Two of 5ppm

Prof. Raman Singh removed his glasses and studied Shrey from top to bottom , as if by doing this he could read his thoughts. Shrey stood there silent. He had rehearsed the situation with Rahul. He knew that no one would believe their story, A flying entity attacking Salil who somehow had strangely started to lose blood after the incident with no visible wound on his body and was now lying in the intensive care unit of the city hospital with two units of blood being transfused into him. He has expected the warden to shout at him and maybe call him drunk but he didn't instead he sat there as if it was something that he had feared.

"Are you sure that that "thing" whatever it was actually flying?" Prof Singh said finally.

"Yes sir but we managed to drag him back." Shrey replied almost instantly, how could the warden believe him? He could hardly believe what he himself was saying.

Prof Singh thought for another moment and the gestured him to sit down. After some more thinking he picked up his cel phone and dialed a number.

A few seconds later that Shrey assumed to be the time taken by the other person to answer the phone , Singh spoke into the phone.

"Hello Achyut , beta there is a news in our hostel that might interest you. Come as fast as you can this might be urgent." Saying this he cut the phone without waiting for a reply from the other side.

Sitting there Shrey revisited the events from the previous day in his mind. How after finding salil on the rooftop they had again rushed him to emergency and how the hemoglobin level had come to near dangerous. He remembered his phone-call to Rahul explaining the details and urging him to come. How Salil was transferred to the ICU and how the doctor had told them that immediate transfusion was necessary. Things seemed to go beyond the limits of normal. Why would have Salil gone to the roof and how could he lose so much blood without any visible wound on his body were the questions that were bothering him more than anything else.

Some half an hour later a man, nearly 30 knocked on the door.

"Uncle" he said "Am I allowed?"

The warden who was sitting there reading the newspaper looked up towards the door while wearing the glasses that he had removed some half an hour ago.

"Achyut" his face lit up " come come"

The man was wearing a formal blue shirt with a black pant and looked as if he had come for a job interview.

"I was coming to visit you anyway uncle, I also have news for you." He said beaming. It was then that Shrey recognized him , it was Achyut Mehra the person who used to cover the news on campus politics for the local edition of a national daily and could sometimes be seen in departmental canteens doing photo-shoots. Why had the warden called him? Did he want to get the news of a student being attacked by a strange entity published in the paper? Swalloing this question Shrey looked back at Singh and Achyut.

"What happened uncle?" Achyut inquired.

The warden stood up and turned his back towards the visitors, as though not wanting to face them. "Well actually one of the students of our hostel is unwell." He started "Highly Anemic it seems from what the doctor's say. He was found on the hospital roof the previous night. And from what I can comprehend from what his friend, Shrey here says" he gestured towards Shrey who smiled back as Achyut gave him a smile. " is that he was attacked by a "figure" the day before yesterday and after that he suddenly became anemic. Do you think you can figure out anything?"

Achyut's smile faded into a frown and his eyes were focused on Shrey almost staring at him he said , "Shrey, Now tell me everything that has happened since he was attacked. The situation seems to be grave."

"Means are we actually dealing with something paranormal?"

"I will explain everything but first you need to tell me all that has happened then only can I comment."

"Should I call the…"

"No" Achyut cut him off in mid-sentence "we don't want anything publicized."

"Ok day before yesterday while we were preparing for our last exam…"

"So you say there is no wound of any kind on him."Achuy said after shrey had finished his narrative.

"None. Not even a puncture mark. " At this Achyut looked at him and gave a weak smile.

"Uncle," Achyut turned towards Prof Singh. I think its best that I have a look at him and inform the others. Shrey, can you come with me. I think I owe you an explanation."

"The black Innova" Achyut said as he led Shrey out of the hostel. Shrey remained silent until they had seated and then asked, "Is something like vampires involved?"

"I am afraid, yes. And not something like vampires we actually are dealing with vampires." Achyut turned on the ignition.

"Then how can we fight them?"

"Us not we."

"Means?"

"Its not your battle Shrey its upon me and my fellow anti-vampires or as you would like to call it slayers to fight them"

"How can you say that its not my job?"

"Because we are better equipped than you. " He paused for a moment and then added "By birth not by choice."

"Means?"

"I will explain later but first we must go inform the others and then I will explain to you what are we facing and how can we overcome it. For now you must understand that Salil is in grave danger and must be moved out of Malgudi today before sunset. Otherwise it can be a problem not only for him but for others as well."

Chapter 1: Punctures

Dr. Joshi looked at the blood test report once again, "nine point five" he said silently and looked at Shrey. "So Shrey are you sure that he showed no sign of weakness before this?"

"No sir" Shrey answered looking uncomfortable.

"I can't understand" Dr. Joshi rested his head on his hands, it had been a particularly busy day for him. Emergency duty had started to tire him now. Age has its effects he thought as he shifted his focus back to the strange case that had presented itself in front of him some one hour ago. Two boys from MU had rushed in carrying another unconscious one. As a standard procedure he had asked for a blood test and put the boy on a drip. Those were exam days so some of the stressed students did come to emergency, unconscious , sometimes due to not eating and sometime just because of undue tension. This one looked in perfect shape but a shade paler like he was anemic. But he had an athlete's body "he can't be anemic" Dr. Joshi had told himself. His fears were confirmed an hour later when he had read the report. That boy , Salil actually was anemic and that too by a huge margin. How could a thing like that go un-noticed.

"Did he suffer any kind of injury before this?"

"No sir."     

"So what you are trying to tell me is that your friend ." He read the name from the report again "Salil suddenly fainted while coming back from your exam some one hour ago."

"Yes sir."

"strange, that's because he is anemic and that too I must say very anemic. How could such a thing go un noticed. I think we will have to keep him under observation overnight. Please complete the formalities we should be able to discharge him tomorrow. Don't worry he will be fine in a couple of days. I hope you don't have an exam tomorrow. "

"No sir , exams got over today." Shrey said managing a smile and got up to leave.

"Well what did he say?" Rahul asked as Shrey came out of the doctor's cabin.

"He said , he is anemic and that too by a huge margin. Rahul , listen should I tell him what happened last night?"

"Would he or anyone else believe us if we did? They will refer us to psychiatry straight away. "

"Yeah. Now come , we have to get him admitted he says."

"He's right. How much was his hemoglobin by the way"

Shrey opened the report on the way to the reception , " 9.5 it says" he said.

"Listen Shrey, Rahul said silently didn't you feel that when he came to the mess in the morning he looked oddly pale?"

"Yeah even I felt so but I thought it was just because he was too shaken due to the night's incident."

"Yes that flying thing what on earth could it be?" And he looked at Shrey as realization dawned upon him. "Shrey are you thinking what I am thinking, could that thing be a Vam.."

Shrey silenced him in mid-sentence he did not need the word to be completed to understand the gravity of the situation. His eyes met Rahul's which were filled with an unknown terror. The coulour on his face had somehow faded away. They moved towards Salil at an abnormally fast pace. With trambling hands Shrey held Salil's head and turned it slightly towards right to have a better look at his neck.

"There , thank god it's nothing."

Rahul still looked anxious, "Check the other side."

Shrey turned the neck in the other direction fearing the worst but there were no puncture marks on the other side as well.

-Continued.

"Thank god" Rahul closed his eyes and released a sigh of relief. "For a moment I thought the worst thoughts of humans were for true. Lets let him sleep. " Rahul said as Shrey moved Salil's head in a more comfortable position.

Some five minutes later, Salil stirred and sat up as he gained full control over his senses. "What ?" he said , "Where am I ? What happened? Why is this saline drip attached to me?"

"Relax Salil you just fainted because of overworking yourself. Lie down and take some rest before we discharge you tomorrow. " Dr. Joshi replied as he walked towards Salil, seeing him awake.

Salil a bit perplexed on first finding himself in a hospital and then being told by a doctor that he will have to stay overnight in a hospital looked questioningly at Shrey.

"You passed out while returning to the hostel and we brought you here?" Shrey said.

"But why do they want to keep me overnight?" He looked troubled at the thought of it.

"Because" , Dr. Joshi spoke "Your hemoglobin level is a bit too low for a person of your health, so I just wanted some tests done and also you need rest. Shrey here informs me that your exams are over so you don't need to worry about anything else just relax." He ended off with a smile.

"But I want to go back" There was a hint of aggression in Salil's voice.

"Salil, calm down they will discharge you tomorrow otherwise also we have nothing to do so its better if you stay in proper care." Rahul said assuring him.

Salil looked reluctant and disinterested while he was being moved to the ward for overnight stay but due to the insistence of Dr. Joshi and his parents( whom shrey had called) he gave in.

***

"Look" Salil said angrily "I am not a terminal patient and none of you needs to stay with me."

"Don't be such a snob Sal otherwise we will have you tied up in a strait jacket." Rahul said. His and Shrey's moods had gotten much better since Salil had woken up. Salil however had worn a constant scowl on his face since being transferred to the ward and had given Rahul a dirty look on his comment.

"Shrey will stay overnight and don't worry you will be out tomorrow morning." Rahul said while leaving.

"Cheer up now Sal. Stop sulking we are finally graduates and tomorrow you will be out of here back to your home finally joining your family business." Shrey turned towards salil beaming.

"Just shut up and let me sleep" Salil said covering his face with the blanket.

***

Chulbul Pandey tilted his neck a bit towards right as he folded the sunglasses to place them on the backside of his shirt collar.

"Kya soche the aap" he said to Shrey menacingly "Bank mein daaka daalenge aur humko khabar tak nahi hogi hum to" Shrey moved backwards to avoid the light seber he was wielding. Doing this he lost his balance and fell off the cliff.

"What?" He said to himself as he woke up and realized that he was lying on the floor of the general ward of the hospital. He was covered in sweat as the fan did not cover his part of the floor. He saw the water bottle lying on the bedside table and got up to reach it. Only when he stood up did he notice that
Salil was not on his bed.

His first impulse was to shout for help but then he remembered that he was in a hospital and salil might have gone to the toilet. He went out and checked the toilets all the stalls were empty. "Maybe he has escaped." He thought but when. He went back to the ward and saw that Salils phone was still in the cabinet of the bedside table. "I must check outside." He thought as he ran out wards and down the ramp. There was no sign of Salil in the entrance chamber as well. He rushed outwards only to be stopped by the security staff. Whom he took no time in explaining the situation. The guards walkie talkie came to life as Shrey finished describing Salil.

