he would rattle off their birthdates, but it would be nearly impossible for him to remember her’s!

Part 2: Sam and JC

JC was a Photo Journalist. He started with an ambition of being a wild life photographer but ended up taking Food and Travel Pictures for SnapClap - a popular content portal. He got invites to hotels across the world and would roam around creating sponsored content. Many portals were trying to poach him, but SnapClap payed him pretty well. And he had no problem of good equipment, because every other phone manufacturer would send him their latest phones to review and use. Most of his personal photos carried a “#ShotoniPhone/ #ShotonOnePlus/ #ShotonRedMi etc hashtag.

On his last assignment, things got a little out of hand. He had been invited to cover the trial show screening of Bhai’s next film by a Paparazzi friend, Rohan. There were 2 entrances to this theatre and Rohan wanted to cover both. His job depended on it. So he had sent JC to cover the backdoor entrance while he stood at the front gate. As luck would have it, Bhai’s car came from the back entrance, but in the resulting melee this 30 ton vehicle ran over the footpath and smashed into JC’s leg, breaking it in 5 places! JC had fainted due to the pain, and woke up directly in the hospital.

Rohan pleaded JC to lie about the reason as JC wasn’t supposed to be there and surprisingly there were no reports about the same in the NEWS as well, even though there were 15 other journalists there who clicked a pic of the accident. Not even a tweet. The power of Bhai was enormous, so JC had to keep quiet. Rohan said that Bhai gave exclusive time to each one of them in return. Nobody could leave such a golden opportunity. Even he himself couldn’t. So JC relented. JC’s version to his family was a bike accident. Only Sam knew the complete truth. She leaked it to one of her friends working at a youth NEWS portal. It ran the story, but was then forced to pull it down after the Bhai troll brigade went after the editor and gave her death/rape threats. Plus there were legal complications. Sam gave up as well. But they decided to trash Bhai’s films on Social with a vengeance.

JC had met Sam 5 years ago at a TweetUp. Back then that was a thing. A sportswear brand had called them to cover a launch and they had hit it off big time. One thing lead to another and Sam ended up moving in with JC. Initially they were all hands and put up duck faced selfies together, but now they were like any other mature couple — they minded their own business. Yep, they had come to a point where they sat together and watched their own separate shows on 2 different devices with headphones on. No pretending to like each other’s shows and forcing each other to watch them together!

Sam was a mini-celeb in her own right. She was a brilliant singer, had a Youtube Channel with over 2 lakh subscribers and worked with a radio station. She had risen to fame with her cover of Rihanna’s ‘Diamonds’, but the real success came when she turned Bindaas Pooja’s ‘Selfie Song’ into a melodious bhajan ( a seemingly impossible task) which went insanely viral after a prominent minister of the ruling party shared it with #YehHaiAsliPooja #PowerofBhakti !

Over the years she had realised that JC loved his own space, so she didn’t bore him by inviting him to the parties she had to attend. She would tell him all about it when she was back, but only if he asked. And he did, occasionally. Ofcourse, nowadays he was keeping a closer eye on her social updates — liking, commenting on practically everything. She liked the attention but knew it would only last until he recovered. Actually, she wanted to change her relationship status from ‘It’s complicated’ to ‘married’, but knew JC wasn’t ready. ‘We are from different worlds’ he always said when she broached the topic. ‘You - a goddess, and me - a mere mortal. Let’s not spoil this thing we have with an official document.’ She hated him for it, but she loved him too much to move out. She had accepted the status quo.

Today, he was sleeping when she reached home. The laptop of course was on his lap and some light classical music was playing on it. She quietly shut the laptop, adjusted his leg on the stool and switched on the AC as he was sweating. As she was about to switch off the lights, he woke up and said “Before you leave, can you hand me my phone?” She turned back and smiled at him “Come on JC. Sleep for a while. Forget the phone. I have got some food, let me just unwind and then we will eat together.” He smiled back “Sure. I’ll wait for you”. As she walked out of the room, he grabbed the stick and expertly pulled the mobile towards himself. It was time for subject 1 — Mira’s LIVE Dance session!

Here’s the link to Part 3 & 4 — https://medium.com/@filmantic/rear-incognito-window-part-3-4-51cc9723f256

Do leave your comments and let me know your views.