RESONANCE

by AJAY

  "Sir."Siddhartha said, and then stood up, intending to leave.

  "Sit down, Siddhartha. I want to tell you something else."

  "Sir."

  "Certain facts have come up about this gentleman Sundaram Iyer. A few days back, we got information that he was up to some mischief. He seems to have gone on a wire-tapping spree without prior sanction of my Ministry. Not only has he bugged phones of the cases he was handling, but also yours and mine. He has even dared to wiretap the phone of a few Cabinet Ministers and senior bureaucrats. Worst of all, he even intruded upon the National Security Advisor last week. R&AW has found his overseas connection and the Enforcement Directorate has unearthed details of his foreign banks accounts in tax-havens. "

  "I'm also aware of his dubious role, sir, but my hands are tied for lack of concrete evidence."Siddartha went on to explain everything he knew about Sundaram Iyer.

  The Minister was incensed. He said, "Now we have conclusive proof against him. So I've asked the Director of the CBI to suspend this man pending a departmental enquiry."

  "Sir, I've another suggestion. Let's not do anything for the time being."

  "Why?"

  "If he is working for the Jihadists, he is an important link for us. Any knee jerk reaction could be disastrous as they will smell a rat and get alert. We still have two days' time, but hasty action may leave us with no time at all."

  "What should we do then?"

  "Let the Director CBI pretend before Sundaram Iyer that he is not aware of anything and watch closely how Sundaram plays his cards."

  The Minister agreed. He asked his PA to connect his telephone line to the Director of the CBI. After a brief conversation, the Minister turned to Siddhartha, "We've bad news. The Director says that Sundaram has faxed a two-day casual leave application to his office."

  "Where is he?"

  "The Director says that he tried to contact Mr. Iyer, but his phones are switched off. He left his official car at North Block after our meeting."

  "Let me try his home number,"Siddhartha dialed and talked to Sundaram's wife. She told Siddhartha that she was not aware of her husband's whereabouts and that her daughter and she were going to Kerala by the evening flight to spend their summer vacation."

  That set Siddhartha thinking. He turned to the Minister, "It's quite surprising, sir. Sundaram's daughter studies in the Delhi Public School and she is in the same class as my son. Their exams commenced today, yet they are leaving."

  Deputy Commandant

  In the middle of the night, the office of the Central Industrial Security Force received a message from the Ministry of Home Affairs. The officer on duty rang up the Deputy Commandant's residence and informed him about the fax message.

  The DC drove his official car from his residence and reached his office in five minutes. He looked at the fax message, which had instructions to elevate security to maximum level around the dam site and the reservoir.

  The security guard entered the room of the DC, saluted and snapped in attention. When the DC nodded, he said that an officer of 108 Rapid Action Force Alpha platoon wanted to see him.

  "Send him in."

  A man entered, "Sir, my command office has asked for the deployment of additional force for the security of the dam."The man handed a letter to the DC. "Our Commandant is at Cham, at the upstream of the river. He has asked you to convene a meeting of your officers at seven in the morning. He wants to take stock of your preparedness. But before that he wants to see the security arrangement around the reservoir. If you could depute your officer to accompany him, it would be easier for us."

  "At this time of the morning,"the DC said, " I've my doubts that I can spare any officer. Anyway, I will give him a quick tour."

  The Deputy Commandant rode his vehicle with the man on NH94 and sped towards Cham. A SUV coming from the other side crossed the bridge and steered slightly left blocking the DC's vehicle. Before the DC could react, four people surrounded his vehicle. They pointed their gun at him and asked the DC to come out of the vehicle.

  Another man walked towards the DC with powerful strides. When the man came closer, the officer was taken aback. He was his exact clone! The clone addressed the DC in measured tones, "Officer, from now on, I'm the Deputy Commandant of your CISF unit. Give me your vehicle key and the keys to the vault of your office. I'll take proper care of your installation."

  "How can he speak in my voice and style?"The DC looked bewildered.

  "Well, well, you must be astonished at my appearance, officer. I not only speak as you speak, but also think as you think. I even know each of your family members, about your grand-grandfather as well as grandchildren and of course, the name of your dog. Sorry to say my men injected a heavy dose of sedatives in his veins because he would have recognized me and I needed to guard myself. But you need not worry; he will wake up by tomorrow afternoon. He will live long."

  "What do you want?"

  "Revenge, officer, revenge!"

  "I don't know you. I have never seen you before."

  "I would never avenge a personal grudge, officer. But when a country slaughters another country, I take it personally, very personally."

  "What are you talking about?"

  "The pain inflicted on my country when your country split my country into two will always keep our wounds green."

  "Are you from Pakistan?"

  "I belong to none except Allah, brother."

  "What's the point in talking about the painful stories of history? Indians too never overcame the pain of partition."

  "Partition was destiny, my dear, but the 1971 War was never our destiny. The war was imposed upon us. I can still feel the pain when your men divided my country. That pain never leaves me. Tell me what should I do?"

  "I still don't know who you are."

  "I too am searching for the answer to the existential question, 'Who am I?' But I certainly know why Allah sends his men to bear suffering in this world. He sent me to fulfill a cause, and that was to take revenge."

  "But..."

  "No questions."Shalim Amār Khan turned to his men, "Take everything from him. "

  The men disarmed the DC. Two of them started to drag the officer towards the river, but Shalim Amār Khan stopped them. "When I reached this place, I had no place to hide. I went there and stayed the night,"Shalim Amār Khan said, pointing to the Shiva Temple, about a mile north of the reservoir at Killu Khaal. "There is no one there except the God guarding both mountain and gorge. Even the priest has left the mandir and gone for the Shahi Snaan on this auspicious day. There is a small antechamber with heavy iron doors at the back of the temple. The rusted handles of the door do not seem to have been opened for eons. When I touched it, the doors opened with a long squeaking sound as the rings on it made a loud clang. Worried that someone had heard the strange sound, I waited. When all remained quiet for a long time, I entered the dark room. The place was full of an almost palpable, though invisible energy. And even though I was thirsty and exhausted, I felt rejuvenated within minutes.

  "Take the officer there. He who looks after all of us, will take care of everything. Put him in handcuffs, but don't seal his mouth. Leave dry fruits and water beside him. The priest will come back by evening. Oh! Yes, don't forget to take one more precaution. Administer a soothing tranquilizer to him. He needs to sleep for twenty-four hours. He will not endure the pain of isolation."

  Turning to the DC, Shalim Amār Khan continued, "My sincere apologies to you, sir. You are an honest officer and I honour the trait. Unfortunately, today, my choices are limited. But I promise you that if I live to see tomorrow's dawn, I will come back. You may then choose to punish me for my deed."

  Shalim Amār Khan turned and reached the official vehicle. His men proudly occupied the back seat. He entered the car and adjusted the rearview mirror. Nearby, on a dusty road, the SUV climbed over a mountain in the opposite direction quickly moving towards the north.

  Shalim Amār Khan pressed the pedal, crossed the bridge, stee
red at the bend and accelerated.

  Their Mad Life

  A control room was setup in the North Block. The Home Minister authorized Siddhartha Rana to take every possible measure to save Sardar Sarovar Dam and report the progress to the Home Secretary.

  The Joint Secretary of the Department of Internal Security with other officials boarded a special aircraft to Vadodara, Gujarat. They travelled further, about sixty miles from the airport, to the dam.

  Siddhartha called Aban from the North Block and told him about the three image files that the Home Minister had given him. He uploaded those files to a newly created email account. Aban downloaded the file.

  "We still need to search the fourth image,"said Siddhartha.

  "When will you be back in your IB Office? I need to know everything that you can tell me about Tupac-II because I have a hunch that there might be a clue in those details."

  "The work in the control room of the North Block keeps me from my office until tomorrow afternoon."

  "Will see you then."

  For the entire day and night, Siddhartha stayed in the control room, arranging logistics for the security of the Sardar Sarovar Dam: the explosives experts, divers from the Navy, intelligence officers, engineers and the officials of the hydro power project. He also coordinated with the anti-terrorist squad and the CISF office.

  It was late evening the next day, but he still could not get time to go to his own office. The systems expert rang him up, "Sir, I need you to be present here in the IB Office. We have decoded the rashis of Jyotish, sent by the FBI."

  Siddhartha rushed to his office and entered his room. Aban and the system expert were waiting for him. Siddhartha turned to Aban, "I think you could use some sleep."

  "I have been trying to work out the solution ever since you provided me with the three images."

  "Any progress?"

  "I'm sorry. I've used thousands of combinations to arrive at the fourth image, but still nothing."

  Siddhartha moved his gaze to the systems expert, "Tell me how did you decrypt the elusive attachment file?"

  "The pdf file attachment shows many symbols. I tried to decode through normal decoding, but nothing came out of that. These Jihadists always come up with some innovative idea or the other. They are always a step ahead of us. Therefore, I tried to think the way they think. The answer was to look at the problem in the simplest way. I took a printout, scanned it and saved it as a document. I ran the optical character recognition program with pre-selected fonts. Nothing came out when I chose the English and Roman fonts. Then, I tried Indian fonts like Mangla. Still, without success. Then, I searched for the fonts relating to astrology as the symbols represented rashis. Finally, I got the answer. When I set the OCR to read the Astrology font, the symbol turned into Arabic language with phonetic and thematic structure. I used my computer translator and got a clear message."

  "Absolutely wonderful."Siddhartha was delighted. "Show it to me."

  "Sir, first look at the symbols once again."The expert unfolded the sheet paper.

  "The Arabic version seems to have carefully maintained the rhymed form, as if an Oracle was delivering the sounds with profound effect."The system expert clicked on the version:

  He then ran the translator. "Now see the converted message in English, derived from the combination of mystical rashis, numinous Jyotish and magical Arabic."

  We have made a surveillance of their Lake.

  The data will be ready for the simulation.

  We need to work out a few things.

  Period, frequency, phase, amplitude of simple harmonic motion.

  He continued, "Sir, each of the four lines contains eight words. Unfortunately, it does not represent the image password."

  "That's true. However, this is a very important file. The last line is interesting. They are talking about period, frequency, phase and amplitude of simple harmonic motion. During my last discussion with the engineers and technical experts when we were analyzing the data sent by the FBI from Dubai, the most worrisome fact was the lake moving in a simple harmonic motion."

  Aban was worried. "We still don't know which lake they are talking about."

  Siddhartha tried to assuage his fears, "Most probably, it is the Sardar Sarovar."

  "Are we doing something to prevent the sabotage?"

  "Yes, we are. Our team of underwater explosives experts, divers, engineers and the anti-terrorist squad have already started the operation."

  "Have they found anything?"

  "They are trying. But the lake is huge. They could not do much during the night. They say that it'll take another day to declare the lake completely sanitized. We may come to know about it by tomorrow evening."

  "How much time do we have?"

  "There is the possibility that the dam on target is not Sardar Sarovar. In that case, if we get to know the exact status of Sardar Sarovar only by tomorrow, then perhaps we will be left with no time."Siddhartha's words hung over in the office like an ominous cloud.

  Siddhartha continued to look at the last line. The word 'Simple Harmonic Motion' mocked at him in the same way as the subject line of the email''Their Mad Life'.

  "I hope I'm not going mad,"Siddhartha drank a glass of water and turned to Aban, "I know the date, but still don't know the place."

  Mother's Ashes

  A car was struck in the traffic snarl near Roorkee. Long queues of buses, private vehicles, trucks were all lined up, waiting for the traffic police to clear the logjam.

  Juhi asked her father, "Why did you choose today, the 14th of April, for the immersion of Mom's ashes?"

  "I could not come to India when your mother died three years ago since the Prime Minister of India was on an official visit to the US. Even after we came back to India after my retirement, I waited for this day since 14th April is the most pious day of Kumbh. Today is the Mesha Sankranti. On this date, the sun rests at the equator for the whole day. The Vishu, our Vedic calendar says that on this date, the sun starts its Uttarayana, the northward journey. The saints celebrate the day as the beginning of the New Year. So, I chose this date."

  "But why did you choose the occasion of Kumbh?

  "To understand this, you need to know the origin of Kumbh. At the time of the mythological Samudramanthan, when the gods and the demons churned the primordial sea, a golden pot emerged along with many other treasures from the belly of the samudra. This pot called Kalash, contained divine nectar, which could make anyone immortal. A fierce battle took place between the gods and the demons as they quarreled over who should have the pot of nectar. The demons being stronger than the gods took possession of the golden pot or Kumbha. So, Vishnu disguised as Mohini, or the beautiful enchantress, lured the demons into giving her the pot of the elixir of immortality. Vishnu started distributing the nectar to the gods, but one of the demons realized that they had been tricked and alerted the other Asuras. Immediately, the demons rose up in battle against the gods and one of the gods, Indra's son, ran away with the golden pot. This skirmish lasted twelve days, corresponding to twelve human years after which the Kumbh Mela is held. During the fierce battle, four drops of the nectar fell in four different places'Haridwar, Prayag, Ujjain and Nasik, and took the form of four holy rivers: the Ganga, the Yamuna, the Shipra and the Godavari. Ever since then, it is believed that whoever takes a dip in these rivers during Kumbh or the special celestial configuration, is absolved of all sins and blessed by the Almighty.

  "What ritual will we perform there?"

  "We will take a dip in the sacred Ganges and then scatter her ashes in the holy water."

  The traffic ahead had not moved much. The Ambassador turned to Juhi, "I think we should have some light refreshment."

  "It would be better we check-in into the hotel and then have some tea. I'd packed pastries and patties for you. You can have them in the car."

  "You must be tired after driving all the way from Delhi."

  "I'm fine."

  "Still Juhi, a half hour break will
do us no harm. Steer left. There is a very nice multi cuisine restaurant Fuzion. I love the vegetarian tandoori fare they serve at this place."

  "How do you know about it?"

  "Your mother and I used to stop by whenever we planned a trip to these parts."

  Juhi slowly turned the Mahindra Xylo to the porch of the hotel. The restaurant was full, and the manager asked them to take the garden seats. Snacks were served after a while. Juhi had gone silent and the Ambassador did not know how to start a conversation.

  "Do you still miss your mother?"

  Juhi nodded.

  The Ambassador continued, "She was a wonderful woman. I miss her every day, each moment. She wanted you to be a doctor. But I never interfered with your dream when you chose to pursue environmental studies. I want you to be happy. I love you and cannot bear tears in your eyes. Ever since you have come back from America, you have not been your cheerful self."

  Juhi kept nodding.

  "Your grandfather was an army officer, who fought both World Wars for the British Empire. When I qualified for the Indian Foreign Service, he was on cloud nine. I joined the LBS Academy at Mussoorie as probationer and every time, I came home, my mother would pester me to marry this beautiful girl, who was studying medicine. When I finally told her that I was in love with another girl, she was still happy. When I told my parents that the girl I had fallen for was a Christian, my mother, though not very happy, was still willing to compromise for the sake of my happiness. But my father was dead against the relationship. I tried to convince him, but finally succumbed to his emotional blackmail and married the girl of his choice. For a long time, I could not accept your mother as my wife. I even refused to take her to Buenos Aires, when I was posted in the Indian Embassy in Argentina. She was too evolved a person and too strong to do anything about my audacity, even though she disliked it. When I realized what she truly was, I began to feel small."The Ambassador fell silent.