The plan was hatched, the moves were made. I sat there on the couch, mentally preparing myself for the one last move. Check mate my friend were the thoughts running in my head. It was the perfect plan, no loops, no witness, one cold blooded murder and one happy couple. Exactly a year back, he had snatched the company away from me; I was reduced to a dummy Director of the company. The humiliation was still afresh in my mind, the memory of the day my dream was murdered was still alive in my head. Time had now come for him to say good-bye; time had come for him to die.
Earlier today, his loving wife had left for Chennai with an actor posing as me, we were going to Chennai to offer prayer at a Shiva temple, and everyone knew about the trip, everyone knew both of us were in Chennai for the trip which we took every six months. We had the perfect alibi. The air ticket bore my name; the seat next to mine was taken by her, his lady, his loving wife Tanya, who wanted the exact same thing that I wanted. Both of us were thirsty for his blood. We had the same dream, a house without him, a company without him, and a life without Arjun.
Sneaking into the house was done; all that was left was one silent kill. The plan was simple, one bullet straight to his head, then one messy house with the look of robbery. Keep the police busy looking for robbers, while we fulfilled our remaining dreams.
As I walked up the stairs, my mind was clear, there was no confusion or second thoughts, and my finger was ready to press the trigger. I had killed him a lot of times in my head, different method I used each time. Each method more brutal than the previous one and each method more satisfying than the previous one.
I slowly pushed open the door, and made my way to into the room. I stood by his bed for a few minutes looking at him. A stream of memories ran through my head, memories of Arjun and me playing together, memories of the college days, memories of starting the company together. They were all good, but they were quickly washed away by the flood of memories, which followed them. Memories of him taking the spot light for my work, memories of him sidelining me in my own company, memories of him mocking my ideas, memories of him then taking credit for the same ideas, those were all a painful bunch. I was a weak guy with no guts to stand up, but not anymore. Time had come to take charge of things; time had come to press the trigger.
I had one last thing to tell him.
Take care my Friend.
His pillow was now wet from the blood, that dropped from the wound on his head. I had an hour’s time to trash the house, and make it look like a robbery. A car was waiting near my house which I would drive to Chennai, and reach there with the first light of morning.
As I walked to the cupboard, I heard a vehicle pull up. I moved to the window to check who it was?
I pulled the curtain and I stood there, shocked to see a police jeep. My mind went blank for a second, how could it be? Who informed the police?
There was no time for questions, I ran downstairs with thoughts of escaping from the back door. Before I could reach the back door, shots were fired and I surrendered.
I sat there on the cement platform, which acted as my cot in the cell. There was no hope, it was an open and shut case.There was no regret in my mind, but there questions, who informed the police? How did the perfect plan fail?
I was about to lie down on the cement platform when the constable came near the cell and called out
“You have a visitor”
The plastic chair on which I was made to sit, felt like luxury compared to the cement platform. The waiting room or the visitor’s room housed six constables. One of them had the keys to the hand cuffs that were on me, if only he gave them to me I thought.
The door opened and in came Tanya. I knew she would come to visit me, our feelings for each other was more than love. We knew we were made for each other the minute we had met a year back.
She walked towards me, she didn’t look that well, may be because of the shock that our perfect plan didn’t quite work out the way we planned. She took the chair right opposite to me, gently touched my fingers and spoke with a smile
“I came here to thank you, thank you for executing the plan the way I wanted it”
I was a little confused and replied
“I don’t quite understand”
She spoke with a soft laughter
“You don’t still get it? Well guess what, I changed the end of the plan a little bit, I never booked the ticket in your name, I booked it in my brother’s name, and that actor was my brother. While you were busy practising with the gun, I was busy telling people that, I was taking this trip with my brother, as you had to take care of some important work, that came up.”
“I just forgot to tell you” she continued.
My world came crashing down; she was the last one I expected to betray me. She broke my trust and kicked my love.
I pushed away her hand and spoke with anger
“You were the one who betrayed me. How could you?” I asked
“Calm down Ishan, lets not get emotional. You wanted him dead more than me. I just loved his money more than you” she replied with a soft voice.
I could not control myself from shouting out with rage
“I swear to God I will kill you”
Before I could jump across the table, the constables had me pinned down on the ground.
