Greed Lust Addiction

by Ravi Dabral

  Mr. Gupta was stamping some papers while he spoke, “Are you with me so far?”

  I said, “Yes.”

  He continued speaking, “Well to move on; you might have noticed on your way around the city, the beggars at red lights and crossings. Their presence there satisfies two purposes; to move drugs from one place to another, and the other being the sale of their vital organs as and when required by rich people and for trafficking to rich countries – and all these illegal activities are carried out under the patronage of ruling party ministers who are minting money this way as well.”

  Suddenly, Mr. Gupta’s cell phone rang, and I took that opportunity to reflect on all that I had heard until now. My mind jumped from one place to the other, thinking that once I retired from the police force, I could stand for an election to become a minister to mint money. It seemed to me that the amount of money they must be earning was beyond imagination.

  Mr. Gupta finished his phone call and pulled me out of my daydreams, “So, what were you thinking about?”

  “Oh, I was just wondering what qualifications I would require for becoming a minister,” I replied.

  Mr. Gupta laughed and said, “Already thinking big, I like it. This is the spirit we need in our money-minting team members. Well, you don’t need any qualifications to become a minister apart from being the biggest bully and scoundrel on the field. Now coming back to your question, let us talk about the kidnapping industry.”

  As soon as Mr. Gupta started to talk, he was interrupted by a knock on the door. An old man dressed as a constable came in and announced, “Sir, Mr. Tej Prakash Sharma wants to have a word with you.”

  “Very well, let him in,” said Mr. Gupta. “Vijay, Mr. Sharma is a very important person, and it must be something very urgent if Mr. Sharma has personally come to meet me here. I have to meet him. Why don’t you wait outside while I finish this meeting, and meanwhile get tea for yourself.”

  As I walked out, I got a good look at Mr. Sharma. He looked every inch a prominent businessman with smart looks, clean shaven, wearing an expensive suit and tie with colourful flowers patterns on it. He carried a small briefcase while going into Mr. Gupta’s cabin.

  As we walked out, the constable introduced himself as Ram Narayan Tiwari. He looked about half of Mr. Gupta’s size. His hair was completely white, with not even a spot of grey in it. His age should have been around fifty-eight years, but surprisingly he had no pot-belly. He looked weak for a constable. I could hardly imagine him catching a mouse, leave alone a criminal. I told him my name was Vijay Joshi. He studied my face, as though assessing how best to categorise me. He then asked, “Are you by any chance related to the journalist Suraj Joshi who recently died in an accident?”

  I nodded and said, “Yes, he was my elder brother. But, how do you know him?”

  3

  Materialism Philosophy ‘Eat, Drink and be Merry’

  T he elderly constable put his hand on my shoulder and with wet eyes said, “I met Suraj a couple of times when he visited our police station to help someone lodge a complaint. From just one encounter, I could tell that he was a humble, honest and courageous journalist. It is my pleasure to meet you, for now I know you are his brother. So, tell me, Vijay, is this your first day, and so far, what have you learnt from Mr. Gupta?”

  “Yes, today is my first day. Mr. Gupta was just telling me the basics,” I replied.

  Mr. Tiwari said, “He must have been telling you how corrupt our system is and what are the various avenues to earn money out of this corrupt system?”

  Mr. Tiwari looked at me straight in the eyes and said, “Remember, we are the ones who are corrupt, because of our greed and addiction to monetary things. It is easy to pass on the blame to others for being corrupt, without looking at ourselves. In fact, greed, lust and addiction are the causes of most of the crimes in this world. Being materialistic in life is not necessarily bad, but one must deserve to reserve those material things through hard work and skills rather than choosing corrupt practices as a shortcut.

  I know what Mr. Gupta must have told you, how the so-called VIPs make money and give us a share of it, to keep our eyes and ears closed, and mouths shut, like the three monkeys of Gandhiji. I would suggest you focus on earning respect by safeguarding the interests of the public, like your brother, rather than focussing on minting cash at this initial stage of your career.”

