by Sharon Maas
And reason two, the office door was open and the office was empty and there stood the computer and it was on, shining brightly with bubbles flying all across the bright blue screen. And that computer was calling me. Because in the computer was Janiki.
I rushed to the computer and touched the keyboard and lo and behold, the bubbles went away and everything was open for me to use, Internet Explorer calling me. The man had been writing something but I knew enough about computers by now to click that away and look for the little e that would open up the World Wide Web. I knew how to do all of this because Janiki had taught me on my own computer and this was the same. And I opened up my Yahoo account and there were several messages from Janiki begging me to reply and asking how I was and if Paruthy Uncle was treating me well. And after reading those messages I replied to Janiki and this is what I wrote:
Dear Janiki
Paruthy Uncle is a very bad man. First he sold my computer and then he sent me away to Madras to work for some bad people and I have been working as a maid for a long time and they beat me. But the police came and took them away and now I am alone in the house so I am using the computer. Janiki I can go but I don’t know where to go. You are so far away! Please tell me where to go and what to do love I am waiting at the computer.
Asha
The house was so silent and so open. All the doors open! I was afraid – what if they came back! But then I thought, no, they are not coming back. The police took them. They will not come back. Because of course I could not go, I had to wait for a mail from Janiki.
I looked at the clock. It was almost five. I was used to thinking about Janiki and wondering what time it was where she was, so I knew it was still the previous day in California. Janiki came home every evening at about six and then she would be on her own computer and read her mails. And some evenings at eight, Janiki’s time, 6:30 a.m. my time, we would both go into a chat room and chat away, and then I would go to school if it was a school day. And today when she came home she would read my message and reply and tell me where to go, and maybe even we could chat. So I could not go yet. I had to wait for Janiki’s instructions. I had to wait an hour and a half in this cursed house.
But first I decided to eat some food as I was getting hungry. The kitchen was full of food. They had a fridge and it was full of nice things to eat. So I had some bread and butter and jam, but I toasted the bread first just like I had seen the lady do, and I made some eggs, and there were some iddlies from the day before, and some sambar, and I heated up the iddlies and the sambar and had that too, and some samosas that were a bit old, and then some cornflakes with milk, which was what the children always had for breakfast. And then I washed up.
For a moment I wondered where they were taking the children. The man and the lady were captured and I was sure they would go to prison, but would the children go there too? Then I said to myself, Asha, it is not your business. And anyway they were horrible children. I know it’s their parents’ fault they were horrible but karma does come to get horrible people, doesn’t it? Even children. So I didn’t worry about them.
And then I had an apple and some grapes, and made myself some tea. It was the biggest breakfast I had ever had in my life but I had to eat so much because I had not eaten properly since Amma and Appa died and all the hunger came at once so I had to fill up.
All that cooking and eating took over an hour so when I had finished I checked the computer again but there was still no reply. So I went to the bathroom and had a shower. It was the first shower I had ever had in this house, because every other day all I got was a bucket of cold water and a rag and I had to wash myself in the room at the back of the kitchen that the lady called a scullery which was where the dhobi came to wash the clothes. But now I had a proper shower and the water was warm and it was lovely in the coolness of the early morning. And the soap came out of a bottle and smelt so good! And I washed my hair with some sweet-smelling shampoo. And then I dried myself with a big fluffy towel from the cupboard, and rubbed some special white cream all over my body and that felt good too.
My old clothes lay on the floor. I couldn’t possibly put them back on now that I was so clean, so I wrapped the towel around me and went looking for some clean clothes. The lady’s dressing room was full of new clothes, saris she had not even worn yet, silk and nylon and all kinds of sparkly ones and with fancy embroidery. I did not want to wear anything fancy. So I chose a plain cotton one, green with a simple border. The big problem was that all the sari blouses were much too big for me. And in fact the saris too were much too wide, as I was still growing and not yet a woman. It was a dilemma!
But then I found a collection of salwar kameezes and I found at the very back some smaller ones from the time when the lady was thinner and one of them was just a bit too big for me but it was the smallest so I put it on. It was blue and yellow. The trousers were much too long but I was able to roll them up at the waist and at the ankles, then they fit better. I brushed my hair at the lady’s mirror. It was still wet but I brushed out the knots and plaited it so it was all neat.
When I had finished another hour had passed and I returned to the computer but there was still no message from Janiki. I was beginning to get nervous and jumpy. I did not want to spend too much time in this house because goodness knows what was going to happen now. It seems this man was a criminal. What if he had criminal friends who would come and find me here, before Janiki replied? People like that were called accomplices, and they were dangerous. What would they do to me, for stealing the lady’s clothes? I was quite nervous about that. Perhaps they would kill me! I prayed to Janiki: Janiki Janiki please go home soon and switch on your computer, please please please! And I prayed to Lord Ganesh who is the Remover of Obstacles and since he had removed the obstacle of my criminal captors, perhaps he would remove whatever obstacle was preventing Janiki from going home early.