She got up from the chair and stood a few steps away from me. A constable stood by her requesting her to leave the room.
She bent down a little towards me and said
“I just have one last thing to say before I leave”
There was some kind of movement in the camp, and by the looks of it, the actions didn't look very encouraging. All ten of us were tied up in the middle of the camp by the fire. The rebels spoke in a foreign language I hardly understood, but their expression and body language told me, that the negotiation had collapsed. The government had not bowed down to their demand of freeing their leader from the jail.
A very young looking man came near me; he stood there looking towards the main tent. The tent where some of the senior rebel members were having a meeting. I tried to lift my head and look at him, he stood at almost 6 feet and about 7 inches, on the slimmer side, looked to me like a guy in his early twenties. His gun lay on his shoulder; he kept tapping it and as he stood there, waiting for a command.
I couldn't stop my mind from thinking, what would their next move be? Were they planning to let one of us go or were they planning to hurt one of us? I bent my head down and looked at the earth; there was a dead bug on the ground and several ants around it. A minute later the ants had all come together to lift the bug and move forward. I closed my eyes to conceal myself from the fact that the smallest of the smallest kind lived with unity and in harmony.
I felt someone pulling me up, holding my shoulder. I opened my eyes to see two rebels on each side of me, and in front stood a short old man. He stroked his thick grey beard as he ordered the rebels to lift me, his brown eyes tried to burn me with the fire in them. There were a few rebels standing behind him, they looked to be his body guards, he carried no gun on his shoulder, but held a revolver in his hand.
They untied me from the rest and ordered me to walk, with my hands still tied together and with no energy to move, I needed help to walk. One rebel on each side held my shoulder and pushed me forward. I walked slowly; the old man with his guards led the pack, with some more rebels behind us.
As we left the camp and entered the forest, there were several questions in my head. Were they letting me go? Were they taking me to get medical help? Were they shifting camp? Questions kept bouncing around as we moved forward. I turned to my left to see the rebel holding me smile, was he smiling because they decided to free me? Was he smiling because they decided to move the camp site?
We walked for almost ten minutes, and still there were no signs of stopping. I was physically tired. I had not eaten for almost 2 days; they fed us only one meal every alternate day. Their motive was to keep us alive, and also make sure we have no energy to even think of escaping. The only thing that kept me going was the memories of all the time I had spent with my daughter Soha. Every night I spent in the camp, I dreamed of holding my daughter in my arms watch her smile; see her run around the garden shouting "Papa look at this. Papa come here"
See the sparkle in her eyes every time she laughed.
Almost twenty minutes had passed when we reached a clear area in the middle of the forest. They pushed me forward; I looked around to see a truck parked at a distance.
I let a shout and fell on knees to see a crude coffin like shaped wooden box on the ground. I tried to move backwards, I shouted out loud pleading to let me go. I had no energy to run, I could hardly stand up. The rebels pulled me up on my knees. I sat up on my knees, with my head held low. Tears rolled down my cheek, I shouted for mercy.
I lifted my head to see the old man holding a revolver straight at my head. With watery eyes and folded hands I asked the old man "What will you get by killing me?"
"Please let me go, I have a daughter and a wife, who need me"
His eyes were fixed on me and he spoke with a stern expression on his face "All of us have daughters and wife, but we have all sacrificed for the war"
I shouted with anger "I am not part of this war. This is not my war."
"Now you are a part of it" he replied as he took step towards me.
Before I could respond, the trigger was pressed. I felt the hot lead kiss my forehead. The force of the bullet pushed me onto the ground. My world came to a standstill, the trees, the birds, the people around me stopped moving.
My mind was flooded with images of my daughter smiling, running walking, talking. My wife holding my hand, the evenings we spent holding each other. The promises I had made to take care of them forever.
Both of them standing with tears in their eyes and shouting for me to come back, as I walked away from them.
