by Laxmi Natraj
There was a deliberate tone of arrogance in his voice. Shiva was genuinely taken aback for a moment. He said in a meek voice, “Sir, I am Shiva Purohit. I am the son of the Temple Pujari Narayan Purohit.” Sukvir could make out that his Sardarji get up was so good that even Shiva, who knew him very well and had talked to him for hours, did not have an iota of recognition. He felt very good and decided to play it further.
He gave out a crackling laughter and said, “Oh that is great! A son of temple Pujari! Then why are you defending the school like a lawyer? Your Sarpanch is here to talk to me. Let the proper person explain.”
Acharyaji threw a dirty look at Shiva and muttered in an undertone, “This is what happens if you try to show off!” Then he walked closer to Sukvir and said in a pleading voice, “Sir please, believe us. This school was built only after getting all legal papers in order.”
As Sukvir Singh gave a long look with a sarcastic smile, every one stood silent.
Chapter 33
The Documents
Sukvir continued to stare for some time and barked in an irritated voice, “Why are you people wasting my time? Where are your so called documents?”
By this time, one of the villagers came panting from Acharyaji’s house and handed over a folder to him. Acharyaji opened it and showing it to Sukvir said, “Look here Sir, here is the permission letter for renovation and extension, here is the possession certificate, and here is the original land document and ……” He flipped through the pages and showed it all to Sukvir.
Sukvir took the folder and gestured to his assistant to come near him. Two more real government officers joined him and all of them made a perfect drama of scrutinizing each and every document very carefully.
Finally, Sukvir said, “These papers are not just enough. Many more proper authority permission letters are missing here. Who got all this paper work done for you? I think he cheated you people. Call him here just now.”
Acharyaji and Purohit looked at each other with an air of utter helplessness. Then Acharyaji said in a nervous voice, “Sir, these papers were done by one John Stoneman who was living in this village at that time. He was a US citizen.”
Sukvir gave a crackling laughter and said, “Now what new story is this? A man living in the US came all the way to this tiny village and built a school for you? How can he get the government papers done? A non-Indian cannot get any Indian Government papers sanctioned so easily. Where is he? Call him just now.”
Acharyaji and Purohit looked at each other with a worried face once again and said, “Sir, he was found murdered last week.”
Sukvir jumped up from his chair, “Murdered? Wonderful story! First, a US citizen comes here and builds a school for your village. Then he is murdered. You think we are going to believe this entire cock and bull story? Definitely, we are just now going to knock off this building. I am very, very sorry. I have to do my duty.” He waved his hand to the waiting the bulldozer driver who promptly started the engine and the bulldozer started moving closer to the school building.
Acharyaji and Purohit nearly bumped in to Sukvir, as they rushed to the spot , where he stood waving his hand. They started pleading and begging. The villagers also started begging. Sukvir threw up both his hands showing his exasperation and said, “Ok you people, please wait. Let me discuss this problem in detail with my men and see if we can get an amicable solution for this problem.”
The drama group huddled together and enacted a discussion drama for almost half an hour, with raised voices and shaking of heads. Finally, Sukvir called Acharyaji and said, “Taking pity on your village, and because the school is a necessity for the village we will not bulldoze the building just now but……..”
Everyone waited with their heart in the mouth for his next word. Sukvir enjoying his own acting took his own time and said, “Still we will have to make a total check-up of the building, the wall, the construction etc. We don’t want the building to collapse one day, and cause the death of the children because of a faulty construction. So, our officers who are engineers will check each and every wall and floor and the total construction of the building. Then if we find it safe, for the time being we will allow the school building to function as it is. But by three months, you people have to get all the needed papers regularized in a proper order”.
The villagers, Acharyaji, Purohit were all relieved by this statement and Acharyaji said, “Thank you, sir, thank you so much for your kindness. You can inspect the building Sir, we have no objection to that.”
Sukvir said, “One more condition. Not a single villager should come near the premises of the School building until we finish our inspection completely.”
Acharyaji nodded and said, “Ok Sir, none of us will come near the school till you finish. Sir, allow us to serve you people some snacks and tea.”
The group of villagers went back for their job. Shiva and Netra, with two more villagers, brought hot snacks and tea for all the officers. Sukvir, pretending to enjoy the snack, kept watching Shiva’s reaction carefully from the corner of his eyes. His shaded spectacles became a boon as the onlookers were not able to see his eyes. Netra and Shiva were engaged in some deep conversation with worry pasted all over their faces. After some time they collected all the served dishes and all of them moved away.
Chapter 34
The Wild Search
Sukvir firstly got the school gate locked and asked two persons to patrol and guard the entire compound. Then his officers started testing all the walls one by one, with a light hammer, looking for a hollow sound. They also tried the floor inch by inch covering the entire area. Hours passed. But they were sorely disappointed; they did not get any hollow noise or positive results.
