(Short Story Collection)

By
Prabhat Poddar
Published by: OnlineGatha – The Endless Tale
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ISBN: 978-93-86915-99-3
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Publication: 2019
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ii
Not a long Story
(Short Story Collection)
By: Prabhat Poddar
poddarss@yahoo.com

iii
 Contents

Title Page No.

The Last Interview 1

The Right Candidate 6
Out of Reach 14
The Moving Train Mystery 24
The Backup Plan 34
Breaking News 48
The Traitor 56
The ‘Riverview Heights’ Murder 69
The Uninvited Guest 79
No Business Like Show Business 85
The Imperfect Solution 98
Qatil Prem 108

iv
 (1)
The Last Interview

(I)

It was early part of afternoon when a skinny man of

medium height entered the reception area of Batra
Beverages. Although his clothes were not expensive, however
he was neatly dressed in formal clothes. Just imagine a
middle class version of Nawazuddin Siddiqui.
"Excuse me, my name is Shyam Haldia, I am here for
the interview of Warehouse Manager." I mumbled with a
little bit of hesitation.
The receptionist was a young girl in her mid
twenties, with sad eyes and a face you would have difficulty
calling beautiful; however the reaction I got from her was
difficult to read; it was somewhere between, "Please let me
hear something else today" or maybe; just maybe "What else
you could be here for, moron!"
But to be honest, being 2 hours late for the interview
when the interview process for other candidates had already
started may piss off even the kindest of the secretary; ‘even
more’, when the owner of the firm himself was the person
taking the interviews; ‘further more’ when he is known to be
blunt, brutal, condescending son of a bitch, and to my dismay
and most importantly, ‘Punctual’.
Suddenly sarcasm raised its ugly head and the
secretary said with a devilish grin, "According to the original
schedule, you should have appeared in the interview by now

1
and would have emerged out of that door (pointing of course
towards the interview room) in all your glory, about an hour
ago, and would have earned the freedom to leave this place.”
My survival instinct kicked in as well, "According to
traffic, I am here now, and rather than coming out of that
door (Myself doing the pointing this time) I am seeking a
chance to enter".
I don't know whether if it was my reply, my
mediocre unthreatening looks, or her own bad experience
with traffic that did the trick. But she relented and put my
name on the bottom of her list and thus I became the last
person to get interviewed that day.

(II)

Everybody else present in the room looked at me

with a combination of hatred and sadness coz of the
increased competition. Surely they were thinking, "Rather
than holding him, the traffic should have got over him."
‘I think it is in these situations when the meaning of
introspection becomes clear to you! Well, for me to decide
who is your competitor is very important, because how you
see others is a reflection of yourself as well, because while
evaluating others we evaluate ourselves.’
‘I don't know how my competitors would feel if they
come to know that my documents were forged!’
‘When I compared my current profile with the
position that was offered, it immediately became clear to me
that I won't be standing any chance to appear in the
interview by legal means.’

2
 ‘Although the work I currently perform requires a lot
of hard work and skill, still I had a feeling that it won’t be
called as an ‘appropriate’ experience for the position of
warehouse manager.’
‘I was not sure whether I wanted to change my
career path, but if cheating was the requirement to appear
for the interview then so be it.’
‘I often feel my present work is very exhausting
mentally and physically, so it may seem to be a good idea to
take up a sitting white collar job with a good salary but then
you can’t be too sure of things.’
‘Still trying to figure out which would be the better
job profile to pursue; I came to a situation which may not
have been a catch-22 situation but was a dilemma for sure.’

(III)

When the clock struck 7:30 I realized that I and the

secretary were the only people left in the room. The
secretary was still having mixed expression on her face,
something in between, "Please let me go home." and "Screw
the boss".
‘Well it is not safe now a day for ladies to leave office
in dark, even more when you are alone. As I was not able to
spot any other worker besides her and a security guard out
side the main door; who I seriously doubt was paid to escort
the secretary home.’
‘It was this time when intercom buzzed and same
relief came to the face of secretary as would have come to
the face of Dr. Manmohan Singh if Left Parties would have

3
nodded for the Nuclear Deal, as her employer told her to
send me in and to get to home herself.’
‘I thought for a moment that the owner strongly
believed in cost cutting, firstly because of the less number of
employees in the office and then the fact that he himself was
taking the interview, and not calling any specialist with a HR
degree.’
‘But my opinion changed as soon as I entered his
office; it was a big space with a lot of art effects, antiques and
excellent wood work and other stuff, especially a beautiful
two feet statue made of Iron, metal or whatever.’
The owner Mr. Batra had an intimidating personality,
he was exquisitely dressed, had grey hair and was fast
approaching the upper side of 50’s.
He was the third type of person I met that day, and
for the third time I could not clearly understand his
expression, it was either, “Who is this idiot?” or maybe "You
are at my mercy boy."
However he solved my one confusion when he said,
"I am very particular about the kind of people who work for
me, that's why I select each and every employee of my
organization".

‘So, he was a control freak, and I wondered what

kind of questions he would have asked a sweeper! Like
maybe; "What should be the most effective mix of water and
chlorine? And will it become mixture or turn into a
compound? Or maybe what should be the optimal angle at
which you should hold a broom".
However, Batra continued, "You were very late
today, I still allowed you to appear in the interview,” he

4
waited for a few seconds as if contemplating the extent of his
generosity.
He then came forward and said, "Look the only thing
that matters in this company is my command. What I say is
done here. I don't tolerate any indiscipline, no late coming,
no leaves, no arguments and no rubbish”. He waited again for
a few seconds to gaze my reaction, however finding my face
as flat as a flat screen TV, he moved on, “These principles of
mine have helped this organization achieve these heights and
the same had made my competitors clueless, they don't know
how to win the battle they have already lost".
By this time I had enough of this nagging boss, I
realized that I didn’t want to leave my current occupation
after all for this asshole, so I should keep on doing what I do.
Another thing that crossed my mind was the fact that the
secretary must have left the office by now.
So I took the two foot long statue made of Iron,
metal or whatever from table, and crushed the head of Mr.
Batra. I believe I made myself quite clear to him that I was not
interested in his offer of employment. For the first time in
that evening I was sure about the expression on the face of
the person in front of me, it surely was, "What the F***".
And I thought that although being a Contract Killer
has its own disadvantages, but it beats having such a boss.
And before leaving the room I told the soulless body that
"Your competitors are not so much clueless Mr Batra, they
know how to kill the competition."

The End

5
 (2)
The Right Candidate

(I)

It was a May afternoon, hot and uncomfortable; and

a little crowd had gathered on the green lush lawn of
Sumabhai Kothari’s house and was waiting patiently for him.
The veranda door opened and Sumanbhai Kothri, politely
known as Sumanji walked out. Sumanji was in his mid sixties,
yet he was fit as a horse; his 6 feet height, slim body and
aggressive eyes gave him an imposing persona.
The leader of the group approached him, “Sumanji,
this is not fair, you cannot betray us. You promised our area
will get sufficient water supply within 6 months of your
election, and yet after 4 years you tell us that the issue is still
pending. On the other hand the factories near our residential
area are getting uninterrupted water supply 24 hours.”
The group leader continued. “Next Elections have
already been announced and who knows who will come to
power this time, and what stand he will take on our problem,
and you of course may well be spared of the problem of
answering us.”
Sumanbhai kothari was nothing if not a seasoned
politician. This was his consecutive second term as a state
minister, with bright chances of making a third. This was too
easy and repetitive question for him to dodge.
But this had not been easy for him to reach this
stage! He had learned every move the hard way, Sumanbhai

6
entered politics in his late 20’s full of ideas to change the
world, but with every step he took towards compromises and
success, his ideals died a little.
Right from trying to establish his name in the party
circuit and coming in the eyes of the party leaders, he tried
every rule in the game to make it to the top, establishing
relationship at every level was his strength; he made personal
contacts with every single possible member of the party.
He had good equation with the police department,
got connected with the business community so that he can
have the financial backbone, people went on to say that he
even went down to establish connections with some very
powerful people who were known to use their physical power
very often. But with all the support he had gathered over the
years he was able to get the ticket for the state elections
years ago, he won that election and then there was no
looking back.
Presently he glanced at the person who had asked
the question. There were around 15-20 people with whom he
had come. His age was around 25-30, with spark in his eyes
and virtually energy flowing out of his every move, confident
and “I can make a change” types.
“These kinds of people are not good for the
prevailing system,” was the very first thought that crossed
Sumanji’s mind.
Sumanji said, “Look my friend, the area you are
talking about is not yours only, it happens to be my
constituency as well. I don’t want my people to suffer and I
had done every possible thing to solve the problem, but
sometimes you just can’t help things, you have to invariably
wait for them to happen. There are some even graver issues
7
to be looked into, but you don’t worry, rest assured I will win
the next election and will look into the matter personally for
speedy resolution, thanks for coming”. The meeting ended on
this futile statement.

(II)

Later that evening Sumanji’s old associate and

confidant Suredra Pal presented his report.
“The group leader’s name is Adarsh Gupta. He is
from your constituency as you already know, what you don’t
know is he is gaining popularity at a destructive speed in the
area. He is having unquestionable clean image. He is
intelligent and educated, and most importantly a threat to us
in the next election. He just lack in resources as he is not
associated with any party and no big name is backing him
up.”
Kothari stared at Surendra Lal for few seconds and said, “I
want to know everything about him, get me more
information”.

(III)

A couple of days after the meeting with Sumanji,

Adarsh was talking to his father at their house. Ramesh
Gupta, Adarsh Gupta’s father had been a freelance political
writer for more than 20 years. He said:
“Kothari’s party is enjoying majority in the house,
but this time it will be difficult for them to repeat the last
election’s performance. They will be the biggest party for
sure, but may end up at inching distance from majority.”

8
 “Kothari has already got the ticket from his party,
and is likely to win this time as well, not because of his work
in the area, but due to lack of competition.” He stared at his
son for a second to look at his reaction and continued.
“You know we don’t have the kind of platform we
need. You have some support, but that is not enough. We
need more people to listen to you, more rallies, more
publicity and more manpower, but, you know!” there was
exasperation in his voice when he said the last statement. He
again looked at his son, but couldn’t find any marks of
disappointment.
Adharsh’s reply was “Babuji I know this, I knew this
on the very first day when I decided to contest elections,” He
paused a bit and said, “Sumanbhai is like a old lion, old but
still a lion after all, the only reason I am standing in front of
him is because he should be aware of the fact that, whenever
he will miss I will hit.”
Without any warning, the landline phone at the desk
started ringing. Adarsh received the call with mixed
expressions and occasional single syllable replies. It took him
some time to think before turning towards his father,
“You know what! We got the support. There is a big
NRI businessman named Himmat Shah, local fellow, now a
days living in Australia. He is in the city on holidays. He just
happened to read some of my articles on development and
other issues, got highly impressed and is now offering me any
kind of financial support or donation I will need for contesting
elections. This may be closer than we think!”

9
 (IV)

Ahmed Sheikh, the man who was the runner-up in

the last election to Sumanbhai Kothari and lost fight with a
slight margin; who was considered to be the second favorite
this time as well suddenly decided to take rest for some time
and declared that he won’t be contesting the elections this
time.
Within a few days similar news about two more
candidates came! Reasons given were health and personal
respectively. Newspaper headlines were contemplating on
who will be the next candidate to back off. Everybody knew
and said about a lot of money and persuasion being involved
in these decisions.
When Surendra Lal asked Sumanbhai, whether they
should bribe Adarsh Gupta as well, to retract his name from
election as they have successfully done with the other three
candidates.
Suman bhai replied, “He is not worth the money”.
What Sumanbhai didn’t know was the fact that he
was wrong. With economic backing of Himmat Shah, Adarsh
got the platform he needed. Tremendous response started
coming and suddenly Adarsh became the biggest threat to
Sumanbhai’s throne. Now the contest remained between the
Experienced and the New Blood. Other contestant never
looked as if they were even in the race.

10
 (V)

Adarsh was very skeptical on the polling day, afraid

that a veteran player like Sumanbhai can resort to his last
refuge, by getting muscle power into play, but that actually
never happened.
Results were to be announced after one week, but
everybody in the political circuit knew that Sumanji will not
be coming back this time. Maybe somewhere inside even
Sumanbhai had accepted his defeat.
Two days before the results Adarsh got a call from
Himmat Shah, he asked to meet him immediately. When
Adarsh reached his house Shah said, “There is something very
important I need to talk to you about. Someone is waiting for
you”.
“Who”, asked Adarsh? “Me”, came a voice from
behind the door where Sumanbhai Kothari was standing.

(VI)

Adarsh enquired, “I don’t understand why you are

here, Suman ji and what do you want to talk about?”
Sumanji replied in a deep and slow voice, “Years ago
when I entered politics, I had a dream, a dream to make it big
in politics and reach a position where I can do some real work
for my people. But that was not easy, I worked hard for the
party but they never got impressed! My work was not
considered good enough to make me there representative. I
never stood a chance.”
He took a breath and continued, “So I started
making contacts with powerful people, big shots in business,

11
politics and everywhere. These were the only people who
could have supported me to reach a level, where I could have
a chance to become a public representative.”
“And slowly I started to realize my dream. My
popularity in party started increasing, my support got
widened. The financial backing I created for myself started
paying dividend. Finally, I got ticket from my party and won
after all. This was the time to start working for my people and
my country, but I couldn’t.”
“The people who had supported me at every stage
of my struggle started asking for favours. Some contracts for
their company, some policy decision to support their
business, even some time they wanted me to create pressure
on police to accommodate their illegal activities as well.”
“And I complied, I am not proud of that but that is
exactly what I did. Neglecting public interest, neglecting the
basic reason for which I entered into this field. I simply was
not in a position to say no to those people who helped me
when I was nobody, but what I didn’t realize was the price I
had to pay for that!”
“I became a puppet in their hands who was still a
nobody without them. And before passing any judgment on
me just imagine for a second, what if Himmat asks a favour
from you when you win this election, will you be able to say
no to him?”
Adarsh wanted to reply in negative, but he was man
enough to accept Sumanbhai was correct. Adarsh won’t be
able to say no to Himmat Shah, the man who had stood by
him; a nobody when nobody else did.
Taking a clue from his silence, Sumanbhai continued,
“The first time I saw you, I realized you had the same passion
12
that I once had, and when I found that you were contesting in
elections, I made every possible attempt, to make sure that
YOU win this time over me.”
Adarsh could not understand what was happening.
He could feel his blood pressure dropping faster than an
express train. It took him few seconds to compose himself.
Adarsh’s expression were, however, still of incomprehension.
Sumanji continued, “I saw you had the potential, but
no support, and you can’t win without that, so I arranged for
your money requirements, I told Himmat to support you in
every possible way. He did as I told him.”
“I removed the competition by bribing the other
contestants. My people thought that I am doing that for
myself, but they never knew my intentions. Now you are
going to win in a couple of days for sure, because I had tried
every possible way to make sure you win this election.”
Adarsh, “But why, what’s your benefit in all this?”
Sumanji, “You will get the power without any
pressure to oblige any one, not even me! You will do the
work you set out to do. Go! change the world, something..
something.. I couldn’t do, and you can realize my dream.”
Then with a little smile he said, “Never ever think
about taking advantage of your position in coming time,
because you may start taking this power for granted.
However, if you will do so, I will make sure to put you in a
gutter the next time, because I still got the support of a lot of
powerful people, but you have got only my support.”

The End

13
 (3)

Out of Reach

(I)

4 P.M. is not a bad time to leave office, especially on

a Saturday. Sun yet to set, plans yet to be made, parties yet
to start.
However, as I had recently shifted to this city, and
was not having any friends or relatives here so I had a lot of
time to kill today.
Sometimes nature surprises you; like a cloudy day in
middle of summer. So, as soon as I came out of my office, it
started raining heavily. I ran for shelter at the nearest spot I
could find.
And of all the coffee shops, in all the cities, in all of
world, I walked into that one. And just like nature, sometimes
life surprises you as well! As the man sitting inside the coffee
shop at one of the tables alone was Sanjay Shastri.
Untidy hair, unshaven face, old pair of jeans and t-
shirt, eyes red like haven’t slept for days, mystified by his own
thoughts.
He was not like that when we used to study together
in college couple of years ago; the time when we were best of
friends, and roommates!
Ok let’s face it; he was like that in college as well, but
less weird and less alone.

14
 (II)

Although not very handsome or attractive, but my

friend was a nice guy. Good in studies, excellent in behaviour
and more or less a moron everywhere else. His story could
have been a simple one or even no story at all, but his
ambition became his downfall; and this became a moderately
dramatic story.
As is the case with every 2 out of 3 males in college,
Sanjay too got smitten by his classmate; Surbhi Arya.
She was charming, attractive and intelligent. All the
qualities that make boys reject themselves in their own head
even before approaching the girl. Empirical evidence
suggested Sanjay never stood a chance with her.
But being a moron, as has been established earlier,
Sanjay wanted to impress her nevertheless; though he failed
with great consistency every time he tried to do so.
It wasn’t like she wasn’t aware of my friend’s, or for
that matter, feelings of half the college towards her. But this
was a matter she conveniently ignored every time. He was
just a friend for her, like many others.