" Someone found on the rooftop backup security staff should come immediately."

A gut feeling dragged him upstairs towards the hospital roof where some 5 odd security personnel and medical resident on emergency night duty had gathered.

Salil was lying on the rooftop , unconcoius breathing heavily and looking paler than ever in the torchlights.

 

 

Chapter 1: Punctures

Dr. Joshi looked at the blood test report once again, "nine point five" he said silently and looked at Shrey. "So Shrey are you sure that he showed no sign of weakness before this?"

"No sir" Shrey answered looking uncomfortable.

"I can't understand" Dr. Joshi rested his head on his hands, it had been a particularly busy day for him. Emergency duty had started to tire him now. Age has its effects he thought as he shifted his focus back to the strange case that had presented itself in front of him some one hour ago. Two boys from MU had rushed in carrying another unconscious one. As a standard procedure he had asked for a blood test and put the boy on a drip. Those were exam days so some of the stressed students did come to emergency, unconscious , sometimes due to not eating and sometime just because of undue tension. This one looked in perfect shape but a shade paler like he was anemic. But he had an athlete's body "he can't be anemic" Dr. Joshi had told himself. His fears were confirmed an hour later when he had read the report. That boy , Salil actually was anemic and that too by a huge margin. How could a thing like that go un-noticed.

"Did he suffer any kind of injury before this?"

"No sir."

"So what you are trying to tell me is that your friend ." He read the name from the report again "Salil suddenly fainted while coming back from your exam some one hour ago."

"Yes sir."

"strange, that's because he is anemic and that too I must say very anemic. How could such a thing go un noticed. I think we will have to keep him under observation overnight. Please complete the formalities we should be able to discharge him tomorrow. Don't worry he will be fine in a couple of days. I hope you don't have an exam tomorrow. "

"No sir , exams got over today." Shrey said managing a smile and got up to leave.

"Well what did he say?" Rahul asked as Shrey came out of the doctor's cabin.

"He said , he is anemic and that too by a huge margin. Rahul , listen should I tell him what happened last night?"

"Would he or anyone else believe us if we did? They will refer us to psychiatry straight away. "

"Yeah. Now come , we have to get him admitted he says."

"He's right. How much was his hemoglobin by the way"

Shrey opened the report on the way to the reception , " 9.5 it says" he said.

"Listen Shrey, Rahul said silently didn't you feel that when he came to the mess in the morning he looked oddly pale?"

"Yeah even I felt so but I thought it was just because he was too shaken due to the night's incident."

"Yes that flying thing what on earth could it be?" And he looked at Shrey as realization dawned upon him. "Shrey are you thinking what I am thinking, could that thing be a Vam.."

Shrey silenced him in mid-sentence he did not need the word to be completed to understand the gravity of the situation. His eyes met Rahul's which were filled with an unknown terror. The coulour on his face had somehow faded away. They moved towards Salil at an abnormally fast pace. With trambling hands Shrey held Salil's head and turned it slightly towards right to have a better look at his neck.

"There , thank god it's nothing."

Rahul still looked anxious, "Check the other side."

Shrey turned the neck in the other direction fearing the worst but there were no puncture marks on the other side as well.

Finally Rahul looked relieved .

-Continud.

 

5 ppm : Prologue

"Damn!" said Rahul as the revolving shape of the fan came to a halt in the dark room.

"Power cuts in in the middle of the night during final exams and in this scorching heat, what these people think we are, and how exactly are we expected to study or even sleep in these conditions." Shrey retorted.

"Calm down, khachchar always repeats the paper and we have done last year's paper" came Salil's voice.

"yeah right. " Shrey agreed.

"So guys," Rahul started "our final night of study at MU is over , tomorrow by this time we will be headed towards our respective cities being graduates."

"If we pass khachchar's paper." Came Raghu's voice who had stayed silent till now.

"Come on yaar we can , now please open the window if you don't want to die smelling Rahul's sweat." Shrey spoke.

"Yeah wait" Salil said as his shape got up to open the window.

"Better, it's a nice breeze outside." Salil said as he opened the windowand turned back to face the othrs. "and hey even the street lights are gone. It's a moonlit night. Raghu it your kind of night silent romantic , imagine you and priya."

"Shut up." Rahgu said.

"Hey what' s that" Rahul said looking over salil's shoulder.

"Where?" Salil turned back and stood dumb struck, a human looking shape was flying through the moonlit sky towards him. He was too shocked to close the window or even move and before he could estimate the potential danger of that thing, it had his throat in his hands and was pulling him out of the window. No Raghu lurched at him grabbing his torso as Shrey and Rahul also jumped shouting out loud for help to catch hold of him before he was pulled outside the window. The hold on Salil's throat was too strong but maybe the foot falls in the corridor made the shape recede. So when the dwellers of other rooms came in all they saw was three people grabbing an unconscious salil who was half hanging out of the window.

5-ppm-the preview

".. and actually how many of you are there?" Shrey asked.

"We have a concentration of five ppm among humans." Achyut replied carelessly.

"5ppm that means…"

"… A total of 5 among the total 1 million population of malgudi."

"So how do you manage to stay hidden?"

"Why would we need to stay hidden, we are not a secret society, nor do we meet on a regular basis. It is just that we were informed at some points in our lives that we have the capabilities to fight vampires, apart from that we are perfectly normal people." Achyut said, smiling.

"So how do you guys co-ordinate?" Shrey's curiosity was multiplying with each passing moment.

"Well we don't need to co-ordinate as such. Frankly speaking I have not just one actual vampire in the past 15 years of my knowing the other members of the group. Vampires do not come in hoards like they show in horror movies and they actually have been wiped out from the globe many times. "

"Then how do.." Shrey inturrepted.

"There are more than one ways to create a vampire, Shrey like there are to destroy one. I will explain but first I need to tell the others about this sighting."

****

"He does not own a cel phone, says it disturbs him in the thought process."

"I cant believe this", Said shrey looking at the door , one of the profs in our college has superhuman powers. I used to think he is a bit of a crack." Said shrey stopping in fornt of the door proclaiming "V D Chauhan. "

"I also think that some times." Said Achyut sticking his head inside ,"May we come in sir."

Prof. Chauhan was standing near the wash basin provided in the room, his back towards the door. The sudden voice of Achyut must have startled him because he suddenly spat in the washbasin and turned around.

"What? I thought the door was closed." He said his lips covered in white foam.

Shrey had a momentary Adrenalin rush from the thought that the prof was displaying some of his extra-ordinary powers but the tooth brush in latters hand and the open toothpaste tube on the washbasin mantle-piece changed that adrenalin rush into an uncontrollable urge to laugh.

****

"So we die now , there is no way we can fight all of them. Poor ipsita she will never know her mom." Chetna said almost close to tears.

"We will Chetana don't worry." There is still time until dusk. Until then they are just in animate bodies."

"Which can not be destroyed" Achyut added in a blank emotionless voice.

"Until they somehow in-jest this venom." Col. Chakradhar completed his sentence, his eyes were gleaming with a hope.

"But how" Achyut started but was silenced in mid-sentence by the colonel.

 

This was a preview of the vampire story I was thinking up and plan to publish this around the the middle of October. Should I continue? Please reply if you have been tagged. J

An anchor’s Wednesday

Like all good anchors I must first introduce myself. People call me Adam and I host the show Love's Labor Lost on Jhakkaass , a new tv channel. I would have loved to go into the details of the way I got this job but that would have to be the subject of another reality show, wont it and I don't want to spoil the TRPs of that show by leaking that story before it is actually even thought of by someone. Maybe the news channel, TV Hidustaan would like to do a sting operation on that. However before I start my story I would like to tell you guys about the modus operandi of our show, Loves Labor Lost. We basically earn our bread and butter out of cheaters or Cas(s)anovas, or putting it in plain words people who think that they are too good to have a single boyfriend or a girlfriend and want to well go out and explore the world in their own words. People who think that their partners are cheating upon them come to us and put their, could be cheating partners through a series of lust tests designed especially to provoke the reproductive hormones of the test subject. (of course we can't show that part on tv right.) But still if we come across a loser who is content with monogamy we always have the option to dump the entire idea of that episode right. And by the way I forgot our method also involves lots and lots of spy camera's and the strange technology that blurs out the interesting parts out of an interesting picture.

Now coming to my story , I think it would be better to tell this story from the point of my entire crew, who like me witnessed all that took place on our sets and on the outdoor locations during those six days of deceit , lies and trickery. I would first take you over to Stuti, Who handles the girls coming for a stress test on their relationships.

Hi people Stuti here, I don't know why Adam doesn't tell the story himself maybe because he wants all the facts, because I am really bad at writing, yeah I can speak English but writing is phew a crappy job for me. Still let me start. I was sitting in my cabin when I got the usual call on the intercom from the reception saying that a girl wanted to see me regarding loves labor lost. And as I got payed for entertaining such people I called her in at once. She was tall , I would say maybe 5 feet 8 inches tall, wheatish complexion around 20. "Hi am Disha,a second year commerce student at some college" she introduced herself. After which I told her my name and asked her the purpose of her arrival. She had a pretty ordinary story hardly interesting to me, a boyfriend of a year and a half , she actually loves him but has the tiniest amount of doubt on her that she wants removed so she came to our show. Frankly speaking every girl had told us that by then so I just said the usual lines and took the details of her boyfriend. Shivam, an year senior to her in the same college they had met last year and the usual stuff. But I could not be less interested in all that stuff, that also in the middle of dcember when all the colleges were giving their students a 3 week break (ok assume it please I didn't want any college scenes in this). I played my usual lines of our responsibility to help her out and took her to the camera to get some emotional lines to be shown time and again during the telecast.

Having done my part of the job I sent forwarded the details to the investigation department and told her to meet them after she was done with the shoot.

Back to you Adam.

- Continued

Well thanks Stuti. I now put in front of you the log of our investigation team. Note that this report refers to the investigation team as a whole.

Monday, December 13, 2009

11:55

Team Office.

The coordinator got message forwarded from the PR division about a new case and the interface division of the investigation team was asked to meet a girl called Disha, the briefing given by her is as follows.

