He could see his bald head and scarred face but it did not produce any overwhelming reaction in him. He moved his hand over his scarred face and noticed that he had scars even on his neck and back. His face seemed to carry the marks of despair resembling the worst tragedy suffered by mankind.
“Who am I and what am I doing here?" the question kept crossing his mind which he kept mumbling. He continued staring at the water and finally he came to realize that he was he whom the world knew as Dr Raghav, the hotshot engineer from US who got stuck in the political web. He asked the water,
“What the hell is going on? Which forest is this?"
Slowly he could recall what happened to him. He remembered he was running for the door in some camp in a forest of Andhra Pradesh but that forest was very different. The vegetation was different and then Raghav recognized telltale signs of aging on his face. He asked himself
“What happened to me? What kind of place is this?”
He did not get answer immediately. He looked back at the towers of the dungeon and a chill ran through his body. He again asked the water
"Was I kept there as a prisoner along with those whom I saw lying in that building fitted with gadgets? How long I had been kept there?”
He tried to think deep about the people who were in the camp but could not figure out if he knew anyone. But it felt as if the earth had fallen from under him and he felt too exhausted to move. Raghav took a deep breath and tried to recall the entire series of events. Simultaneously he made efforts to move his body forward. He made little headway during the night but was able to cross a small hillock that obstructed a clear vision of the facility.
The next morning national and international journalists were supposed to come to the facility and so any effort to recapture the man who had escaped was not entertained. Sagarika was going to be one of the visitors.
Next morning still somewhat torpid after his long forced hibernation, Raghav lumbered through the woods and terrains of the jungles of Manipur. He halted for a while to open the food rations he had stolen from the facility. There was a newspaper clipping in the package and he was shocked that the date in the newspaper was of August 2025. He began thinking if it was actually possible that he had been lying in the facility for the last ten years.
But then his hunger took the better of him and he started opening the other food packets. Raghav ate all the stuff in one sitting as if he had not eaten for decades. He saw a small watch tower in the forest. He climbed up the watchtower from where the chimneys of the facility were visible. He wanted to keep this place in his memory in case he ever returned. He climbed down and followed the path that was used by elephants in the dense forest.
Raghav hoped he would soon find a small village en route. Suddenly a bear came charging towards him. The fear brought back images of his ambush and the adrenaline rush made him run for his life. He later wondered how he could run so fast in spite of his weakness. He relaxed only when he found the bear had retreated.
He hoped he would meet some locals from whom he could get few clothes and also know about the route to the city. He was slowly getting a grasp of the present and gradually his practical side awoke in him. Raghav wished he could find a tea shop where he could tea hot cup and smoke cigarettes to wipe out the cold damp feeling of the forest.
After about ten more kilometers on the same track he came across a small habitation and saw some clothes hanging. He quickly got into the dry clothes but the shivering still continued. Far off, he saw few people but chose not to contact them for fear of being caught in the security web. Very soon he came to the paved road and then across another settlement which was much bigger than the previous one. He saw people sitting smoking near a bonfire.
He badly wished for a puff of cigarette but again refrained from direct meeting thinking that those people might be army personnel or informers. He quietly moved to a concrete wall next to them and tried to overhear the conversation from a hidden location. He found out pretty quickly that these were migrant laborers from Bihar who were there on a government project. He could understand the language and they were mostly speaking of digging tunnels in some region; assured that they could not be military informers, Raghav came forward. He walked in calmly. Sitting beside them he asked for a bidi they were smoking.
3.6: Conversation with Dam Workers at Manipur
Business taught Raghav the art of negotiation. His PhD taught him how to speak intelligently about a topic whether or not he had any idea about it. To hide his shaven brows he found a monkey cap from the workers tent hanging outside. He then moved in with an air of supremacy which most government officials carry with them and asked for beedi. Initially the group did not respond out of inherent fear of talking to someone from authority.
They were actually taken aback by the strange and alienated appearance of the individual. They offered him beedi but did not talk to Raghav. They were skeptical about his presence. Raghav knew that the first round of interaction was ineffective. So he remained mum and smoked quietly. After waiting for another half an hour, the individuals broke the deadlock by asking,
“Kya Sahib kahaan se aaye hain.” (Where have you come from?) Raghav knew that the labourers were working on some construction job from studying the equipments kept in their camps. Raghav said “I am the surveyor guy doing monitoring this region. But I lost my way - my bag which also had the map.”
He was careful in introducing himself as someone from the Geological Survey of India. Who else would venture to go into such terrains? The workers also had no choice but to accept the explanation. They conferred amongst themselves and decided that at an opportune moment they would express their grievances to this person whom they thought was a man from the government of India. One of them said,
“Sahib, we are from a small village in the Barauni district of Bihar and have migrated here to work on the construction of a dam. You must have known about the dam little north of this place.”
