Next day’s afternoon, Yahya who was waiting outside on the foot path for some public transport, felt his phone vibrating. He saw that it was Shan’s call. He answered the call:

“Yes, Shan?”

“Hey Yahya, did you see the siblings murder case news?”

“Yeah, it was tragic.”

“I know. But anyways it is a hot topic to discuss. What do you say? Should we upload any video?”

Yahya felt really uncomfortable on this so he just spoke:

“I’ll let you know afterwards…”

After a little conversation, he disconnected the call. He sat on the bus stop and gave it a little thought. He realised that every news channel and every TV anchor must be talking on this issue. He understood that for a few days this incident that he witnessed with his own eyes won’t be easy to ignore. But more importantly he had to worry about himself. He had to make sure that he and his friend Usman wouldn’t get caught through any other CCTV video.

Oh, my God! he uttered. I must make sure that Usman doesn’t speak out. He needs to keep his mouth shut.

He took out his phone again and dialed Usman’s cell phone number.

He took out his phone again and dialed Usman’s cell phone number. After a few rings, Usman finally answered his call:

“Hello?”

“What is wrong with you Usman? Why aren’t you answering your phone?”

“Look Yahya, I’m more tensed than you are, okay? And secondly, I haven’t slept all night. I’ve been thinking about what we witnessed yesterday, all night.”

“Stop here! First, tell me that do you know that this has become a news? A breaking news for every news channel.”

“Do you think I wouldn’t know it? Do you think I’m not keeping myself update with every news?”

“Alright, just shut up here. First tell me…”

“…Don’t tell me to shut up,” Usman interrupted angrily. “You’re the one who stopped me from saving them. You have no guilt.”

“Here me out first!” Yahya spoke angrily. “Let me finish! Just tell me that are you planning to report this to the police.”

“…No!” he replied after a while.

“Are you sure?” Yahya reconfirmed for his own satisfaction.

“Yes, I won’t report to the cops. But I also don’t want to see you ever again.”

Yahya reacted in a loud voice:

“Fine! Go to hell!”

“Yeah, and you too!”

Yahya angrily disconnected the call. He knew that his friendship was over.

He was more upset than angry about it. He was standing on the footpath and he felt really alone at the moment.

Next minute, he was walking on the same footpath and he was feeling quite upset and as if he had lost someone really important in his life.

********

Two Months Later, January 2017

Yahya was sitting with Javeria at some restaurant. They had gotten really close to each other and he was emotionally attached to her now. So while they were having their dinner, she asked him:

“So Yahya, you haven’t posted any video for a while. Any specific reason?”

“No nothing specific, but I am going to. Soon!”

“So, who is your real target? I mean whom do you target? Is there any specific celebrity you’re targeting?”

All these questions had only one answer. Shahrukh Rizwan. But he remained silent as he had kept it hidden from almost everybody. He replied anyway:

“There is no one I’m targeting. My purpose is nothing but truth. I just want to reveal the truth, to my viewers.”

“That’s good… Really admirable!”

“So about your father, if you don’t mind me asking, you never really saw him?”

“Yes, I didn’t. Don’t get me wrong but you’ve asked this question third time this week.”

“I know, but you know I’m really stunned about it. I mean I believe that father is a very important personality in person’s life. And you never…”

“…I have a father Javeria,” he spoke in between. “He’s not my real father but he loves me as his real son.”

“So you don’t feel your father’s absence? Not even a bit.”

“I do, I mean I really want to see my real dad. I want to talk to him but as he’s no longer alive, I just can’t do anything about it.”

“How would you feel if your father appears before you? I mean for some reason, what if he’s not dead and he appears right in front of you? How would you feel?”

“I would want nothing more in my life. I would love to spend the rest of my life with him. I would value him more than any other thing I have. I would accept his flaws and shortcomings, and be happy with him.”

Javeria remained silent as she felt a bit sad for him.

********

One Week Later

While Yahya was walking at the corridor of his university, he heard some boys talking. One of the boys asked the other:

“Did you see the recently leaked video of Professor Shahrukh Rizwan?”

Yahya stopped walking and paid attention to their conversation.

“Oh yeah, I saw it,” the other boy replied. “It was shocking, you know.”

“I’m telling you this video will end his career. It was enough to ruin his reputation.”

Yahya gained interest in their words.

“Shahrukh Rizwan’s reputation is already ruined but this leaked video can prove that he is nothing but a lying and fake professor.”

“Yeah, I mean the way he is asking his employees to help him deliver his lectures, it was just shocking.”

Amazed Yahya took out his phone wondering:

What kind of video are they talking about? How come I don’t know about this leaked information?

He tried to turn on the data package in his phone but unfortunately he was short of credit which was why he couldn’t access the internet.

Oh damn it! he uttered regretfully.

Few minutes later, he was sitting in the class room where his other colleagues were also seated. They all were waiting for the teacher to come. In the meantime, the three girls sitting behind him were talking. He gained interest in their talks when one of them asked the other two:

“Hey, did you two get to know about Shahrukh Rizwan’s leaked video?”

“Please don’t talk to me about that insane and worthless person,” one of the girls replied.