Shiva and Netra again brought a six-course lunch for all of them. Four villagers came to help them. But all of them were kept outside the compound away from the building. After lunch, the work again started. Sukvir and Sharma stood in the centre of the school compound and looked around with disappointment.
Sukvir said, “If John had wanted a hideout for his terrorists then it should be a secret chamber. But we have not got a hollow sound anywhere from the wall or floor.” Annoyed and worried, he looked around. Unexpectedly, his wandering eyes noticed something unusual and he said, “Hey! Look at this. Why was the school building built at a height of ten steps? What was the need for it? The ground floor could have been built just at the ground level. Unless……”
His excited assistants squeaked, “Sir it should be a basement, the best place for them to hide and no one could suspect the school having a basement, how cunning!” Sukvir now called all the officers and together they started looking at all the points on the wall looking for an entrance door to the basement. They painstakingly searched for three hours. But, to their utter disappointment, again they had no luck.
Sukvir was in deep thought and his eyes now scrutinized the large playground around the compound. He told his officers to check the school playground thoroughly, inch by inch very carefully for some hidden entrance. As he was looking at the working officers with dejected eyes, he noticed that the playground at the backside of the building was very well levelled with some soft soil instead of the usual sand. His eyes fell on a multicolour painted, round pool with a fountain in the center. It was about two feet in diameter. Sukvir darted towards the fountain and understanding his purpose, all his assistants followed him to the pool.
He said to his assistant, “Look at this stupid odd looking design here. An ornamental fountain was built at the back side of the building! Why? People have fountains in the front of the building to add to the aesthetic view for the building. But strangely, this fountain was built on the back side of the school. Secondly, it does not serve any aesthetic value, no decorative statue, no lotus in the pond. What is the purpose of this fountain?”
All of them swiftly knelt near the pond and plunging their hands into the water, started searching every inch of the base and sides of the fountain. Again, there was no hidden knob
or any secret lever as they expected. They all got up disappointed and once again started looking for something curious or unusual which was not fitting in the background.
Next to the fountain, there was a huge wild, bushy plant, which was potted inside a large blue pot. Sharma said, “Sir, when so much fertile earth of garden is available why should anyone use a pot for planting? Then it is not even a rose plant or flowering plant but a giant bush type which is generally planted only on the edges to serve as fencing.”
Saying this he went near the pot and tried to move the heavy pot. To every one’s surprise the pot moved easily. They looked at the space occupied by the pot eagerly, expecting to see some trap door. But, there was nothing under there. As they stood wondering, to their delight, they noticed that now the entire bases of the fountain as a whole, had moved to one side like a round bath tub and there was a trap door below it. The fountain was just a movable cover made of a shallow plastic tank!
Sukvir put four men on the compound to watch that no villager come anywhere near. Excited and curious to discover what lay beneath, he and Sharma opened the trapdoor quietly. There were steps. With their gun ready in hand they slowly climbed down and reached the bottom, which was the basement of the school. But it was all empty. Anger fumed in his head. The very knowledge, that a foreigner coming to a village, fooling them and building an entire basement as hideout for the terrorists, was just unbearable to this patriot.
They looked all around. There were a lot of tell- tale marks of people who had stayed there. Stains of food cooked , lots of bread packet wrappers , plastic dry fruits wrappers and empty noodle packets laid strewn in the corners. There was an attached bathroom which was now stinking.
Nakul said, “So Utkarsh, we were right all the time. Terrorists had come and stayed here. From the size of the room, at least a dozen of them had come. But where are they now? Where did they disappear?”
Utkarsh said, “Sir, this John must have brought these terrorists disguised as construction workers. He was standing and supervising the job personally because he had to construct the underground basement without the knowledge of the villagers.”
Nakul said, “You are right Utkarsh. But we come back to the same question again. Why did the terrorists, nearly a dozen of them, come to a remote village? Where are they now? It is a vacation and the school is closed. So they cannot move in and out of this hideout. Hence they must have moved from here to the forest and are hiding in the forest. The big question is what are they waiting for?”
Utkarsh said, “Sir, remember that day the ACP said that terrorists will not linger for a long period. They will come and attack immediately. Since in this case, there is no one here now, maybe a bunch of them wanted to hide in this village for some time until they moved out, to some other part of India.”
Nakul said, “Then, who murdered Julia? Is it because they did not want to leave any evidence behind? So they first send Julia and got John murdered and then killed Julia also. But I have a suspicion that still at least there are four men are in this village, still hiding for some purpose. So we have to hunt and find out where they are hiding now? In our next move, we have to do that.”
They took enough photographs of the room and they collected some of the wrappers left behind as an evidence for the forensics and then finally came out of the room. The bulldozer team had the welding type of machines. They closed the trap door’s metal door and sealed it by welding it all around and melting the metal around it. It was now totally sealed and no one could try to open it in future. They placed the fountain and the bush back in their original places.
Sukvir called the villagers. He announced that the school building was satisfactory and hence they had decided to quit now. But the villager should get the papers organized by three months.