(III)

I, Naren Ahuja, felt like the wise Dumbledore

sometimes, who knew Harry Potter can’t survive the Dark
Lord, yet he wanted Harry to have his chance at survival.
Similarly, knowing very well rejection and
embarrassment waited for him on the other side, and
Sanjay’s not having a Rat’s chance in hell with Surbhi! I still
wanted him to propose to her at least once.

15
 What else are friends for?
The real reason of course was that he wouldn’t have
to live with the feeling of, “if only I would have said that”
kinds. But alas, he never accepted my suggestion, or the logic
that Harry Potter actually survived. I lacked conviction, white
beard and probably a robe.
Maybe his author couldn’t give him the same
confidence that J. K. Rowling could give her characters. Or
maybe he didn’t want to try and fail, and kill the so called
“hope”, which naturally he never had.

(IV)

However, there was one more factor in the

equation, Amit Kanojia, Surbhi’s boyfriend. Unfortunately for
Sanjay, Amit Kanojia was handsome and rich. But on the plus
side, he was arrogant and unbearable as well; at least that is
what both of us agreed upon, but not Surbhi, again
unfortunately whose opinion actually counted.
It was our final year in the college, and everybody
was serious! Surbhi about her relationship with Amit, Sanjay
about his no relationship with Surbhi, and me about having
nobody to get serious about, nobody was even bothered
about exams.
But there was a twist in the story. Break-up between
Amit and Surbhi! Surbhi was devastated; it took her whole
week to become normal, at least in the eyes of others.
But ironically on that very day, Sanjay left the image
of traditional Indian Film Hero who gets upset when the
Heroine is disheartened and foolishly tries to help her get
back her first love, and letting go his own desires.

16
 But fortunately, Sanjay preferred Hollywood over
Bollywood, so of course he was unaware of the glories of
sacrifices. His transformation from Amol Palekar to Shakti
Kapoor was truly mesmerising.
Every guy in the class got an invitation from Sanjay
for a memorable evening party at the nearest dhaba, with
unlimited supply of liquor, veg snacks and chakna. Our friends
were so much amused by the offer that they even didn’t
bother to ask, what the occasion was.
I don’t know from where he got the confidence to
propose her, may be the bill of memorable evening party
would have done the trick.
However he wanted to do that on our last day of
college, people may say there is something romantic about
the situation, just as seen in movies.
On the last moment, when everybody is going to
leave for ever, a very stylish ‘I Love You’ would stimulate each
and every emotions of the girl and she will start running in
slow motion towards the Hero and hug him.
But experienced people say there is a practical
reason for this approach, propose the girl on the last day, so
that if she is gets pissed at your proposal, you won’t be there
the next day to face the embarrassment. We used to call
these people ‘Farewell Lovers’.

(V)

The setting for the last day in college was in place,

Sanjay had ordered 10 roses, which were supposed to be
delivered to him on campus itself. The idea was, Sanjay and I
would finish off the last examination paper with ½ hour still

17
remaining in the paper, so that we can come down from the
examination hall situated on the second floor and would
collect the roses from the delivery boy.
Then we would come back to the stairs where we
would wait for her for the final strike. As the tradition or
stereotyping goes, girls never leave the examination hall till
the time examiner literally snatches the copies from them.
We were really confident that we will pull off the mission well
in time.

(VI)

I still remember, I was standing just behind Sanjay,

and saw her coming. Red eyes telling everyone that she was
sleepless the last night, still looking gorgeous. Why she was
asleep, for preparation of exams or crying was the question
that was not supposed to be asked.
I was holding the roses behind my back, ready to
hand them over to Sanjay at a moment’s notice. Out of
anticipation I started feeling breathless, my mouth got dried,
and I even can’t imagine the condition my friend was in.
As per plan she stopped just in front of Sanjay,
smiling very faintly, her eyes inquiring what we wanted. O my
God, this was the moment, and Sanjay finally said to her,
“You know there was a little bird”.
And I thought, ‘Little bird…. little bird, what the f***
is he talking about’.
However unconcerned with my internal dilemmas
Sanjay continued, “A lovely little bird, always smiling,
everyday trying to explore some more sky, challenging

18
heights, living the life to the fullest, people used to see her,
admire her, and love her.”
I understood now, he had transformed from Shakti
Kapoor to Shah Rukh Khan; his voice suddenly became slow
when he said ‘love’, for the first time in my life I realized, how
passionate he was for her, and slowly was revealing every
emotion he had felt for her in the past years, he was looking
into her eyes, I had never seen him so confident, the girl was
looking amused as well, neither had she.
“But one day storm came, the bird was unable to
hold through the winds and fall down on earth, she cried out
of pain but nobody could hear her, she was hurt, more on her
heart than on her wings. She had lost her confidence. She
thought she could never fly, afraid of the wind.” His voice got
a bit emotional, “Never realizing that there may be two hands
somewhere, ready to hold her when she falls and never
letting her touch the soil again.”
I was mesmerized; I hadn’t expected that he will
propose to her in this way. Finally he said, “Don’t you think
that the little bird should try to fly again”. All three of us
understood what he was talking about; it was a long wait,
probably 5 seconds, when she replied “I don’t know Sanjay”.
She left us with here eyes scratching the floor.
I was still holding the roses.

(VII)

And today I was looking at him sitting inside the

coffee shop; I went and sat just in front of him, when he
realized someone has occupied the opposite chair, he looked

19
at me trying to figure out how to react, the puzzled look
changed into amazement and amazement into smile.
He said “Long time Naren, how have you been”,
“Couldn’t have been better.” I replied.
Yes, indeed I was right, he was suffering, he was in
pain, I could see through his eyes, dark red eyes. But
fortunately I found him in a café, not in a bar, that itself was a
good sign, Caffeine is a lot better option than Cocaine.
In all he was not in a bad mood, he remembered
something and suddenly said, “I never had a chance with
Surbhi, did I? I know you always thought that, but never told
me that, instead, you always prompted me to go ahead and
propose her, why?
I was taken aback by such a direct question.
“Well you asked me two things, yes I always knew
you never had a chance with her, not because you were a
lesser individual, but because you never conveyed her, that in
fact, you were not.”
“And to answer your second question, I pushed you
every time to convey your feelings to her, so that as least she
could become aware of you and your emotions, but forget it,
you never had the guts to do that.”
“Yes you may say, Oh I proposed to her all right, Bull
shit, to tell you the truth, you never had the courage to
propose her, that’s why instead of asking her a direct
question, that whether she likes you or not, just like a direct
question you asked me just now, with confidence and
without any fear of the answer you were going to get.”
“Instead you gave a creepy story about a little bird,
bloody hell, you never said the story because it was romantic,
20
but because it can be interpreted in many ways, in case she
became angry you could confuse her, you could say, Oh I was
just concerned as a friend, I was taking about hands of a
friend to hold you when you fall, not of a boyfriend. Lets
remain friends as we are, you wanted an escape route, so
that your friendship with her shouldn’t get spoiled, that too
on the last day of college, when you were never supposed to
meet her again, you coward son of a Bitch.”
He was shocked, amazed, and angry and to my
horror was holding a bread knife in his hand; I started to
shiver and hoped that his next transformation should not be
that of a Serial Killer. I said to myself, its good bye time Mr.
Intelligent.
But surprisingly and slowly he said, “Why didn’t you
said so before.” I didn’t had an answer to that, still I said,
“Because I thought one day you will go ahead and claim her,
will tell her, that whether or not she likes you, you will always
like her, but sadly you missed the only opportunity you had.”
He slowly said “I got a second chance as well.” “What” I said
loudly.

(VIII)

“It was one year after our college ended, I was

traveling to Mumbai, to appear in an interview, I was feeling
thirsty but didn’t had any water, so when the next station
came I went to platform to fill my water bottle, it was a
beautiful evening, though the sun was not visible some light
was still there, and light cool breeze was blowing at that time,
a perfect romantic setting and there she was, standing in
front of me, looking at me, wearing a white dress, no
makeup, no jewellery, simply astonishing.”

21
 “I couldn’t believe that, it was just pure luck, she
probably was travelling from the train on the opposite
platform, it felt funny though, that when we used to study
together I had all the time in the world to talk to her, but
never knew what to say, and at that time, I had a few
moments with her, and I had just so much to say.”
He took some time to continue, “But as usual I didn’t
say to her, not even asked how she was or where she lived, or
what was her phone number, I was afraid, of what I don’t
know, I just smiled at her and got back to the train.”

(IX)

While Sanjay and Naren were pouring their hearts

out, at the same time, a few miles away from the café, in the
same city, in the same rainy evening, in another café, a man
and a lady were having an interesting conversation.
“I always knew he loved you.” He said.
“No! He didn’t.” Surbhi Arya replied. “Well, to be
honest, I used to think the same, he was such a nice
gentleman, and he helped me every time I needed him, but
never asked for anything in return.”
“Such an intelligent man, always used to help me in
exams, I always got solutions from him, but he never shared
his problems with me. When you and I had our breakup, he
still supported me, he had a lot of compassion. He said he will
be there to hold me in case I fall again, so I should try to fly
again.”
“He meant that I should not lose hope and try to give
our relationship another chance. I should fly again and try to
get my love back again. If he would have loved me, I suppose

22
that was the best time to propose me, because I was really
pissed with our relationship and was not sure what to do at
that time, so I told him that ‘I don’t know’ whether I should
come back to you or not, because I had actually developed
feelings for Sanjay by that time.”
She stopped for a second and continued, “But he
never understood my feelings, he was such a lovely person,
maybe he didn’t had the best of looks, but he had the heart
of a gold. Life gave me another chance, to say what I wanted
to. I met him on a railway station one day. He was just like
what he was in the college days, looking very innocent,
wearing his casual clothes, simple shoes, filling up his water
bottle, not trying to impress anybody but doing so
unknowingly.
But I never got the guts to tell him what I felt for
him. He was so out of my reach. I never deserved someone
like him.” By that time the waiter served coffee at the table, it
was still raining heavily outside, Surbhi than changed the
subject and said, “By the way, it was really nice to meet you
Amit, after all these years.”

The End

23
 (4)
The Moving Train Mystery

(I)

Samarpur Railway Station was a depressing place. It

was deserted, cold, gloomy, surrounded by forest and always
filled with fog giving it a disturbing atmosphere. On a dark
cloudy evening it even looked like something straight out of a
horror movie set.
It was from this station Ankur Awasthi, a well built
man in his late 20’s was about to board his train ‘Samarpur
Express’. His destination was Pratapgadh, a 4 hour journey
interrupted only by one train stop, Rajapur.
Ankur expected the journey to be boring, as it was
not unusual to have very few passengers on this route.
Ankur had booked his ticket for the ‘First Class
Coach’, a rarity for Indian Railways now days. It was like any
other rail coach but with private cabins instead of usual
sleeping births, and a common corridor joining them. There
were 10 cabins marked A-J with each containing a sliding
door for privacy that opened on the side of the common
corridor.

(II)

Ankur had to walk a little bit to get to his coach, as it

was placed as usual on the last spot from the engine. To
Ankur’s surprise, he was accompanied by an elegant looking
elderly man with an imposing personality in his cabin.
24
 Ankur had a sense that he had seen his face before,
and the elderly man had a smile that said that he understood
his confusion. It took Ankur a few moments to recognize him.
Ankur: “Aren’t you Mr. Saify? The famous detective
fiction writer.”
He replied with a grin, “Yes I am, young man”.
Ankur: “Sir I am a big fan, I have read almost all of
your novels.”
Saify: “Thank you dear, it is fans like you who keep
me in business, otherwise these so called intellectuals treat
suspense writing as crap, they think that writing sadistic
novels about poverty, misfortune and misery only constitutes
literature.”
“They don’t understand the difficulties about writing
a really good suspense story, writer has to come up with a
new idea every time, or the story becomes predictable.”
Ankur: “You are right sir. These idiots can’t think
imaginatively themselves and call other writers shallow.
Anyhow my name is Ankur Awasthi.”
Saify: “Hi Ankur, it’s really nice to meet a young
man like you who is interested in reading books, otherwise
now a day’s people have forgotten about this pleasure.”

(III)

Indian Railways is the breeding ground for people

with a ‘view’, and we are not talking about the view that a
man gets from the window. We mean view about every
subject available to mankind under the sun, like “How to run
a government view”, “Why all the politicians should be shot

25
in the head view”, etc. However, this time the conversation
was about to get much more chilling than expected...
Ankur: “At times I feel like writing myself, but I am
not sure I can do something about it.”
Saify: “Oh come on, you can always do something
about it. Look at me, I started writing when I was in my
forties; at that time one of my relatives died and left me with
some money. That was when I got convinced about my ability
to write crime fiction.”
“At that point I left my job and became full time
writer; even one of my friend suggested that my name looked
too ordinary for a mystery writer, so we came up with ‘Saify’
as a pseudo name to add to some mystic effect.”
Ankur: “Really, that’s interesting.”
Saify: “It is my boy; you have to do a lot of things to
become marketable in this competitive age. Anyhow, what
line of business are you in?”
Ankur: “Sir I am in Police, I am going to Pratapgadh
on transfer.”
Saify: “Now that is interesting too. You must be
getting a lot of intriguing cases, bet I can get at least one juicy
story out of you.”
Ankur gave the statement a serious thought before
replying, “Well, what do you know! You have actually
reminded me of an interesting case which actually happened
on this train itself!”

26
 (IV)

There was a moments silence before Saify said: “Ok

let’s hear it than”
Ankur went into narration:
“About 20 years ago Suresh Thakur, a Sub inspector
with Police department got transferred to Pratapgadh, he
boarded this very train and that too in this first class
compartment.”
“As generally is the case with this railway station,
there were hardly any travelers on platform when he entered
the already arrived train; he had been allotted a seat in the
first cabin i.e. ‘A’. He closed the door of the cabin and put his
luggage down.”
“He had a feeling that it was going to be lonely
journey when suddenly he heard a knock on the door. A
middle aged man was standing outside the cabin. He said his
name was Jagdish Pandey.”
“Pandey said that his wife had been allotted a birth
in the third Cabin i.e. ‘C’ and was travelling alone to
Pratapgadh. Apparently there seemed to be no one other
than his wife and Mr Suresh Thakur in the whole
Compartment. So Mr Pandey asked Thakur to be a
Gentleman and help her in case she comes to him for help.
Pandey also asked him to wake his wife sometime before
Pratapgadh arrives, preferably after the train leaves Rajapur
just in case she falls asleep.”
“Thakur agreed and went back to his compartment;
he had a glimpse of Pandey’s wife before he closed his door
again. She was wearing a beautiful blue saree, with a corner
of saree’s pallu covering her head, as was common tradition
27
for married women to do so in those days. He could hear the
couple saying their goodbye to each other before the train
left the platform.”
“After the train started its journey, Thakur went to
the bathroom on his side of the compartment, as both the
bathrooms were dirty he didn’t felt like using tham so he
went to the other ones on the other side.”
“When he crossed the third Cabin ‘C’, he could
actually hear a very sweet voice singing a popular Hindi song.
Evidently Mrs. Pandey was a big fan of Lata Mangeshkar, and
to tell you the truth, who isn’t? As Mr Pandey had suspected
there was no one else in the coach other than him and Mrs
Pandey as all the doors other than the third one were open
and there was no one inside.”

(V)

By this time Saify had got irritated and interrupted:

“Ankur, you are boring me with this over detail. I feel like I am
hearing story of an Art movie. Please spare me by either
stopping the story altogether or by at least coming straight to
the point, and I feel you were right about not becoming a
writer.”
Ankur was taken aback a little bit, but anyhow
replied confidently, “Sir, I assure you, what you call over
detail is all important to the case, and it is all relevant.”
Saify cooled down a bit and said, “Its ok, I am sorry. I
should not have interrupted you. Please continue.”
“Thakur was lying on his berth when he heard the
lady singing another song while crossing the corridor in front
of his cabin. By the time he opened the door to complement

28
her on her wonderful voice; he saw her returning to her
compartment and closing the door.”
“Rajapur was the only stoppage between Samarpur
and Pratapgadh. It was only a one minute stoppage for the
train. Pratapgadh is about one hour journey from there.”
“After the train left the platform, Thakur went to the
‘C’ cabin to call upon Mrs Pandey, there was no response to
the knocking, but the door seemed to be unhooked from
inside.”
“Thakur opened the door, and there she was, lying
on the floor with a knife stabbed on her back and that
beautiful blue saree tainted with blood. Thakur checked every
cabin and toilet, but no one was there?”
Ankur kept silent for few seconds for impact, and
then said, “So, Mr Saify, what do you think happened?”

(VI)

Saify had the smile of a veteran. He said, “Of course,

the case is intriguing. Only two people in a coach, and one is
found dead. It’s like a locked room mystery with a twist. But
you cannot ignore the possibility of a third party being
involved; somebody could have come from some other coach
and done the killing.”
Ankur: “No sir, that’s not possible, as you can see,
this is the last compartment of the train, as it used to be at
that time. This Compartment was attached with other
compartment only through a connecting door which could
only be opened from the other side with the help of a key
which only the ticket checker had.”