  Mr. Tiwari asked, “Do you know the story of the two mythological sages Brihaspati and Charvaka and their philosophies about spiritualism and materialism?”

  Before I could reply to him and say, “No, I don’t know,” Mr. Gupta’s door opened as he came to see Mr. Sharma off. I could hear him saying, “Don’t worry Mr. Sharma, you did well to inform us in advance, we will take care of it.” He motioned with his finger for me to come into his cabin.

  I did not get a chance to see Mr. Tiwari’s face before going into Mr. Gupta’s cabin. As I walked in and settled down in the chair, Mr. Gupta asked, “What was Mr. Tiwari trying to preach to you?”

  I said, “Oh, he was trying to tell me that it is we who are corrupt from inside but blame the outside world. It is more appropriate to earn respect rather than money.”

  Mr. Gupta said, “Did he tell you any story about two sages?”

  I said, “Yes, he was about to tell me that story, but you called me inside.”

  Mr. Gupta smiled and said, “Don’t worry, I will tell you the story.”

  Mr. Gupta started the story, “As per our mythology, there were two sages Brihaspati and Charvaka. Sage Brihaspati, the teacher of Devtas or Deities, is regarded as the traditional founder of the materialistic school of thought. Brihaspati propagated materialism philosophy, that is ‘eat, drink and be merry’ among the Asuras or Devils so that their whole lives they would be busy in all this and finally be ruined on their own without giving any trouble to Deities.

  Sage Charvaka, said to be one of the chief disciples of sage Brihaspati, was impressed with the materialism philosophy. He promoted and spread it among Devils. As it is easier to be addicted to vices than virtues, it spread very fast like fire in a jungle and even reached the ordinary people and became a way of their lifestyle. People who used to earlier worship Nature or Deities due to their supernatural powers and virtues soon became addicted to a lifestyle full of materialism, and soon inherited the vices of devils which still exists in modern society.”

  Mr. Gupta continued saying, “Materialistic way of life is the way of enjoying the pleasures of the five senses, mainly bodily enjoyments, thus ignoring the sixth common sense, intellect and reasoning power for virtuous and righteous decision making.

  As per materialism, enjoyment is the end of human existence. There is neither heaven, hell nor final liberation, nor does our soul roam in another world waiting for rebirth or reincarnation as mentioned in the Vedas.

  As per Charvaka, the illusion of the soul is due to a particular combination of four elements—earth, water, fire, and air. Maybe through a chemical process generating wild thoughts and dreams in mind, humans were led to believe that they are special people on this earth and should have values and ethics which are mere phantoms created by a diseased mind.

  Charvaka’s philosophy declared that religion is the means of livelihood of the priests, propagated by kings, rulers or politicians since the inception of civilisation, to fool and rule the innocent public.”

  I was amazed at Mr. Gupta’s wisdom and said, “Sir, I am very impressed with your knowledge of the philosophy of materialism.”

  He burst out in a hearty laugh and said, “No, I will not take credit for knowing this philosophy; all this was told by Mr. Tiwari when I joined the police force. He tells this story to every recruit, to advise that taking a bribe is the first step towards materialism and becoming a devil. His advice is that we need to follow values, virtues, and morals which to me look useless in today’s materialistic world.”

  Mr. Gupta continued saying, “As virtuous as spiritualism philosophy might be,
it only feeds the soul which we don’t know whether it exists or not. Also, if the soul exists, it won’t give you money to feed yourself or your family.”

  “Moving on,” said Mr. Gupta, “Do you know why businessman Mr. Sharma was here?”

  I said, “No, Sir.”

  Mr. Gupta said, “I will tell you shortly. Before that, let me tell you about another income generating avenue, which is kidnapping.”