The third girl responded:

“Are you talking about the one that was leaked years back? In which he was mocking his show’s viewers?”

“No not that one. A new video has been leaked. It is about the time when he had long hair. The video has revealed that he used to hide some sort of earphones behind his hair. Through those earphones he used to secretly hear the information that was being revealed to him through his own hired employee.”

Yahya was now even more eager to see that video. He whispered to himself:

This video must be something really career threatening for him.

Their teacher finally came inside the class. The silence was maintained by all the students. Yahya was impatient.

Several hours later during the evening, Yahya was sitting in his room. He was moving as if he was finally getting what he wanted. He sat on his bed and kept his laptop on his lap. He inserted his earphones in the laptop and finally logged on to YouTube. He just typed:

‘Shahrukh Rizwan’.

As several videos appeared on the screen, he clicked on the first link. The video was number one in trending. The video began with captions:

“Professor Shahrukh Rizwan’s reality regarding how he used to come up with so much information on his show.”

The video began in which Shahrukh Rizwan with long hair was showing some device to his team member. He was instructing:

“I will fix this over my ear and through this I will be able to hear you clearly. Your job is to read what I have marked in this book.”

Shahrukh then handed over some book to him.

The video ended and captions appeared on the screen:

“This is how the so called informative Professor Shahrukh Rizwan delivers his knowledge to his audience.”

Yahya was amazed and he was quite delighted as he had something new. He however made his rapid decision:

I will upload a video regarding this. But in order to hide my prejudice from the viewers, I will talk in favor of Shahrukh Rizwan, so that no one guesses that I am actually against this person and this personality.

********

Next afternoon at Professor Shahrukh Rizwan’s home, he was sitting angry in his room. His wife came by and asked him:

“So what are you going to do now? Your reality has been exposed.”

He looked up at her with fury in his eyes. She however spoke fearfully:

“What I mean to say is that how are you going to prove to the world that the video that the video that has been uploaded is not real.”

“I don’t have to prove it to anyone. I’ve been lying all through. I’ve made them fools all these years. I can manage it easily.”

“Aren’t you tired of lying?”

He stood up angrily and stood in front of her. His wife got a bit shaken. He spoke furiously:

“Lying is my life. No one tells me to stop lying. And there is no one who can stop me.”

She remained silent and looked at him with fear in her eyes. Shahrukh pushed her aside and walked towards the other direction. His wife looked at him sadly as he was walking out of the room.

Meanwhile Yahya was at some restaurant with Javeria as usual. They were having coffee and were talking. During their conversation, Javeria spoke something quite unexpectedly:

“Yahya, if you don’t get me wrong. Can I say something?”

“Sure!”

“You resemble Professor Shahrukh Rizwan.”

Yahya who was badly offended tried to stay calm and after few seconds spoke:

“Can I say something now if you don’t get me wrong?”

“Yes, why not?”

“That’s the worst thing anyone has ever said to me,” he said spontaneously and looked down at his coffee.

Javeria was stunned for a while. She didn’t know how to respond so she just chuckled.

After a whole minute of awkwardness, Javeria asked him:

“Hey, you know what how about you and I go for a tour?”

“Okay, do you have any place in mind?”

“I don’t know, somewhere outside the country.”

“I’d love to but at the moment I’m waiting for tour inside the country. I haven’t really travelled here. Maybe some other time.”

“We can visit the beautiful cities here as well.”

“We’ll think about it.”

********

Two days later, Usman was sitting in his car. He was using his phone. As he logged into YouTube, he saw his ex-friend Yahya’s new video’s link. He read the title of the video:

My take on Professor Shahrukh Rizwan’s Reality Exposed!

He clicked on the link to see the video. In the video after the first thirty seconds, Yahya appeared on the screen talking to the audience:

“Hello everyone, my today’s topic of discussion is regarding Mr. Shahrukh Rizwan. His leaked video has revealed a lot regarding his shows. It has exposed behind the scenes reality that explains how much his shows are deceiving us. But let me tell you something really surprising. This is not his reality. He is claimed to be informative and he really is an informative person. You know how, because his recent shows clearly show that he has short hair and he is hiding nothing behind on his ears through hair. So what I’m trying to tell you is that he does not require his assistant’s help regarding these. And the video that has leaked recently is just a one-time incident. I can assure you that…”

Usman angrily stopped the video and spoke:

Who does he think he is? He hates Shahrukh Rizwan himself and in front of the world he shows that he is completely neutral about him. Yahya calls Shahrukh Rizwan a hypocrite and in reality he is nothing less than a hypocrite himself.

He kept the phone aside and turned on the engine of his vehicle.

Three hours later in Professor Shahrukh Rizwan’s live show, he was sitting quite calm and was talking to the viewers:

“Ladies and gentlemen, you all are seeing some viral video on YouTube. And I know that you all are shocked after seeing it. You see I am an honest man and I would like to tell you the truth today. That video is fake. It is nothing like what it appears to be. Somebody has used my voice through some software. You all know very well that because of technology advancement, you can easily steel someone’s voice and fit it over somebody else. So that’s the case here.

to be continued...