29
 Saify: “Well the body was discovered after Rajapura,
it’s possible someone could have boarded the train from
there, killed her and left.”
Ankur: “My dear sir, the stoppage was only for one
minute, so you want to say that someone within that one
minute entered the Compartment, without making a single
noise entered Cabin ‘C’, killed her and left, do you yourself
find it practical?”
“In addition to that, enquiries showed that there was
not a living soul on the platform of Rajapura apart from
Railway staff before the train arrived. The coolies and even
the station master testified, which makes it impossible for
somebody to board the train from Rajapura.”
Saify: “Maybe the husband killed her; he could have
been hiding in the coach.”
Ankur: “Well, that was not possible. No one else
was on the train. You remember just after the train left
Samarpur, Thakur went to use the toilet. All the other cabins
were open and empty at that time. Additionally, Thakur
checked all four of toilets at that time to find the cleanest one
and all of them were empty.”
“However to double check, so as soon as the train
reached Pratapgadh, a message was sent to Samarpur Police
to check on Mr Pandey’s house. We got the address from the
purse of Mrs Pandey, but guess what? Mr Pandey was already
at his home reading the evening newspaper.”
Saify gave a look which said he was out of all ideas,
“Ok, Ankur I acknowledge, I can’t think of a solution. Please
tell me how it happened?”

30
 Now was the time for Ankur to look embarrassed,
“Actually Mr. Saify, we never solved the mystery. We were
sure that the Husband did it, but how he pulled it off is
something we never got to know.”
Saify stared at Ankur for some time like coming to a
decision and then said, “Ok you couldn’t solve It, but I can still
make a guess, can’t I?”
“I thought there would be a perfect theory, but it
seems a little imagination won’t hurt anybody”
Ankur: “Be my guest Sir, it will be fun”?

(VII)

Saify took some time before he opened his mouth,

like he was trying to figure out how he should proceed to
present the solution.
Saify: “Ok! First of all, why a man would want to kill
his wife? Two prominent motives: first money, and second
some other woman, and there lies our solution.”
“The man Jagdish Pandey asked his wife to go to
Pratapgadh from this train, as you know Samarpur’s railway
platform is generally deserted, so he comes to this train
compartment with his wife, goes to Cabin ‘C’; kills her by
stabbing her on the back.”
“Enters the girlfriend, wearing the same type of
clothes and sitting in Cabin ‘C’ disguised as Mrs. Pandey.”
“Jagdish Pandey then approaches Thakur, the only
other passenger on the compartment; asking him to help his
wife, then leaves the train and goes to his home.”

31
 “While his girlfriend makes sure that Thakur finds
her alive before Rajapura, by attracting his attention through
singing and other stuff, carefully making sure that Thakur
never gets a good look at her face. Then she conveniently
leaves the train at Rajapur leaving a dead body and a baffled
police inspector behind.”
By the time Saify had finished, the expressions on
Ankur’s had changed from disbelief to admiration.
Ankur: “But sir, the ticket checker could have
entered before Rajapura and discovered the body.
Saify: “The husband must have made sure to find
the routine of the Ticket checker. He could have travelled a
number of times in this compartment before the actual
murder. As you can see this is the last compartment so it’s
logical that the ticket checker would come here last.”
Ankur: “But how he could have managed to have
only one other passenger in the compartment? What would
have happened if some other people would have also got the
ticket to this ‘first class compartment’ where Mrs. Pandey
was supposed to travel?”
Saify: “Easy my boy, he could have bought all the
other tickets of the compartment with fake names, leaving
just one, by doing this he made sure that not more than one
person will be there in the compartment to become the
witness.”
Apparently Ankur had no other questions left. He
said “Splendid sir, just great! Although nothing could be done
now against the husband as too much time has passed.
However I am sure this will make for a fabulous novel for you
to write”.

32
 Saify suddenly became serious: “I don’t think so, I
won’t be writing this story.”
Ankur: “But why sir?”
Before Saify could answer, the Ticket Checker
entered the cabin and said, “Ok let me check the tickets of
you gentlemen, Mr Ankur Awasthi and Mr. Jagdish Pandey.”

The End

33
 (5)
The Backup Plan!

(I)
Present Day

Regret is for emotions, what cancer is for diseases. It

hollows you from inside. And Balwant Mahadevan was
suffering from that, regret I mean, not cancer.

It was dark, as it was supposed to be at 2.00 A.M.

and Balwant was driving his car real fast, even for his taste.
Usually only two type of people are awake at this hour; cops
and criminals, ofcourse if you ignore half the population busy
with facebook. However you guessed it right. Balwant was a
cop that too a senior one.

The street was clear but his mind was clogged with
too many thoughts, especially with what happened about
two decades ago.

(II)
20 years ago

It was a Sunday and Balwant was having his ritual

morning coffee while going through newspaper; a new
government had been formed in the state a week ago with
support of 4 – 5 other smaller parties, and State Cabinet had
been declared on the front page.

Balwant’s department i.e. State Police came under

Home Ministry and Hariwansh Patil was its new minister. Patil
34
was known to be very tough on crime and an anti-corruption
crusader. This lethal combo was sure to piss off a lot of
Balwant’s seniors today. Balwant chuckled as he considered
Patil to be an excellent choice for this post. However what he
least expected was a phone call from Home Minister’s office.
But he got one.
Within half an hour Balwant was standing outside
the corridor of Home Minister Patil’s office. What was
interesting was the fact that he was a comparatively junior
officer to be called for a meeting with the Home Minister.
Patil was known as someone who had the
personality of Nehru, determination of Shastri and time
Management of Gandhi, so he didn’t wasted any time in
pleasantries.
Patil: “I read you file, Mahadevan, your supervisor;
they call you...well...Unorthodox.”
Unorthodox was the sit-in word in the department
for someone who was not too keen on procedures or even
law, but on results; sort of a troublemaker, if you will.
Patil continued: “Organized crime is like parasite. It
is hollowing the country from inside, it is promoting
systematic corruption, and I want to attack it from inside. I
want a Police officer as informer inside the major local gang
of the city.
Balwant took his time and chose his words very
carefully before replying: “Sir we already have a few
informers with whom we work on regular basis.”
Patil scoffed at the statement: “And who are these
informants, petty criminals themselves; working with you to
gain favour with the department or for money, betraying

35
their own friends and masters. Do you really believe these
scum of people can be trusted? No! They will betray you the
first chance they get.”
Patil had a point; the current contacts Police had in
the underworld were shabby to say the least.
Patil continued: “I want the best recruit from the
Police academy, someone with high moral fiber to go
undercover. Although this will not be an official operation, I
will still provide you with every possible help.”
And with that the meeting ended.

(III)

The very next day Balwant went to the Police

training academy, scanned through files of all the new cadets
and finalized the man he was looking for, Danish Durrani.
He was young, brave, idealistic to a fault, and most
importantly with no nearby relations. Balwant gave him the
offer and Danish took it without hesitation.

In the ensuing two months, Balwant made sure

Danish was ready for the assignment. Apart from providing
him required training he also created false Police report’s in
Danish’s name as a small time goon with immense potential.
In no time Danish was recruited by the gang they
were targeting. Balwant thought he had successfully
completed the first act of this elaborate plan; what he didn’t
knew was the fact that there was not going to be the final
phase he worked so hard for.

36
 (IV)
Present Day

Balwant reached his destination; it was a luxurious

hotel called ‘Blue International’. The hotel was known for its
delicious food, a 24 hour open bar and high class clientele.
Incidentally it was also a front business for the biggest local
mafia gang.
Balwant’s chain of thoughts broke and he found
himself standing outside the private chamber of the hotel
owner. He knocked slowly but there was no response, he
gave a light nudge to the door and it opened without any
sound.
Balwant entered the room with apprehension.
Inside, Danish Durrani was half lying on his executive table
with an open bottle of whiskey which was near empty;
obviously he had been drinking heavily all night. However, on
hearing the sounds of Balwant’s footsteps, Danish slowly
opened his eyes and looked towards him. His eyes were
burning red, with rage all over his face, and the first words
out of his mouth were: “Balwant Mahadevan, you son of a
bitch, you ……….”
Balwant numbed down and couldn’t hear any
further as his thoughts again drifted to the events that
happened 20 years ago.

(V)
20 years ago
Right after Danish went undercover, he started
sending important information relating to his gang and
Balwant started building his database for future action,
37
everything was going as per plan, suddenly catastrophe
struck.

State Government lost its majority in the state

assembly due to withdrawal of support by associate parties.
Balwant got a call from Patil telling him that he can’t do
anything now for their confidential mission, and the duty to
call Danish obviously fall on Balwant. It was the hardest
phone call Balwant ever made.
`Balwant: “Hello, Danish I have bad news.”
Danish: “What happened Sir?”
Balwant: “State Government fell. Our mission is in
the drain. Now there is no support from the government.
Abort mission.”
A shocked Danish replied, “OK sir, when can I join
back the force?”
A hesitant Balwant replied, “There is a problem
Danish, I had destroyed all your previous records from the
Academy so that nobody could trace your real identity, I did
that to protect you. The precaution has backfired! For the
Police force you never existed, you can’t come back, I am
really sorry.”
An astonished Danish replied, “Sorry, what the hell
is that supposed to mean that I can’t come back to force, all
alone I was doing Police work and now you are abandoning
me, no this can’t happen, tell me you are lying.”
Balwant: “I am not lying, you need to get out now. I
will try to do something for you. You are still young, you can
make your life again from the start, but for the sake of your
own protection get out now.”

38
 Danish: “Get out, there is no out now for me. You
destroyed my service record, but what about the fictional
criminal record you created for me, and what about the
additional record created while I was the part of this crime
syndicate. I am an official criminal in the eyes of the law.”
“My exit strategy has been blown to pieces by you,
you bastard. If I leave now they will find me and kill me for
sure. I am stuck! You got me into this mess. I used to be a
Policeman and now, I have become a criminal! O God, what
have you done to me, you bastard?”
Balwant: “What are you talking about, you can’t stay
back. Without any support you will be caught for sure, this is
a bad idea Durrani.”
Danish: “No, you son of a bitch, this is the only way
left for me, thanks to you. You have turned me into a
criminal. So now, I will become an actual criminal, and listen
carefully, nobody will ever catch me. You know why; because
I am a survivor. Don’t ever try to come near me or you will
find a couple of holes in your chest you …………”

(VI)
Present day

Danish Durrani proved himself right, not only he

survived in the gang, he actually become its boss. Ok not the
top boss but second in command. He was just one step away
from becoming the boss of the biggest crime syndicate in the
city.
Ironically the last time Balwant talked to Danish, he
was abusing him. Even 20 years after that incidence, Danish
was still abusing Balwant. Although Balwant thought he

39
deserved it, Balwant was a little bit relieved as Danish
seemed to have forgotten his swear about a couple of holes
in Balwant’s chest.
But the idea of meeting Balwant again has seemed
to have taken a toll on Danish, as he had been drinking
heavily to prepare himself for his encounter with Balwant and
the horrible memories associated with him.
Meanwhile Danish had calmed down a little bit after
profoundly abusing Balwant for nearly 20 minutes.
Danish roared, “What the hell you want from me?
Why have you been trying to meet me desperately? I even
don’t know why I allowed you to have this meeting?”
Balwant: “Because there is a good guy inside you.”
Danish scoffed: “No, no, don’t kid yourself Balwant.
That good man died many years ago. You yourself killed him;
well to some extent I should be grateful to you for that or
otherwise what would have happened to my life. A few
medals, below average salary, undue pressure by politicians
and seniors alike! Who wants that? And who knows I may
have destroyed some poor buggers life just like you did. I am
doing just fine being the bad guy. Now tell me quickly what
do you want from me before I throw you out?”
Balwant felt weakness in his keens before replying
but he did so after gathering all his strength, “Danish I need
your help to make this city crime free, I want you to become
my informant again. Take down this gang, the original
purpose with which you entered here. I have good
government backing me now. This could work out.”
Danish was dumbstruck to reply for some time, than
he barked, “Are you even listening to yourself, you pig, you

40
screwed me whole heartedly, and now you come back to me
with your tail between your legs to do that all over again.”
“Do you know what I had to do to survive? I had to
become like them. I had committed heinous crimes. I have
black marketed, smuggled. I have killed people, and now
suddenly you want me to be the nice guy again! Bullshit! Now
before I remember my promise I made to you, you take your
sorry ass out of my property.”
With slow movement Balwant left Danish’s chamber.

(VII)

When Balwant arrived at his office in the wee hours

of the day, he had composed himself by then. His faithful
confidant and junior officer Rakesh Anchal who was waiting
for him there offered Balwant coffee and listened to the
whole conversation he had with Danish Durrani.
Rakesh: “So it didn’t work out as you thought.”
Balwant: “Well really it was a long shot. We had a
very little chance of turning him in our side anyways. Anyway
do one thing now, trace Naseer Khan. He retired from the
force last year and tells him the whole thing.”
Rakesh: “Ok Sir.”

(VIII)

Next day at the office Balwant got a surprise phone

call from Danish Durrani. This time it was Durrani who
demanded a meeting with Balwant, but not at his hotel as he
was concerned about being seen with a Policeman again and
again. They finally settled for an isolated place miles away
from city.

41
 When Balwant reached the designated spot, Danish
was already waiting for him.
Danish: “I thought about what you said. I know it
was never your intention to hurt me, but I paid the price
anyway. Now you need to understand one thing Balwant, I
can’t help you even if I wanted to. You have made me a
criminal. Now there is no possibility for a normal life for me,
and these people, my own gang, they are going to kill me if
they find out that I am a rat and I sold them out.”
Balwant gave a weak grunt, “I will save you.”
Danish gave a disgusting look towards Balwant,
“Save it Balwant, you are just going to piss me off.”
Balwant: “But you have got something on your
mind. Why else would you risk meeting me here? You haven’t
just call me to say you can’t help me.”
Danish gave a faint smile: “You are right, I have a
proposal. If we are going to do this, we would do it my way.”
Balwant: “I am listening.”
Danish: “In a couple of days a meeting is going to
take place in this city. It will have presence of Sayed Bilal
Ahmed, Gagan Chaurangi and my own boss Rajwardhan
Reddy.”
Balwant: “Well this constitute the top 3 crime
bosses of the area, their gangs combined control about 75%
of crime in the city.”
Danish: “I know, now the question is, hypothetically,
if you get the location of the meeting place, the place which
will also have abundance of illegal weapons, shady
characters, drugs and other assorted nice things, what you
are going to do with the information.”
42
 Balwant: “We always know who the bad guys are,
but we can’t touch them due to lack of evidence, but if what
you say is true, we can make the charges stick to them, and
it’s going to be the biggest blow to the crime community as a
whole. There is a lot of potential here.”
Danish: “I will tell you the place, but I have a
condition.”

(IX)

The Police raid went as planned, all the three

gangsters were present at the meeting place when police
reached there. A lot of illegal arms, drugs and other illegal
and incriminating material was confiscated, which made the
police case very strong; Sayed Bilal Ahmed and Gagan
Chaurandi were arrested, and Rajwardhan Reddy was shot by
Balwant Mahadeven while resisting arrest, so everything
went as planned.

(X)

After the raid Rakesh approached Balwant.

Rakesh: “Congratulations Boss, you did it, this is the
nastiest punch in the gut underworld has ever got in a single
day, it won’t be easy for these gangs to recover now, but why
you have such a grim look on your face?”
Balwant: “I had to kill Reddy in cold blood. Durrani
made me do it. He said he will only help me if I kill his boss.
Durrani said he won’t feel safe if his boss was alive. He said
his boss was smart enough to figure this whole thing out, his
boss would have caught him and killed him. I had to agree for
his cooperation; after what I did to him I at least owe him this
much, but now I am feeling uneasy about it.”
43
 Rakesh: “Lighten up boss, so what if you had to kill
Reddy, he was no Nelson Mandela, he was a mobster after
all, and you would have killed him without any guilt or
hesitation if the situation had demanded it otherwise.”
Balwant: “I feel I could have been played by Danish.
This is going to transfer the whole power of his gang in his
hands.”
Rakesh: “Even so, we have weakened the other two
gangs at least, and as far as Danish is concerned, you don’t
need to worry about him. The good news is I was able to
track down Naseer Khan, he is arriving at the police station in
a couple of hours.”
Balwant: “Good work Rakesh, I need to meet Danish
before that to discuss our further course of action.”

(XI)

Again Balwant met Danish at that isolated spot.

Balwant: “So Danish, your work is done, your boss is
out of the equation.”
Danish: “Thanks, that’s a relief.”
Balwant: “So what now?”
Danish: “What now?”
Balwant: “How are we going to bring down your
gang, should we do it step by step or in one go?”
Danish: “If the gang goes down, what happens to
me?”
Balwant: “I will make you a state witness; you will
get an easier punishment.”