She met this boy called Shivam at college a year and a half ago and got involved. She is serious about him but wants to confirm his actual loyalties before talking to her parents. The photograph of the boy is attached. He will supposedly be hanging around with his friends in GCH mall around 17:00 in the evening. A pen cam was given to Disha and her contact details were taken. A meeting of the field division of the investigating team was called.

13:30

Team Meeting room

The case of Disha and Raghav was discussed with the entire team and Somya, Ashutosh, ,Abhisaar, Pragya ,Shilpa and Niranjan were given the tracking duty in and around GCH mall. Each of the tracking sub team members were give the regular equipment of spy cameras and voice recorders. (See the standard investigation procedure appendix A.) Pallavi, was assigned the undercover duty under the name Ruchita.

17:30

GCH Mall

Based upon the photographs provided by Disha Raghav was traced on first in the food court where the entire tracking sub team took positions as to capture him from different angles. He was seated in a group of 5 boys and 3 girls all of whom seemed to know each other pretty well. They remained there until 17:50 and then started leaving.

Once in the Mall parking they split up and a girl other than Disha sat pillion on Raghav's bike. The number of the bike is KC-01-N-3824

%% KCN is the symbol for Potassium Cyanide.

18:20

V-Arcade, Manthra Devi Road.

Pragya and Shilpa followed the bike to V-Arcade where the suspect was found to be playing air-hockey with the unknown girl. They remained there for half an hour until proceeding towards Maharishi Mahishasur Marg. The girl again sitting pillion.

 

19:05

Mahish Park, Mahishasur Road

The suspect and the unidentified girl arrived and sat in the park for 20 minutes. Ashutosh recorded the conversation and it largly consists of love talk(Attached in the flash drive accompanying this document. The girl's name is Kriti.

19:55

Raghav and Kriti left Mahish park to proceed towards Reginald(first name of general Dyre) complex. To be followed by Somya and ashutosh on separate vehicles. He dropped Kriti near a high rise building and proceeded towards his home in Mir-Zafar Township. Kriti lives at flat number 579 fifth floor Dashkandhar apartments. A new sub team is requested to keep watch kriti.

End of proceedings for the day of December 13, 2009.

-Continued.

 

December 14 2009

07:00

Joggers park Mir-Zafar township

Raghav arrived at 07:05 wearing a blue track suit. Jogged for half an hour taking 3 rounds

09:00

Meeting room

Based upon the reports by tracking sub team their numbers were increased by two by adding Abhay and Sanjivini to track and gather information about kriti. And based upon the input from Disha a team was dispatched to Per-Oxide hair stylists where Raghav is supposed to be getting a haircut today at 14:00.

11:15

Dashkandhar apartments

Arrived at the place and got friendly with a group of boys playing in the compound. Turns out that most of them don't know much about Kriti. Except that she is doing some course in journalism from somewhere. They have seen her with Raghav at different places during the past 6 months means that the relation is at least 6 months old. Kriti came out of the building at around 13:20 and left for an undisclosed location followed her.

14:10

Per-Oxide, Mir-Zafar Township

Supposedly went in for a head massage Raghav was already there getting a haircut. Came out and waited for him. He came out at 15:00.A girl other than Kriti and Disha arrived at 15:05. They went into the local Ree-das store pictures of inside the store attached. Abhisaar followed inside.

14:25

Unhygenix Restaurant

Followed Kriti inside. She had lunch with a few girls seemed like a birthday party. Overheard some talk about Raghav. Stayed there until 15:40. Pictures attached.

15:10

Ree-Das, Mir-Zafar Township

Raghav and the unidentified girl shopped clothes for the girl, Raghav paid. Left at 15:50. Pictures attached. Somuya and Ashutosh to follow them.

15:40

Dashkandhar Apartments

Kriti arrives back.

16:00

Mir-Zafar Township

The unidentified girl shares the township with Ragahav though living in a different pocket. Tried to collect information about her but without success. Ashutosh to follow her.

18:00

Mir Zafar Township

Raghav leaves on his bike

18:30

Koffee by Kkkiran, City Center Mall

Raghav Meets disha for a Coffee. They walk around together for a while. Pictures attached. They leave at 19:50 towards different directions.

20:10

GCH Mall

The unidentified girl comes in a car. Raghav parks his bike in the parking they leave together girl driving. Pictures blurry.

 

20:30

Govt high school, Jaichand city, parking

The girl parks the car in a secluded location. Pictures of the car attached.

21:00

The car leaves the parking lot back towards GCH mall.

21:25

Back at GCH mall they have dinner at the food court. Niranjan follows them the girl's name is Vishakha seems to know him since long. Left at 22:10 towards their homes. Next meeting scheduled at 00:00 on 15^th dec.

15^th December 2009

00:00

Meeting room

Teams reorganized. Two members each to follow Kriti and Vishakha. 4 for Raghav. Pallavi to make undercover entry on Dec 15,2010 at joggers park. 07:00. Case level declared as broadcast-worthy. Copies of all reports sent to the scriptwriter and anchor. All reports now to be copied to the scriptwriter and anchor.

This was how I got involved in this story. All I had to do now was to wait for a meeting with our scriptwriter Sujoy and Pallavi about the developments in the case.

Pallavi didn't take much time to report. At 9 o clock next day she was ready with her report and we were again summoned to the investigation team meeting room where Pallavi was ready with her first person account of the events of that morning.

I now give you her first person account of the events .

"We reached jogger's park at quarter to 7 and waited for Raghav to arrive. He came at around 7 and started jogging, wearing the blue track suit again , I went in 10 minutes later and started walking when he came close to me I deliberately lsot my balance by placing my foot wrong and knowingly moved my hand close to his face while streaching my arms to maintain my balance showing off my perfume in the process. Instead of giving me the expected glare of nearly hitting him he just said , "nice perfume." He started trying to flirt without me even taking the lead. Starting the converstion is the biggest problem and he solved it for me. The converstrion from there-on is in this video I would now play"

With that she pulled opened the laptop lying in front of her , fiddled with the touchpad for a moment and a video started on the screen. I could see her with Raghav . Raghav was tall, about 6 feet with an athletic body. Had a round face with dark brown eyes. There was nothing extra ordinary about his looks. As told by Pallavi he was wearing that dark blue track suit. And I saw pallavi faking slipping, nearly hitting him and he complimenting her for the perfume.

"Thanks it's toro estiércol (%%spanish for bull shit)" Pallavi said.

"Smells nice, Hey it's the first time I have seen you here, came jogging for the first time?" He has a sharp observation I must say, or might have flirted and got slapped from all the girls I told myself.

"No, Actually am not from around here, my friend lives in pocket C, I just came for a sleepover at her place."Pallavi replied.

"Hmmm, and I was wondering how could you maintain such a perfect shape without jogging daily. Am Raghav by the way Raghav Thapar."and he held out a hand

"Ruchita Shah." Pallavi said shaking it.

"Am a third year student of the 5 year integrated law course at Maharishi Shukracharaya College. You?"

"I work for a call center, day shift."

"There are around 30 of them in this area ,which one. "He threw a clever one

"Well actually I just left a job with Connexions and am currently job-hunting" Pallavi replied ,thank god our agents had common sense.

"oh-kay, So where do you live?" Another question, seemed like he was interviewing her.

"Actually am not from around here am from Gujarat , Ahmedabad. Actually came here for studies and then dropped out last year."

" I see" . He said looking at his watch, "I must hurry now, can I have your number?"

"Yeah its <beep>" . Oh they had already edited the clip already.

"Ok then nice meeting you. " Raghav held out his hand again, pallavi shook it and he went away. The video stopped.

"20 minutes later" the real pallavi said. "I received a text message from him saying , Sorry bt had a fnctn at home so had 2 rush."

He was probably right as the entire day he did not emerge from his home until 7 pm when he went to Mahish park for a while to meet Kriti. And as per pallavi she received a good night message from him that day to which she replied.

As for the reports on Kriti and Vishakha am again giving the direct copy of the printed report received by me.

December 15, 2009

11:00

Mir Zafar Township

Reached near residence of Vishakha. She is a first year engineering student at some college. Does not come out much. Neighbors say that she is a reserved type of girl and prefers books to people. No one has ever heard about or seen Raghav. No other information as such. She left the place at around 17:00 with her family. Went to the local spendsters super-market. Came back at 19:20.

14:00

Dashakndhar Apparments

Kriti left the palce at 14:00. Headed towards Manthra devi road.

14:20

Manthra devi road.

Kriti went inside a house.

16:50

Kriti came out with another girl seen among her friends yesterday. Headed towards Mahish Park.

17:20

Mahish Park

Meets Raghav. Video attached. Stays there for about an hour.

19:00

Dashkandhar appartments.

Kriti back home.

No activity reported from any of the subjects after 19:30.

End of proceedings for day 3.

When I woke up on the fourth day, I had some 30 unread messages from Pallavi in my inbox. And as per the norms of our show am putting them here, raw and uncut.

Pallavi : Hi team the suspect smsed me starting at around 23:30. Am forwarding the messages to all of you starting this message.

Raghav : Hi Ruchi. Awake???hw wz d day??

P: yup it wz gud… u tell…

R:parents had a prty so wz bz. So how do u find ds city az compared to ahemdabad?

P:its gud.

R : u buzy?

P: no

R: I askd bcz of shrt replies. You hv u found frndz here?

P: nt much? U mst be having many?

R: jst a few…u single?

P: yeah , u?

R: me 2.

P: hmm broke up? or brahmachaari

R: LOL broke up 4 months ago L nvr found one of my types since then.. You ???

P: brahmchari :P

R: hmmm .. :D by the wy u wht u dng 2moro evng xcpt job hunting?

P: nothing as such… y??

R : cud v meet?

P: hmmm maybe….

R: cme on ..

P: k… when whr.

R: KWK ?? 6:30 ??

P: kz…

R: so 2moro at 6:30 dn?

P : dn….

Needless to say we had another meeting at 9 in the morning whose agenda included filling Koffee with Kkkiran with our agents upto the brim and rigging the location so badly that even if the suspect sneezed we would have captured it from 5 different angles.

Meanwhile our tracking sub teams continued to feed us information on the movement of the people being followed , viz. Raghav, Kriti and Vishakha.