My vision got blur, my brain burnt with pain. I reached into my back pocket and pulled out my wallet. I held my wife and daughter's photo close to my eyes, gave it one final kiss and whispered
I picked up my helmet, and stood near the door trying to remember if i had packed everything i needed for the bike ride. My mom stood beside me still trying to convince me from not taking the bike to visit my village. "You'll spend atleat two days on bed, trying to recover from the back ache, you'll have from riding the bike" she said handing me a bottle of water. I looked at her and smiled and said "Mom, we have had this conversation like thousand times now. I am taking my bike, it's just 350 Kms." I replied putting my helmet on. She was still not happy that i choose to ride than take the bus. I looked at her and gave an assuring smile and shouted "Don't worry, i'll give you a call as soon as i reach grand dad's place." She smiled back, but the smile had glimpses of worry and fear in it. I waved at her as i kick started my bike, and rode towards Bagamandala. Bagamandala is a small village in the far end of Coorg. A village with not more than 100 houses was the birth place of me and my mom. i had last visited the place when i was 6, about 16 years back and I had no clear memory of that visit.
I stood there looking at the house, it had been only a week since we had rented it, and now had decided to move out. My wife Prachi had strong reasons to believe that there was a lot of negative energy in the house. She had not even spent a night in the house, a couple hours and she was convinced that the house made her very uncomfortable. My younger brother had selected the house, and we were supposed to move in as soon as we moved from Delhi and came down to Bangalore. Prachi went straight to my brother's place and stayed there till I returned form my office tour.
Prachi spent all the days searching for a new house to move into, while I was away on my office tour. I had spent a lot of time on phone convincing her to stay in that house for at least 6 months, but she was adamant, she threatened to live alone, if I didn't bow down to her request. I finally gave into her request and agreed to move, but Prachi's reaction had left me curious to see what was it that made her change her mind suddenly. What was it, which made her not come back to that place? I decided to see it for myself.
I decided to spend the last night in the house. I thought it was best not to tell her about it, I told her, I was going to spend the night at my friend's place.
My brother drove me to the house, i instructed him not to tell Prachi about it, and asked him to come pick me up the next morning.
I looked at my watch as I moved towards the door, 11:15 pm. I opened the door and stood there for a second, I stood there surprised to see all the lights in house lit. I entered the house, walked straight to the centre of the living room, and looked around to see all the windows covered with thick curtains on them. There were a lot of boxes lying around the living room. The boxes looked like ones which Prachi and my brother had moved in with on the first day. They were all still packed. I opened the box, which was marked "bed sheets", and walked towards the bedroom on the ground floor. There were two more bedrooms in the first floor, but I had decided to sleep in the ground floor room. I entered the room to find the bed on the floor rolled and tied up. I untied the bed; put the bed sheet over it. There was no fan in the room, so I decided to open the window, I opened the window, and looked out, and I could see the neighbour's balcony clearly from the room. I was about to turn back to my bed, when a kid walked in and stood in the neighbour's balcony. I looked at the kid, and smiled at him. He stood there, with his chin on the balcony railing and his hands clutching the railing. He looked to be frozen in that position, he did not move, his big jet black eyes were fixed on me. I felt a strange and a little weird; I smiled at him again and waved my hand. He just stood there starring at me. I decided it was too weird for me to continue smiling while he stood there looking like the kid straight out of the exorcist movie. I started to walk backwards towards my bed, as I walked I shouted "Goodnight kid". He gave me thumbs up and shouted "Good Luck".
I sat on my bed with words "weird kid" and "scary kid" jumping around in my mind. I was about to lie down when I felt thirsty, I had a bottle of water in my bag pack, which was in the living room. As I walked out of the bedroom into the living room, the bed room door suddenly closed. Must be the wind I thought to myself. As I removed the water bottle from the bag pack I was a little confused to see the main door bolted up, I didn't remember bolting the door, or did I close it, I was a little confused. I must have closed it, who else will? I thought to myself as I neared the bedroom door.
