Share This Article
2022 ke monsoon ke raat thi. Calcutta ke Park Street ke ek sunse building mein, ek chhoti startup company—Voxtail Technologies—ki HR Anvita ka night shift tha. COVID ke baad sab kuch remote ho gaya tha, lekin kuch log abhi bhi office se kaam karte the, shayad adat ke maare, ya bas akelapan se bachne ke liye.
Voxtail ka ek purana server tha jo sirf office network se hi access hota tha. Toh Anvita alternate nights office jaati thi. Us raat bhi woh wahi thi. High-rise mein dusra floor, office mein sirf wo hi thi.
Raat ke 1:30 baje usne dekha ki ek purana Zoom meeting link — “Infra Dev Sync” — abhi bhi active hai. Curiously, usne join kara, aur dekha ek kaala screen jisme display name tha — “PRAHLAD-OPS”. Koi bol nahi raha tha.
Prahlad, company ka infrastructure head, pichle saal pandemic ke dauraan suicide kar chuka tha. Unhone uski death ke baad system purge bhi kar diya tha. But tab ka tab, kuch backup server office mein hi tha jis ka access sirf Prahlad ke ID se hota tha.
Anvita ne socha koi prank hoga. Lekin tabhi mic se ek thandi si saans jaisi aawaz aayi: “Anvita… server se mujhe nikalo.”
Uska heart sank. Screen pe kuch nahi. Sirf uska apna reflection Zoom ke black background mein distort ho raha tha. Saath mein woh PRAHLAD ka naam steadily light flash karta raha. Chat box flash hua:
“USB PORT 3.”
Anvita ne gaur se dekha. Third USB port mein ek purani pen drive lagi thi. Same jo usually logs store karti thi. Company ke ISO logs… including last login footage.
Curious but nervous, Anvita ne wo pen drive nikaal kar apne MacBook mein lagaya. Ek hi file thi: “final_login_log.mp4”
Video shuru hui. Office ka hi view, almost wahi jagah jahan Anvita abhi baithi thi. Lekin yeh feed April 2021 ki thi. Dikh raha tha Prahlad—deep set eyes, oily hair, chewing on a pen. Par phir screen distort hone laga. Backdrop mein whiteboard pe likhe letters move karne lage. Unmein ek word bana: “Here”.
File khatam hone se pehle Prahlad ne camera ki taraf dekha aur bola: “Jo bhi yeh dekh raha hai, un-join mat karna. Agar tum Zoom se nikle, main bhi niklunga.”
Anvita panic mein Zoom call band karne lagi… par mouse stuck ho gaya. Every time wo “Leave Meeting” pe click karti, screen freeze ho jaati.
Tabhi headphone se ek aur awaaz aayi—this time it was her own voice, lekin usmein ek mechanical lagav tha: “Mat karo. He’s watching you mirror-wise.”
She flinched and looked to her right— where the interior mirror panel tha, jo intern ne fix karvaya tha. Lekin ab usmein uska reflection static tha, except aankhon se ek patli red line tapak rahi thi.
Anvita ne pura system shutdown kar diya.
Lights blink karne lagi. UPS down ho chuka tha. No network.
Woh bhaag ke lift ki taraf daudi, lekin display sirf yeh bars rakh raha tha: — INFRA DEV SYNC —
Tabhi uska phone ring hua.
It was a Zoom notification: “Prahlad has added you as alt-host”.
Usne dekha — office mein ab sabhi lights auto-on ho gayi thi. Har workstation ki screen pe wahi Zoom window open thi: blank, sirf PRAHLAD-OPS ke saath.
Aur pooray dusre floor pe uske alawa koi nahi tha.
Sauti footsteps pichhe aaye… bina kisi weight ke… jaise kisi ne sirf echo chhoda ho.
Raat 4 baje usne last message bheja company ke Slack pe:
“main akele nahi hoon. please kisi ko mat bhejna. camera off mat karna.”
Next day, poori building ka CCTV feed corrupted nikla. Anvita MILI hi nahi… sirf ek seat par uske kapde neatly folded the. Aur server room mein Zoom call abhi bhi active tha.
PRAHLAD-OPS still online.
Zoom ke support se contact kiya gaya. But unhone kaha: “Ye meeting kabhi company domain pe hosted nahi thi. Ye to 2019 se hi active hai.”
Aur ab… jab bhi koi naye intern ko orientation Zoom room diya jaata hai, woh background mein ek voice sunta hai—”camera band mat karna. main akele nahi hoon.”