December 16,2009

07:00

Joggers park Mir Zafar township

Raghav came at around 07:05 jogged three full rounds. Sat and seemed to wait for someone for about 10 minutes.Then went back.

10:00

Dashkandhar building.

Kriti left for city center mall.

10:05

Raghav leaves for city center mall.

10:35

Raghav meets Kriti at city center mall they buy movie ticets. Ashutosh to follow.

10:45

Movie starts. Pictures attached.

13:00

They have lunch at the food court.

13:40

Left back for their respective places.

Hi people Pallavi here , during the period of the movie I received some 10 text messages from the suspect all of which were of flirty nature. Putting those down here would affect the continuity and flow of this story so let's move on. To Kofee with Kkkiran which had been rigged properly and our agents were all over the place. But before I start with my story about what all happened at that place there is another message from the tracking team that I would like you to read.

17:55

Dashakndhar building

Kriti's parents leave towards city center mall, Kriti not with them.

But before you start speculating about a drama at the coffee shop, let me tell you that there was none. Though as I was informed later Kriti's parents did actually come and sit in the coffee shop for quiet some time but there was no drama. And they didn't even have the slightest amount of doubt that their daughter's cheating boyfriend was sitting just two tables away from them.

-continued.

Raghav's punctuality amazed me. He was there at 6:30 pm sharp.

"looking gorgeous." He said while sitting down. "So how's everything going job hunt and all"

"Its kindof… going on" I had to reply.

"So what would Ruchi like for out of this menu. Wait lemme suggest chocolate flavored cold coffee with brownie and vanilla ice cream."

He had some-how managed to pronounce my favorite combination in his first attempt. And from his manners I must say that he was charming but still there was something about him that made we feel unusually comfortable with him.

"So you said you broke up." I brought up the topic while sipping coffee as he somehow had managed to avoid it all along.

"Yeah, she was getting too possessive and thought that I was too indifferent so we had to break up."

"Bad, what was hr name?"

"Kriti , maybe she will find someone. So you havnt ever been in any relationship?"

"Me, never found someone good enough."

"Maybe you can find him right here."

"What ?"

"Well I think that I like you."

"Pardon"

"I said I like you"

"but we have met for the first time."

"So you don't believe in love at first sight , so maybe we should meet again" came the quick reply.

"look you are really nice but I need some time to think"

"Would two minutes be sufficient. You can cook Maggie in that much time."

"Maggie?"

"yup don't you like it?"

"you are confusing me. I will call you in some time."

"I gave you 2 minutes."

"Raghav."

"Ruchita"

"ok I promise that I will tell you by tomorrow morning"

"pakka"

"yeah pakka"

After that he dropped me to Shakuni-city , the supposed place where my apartment was located.

And as per the plan I messaged him saying "yes" at around 9. We agreed to meet for dinner the coming day at Le Herod(one of the costliest in greater malgudi) .

Hi its Adam again.

These were the events that normally led to a finale with the cheating partner being unmasked and a bit of drama for the television.

This was the point where I normally take over the show , showed the clippings to people and finally lead them to their cheating partner. Also we stopped following the subjects at this point. So the job of the investigation team was done and they were handed other cases.

I meanwhile contacted the girls , gave them some hints and asked them to come to our office.

It was decided that after the dinner pallavi would invite him to her "flat" which would actually be the place where we shall be waiting for them.

-continued with 2 more parts to go

Disha sounded tense when I called her and asked her to come to our makeshift studio the coming day. Kriti and Vishakha however suspected it to be a prank call and agreed to come only after some me convincing them that I was not some friend of Raghav teasing them on his behalf. As planned pallavi left for the supposed dinner at 7 in the evening and Disha arrived at around quarter past 7.

"hi, am Disha" she said as she entered the room.

"Hi disha am adam, I hope you know me. "

"Yeah , I have seen you many times on tv, consoling people after their partners cheat on but am sure you wont have to console me."

poor girl, we do get one of these once in a while. How could have I told her that she was about to get the shock of her life in an the coming one hour.

"So, Disha. Are you comfortable?"

"Yes . So what did you find out, he came out clean didn't he."

"well do you actually want to see the footage we have shot over the past few days?"

"what are you trying to tell me?" her voice started to lose the confidence that was dripping from it less than a minute ago.

"Am just asking you that do you want to see what we have found out?"

She stared at me in reply and after a silence of some thirty seconds squeaked,"yes".

But before I could have started playing the videos, my phone rang and the watchman told me that a girl named Vishakha had arrived. I asked him to send her in and turned towards Disha,

"Disha, before we start I want you to meet someone." I said as the door opened and Vishakha moved in.

"Disha this is vishakha and vi…" I stopped in mid sentence, Disha and Vishakha were looking at each other with an expression of absolute loathing. Both of them looked like cats ready to pounce upon each other.

"You, I should have know" Disha started, "Adam she is trying to steal Raghav from for the past 8 months." She said turning towards me.And before I could even think of what to say Vishakha shot back

"STEAL, you are past, girl ,history. And how dare you conduct a loyalty test on my boyfriend." The pitch of her voice had suddenly exceeded bearable intervals.

"Girls cool down. Please. Relax." I pleaded upon which both of them looked at me l like I was a piece of vermin and continued to stare at each other.

The silence was broken by my phone. It was the watchman again. Kriti had arrived. Disha and Vishakha's eyes shifted from me towards the door.

"Disha, Vishakha I want you to introduce to Kriti." I said as both of them showed no sign of recognition, Vishakha's face however looked relaxed.

"And who's she ?" Disha shot at me in a voice that would put Raghu ("roadies fame") to shame.

I tried to explain the situation to her upon which kriti looked at me and said

"What do you mean they are Raghav's girlfriends. We are togather since school" I could already hear her voice breaking.

"Oh now we are into pre-historic times." vishkaha shot and Kriti sobbed silently.

"Vishakha, would you let me speak. " I said looking angrily at her this angry tone had always worked. All three of them fell silent instantly.

"Now please let me show you some videos before you accuse each other."

"what videos , Raghav???" Kriti squeaked.

"Yes am afraid so. Kriti, Disha came to us last week for a loyalty test on Raghav and this is what we got to know. "

The videos started playing and simultaneously kriti started sobbing. Disha and Vishakha were sometimes looking at the videos and at other times staring at each other. Kriti looked deeply hurt. As Pallavi came into the picture I said my much practiced line, " She is our undercover agent Pallavi , posing as Ruchita." Kriti looked at me , I thought I saw a momentary gleam of triumph in her eyes but the next moment they were again filled with tears.

"Those are my parents" she said as the scene moved to the coffee shop. "He was there with them" she sounded completely shattered.

"Wait until I lay my hands on that piece of shit. Hey Disha, want to be friends again? Just for teaching a lesson to that a*****" Vishakha looked at disha, who simply nodded.

"Where is he right now , is he with that Pallavi girl?" she said looking at me.

"They are coming here, to her supposed flat."

"Coming here from where?" kriti somehow managed to speak

"They had dinner at Le Herod and as per the message from pallavi they should be here in around 5 minutes."

"Le- Herod!!!" kriti exlclaimed as her expression changed from tearful to shocked to furious. "Now even I cant wait until I get my hands on him" Disha and vishakha meanwhile looked a bit worried. This was unusual as kriti had seemed the silent types to me. I had witnessed such dramas many times but its always fun to see more than one hurt lovers attacking a cheating lover so instead of trying to calm either of them down I waited silently.

Soon enough a click of the door latch announced the entry of Raghav and Pallavi. The four of us moved from our hiding place towards the drwing room.

As I entered I saw Pallavi sitting on the sofa , half sitting next to her was Raghav who had frozen in mid movement upon seeing me followed by his three girlfriends.

"Err hi girls" he waved looking at them. Vishakha and Disha remained silent as kriti flew at him yelling ,

"You b*****d , a*****e, you took her to Le-Herod you fatso. Dont you have any sense of shame. You Bhukke, you glutton. "

Bhukke, Fatso, glutton , these are not the words that girls use for cheating boyfriends. Something wasn't right over here.

-To conclude.

Raghav threw his hands over his face , pleading at the same time , "Kriti wait I will pay for that. Calm down, do you want this to become broadcastable?"

" oh god , I forgot that. Sorry guys" Kriti said and withdrew, Smiling.

They were talking as if they were the anchors and not I. Confused I turned back to look at Disha and Vishakha. They were still standing in the doorway to the drawing room, giggling uncontrollably.

"Adam" Kriti's voice startled me "aren't you going to ask the usual question, the one asked by people who have just got a big surprise on the show."

"What's going on over here?" I had to say.

"There he said it. Now who's going to explain everything to him "Came a remark from Disha who by now had sat down opposite to Pallavi.

"Let them make themselves comfortable first. And by the way Raghav the girl you know as Ruchita is actually named Pallavi."Kriti's tone had changed totally.

"Raghav Bhatt, Pleased to meet you." He held out a hand towards Pallavi who by now was looking as though she had been caught cheating on her boyfriend.

" What' s happening around her ?" I repeated.

"Aw Adam do sit down first and I will explain."Kriti said to me and I obeyed.

As soon as I sat down she seated herself next to Ragahav counting the people.

"12 people in total including the crew, Vish plz be a sweetheart and order 4 large pizzas ,do throw in garlic bread sticks for everyone." She said while turning towards me.

"Now Adam, Pallavi where shall I start" she said to herself then focusing her eyes back she continued. " Well as both of you have found out in your research that I am a journalism student. And as you might not be aware we have to do a kind of a small project as a part of our degree course. People usually write up reports on social issues, some shoot documentaries some more daring ones even try to do sting operations but all of this is old."

"History." Vishakha interrupted in that put-raghu-to-shame voice and broke into a fresh round of laughter.

"order Pizza now Vish laugh later". Kriti continued " So as i was saying all that stuff has been used by people many times and I wanted to do something new so Raghav here suggested that I …"

"Do the sting operation of a sting operation" Raghav said with a satisfied smirk.

"so we decided that we will shoot videos of people who think that they are doing a sting operation. And we sent Disha to you."

"So Raghav is actually your boyfriend?" Pallavi asked.

"Pallavi dear, didn't you notice anything about raghav?" Kriti replied that very moment.

"notice?"

"Yeah notice, didn't you notice that he never actually did try even to touch you?"

"Yes but"

"So couldn't you understand that he is not interested in you OR" she said that or with an unsusual stress "OR any other girl."