44
 Danish: “Easier, huh, with my track record there are
no easy punishments. Its either life sentence or to be hanged
till death.”
Balwant could sense the change in the voice of
Danish, “Hey! now you are trying to double cross me. It’s not
what we agreed upon. The deal was to take down your gang
and you help me in doing that.”
Danish: “What if I lied.”
Balwant: “You know what, there have been times
when I was not able to sleep at nights, thinking about all the
things you had to go through because of me.
My guilt had punished me every day since, and that
was the reason I came to you, to make things right, but after
all this, I think we are even. I don’t owe you anything more.”
Danish was astonished: “Just this! You don’t have
anything more to say? You are not pissed enough?” Danish
paused for a second thinking deeply, “Of course, you
anticipated this could happen, and still you fulfilled my
condition coz you have something else in your sleeve, why
don’t you show me your hand Balwant.”
Balwant: “Oh I will for sure, just wait for a few
hours.”
Danish: “You know, about 20 years ago a police man
recruited a young cadet fresh from the Police academy, asked
him to penetrate a notorious gang and to bring it down. The
cadet did that with all his heart. Then suddenly one day that
cadet gets the call from that officer telling him that his whole
life has been ruined. His mission has been aborted, his record
have been destroyed, he can’t go back to his life. His only

45
choice was to become a criminal, and he couldn’t handle that,
so he decided to kill himself by committing suicide.”
Balwant who was listening attentively got distracted
due to the call he got, the number belonged to Rakesh.
Rakesh: “Sir I have Retired Police Officer Shri Naseer
Khan on line, please talk to him.”
Naseer: “Yes, your associate told me everything, and
your information is right too. I was also approached by Home
Minister Patil to place a mole in the gang just like you. We
have a second informant in the gang.” Balwant managed a
slow smile. He was coming back to the game he thought he
had lost.
Balwant asked jokingly to Danish: “Than why didn’t
you commit suicide, my friend.”
Danish: “Oh I was not talking about myself. I
accidently stumbled upon a guy who was trying to kill himself.
I coaxed his story out of him, and I found out he was a police
informant just like me as well, who had recently got the call
from his handler, Naseer Khan. But I persuaded him to live.
He was a brother of me of sorts, both of us were screwed-up
by Police.”
“But the day you approached me I understood after
me you may approach the other guy as well, and given that
he was not as mentally tough as I was, he could actually come
in your trap, so you know he had to go. It was not about the
power. It was about surviving, and as you know, I am a
survivor, Balwant.”

46
 With a shaking sensation and cold sweat coming
down from his forhead Balwant slowly asked Naseer over
phone: “What was your guy’s name?”
Naseer: “Rajwardhan Reddy.”

The End

47
 (6)
Breaking News

(I)

Chief Editor of “City News Today” N.K. Goyal

popularly known as N.K. was a veteran of 30 years in
newspaper business. His age and pressures of the job had
turned his every single hair to the colour of silver, but he was
proud of it.
Currently he was sitting in his office with Vishram
Kelkar. Vishram had recently joined this prestigious local
newspaper as a reporter. Because of his hard work, Vishram
had been receiving a lot of praises from his colleagues and
seniors. Even today he had been called in the chief editor’s
office for the same reason. His latest article had been liked by
everybody and he was being patted personally by N.K.
However, in the same room somebody was having a
hard time. Dinesh Mohanty the Sr. Reporter of “City News
Today” had enough of this drama. He had been the focal
point of this newspaper for the last decade but now the new
generation was taking the spotlight away from him.

(II)

After Mohanty left the Chief Editor’s room he moved

towards his cubical, where his friend and long time college
friend Lalit was waiting for him.
Lalit: “So, how did this one go?”

48
 Mohanty: “Like the previous one. Everybody is going
nuts over this guy. A few decent articles and everybody is
behaving like he is going to win the bloody Pulitzer. Dam
fools, they think he is epitome of integrity, non corruptible
like Batman.”
Lalit: “Don’t worry about him; you will make a
comeback for sure, you always do, have faith.”
Mohanty: “Ok enough of that, what are you holding
by the way?”
Lalit: “Well somebody had sent you this pen drive,
no name of the sender. I was about to see what is inside
when you came.”
Mohanty: “Ok let’s see it together.”

(III)

The pen drive had a video file inside it. The video
was taken from a hidden camera as people appearing in the
video seemed to have no idea about their being recorded.
The video was of good quality and clearly showed
the General Manager of Vardhman Food and Beverages
offering bribe to the officials of Food Safety Department for
turning a blind eye toward the violation of different food
safety codes by his company.
After the video ended, Mohanty became tense and
started smoking. He was seriously troubled by something.
Lalit became curious but decided to keep quiet for some
time.
Mohanty: “Shit”

49
 Lalit: “What happened? What you are worried
about? You should be happy. The tape looks genuine. It’s an
exclusive story, it will bring you back in the game.”
Mohanty: “No, this is more complicated than you
think. Vardhman Foods and Beverages is one of the biggest
clients of our Newspaper, one of the top three. If this news
item gets published in our paper we will lose the client and
the advertising revenue. It will have irreparable damage for
our finances!”

(IV)
The silence was followed by a mischievous smile of
Mohanty. “What if, this video makes its way into the hands of
Vishram Kelkar? Anonymously of course just like it got in our
hands.”
Lalit: “What do you mean? Why will you want to
part with this kind of exclusive stuff to your competitor?”
Mohanty: “Jut answer me, if Vishram gets this video
what will he do?”
Lalit: “Well he is high on ‘doing the right thing’ kind
of stuff, so he may try to publish the story.”
Mohanty: “Right, and that’s why he will get a kick on
the rear by the owner of the newspaper if he tries that.”
Lalit: “Ok, but he may realize this thing as well and
decide not to pursue the matter.”
Mohanty: “Correct, in that case he will be
compromising with his principles and he will be no different
from people like us. He will lose his moral high ground for
ever. It’s a win-win situation for me. This gun can only
backfire in the hands of its holder my friend.”
Lalit: “Hahaha, you are an asshole.”
50
 (V)

The next day came with the intended complications

for Vishram. He got the pen drive on his table. After watching
the video, he became aware of the situation he was in.
Going with the story was all he wanted to do, but
the repercussions for the paper, as well as for him were
overwhelming.
And not going with the story will mean going against
everything he stood for. It was a dicey situation and while
Vishram was restless throughout the day, Mohanty and Lalit
were relishing every second of it.

(VI)

After getting frustrated for nearly the whole day,

Vishram got to a decision. He wrote down the draft copy of
the exclusive story he had witnessed, as well as his
resignation letter and knocked on the door of N.K. Goyal.
Vishram: “May I come in sir?”
Goyal: “Sure, what do you want Vishram, please
hurry up, I am finalizing tomorrow’s front page.”
Vishram: “Well as a matter of fact, I am having the
story worth the front page with me sir.”
The statement got Chief Editor’s attention within a
second and for the next half hour Vishram made N.K. aware
of the situation.
When the dialogue ended, Vishram slowly placed
the story as well as his resignation in front of the Chief Editor,
and then said, “Please accept any one of them sir.”

51
 An enraged N.K. replied, “Are you trying to
blackmail me son?”
Vishram: “No sir, just wanting you to make the
decision that I can’t make.”
N.K. replied with ridicule, “Yes, I can see that. You
want me to make the decision and then to live with its
consequences. So either I repent on screwing up with one of
our biggest revenue source and ask forgiveness from the
owner of the paper, or feel guilty about letting an honorable
man leave the organization. While you on the other hand get
out free with a clear conscience. Smart move Mr. Kelkar.”
Vishram: “Sir it was never my intention to put you
into a difficult spot.”
N.K.: “But you did than anyway. However, is the
tape genuine?”
Vishram: “I will bet my salary on that sir.”
Goyal: “Ok, good, now tell me how you got into the
possession of this material.”
Vishram: “Somebody dropped this on my desk. I
found it there only this morning.”
N.K.: “So we can’t be sure whether similar
information is available with competitive newspapers.”
Vishram gave a reluctant nod in agreement.
N.K.: “So other newspapers may be having the same
news with them, and they may be publishing it right now as
we speak, while we are making career altering decisions
here.”
Vishram kept silent and again gave a slow nod.

52
 N.K.: “So Mr. Kelkar, it may happen that other
papers decide to run this story, while we try to hide it, and
then people found that we were having this story with us the
whole time, but we consciously decided to bury it.”
“Now this will have devastating impact on our
organization. We can survive the loss of cash flow my friend,
but we can’t survive loss of our reputation.”
Vishram knew what N.K. was suggesting and he half
jokingly asked the Chief Editor, “Sir, do you want me to type
your resignation as well?”
N.K. snapped back, “In our line of work, we need to
do the right thing Vishram, not the easy thing.”
Vishram has never looked anybody with that much
admiration in his life that he was looking at N.K. right now.

(VII)

Next day’s front page story came as a jolt for the

whole staff of “City News Today”, Vishram and N.K. had
worked together the whole night to finalize the story and had
published it.
However there was a little bit of problem, the story
turned out to be an exclusive affair, no other newspaper had
published anything remotely related to the topic.
The story created the desired impact, and by
afternoon the local administration had come into action, the
GM of Vardhman Food and Beverages was arrested and
involved officials of Food Safety Department were
suspended, and as expected the owner of the newspaper Mr.
Anshuman Sareen decided to show up at the work place
which he generally avoided.
53
 (VIII)

Sareen was sitting in the chair of Chief Editor, while

N.K. was standing in front of him with a curt look. There was
nobody else in the private office. N.K. knew what was going
to be his first question.
Sareen: “What happened N.K? Why this story had
been published with the byline of Kelkar. I specifically asked
you to leak the video to Mohanty afterall he is our senior
journalist.”
N.K.: “I did exactly as you asked sir. I had sent the
video anonymously to Mohanty only. However that idiot got
scared to use the material, and instead he used the story to
play Kelkar.”
Sareen gave a heavy laugh, “That slimy bastard. We
overestimated him when we thought he will run the story.”
N.K.: “Yes Sir, I was expecting Mohanty to approach
me with the story. Instead I got a naïve Vishram, who was
dwindling between two impossible choices. I just gave him
some moral boost and the deal was done. But, I never
understood why we went out in this fashion. We could have
taken Mohanty in confidence, and could have then published
the story.”
Sareen: “No N.K., this exclusive story needed
authenticity, and by including more people we could have
endangered the whole idea. Mohanty himself could have
become a liability in future and may have tried to blackmail
us.”
“The tape was authentic, and by publishing an
exclusive story that goes against our own financial interests;
by exposing our own client we have made the story a lot
54
more credible, and in the process we have managed to
improve our image in the mind of our readers as well.”
N.K.: “You have always been very perceptive sir. On
one hand people will think our newspaper had made sacrifice
of our advertising revenues, while being unaware that the
biggest competitor of Vardhman Food and Beverages, i.e.
M/s F.P. Foods will be giving us double advertising revenues
than Vardhman Food and Beverages from next month.
However sir, are they aware of the little game we have played
here?”
Sareen: “Who do you think gave me that video
N.K.?”
Both of them started laughing on the success of a
game well played.

The End

55
 (7)
The Traitor

(I)
Present Day

D.N. Reddy, head of IIS (Indian Intelligence Section)

North & West Division, was a worried man. Reddy who was in
his mid 50’s was one of the top five officials of IIS. He
reported directly to the overall Chief of IIS, Retd. General Lal
Krishan Malhotra. Other three ranking officers were taking
care of other three divisions and had the same raking as
Reddy.
IIS was formed aftermath of Kargil war. The
realization, that the enemy will not resort to only
conventional direct conflicts, and won’t hesitate to facilitate
other groups to infiltrate India, while pretending to be
ignorant of such actions had became the rule of the game.
Enemy’s advantage was its possible deniability of
linking itself with any of such actions, “It’s Al - Queda”, or “It’s
the Muhajiddins, not our army”, had became the constant
rant of their officials.
Dayal Prasad Sharma, the then Home Minister
together with Defense Minister Rameshwar Kumar formed an
alliance and established IIS; the covert section of Indian
Intelligence.
RAW and Intelligence Bureau, the current
intelligence agencies were efficient, but were tied due to

56
constant vigilance by Government, and interference by
bureaucracy.
As they were Government agencies, neither can
resort to the drastic measures; which were the need of the
hour.
Somebody was needed who was not afraid to make
his hands dirty; to perform the black ops for the Government;
those assignments with which the Indian Government can’t
afford to get linked, and someone who can be easily
disowned if situation demanded.
Not the usual kind of work our current intelligence
network dealt with. Thus the agency named IIS was formed,
to carry on assignments without any interventions, or rather
without anyone even knowing that IIS existed.
But now a problem had arisen, somebody had not only got to
know about IIS, but has infiltrated it as well.

(II)

Reddy looked at his young team present in his

chamber in which he had called this meeting. Senior Analyst
Rajiv Tripathi was expressionless as ever; Communication and
IT expert Neha Sareen looked uninterested; Field operatives
Angad Gupta and Rashid Ali were engaged in a conversation
within them selves. There were few other members in his
unit, but these four were his core team.
“We have a plumbing situation,” announced Reddy
and there was a sudden shiver in everyone’s body, as
everyone understood very well that Reddy was not referring
to any leakage problem in bathroom but rather about
information leakage.

57
 Angad asked in a matter of fact way, “What is the
extent of the damage?” Reddy replied “Our ground task force
at J&K raided a house a few days ago which was supposed to
be the hideout of 8 to 10 militants who recently had crossed
border, incidently, there was no one inside.”
It was Rashid turn to ask the question, “But maybe,
there was no leak at all, they moved as planned, or earlier for
some reason, we just reached late.”
Reddy, “I may have agreed with you there, but
before leaving the house they made sure nothing left was
usable; they burned everything so that we can’t find any clues
there.”
“I don’t need to tell you that it is challenging enough
to develop a proper hideout in J&K, and just burning it as a
precaution is out of question. They knew we were coming!”
Neha, “How do you think the information leaked?
Which all people knew about this?”
Reddy, “Apart from our team; our Chief, General
Malhotra and two very senior military officials who
coordinated this mission, even the ground task force which
raided the premises was told about the mission just half an
hour before.”
Reluctantly Neha asked, “Whom do we suspect? The
information could have leaked from the military office as
well.”
Reddy stated Neha for a second, like trying to judge
her intelligence, “No, those two military personnel have been
in the business for much longer then us; they never let their
staff touch this kind of sensitive information.”

58
 “And we pass on our information to them only when
we require more manpower than we can manage for any
operation, we are a covert organization for God’s sake; we
can’t have our own personal army.”
Reddy even understood what Neha was going to ask
next, and without giving her any chance, Reddy barked,
“Don’t even try to question loyalty of those two officers.”
Rajiv, who had been quite during the whole meeting,
slowly said, “We have a mole on our hand.”

(III)

When Reddy finished his briefing, his boss General

Malhotra thought for half a minute before replying, “I think
we need to start our work on ‘Operation Strike’ now.”
Reddy replied, “But sir, we are in a fragile position, it
won’t be advisable to go ahead with such an ambitions
endeavor right now.”
General managed a faint smile before replying,
“There would never be a perfect moment for anything;
Operation Strike would take at least six months to come into
operation, we can’t wait that long! We need to start right
now.”
Reddy, “Well you are the boss.”
Reddy understood that he needed to get hold of the
mole as soon as possible; and although he trusted all of his
team, but he can’t take chances with this one. He called for
the confidential files on all of his team members.

59
 (IV)

Intelligence organizations live on information, and

leaking of information is although serious but not new to this
world. One of the reasons IIS was formed was that existing
two intelligence agencies bleeding like a stuck pig, they were
already infiltrated with people who were lured by other
countries into selling Government secrets for a price.
And as IIS was supposed to be a non existing entity,
and if something doesn’t exist, it can’t be infiltrated, unless
people working in the organization themselves were ready to
be bought!
Information had leaked before, but there were
always more than one agencies involved. But this was the
second instance in one year when information privy only to
IIS has leaked; it confirmed Reddy’s doubt that IIS has been
compromised.

(V)
One year ago

Sultan Khan was the double agent who was

employed by Pakistan’s ISI, but unknown to them was also
working for IIS. He was known by his code name
‘Khanabdosh’ at IIS, as his real name was never revealed to
anybody but only to the top boss of IIS who was also his
handler in India i.e. Retd. General Lal Krishan Malhotra.
The routine for receiving information from
‘Khanabdosh’ happened on quarterly basis. An Indian
undercover agent used to meet him at a location and time
decided by General Malhotra personally for security reasons.

60
 It was during that time when General Malhotra was
out of country, when Reddy and his team were entrusted
with the work of arranging that meeting. When out Indian
agent reached the spot where he was supposed to meet
‘Khanabadosh’, he found his dead body instead, with two
bullet holes.
There were multiple possibilities to consider apart
for the obvious one, Sultan Khan could have done something
stupid himself to reveal his identity; our agent in Pakistan
could have sold him out; and even ‘Khanabdosh’ may have
actually been an unfortunate victim of a dark alley mugging
incident.
Although General Malhotra asked Reddy to consider
any of the other possibilities other than having a mole in IIS,
but Reddy was not convinced. Angad and Rashid were on a
field mission in Kashmir when the meeting with ‘Khanabdosh’
was arranged by his office; so apart from Reddy, Neha and
Rajiv were the only other team members involved.
Reddy was confident about Rajiv, as he had an
outstanding track record with R&AW before he started work
for IIS, but with Neha he was not too sure. Reddy came from
a conservative family and never believed in girls working
outside the periphery of home, leave aside working for a
national intelligence agency.
Additionally there was another factor to consider;
Neha had always been interested in Rajiv, even Rajiv had
sometimes shown signs of inclination towards Neha, nothing
was ever said about it, but everybody knew. Then suddenly
one day Rajiv handed over his marriage invitation card to
everybody in the office.

61
 The place where Neha had expected her name was
occupied by ‘Abha Shukla’ a Harvard educated, beautiful girl
from Rajiv’s community. Reddy was somehow relieved at that
time, as he had never been an admirer of inter officer
romance, but could that heart break had resulted in the
making of a traitor? He was not too sure.