But then I had an idea. You see I was a very hungry reader and I had read all the Enid Blyton books about children who caught criminals. The Famous Five and the Five Find-Outers and Dog and the Secret Seven and the Mystery books and the Adventure books. So I thought, here you are Asha in the home of a criminal, maybe you can find out some things about him and tell the police when you are free and safe?
You see, I needed to distract myself because I was growing jumpier by the minute. The waiting for Janiki to reply seemed to make every minute stretch into hours and I kept having all these thoughts about criminals and accomplices coming to the house and finding me. Every sound outside the house seemed magnified – a dog barking, a car horn. It was already light outside – morning had broken properly by now. I looked at the clock. Seven o’clock. The dhobi would come soon and then the lady with fruit and the milkman. For some reason I was scared of meeting them all because I would have to tell them what happened. I did not want to talk to anyone except whoever Janiki sent me to. She would tell me exactly what to do.
But in the meantime I had to do something, so I decided to calm my nerves by looking through his desk. That’s what a detective would do. They search for clues. It would turn the waiting into constructive activity. I took a deep breath so as to gain courage because yes I was scared and I just wanted to go but I couldn’t go just yet. So while I was waiting I searched the desk.
It was a big dark desk with a pile of files on it in one corner, some wire boxes with papers on it in another corner, the computer in the middle, and a writing pad on the top. A big diary. I decided to read the diary. You are not supposed to read people’s diaries but this was a criminal so it was just detective work. The diary was full of scribbles I could not read. He seemed to be a very busy man. Some scribbles were in Tamil and some in English. They meant nothing to me.
I opened the drawers and looked through them. And I realised I was a bad detective because I didn’t know what I was looking for, and the papers I found meant nothing to me. A lot of receipts and things like that. Pens and keys.
The bottom drawer was locked. But I tried t
he keys on the keychain and lo and behold, one of them fit. So I opened the bottom drawer and in it were two photo albums. I removed the first photo album and opened it and it was full of photos of girls. Girls my age and younger, all dressed up and wearing make-up and jewellery. In fact they were all dressed up to look like women. I thought that was so strange! And my own photo was in there, dressed in the red sari they had made me wear that day!
Pages and pages of such girls, each one with a name beneath it and the name of a town: Madras, Bombay, Delhi, Calcutta, Bangalore, Mysore etc. I wondered what he was doing with so many girl photos. It just seemed strange to me. I shut the album and put it back and picked up the second album. I opened it – and shut it immediately. Because it was also full of photos of girls but this time the girls were naked! Stark naked! Why would he keep an album full of naked girls! I couldn’t bear to even think of this but I felt so bad inside, so sick, that I closed the drawer with a bang and decided not to be a detective any more.
I went back to the computer and the screen jumped on and to my delight there was a new mail from Janiki. This is what she said:
Dearest Asha, you must go immediately to my friend Naadiya. She is a student at IITM. You remember her? You met her when I brought you to Madras that time – she is the one who gave you your computer! She is very nice and will help you. I will mail her now to explain and to expect you. This is her telephone number: 96758567. And this is her address, below, and this is her email address but you won’t need it if you go right away. Do not stay in that house a moment longer. You must take a rickshaw. Do you have money? If not search the house. I’m sure you’ll find s a few rupees in a drawer in the kitchen, just like Amma used to do it.
I saw that the time of sending was just five minutes ago so I quickly wrote another email:
Janiki I will go because I am so scared! I just found a photo album full of naked girls!!!!! Asha
Asha, that is horrible! It might be helpful to the police if we can find out more – but hurry! If you can use his computer perhaps you can find out his password. Is his email account open? See if there are any suspicious looking mails there and forward them to me – you know how to forward a mail, don’t you? Just click ‘forward’ and add my address. It would be great if you can find out his password!! For instance look under the keyboard, or the front page of a diary, or a notebook.
I looked in all these places but there was nothing resembling a password. Then I remembered a little black book in the top drawer, which I had opened but it meant nothing to me because it was just lists of words, several crossed out. Janiki had told me I should change my password every few months so maybe that was his old passwords? I looked at the book again. Yes, all the words were crossed out but the bottom one, so maybe that was the latest password. It was cushion569.
His mail account was indeed still open. I didn’t want to spend time reading his mails so I just forwarded a random one to Janiki, and then I wrote her a quick email with what I thought was the password, cushion569, and I was just getting up to go when I heard a crash and I ran out into the hallway and I saw that someone had put an axe through the door and a hand was grasping through the gash to open the door and then the door opened and four men barged in. All in uniform. Police.
But they weren’t police at all.
Chapter 22
Janiki. California, 2000
Email from Janiki to Naadiya:
Naadiya love, have you heard from Asha? I’m a bit worried as we were chatting on email and suddenly it stopped. She does have your address and phone number and should have arrived today – morning your time. I couldn’t sleep a wink all night, kept checking my email and as I haven’t heard from either of you I’m terribly worried. Did she come? It’s 6 a.m. over here, so must be late afternoon in Madras. Please tell me she’s safe and sound with you!