"So that means that he is interested in…" Pallavi tried say but before she could complete the sentence Disha , who was silent for quiet some time now completed it for her

"… yes you are right the only person he fancies in this room is Adam."

I felt like someone had kicked me hard in between my legs. For the past 1 week we had been speculating that a Gay had 3 girlfriends.

"Oh by the way that going into the car parking was my idea. I thought you guys ought to believe what you are seeing." Vishakha now done calling for pizzas jumped into the conversation.

I looked towards Raghav who was eyeing me with deepest affection.

"And yes that weren't my parents in the coffee shop yesterday, it was me with dad. I was continuously feeding Raghav flirty dialogues on the phone. Just try to remember Pallavi he had Bluetooth headset in his ear." Kriti smiled at Pallavi.

"So you people think that you fooled us." Pallavi said in a threating voice.

"Actually Pallo dear we did fool you" said Disha. "And please don't try to follow us or blackmail us or anything please. Because one of the reasons I volunteered to come to you was that I didn't want you doing a profile check on me. Because that way you would have found out that my father is an income tax commissioner and you would have noticed that he along with a vigilance friend of his are right now sitting downstairs in a car watching all this and your bosses won't want raids on their premises because of you would they? ", she said smiling pulling a spy camera from the belt of her handbag.

Pallavi's face went chalky white and it actually seemed like someone had slapped her hard across her face.

"so what now?" I managed to ask.

"Nothing" kriti replied getting up along with the others and walking towards the door "You won't stop this nonsense even if we asked you because you people are just parts of a senseless system that is concerned more about TRPs than program quality. We can't blame you either you have been brought up like many to worship fame rather than work. You prefer sensationalism to truth and facts. But we again can't blame you because it's true that people prefer news about a wife beater's latest antics to foodgrains rotting in warehouses and prices going through the ceilings. We need to change ourselves before we can lecture you about something so just continue with your work, like we will continue with ours and do call up raghav if you are interested." All of them had crossed the threshold to move out of the open door as she had said this. "And yes I almost forgot pay for the pizzas when they arrive they should be here in 10 minutes time." She said and closed the door

-Concluded

Back and forth: story 4 of love for losers

Some of the events bear resemblance to some actual events and the characters though fictional may carry a few traits of actual people I have known.

Hence begins

Before I start telling you the story I think we need some background over here. As all of the people reading this might know that there these days engineering students are like televisions in India, you will find at least one in every household. Two major contributing factors to this surplus of (those who are expected to be) technocrats in our beloved nation are , the boom in IT industry, and the fact that investment in an engineering college is far more profitable than investing in the stock market. A major supporting example in the favor of the second point is the fact that almost all medium sized business firms have an engineering college by their name. I won't be citing any examples though.

Our story mainly involves two of these engineering colleges. One of these is famous for being the oldest engineering college in the region that is ICE Angrezabaad, counted among the top ten engineering colleges of the country. And the other is (in)famous for campus brawls having the name MCT Malgudi college of technology. One was established by the British to train engineers for making the (in) famous guns of the 1857 rebellion. And the other was established by a desperate vice chancellor of Malgudi University in the hope of getting more funds from the government. Both these colleges lie at a distance of about 250 kilometers from each other joined by a series of potholes that at some places is disrupted by a strange geographical disturbance called a road.

This is the story of Shubhankar(meaning mascot) who did his graduation from MCT and is about to complete his PG from ICE and has his graduation friends scattered over at different places in India and the US. This amount of background was necessary and should suffice. And as it is Shubhankar's story so it would now be best to hand over the control to him.

See ya.

****

"Wait", I said to Saawan "let me look at myself before we leave."

"Why? Do you want to see the change that has come over you in the past 2 years."

"No I just want to check that will my folks be able to recognize me after what all has happened in the past two days."

"Two weeks , you havn't shaved since two weeks."

"That's only a part of the look. " I said looking at myself in the mirror.

I had expected something strange to look back at me and was not disappointed.

Oddly cut short hair, facial hair not cut since the past two weeks 70's style sunglasses and a black kurta that reminded me of Circuit from Munnabhai. The reflection in there hardly looked like me.

"Sab tera hi to kiya hua hai" Saawan said.

He was right I had come back from home 2 weeks ago for the final round of presentations. Just to discover that I had the first one and had forgotten my shaving kit at home. So on the morning of my presentation I had decided to go to Azhar miyan our hostel barber for a haircut and shave. I had come out about an hour later with my head resembling a freshly shaven coconut. Since then I hadn't dared to go for a haircut or a shave. My head still resembled the top of a coconut. As for the sunglasses I had contracted an eye infection 2 days ago and the doctor had advised me to wear sunglasses. I had requested Saawan to bring them for me and he had bought the cheapest pair which I strongly suspected to be from 70's. As for the kurta I was to be blamed for it. I had spilled milk on my only clean shirt in the morning so Saawan had lent me his only clean garment this kurta.

I forgot to introduce Saawan, my soon to be erstwhile room-mate. By strange co-incidence he also was from malgudi but from a different college. I don't know why did I respect him so much. But there was something unusual about him something sort of a positive energy that radiated from him.

"Come on now Narcissus or we will miss another bus."

We were standing at the door.

"Close it" he started,"No wait let me remove this" He strode forward and removed the wallpaper that I had used to cover the scribbling on our walls by our various friends about an year ago.

"Remember this" he turned towards me, beaming.

How could have I forgotten that night. It was in march the previous year.

-Continued.

It was the middle of March the previous year. Spring. That day was our Hostel Annual Day and guests were allowed to gorge on special (and as an exception good) food prepared in our mess and girls were allowed in the hostel for a while. However not knowing any girls we had invited our friends from another branch. Chandu ( G. Chandrasekhar ) was my guest and Apurav came as Saawan's guest. It all started when we were watching boys dressed as scantily clad girls in a so called fashion show. It was then that Apurav turned to me and said. "Let's go to your room."

"This thing looks interesting to me."

"But look at it so many people are going to their rooms." Chandu cut in.

"They have girls with them. I hope you are oriented well" I replied.

"Yes, am not like you" he said, "it was just that we wanted to see your room."

"Atithi devo bhava" Guest is an incarnation of God. This was what our culture said. We were honor bound to lead them to our rooms. Well not exactly honor bound as they had managed to get the keys out of Saawan's pocket and were rushing towards our room.

We ran after them. By the time we reached there they had opened the lock and were unlatching the door.

Hey Shubh , Chandu said , " We just learnt about a ritual at ICE."

"It involves making the room of you Hostel annual day host un-inhabitable." Apurav added.

"So we start with a modern art form made out of tooth-paste hair-oil and shaving cream." Chandu concluded.

It was my turn now, "Guys even we have been educated in the ICE way of life the said things are safely hidden at a secure location…"

"…outside this room So that you can't find them." Saawan completed the sentence with one of his characteristic bright smiles.

But somehow their smiles did not fade out. Instead Apurav coolly turned to Chandu and said , "Ok bring out the lists." As he said this he pulled out two small things out of his pocket. They looked a bit like colored sticks covered in paper but actually they were…

"…. Wax crayons" Saawan had a moment of enlightenment.

"Right Sarkaar." Chandu called saawan's famous name while pulling out a paper ou of his pocket.

"Ok so here is a list of all your girlfriends, which will be used to decorate your walls in a few moments.

"What??? What is this list where" I was shocked

"Social networking my boy. Just go to anyone's friends list and search female over there. And you shall be all knowing."

"but wait I have cousins there."

"Don't worry we will speak out the names aloud before writing them. So shall we start ." Apurav turned to Chandu.

"okey dokey."

I and Saawan just stood there as Apurav and Chandu wrote using wax crayons upon our walls a notice having the words .

To whomsoever it may concern.

This is to inform the public in general that Shubh and Sarkaar apart from being madly in love with each other are also gaga about the girls listed as follows.

This was followed by the list of the entire female population except our cousins in our friends list on a social networking website.

"Now that's what I call a masterpiece." Chandu said while looking at his "art" in awe.

I would have been satisfied if it had ended here. A voice had come from the neighboring room bringing fresh problems.

"No wait, these things belong to the Masters people in the next room."

It was Nikunj one of our B.Tech neighbors in whose room we had hidden our things. I ran out to prevent any damage with the destroyers of our room close upon my heels. I however had to stop dead in my tracks at the entrance of Nikunj's room. His girlfriend was standing there and in front of her written in red paint (hidden in her purse) upon the almirah was the message ' Chikku loves Nikku'. Chikku must be her name I thought. Our undoers got their hands upon our stuff and within mere minutes before dinner our room had lost any qualities of being inhabitable that it had ever possessed.

"We must do something about this" I had said to Saawan the next morning.

"Yes how about wallpapers?", he had suggested.

And those were the very same wallpapers that he had torn down just now. I looked once again at those names as he came out and latched the door remembering the last times I had talked to most of them.

30 minutes later we had got into a bus and got ourselves seats. We had got a seat with a capacity of 3 with a rather old looking fellow sitting next to the window , me sitting next to him and Saawan sitting toward the aisle. We had nearly six and a half hours of journey to go with nothing but remembering our past two years to remember. It had been five minutes since we had sat in the bus that my phone beeped.

It was a message from Shipra , one of best friends from MCT.

"Reunion scheduled coming Friday, hope you can make it J."

My mind slipped back to my third day of my second week at MCT when I had first met Shipra and many others, in front of our mechanical workshop.

-continued.

No, the last scene of that encounter was in front of the workshop, it started some 15 minutes before that. A new friend of mine , Aman , later to be known as "The Mask" had offered to pick me up on his way to college.

His heavily oiled side partitioned hair, round glasses and even rounder face together with his formal clothes gave an impression of a mild, introvert personality. The finest example of how looks can be deceptive. Highly deceptive.

"Drive slowly, will you." I shouted over the loud chanting of "Na baans ki bansi , na sone ka sariya…" coming from the speaker.

"No problemo, your holiness" he said and slammed on the breaks. The gray maruti 800 came to a standstill in the middle of the road. The roads were leading to MU were largly empty owing to the fact that it was sstill 7 : 30 in the morning. But a car standing still in the middle of the road is something that still makes you uncomfortable. He then started to move at a such a speed that a morning walker going home after his daily ritual over took us.

