Decoding the Password

Saturday,10.30 pm, CID Bureau -

'Daya man, you are amazing! How did you manage to crack the password so easily? It was so spontaneous as if you already knew it!' exclaimed Abhijeet as they were leaving for home.

Daya smiled and said 'Guess I got lucky'

Daya had somewhat developed the knack of decoding passwords recently. It was a silly game which he and Shreya played all the time.

They shared a single laptop at home and Shreya would keep on changing the passwords and then they would see how fast Daya could guess it.

It was a fun affair. Through passwords, she would leave romantic messages for him like: twistedoveryou or Iwanttokissyou and when she would be angry they went like this: youaresofullofarrogance or buyyourownlaptop or youdontcareformeanymore.

Ofcourse for Daya, it was very easy. He could read Shreya's mind so clearly that he knew what she would be thinking of.

When Daya reached home about an hour later, he saw that Shreya was fast asleep.

He had a hectic and tiring day and his head had begun to ache. He was thinking of making himself a cup of coffee when the doorbell rang.

'Hello there cop!' came their neighbour Aisha's voice as he opened the door.

'Aisha! How are you? Long time huh?' said Daya smiling.

'Yeah I was on a holiday in France' said Aisha.

'Wow. Lucky you. I don't know when are we going to get some time off like this.' said Daya glumly.

'Aren't you going to invite me in?' asked Aisha.

'Yes ofcourse' said Daya smiling. 'Come in'

'I was alone and was wondering whether I could catch up with Shreya and you for a cup of coffee or something. Shreya had told me that you guys stay up late during weekends so...' said Aisha.

'You are right on the cue. I was just thinking of making one' said Daya.

'Great' said Aisha smiling.

Daya and Aisha stayed up chatting almost till 12.00 am. When Aisha left, Daya took the third coffee cup to his room. He read a novel for some time and then went off to sleep.

O-o-o-o

Next Day, 8.30 am -

It was an exceptionally crazy Sunday morning in CID officer Daya's household.

Daya woke up to the sound of Shreya talking or rather screaming shrilly. Daya wondered who she was talking to. Daya stepped down from the bed and - SMASH!

'What the -' Daya began when realised that his foot had hit the coffee cup which had been lurking at the foot of his bed.

The next moment, Shreya barged into their bedroom.

'What did you do now?' she asked in a shrill voice.

Looking at her state and the tone of her voice, Daya knew she was really pissed off about something.

Clearing his throat, he said softly 'Uh... I smashed the coffee cup... But don't worry I'll clean the mess'

'Wow! What a great start to a Sunday morning!' she said and stomped out of the room.

Daya followed her into the kitchen.

'Shreya what's wrong?' he asked.

'What's wrong?! What's wrong? How dare you ask me such questions Daya? How can you be so irresponsible?' she asked angrily.

'What did I do?' asked Daya looking surprised.

'You left the lid of the sugar container open. AGAIN. And now this place is smarming with ants!' said Shreya slamming the lid shut.

Daya bit his tongue.

'Listen I am sorry I -' Daya began but Shreya cut him mid sentence.

'And that's not all. You didn't bother to throw away the empty milk carton. And we are out of Coffee as well. I had reminded you at least three times yesterday. You very well know that I need a strong Cup of coffee on Sundays. You could have at least left a spoonful of Coffee for me' said Shreya.

'Well Aisha turned up yesterday night. And I obviously had to offer her coffee. You can't blame me for that!' said Daya.

'Oh of course. You couldn't deny her coffee. Who cares about what your wife says? Let her continue to rant. Just Ignore her. It doesn't matter anymore' said Shreya acidly.

'Oh come on Shreya do you even know what you are talking about? And I came home at 11.30 yesterday! How do you expect me to get coffee?' asked Daya.

'Still you could have closed the lid of the sugar jar and threw away the milk carton!' said Shreya enraged.

'I said I am sorry!' retorted Daya angrily.

'Sorry! Right! It's so easy for you to say sorry and forget all about it. I mean look at this house! We both live here and we both work almost the same hours. Then why can't you just help me with some daily chores?' asked Shreya.

'I was really tired Shreya' said Daya.

'But still you had time to talk to Aisha and read till 1 am' said Shreya coldly.

'I - wait! How do you know I was reading till one? You were awake?' asked Daya surprised.

'Never mind that! My point is you do not help me at all' said Shreya.

Without a word to her, he got the bug spray and sprayed it along the trail of ants.

'Look I am sorry. I won't forget now onwards.' said Daya.

'What about the mess in our bedroom?' asked Shreya.

'I am cleaning it.' said Daya hastily.

Grabbing the broom and the dustpan, he whisked away the remains of the smashed cup.

'Let's forget about the Sugar and the coffee Cup now.' he said returning to the kitchen.

She looked away still feeling very angry.

He caught her wrist and pulled her close.

'Daya wha -' she began but her words were drowned as he captured her lips in a kiss. He wrapped his hands around her waist tightly.

She managed to break free from the kiss and said, 'Don't even think about it'

'Oh come on... I can see you are in mood' said Daya naughtily kissing her neck.

Shreya faltered a bit and a moan escaped her lips.

Daya smiled.