I tried to push open the closed bedroom door. I stood there shocked for a few seconds, to find it closed tight. It felt like someone had bolted it from the inside. I tried pushing it again, but to no success. I tried to bang open it with my shoulders, but only hurt my shoulders with the process. Confusion and fear were the two emotions going in my head. I took a step back and kicked hard at the door. "Bang" the door opened and immediately there was a power cut. Darkness engulfed the room, there was zero vision. I searched my pocket for my cell phone, but then realised I had left it on the bed. I walked slowly into the room, and tried to make myself to the bed. I was in the middle of the room, when my shoulder hit something, I went a few steps back, I tried to see with my eyes squint, but the room was too dark. I was about to move, when the lights came back. I screamed loud and fell backwards and almost hit my head. A dead body hung right in the middle of the room, it looked like a small child's body. The face was battered beyond recognition; blood trickled from her feet onto the floor. The eyes had popped off from their sockets, but it looked like the eyes were fixed on me. I pushed myself away and screamed loud hoping someone would hear me, and come to my rescue, I jumped onto the bed and quickly picked up my cell phone, I decided to get out of the room, the power went off again. I tried to stand up, but legs slipped, I pushed myself off the floor and ran out of the room. It was pitch dark and I could hardly see anything, my run was abruptly halted when I banged my face into a wall. I started to bleed from my nose, within a few seconds there was blood all over my shirt. My head started spinning, the pain hit me. I clenched my fist and bit my lip trying to control myself from screaming. I wiped my nose with my shirt, but the bleeding wouldn't stop. I stood there cursing my luck, cursing myself for entering this nightmare.
I suddenly felt a tap on my shoulders; I didn't turn, but instead stood there like a statue. Hot blood trickled off my shirt and made their way onto my chest, but I was too scared to move. I shut my eyes closed. I felt another tap, this time on the other shoulder, and before the feel of the tap could end, there was another tap and suddenly there were hundreds of taps. It felt like hundreds of people continuously tapping all over my body. I had to move away, it got too painful to bare. I started to walk swiftly; I didn't want to risk banging myself again by running. I moved quickly and in a few seconds my leg felt like hitting the stairs. I ran upstairs, and hurried into a room and locked the door from inside. I sat on the floor with my arms around my bent legs and hid my face between my chest and my legs. I shut my eyes, tried to think, how to get out of this night mare. I thought of running down and escape through the main door. As I got up, I felt the bleeding in my nose had reduced, but it pained severely each time I took air in; I opened my mouth and tried to breathe with my mouth. As I turned to open the door, I felt the cell phone in my pocket. I quickly pulled it out and dialled my brother's number. There were several beeps which gave way to a harsh but a child like voice "The number you are trying to reach is sleeping please do not disturb and you my friend are trapped here. Please do not use your phone again." My hand felt hot, my ears started to burn I jumped and threw my phone which was on fire now. I froze there thinking if I would ever get out of there, if I would ever get to see my wife. I sat on the floor and stared at the fire, my cheeks felt cold and my vision got blurred. My eyes were filled with water and in a second I started to cry. The reality of some energy bigger than me, trying to kill me just set in.
I sat there silent with tears down my eyes for 10 mins, nothing happened. The fire was still there, but it got smaller and smaller by each passing minute.
I heard a voice, I was not sure where it came from, but I heard a very soft voice. I shut my eyes and sat still. A little later I realised that the voice was coming form with me, the voice was in my head. The voice shouted "Don't lose hope. Believe in God, believe in positive energy. There exists no evil. It is just a figment of your imagination." The voice kept repeating the sentence over and over. I opened my eyes, clenched my fist and shouted "Yes, I believe in you God. There exists no evil. No evil. It is just my imagination. I don't see it, I don't believe in it."
The fire in front of me grew suddenly; it became huge and reached the ceiling. The whole house felt like shivering, the windows shut tight suddenly opened. The fire flickered by the wind that blew in. The window slammed shut again. The same harsh child like voice shouted "You fool. If there is good, there has to be bad. If there is positive, there exists a negative. The same God that made you, created me. I am as real as your feeling you don't see, but feel."
I felt something strange happening within me, there was a sudden surge of energy. I felt like a wave coming form within me, I felt a strange feeling of courage come from deep down my heart. I shouted back "No! No! You do not exist. I do not believe in you. You are just my imagination."
I heard the scream again "I do not exist. Here feel me". "Feel me"
I suddenly felt like thousands of pins poking at my skin. The pain got unbearable, but the courage in me surged even higher. "I do not feel you. I do not feel you."