Pointing to the group of Manipuris they said,
“These people are from a nearby village.”
Raghav knowing nothing about the terrain changed the topic and asked,
“Bhai, I have been walking a lot since the last two days. Do you have something to eat with you?"
The Manipuris in the camp were more than happy to share their food with the government official. One of them ran to his makeshift tent and brought his tiffin box containing momos. To Raghav the momos tasted like manna from heaven! The joy of just being alive overtook Raghav as he stretched his body and uncoiled his tension. The scenic beauty of the place overawed him.
After the lunch, it was time for the workers to start presenting their grievances before Raghav as he was the only government official they had met in years. Raghav asked,
“How is your life in the forest?”
One Bihari labour replied,
“Thanks to the contractor we can get 40-50 bucks every day. In the village our condition is desperate; hunger and suffering stalks us".
Raghav noticed a newspaper in a side bag kept nearby and asked for it. The owner of the paper, a Manipuri man happily handed over the paper.
“This is an old paper. I got it two days ago when I went to my village. But it is a Manipuri paper.”
Raghav nevertheless took the paper and was surprised by the fact that script of the paper was similar to the Bengali script which he could read. The date read 26th September 2025. It did not take him long to realize that he had been on induced coma for ten years. But even after ten years he was shocked to know that the same attitude still persisted towards the working classes. It was the same cause for which Raghav had fought in the social sector.
The worker continued, “Sahib the work is very dangerous and about 140 people have already lost their lives in the project, but the contractor is generous enough to send about 1,000 rupees to the families every month."
Raghav listened to the labourer in disbelief. He wondered that when India was supposed to be a developed co
untry by the year 2020 then what the state of development was? It appeared to him that situation had worsened. He was shocked to know that those workers were not even paid the minimum wages they used to get during his days at the micro finance institute. Raghav enquired,
“Do you have any grievances against the contractor for any ill treatment?"
One of them replied,
“It's better to be hit by whips than go to sleep hungry.”
It seemed governance is still a distinct reality in these remote regions of India and most people just follow nomadic lifestyle. He could still feel that Manipuris did not still consider themselves as part of India. Also, in spite of the ban against building of mega dams, the process was still continuing in this part of the country. It was evident from the discussions that the government had not given the benefits of these projects to the natives.
It suddenly struck him that people seemed to be more ignorant than they were ten years back as regards their basic human rights. The workers seemed quite malnourished. Raghav could not comprehend how their frail bodies lifted heavy rocks. Chatting with them he came to know that the government was discouraging use of bigger modern machines in the region; this resulted in so many deaths in this area. He concluded that policymakers had not yet learnt the basics of economics.
Conversing with them Raghav wanted to know the route to the nearest city. The laborers told him to take the path towards the dam. He would then reach a small town from where he could take a bus to Imphal. Raghav was now satisfied.
The next morning, after stealing some money from the workers (he had no other alternative), Raghav left the camp for the dam site. He could clearly see lots of movement of military and media personnel in the region but apparently they seemed to be busy in organizing festivals and did not seem to be in any hurry. Even then Raghav thought that escaping to the nearby city in broad daylight would be risky.
He saw a small orifice near a waterfall close to the dam. He decided to camp there and overlook the activities before moving to civilization. Through the whole day Raghav watched the patrolling military near the dam.and also saw escorts to the media team that was visiting the facility.
In the evening he moved towards the town. Here he lingered for two nights allowing the entire media team to go back. On the third day Raghav took a bus to Imphal. The city was in a sad state – polluted and cluttered sans any sign of development.
3.7: En-route to Kolkata
Sagarika returned from her trip to the Manipur facility. For the first time she did not call Christina to her cabin but went straight to her desk. It was her first trip to the North East of India and she wanted to be at peace with Christina allowing her to go about her work. She said,
“North East is a beautiful place to go to, such amazing scenic beauty! No wonder you foreigners want to go and research this location.”
“Some of your colleagues in the field of journalism wrote a nonsensical story about the ayurvedic research facility. This is the reason why we give you guys a compulsory training to teach you about the ethics of our culture.”
Christina wondered why Sagarika kept repeating about Indian culture. Did she mean to undermine other cultures? Didn’t she get tired of it? Sagarika continued,
“Anyway, I have some tasks for you. You need to go to Kolkata. I have this friend who is actually launching her nephew into the musical world. I would like you to go to her and take her interview.”
“And please write something good about her. Also, while in Kolkata collect data for your project. If you want, then visit the School of Tropical Medicine also as my friend’s husband teaches there.”