(VI)
Present Day

Everyone was present at the meeting called by

General Malhotra; He said, “Ladies and Gentlemen, it’s time
now to kick start Operation Strike.”
Angad asked with curiosity, “What is Operation
Strike, General?”
General Malhotra: “It’s a high stake gamble; we
have identified 50 people from Pakistani Military,
Intelligence, Politics and Bureaucracy. We have studied them,
followed them, found their weaknesses, approached them,
lured them, even blackmailed them, and have taken them on
our payroll.”
General stopped for a second to see the impact of
his words on all the people before continuing, “Many of them
are in positions which are beneficial for us and God willing
many will be in powerful positions in future.”
“We have invested a lot of money and resources on
this project. Now this will be the duty of this team to keep
those people in check. You will need to collect information
from these people on regular basis, you will instruct these
people, and make sure they remain useful for our agency and
country.”
62
 There was profound silence before Neha enquired,
“But how have you been able to carry out this mammoth
operation without our involvement?”
General gave a dry smile before replying, “That was
a required precaution for this operation, and anyhow not all
of you had been secluded from this project.” while staring
meaningfully towards Rajiv.
Rajiv in fact was part of Operation Strike from the
very beginning. He was immensely trusted by his superiors
for his integrity, hard work and dedication.

(VII)

When Rajiv reached home, dinner was ready; Abha

had all the traits of an ideal house wife.
Abha, “A lot of work today it seems, you look
exhausted.”
Rajiv, “Oh, you know how the Information
Technology market is now a day, highly demanding.”
Of course Rajiv never told his wife, whom he actually worked
for, nobody in the IIS was allowed to disclose their work at
home. For Abha, Rajiv was a software developer.
Abha, “Yes I know dear, I am also a software
engineer, you remember that.”
The couple managed to laugh together for few
moments when Rajiv received a call, “Sorry Honey, I need to
go, something came up at office.”
Abha, “No issues, I will wait for you for dinner.”
Rajiv said, “No please don’t, I believe I won’t be back
for the whole night.” and left again for his office.

63
 (VIII)

After Rajiv left, Abha found Rajiv’s laptop laying the

on center table; she sighed and closed the main gate, than
she opened his husband’s laptop.
It would have been a misjudgment to open the
laptop without making sure her husband won’t come back.
Now she can do her work comfortably. She in fact was a
software engineer, however not from Harvard but from
Peshawar.
It took her about half an hour before she found
information she could use; she knew all the passwords her
husband used, right from his facebook profile to this
particular laptop.
The work she had been doing needed patience, she
listened to all the phone calls his husband made or received;
kept a close watch on his activities and waited for any
opportunity she could find to scan her husband’s laptop. She
had been lucky on two previously occasions.
She remembered; getting rid of that traitor double
agent Sultan Khan was her first success; next time the
information helped in saving lives of 8 Mujahidin; but this
time it was a gold mine.
‘Operation Strike’, the whole Indian Intelligence
Network within Pakistan would fall after this information
reaches the right hands. She copied all the information on her
pen drive and mailed it through her personal laptop to a
predetermined email address, where the top officials of ISI
would take appropriate action after getting this information.
Her jubilance came to a sudden halt when she
realized that somebody was behind her, she turned and
64
found her husband staring at her. By the look on Rajiv’s face
she knew that his husband had figured out everything.
There was deafening silence in the room.

(IX)

Abha quickly inserted a command in her computer,

which wiped out all the data from the hard disk; she made
sure no tracks would be found by Indian computer experts
from her laptop, “This is how intelligence work is done.” she
thought, “Not like these lame Indians.”
She even managed a faint smile.
Rajiv asked in his deadpan way, “Why are you
smiling?”
Abha: “Don’t you worry about that, anyhow I am not
afraid to get caught. I have done the work I was supposed to
do.”
Rajiv: “So you know whom I work for?”
Abha: “What kind of idiotic question is that, I very
well know whom you work for. That is the very reason I
married you, what did you think, I fall for you looks, huh…
think again.”
Rajiv: “Then why did you marry me?”
Abha: “Because this is what any patriot will do! I can
give my life for my country; I knew I would sacrifice my own
happiness by marrying you, but I did it anyway. Mr. Rajiv
Tripathi you won’t understand it.”
“We studied you a long time before I came up in
your life with the fake identity of Abha and married you. At
first I was not sure whether you will fall in trap but you did

65
eventually. You kicked out Neha as soon as you got a look at
my beauty; I feel sorry for you. Our sacrifice; our patience:
our planning, our strategy worked.”
Rajiv: “But you have not answered my question, do
you know whom I work for?”
Abha: “You work for R&AW, I know.”
This time Rajiv managed to smile: “Thank you Abha,
that’s all I was interested in knowing, I know I am not
supposed to say this, but I feel sorry for you.”
“What do you mean?” snapped Abha.
Rajiv: “It means that when your people were
following and analyzing me to be a potential target for this
scheme, at that time I used to work for R&AW; but there
were other people as well who were analyzing me to recruit
me for a new agency, and these people found out about your
surveillance as well.”
“It didn’t take long for them to figure out about your
plan, but we kept quiet, I joined the new agency and started
working. When you approached me to seduce me, I was
ready to get seduced. We ofcoure were not sure wether you
knew about the new agency or not, but thankfully you
clarified that.”
Colour from Abha’s face was clearly coming down,
“You mean you knew, but how is that possible? If you knew I
was an imposter, why did you marry me?”
Rajiv: “I believe I asked this question a few minutes
ago, I married you for the same reason you married me, I
made a sacrifice because I am a patriot as well.”
“When my Super Boss (General Malhotra) found
about your plot he made his own plans of which no one else
66
was aware. He asked me to marry you so that we can use you
in future, now this is called patience!”
Abha, “You failed didn’t you; I invariably got reliable
Intel from you.”
Rajiv: “Only the information we let you have; Sultan
Khan a.k.a. ‘Khanabadosh’ indeed was our agent in ISI, but
not only was he selling their information to us, but he was
also selling our information to Afghani militant groups. ISI of
course didn’t know about either of his dealings, and we
wanted to take care of him because he had become a liability
for us as well.”
“So in one shot we took care of many things. I left all
the information in my laptop like today, and you took the
bait, not only we managed to get rid of “Khanabdosh” but we
were able to increase your reliability among the people in ISI.
Just to make sure, we gave up our information about the 8
mujahidin who crossed the border, to make you
indispensable and reliable among your bosses, now that’s
planning.”
Abha became even afraid to ask, but she did it
anyway, “How reliable was today’s information?”
Rajiv smiled again: “What do you think?”
Abha: “Please tell me what have you done, what
have you made me done?”
Rajiv: “Ok, the list is supposed to contain details of
50 people that we have turned in our favor, the list also
includes individual Swiss Bank Account numbers where we
have been putting money in their name, we actually have
spent a lot on this operation.”

67
 “However only 2 people in the list are actually
working for our Government, this was done just to add
reliability to our list, just add to it your reputation for
providing reliable intelligence, and poof! The other 48 people
whom we consider to be real threat to India will come on the
most wanted list of ISI and Pakistani intelligence.”
“Even if they are not executed or jailed by your
Government their reliability would be shattered beyond
repair, in any case they won’t be harmful for our country in
any way. Thanks to you we have eliminated a full line of
future leadership of your country; now that’s strategy!”

The End

68
 (8)
The ‘Riverview Heights’ Murder

(I)

My friend Anay Pandit had always been a reasonable

man. But at least two times in his lifetime he became
unreasonable.
First time, about 2 years ago!

(II)

Anay’s excited face made me anxious. He had called

me in the morning about the meeting he was going to have
with Santosh Malik.
Malik had been approaching Anay for sometime
regarding Anay’s ancestral plot. It was prime property as it
was adjacent to a river. Malik wanted to build a multi story
building over there and was ready to go into partnership with
Anay.
Suffice to say I was not thrilled about the idea, as
Malik had a terrible reputation in the market. And for lack of
a better word let’s call him a bastard. He had cheated before
and he was not looking to change his ways.
However like every girl who thinks she is special and
could make a misreble boyfriend fall in line, Anay was
adamant too. The proposal of profit sharing given by Malik
was too lucrative to pass.

69
 So when Anay came to me after his meeting with
Malik all confident and happy, I knew he had been screwed.
(III)

It was about one year after construction on site had

begun when Anay came to know about Malik’s behind the
back dealings. Malik was selling under constructed flats at a
higher prices but the documentation was being done at a
lower price. And since Anay and Malik had an agreement to
share profit, this was a problem.
This time Anay asked me to accompany him for a
meeting with Malik. His office was at the seventh floor of the
under constructed building, which was named ‘Riverview
Heights’; already ten floors of the building had been
completed with further five to go.
We reached their some time before 2.00 P.M. and as
expected there was a lot of construction material lying
around, however there ere no labour in sight. Only man
present was Ramlal Dixit, a middle aged, short heighted bald
man who happened to be the Man Friday of Malik.
Anay: “Where is Malik?”
Dixit: “At his office on the seventh floor taking his
lunch. Should I call him regarding your visit?”
Anay: “No need, I know the way.”

(IV)

The basic structure of building was complete,

however the finishing work, like plastering, electrification etc
was pending; maybe they would have started it after all the
15 stories of the building was completed.
70
 However Malik’s office was a different story; all the
work was completed there, interiors were tastefully
designed. Malik himself was sitting on a large executive chair
behind a large wooden desk.
I realized immediately why Malik chose this office.
The view from the office was majestic. Through a window
towards his left you could see the river flowing in its full force
with a lot of beautiful greenery on the other side.
That was however the end of beautiful things in that
office, whatever remained was ugly.
Malik: “Why are you hear Anay?”
Anay: “You know very well why I am here. You are
cheating me and skimming the money. I want my right full
share.”
Malik: “You are mistaken, nothing of this sort is
happening here.”
Anay: “I am not blind; you can’t continue to do this. I
will take you down. I will go to police. I will go to court. I was
such an idiot. My friend actually told me not to trust you.”
Malik expressions suddenly changed, and he replied
in a condescending tone:
“You should have listened to your friend! Who are
you? What are you? You are nothing, you are an insect, and I
can crush you anytime. This Police, this Court, nothing can
save you.”
“What can you do, nothing, what I can do, anything.
You are crossing the road someday and a truck hits you, what
will happen, pain and death, what happens to the driver, I
don’t care, what happens to me, huh nothing. So be grateful

71
for any scrap I through your side; be a dog, wag your tail and
get the hell out of here.”
From a bastard, Malik had graduated to Son of a
Bitch.
The meeting was over.

(V)

The incident shocked Anay badly and he became

disturbed and nervous. This went on for a few days; he even
visited the building site multiple times, to what end I don’t
know, maybe to form a truce with Malik, but Anay could
never approach him.
And suddenly one evening I got a call from the Police
Station. The second instance of unreasonableness has
unearthed itself! Anay Pandit had killed Santosh Malik.

(VI)

At the Police Station Anay was sitting in a corner

with his head down. Police Officer in-charge, Inspector Shah
had called me at Anay’s request. Anay obviously needed
some moral support.
Santosh Malik’s secretary Ramlal Dixit was giving his
statement, and Inspector Shah was listening with apt
attention.
“My Employer was good to me but don’t get me
wrong, he was an asshole to everyone else. He was a builder
by profession but a bully by tendency, he broke the law,
railroaded anybody who got in his way. This time it happened
to be Mr. Pandit.”

72
 “Mr. Malik was cheating Mr. Pandit from the start,
when Mr. Pandit accused him of cheating; Mr. Malik
threatened him of dire consequences. However Mr. Pandit
matters in his own hand today.”
th
“Today, 18 Oct, around 1.45 P.M, I had just
returned from my lunch, when I saw Mr. Pandit entering the
building premises, what struck surprising to me, was a pistol
that he was carrying, he was even not trying to hide it, I
thought his intentions were very dangerous, and there were
no workers at that time for help, as it was still lunch time, so I
immediately called the police.”
“I didn’t had the nerve to go behind him, then I
heard the first shot, then the next and then the next, I heard
a lot of shots. I knew nothing could be done now.”
“I thought Mr. Pandit may try to escape, but he
didn’t, probable because he had seen me while entering the
building, and understood that I will identify him for the crime
anyhow.”
“Actually he had planned it very well because he
came to kill Mr. Malik during lunch time, so nobody would be
there when he will enter the office of Mr. Malik, who takes
his lunch there only; what he was unaware of was the fact
that I take a shorter lunch break than everybody else, and I
am back at the building site at least 15 minutes before all the
workers.”
“Anyway when I entered Mr. Malik’s office with
Police, Mr. Pandit was sitting on one side of the room with an
empty pistol just lying in front of him. Mr. Malik’s body was
lying on the floor behind his wooden table as well. I am sure I
saw a little smile of satisfaction on Mr. Pandit’s face.”

73
 (VII)

After Dixit, it was Anay’s turn to give his statement.

Anay: “I found Malik manipulating with the

accounts, he was cheating with me. When I tried to confront
him he initially denied any wrongdoings.”
“But he knew I never stand a chance against him
anywhere, I dint had the resources or the contacts to fight
him, so… so he mocked me, called me an insect, said he will
kill me, said I should be his dog, should be happy with
whatever scrap of food he throws at me.”
Anay was on the verge of crying, “I gave him my
property, against all the objections from my family and
friends, but he still screwed me over, and he wanted me to
act like a dog! I didn’t have a choice, I was frustrated, I
couldn’t think of anything else, so I went to this Godforsaken
building with a gun, I didn’t know what I will do when I
confront Malik.”
“I saw Dixit outside the building and I knew I didn’t
have any other choice or any time, he will come after me for
sure with other workers, it was the only course of action I was
left. So as soon as I entered Malik’s Office I started firing
towards his direction, I was blinded with rage, my mind was
not working, I kept firing till the bullets ran out, I killed him; I
accept that.”

74
 (VIII)

Inspector Shah’s remarks on the case were pretty

simple.
th
“On Oct 18 , around 1:48 P.M we received a call
from Mr. Dixit, an employee of Mr. Malik, he was worried, he
said that his employer’s life was in danger, someone was
carrying a gun with dangerous intentions and approaching his
employer’s office.”
“We hurried towards the site, and found Mr. Pandit
with an empty pistol lying on the floor as well as Mr. Malik’s
body with multiple bullet wounds. We identified some marks
on the back wall as well where Mr. Malik used to sit, these
were apparently created due to missed shots by Mr Pandit; in
short, a few bullets had hit the victim’s body and few had hit
the back wall.”
“Mr. Pandit agreed for the crime. He was then
arrested, later it was found that Mr. Pandit had some
differences with the victim over the partnership they had
formed, and in retaliation this crime was done.”

(IX)

Anay hired an old and intelligent looking Lawyer, Mr.

Bhargawa, but apparently the lawyer himself was not very
confident about the case, and he was correct. With the feud
between Anay and Malik a known fact, Dixit’s testimony and
Anay’s confession, things were not looking very bright for
Anay.
There was nothing interesting about the case and
Anay had to remain in custody till all the formalities of the
case were completed.
75
 But the revelations of the next day turned out to be
interesting. On this day the Medical examiner of the Dead
body and Ballistic expert gave their statements.
Medical Examiner’s Statement was routine but
important.
“There were three gunshot wounds on Mr. Malik’s
body, one in heart, one on the right shoulder and one on the
right thigh; the wound in the heart was the fatal one and
Malik was dead by the time remaining two shots were fired.”
Ballistic Expert’s Statement turned the case upside
down.
“There were 4 bullets that were found on the back
wall of Mr. Malik’s office, all were fired from Mr. Pandit’s
Weapon, so that makes total seven shots, three in the body
and four on the back wall, but Mr. Pandit’s weapon had
capacity of six bullets only, on further investigation it was
found that out of three bullets found in the body, the one
found in heart didn’t came out of Mr. Pandit’s weapon, it was
fired from some other weapon.”
It was all the ammunition Mr. Bhargawa needed, no
pun intended.

(X)

The scene had changed completely, Mr. Malik was

already dead before the shots were fired by Anay and
somebody before him had already killed Malik, so technically
Anay couldn’t be charged for murder.
There were many enemies of Mr. Malik and probably
someone out of them killed him and left the crime scene

76
before Anay entered the office, the killer may even have been
on the building premises when the Police was arresting Anay.
The police was clueless and so was the prosecution,
now they didn’t had any case against Anay; however for the
intention of murder Anay was prosecuted, and adjudged one
year imprisonment. In reality the judge had created sympathy
for him and that was the reason he got lenient punishment,
apart from that the judge gave orders for further
investigations of the case. But nothing came out of it, and the
case was closed subsequently.

(XI)

It was after one year, the day Anay was released, he

came to my house, while we were having drinks, he told me
that he was approached by the family of Mr. Malik, they were
afraid that Anay may stop the work of “River view Heights” by
lodging a complaint for fraud, and as Malik was dead. They
didn’t had the power to tackle all the legal complications, so
they had offered him, his rightful share on the condition of
not filing a complaint.
I told him that he is a really lucky man, he got the
share in profits from the building as well as he had a narrow
escape from the murder case as well; it was this time when I
realize that he was smiling; not a smile of a man who is
relieved, but the smile of achievement.
Something was fishy I could smell that, he realized
my emotions immediately, and said, “You know something;
you are my only friend and the only person I trust; yes, I killed
him, I made a fool out of every body.”