The pins pushed harder, several parts of my body started to bleed. My head hit the ground as I felt someone punch on my nose. There was a sudden kick at my face and I could feel my nose and my jaw break. I shouted out in pain, but I could not let the evil win. I shouted out "I feel no pain, bring it on. I do not feel you." The pins pushed harder, almost all of my body had holes in them and I started to bleed heavily. I rolled on the floor in pain, I felt someone kick my back. Then the kicks reached my head, my forehead cut and started to bleed. The pain had reached new level.
With all the energy I had, I pushed myself up. I stood with my knee bent a little and with my arms wide open; I shouted "Is that all you got bring it on. I DO NOT FEEL YOU." I repeated the shout a few times before falling head first onto the floor.
"You do not exist"
"You do not exist"
"You do not exist"
I suddenly woke up, and slowly sat up. I looked around the room, my head was aching. I was confused, shocked and surprised to see myself on the bed in the ground floor room. Sun's rays entered from the open window and lit up the room. I sat there for a few minutes trying to recall what happened. I looked at my body, there seemed to be no scar or pain. I felt my nose it seemed to be perfectly alright. My thoughts were interrupted by the phone ring. It was my brother; I picked it up "Hello. Ya good morning, just got up now. Where are you?" I said still sounding sleepily
I heard him say, he was just round the corner and would reach the house in a minute.
I got up from the bed fully sure that, everything I saw or happened last night was a very bad dream. I looked around the room, thinking to myself, Prachi was right, this house doesn't feel good. It was a good idea that we decided to move.
I opened the main door and let my brother in, who had come with a couple of helper boys and a small truck. I stepped out and told my brother, I would stay near the car while he and the boys load all the boxes onto the truck.
I opened the car door to sit in, but then decided to have a smoke before I sat in. I pulled out my cigarette pack, and lit up a cigarette, I stood leaning against the car. I couldn't help but think of the night mare I had last night. Strange is the mind I thought. It clearly was the worst night of my life.
I looked straight at the road. The neighbour boy stepped into street, looking at him I thought to myself "That weird kid was the reason for the night mare and the voice in the night mare just sounded like his". The kid looked to walk straight at me; he reached me, stood in front of me. I didn't smile at him; he didn't look to smile at me either. He handed me an me a sheet which looked like a drawing sheet. I took it in my hand and before I could ask him what it was, he ran away. I turned the sheet over read it, and stood frozen in my tracks. My hands shivered, my stomach churned and my legs felt weak. I read the sheet again to make sure if I had seen it properly
"LAST NIGHT WAS ONE HELL OF A NIGHT. NEVER RETURN AGAIN
Year:2009 Time: Not wearing a watch, too lazy to pull out my cell phone. GMT
I sipped my vodka as I looked around the bar, the bar was quite empty. On the table to my right hand side, was an old man reading his newspaper and drinking a scotch, with his spectacles at the tip of his nose. He had his stern expression for company, as he turned the pages of the newspaper. Silent and grim, were the thoughts with him.
The table on my left was Noise and Cheers, three college kids sat there guzzling down beer. They looked happy and fresh; they laughed loud and giggled with a stop. Their shouts told me they had just finished their final exams. Their laughs, their giggles reminded me of a time, a time when I was in college......
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Year: 2002 Time: 9:00 am IST
"Don't forget our deal" he whispered as we entered the room
Looking at the question paper I couldn't stop smiling and after a while I couldn't put my pen down. My fingers were tired writing but my brain got happier and happier with each passing question. Calling the question paper easy would be an understatement.
An hour into the exam, I felt someone kicking my bench from behind. That was the distress signal, I leaned back to hear a tensed whisper "Sid move your paper to the left a little, I can hardly see anything"
That tensed whisper was from my best friend "Patae". Patae was not his real name, it was one those stupid nicknames you give your friend, and it sticks with them their whole life. I have known Patae from when I started to school. We have always been together; all our school pictures we stood together with a smile on our face. After school we got into the same college, same class and same bench. Exams he sits right behind me, am number 78 and he is 80.
When we entered college, we made a deal. I show him all the answers in the exams, and he treats me every month. Patae usually never finds "free time" to study, I really can't blame him. He works in a call centre during nights and sleeps during the day. Weekends are booked for his girlfriends; so really can't blame the guy for not studying.
I moved the answer sheet to my left and I moved a bit to the right. I leaned back and asked him "Is this okay, can you see the answers".
He replied with a faint "yes".
