Jai walked his way to the ticket counter. Only one counter was open and it had a negligible queue lined up for tickets. Jai joined the queue, he was in at fourth. After two minutes, Jai was standing face to face with the woman who was booking tickets, just a glass interface separating them. The woman was the same one from whom he had had got his ticket in the morning. She recognized Jay’s face.
The woman spoke through the interface ‘You again?’
‘I know that, just… just get me a ticket to Ghittorni!’ Jai woofed into the interface.
‘We are closing down the entire route and Sir, the last train to Ghittorni leaves in 1 minute, you will not make it to the platform.’
‘Will you hurry up? Here keep the change!’ he said while handing over a fifty-rupee note to the woman.
She collected the money and gave him a black colored round shaped token, ‘Why doesn’t he use a metro card instead!’
Jai sprinted off to the security check and proceeded galefully to the platform that was two floors above from there. The train was awaiting final seconds of departure as Jai jumped into the last compartment. It was as empty as the penultimate one. The doors closed and the train was moving now. The journey to Ghittorni began and Jai felt that it was his last journey, the feeling of the end approaching surfaced out of nowhere. A bead of sweat finally appeared on Jay’s forehead from beneath his long crest of black hair. The train picked up velocity as it glided, screeching over the pair of metallic tracks. The image of Iyer swept through his mind along with faces formed by his imagination.
Faces straight out of Iyer’s story.
Forty Six
Somewhere in New Delhi
The bus had started moving along the highway. It picked up pace steeply. Hussain was seated on the seat near the rear exit. It took him fifteen minutes to arrive at the bus stop on foot. The bus was already stationed at the stop when Hussain had arrived there. The bus finally took off after another fifteen minutes, Hussain was praying. He wished to reach the lottery office before they closed down for the day. He didn’t want to waste an entire day.
Hussain saw the approaching bus conductor. He slipped his hand into the pocket of his Kurta looking for his wallet. His pocket was empty, there was no wallet. He checked the other pocket anxiously. He stood up and looked around on the floor of the bus, under the seat. It was not to be seen. He ran his head trying to recollect if he had taken it out anytime. He had used few coins to use the telephone at the metro station. He immediately informed the conductor and got off the bus. He ran towards the Metro Station. He had forgotten his wallet somewhere inside the Metro station and he was going back to get that.
This was one of the worst days of his life; however, little did he have better days. But he had to do it for his sons, for little Arshad.
Forty Seven
Ghittorni Metro Station
11:55 AM
The last train arrived at the metro station on that fateful day. Jai stepped out of the train as soon as the doors pulled apart, and rode down the escalator. While he was skipping on the escalator heading downwards, constant thoughts about Iyer and his story crept inward. He saw all those things happen in front of him as he stepped on steady floor of the building from the escalator.
Jai sighed and rushed out of the room. The Café was still operational except that there was nobody inside the little kiosk like structure. He looked towards his left and spotted a couple of security personnel standing near the entrance of the building. However, his destination was right ahead of him. Jai started walking towards it.
His heart had not been subtle since Iyer had disappeared and now with every step he took towards his destination, the beating of the heart became mercilessly insane. Breathing became hard as he tried dragging in more oxygen with every breath he took. Blame it all on the cigarettes he had been smoking since class eleven. He exhaled swiftly leaving his respiratory tract almost devoid of rest. The denser air inside his body paved through his nostrils. Each step that he took towards the destination seemed to land Jai away from it. He felt as if he was reeling backwards. He was not running yet, he was walking all right, but everything around him passed as if gravity had caught up in a web of super slow motion.
In a whisk of suspended thoughts, he was taken back to where it all began as he stood there facing the signboard that read THE RESTING AREA.
He pushed the door and sneaked in through the opened space. The room was empty. Jai walked towards the seat where he was sitting earlier that day. He saw the cellular phone number intact on the seat nearby. However, there were no occupants, all seats vacant. The room was as deserted as the Station building itself. Under the hovered silence of the room, he could hear drops of rain pouring outside. The tickling sound made by the rain drops falling on the walls of the building paved way for a fresh set of imagery which graveled into his already preoccupied mind. His mind kept replaying the earlier events that took place in that very same room, causing further distress and arousing anxiety like never before. Three nights ago he was partying hard at a posh discotheque with his girlfriend and close friends, enjoying every moment of life as it were his last. Two nights ago, he broke up with his girlfriend and last night he ran away from home and now here he was rewinding everything that had happened helplessly but picturing only the fat man who had overpowered Jai with his story.
The eerie emptiness of the Resting Area was puncturing Jay’s emotions harder than anything else that had pierced him that day, precisely it was the story he heard from the fat man whom he was looking for now.
His ears could not block away Iyer’s voice; he did not even hear the sound of rain pouring outside heavily. He was standing there but his mind was in a completely different dimension.
A hand placed itself firmly on Jay’s shoulder. And in that moment of crazy thoughts, everything froze. Jay’s eyes popped open, silence conquered his mind and he could only hear his heart that had been pounding heavily. He inhaled a long stretch of air and slowly turned around.