77
 “That idiot Dixit thought I didn’t know he takes a
shorter Lunch break; well as a matter of fact that was the
basis of my plan, I had gone to that construction site many
times and I knew their schedules by heart.”
“I knew when Dixit returns from lunch there is
nobody else at the construction site; I showed him my
weapon on purpose, so that he would be afraid to follow
me.”
“What he didn’t know was the fact that I had two
different types of guns. I got into the Malik’s office and shot
him in his the heart directly with a high calibre gun, then I
threw out the gun from the window into the river; and then I
fired all the six shots from my other gun at non fatal positions
and at the back wall and waited for the police to arrive.”
“I knew if they will find a man with a dead body, a
gun and a confession, nobody will bother about anything
else, nobody will even think about the existence of any other
gun till it was too late.”
“Everything went as per plan and that’s why I was
smiling when Dixit saw me after the murder. You know me
very well my friend I won’t give up my own life for taking
revenge, I am a reasonable man after all.”

The End

78
 (9)
The Uninvited Guest

(I)

The light outside the house was fading sharply, as

evening was turning into night. Dark clouds were not helping
either. Children playing on the front street a few minutes ago
were already inside the safe surroundings of their respective
houses.
Rajesh Malhotra never liked when children left; their
shouting and playing was what kept him a little bit happy in
his otherwise dull life as he himself was a widower in his mid
fifties, with grey hairs and specs, and lived alone in this
house.
‘This is the problem with posh colonies, nobody like
to roam around after dark, even when these colonies are
supposed to be much safer compared to other areas of city,’
thought Rajesh while brewing his evening coffee.
What bothered Malhotra the most was the isolation
that followed when children left the street. Malhotra had
grown up in a middle class neighborhood, and still missed the
constant commotion. He took a deep sigh and went into the
living room with the tray containing his evening time snacks.

(II)

As soon as he had put the tray on the dining table,

Malhotra suddenly realized there was some strange man

79
standing inside his living room. The man was bald, dark,
about six feet and with a cold expression on his face.
Malhotra shivered through his spine. The man in
front of him was dangerously calm with a slight hint of a
smile. His intention couldn’t be nice was only what Malhotra
could think, then he suddenly started feeling week in his
knees, and dropped on a nearby chair.

(III)

“You look nervous, old man.” The bald man said

smiling.
“Shouldn’t I be.” Came a guarded reply from
Malhotra.
Bald Man: “Oh, no you should be, but it won’t help.”
Malhotra: “Who are you?”
Bald Man: “Santa Clause! Ho Ho Ho.”
Malhotra: “Not here to bear gifts I believe; tell me
why you are here?”
Bald Man: “If you haven’t guess by now, then you
are not as smart as people think.”
Malhotra: “Which people?”
Bald Man: “Dangerous people, Dr. Malhotra, people
whose money you should have paid back on time, nobody
likes a bad loan, and you need to be cleared from the books I
am afraid, and I am the cleaner.”

80
 (IV)

Malhotra kept staring at the bald man as if trying to

assess the situation, and then realized something, took a long
breath like someone who has just lost a war, and slowly
asked the bald man: “How did you enter my house?”
Bald Man: “Your house is no Fort Knox. There is nobody on
the street right now who could have stopped me from picking
your door lock.”
Malhotra: “Who are you, what is your name?”
Bald Man: “My friends call me Soni.”
Malhotra: “You are not afraid to tell me your name!”
Soni: “Being afraid is nowhere in my system, besides dead
man don’t talk Malhotra, and not telling you my name will be
detrimental to my self-respect.”
Malhotra by now had no dilemma about why this
man has entered his house.
Malhotra: “Do you talk to everybody so much before killing
them?”
Soni: “Usually no, but it is raining outside now; I hate
rains! If I kill you now, I will get bored.”
Malhotra peeked outside to find a little drizzling
going on.
Malhotra: “You look like a sentimental fellow. I hope
you won’t start reciting poetry now.”
Soni lighted a cigarette and replied in a cold and
terrifying tone. “I don’t start poetry Malhotra, I end stories.”
“Point well taken,” thought a scared Malhotra.

81
 (V)

Malhotra slowly moved his coffee cup away from

him and put it on the table.
Soni: “Why are you not drinking your coffee?”
Malhotra: “Not having the mood for it now.”
Soni: “Hahaha, of course I understand, but to tell
you the truth, I may hate rain, but absolutely love a hot cup
of coffee in this weather”.
He then tasted it and said, “I believe you like your
coffee strong to the extent of making it bitter.”
Malhotra: “Sorry, if you don’t approve of my taste.”
Soni: “I can hardly complain. I am an uninvited guest
after all.”
Malhotra: “As if I will give a rat’s ass about your
complain. Anyway! tell me, why you do such a job?”
Soni took the remark with a lot of offence. “What’s
the problem with my job? What should I do instead, sell
insurance! And hell this job pays extremely well.”
Malhotra kept quiet for a while Soni completed his
coffee then asked him, “How much are you getting out of this
job?”
Soni: “10% of what you have taken from those
people.”
Malhotra managed a little smile. “Then it is a loss
making preposition for them, not only they won’t get their
initial amount, they will have to incur more expense to get rid
of me.”

82
 Soni: “It’s the principle old man, leaving you alive
would be bad for business, others will also think about not
paying back their debt, but killing you will send a message to
all of them.”
Malhotra: “So what will happen if you are not able
to kill the man you were supposed to?”
Soni: “That has never happened before. Why would
that happen now?”
Malhotra: “Well, for starters because you have
entered the wrong house, my dear. I am Rajesh Malhotra. I
am not Dr. Ranjeet Malhotra, who happens to be my next
door neighbour and in all probabilities is the guy who took
money from your boss.”
“You just saw the initials on my door “R. Malhotra”
and you entered my house, and to tell you the truth you are
not the first one to make this mistake.”

(VI)

Soni stared at Malhotra in disbelief, but he could

sense that he was telling the truth. It was not a trick to cheat
him. Suddenly a question popped inside his head: “Then why
the hell didn’t you tell me earlier. I could have killed you by
now. What kind of idiot are you?”
Malhotra replied in a low voice: “The sad kind, the
kind who has been so lonely for years that he was
contemplating suicide when you entered his house, but didn’t
had the guts to do it. But what if somebody else did it? It
would have been easier. So when I realized your intention to
kill Dr. Malhotra, I started pretending to be him. If you would
have killed me, it would have been a blessing for me.”

83
 Soni: “So, what changed your mind?”
Malhotra: “I got scared man, I really did; thinking
about suicide and actually going through with it are entirely
different, so I told you the truth at last.”
Soni: “Really funny, you asshole. If I would have
killed you it would have ruined my reputation for ever.
People would have branded me incompetent and in no time I
would have been out of job. In any case how were you
planning to commit suicide; by hanging yourself or have you
arranged for a gun? Because now I really feel like getting you
out of your misery.”
Malhotra replied with embarrassment, “I thought
about those options as well, but those were really very
agonizing ways to go from this world, so instead I put poison
in my coffee.”

The End

84
 (10)
No Business like Show Business

(I)

It was quarter past midnight when crowd started

coming out of the multiplex. The last show of the latest movie
had ended.
The movie was another romantic comedy by Varun
Khanna. Varun was a young, handsome and fairly talented
actor; an actor who had his share of ups and down in the past
few years.
A semi hit, 2 average grossing movies and a number
of flops! Current movie could very well have been called ‘the
make or break movie’ for Varun as they say in film industry,
and even Varun knew that.
That’s why he was amongst the crowd in disguise.
He had gone to different movie theatres since morning to
gauge the audience reaction and he hasn’t liked the results so
far. Although the movie had taken an above average start,
Varun very well knew the movie will be a loss making
proportion for the producer and distributors.
He was seriously considering his future options while
coming down the stairs of the multiplex, and frankly he didn’t
like any of them as well.

85
 (II)

While Varun was staring at borderline depression

there was another man in the crowd whose jubilance knew
no limit. Kamal Awasthi didn’t need audience reaction to
know the fate of the movie, as he had already analyzed the
movie, its loopholes, the access of boring parts over the few
isolated interesting ones; and lack of a solid climax.
‘Always go backwards, that was the key; think of an
excellent ending for the movie and then build your story
suiting the climax,’ he thought. This very thought process has
resulted in the form of a successful book last year by Kamal
Awasthi. Kamal was a lean guy in his late 20’s, he looked like
an intellectual with a vibe for hard work.
He had already written another book, but that book
had not been published; not because publishes were not
ready to publish it, but because of Mr Ram Lalwani!
Mr Lalwani had been in the movie business for a
long time as a distributor, and now wanted to try his hand as
a movie producer. He has liked the first book by Kamal, and
taken the rights of the second one even before Kamal had
any chance to publish it.
Mr Lalwani thought the book would be perfect to be
converted into a movie and he had signed Kamal as Director
as well, and since that day Kamal had not stopped praising his
luck. What Kamal didn’t knew was that his luck was smiling
on him again as Varun Khanna who was just a few steps away
him didn’t hear the conversation he was having with Mr
Lalwani on his cell phone.
“Yes Lalwani sir, the movie is going to be a sure shot
flop. Our strategy to wait till the release of the movie has

86
worked. After this performance, Varun Khanna will have no
choice but to accept our offer for our movie at reduced price.
Seriously he has ran out of options.”

(III)

While Varun Khanna, Kamal Awasthi and assorted

audience were rushing through the staircase, there was one
man who was not in any kind of hurry. He was taking his own
time to descend the stairs.
Jolly Majumdaar, he was the main dealer of pirated
movies in Mumbai and surrounding areas. He had some very
strong connections within the industry, which predominantly
resulted in the form of pirated copies of the latest movies in
his hands before anyone else in the business had a chance.
And as timing is everything in this business, it
mattered! His early version of the movie was the one which
used to be supplied to neighbouring states. And unlike Varun
and Kamal he was least bothered about the results of the
movies, as hit or flop, the pirated movie business earned
good money.
Since people want entertainment at a cheap cost,
and buying a DVD for Rs. 25-30 containing 3 to 4 movies even
with disgusting print quality was still a bargain for many
Indians.
Ironically Jolly, an avid Hindi movie fan didn’t like the
idea of watching a movie in lower quality prints, so he used to
diligently buy a movie ticket for himself every Friday.

87
 (IV)

Mr. Lalwani and Kamal took about a week before

approaching Varun Khanna. During the week his last release
was officially declared as a flop and that made the meeting
between them a lot in the favour of the duo.
Mr. Lalwani: “So Varunji, what do you think of the
story? Our very own director Kamalji has written it?”
Varun: “It’s a good one. A good suspense thriller
after a long time, but you know how it goes. I have never
played in a movie like it, more of a romantic type I am. Do
you think it will work, Lalwaniji?”
This statement in itself was enough for Kamal to
assess that Varun was fast losing his confidence, always a
good sign for the other negotiating party.
However to reply his question Kamal did the pep talk
he has already prepared, “Well Varunji, you are not the first
actor to go through such a transition, people had done this
before, and it’s a good thing for us as well. Suspense movies
work on surprising the audience, and what better way to
surprises audience by presenting you in a never seen before
character.”
Varun was instantly convinced; more like he wanted
to get convinced anyways; a win-win situation for all
involved. Varun was no superstar but he had his faithful fan
following, and with his presence in the movie some good
initial opening was expected, and after that if everybody has
done his job nicely the movie may pick on word of mouth.
Mr Lalwani was putting a lot of money in the project
but he could not afford the biggest name in the industry. Add
to that he wanted to produce a suspense movie, which
88
generally doesn’t have repeat value in theatres like other
romantic or comedy movies. So he could not afford the movie
to go over budget, with Varun in lead accepting lower
payment the bill on the payment of actors was expected to
be in check. Things were working just fine by now.

(V)

The movie started on schedule. All the actors and

technical staff were finalised, but what actually was amazing
was the curiosity the movie was generating within the
industry.
Although it was a medium budgeted movie with
medium level stars, but it was a hardcore suspense-thriller
coming out in many years, and people who have read Kamal
Awasthi’s previous work were having a lot of expectation
from the movie.
However, there was also a group of general public,
which still was not in mood for this genre. They were
contented to watch their superstars dancing around trees
and beating the shit out of bad guys. They were not ready to
shed money in multiplexes while chewing inflated priced
popcorn to watch a whodunit.
You know why, because there is rarely a movie that
fools the audience like Jewel Thief or The Sixth Sense, so
rather than going to see an unpredictable movie and finding
the predictable stuff, people choose to go for predictable
movies and get what they wanted. Kamal had started well but
haven’t come near to the answer for most critical question-
Will the movie make money?

89
 (VI)

The movie shoot ended without any big incident.

The different movie channels and magazines gave it average
coverage in the media. The movie was not expected to take a
very big opening and the producer had started thinking about
whether he should have ventured into this business at all, but
it was too late to go back.
Additionally Kamal had not disappointed Mr Lalwani
by way of the final product. It was a well made movie with an
excellent climax, and could work on word of mouth, added
with positive reviews of the film critiques the movie has a
fighting chance in the market.
There however, was a problem which Kamal had not
anticipated, Jolly Majumdaar.

(VII)

The post production work of the movie was going on

in full swing as the movie was supposed to release next
month. The initial trailer of the movie had already been
released which were generating positive response from
viewers.
The final cut of the movie was being processed at
that time. Mr Lalwani who had been a good producer has
taken good care of all the people working on the movie, and
just two weeks before the release of the movie he has taken
out the entire unit to a bar for celebrations after the final cut
had been prepared.
Mr Lalwani was sitting with Kamal on an isolated
table while other people of the unit were enjoying
themselves scattered around the bar. It was during an
90
unguarded moment when a little bit drunk Mr Lalwani shared
his fears with Kamal.
Mr. Lalwani: “You have done a good job Kamalji,
really good. You have written a fine story. You have made
sure we get the lead actor at a cheaper price. You have kept
the overall cost of the movie low. You have done good as a
director as well, but unfortunately the movie will not be a
success!”
Kamal was taken aback with this comment. He had
put everything, his heart and soul for this movie and this
depressing comment felt like a slap on his face. If anybody
other than the producer of the movie had said this thing he
would have surely kicked that man in that part which would
have brought him in crouching position. While restraining his
anger, he managed to ask Mr. Lalwani the reason for his
pessimism.
Mr Lalwani replied, “Oh, don’t worry, it is nothing to
do with you my friend. I know the effort you have put in. It is
those bastards I am talking about, the movie piracy gang.
They are going to take our movie and sell it on street corners
for 20 rupees.”
Kamal knew Mr Lalwani was telling the truth, but
piracy was not the problem they alone were facing. Every
movie gets pirated, still a lot of movies become super hits,
and suddenly the answer hit him. Those movie are having
superstars with big sets and pretty locations, dances and fight
sequences. Things that people go the theatres to see.
On the other hand his movie doesn’t have any of
those. Of course it had a good story and a beautiful suspense,
but once people see that on a pirated DVD they are not going
to the theatres to watch it again. Hell, they are going to tell
91
their friends about the movie story and make sure those
people as well won’t go to the theatres.

(VIII)

Kamal felt his knee weakening and blood pressure

dropping. He had almost moist eyes. Then he thought about
Mr. Lalwani, the man who was going to lose much more than
he will.
It took some time before Kamal came to his senses.
Then he looked towards Mr Lalwani and asked, “I know
generally the pirated copies of the movie come from Dubai,
but we haven’t sold the overseas right of the movie yet,
bloody hell, nobody actually wanted to purchase those rights,
it is a good thing isn’t it. How are they going to make a copy
in Dubai if we aren’t going to send any prints there.”
Mr Lalwani listened to Kamal’s ranting and replied,
“Kamalji Dubai is not the only option for these people. They
can copy the movie from the inside of any theatre. They may
even pay any member of your unit to get an early print. There
is no stopping these people from doing their job. They are
going to find one or the other way to get a pirated copy of
the movie.”
Kamal was silent for a few minutes before he said,
“Aren’t these things are done by gangs? People have fixed
territory in this business as well. Can’t we find out the people
who are doing this business?”
Mr Lalwani: “What are you going to do when you
find out them”.
Kamal: “Please! Is there any way we can contact
them? We are already screwed, let me try something.”

92
 To this Mr Lalwani gave a small nod and started
focusing on his mobile phone. He got the number of Jolly
Majumdan in less than one hour.

(IX)

Kamal called the number, “Am I talking to Mr.

Majumdaar?” Jolly who had never heard his name taken with
such respect found it profoundly humiliating. His reply was a
curt “Who the hell is talking?”
Kamal went on to explain his problem to ‘Mr.
Majumdar’ for the later 15 minutes which Jolly enjoyed very
much. It felt kind of powerful when you can screw with other
people’s life, and they ask for your mercy. Makes you feel like
a temperory God.
Jolly asked Kamal in the end, “What the hell do you
need from me?”
Kamal: “I want you not to do piracy of my movie. I
will give you profit sharing from the movie’s business. Mr
Lalwani had agreed for that, please don’t do this to us.”
Jolly who by now had composed himself replied,
“Look man, I can’t do what you are asking. It’s not good for
my reputation. There are dealers all over the country who
rely on me for the print. Once you can’t deliver, you are over,
and about your profit sharing deal, how much profit you think
your shitty movie is going to earn. It is a sure shot flop. Don’t
take this upon yourself man, as they say in ‘Godfather’
nothing’s personal, its business.” and he hung up.