Irritated, I had to say "ok drive as you please. But what about the traffic police."

"traffic police ki <beep>." He answered unconcerned stepping upon the accelerator.

"And there is a rule about traffic violators in the campus" I again tried to push my luck, as we had entered the MU campus by then.

"VC ki <beep>"

As he cut a sharp turn we saw a hand waving to stop us. Four of the hosteller girls from our class were standing holding their bags and one of them a particularly ferocious one called Anusha was holding out her hand.

"Aman Singhal" she said as we looked at her "Don't you have the manners to offer your classmates a lift if you can."

Aman looked back at her but didn't seem happy. He then turned to unlock the rear door to allow the girls in. After all for of them were seated. He checked the lock of the rear door on his side and gestured me to check the one on mine. In the one week that I had known him I had never seen him silent like this. Maybe it was the calm before a storm. As soon as he had finished checking the doors his hand moved towards the ignition and the engine roared. Aman's foot pressed upon the accelerator as if a mob of murderous zombies was after us. I saw the speedometer needle at 80 as we zoomed past the the turn leading to the workshop. The girls shrieked with fear.

He made it stop some 200 meters from the turn and put reverse. Full speed backwards. The girls cried out loud again and even I felt a strange fear growing inside me. Once near the workshop he sped forward towards it and crossed it again leading us towards a roundabout in the middle of the university. He made three full revolutions about the thing at a dangerously high speed (the sound was enough to attract the attention of MU stray dogs who started barking and chasing the car. Suddenly he again sped towards the workshop and was headed towards a pillar of the workshop parking. The girls cries now seemed like background music as I silently prayed to God. And just a few meters from the pillar the car stopped. The girls and even I was too shaken to say even a single word. When they found their voice back it was the shortest of the lot who spoke first her words were , "lets bunk the workshop today"

"What after nearly getting killed on the way to attend it you want me to skip it no way. " I retorted.

"oh come on there is so much to do" she said.

"That can be done after classes." was my reply (ok ok sick one)

"What problem do you have with a bunk?"

"What problem do you have with proper classes ?" I shot back.

She made a face and went away, actually all the girls made a face at me and went away. Some thirty minutes later as I was trying to hammer some nails into a piece of wood she called out ,"watch out the way that hammer is placed it can drop on your foot ." As I moved my foot back as an impulsive reaction the hammer did actually fall down.

"Look I told you na we should bunk it" She was smiling then.

That was the first time I talked to Shipra. We soon exchanged numbers and it was she who had recommended me for teaching Isha.

I came back to the present shaking my head vigorously. No I must try to not think about Isha , I told myself.

Saawan looked at me , "Whats wrong ? were you having a bad dream" he asked.

" I wasn't sleeping"

Then what do people do while closing their eyes for 45 minutes. I looked around, we had reached Lakahangarh a five minute stop for the bus. The old man sitting on the window seat had took his luggage moved down. So I shifted towards the window and hoped that no one would come so that the two of us could get a rather relaxing environment. But even a place to sit on that route is a luxury let alone a two people getting to sit in a place meant for three. Soon enough a female voice directed towards Saawan asked ,

"Bhaiya yahan koi biatha hai?" Both of us turned towards the source of that sound. And looking at me was the face that had been moving in and out of my dreams for the past four years. I couldn't believe my eyes and didn't know whether to curse my luck or to praise it.

"Is anyone seated here?" Isha asked again.

My forced disguise had worked; even my ex-girlfriend had not recognized me.

-continued

 

Nothing but the truth (story III of love for losers)

How should I start over here? By telling my name? That does not look good enough to me. Still its Pranav for future reference. Most movies start by a train stopping by on a platform or a car entering a house mine starts in the middle of a conversation. It was the middle of September; you could call it 15^th September for convenience. The weather was unstable and common cold was common among the people of Malgudi. It was then that Anuj, one of my friends joined the ranks of "The love of Life" a religious organisation by swami Anandanand. Its motto was simple yet appealing to the younger generation "Make love, not war." (Most of the devotees were actually interested in the first half of the motto.)

As was his habit to drag me into anything he tried(smoking included) he was those days trying to persuade me to offer myself to Swami ji. My story begins on one such day when Anuj had called me over to his place and trying to force the fact down my head that swami ji would change the world order.

"He believes that all humans are equal. We don't believe in any form of cast discrimination."

"I told you Anuj am not interested in all this stuff, I plan to give my time to such things after my retirement which can only happen if I can get a job."

"Swami ji is also good at astrology, maybe he can tell you about you and Chhavi."

There, Anuj had used his trump card a weapon that was bound to work. Chhavi, my semi-girlfriend. She was my girlfriend according to me and I was her best friend according to her. She was allergic to the words "boyfriend", love ,relation etc. And somehow for the past 3 months I had become desperate that she at-least once confessed her feelings towards me. (It might sound nonsense but it was true.) Still I had to argue that a swami can't tell me how to get a confession out of a girl.

"Actually he can get a confession out of anyone. He had told me a few days ago that he could make a truth potion for anyone after seeing his/ her kundli."

I was desperate by then so my reply instead of being " I told you I don't believe in such stuff." was "Now where can I get her kundli."

"Simple just get her place and time of birth rest we can manage from some astrologer."

"I remember it by heart 10^th June 1988 12:55 PM govt hospital Malgudi"

"In that case I would call up our family astrologer right now. He will have the kundli ready by evening."

Family astrologer , God!! What had I got myself into?

I had to believe one thing anuj had really good relations with his family astrologer as 3 hours later I was standing in the amin market parking holding Chhavi' s Kundli in my hands. It had cost me even more than a dinner date with Chhavi after which she in no way would have denied me being her boyfriend would have cost. But an old hindi saying echoed in my head at that time "when you have put your head in a grinder why be afraid of getting hurt." (jab okhli mein sir de hi diya to moosal se kya darna).

Anuj however was elated about me having visited the greatest astrologer on earth according to him, Pandit H.Qhanna.

Pandit ji was a quiet story in himself, his actual name was Rajesh Khanna ( quiet a good name according to his era of birth) but after some calculations he had modified the surname to spell like Qhannaa and prefixed a H for Hema after his mother in law's name who had inspired him for astrology. I learnt all this from pandit ji himself as his assistant was printing the kundli. I had a strong urge to ask him why did common sense have to take a back seat in all such stuff but common sense itself stopped me from asking it.

All the way to swami ji's ashram anuj kept telling me how this was going to be the best decision of my life and at that time he sounded more of a vacuum cleaner salesman to me rather than a friend. He was so excited on having converted me that he almost hit a car in front of the ashram.

-continued

Swami Anandanad was looking at me. Looking would not be a proper word here as the affection in his eyes matched that of a mad scientist looking at a guinea pig.

"You want her to tell the truth to you." He said in a voice soft enough to put Michael Jackson to shame.

"Ji swami ji" anuj replied even before I could open my mouth.

"Truth is a beautiful thing, the essence of all things good, it is the most important ingredient in the recipe called life, like suger in this barfi. " and with a wave of his hand he pulled out two pieces of barfi out of nowhere "have some prasad o seekers of truth. While I read what the stars say about your friend." He added picking up the kundli.

Anuj was looking at him completely awestruck and I must admit I too was amazed he had nothing in his hand just a moment ago. This man did actually know how to impress people as "swami ji ki jai ho" were the first words spoken by anuj when he found his voice back.

"Chamchanand" swami ji said to one of his er … henchmen " I am going into Samadhi tell them the aahutis needed to perform this yagya" turning to us he added "you will get the phal tomorrow at this time only"

It turned out the aahutis were but a fashionable name for swami ji's charges which again were enough to take Chhavi to another dinner date preceded by a movie.

Soon enough we were again present at swami ji's ashram sitting in front of his divine grace swami Anandanad "love is what you seek my children" he was barely 30 and he was calling twenty year olds children. That statement of his brought some questions into my mind about his certain activities but discussing them may cause certain censorship problems so I leave them to your imagination.

As I was saying swam ji was again trying to impress us with his talks "love is what you seek my children, divine love that is integral to this world like sugar to these laddoos" he again held out laddoos for us however I could not help noticing that the laddoos were nicely put in paper cups with "Malgudi Sweets" written in big green letters on them .

"To get what you seek you will need help from God. As chamchanad tells me that you arranged for all the ahuti's of the yagya I have hence procured this for you from God" saying this he again waved his hand and held out a tablet that looked like the ayurvedic medicine for acidity.

"Put it in any liquid and it will form the elixier of truth for her. For 1 complete prahar (3 hours )after drinking it she will speak nothing but the truth. But be warned, do not use this if she is not in the best of health for it may cause strange things in the world around." With these dialogues he dropped the tablet in my hand and that was the first time when it happened. My head suddenly burst with pain and everything went blank. I tried to open my eyes but it felt like they were made of lead. With this I heard a distant voice "we can only wait."

The sensation went away as soon as it had come and as I opened my eyes I was again sitting in swami ji's ashram.

-continued

I wasn't able to understand what swami ji had ment by his warning. Though the thought of making Chhavi eat stuff given by such a fraud was scaring me. But the desire to hear the fact that she loved me was out-weighing my fear. My only worry now was to make her drink it. The only question was how.

God seemed to be listening to me as soon as a reached home and hid Chhavi's kundli at a safe place my phone beeped, it was Chaavi "want 2 meet for a burger and a shake?" the message said.

Soon enough I was sitting opposite her at "Macbeth's" that was the thing I loved about this girl she stayed in a great shape and still was not fussy about what she ate. Strangely that day the place looked oddly empty.

"So" she said while we were waiting for our order number to flash (yes I know Mc Donald's serves you right away but it's Macbeth's), "how's my new hairdo?"

"Hairdo" I thought and looked at her and mentally banged my head on the wall .Her hair were visibly shorter and even had a slight tinge of bronze towards the end, how could have I failed to notice it. She always used to compliment me for noticing things and how could I make such a blunder on such an important day but she would be speaking the truth to me in a few minutes and even I felt like telling the truth to her at that time so I told it "You look gorgeous like always."

"oh!! Makkhan lagaya jar aha hai kya baat hai." She looked so cute with this smile. I hated myself for thinking of making her drink something given by a fraud and my hand proceeded towards my pocket to throw the thing on floor to get rid of it. Just then a couple walked in, they were holding hands and I knew the boy he lived near my house, a total loser. He was behaving like a hero with the girl doting over him. This sight reduced my guilt.