This must be Iyer. He thought. This must be him. Yes, there indeed was a hand over his shoulder and as he turned around, the face of the owner revealed.
It was indeed a familiar face.
Forty Eight
Jai immediately recognized that long wrinkled face. The man who still had his hand over Jay’s shoulder was at least three inches taller than Jai. He adorned a neatly washed white piece of Kurta over his upper body. He gently enquired, ‘Are you looking for something?’
The Pathan’s voice was the manliest baritone Jai had ever gasped.
‘Err…rather someone! I am looking for someone.’ Jai gritted.
‘Someone? Who?’ Hussain asked.
‘Yes, of course! You were here all the time! Don’t you remember that fat man, middle aged, who came in and sat next to me? The Madrasi guy? With a white teeka?’ Jai spoke described with the enthusiasm of a small child.
‘What?’ Hussain was definitely surprised.
‘Yes, he kinda talked a lot, was very irritating. His name was Iyer!’ Jai gave away.
Hussain nodded in despair and challenged Jai, ‘Son, you were not sitting with anyone! Not inside this room.’
‘No! His name was Iyer, Krishnaprasad Iye…’
‘Son! There was no one with you. Just the two of us inside this room. I was here first and I was here even after you left this room. I saw no one except you entering and leaving the room.’
‘He was sitting with me, and you saw him. You saw us talking, I know because you kept turning back now and then.’ Jai screeched as he pulled the tall Pathan’s collar and threateningly dragged him closer to Jai, ‘His name was Iyer!’
‘Are you high? Charas-ganja? Are you taking drugs?’
‘You saw us talking and you were staring at us!’ Jai declared.
‘At you! Yes! I was staring at you because of what you were doing.’ Jai loosened his grip over Hussain and the tall man gently removed Jay’s hands from his collar cuffs.
‘What? What was I d
oing?’ Jai asked in a meek surrendered tone.
‘I heard you talking to someone, first I thought you were on phone. However, when I turned around, I saw no phone or that thing in the ear that people wear nowadays. So, I stared at you, because you were having a full-fledged conversation with yourself.’
‘You are lying? Ain’t you? Just like those guards, ain’t you?’
‘What guards?’
‘Those guards at the hospital. They said they never saw anyone with me!’
‘I don’t know which guards you are talking about, but that is the truth. You were indeed with no one. Are you sure, you are ok?’
‘Fuck you! Liars!’ Jai swore loudly at Hussain.
Jai rushed out of the room. He banged the door behind him.
Hussain shook his head in shame. Slowly he reminded himself why he had come back there. He moved towards the seat where he was sitting and bent down and looked underneath.
‘Aah! There it is!’ He exclaimed heartily as he reached out for a torn leather wallet with his right hand.
While travelling in the bus Hussain realized that he had dropped something back in the metro station. He came back for it. He had searched the entire metro station, the phone booth and every path he had taken inside the metro station that morning. He did not find it and the one place he had not checked was the Resting Area.
When he entered the Resting Area, he found Jai standing there. The crazy boy he had encountered earlier that morning.
Young rats doing drugs. Hussain told himself as he breathed in heavily.
Forty Nine
Control Room, Ghittorni Metro Station
12:20 noon
Jay’s instincts puffed right over his intellect. He was dead sure that he had been with the fat man. The story he told, Jai could never have imagined all that. Maybe the Pathan was paranoid or maybe the guards were being absent-minded while on duty and then they were trying to hide their guilt with overt-aggression. He had one way of finding out and he was trying to work it out.
He had gone to one of the security personnel and reported the missing case of Iyer. Before they started scratching their heads, Jai had tipped them to check out the surveillance cameras that were hanging on almost every inch of the metro surroundings. And one of them instantly assisted Jai to the control room where everything was being monitored.
A dozen monitors mounted on the wall in front of him that constantly flickered images after every 3 minutes displaying every corner of the metro station and the few trains that left the station.
‘Where were you sitting?’ The Security personnel asked Jai.
‘We were in the Resting Area, I think at about 7:30, yea.’ Jai recollected.
The nearly emotionless Security person pressed a few keys on the keyboard and one of the monitors drew a blank screen. Then it showed a paused image. Jai vaguely recognized it as the Resting Area. A thunderbolt ran across Jay’s face. He prayed for his belief to be right. The man pressed another button and then dragged the mouse back and forth, the image on the monitor started flickering and moving swiftly.
‘7:30.’ the man declared and clicked the left mouse button. The monitor slowed down and the motion stabilized.
The camera was located somewhere at the back of the room, in the right corner and mounted high upon the ceiling where nobody could touch it. Moreover, that way the camera could cover maximum area for surveillance. There were two people sitting as it appeared on the monitor. Jai quickly recognized the man in the farther row as the Pathan and the one nearer to camera as himself. He was wearing the same T-Shirt.