93
 (X)

Unknown to Kamal and Mr. Lalwani there was one

man listening attentively to their conversation, Ramesh
Dammani. He was with the film unit as an assistant editor. He
had come to Mumbai with the ambition to become a
successful director, but after one decade of struggle he had
learned that was not going to happen. So he compromised
and joined the technical side of the film business.
He was an opportunist to the core and this was the
perfect opportunity for him. He quickly finished his drink, left
the bar and went to the movie processing lab without making
anybody suspicious.

(XI)

One week later, Jolly got another call. This time from
Ramesh Dammani. Jolly asked “What the hell do you want?”
Ramesh: “I have a business proposition for you.”
Jolly: “I am always open for good ideas. The question
is have you got any?”
Ramesh: “Sure I do, why else will I make this phone
call? Tell me something, when do you generally get the print
of the movie?”
Jolly: “About 1 to 2 days after release.”
Ramesh: “Ok what about if you can get the prints 2
to 3 days before the release of the movie. Sounds like a good
idea to you?”
Jolly couldn’t think for the next few seconds. It will
mean a thunderstorm response for him in the market. He

94
could bloody charge a premium from all his dealers and can
make a fortune himself before the movie even gets released.
Everybody would like to see the movie before the
release. Many people like to brag, and it will be a nice to tell
one’s friends that they have already seen the movie before
the movie actually come to theaters.
Of course this Ramesh guy would also want a
premium for this thing but it will be worth it. So the deal was
struck.

(XII)

It was the Friday when Kamal’s movie got released.

Jolly went out to wear his favourite outfit. He was in no hurry
to reach the multiplex to watch the latest release. He knew
the movie was going to take a dull opening as the pirated
version had already hit the market a couple of days ago.
The deal was as beautiful as it gets. Dammani has
delivered as promised, the print was surprisingly of clear
quality and Jolly had been able to make a killing in the deal.
The pirated copies had hit the stands two days before the
release of the movie and as expected the dealers have made
good profits as well, due to good demand.
However, when Jolly reached the theatre he was
taken aback. There was substantial crowd outside the
multiplex. There was no other major release on that day, so
the level of the crowd was unexpected.
But the most amazing thing that happened was that
Jolly had to purchase the ticket in black. He was astonished
with the crowd’s response. His confusion continued till the

95
end of the show, partially due to the turn of events, and
partially due to the excellent movie he watched.
He couldn’t guess the suspense of the movie like
others present in the Multiplex. By the end of the movie he
had all appreciation for the movie makers. And he was
seriously considering cursing himself for turning down the
profit sharing proposition that he had turned down, as the
movie had taken a good start and was on the way to become
a clear hit.”

(XIII)

It was after the show had ended that he received

another call from Kamal Awasthi.
Kamal “So Mr. Majumdaar, did you like the movie?”
Jolly: “How do you know I have seen your movie?”
Kamal: “Your reputation precedes you, it is very well
known in the industry that Jolly Majumdaar always watches
the movie he had pirated on the first Friday.”
Jolly: “Honestly, you have done a good job. It’s not
such a shitty movie after all, and I am sure it is going to do
good business as well. However what remains a mystery is
how you managed to get such a good opening for the movie,
what did you do?”
Kamal: “Well Mr. Majumdaar I couldn’t have done it
without you! You see the prints that you got from Mr.
Dammani were especially designed for you.”
“Mr. Dammani who is such an excellent technician
had made sure that all the integral scenes relating to the
suspense of the story were chopped of, but remaining parts
were good enough to raise the curiosity of the audience.”
96
 “Thanks to your excellent delivery system a lot of
people have already watched the movie in their houses, but
haven’t got the faintest clue about the suspense of the
movie.”
“So a lot of those people are turning outside the
multiplex dying to watch the movie to know the proper
climax, and for this excellent idea and service Mr. Dammani is
going to work as an assistant director with me on my next
project.”
“However I know in a sense that I have destroyed
your reputation in the market but what can I say, as they say
in ‘Godfather’ nothing’s personal, its business.”

The End

97
 (11)
The Imperfect Solution

(I)

College romance has been in existence even before

colleges came into existence. So when Sidharta Oberoi
started dating Prachi Singh in the local engineering college in
Delhi, nobody bothered. It was like any another love story
with the usual romance and probability of a happy ending.
Sidharta was a handsome and intelligent guy
belonging to a rich and influential local family. On the other
hand Prachi was from a conservative Rajasthani family, which
was known for its frequent adrenalin rush which generally
resulted in broken bones and frequent visit to different law
enforcement agencies. So this plot was ripe enough for an
average and typical Indian Love story with the usual caste and
social divide.
Today was the last paper of the last semester for
both Prachi and Sidharta, and Prachi was supposed to leave
tonight for her hometown.

(II)

Sidharta: “Why do you have to go? You don’t like

your family anyway, but my family loves you. Infact they like
you even more than me. Stay, and we can get married within
a week.”
Prachi: “Come on; don’t be like that, they are my
family after all.”
98
 Sidharta: “Huh… family, if it wasn’t for your mother
those barbarians wouldn’t have even let you study beyond
high school, you would have been cleaning somebody’s
laundry rather than becoming an engineer. And now when
you have even lost her, why would you like to go there, and
to tell you the truth, I don’t trust those people.”
Prachi: “But I need to convince them for our
marriage. I can’t run away just like that. I have done nothing
wrong. Why I should hide from them?”
Sidharth: “You are a fool Prachi. Educated but still a
fool. You think they will agree for my proposal, never. I
belong to a different caste from you, and for them it is still
the era of ‘Khaaps’ and other such friendly ‘committees’.
They will hang us before you could say my surname.”
The terror in Prachi’s eye was sufficient to tell
Sidharta that his assessment was not far from truth.

(III)

A skeptical Prachi reached her home only to find that

her family had already started the search for a suitable groom
for her. When she tried to tell her father, who looked like a
fragile version of Amrish Puri, and two elder brothers who
looked like overgrown ugly teenagers about Sidharta, all hell
broke loose.
She was badly beaten while everybody in her family
competed with each other on how much more shameful he is
feeling than the other. Her cell phone was confiscated and
she was barred from leaving the house till further notice; the
same old Indian movie melodrama crap.

99
 The chances of a happy ending for their story were
becoming very bleak.

(IV)

However there was a silver lining, Siddharth was a

very practical guy. He had anticipated this and had given a
second mobile to Prachi as backup, the information of Prachi
being beaten infuriated Siddharta to no end.
Siddharta: “Shit, I told you Prachi your family is not
worth it, you should have listened to me, shit, now what, now
f***ing what.”
Prachi replied in an exhausted tone, “Calm down,
please calm down.”
Siddharta: “I am coming to your place, and I will get
you out of there.”
Prachi: “Now you don’t be a fool. They will kill you if
you set foot in this town.”
Siddharta: “Then you come to me, leave your house
immediately.”
Prachi gave a long sigh: “They won’t let me leave,
Siddharta. They are ignorant, but not stupid. They will marry
me by force.”
Siddharta: “Then call the police, don’t worry I will
call the police.”
Prachi: “Really Siddharta, you believe that will help?
Pride and honour is everything for these people. They don’t
believe in law, not even the police department.”

100
 Siddharta: “I will figure something out. I won’t let
you marry anybody else; you don’t worry, and please don’t
lose hope.”
But Prachi knew even Siddharta had no conviction in
words he just said.

(V)

Within a week, and after rejecting two proposals,

Prachi’s family struck gold, they found the boy most
appropriate to their taste.
Ajeet Singh belonged to their caste, and was about
to join a software company in USA.
What if he looked like a drunkard, or that he had
been kicked out of a couple of jobs due to inappropriate
behaviour towards the other gender was of little importance
to the bride’s family.

(VI)

Prachi had an immense and immediate dislike for

the man and she seriously started contemplating how to get
her hands on a poison bottle. In one last attempt to persuade
her family Prachi stopped eating, but that was hardly
consequential to her family either.
With a lot of persuasion and promise of a big
reward, Prachi was able to manipulate one of her servants to
arrange for poison, and before taking content out of the
bottle she called Sidharta for a last time.
Prachi: “Goodbye Siddharta, I am leaving, I am about
to take poison, thank you for coming in my life. You were the

101
best thing that ever happened to me besides my mother. I
feel like I am cheating on you, but what options do I have? I
can’t marry that garbage after being in the company of a
decent man like you.”
Sidharta: “Well this is a really twisted suicide note
darling, I can’t decide whether I should feel sorry for myself
as my girlfriend is about to die, of to feel flattered as the
thing has been certified after all that I am a decent guy after
all.”
Prachi: “Really Siddharta, even now you feel like
joking. Were you ever serious about this relationship? I really
doubt my judgment of trusting you with my life.”
Sidharta: “Well I know this is not the most apt time
to bring this up, but I told you so. I told you to screw your
family, but you couldn’t bring yourself to do that. But now
suddenly you have got the courage to even end your life.”
Prachi didn’t have an answer to that, but screw it
she was going to die in a few moments, why bother.
Siddharta continued: “Now hear me, don’t try to
make this a Romeo Juliet story, I don’t want to commit
suicide, but if you do that, people around me will suddenly
start having such expectations from me as well. So rather
then putting me in a difficult spot hears me out, I am working
on a plan…..”
Unfortunately before Siddharta could tell her about
his intentions, suddenly Prachi’s elder brother stormed into
her room, pulling that very servant from the collar who had
supplied Prachi with the poison bottle some time ago.
His condition was enough to tell her that her brother
knew what she was planning to do. For the next few minutes

102
Prachi was again beaten, but more lethal casualty was her
second cell phone which was also confiscated by her brother.
(VII)

In the night when she went to bed she was filled

with a little hope that some miracle could actually happen.
Siddharta may actually be able to rescue her. But how, he
didn’t knew, her house, her neighborhood, even the whole
town was a dangerous territory for Siddharta.
What was he planning? Does he wish to come here
and take her by force? She immediately rejected the scenario.
Siddharta was no Sunny Deol that what can he do will he go
to higher authorities in Delhi who may come to help. Prachi
was not sure, but the little bit of faith was enough for her to
postpone her heroic suicide ambitions.
Most important question was, was he even planning
something, or it was just an attempt by him to persuade her
not to commit suicide.

(VIII)

The next few days were hellish from every angle for
Prachi. She was indecisive, confused, and anxious. She
couldn’t figure out what she was supposed to do, so she
decided to go on with the flow for a while. She participated
half heartedly in all the ceremonies going on in the house, but
the worst part was when she was approached by Ajeet Singh
during one such function:
Ajeet: “Hello ji”
Prachi was filled by immense hatred but managed to
reply with a simple namaste.

103
 Prachi started thinking about the blatant
shamelessness of the man because he definitely smelled of
liquor. Disgusting, she thought, he didn’t even cared if a
family function was going on.
Ajeet: “I want to talk to you in private.”
Immediately Prachi started looking for something
sharp to put into his chest. However, the situation was saved
from becoming violent as she was called away from there by
his father. However, it didn’t detriment Ajeet from
attempting one more effort to seek Prachi’s audience in
‘Private’ but she was able to get way by a whisker even then.
‘You son of a bitch, I still have that poison bottle with
me, smell everything before you drink anything you bastard.’
thought Prachi.

(IX)

Prachi’s anxiety keeps increasing with every passing

day and when the dreadful day of her marriage came, she
had surrendered to God’s will. Siddharta was nowhere in
sight. All left was hollowness inside her.
God had cheated her. Life had cheated her. Glimpse
of a wonderful life was shown to her and then taken away.
She got married the day her family had arranged to the boy
they had selected. The time for a happy ending had gone
away.
(X)
The newlyweds were supposed to catch the flight of
USA the very next day of their marriage, and as many people
in the family had never seen an airport in their life, everybody
took this opportunity to accompany the couple to Delhi
104
International Airport from where they were supposed to
catch the flight.
The Journey from her home town to New Delhi was
a blur, Prachi had lost her ability to react to anything, and she
kept doing what everyone asked her to do.
When the big marriage party reached the airport the
local security came into action and instructed everybody
without a plane ticket to leave the area. Reluctantly,
everybody left while cursing the overnight journey they had
to go through just to get a glance of the airport. Their desires
to update their facebook profile picture taken from their
Chinese made handsets with a swanky airport in the
background was shattered to dust.
Prachi could care less, but suddenly blood started
pumping at an accelerated rate inside her body, the
numbness was gone as she looked at a man who was fast
approaching her, Siddharta.

(XI)

Siddharta came near the couple facing Ajeet with a

weird expression. Prachi thought about the impeding fist fight
that was fast approaching. However, she got the surprise of
her life when instead of a curse; the first word out of
Siddharta’s mouth was a Thank You to Ajeet.
Prachi couldn’t think straight, was Siddharta actually
happy for getting rid of her, and so much that he came all the
way to the airport to thank the man responsible for his
release from an unwanted relationship. But before she could
react, she saw Siddharta pulling out a few papers from a bag
he was carrying and handing them out to Ajeet.

105
 Ajeet nodded slowly and left a smiling Siddharta and
a vey bewildered Prachi without even looking in their
direction again and entered the airport building.
Prachi: “What the hell, what is happening?”
Siddharta: “Well in the eyes of your family, Mr. and
Mrs. Ajeet Singh are leaving for USA.” Siddharta knowingly
stopped talking; he was enjoying the annoyance of Prachi
who definitely wanted more answers.
Prachi: “Before I break somebody’s head Siddharta,
tell me what is going on.”
Siddharta realized the old saying about rage of a
woman and immediately retreated.
Siddharta: “When the first time you told me that
your family is searching a boy and that I have no chance to
take you out of there with force, I reassessed. I or my family
couldn’t come to your town, going to Police or authority was
futile, and your family was searching for a groom with the
speed someone searches for a loose snake in the house, I
knew your family wouldn’t let you leave the house unless you
were married, so I thought why not I arrange your marriage.”
There was shock in the eyes of Prachi but she kept
listening.
Siddharta: “So I thought what kind of a boy will suit
the taste of your family, so I started searching, and I found
the perfect man for the job.
Ajeet Singh, he belonged to your caste, his family
belonged to your home town, and his only problem was my
opportunity, a job in USA, and ironically it was also the most
attractive point for your family.

106
 So I struck a deal with him. I arranged a job for him
in USA. He went to your house with his proposal, your family
agreed, you married him. He made sure you leave your
hometown unharmed. He even tried to tell you about our
plan but you bumped him off. Now we will file for a mutually
consented divorce for which he will agree and do all the
necessary formalities, and then God willing we will change
your surname.”
Prachi was awestruck and speechless.
Siddharta: “I know this is not a perfect solution to
our situation, but this is a solution at least; it is a solution
without bloodshed and broken bones, a solution without visit
to criminal courts, hospitals or morgues; but of course if you
believe in ‘Pati Parmeshwar’ concept that I will understand,
and poor Ajeet would have to live with it.”
Prachi couldn’t help but laugh. People may have
their objections about this approach, but frankly she didn’t
give a dam.

The End

107
 (12)
Qatil Prem

(I)
September 2017.

The whole city was covered with posters of newly

released movie ‘Qatil Prem’.
Although the title of film was more appropriate for a
B – grade movie, but ironically the movie was a big budgeted
one, with big stars, as well as however cheesy it may have
sounded the title of the movie was highly relevant to the
story.
th
Adi Gupta a class 12 student was a sucker for
suspense movies and ‘Qatil Prem’ was highly awaited and
anticipated. His best friend and classmate Sumit Behra was
no different and shared his passion.
Adi and Sumit were first in line for the evening show.
The movie was based on the real case of murder of Ketan
Oberoi; Ketan was a successful businessman, he was the
managing partner at ‘Oberoi Industries’, his Junior partner in
the company was Prem Kapoor, and at his house he had his
wife Mrs. Nandana Oberoi and his younger brother Prem
Oberoi.
Ketan was found shot dead on 9 September 2015, at
his computer table in his library inside his house. However,
before dying he was able to write the name of his murderer
on a piece of paper, with trembling hands he was able to

108
write ‘Prem’ before dying. But which Prem was anybody’s
guess.
The case was given to veteran Crime Branch officer
Vikrant Pawar and his Junior Prashant Mane. Pawar was an
aggressive Police officer who joined Police force around 10
years ago and was known for his single minded focus on cases
and his ability to solve them quickly.
Even in this case Pawar focused on both the Prem’s
as expected, made progress quickly and found out the killer.
However, there was a problem, a couple of days after he
began investigation he visited Mrs. Nandana Kapoor in the
night and told her that he had uncovered the murderer. He
said: “Mrs. Oberoi I know who killed your husband, its
Prem…” but before he could complete the sentence two
shots were fired, one got Vikrant Pawar on the back, and the
second one killed Prashant Mane on spot.
The shots came from outside the house through a
window. Pawar got hit at a critical point near his spinal cord
and neck. Pawar survived the shot but went into coma, and
due to the delicate location of the bullet the Doctors refused
to perform the operation to remove the bullet from the body
calling it very dangerous.
Result, Mr. Vikrant Pawar was still in deep coma
since the incidence, which happened nearly 2 years ago and
nobody knew who the actual killer was, Prem Kapoor or Prem
Oberoi.