"Hey, why are you staring at those love birds get a girlfriend of your own if you want to show off in public" Chhavi brought me back to the place. And I thought to give it a try once more , " Chhavi how can I love anyone else when I have you and I have told this to you many times" I didn't notice but my tone had become serious.

"Pranav" she smiled "why do we have to give our friendship a bad name just to look cool aren't we good friends."

That was her fixed reply and I was trying to trying to find an answer to that for the past five months and needless to say this was the fourth time in the past five months.

"Leave it , you didn't tell me about my hair do just went off into me being gorgeous" she chirped again and her with her voice sounded the Mac-bell the indication that our order was ready.

"I'll get it" I stood up as I said these words and rushed towards the counter. While going I managed to get that thing out of the wrapping paper in my pocket. I had intentionally ordered a strawberry shake for myself so I had an excuse of lifting that plastic lid to check what was inside actually slipping the pill into the shake while stopping my hands from shaking.

She started eating the burger first while telling me how her parents had opposed the colour. When half her burger was done she picked up the glass and took a sip from the straw. Then it happened again , a sharp pain shot through my head and everything went dark. I couldn't feel my hands with which I could hold my head and then I heard a distant voice like a television announcer or a news anchor I tell from the style. "Swami Anandanad is on the run after sexual harassment charges."

The next moment I was again sitting at Macbeth's opposite Chhavi sipping her chocolate shake

-Continued

At that precise moment, Chhavi sneezed and swami ji's words echoed in my ears, "She should be in the best of health when she drinks the elixir of truth. "

"What's it Chhavi you just sneezed real hard"

"its just the cold Pranav am feeling it for the past 2 hours or so but you don't expect me to stop drinking shakes just because of a cold." She was right I couldn't expect her to give up on chocolate shakes just because of a cold. But what now she had ingested that thing while she was not perfectly fit. I couldn't even stop her now and if anything went wrong I would be the one to blame. I somehow managed to finish my food as she did hers as she kept her glass aside she said to me, "I feel like a walk. Coming?"

This way I could keep an eye on her and if everything went well this was my chance.

We came out and she led the way to a park nearby. I noticed that her expression was getting serious with time. As we entered the park her lips had become so small that I had to ask, "Chhavi, why are you getting so serious what's wrong?"

She burst out crying. "I feel bad dad told me to stay away from hair-colour still I did it." That wasn't a reason to start crying she was crying over nothing like anuj did this holi when he had taken …

OH GOD

I got it that swami must have given bhang in that tablet that's why she was crying how stupid could I be and I made her drink it damn I felt like kicking myself.

"No its not that Pranav", she said still chocking on tears " am guilty about hiding the truth from you."

"I do like you very much but I am afraid that I might lose you after that kind of relationship. I was afraid that I don't deserve you , and if you find someone worth you my heart will be broken."

This was not right , She didn't think like this this was wrong . I tried to comfort her but she won't listen to me and she came really close to me when she whispered "I love you. Pranav" The medicine had worked and maybe it wasn't bhang after all.

***

"Tu apni izzat bachchane ke sirf 700 de sakta hai? Are apni nahi is chhori ki izzat ka to khyaal kar."

"Sir mere paas 700 hi hain"

"jeb mein paise hote nahi aashiki karne nikal padte hain. Chal la saat sau hi de"

For those who didn't guess what these meant let me explain while I and Chhavi were kissing in that seemingly deserted park,a constable who was on beat duty at that place had spotted us ,the rest is self-explanatory.

Chhavi's crying had stopped after that she said 'she felt much better after telling the truth' swami ji had said the effect will linger on for three hours so I stayed with her till three hours were over and then dropped her home.

While going towards my home I was calculating the total cost of this "I love you" but it actually was priceless for me and even another 10 policemen like that couldn't have made it costly. It was then I too started to feel the cold and started sneezing.

My mother has a habit of asking "how did the day go?" as soon as she opens the door.

That day as soon as she asked, I blurted out , "great! swami ji's medicine worked"

"what swami ji? which medicine? "normally I would have given some strange reply and got out of it but somehow I felt like telling nothing but the truth.

-continued

Dad was looking at me, his hands folded in front of his lips. It seemed like he was looking for appropriate words but couldn't find any. "So" he started "You are seeing advocate Mehta's daughter for the past year and a half and you had problems that she didn't call you her boyfriend so you went this sex swami to get a medicine that would make her speak the truth, that thing somehow worked and now you are officially her boyfriend. But the thing is you lied to us for the past so many months (my mother glared at me) then how the **** (hell) did you come and speak the truth today. Did you take any of that drug yourself?"

"No dad, that's what I can't understand, why am I speaking all truths like this?" I again blurted out.

"Well I can't go talk to Mehta until you find a job but be careful with what you are doing."

I couldn't believe what he said, he actually agreed on Chhavi.

Then it happened again, I felt that my head had been split open with pain and there were strange voices all around and a coughing fit began I heard my mom say, "Anuj call the doctor" but Anuj was not there. When i came back to my senses I found myself again standing in the drawing room. I said what happened and mom replied, "Nothing".

****

Chhavi called just as I was about to sleep, to tell me that she had told everything to her parents and she said that she didn't know why she was telling truths to everyone suddenly.

I spoke again, "It's all my fault, I can tell you only when we meet. "

We met the following evening I told her everything. I saw tears drawing up in her eyes as I spoke but couldn't dare to comfort her. When I had finished she stood up and moved her hand backwards in a threating way, i closed my eyes, I had well-earned that slap. But it didn't come when I opened them I saw her standing her face in her hands. "Actually it's my fault" she said, "if I had told you the truth by myself you wouldn't need to resort to such measures. But then, "she suddenly realised "why did you tell me the truth and why in the morning while dad was leaving for work did he tell mom that he would be coming late in the evening as he planned to have drinks. Normally he says he has to go to a party. But it's understood and today he said it directly. "

Now this was news to me how did his dad start speaking such truths all of a sudden? My thought process was punctuated by her sneezing again and I had a moment of enlightenment like the Buddha would have had.

"Chhavi did your father catch cold from you."

"What?"

"I mean did it seem like he had cold in the morning"

"Well yes he took a medicine just before leaving. How do you know?"

"Maybe swami ji was right" I said looking towards the setting sun.

-continued

Now I was getting the full meaning of swami ji's words , "It may cause strange things in the world around". But why did he give me such a dangerous thing. There was something strange about this whole business including the strange black outs I was experiencing. Things didn't seem right. It now felt like a long drawn dream, I told Chhavi to go home and take rest and tell everything to her dad while I dandecided to find Swami Anandanad with Anuj's help. He was the world or at-least malgudi's last hope. Because if my assumption was correct then everyone catching cold from Chhavi would soon be telling truths only. Blurting out his/her deepest secrets to everyone and even worse telling things that could destroy people's lives. The consequences of that small round brownish pill were much worse than simply "strange".

As I moved towards my home avoiding to speak to anyone another fear started rising in me. What if the disease actually was contagious? Then it would spread like a chain reaction all over the world. I feared for the world after what I had done. My fear was confimed as I reachd home. Mom sat there in a bad mood. Her prompt reply on me asking about her mood was that she had had a fight with our neighbour Mrs Khanna (not Qhanna) over gutter issues. (She actually had admitted having unintentionally blocked the Khanna's drain last week.)

Chhavi called some time later and she had big news.

"Prakhar there are two problems."

"Two more. What happened now?"

"Well dad lost his the case today as he admitted forging the evidence and now he's thinking to shut down the business an advocate who cant lie cant run a practice." Good I had set my father in law out of business as soon as I had started seeing her daughter.

"and second if this thing is actually contagious then India is headed for big trouble."

"Why? what happened ?"

"I watched the news after coming home , the executive of the ruling party is going to hold a national level meeting in malgudi next week. And you know.."

I got her meaning even before she even completed the sentence. Truthful lawyers were only dangerous for their clients but if truthful politicians started exposing themselves the entire political structure of the country would be doomed.

And as the thought of this thing spreading to other countries crossed my mind a shiver ran down my spine. I could almost hear USA nuking Pakistan.

I had to do something and I had to do it fast. I needed to find that swami and anuj was the only way I could find him and get the truth about an antidote out.

I still needed one more truth among all this commotion, one more truth to save this world from the possible catastrophe caused due my impatience and immoralities of people that though were common but if spoken out loud could rip apart the social fabric.

"Yes , Pranav am busy yaar." Anuj answered the phone on my 8^th attempt.

"listen i want tom meet you, its urgent." I told him.

" Can't come am helping Asif Bhai shift."

Bhai , so after sex swami's his new friends were underworld dons. He was surely heading for politics. Still I asked ,"Asif bhai who?" i have never heard of him .

"He is our new tenant. He's doing a PhD in English from Malgudi University, just arrived yesterday."

"Better than an underworld don" I thought. But I didn't speak it out aloud so i still was able to think some things without speaking i could still have an opinion of my own without saying it out aloud. I however had more pressing matters than the symptoms of this strange ailment to attend to.

"Be ready in half an hour am coming and i don't want to hear any excuses. "

Exactly 30 minutes later i was standing in front of his house. A new nameplate proclaimed "Er. Anuj Verma ,System support Executive, DELL." The job title sounded fancy for a call centre job I thought as i rang the bell. He came out in another 2 minutes looking irritated.

"Pranav, I told you na i was busy why are you making such a fuss."

" I tried to explain the situation to him but all he was worried about was Asif bhai." It seemed to me he finally had found true love.

"...and we need swami Anandanand to cure that thing"

"What did you say about swami ji", his faced turned to a shade of red at the mention of the name. "All the alligations against him are false he will emerge triumphant." At this i didn't know whether to laugh or to punch him in the face. But he was not behaving like normal, true he always was attracted to god-men for he believed that they could change his luck overnight, but this was getting out of control he was acting like a puppet for this Asif bhai and that Swami. Then i remembered he wasn't the only one getting out of control at that time so i added a please to my statement.

"Anuj please we need to find swami Anandanad or this will problem may increase to the extent of becoming incurable.

"Wait let me go ask Asif bhai."