Christina knew that she could not refuse and accepted the offer to go to Kolkata to take the interview. She understood that the second part of the work was to be given less importance.
Later, during the same week Christina came to know from her think tank that the facility was in fact undertaking secret research on human subjects and the ayurveda message was a cover-up. The reports also showed that the place was named as the dungeon by many military personnel. It was actually a military hospital doubling as a research lab on human beings. Those who knew about it acknowledged that whoever went in had never come back.
In the past, political prisoners were usually sent to this place and were never seen again. Lately, the security gate was opened after drones broke into the compound resulting in controversies and debates which lasted for many months. It was mostly demilitarized but the question still remained – what was done to the individuals who were experimented on. One thing Christina knew was that Sagarika had her completely under watch and any movement towards Manipur would raise suspicions; this would be dangerous for her team.
Raghav stayed in Imphal for three days trying to grasp the present situation from the newspapers and television channels. He stole money from drunkards on the street to survive. Three days later he finally got acclimatized. Raghav planned to go to Kolkata with the hope that he could find some of his friends who would give him refuge. They could give him a breathing time to figure out where his other family members were.
It had been ten years and he was in doubt about the locations of most of his friends and doubted whether anyone could be contacted over phone or email. He wondered if those who had survived the government crackdown were still under surveillance. Raghav thought that it would be appropriate that he should use some other means to communicate.
After surfing the net for few minutes he found out that his friend Debashish still had an active blog with an entry that was a month old. He remembered Debashish was working for a monthly magazine in Bhubaneshwar but it was evident from his blogs that he had been pushed for an early retirement. He worked as a florist and most of his blogs were related to flowers.
Raghav thought that the most probable reason for everything that had fallen down was that the government had started putting restraints on the individuals sympathetic towards the movement. Raghav saw that one of his blogs was on the sale of Banarasi silk sarees by the ghats of the Ganga. He thought that he could contact Debashish by commenting on this topic; it would signal him about Raghav's existence. Raghav had once gone with Debashish hunting the streets of Kolkata to buy Banarasi sarees for his wife. He thought Debashish would get the hint. He used his pseudonym Simon to pass message to Debashish about his existence.
Debashish could not believe what he was seeing as a comment on the blog. He knew that such trickery could not be pulled by anyone else other than Raghav. He knew that Raghav was killed in a Maoist ambush but apparently that was not the case. He thought probably Raghav had slipped through the Maoists net and was living underground all these years. But why would he want to contact him after this lapse of time?
Debashish provided Raghav with a cryptic telephone number of the location in Bhubaneswar close to where he was living. Raghav called Debashish from a paid phone. Debashish kept the conversation short and asked Raghav to meet him at Kolkata’s famous Coffee House on College Street.
Raghav’s journey from Manipur to Kolkata was a terrifying odyssey, dodging the authorities at the regular check posts. He was not carrying a regular government issued ID card and had to skip public transportation to reach his destination. His shaved head and brows would raise suspicion and he managed to steal a monk’s dress and donned the identity of a Buddhist monk living on alms to escape from being recognized. He would mostly travel by night on transportation provided by religious worshipers in the region. He took the route to Siliguri and then by a private lorry ferrying goods to Kolkata. After six days of arduous journey through North East terrain, hiding from the military, he finally reached Kolkata.
He got down near the Howrah Station in the dark of night. The lights on the bridge were brighter and shinier than what Raghav remembered but there was an air of nostalgia around the bridge. The bridge reminded him of his days of romance with his wife. Before going to the states for doing his PhD, Raghav worked for a year at the Tata Steel Plant and used to visit Kolkata in th
e weekends to visit his new girlfriend. It was below the bridge that Raghav had first proposed to her to be wife for the first time.
Raghav remembered the night – a chilly night with a full moon, in the month of December when Raghav and his girlfriend took the boat ride from Howrah to Belur Math. The night seemed dreamy and romantic but Raghav wanted to share his new knowledge about the company he had just joined. Pointing towards the Howrah Bridge, Raghav said,
“do you know about the bridge?”
“The bridge does not have nuts and bolts, but was constructed by riveting the whole structure. The bridge consumed about 26,500 tons of steel, out of which 23,000 tons of high-tensile alloy steel, known as Tiscrom, was supplied by our own Tata Steel.”
His girlfriend replied,
“Wow, in such a beautiful night, while boating under the bridge, you could only see the steel that it is made up of! Do you see the bright moon which seems like hanging like a fruit from the bridge?”
“Only if I could have heard you could come up with a plan to pull a staircase, made out of steel from Tata Steel, to pick that fruit for me that would have been romantic!”
Raghav looked at her foolishly while she continued,
THE MYSTIC: PART I - THE SEEKER (Part 1 - THE SEEKER) Page 8