  “One of the objectives behind kidnapping is extortion of money from rich businessmen who do not show their financial support to the ruling political party during elections. The politicians take revenge on them using the services of the underworld mafia. Mr. Sharma came here to tell me about one such kidnapping incident that took place in his family. I told him to pay the money demanded by the kidnappers, and I will mediate the deal to ensure the safe return of his family member. The beauty is that I will be able to accomplish this simply by a phone call as I know through my informers who the kidnappers are. Can you see how efficient we are?” He smiled as he said, “Not even the Scotland Yard Police can match up to our efficiency.”

  “Problems arise when the unprofessional kidnappers get a little too bloodthirsty and kill the kidnapped person despite getting money from the family, because of identity issues, as the kidnapper is generally a close relative, friend, domestic staff or employee. Can you imagine how dangerous close family members or known persons could be as compared to underworld mafia?”

  Mr. Gupta said, “Another good source of income is by doing encounters. There are all types of encounters available at our counters—political, gangsters who take police’s help to kill key persons of rival gangs, encounters due to business rivalries, etc. Just imagine how we clean the society of undesirable elements and at the same time earn money?”

  I wondered why Mr. Gupta was disclosing all the secrets and confidential details to me on the first day itself, without any hesitation or apprehension.

  “As you are well aware,” Mr. Gupta said, “Uttarakhand is a state abundant in natural resources and forest areas. The contractors are licensed to cut only old, dry and unproductive trees, but since the demand is high, they end up cutting recently grown green trees as well. In case of an inspection, they set fire to the entire forest to hide any evidence of their crime.

  Even though illegal mining and chopping of trees lead to many ecological disasters such as floods, earthquakes, and landslides, we cannot interfere as we are bound to follow the instructions of the top officials who report to bureaucrats and ministers.

  These are only some of the major illegal activities that go on around Dehradun. If you keep your ears and eyes open, you will find many more instances to fill your pockets while on the job.”

  My brain was bursting with so much information about a parallel black economy.

  Mr. Gupta gave me another one of his wicked smiles and said, “You and I are at the very base of the corruption ladder; soon you will learn just how steep the ladder really is.”

  Mr. Gupta spoke again, “You must understand, the only reason I am telling you about all these money minting activities on the first day of your job is that I don’t want you to run into them by chance and make mistakes even before your career has begun. If you are going to play the part of an honest police inspector, tell me now, upfront, without any hesitation. I will get you transferred to a department where you won’t have to make these choices or compromises. I strongly suggest you make your choice now and decide on your loyalties because the politicians, greedy businessmen, and mafia are very dangerous people who do not take kindly to being betrayed.”

  Without a moment’s hesitation, I replied, “I understand your position, Sir, and I have absolutely no doubt about my role in what you have told me. You can count me as a loyal member of your money-minting club”.

  “That is good to hear, Vijay,” said Mr. Gupta, “If you do your job quietly and follow the ‘just ignore’ policy, you will rise through the ranks in no time. You should be able to recover the ₹ 50 lakh in two to three years, without any problem.”

  I stood up and headed for the door when Mr. Gupta interrupted and instructed me, “As you go out of this room, please open the windows.”

  I thanked Mr. Gupta for his guidance and finally made my way out of his cabin after opening the windows, which signified opening a new world of opportunities for me to enjoy material things.

  I spent the rest of the day going around getting introduced to other colleagues and going over the day to day routine. I realised pretty quickly that protecting the ordinary people was secondary, and safeguarding the interests of politicians was primary.

  At 5 o’clock I called Seema to plan a celebration for my new job. I couldn’t wait to get home and lay my hands on Suraj’s diaries, curiously hoping for some fascinating clues about the hidden side of his life.

  4

  Diplomacy Policy

  M y first day at the job had been a success, considering how much I had learnt from my senior about the so-called art of minting money from the corrupt system.

  I couldn’t wait to meet Seema, because I had not met her in the past few months since I had been in police training and she was stationed at a remote village for her work as a journalist. It was a double celebration as I had completed my training and she, her assignment. Seema works at the same news channel my brother Suraj had. Once she finished her course in journalism, she had joined Freedom News Channel (FNC) as an intern under Suraj’s supervision.