I actually wanted to break his nose at that. He came back five minutes later saying , " he says he does not need my help and we may leave."

In the two days that followed we checked all the possible places where Anandand could be hiding, but all n vain. I couldn't blame myself for that. As even the entire state's police had not been able to trace him. The illness by now had spread to many people as the outbreaks of household quarrels was on the rise. On the third day the newspaper carried a news item about 7 police officers of different ranks being suspended for publically admitting their love for accepting bribes. It was getting worse and we had only 2 more days before some of the political big shots of India came to malgudi for party planning as per them and to ruin the party as per me.

Getting frustrated with our wild goose chase , Anuj decided to take me to Pandit Qhanna again he wanted to know whether i would succeed in my mission or not.

Pandit ji blew his nose loud as we entered his chamber.

"Anuj ,my boy" He greeted. "I don't know what has happend today, am having this bad cold and you are the first customers since morning" .He said customers instead of some heavy words that he used for his clients maybe Anuj was going to learn some truths about one of his god-men.

He posed the question about me succeeding in my mission and prompt came the reply, "how do you think i would know, do you think am god. Oh no what did i just say. "

"But pandit ji you could read his hand and tell." Anuj pleaded.

"Oh and just what do i read on his hand? Crisscross patterns of which i can't understand a thing. WHAT AM I SAYING NO!!!!!"

"Are you ok Pandit ji , maybe you could read his kundli and tell"

"i would do that if only i knew how to read it. DAMN!!!"

"aren't you a jyotishacharya."

"I dropped out of school when i was 12. Havn't touched studies since then. F***!!!!" and he banged his head on the wall.

"But your Sanskrit vishaarad degree on the wall behind you." Anuj asked in a breaking voice.

"Bought it for 2000 bucks in '98. GODDD " anuj was still curious but Pandit ji had run away from his office pushing him aside.

As we came out of his office and were descending the stairs we saw a Mercedes zoom past us and as we headed towards my home we saw pandit ji stopped by a traffic constable telling him that he had had only 2 pegs since morning and was in a perfect position to drive. Though he had never bothered to take a driving test or a licence.

-continued

Am working on this one right now there. And possibly will finish it by tonight J

"You see anuj whats going to happen if we don't find anandanad soon." I said switching to the news channel on the just to check if anything else had gone wrong.

Well it had gone wrong. The words breaking news flashed on the tv screen with the picture of our local MP. Who was the party spokesperson and the ex-home minister for the state. He had just quoted the exact amount received by him to allow safe passage to Mark Williamson the chairman of Union Gadbadaite limited from India after a major industrial mishap 10 years ago. This was followed by the tally of his earnings form the mid-day meal of school children during his tenure as the home minister and... the list tended to be so long that i changed the channel.

Just then anuj coughed.

"Oh so you have got it too now. Go take rest otherwise you will blurt out some great secrete to me like the hiding place of Anandand." I said sarcastically.

"How did you know that i know where swami ji is! oh no!!!" and he tried to run but i was quicker than him. I grabbed him by the legs and he fell forwards on the floor.

"So you have been misleading me for the past 2 and a half days , you knew where he was and is and you have been lying to me." I said gripped him so that he couldn't escape "ok now speak up where is he you can't lie you know."

"I won't" So you could resist telling the truth if you wanted to but you can't lie i made a note.

"Where is Swami Ananadanad," i said tickling him. He laughed uncontrollably while I just sat there repeating the question.

In a matter of few seconds he cracked

"Swami ji is at my place"

"What he has been hiding at your place how?"

"He is dressed as asif. You can't do this to him. All the alligations aginst him are false. " I again felt like hitting him hard but we didn't have time for that. I called up Chhavi to bring her dad and threw anuj's phone out of th window as he tried to call and warn Anandanad. I tied his hands with dad's help and proceeded to his place where Chhavi and her father would be waiting. Did the people at his place know that they were unknowingly harbouring a wanted criminal?

Once there we quickly ran up the stairs to the tenant's room. As neither of us (except Anuj) was in a mood to show any manners so we didn't bother to knock or call out before breaking in and grabbing Anandanand. Who by our sheer luck had been sleeping. It took only a moment for us to bind him. But I must say the makeup was really good the beard and hair were styled in a fashion that no one could say that h was a Hindu swami in exile.

"Ok Ananadanand", dad said "how do we get rid of this problem that we are having because of you."

"Am not Anandanad my name is Asif Ansari and I will go to the minorities commission if you behave like this with me.

"They know swami ji" Anuj said.

"Oh shut up you ... " Anandanad replied "I have told you my name is Asif and am not some hindu swami. Now leave or you will pay heavily."

I then did the most disgusting thing I have done in my entire life. I blew my nose into a handkerchief and put it on the face of Ananadanad." After some five minutes he too had caught cold.

Thus began the confessions of the great sage swami Anandanad which if I would need an entire novel to finish off. So skipping the juicy details we come to the problem that we were facing.

"I don't know anything about that I just read it in a book that I stole from an old temple library."

"And where is that book now" Dad asked.

"It's in my ashram but I cant get over there its sealed."

"Don't worry I can" Chhavi's dad said and made a phone call one of his known DSPs in the crime branch.

DSP Shukla was more than happy to exchange an old book for Anandanad whon uncle promised him in 24 hours.

Within an hour we had the book and the great swami ji was translating the antidote.

"It involves taking a round of the infected area…"

The pain in my head started again more severe than before I couldn't hear a word he was saying. Breathing became difficult I tried to move my hands but it felt like they were not there. Nor did my legs respond I tried to cry out for help but no sound came out. Then again the pain subsided slowly and I was able to see.

But did I see anything. I could feel and see my body I was all alone over there. No one else was there. I looked downwards and there was no floor on which I was standing . I was just there. Then I saw him.

He looked just like me or did he. His face also reminded me of dad no Anuj no Chhavi I couldn't tell but he looked familiar. Not vaguely familiar but hugely familiar. And as he looked at me he smiled.

-to conclude

Will finish this off tonight J

And with that smile on his lips he moved towards me. I couldn't say that I wasn't scared but somehow I didn't move and just waited for him. As he came within earshot I heard him say ,"hi. Sorry for interrupting this way but possibly continuing would have made it more absurd." His voice seemed to come from within me and it was as-if he spoke into my mind directly.

"who are you ?" was the only reply I could think of.

"So rude?, you are not this rude to even the text messages from wrong numbers." He paused because you have a feeling somewhere that Chhavi has changed her number and is teasing you.

"What? , How do you know this . " I asked

"I know this because I am you."

"What?"

"Well even I don't know much about how we got separated all I know is that am that voice inside you that speaks argues for you to do the right thing whenever you have a choice between right and easy."

"So you are trying to tell me that you are God."

"Me God, no way. I told you am the voice that votes for right whenever you have to choose between right and easy. Well I was feeling a bit ignored inside and I got a chance of having some fun with you and tell you some things about choices in life so I took it."

"What do you mean you had a chance and you took it?"

"You need to answer me first" He smiled more irritatingly and posed another question , " Do you think that a fake swami such as Anandanand can possibly make or give something that would cause this much damage?"

"Well no, But he did"

"He may have given you some weak sedative under the influence of which Chhavi would have said some nonsense to you but not possibly the truth. That also if you had met him."

"That was exactly what I thought when anuj first told me about it."

"And which was possibly a far logical explanation to it than Anandanad leading the world to the verge of destruction."

"Wait you said if I had met Anandanad didn't I meet him and didn't he cause all this trouble"

"No"

"what ???"

"Didn't Anuj take me to Pt. Qhanna"

"He did and I protested a lot for that."

"Then how didn't I meet that swami"

"because there is one small detail that you are forgetting but before I tell that you answer some more questions of mine so that I know that you are ready for it"

"ok" I said

"Anandanad is such a famous godman didn't it feel strange to you when he attended to you in person?"

"Do you remember doing anything between these happenings since you got to his ashram?"

"Is there a park near Macbeth's?"

"You told your parents about your affair and they didn't mention even once that you had done something wrong?"

"You think you are so good that Chhavi would keep on talking to you even after you spike her drinks with stuff from some quack?"

"Where did Anandanad's Michal Jackson voice go?"

"Anuj might believe in such nonsense but even he has sense enough to not to harbour a wanted criminal right?"

All his questions made sense to me and there seemed to be only one possible answer, "Am I dreaming?"

"Kind of."

"What?"

"Well actually while anuj was taking you to Anandanad he was so excited that .."

"..he almost hit a car" I said.

"Not almost. He did hit a car. And you fell backwards . your head hit the road and …"

"I fell unconscious"

"only physically, then those blackouts were …"

"… the times when you were regaining you consciousness. The first blackout was when the doctor was telling your parents that they could only wait for you to regain your senses. When you woke a bit for the second time your father was watching the news and by sheer chance there was a news item about …"

"…Anandanad absconding" I said

"good. Third time you just got a coughing fit and your mother asked anuj to call the doctor."

"Oh thank god it was all a dream" I smiled for the first time.

"Hey wait a minute didn't you learn anything out of this?"

"Yes I did, I learnt that people have a choice of keeping secretes and if it is not given to them the world could be a much worse place."

"And about Chhavi"

"Yes , she is free to consider me whatever she wants to I can' t and rather shouldn't force anything upon her. It's her life and I can't and shouldn't make choices for her if she does not want me to. I love her that does not mean that I should force her to reciprocate my feelings because that would make my love for her bound by conditions and that won't be love would it?"

"Wow , even I couldn't have put it better" he smiled again and the pain started again. But this time I was ready for it. My eyes felt heavy and I could only open them slowly . As I opened them I could see a blur of three figures sitting.

My parents and Chhavi.

"Mom" I called.

"Oh look beta he has awoken" Mom said and all of them took turns to hug me.

The bandages on my head were removed a week later and Chhavi called me to Macbeths for a treat from her side while we were eating she said to me "I was really scared when you were in the hospital and it was then that I realized what was your worth for me. I know you have asked me 3 times earlier, could you ask me once more please I want to say yes this time."

Oh and I forgot about that Kundli well anuj had kept it safe with him and told me that Anandanad's doing had made him reconsider his faith in all god-men. He told me that h was only waiting for me to get well before destroying that as he wanted my permission for it and I hugged him.

So that's it this finishes the third story of love for losers