‘Sophia’
“Tomorrow, manifested today,”
Her bio was as on-point as it could get. As was her entire profile on Instagram. Tarun couldn’t stop obsessing over Sophia’s profile. He had discovered her through a hashtag connected to a pride marathon somewhere around the new place he had recently moved to. So she had to be from around here. Maybe he could track her down and have a conversation. Maybe she’ll be down to having coffee and making a new friend, or dating an Indian who just landed an academic job in California. He’d been stalking her profile for nearly a month now and he felt like he knew her personality well enough to have a decent conversation with her. It felt like he agreed with most of the things she posted and even had some interesting insights to share. He knew that if they could meet and talk, he would be a hit and it would be an interesting friendship, or preferably a relationship.
There were a few small problems though. Her DMs were closed; so he couldn’t just ‘hit her up’. And he didn’t know what she really looked like because she never posted any pictures of herself. Not one, amidst the 1356 posts she had posted over a span of 2 years and 8 months. Nor were there any geotags that could lead him to where she possibly lived. Was she really what she claimed to be? Honestly, there was no way to know. Sophia was a serious social media influencer with 3.8 million followers, but no one knew who she really was.
The projected image of Sophia was a beautiful, long haired, swarthy, athletic graphic avatar with a defining unalome tattoo on her left arm. The brand tone on the profile was impeccable. Sophia was a modern day woman, a feminist, an environmentalist and a humanitarian. She used sophisticated yet blunt language to put her thoughts across about issues that mattered. Posts that advocated good changes in the world were sprinkled at just the right spots on her account and had millions of reposts. She was fearless and unfiltered about advocating for what was right. And at times when she did not speak of matters of importance, she was making leisurely posts with the most intelligent, creative and funny captions underlined with a sophisticated literary and cinematic taste. There were brand endorsements that were rather unpredictable because she endorsed products and services that were global. Of course, she only picked brands that adhered to her brand tone and aimed at larger good in the world; but the range was rather vast. She sometimes posted pictures of holiday destinations but there was no saying when she was actually there. All the pictures looked original and authentic except for the stock pictures she posted with context, but they gave out no clue to who was behind them at all.
Sophia was the impersonation of every ideal that the social media world dictated. She was authentic, raw, different, impactful and aesthetic. And she was completely anonymous. Her posts collectively managed to convey that she might as well be some form of artificial intelligence that understands the morale that defines humanity and can manifest it into her personality and live with humans. A possibility of a futuristic tomorrow, brought to life on Instagram today. Bio on-point.
Tarun didn’t believe it was possible at all. No one could be that popular on social media and be anonymous. A digital identity that strong had to leave traces of its owner as it travelled across the world. And now, she had posted in support of a massive environment drive due in California. This was the second reference to Tarun’s geographic proximity on her profile. Could she be from around here? Or did she just hear about it and acted on opportunity to upkeep the facade of being internationally relevant?
Tarun liked to envision himself going into full hacker mode and tracking down her identity. Although that would never happen in a hundred years, because all the coding he knew was forgotten about 12 years ago after he puked them on a final exam paper in pre-university back in India. Now his home ground was English literature, something that probably made him more susceptible to falling in love with an anonymous online avatar with a penchant for literary references in her posts. In comparison to Sophia’s social media genius which probably was her main source of income, Tarun had a private profile with 374 followers that he had earned in just about 7 years.
An Indian youngster teaching English literature in America sure got him a fair share of attention. Through his first few months at work, Tarun managed to be a surprising favourite among his students, mainly because he was rather skilled at manoeuvring through students’ inadvertent misappropriation of literary concepts. There was this smart new teacher on campus who was simple, calm and funny but knew how to put people in their place. Students liked him and liked to talk to him. This helped him catch up on social media lingo to a great extent. He wasn’t exactly a social media illiterate, but eventually he was convinced that anonymity was a hoax in the digital world. As was privacy, but that was a whole other debate. It would be wrong to say he wasn’t conflicted about invading Sophia’s right to anonymity. But she was simply too smart, too good to not pursue.
It may have gotten a little obsessive as Tarun began putting clues together from Sophia’s profile. He saved and mentally tracked her posts that gave any hint of access to her. There was something that resembled a vision board in his mind now. The first thing to do, obviously, was to attend the eco-movement that she posted about. It would be close to impossible to track her down in a crowd like that, but he had to give it a shot.
Hashtag ecofriendly, pride, bookstagram, motivated, streetphotography… some rather common mentions kept repeating on her profile. She’ll most certainly come with a camera. If her avatar was to be believed, she has longish hair and a unalome tattoo on her left arm. Not a reliable clue, but a possible direction to look at. Tarun felt she’d somehow stand out to him; call it the impact of growing up with Bollywood films. Not that he wasn’t aware that being so obsessed with an avatar on Instagram with an assumption that she’s an interesting person was as dramatic as he could get. He looked forward to the date of the eco parade.