I got back to answering the question paper. Half an hour later, he again kicked my bench.
"Dude, you are too fast, go back to the previous page" he said as I leaned back.
"I can't, there isn't much time left, I still have lot of questions to answer" I replied stretching my arm and breaking my knuckles.
"Pass me your answer sheet dude, just 10 mins, I just need 40 marks" he said as he bent to his side acting like he had dropped his pen
This was not something we did every exam, passing paper was something I was very scared off.
I sat there looking around the room to see where the invigilator was, the invigilator was standing near the door facing out with his back to us.
I pushed my pencil off the desk, bent straight down to pick it up; as I bent down I passed my answer sheet to Patae. I was amazed by the swiftness with which I passed the answer sheet.
I kept looking at my watch and then at the door. I had to sit quiet for 10 mins; I kept an eye on the invigilator, who was still at the door. Five mins passed, I looked around to see few of my friends trying to copy from others' paper. Some leaned forward, while others slid across the bench to copy from the guy sitting next to them.
Suddenly the invigilator turned around and came running back in, he started to pace up and down the room.
My worst nightmare had come true. The principal walked in and I had no answer sheet with me. I tried to remain calm, but started to sweat heavily. I started kicking the desk behind me, as I kicked the bench, a soft voice said "Look beside you, idiot"
I turned to my left to find my answer sheet beside my left thigh. Patae had slid it in, when the principal was talking to the invigilator before he started to go around the room.
The last half hour passed smoothly, I just kept changing my positions so Patae could copy.
"Thank God! Am gonna pass" Patae said as we walked out of the college building and walked into the parking lot.
"God? Dude what about me?" I questioned with a smile
"Ya ya, don't show off now" he replied with a grin as he sat on his bike
I sat behind him and we rode out of the college.
"So where we going now?" I asked
"I don't know, you tell me?" he questioned
I hate it when people answer my question with a question.
I stayed silent for a minute and then answered "Patae lets go to Coorg, road trip, on the bike, like we had planned, Go home grab some clothes and leave. What say?"
"Oh ya. Lets go now, we keep planning it every month but never were able to go" he replied liking the idea of the bike trip.
"Ya your girlfriends keep hijacking them" I replied with a smirk
"Talking of girlfriends, what happened to Prachi? You still call her, what’s happening between you two" he asked as we stopped at a signal.
"No idea, she stopped replying to my messages. I send some random, good night good morning messages" I replied, hoping he would not take the topic further ahead.
"That's bad, but you were trying to enter a one way street. You were gonna get hit by the incoming vehicle anyway." he giggled
"Ya ya, not the best way of putting it, but point noted" I said as we rode past the signal.
We were near our hang out joint, Mishra's samosa point, when he stopped his bike to answer a call. I got down and stood there looking towards Mishra, trying to see who all were in the shop.
I could hear Patae talking over the phone and the tone of his voice, told me it was his girl friend.
"Ah dude, the thing is" he started as he walked towards me.
I knew it, it was his girlfriend and she wanted to go out.
"Ah dude, she is kinda feeling down, her exams did not go well. She wants to talk. I don't know what to say" he said and standing in front of me.
"What, just go talk to her, don't worry, we'll go next weekend on the road trip"
I continued
"Hey don't worry about me, I’ll walk home, I wanna eat samosas at mishra, so I’ll do that and then walk home"
"Bro are you sure? This is like some 20th time, am ditching you, middle of the road" he asked
"Leave, before she gets angry with you, just leave" I said with a loud voice and clapping my hands
He got on his bike, started it and said "You are a real life saver bro"
"I know, but what is the use no one around to hear this " I joked
"Don't worry I’ll go meet Prachi and tell her how I passed my exam" he said with a smile as he put on his helmet
I smiled and stood there as he rode away on his bike
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Year: 2009 Time: My cell says 3:30 pm GMT, so its 9:00 pm in India
I looked around, there were more people in the bar now. I got up to leave, as I walked out of the bar, I pulled out my cell phone dialled the number.
A beautiful voice sang "Soniyo oh soniyo" which was interrupted by "Hey Sid! How are you dude?"
