Gariaband, 11 August

For Manish Bisi, a young man from Madagaon village in Chhattisgarh's Gariaband district, the simple act of buying a SIM card from a local mobile phone shop let loose a whirlwind of disbelief, celebrity, and a bizarre series of events that felt more like a movie script than reality.

The SIM card once belonged to rising cricket star Rajat Patidar, and soon an awestruck Bisi was fielding calls from legends like Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers.

What Manish and his friend, Khemraj, thought was a system glitch when they saw the profile picture of Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) captain Patidar after they installed WhatsApp soon turned as real as voices on the other end of the phone line.

The tryst with instant fame for Manish, son of farmer Gajendra Bisi, began on 28 June when he purchased a new Jio SIM from a mobile shop in Deobhog, around 8 kilometres from his village.

Manish and Khemraj were soon sucked into a world of disbelief as callers identified themselves as Kohli, de Villiers and Yash Dayal, though the two tried to remain grounded in reality thinking these were all part of some elaborate prank by friends.

In fact, the duo even played along, Khemraj claimed.

The story turned on its head when, on 15 July, Patidar himself called up with a fervent "brother, please return my SIM".

Manish and Khemraj still believed it was a prank before realising the seriousness in Patidar's tone when he spoke about sending police to solve the matter.

A police team arrived some minutes later, putting a lid on any assumptions that it was a prank.

Gariaband Deputy Superintendent of Police Neha Sinha said the SIM had been deactivated as per telecom policy after 90 days of inactivity and was reassigned to a new customer, which in this case happened to be Manish.

"Manish was actually getting calls from cricketers who were in contact with Rajat Patidar. Patidar informed the Madhya Pradesh Cyber Cell that his number had been allotted to someone else and requested to have it back," she said.

The MP Cyber Cell contacted Gariaband police, who spoke with Manish and his family and with their consent, the SIM was recently returned to Patidar, the Deputy SP informed.

"There was no legal issue or fault on anyone's part. This was simply a result of standard telecom procedures," Sinha added.

For Manish, Khemraj, and their families, meanwhile, the experience has been like "something out of a film".

Khemraj, an ardent Kohli fan, excitedly said, "I never imagined I would speak to Virat Kohli one day, and that too from our village. When AB de Villiers called, he spoke in English. We couldn't understand a word, but we were so thrilled."

"When Manish used to get calls, he would hand over the phone to me. The callers who identified themselves as Virat Kohli and Yash Dayal asked us why we were using Patidar's number. We explained to them we had bought a new SIM and this is our number," Khemraj added.

The villagers are overjoyed because most people here are RCB fans and talking to legends like Kohli and de Villiers is something that cannot be described and even now seems like a dream, said Manish's brother Deshbandhu Bisi.

"Even if it was all due to a mix-up, these conversations happened out of sheer luck. People just dream of seeing them, we got to speak to them," Deshbandhu gushed.