‘Elysium’
Two weeks later, as Tarun was walking home from University after a long day at work, he spotted her again. He was only slowly coming to terms with the things that had unfolded during the past two weeks. She was walking in his direction, earphones in place and a sombre expression on her face. It was too late to either turn back or walk past her nonchalant; she had caught his gaze already. Tarun suddenly felt restless as he walked. He slowed down his pace and pretended to be looking at his phone as she walked by – not even throwing a second glance at him. She walked past him, gracefully, as she did past everyone else – he did not exist in her world. Nor was she even remotely aware that she was the centre of his universe since the eco-parade.
He had spotted the unalome tattoo on the left arm of a beautiful girl wearing an orange sleeveless top and blue jeans. His heart had skipped a beat – he’d seen her at the café he frequented before but never the tattoo, nor the uncanny resemblance she bore to Sophia’s avatar. Had all the lucky stars assembled in his favour for him to find the girl of his dreams, who could have been anywhere in the world, right in his town? Could the pretty café girl be Sophia? Was it this easy?
She sat on a bench as the parade passed by slowly, with a jacket and a laptop on her crossed legs. She wasn’t getting involved in the parade but was clearly observing, and maybe taking pictures on her phone. Tarun thought to himself that this could be the only chance he’d ever get, and went straight to the bench she was seated on. He had no idea what he’d say to her – because he had no idea if she was who he was looking for after all – but he’d shoot his shot anyways. He garnered 30 years worth of courage as she lifted her head and spotted him to point to the spot beside her ask “May I?”
She waved her hand at the spot, indicating for him to feel free. Tarun sat beside the girl who is possibly an international influencer and a potential millionaire, and hopefully the love of his life. But he sucked at this – he’d never asked anyone out his entire life and this first time would be making himself vulnerable with a great deal of risk involved. As he contemplated the consequences and wondered what he should start with, she didn’t as much as spare him a second glance. He shot her a sideways glance and the sticker on her laptop caught his eye – “Elysium profiles.”
Something that could get the conversation started. He drew his phone out and Googled the phrase that he was remotely familiar with, thanks to his literature background. Of course she had a literary reference on her persona. He’d need some more information on what Elysium Profiles meant to initiate a conversation. A series of search results popped up on the screen. It was a company, maybe one that she worked at. He opened the website and began reading about it, and sentence by sentence, realization dawned in.
Elysium Profiles created social media profiles whose scope spanned the entire world. All their profiles were collectively handled by multiple creators in the company and had commendable market value thanks to their influence. Their digital identities were widely popular because they were relevant, tasteful and intelligent with a touch of humour. They had hundreds of people freelancing for them all over the world so that they could create profiles that resonated with the global audience. And of course, Elysium Profiles was AI integrated.
Sophia had to be one of their ace creations. The range of literary references, political correctness and consistency in posting the most quality content should have given her away – she was, after all, a collective identity and not singular. Tarun felt like he belonged at the bottom of the idiocy barrel. He locked his phone, rose from his cherished seat beside the pretty girl he assumed could have been Sophia and walked back home.
‘Rachel’
Rachel must have come up with the idea of Sophia. Or for some reason, someone in Elysium Profiles believed that Rachel was the perfect prototype to design Sophia. Either way, spotting Rachel’s uncanny resemblance to Sophia’s avatar at the eco-parade had led Tarun to the discovery of a whole new digital world he was unaware of – AI integrated avatar profiles that were created for the larger purpose of garnering worldwide brand collaborations. And they were as wonderful as any social media handle could get.
He’d spent God knows how many hours Googling everything about Elysium Profiles and the many social media identities they, and their competitors managed online. Rachel freelanced for Elysium Profiles for years now, a fact that he’d discovered by observing her multitasking activities during her working hours at the café. Her computer was usually on beside her counter. He may have stalked her regularly since he first saw her. Innocent looking as he was, no one suspected that Tarun had any ill-intentions for anyone, which he in fact didn’t. He was, however, surviving a turmoil within since this discovery.
An old school English Professor like himself had a tough time wrapping his mind around the fact that a girl he was admittedly in love with was pretty much just a digital identity, and not real. He was slowly coming to terms with the fact that Sophia was, in fact, too perfect to be real after all. An apprehension about how he could have allowed himself to be carried away by the perfection of the profile gnawed at him. He knew for a fact that Rachel was nothing like Sophia. Sophia was in fact a cumulative of multiple personalities working behind her profile. One person in their early twenties couldn’t possibly be that efficient, that profound and that wide-reached. It wasn’t at all a new thing in the world, but to him it was, and he couldn’t stop beating himself up on being so ignorant about it.
Imperfection
Apparently, Rachel was fired from work over another episode of anxiety outburst at the café. She had been given multiple chances to work on her mental health issues but she simply didn’t. It had gone too far, and the workplace had grounds to get her fired because she posed a threat to her co-workers and the customers. Tarun had no idea what to do with this information when he discovered it after noticing her absence at the counter for several days.