'No! Just get away from me.' said Shreya pushing him away.

'Shreya please... why are you making such a fuss over silly things?' said Daya.

'Now onwards every Sunday would be your Chore Day. You will help me in doing household chores' she said.

Daya sighed. He really had a bad feeling about this. This was going to turn out to be a really heated argument. He had been looking forward to a relaxing and a lazy Sunday but thanks to his wife, he had lost all the hope.

But then his eyes became really wide.

'Damn!' Daya exclaimed.

Shreya ignored his sudden outburst. She was busy writing something on a small notepad.

'Shreya I totally forgot to tell you. I have work today. ACP sir has called us for some urgent work on the drug deal case which we were working on.' he said.

'I have made a list. I will post it on the refrigerator so that you won't forget' said Shreya ignoring him completely.

'Shreya please stop this nonsense! Don't you get it? I have work this Sunday.' said Daya his temper rising.

'So what? If I can manage both Home and work, why can't you?' she enquired.

'Because I am not a perfectionist like you, got that?' said Daya heatedly.

'Well too bad for you! But I am sorry my dear husband... I really can't help you there. I am going out somewhere. I might come late tonight. Till then you please get these things done.' said Shreya coolly pointing at the list on the refrigerator.

'What's wrong with you Shreya? Can't you manage all this for one day? And where are you going?' asked Daya.

'I have been managing both for a month! It's you who has to manage it for one day.' said Shreya.

'I won't. I won't do it, you got that?' interjected Daya angrily.

'Well you leave me no choice. I won't step a foot into this house till you learn to be a responsible husband.' Shreya yelled.

'Fine! I don't need you okay? I will manage on my own' Daya yelled back.

'Yeah, you don't need me. Right. I can't believe you changed so much just three months into our marriage. You don't care for me anymore. What my girlfriends say is absolutely right. All men are alike. Once they get what they want, they'll treat you like trash.' said Shreya and marched out of the Kitchen tears sloshing all over her place.

'Shreya I didn't mean to hurt you!' Daya yelled after her but she was already out of earshot.

He glanced at the clock. He was already running late. Cursing his bad luck, he ran into the bathroom to take a quick shower.

Shreya wiped angry tears off her face.

'How dare he treat me like that? I am not coming back to you Daya!' she said aloud.

She spotted his laptop on the table. She surveyed the messy room and the dirty laundry from last week was lying around the chair with disgust. With an evil smile, Shreya switched it on and changed the password.

There you go my intelligent husband! Let's see how you crack this code.

When Daya came out of the shower, Shreya was nowhere to be seen. Thinking he would apologize to her later, he quickly grabbed his laptop and the list which Shreya had stuck on the refrigerator. In next five minutes, his car had sped off to CID Bureau.

O-o-o-o

Till mid afternoon, Daya and Abhijeet had spent most of the time looking for the whereabouts of the drugs.

Despite being tied up with work, Daya tried calling Shreya. But she neither answered any of his calls nor called him back.

When they returned to the bureau, ACP Pradyuman said, 'Daya just transfer me the files relating to this case from your laptop. Then we are done for the day. You guys are ready to go. I will be right back. I have to make a call.'

'Oh great' said Abhijeet.

As Daya turned the power on, a familiar password box flashed on the screen.

Daya scratched his head to remember what the last password was.

'Yeah it was: Awesomemovienight' said Daya aloud.

But the moment he typed it, the screen flashed an error message 'INCORRECT PASSWORD'

Daya wondered how had he got it wrong.

'What kind of password is that?' asked Abhijeet.

'Oh no! Shreya!' Daya exclaimed suddenly ignoring Abhijeet's question.

'Huh? Shreya?' said Abhijeet.

'Shreya must have changed the password!' said Daya.

'What's the big deal? Call her and ask.' said Abhijeet.

'I wish it could have been that easy.' said Daya.

'What do you mean?' asked Abhijeet.

'It's... Abhijeet, can you call Shreya? She might answer your call. We had an argument in the morning and I vented out all the frustration on her and said stupid things and...' said Daya.

'Ah, I get it.' said Abhijeet smiling.

Abhijeet tried calling her but she didn't answer any of his calls.

Meanwhile Daya called up Purvi and Tarika but Shreya wasn't with both of them.

Daya gritted his teeth in anger. He sent her a text message: Where the hell are you? Shreya this is not funny. Just tell me the goddamn password. I know you have changed it in the morning!

'She is not answering my calls. Why don't you try guessing it? You guessed the complex password so quickly yesterday. It could be your birth date or your anniversary date or something like that' said Abhijeet.

'No it can't be like that' said Daya quickly.

'Why? Usually we keep loved one's name or birth date or combination of both as password' said Abhijeet.

'But Shreya doesn't set the password that way. You see she usually leaves me messages according to her mood or you know...' said Daya awkwardly.

'How innovative!' said Abhijeet chortling.

'I know it sounds stupid' said Daya looking sheepish.

'Wait. You said you had an argument with her right? So she might have set password related to that?' asked Abhijeet.

'Yeah. You are right. But I can't think of anything at the moment. Abhijeet if I can't open this thing before ACP sir comes back, I am screwed - Big Time.' said Daya.