Janiki waited and waited for news: another mail from Asha, a mail from Naadiya confirming that Asha had safely contacted her. But: nothing. She paced her room in anxiety. Had something happened before Asha could escape? What a fool she had been, to waste Asha’s time looking for a stupid password! The important thing would have been for Asha to escape. What if they had come back and found her? What if her captor had somehow bribed the police and returned home? Everything was possible in India.
The last thing she had received from Asha was the password of her captor’s mail address. And an idea popped uninvited into her head. She wasn’t sure if it was a brilliant one or a terrible one or just a very stupid one, but it couldn’t hurt. So, to fill the time, Janiki logged in to the account. There were hundreds of mails waiting to be researched, but she hadn’t time for that now, nervous as she was and waiting for Naadiya’s reply. She didn’t care about the past mails; those she could read later. She only cared about the present, an answer to the question: where is Asha? It was while checking the recipients of the mails that she had her brilliant, or stupid, idea. The mails, it seemed, were sent to several recipients. Eleven in all. Many of the replies in the email exchange were a simple Great, or How many? Or Maybe K should go? Or, I agree with Kapoor.
The arrest had not yet been mentioned. That meant the other recipients possibly did not know that one of their group had been arrested. Once they knew, perhaps they would remove his address from the cc list. So Janiki did something very naughty. She replied to the last mail with an innocuous question, from Ramcharran’s mail address: Are you sure about that? And added her own work mail address, [email protected], to the list of cc recipients. They won’t notice, she told herself. They won’t even check. And if they don’t check, they won’t know who I am or who added me. But I will get all their future mails. It was a risk worth taking, and could do no harm. So she did that, and since time hung heavy on her hands, she began to scour Ramcharran’s old emails.
Email from Naadiya to Janiki:
Well I stayed home all morning expecting to hear from Asha but not a word. Do you have an address? If I knew where the house was I could go and take a look.
Email from Janiki to Naadiya:
No, I don’t have an address. I do have the mail account details of the asshole who was keeping her captive in Madras. I’ve been reading all his mails and you know what? He’s not just an asshole he’s a big time criminal. From what I gather from his mails he’s involved in a ring of young girl prostitutes. All stolen from their homes. He’s in charge of the Madras branch of the ring. I’ve no doubt that was the plan was for Asha too but seems he was arrested yesterday. I can’t imagine what happened after that. Asha and I emailed a few times back and forth but then silence. I’m desperate with worry. There was no clue in the emails as to where the house is so no help there. I’m thinking you should just go to the police and ask. Open a FIR case. They might know something. It’s terrible being so far away. If I don’t hear back from Asha today I’m going to have to come myself. I’m halfway through my internship contract but Asha is more important. Let me know if you hear anything and thank you SO MUCH for your help! Xxx
Email from Naadiya to Janiki:
Anything for you, my love! I remember Asha from when you brought her that time, such a sweet little girl! I can’t bear to think of what she must have gone through and I’m praying that she’s still safe. Anything more I can do, just say the word. If you do come you know I’m here for you.
Email from Janiki to Naadiya:
No word at all from Asha. It’s now 24 hours since I last heard from her and I just KNOW she’s in danger. I’m trying to contact her biological parents but I have no idea how to find them. Paruthy Uncle will never tell me. I can’t believe this is happening! Poor poor Asha. She’s the last person this should happen to, such a shy, sensitive girl! Not that it should happen to anyone but you know what I mean. I’m going to move heaven and earth to find her. But I need to find her parents. They have to know.
Janiki bent over her desk, her head in her hands, trapping her skull with her fingers, which was what she did when she needed to concentrate. Think, Janiki, thi
nk. How can you contact Kamal Uncle and Caroline Aunty? Caroline Aunty was in New York. She remembered Amma had sent a letter with her address and telephone number, but she, Janiki, hadn’t bothered to write at the time – who wrote letters these days anyway? And she and Caroline had never been terribly close so she hadn’t rung her, either. Had she written the address in her book? She checked. No. Damn it! Had she kept the letter from Amma? Probably not. Her apartment was so tiny, Janiki didn’t keep paperwork she didn’t need. She hadn’t thought she’d ever need to visit Caroline Aunty in New York or even write to her, so she had not bothered to keep it. Damn, damn, damn.
As for Kamal Uncle – Janiki had been fourteen when she last saw him on one of his sporadic and short visits. He had been friendly enough and obviously pleased that Asha and she were so close, but after all he was an adult, living in his important engineer world, foreign-educated besides, and Janiki had been in awe of him. She thought he had moved to Dubai – hadn’t Amma said he had a big-shot job there?
Think, Janiki, think.
All the information would be in the house.
Finally she shot off an email to her second eldest brother, Daav:
…you need to find a way to search all their papers. I know that Caroline Aunty and Kamal Uncle used to write Appa and Amma regularly. The letters must be there somewhere. I need their addresses, phone numbers, anything! Preferably email address and telephone numbers. See if you can find Appa’s old phone book, the numbers must be in there.
Email from Daav to Janiki: