Three of 5ppm

Eight and a half years ago

Place: Convocation Hall , Malgudi University

Date : December 15 , 2001

Time 1700

"Finally we are graduates. " Rhea said beaming at him and removing her ceremonial hat. "And you know what dad didn't even flinch when I told him about you."

"What?... " he only got a chance to start the sentence but she didn't let him.

"He said that he will pick us up after the convocation and there he is. DADDY!!!" She cried.

Before Achyut could understand another word or even gather his senses about what was going on Prof. Raman Singh, popularly known as "Ravan singh" among the mathematics students was standing in front of him holding out a hand.

"Sir, Achyut. " He had said meekly grabbing the hand and shaking it. Prof Singh did have a tight grip he observed.

Singh smiled , " I have loads to talk to you dear and no time can be better than this for it but this I fear is not the place. So would you and your parents like coming over for dinner tomorrow. No wait this is not the right way to invite people" he laughed " I will call them in the evening to invite them. And don't worry if they don't know about Rhea. My colleagues say am good on convincing people." He laughed again. He was right about that thing he did actually have a convincing aura about him. Achyut could have never imagined that meeting his girlfriend's father could be such an easy affair. Especially a father who was dreaded as a teacher. This was one of the first lessons that Achyut had learnt about not mixing up the personal and professional profiles of people.

Moreover professor singh was right about his convincing powers as when Achyut reached home that father had simply asked him not to wear "that horrible college sweat shirt. " and gave him an understanding smile which he could swear he had never seen upon his father's face.

Sleeping was an unusually hard affair that day as you need one of the pre-requisites of sleep is that your mind must be free of all exciting thoughts and his Rhea's father actually convincing his parents about her was a thought that under no circumstances could be termed as non-exciting. He could not remember the time when he actually dozed off thinking about the near future.

***

Avtar Singh had always felt a certain amount of pride on the fact that he had not missed a single prabhat pheri in the past 40 years. Yet at 55 he was no way among the eldest members of the group. Twice every year for 15 days apiece they roamed the streets of malgudi singing the praise of lord and the guru. "what a great way to start a day!" he had always thought.

Every year for fifteen days that followed Diwali and preceed the birth anniversary of guru Nanak Dev and for fifteen days that preceeded the birth anniversary of Guru Gobind singh had he and his fellows had started at 4 in the morning, sang around in joy and returned with dawn-break.

That day as so many others they were going around singing their path illuminated by street lights and the candles that few of them carried. Avtar noticed something strange in the park right opposite to the faculty hosing of MU.

"someone is lying there" He said and immediately a few of his fellows rushed to the spot. It was a girl around twenty. She was unconscious.

"Who is she?" someone asked

"I know her." said a voice from among the group.

***

He did not remember being woken up by his father or by anyone. All he could remember that when he had come his senses he was sitting beside his father in the on the way to Rhea's house and as he could remeber from what he had heard something was terribly wrong with Rhea. He turned his wrist only to find out that he was not wearing a watch. He did not ask anything trying to recollect what had happened and he remembered that some 10 minutes ago Rhea's father had called and said that she had been attacked. His father had then woken him up and given him the details. But what could have happened. He practically ran out of the car into the open door of her house. There was a man sitting on the sofa with her father. A rather peculiar man with a rather long pitch black beard matching beetle like eyes. As soon as Achyut entered the room he looked up and said, "Achyut, what a surprise! We would have needed you in any case there is a vampire at large."

 

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