"Hey Patae, I was thinking. How about a road trip to Coorg? You know like we always planned"
The clock struck six as I left office and started to walk towards the bus stop. It was one hectic day at the office, my shoulders were stiff with tension, and my face was tired from all the frowns, I gave in my appraisal meeting. All I got was a 20% raise, only 20%. The day couldn't get any worse for me.
The monsoon had arrived and the atmosphere, the surroundings where all damp. Dark grey clouds had taken over the clear blue sky, the sun seemed to have called it a day and dived into the horizon. There was a slow but a very cold breeze and a light drizzle in the air. As I walked, I zipped up my jacket and hoped it would not rain till I reached home. My legs were getting a bit stiff due to the chill in the air. I tried to walk fast as the clouds rumbled with fury and warned us of the heavy rain that was going to hit us.
I was about to cross the road, when a young boy who looked not a day older than six, ill fed, wearing partly torn clothes, humming Mungaru Male (popular kannada song), ran past me. As he passed he hit my leg with his swinging hand, and fell on my back with his hands touching the back of my thigh, but within a second he was up. I stopped to look at the kid, who now was a few yards away from me. He stopped running and stood there looking at me, with his big jet black eyes and an innocent big smile on his face. Which gave way to shouts of "Am sorry Anna (Brother) am sorry anna". I smiled back at him, and stood there watching him, run away singing the song loudly.
As I crossed the road, my brain kept going back to that kid. How happy he was, even though he wore clothes, which barely covered his frail body, he danced and ran around in the cold, singing and smiling, and I shivered and frowned with the jacket on. My thoughts were abruptly stopped by heavy rains which started to lash on me. I ran to take shelter in an old abandoned bus stop.
I wiped my face with a kerchief and, looked around to see one old man standing with me in the bus stop. The rain started to get stronger and stronger with each passing second. The street lights were on, which gave rise to an yellow glow in the air; cars zipped past splashing water on either side of the road.
I stood there looking at the cars; the dog trying to hid below a stone park bench. Just then I felt a tap on my shoulder, it was the old man, he looked to be in his late 50s, He had a black jacket on, and held what looked like a walkie talkie. His skin had wrinkles, his eyes were small, but didn't look tired, his hair partly grey and partly black, wearing brown leather shoes he looked like a police constable.
He smiled at me "Do you happened to have a lit" he asked holding a cigarette.
A fellow smoker, you never say no to a fellow smoker when asked for a lit.
I pulled out a fancy liter, out of my pocket and handed it to him.
Holding up the cigarette he asked "I only have one cigarette, do you want to share this with me?"
"No, I think I have one in my pocket" I replied and reached into my pocket and took out a cigarette pack. Luckily I still had one left in the pack.
We lit our cigarettes' and blew out a cloud of smoke and looked straight at the road.
I broke the silence "So you are in the police force?"
"What gave you the idea that am a police guy? The shoes?" he asked blowing out smoke from his mouth.
I smiled and nodded He continued "Yes, I work for the police force, I have been posted here to keep a check on muggers and pick pocketers"
I replied a faint yes and nodded my head as he continued
"We are living in a cruel world, you will not believe small kids are employed as pick pocketers, and they are the most skilled ones."
I laughed and replied "It would be a shame to get robbed by a young kid"
"Believe me they are the best, you wouldn't even know if one of them robbed you" he replied tapping the cigarette ash
I gave a dry smile and took a long puff of my cigarette. We stood silent for few minutes smoking the last bit of the cigarette. The policeman's words kept ringing in my ear. I mechanically put my hand on my back pocket.
My face first went expression less when I found it empty. After a minute I couldn't help but smile, the cute young kid had robbed me clean.
The smile stayed on, as the policeman and me waved good bye and parted ways. The heavy rain had now turned into light drizzle. I started to walk towards the main bus stop. I looked around as I walked to see if the kid was still hanging around. The incident kept playing in the mind. My mind was flooded with images of the kid standing and smiling. I felt stupid, but I couldn't help but smile. A couple of hours ago, I couldn't help but frown when my boss gave me a 20% raise and now I smiled when I was robbed clean by a small kid.
I took off my jacket and stood for a minute with my arms wide open, the cold wind entered my shirt and gave me gentle hug. It seemed to comfort me, to play with me. The day couldn't get any better for me.