Acharyaji, Purohit, Shiva were all standing with their palms folded in a big Namaste. Sukvir gave a long look at Shiva's face and said, “You seem to be an educated man. See that in future such things never happen in the village.” Saying this he looked straight into Shiva’s eyes. There was no recognition. Sukvir was happy that his acting was successful. All the officers got into the car and the bulldozer started moving away from the village.
The man standing far away under the dark shadow of a tree spoke on his cell phone, “They are going away now. The Government officers coming without any prior information does not look very normal. I think we have to be more careful.”
Chapter 35
John’s Diary
Purohitji was relaxing on the recliner chair and trying to chant some Bhagvad Geeta verses. But he was not able to concentrate on this. Things which had happened in the past six months ending in the murder of the two people, somehow refused to leave his memory. He started wishing that right in the beginning itself he could have refused John’s request for the study and sent him back. At least then he might be alive now.
Shiva came in and asked gently, “Purohitji are you awake or asleep?” Purohit opened his eyes wide and said, “No, No, I am not sleeping. Tell me what is it?”
Shiva said, “Purohitji, those two boys, Madhav and Manjunath, from Banaras are earnestly learning all the chores of the temple. The two Purohits who had come from the nearby town for the Suddhi puja, and who had stayed back as per our request, were teaching these boys. They told me that these boys have learnt everything very well and are now fit to start the puja in the temple. I am happy that your pressure on the temple will become less now”. Purohitji just nodded his head silently.
Shiva said, “Purohitji as per your orders, after the Inspector had examined John’s room I cleaned up all that collection of research paper drafts of John. I also removed all the clothes and other items from his room. During this cleaning process I discovered a diary. I thought you might like to see it. ” He handed over a diary to Purohitji.
Purohitji said, “Ok I will go through it. Then we can decide what we have to do with this.”
Shiva discussed some more temple issues with Purohitji and took his leave and left. Purohitji picked up John’s diary in his hand. His hand trembled slightly as he opened the first page of the dead man’s personal diary.
Chapter 36
John’s Voice
2nd January- Today I have landed in Mumbai, India. I had to stay here for a few more days and get the ground work done before I proceed to the Lingeshwar village and meet the said Purohitji. Before that I have to read a lot from the internet so that I am thorough and I can make a nice presentation in front of the villagers. I should read about Purohitji from the information they have provided.
4th January- With great difficulty I could get a builder who agreed to construct the building as per my plan. He was naturally very suspicious. I learnt that big money, that too in dollars, can close any mouth. In fact originally, I was wondering about the conversion of so many dollars into Indian currency. But that fellow was too happy to take my US dollars as payment. He has promised to show me four designs tomorrow and I will be able to choose any two from that plan.
6th January- Today I am too depressed. I cried for one hour. The memory of my darling wife Susan and my twin babies is haunting me. I curse myself for the fateful day when I agreed to send Susan along with the babies, all alone to NY to see her mother. How could people be this cruel and heartless! Of course it is my sin, that I had helped these people with a lot of money laundering in different countries because of my greed for money, using my cloak as a doctor and an active member of Red-cross. But I never imagined that they would turn the tables on me one day .How much I begged them that I had been doing their work honestly so far. Then why they had no faith on me and kidnapped my family as pawns? I begged them so many times that all I need to talk just once to my wife. They refused. Sometimes, a fear haunts me that, after I have finished whatever they have asked me to do, would they honestly return my family to me? Oh God! When will I see my Susan and babies?
7th January- The threatening call came again today. I am madly trying to rush the things. But
these Indians are moving at a snail’s pace. The builder says that the architect has not still given him the design. Only when I tie up and finish the contract with this builder, I can go to the village and start my acting. Heaven knows how much that village is going to be helpful and how would that Purohitji react to my wishes? I pray God that my wife and kids are safe. Please Jesus, keep them safe till I finish the demands made by these ruthless wolves.
8th January- Oh God, bad luck again, the builder is down with fever. If it is Dengue as he suspects then it will take at least fifteen days for him to come back to work. Could I look for another builder? But then what about the risk? I cannot go on talking to so many builders when my mission is all illegal and secretive. Oh God, What will I do?
10th January- My depression is increasing and even the tablets are no more useful. It was this depression which got me into this trap. When I lost my eldest son in the accident, unable to put up with my depression, I made a big mistake. I walked into a Madrasa and when everyone talked so well to me, I was fooled. I started going to the Madrasa and even thought of changing my religion. But by chance one day I overheard two of them talking about me and their plans. I escaped from the town and changed my home and shifted my family. Here I happened to visit one Hindu Swamiji and his discourse really soothed me. I took a liking to Hinduism and started learning Sanskrit and Vedanta. But those men hunted for me like hell and finally found me out, and kidnapped my family. Using my Vedanta knowledge they wanted me to come to India to the Lingeshwar village and help them. I am trapped.