109
 (II)

In spite of a great background and story, the movie

turned out to be a disappointing affair for Adi. The movie had
a lot of style but no content. The director has unfortunately
shown creativity in all the wrong places.
He has shown two romantic songs and an item
number, a fight sequence and even a car chase, none of
which actually happened during the real case.
The director had not bothered to show the actual
investigation done by Vikrant Pawar; however the last scene
where Vikrant was shot was shown with full authenticity.
But Adi was disappointed because identity of real
culprit was not reveled in the movie, as identity of the culprit
was still unknown to the police as well; and hence the
viewers were left in a dangling situation where everyone was
allowed to draw his own conclusion.
It was climax of “Inception” all over again, but the
Director was no Christopher Nolen.

(III)

After the show ended, Adi and Sumeet went into

their ritual of dissecting the finer points of the movie, while
walking towards the exit of cinema hall.
Adi: “What the hell, how can anyone make a movie
like this but not close it properly, we never get to know the
identity of the killer, what kind of suspense movie is this?”
Sumit: “Well what can the Director do, the real killer
was never identified, and the only person who knows his
identity is lying in a coma. How could the director have

110
accused either of Prem’s of a crime without supportive
evidence?”
Adi: “Then he should not have made the movie al
all.”
Sumit: “Come on the kind of ending we got is called
a ‘cliffhanger’ in movie parlance, a situation very commonly
shown in TV serials.”
Adi: “Yes, but in a TV serial the ‘cliffhanger’ is solved
in the next episode, but there is going to be no solution of
this problem, as there is going to be no sequel to this movie,
there is no story left to be told.”
Sumit: “You are talking like you could have made a
better movie than this.”
Adi: “Surely I could have, look at the investigation
part the director ignored completely, if only he would have
shown the full and original investigation, I could have at least
form an opinion over who the killer might have been.”

(IV)

They have been talking while they exited the

compound of the cinema hall, when suddenly they realized
there was a ‘Fakir’ standing in front of them. He was curiously
staring towards the boys, unexpectedly he didn’t ask for any
money. He kept staring.
Adi realized he had seen the ‘Fakir’ before as well,
while they were entering the cinema hall a few hours ago,
even than he was just standing there looking towards the
public and cinema hall; and never bothering to ask for any
money as expected of him.
Adi said mildly: “What do you want baba.”
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 Fakir kept quiet for a moment than slowly said: “So
you think you could have solved the case.”
Adi was taken aback by the reply but he playful
replied: “Sure, why not; but I was not there when this all
happened. How I am supposed to solve the case which
happened about 2 years ago?”
Now the Fakir playfully replied with a little smile:
“That’s no problem beta, let’s see how good of a detective
you are”. And with those cryptic words, and creepy smile the
Fakir walked away from the boys.
Adi kept looking at the Fakir while trying to cross the
road, when suddenly car came out of nowhere and hit him,
and Adi lost consciousness.

(V)
10 September 2015.

Adi opened his eyes expecting to be in a hospital,

but found himself in unfamiliar surroundings. He was inside a
Police Station. He realized he was sitting on a chair, and was
wearing a Police Uniform.
He kept thinking that he was in a dream then he saw
a newspaper on his desk; the date was of September 2015,
the date was of two years ago, but it is possible to time travel
in a dream he thought, when suddenly he realized he was not
in a dream.
It is said that you cannot read anything in a dream as
dreams are something that are constructed by our right side
of brain only, and reading is the function of left side of brain,
which remains inactive during dreams.

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 “Bloody Baba, what the hell have you done with me”
thought Adi and realized that the news paper contains the
story about the murder of Ketan Oberoi, the realization that
he has actually gone back in time during the time of murder
coupled with the fact that he was inside a Police Station was
enough for him to realize that he was going to be a part of
murder investigation very soon. The Baba had actually pulled
the impossible.

(VI)

He went near a mirror to look at his face. The face

was unknown to him. He was looking towards a man in his
late 20’s, there was a name tag attached to his uniform, he
took it out and looked at the name, ‘Prashant Mane’, the
other man who was shot with Vikrant Pawar and died in the
line of duty. Fuck.
Within half an hour ‘Adi’ now known as ‘Prashant
Mane’ was able to gather miscellaneous information, such as
that he was a Sub-Inspector at Crime Branch, his superior
officer was Vikrant Pawar, and there was a strong rumor that
murder case of Ketan Oberoi which happened last night was
supposed to be handed over to Vikrant Pawar today, which of
course ‘Adi’ knew in advance to be true.
Adi aka Prashant Mane though skeptical was ready
for the challenge ahead, he had boasted in front of ‘Fakir’ and
now he was in a messed up situation that he could not
comprehend.
He only knew one thing, “Don’t allow your mouth to
write cheque’s that your ass cannot cash.” But he has gone
ahead and done exactly that.

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 (VII)
Later that afternoon

As expected the case of Ketan Oberoi came to

Vikrant Pawar, and Adi was designated to assist him. Adi
remain silent most of the time to make sure he didn’t say
anything to blow his identity.
Vikrant went through the report local Police has filed
for the case. According to the report, on the day of murder
i.e. 9 September 2015 there was a big party thrown by Oberoi
Industry at a big hotel.
Ketan Oberoi and his wife Nandana as well as both
the Prem’s i.e. Prem Oberoi and Prem Kapoor along with a lot
of guests and staff were present at the party.
Ketan complained of a minor headache and went
home alone. Ketan’s house is not far away from the hotel
where the party was held. It was well known that there were
no servants present at Oberoi household that night, so
anyone could have followed him to the house, shot him and
came back to the party without getting notice.
Ketan however was able to right Prem on a paper in
front of him before dying, and although shaky, the hand
writing was confirmed to be his.
There was some additional stuff in the report about
personal matters of the people involved in the incidence, like
about the rumored romance between Mrs. Nandana Oberoi
and brother of deceased Mr. Prem Oberoi. As well as the
continuous arguments happening between Mr. Ketan Oberoi
and his partner Mr. Prem Kapoor over business matters,
which incidentally gave motive to both of them.

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 Vikrant’s first stop was Ketan’s house; as soon as he
entered he demanded to see Mrs. Nandana Oberoi and Mr.
Prem Oberoi.
Vikrant: “I will come straight to the point, Mr. Prem
Oberoi. You had motive to kill your brother, your
indiscretions with Mrs. Nandana Oberoi are well known,
maybe that led to the murder of your brother.”
If Prem was startled by this approach of Vikrant, he
didn’t show any sign, he answered with poise, “Well, I don’t
know what you think Inspector, but Ketan had known about
the affair for some time, and tell you what, as weird it may
sound, he was ok with it.
He could have kicked me out of his house and
inheritance, but he never did that. Incidently, there were
some minor correction in his will just one month ago, he
made the changes but not my inheritance.”
It was Vikrant who was startled, making a mental
note to call the family lawyer to confirm what was said, he
continued his investigation with Mrs. Oberoi. Nothing of
value came out of that, Mrs. Oberoi repeated rhe things
Police already knew.

(VIII)

Vikrant: “Mane, let’s have a look around the house

before we move to over next destination, office of Oberoi
Industries.”
Oberoi house was an old fashioned one, with front
lawn overlooking library cum office, i.e. the room where body
of Mr. Oberoi was found, and a big garage where latest
model of Mercedes was parked.

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 “It’s a shame that people buy such expensive cars
but don’t have time to take good care of them,” said Vikrant
while pointing towards a newly formed dent on the bonnet of
otherwise excellent car. I couldn’t agree more.
While on our way to Oberoi Industries, Vikrant called
Ketan’s lawyer, who confirmed all the facts stated by Prem
Oberoi about the changes in the will of the deceased.

(IX)

Environment at Oberoi Industry was grim, the

management after much deliberation had found it fit to keep
the office open in spite of the tragedy.
Mrs. Nandana Oberoi had told Pawar to approach
Laxmi. Late Ketan Oberoi’s personal secretary for any
assistance.
They found Laxmi with ease. Her desk was just
outside the personal office of Ketan Oberoi. She was a young
South Indian girl her and as expected very efficient. Pawar
asked her for the personal documents of Late Ketan Oberoi
and she asked them to accompany her to the company’s safe
inside Ketan Oberoi’s office.
After opening the safe Vikrant found an assortment
of documents containing his will and other official
documents, but there was a weird look on Laxmi’s face.
Vikrant: “What happened, what is bothering you?”
Laxmi: “Well I may be wrong, but I think there used
to be a small pistol that Mr. Oberoi kept in this safe. I don’t
see it now.”
Vikrant was suddenly alerted. He looked inside the
safe, as well as the whole office in search of the gun, but the
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gun was not found. With further enquiry it was found that
the gun was of similar make and caliber that was used to
shoot Mr. Ketan Oberoi.
Vikrant: “Who had access to this safe?”
Laxmi: “Anybody who knew Mr. Oberoi would have
known that he kept spare keys in his table drawer.”
Vikrant: “Would Mr. Prem Oberoi or Mr. Prem
Kapoor have known about the gun as well as the keys.”
Laxmi: “Incidentally both of them did.”
Vikrant: “Laxmi, why don’t you call Mr. Prem
Kapoor? I would like to have a word with him.”

(X)

When Adi and Vikrant were left alone in the office

Vikrant said, “I can bet this is the same gun used to shoot
Ketan Oberoi.”
Adi agreed with the deduction, and further added,
“Well while going through the office I found something
strange, all the old news papers in the store are English
business news papers, but there was just this one Hindi news
paper.” Showing a newspaper in his hand.
Vikrant didn’t bother much about his colleague’s
observation. He was preoccupied with the missing gun and its
implications. However out of curiosity Adi kept reading it.
Mr. Prem Kapoor entered the office. He was a
handsome man in his mid-30’s and had deep voice, “What
can I do for you, Sir?”
Vikrant was not in the mood for playing it easy, he
said: “With Mr Oberoi out of way, you are placed to gain a

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lot”. Was it a statement or an acquisition was anybody’s
guess?
Prem Kapoor was too experienced to come into this
trap; he coolly replied, “What makes you think so Inspector?”
But Vikrant persisted with his line of questioning.
What Vikrant was doing was just guesswork, a shot in the
dark, he just wanted to startle Kapoor into saying something
useful, but he failed miserably.
Prem Kapoor: “If you think I gain from Ketan’s
death. You are gravely mistaken, incidently I am at a loss due
to his murder.”
“Ketan had agreed to sale his controlling stake in the
company to me and we were supposed to sign the contract in
a few days, of course we had different approach towards our
business which lead to arguments, but I won’t kill him for
that, additionally I would have controlled the company myself
if he would have signed the contract.”
“Now I don’t know, his wife and brother, they may
disagree for the sale.”
Vikrant looked disappointed but not defeated. His
first blow towards both Prem Oberoi and Prem Kapoor had
not worked, but there is always more deep down the surface
if only you are ready to dig further.
After interviewing Kapoor, Adi and Vikrant continued
their investigation by interviewing rest of the staff, which
only confirmed what Kapoor had said earlier. Exhausted with
all the work Adi and Vikrant left ‘Oberoi Industries’ and went
for dinner.

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 (XI)

Next Day (11 September 2015)

Adi and Vikrant were sitting at the Police Station

going through all the details that they had accumulated
previous day.
Vikrant: “I must admit I am out of moves, I was
confident that I would have solved the case in two days, there
was too much evidence and motive, but I fell flat on my face.”
Adi was sympathetic but knew that the case was
going to be solved by today, as he remembered distinctively
that Vikrant actually was able to solve the case in 2 days, and
today was the day he went to Mrs. Oberoi to tell her that he
knew the killer. Today was the day Vikrant got shot and Mane
i.e. Adi got killed. Adi shivered due to the thought.
However what Adi was not able to understand was
his role in the whole deal. Although he was with Vikrant all
the time, Adi had not been able to contribute anything to the
case till now, what was his purpose of coming to this time
was a mystery to him.
Vikrant: “I don’t get this. Ketan knew about the
affair his wife was having with his brother, but he didn’t
retaliated, never raising the finger. Then he was ready to
move away from the business he built. He was ready to sell
his stake in the business, but for what, it didn’t make any
sense.”
Adi: “Maybe he wanted to become a Monk, leaving
all the worldly possessions behind, or maybe he was dying of
a serious disease, and just getting his affairs in order.”

119
 Vikrant: “That possibility came to my mind as well,
so I contacted his Doctor. His Doctor said that Ketan was in
good health and in good mood as well when he last visited
him for routine checkup. Additionally, the postmortem report
came out which suggest no serious disease in Ketan’s body.”
Vikrant suddenly remembered something and asked
Adi aka Prashant Mane: “What were you talking about
yesterday, something to do with a newspaper?”
Adi: “Nothing sir, just a newspaper. Only curious
thing was that it was the only Hindi paper there, that to a
local one. Every other paper was of English Business News.”
Vikrant: “Do you remember anything else about the
paper, like date or the news items in the paper.”
Adi: “Well I believe the date on the paper was of 9
September 2015, the day Ketan was murdered. Maybe
somebody purchased the newspaper to get details about the
murder. As you know those details won’t be there in a
Business Paper.”
Vikrant went into thinking mode for a few seconds
and then said, “There are two problems with this theory, first
of all if an employee bought the paper then what it was doing
in the store of Ketan’s personal office, and second and more
th
importantly, Ketan was murdered on 9 September so news
th
of his murder would have appeared on the news paper of 10
th
September not 9 September.”
It was Adi’s turn to be startled. He had not thought
in this way. What it meant was in all certainties Ketan himself
bought the paper, but why? And more importantly does it
had anything to do with the murder?”

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 Vikrant: “We need to get that newspaper
immediately”.

(XII)

Adi and Vikrant reached Oberoi Industries and

started going through the pile of newspaper and fount the
newspaper in question immediately. The newspaper had the
usual assortment of local irrelevant news, about two thefts,
one argument over water between neighbours resulting in
knife action, 4 people caught smoking pot and gambling and
one dead beggar on the other side of the city.
Nothing seemed important but Vikrant kept staring
at the paper, then decided to do some research and started
calling every relevant police station for additional details.
When he called the station dealing with the death of beggar
Vikrant’s eyes sparkled, he looked excited.
Vikrant: “Mane why don’t you bring me the list of
people who attended the party given by Oberoi Industries”.
I got the list and we went through it together.
Suddenly, Vikrant stopped and started talking.
“Look at the names in the list Mane. See this Laxmi,
the personal secretary of Ketan Oberoi, indecently her full
name is P. M. Laxmi i.e. Prema Maha Laxmi, Ketan was not
trying to right ‘Prem’ he was trying to right ‘Prema’.

(XIII)

Adi was dumb folded, “But why?”

Vikrant: “Now it makes perfect sense, why was
Ketan ok with his wife having an affair, because he himself

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was having an affair with his secretary Prema Maha Laxmi. He
was thinking of divorcing his wife and then move away from
his business as well, to settle with Prema.”
th
“Now on 8 September 2015 there was an accident
on the other side of the city where a big car ran over a street
beggar, a Fakir. Eyewitnesses could not note the number of
the car but were positive it was Mercedes and there were
two people in the car, one man and one woman, and the
woman was driving. Remember the fresh dent on Ketan’s
car.”
Adi remembered and just nodded, while Vikrant
continued.
“Next day Ketan calls for a local newspaper to find
out what happened to the beggar, finding out that the man is
dead he may have asked Prema to come clean to Police as
she was the one driving the car, leading to an argument.
Prema too had access to the company safe where
she finds the gun and then not wanting to go to jail, kills
Ketan after following him to his house after the party. Come
on Mane we are going to Ketan’s house.”
Adi and Vikrant left not realizing that Prema had
listened to everything.

(XIV)

Vikrant enters Ketan’s house in a hurry, and enters

library where Mrs. Oberoi was sitting and started speaking,
“Mrs. Oberoi I know who killed your husband, its Prem..” it
was the second Adi realizes that it was the precise time when
Vikrant was supposed to get shot.

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 Without wasting any time Adi moved immediately to
caution Vikrant, just a bit late, as the shot was already fired
from outside the window towards Vikrant, but it only found
Adi aka Mane standing between Vikrant and the bullet.
The shot pierces through Adi’s arm and still enters
Vikrants back, with excruciating pain in his arm Adi falls down
on the floor losing his consciousness.

(XV)

Present Time

Adi slowly opened his eyes, expecting to be inside

Ketan’s house but instead finding himself on a hospital bed
with his best friend Sumit Behra sitting on his bed side.
Adi: “What happened, where am I?”
Sumit: “Dude you are in a hospital, you were hit by a
car, you had been unconscious for the last couple of days.
Your parents are at the Doctors chamber for some important
discussion.”
Adi: “You are not going to believe the kind of dream
I had” and told Sumit everything.
Sumit: “That is really weird man. Now you are not
going to believe when I tell you that Vikrant Pawar has come
out of the coma. As if with magic, the bullet that was too
deep inside his body moved a little bit away from the critical
point just last night. The position of the bullet now was not to
deep as if something came in between the bullet and
Vikrant’s neck.”
Adi suddenly had a surge of pain in his arm.

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 Sumit continued: “After getting consciousness, he
named Prema Maha Laxmi as the culprit for the murder. And
when questioned, Prema immediately surrendered. She
agreed with the theory Vikrant came up with. It looks dude it
was not a dream after all.”
Adi: “I wonder who that Fakir was and why he
wanted me to go back and solve the crime.”
Sumit: “Well there is a photo of the beggar who was
killed by Prema in newspaper. Looks like he was the same guy
we met outside the Cinema hall, maybe because nobody
bothered about his death, he himself came back to the world
to get justice.”

The End

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