‘I am going to play this at a higher speed’ said the security person and then pressed a button on his keyboard. The flickering got faster but there was hardly any movement recognizable in the image. There was some neck turning from Pathan while Jai appeared to be constantly shifting himself sideways. Though there was no sign of any third person yet. Jai had his eyes glued onto the monitor. Then the most striking thing occurred. On the monitor, he saw himself leaving the room. Much to his shock, he was moving out alone.
‘Wait! Rewind and play that again, slowly.’ Jai demanded.
The Security person went back by 5 minutes and played it over from there in real-time. There was no change; the same incident repeated itself, only this time it was moving slowly.
Jai felt a wall of brittle glass shattering all around him. The walls that held his sanity together now spoke in the loudest dialect ever.
‘Are you sure, you were here with someone?’ The man sitting with the controls asked.
Jai muted down by what he saw on the monitor. All those men had been right. His lips froze, he could not reply. He started walking out of the room.
‘Hey! You?’ The man called out from behind. Evidently, he was not very happy with Jay’s reaction as the boy was starting to leave.
Jai spoke in a state inebriation, ‘Thank You Officer. Sorry for wasting your time.’ Jai apologized and shut the door slowly and started walking towards the exit at an even lesser pace. Thoughts had engulfed him from all sides.
There was no Iyer? All those people were damn right: I am crazy.
Am I in some kind of a mental shock? Is this a nightmare where I am supposed to wake up and find myself in my bed? Oh God! Let it be that way.
I cannot take this anymore.
I wish I were back home with my mother.
With my father.
All those characters from Iyer’s story appeared in front of him as he walked in the direction of the building’s exit.
Excuse me? Can I sit here?
These seats are all dirty, it will spoil my Mundu’
The Greatest epic is your own life’s story
Would you do me a favor?
I don’t know you or your name, but I would like to give you one small piece of advice.’
Jay’s mind kept zigzagging through various conversations he had with Iyer.
‘So, I shouldn’t have run away?’
‘What would you do if you were in my place?’
All the thoughts faded away into one single thought that now bound Jay’s conscience solidly.
I AM IN HIS PLACE.
A tear jerked off his eye. In a moment of confusion he realized the righteous truth that he was about to commit the greatest mistake of his life.
Besides the recap of everything, he was also getting that weird nauseating urge to throw up. Things were spinning around him. The motion was certainly circular. He was going down.
While walking out of the station someone grabbed him from behind. The action took Jai by shock and he instantly fainted and passed out.
Fifty
Ghittorni Metro Station
Twenty minutes ago
‘Sir, this is Lieutenant Rajbir Singh Ranawat, reporting from the control room, Ghittorni Metro Station’ the tall security person bit into the mobile phone.
After a slight delay a voice replied from the other end of the line ‘Inspector Vijay Pratap here’
‘I wish to report the sighting of a young boy who is presumed missing since yesterday. We had his image fed into our database this morning itself.’
‘Oh! Wait, is it…’ the inspector paused to recollect and then spoke, ‘is it the tall teenager, fair in complexion. His name… Jai Prakash Sharma?’
‘Yes, tall with long dark hair. Wearing a T-shirt and baggy jeans.’
‘Where is he?’
‘He was here in the morning; I remembered his face because there were not many people who came here because of the accident.’
‘What time?’
‘He was here early and left after some time.’
‘Why? Why didn’t you stop him?’ The inspector charged.
‘Inspector, we had received the update on our database, just half an hour ago. It was not written on his face, you see.’ The Security person thwarted.
The inspector sighed.
‘But he came back a minute ago and he is heading towards the Resting Area once again, where he
had been this morning. I think he’s going to hide there.’ Rajbir slipped in.
It brought fresh hope in the voice of the inspector and he said, ‘Look! Do not pounce on him. Be gentle and keep an eye on him as long as he is there, make sure that he does not leave the station building anytime soon, if he does then follow him. Do not take him under custody unless he is boarding some vehicle. Do you get me?’
‘I get that. You want me to prey silently, keep vigil?’
‘Exactly! You know these new generation kids get grapy easily. That is the first place why he is wandering like this. He has given his parents a tough time, especially his mother. You stick around and keep me updated. I will be there with my men in fifteen minutes.’
‘Sure.’ Lieutenant Rajbir Singh said and then hung up the phone. He knew he had to be patient with the boy until the cops arrived.
Hardly ten minutes later, had the boy himself come to Rajbir Singh. He carried a worried grimace on his handsome face. He told the security personnel about a mysterious fat man and asked him if they could check out the CCTV recordings from the morning. Rajbir had to agree because that way he could keep the boy around for a little longer until the cops dashed in.
He had agreed.
Fifty One
Ansari Household, Ghittorni
1415 hours
Hussain although perturbed had put on a consolidating smile on his face as he neared his little shelter. He could see his young ones playing outside while the eldest one was still pouring milk into the over used kettle placed neatly on the little kerosene stove. He saw his father approaching and immediately his worn out face was lit up with a sparkling smile. A smile that carried the zeal of hope and promises. He greeted his father. Hussain could smile in the darkest of hours, such a way had he been shaped since childhood; this wasn’t the worst of what he had seen in his life. He smiled and he greeted back Arshad.
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