  Seema’s father, Mr. Raghunath Bhatt is a sociology professor at the DAV Postgraduate College in Dehradun. Suraj used to study under him and was one of his favourite students because of his disciplined, cultured and studious nature. It was on his recommendation that Suraj got Seema the internship at FNC. Seema and I met in college, and it was love at first sight, at least for me.

  She was a simple girl, modestly dressed, and had no airs about herself. Most of the boys would not give her a second glance, as she had no glamour. However, she had an inner beauty which was seen in her contagious smile, and this attracted me. Her entire appearance changed when she smiled, and this look of simplicity floored me. Her simplicity was her beauty which increased when she dressed in western outfits, a blend of east and west. In some ways, she was a socialist like Suraj, always trying to serve the community as best as she could, by protesting against crimes and other injustices committed against the poor.

  When I was around Seema, I had to be on my best behaviour, trying to portray myself as a cultured, concerned citizen of India. Usually, I couldn’t care less, but to win Seema’s affection, I was willing to make a little effort to show myself otherwise. I couldn’t show my capitalist nature to her, my limitless desire for money and all the luxuries it could buy. She would definitely leave me if I did so.

  I am not saying straightforwardness or people pleaser policies are wrong, but to me, diplomacy policy is the middle path for living a stress-free life in today’s impatient, troubled and fast materialistic routine life. Life is all about adjustments and compromises. Therefore, whenever we met, I discussed the topics that interested her.

  Seema was seated at our favourite corner table in the Doon Café, and soft music was playing as I walked in through the door. I felt a surge of warmth when I saw her. She hugged me and asked, “How are you, Vijay? How was your first day? I hope you are enjoying your role as an enforcer of the law.”

  I smiled at her and said, “Yes, today was a fascinating day, to say the least. I learnt a lot about what my role is going to be as an inspector.”

  After that Seema kept plaguing me with question after question. I had to interrupt her, “Seema, I am meeting you after a long time, and here you are insisting on questioning me like an investigative journalist. Why don’t you tell me about your assignment for a change?”

  Seema laughed, “Oh! It was good to actually be at the centre of action for a change and to see the village life up close. It was appalling to see how people survive without the most crucial resources that we
are so accustomed to in the cities. Of course, the Government does formulate schemes and welfare plans for their benefit. But once you get down to the implementation of it at ground level, there is nothing there. For example, The National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (N.R.E.G.A.) is supposed to provide basic employment to the people in rural places. To implement that, they have a system that villagers get their cards stamped for each day’s work. Even though it is a good system, the villagers go to the local governing facility and get their cards stamped without doing the work. In return, they have to pay 50 percent of their daily wages to the stamping officer. This is just a mockery of the welfare schemes floated by politicians to fill their pockets as well as to get votes.”

  Seema had the habit of getting a little carried away when it came to issues of socio-political-economic nature.

  I teasingly said to her, “If you are so concerned about these things, then why don’t you stand for elections to control such misuse of funds.”

  Seema shouted at me, “To you, it is fun because these things do not have an impact on your life. You’ve got a well-paying job now, so why will you bother about the millions of people who suffer every day.”

  I looked down at my cup of coffee; it wasn’t pleasant being shouted at by Seema. I apologised and said, “When will you start working on a cover story on this issue that your channel will finally air in the air?”

  “What do you mean by ‘air in the air’? Don’t make fun of my story, Vijay,” said Seema.

  I said, “I am not making fun; all I am saying is that it is the role of a journalist to highlight social, political and economic issues. But who are you highlighting these to? The public who are being exploited by these schemes or the bureaucrats and politicians who are enjoying the money out of these schemes? I have seen countless debates and group discussions on news channels; the party’s spokespersons always defend themselves either by twisted or illogical answers without any reliable data or by blaming the previous governments. I have been watching them for years, and nothing about this pattern changes. The poor people continue to suffer even after so many years of independence.”