Seeing her almost everyday had felt like having Sophia in his life somehow. She may not be Sophia but she was certainly a big fragment of her because Sophia was evidently designed with Rachel as the prototype. They had the same longish hair, same unalome tattoo and basically the same athletic appearance. It was intriguing how Rachel was Sophia and not Sophia at the same time.
And now she was far from the online identity that Tarun had assumed she was. Her outbursts were apparently quite well known where she worked because she had been throwing temper tantrums ever since she joined. She had very few friends left now. Tarun felt an ache in his heart learning all this about her. He couldn’t help himself as he watched one of his co-workers walk out of the café one day. He caught her off-guard as he introduced himself on the walkway but managed to convince her that he was only looking for some information. After seeing evidence that he worked at the nearby university and was a Professor, she agreed to speak with him as they walked home. She had known him as a frequenter to the café already so she didn’t take much time to warm up to Tarun.
Tarun told Rhea that he’s trusting her with the information he’s giving her about himself, and told her the whole truth about his one sided interactions with Sophia and Rachel. Rhea listened intently and thankfully, seemed to understand and not judge. She confided in Tarun that Rachel indeed freelanced for Elysium Profiles and was one of the most talented writers they had – but she dealt with more issues than she could handle. She hardly revealed her background story to anyone, except that she had once told Rhea that she had moved from her hometown to California to escape a severe substance addiction. She had not completed the rehabilitation that her parents had admitted her into, and the withdrawal issues persisted and she frequently fell back into her old drug patterns. She had no one to stop her as she lived alone and barely spoke to anyone. Rhea was the closest she had to a friend – but even she didn’t have any access to her personal life that Rachel kept rather guarded.
Tarun assured Rhea that he means well for Rachel. They agreed that they shall take an off from work and pay her a visit the next day and attempt to talk to her because a girl that talented and promising deserved an effort from them. Tarun was, however, deeply sceptical because there was no knowing how Rachel would react to a stranger showing up at her door with sympathies; but he couldn’t just let it go after everything he knew. He’d risk it for her, and for the hint of Sophia in her.
Spiralled out
Other than her looks, if there indeed was a hint of Sophia in her, it was submerged so deep that it was almost invisible to Tarun when he first officially met Rachel. That she was a mess was a gross understatement. After being fired from the café, Rachel had easily spiralled back into her old habits. Rhea and Tarun showing up at her apartment made no difference to her because she was barely in a state to acknowledge anyone. They welcomed themselves in and decided they’d try and tidy up, get the drugs out of her system and her home before they attempted to talk her into rehabilitation. Tarun found her laptop strayed on her bedside where there were more messages than he could count from her colleagues at Elysium Profiles. She seemed to have missed every deadline. They had reminded her, warned her and eventually replaced her due content with someone else’s. Rachel had attempted a few replies but clearly, her mind hadn’t cooperated. Tarun didn’t know if there was any connection left between her and Sophia anymore.
Because she was in no position to protest, Rachel allowed Tarun and Rhea to clean up the apartment and wait along until she felt sober. By evening, she looked at Tarun as if for the first time, then looked at Rhea and asked “Boyfriend?”
“A friend”, Rhea replied and they ordered some food before they got to convincing her how it was about time she allowed people to help her. Either because she was too tired or perhaps because she knew they were right, Rachel did not protest at all. They called her parents, and within a matter of days, Rachel was back in rehabilitation. But within those days, she had developed an affinity to Tarun who visited her every day after work and spent time with her, few days even without Rhea. Going in to rehab, she had two friends in the whole wide world that she had impressed to be offered brand collaborations in the past.
Tarun couldn’t point out know why he’d made so much effort for her. Why her well being mattered to him. She wasn’t the Sophia he loved; not even close. She was barely a fragment of the profoundness that Sophia embodied and had mesmerized Tarun with. She was pretty much the opposite – she had struggled with everything she advocated for. But he couldn’t help but believe that if Rachel was indeed behind Sophia, which she had admitted during their few days of friendship, how could she be entirely different? He could see that she had been extremely passionate about Sophia, who was indeed designed as an extension of her. Technically, Sophia was a perfected version of Rachel, worked upon by multiple talented writers and content creators from around the world.
Perhaps just the perfection of Sophia was achieved through the collective efforts of many freelancers in Elysium Profiles. But the parts of her that was human – that was mostly Rachel. The wreck of substance abuse buried the wonder that she was to the outside world, but she did allow herself to shine through Sophia. Somewhere within her, Sophia’s awesomeness lived and it was a matter of time before it was discovered by someone in real life. After having spent so much time with her and being deeply infatuated by her, Tarun wanted him to be the one that did. He waited patiently for her to complete rehabilitation so he could ask her out.
[This is a published story authored by me on an ISBN publication. All rights reserved.]
Leave a Reply