The Theory of Zero
Page 2
reason.
Next day I was on the way to office early as I had to select final Actors for my Ad commercial, my head was filled with last night’s discussions with Mr.Tamble. Finally I reached office and selected one female model who would be acting as the drop dead gorgeous character but for the homely character I couldn’t select one yet as I needed someone with a very sweet and sharp looks. But these days most of the models carry same type of look and style. They actually look like siblings, all of them. So I needed someone with individuality. Before I left office, I asked our casting manager to email me fresh models/actresses portfolios, in hope to find someone as I characterized.
Back home while I was sipping Ravi’s special cream coffee, the doorbell rang. A bit later Ravi came with a bunch of files. Ravi’s expression showed that Tamble Sir send those files. I smiled and asked Ravi to put those on my table. I checked my email and finally found a model with a natural sharp and sweet look with her individuality, Sunaina Sharma. I informed our casting manager to fix a meeting with Miss Sharma as soon as possible. Then with a fresh mind I started to read those files. It was about Arjun’s accident. I went through full report. According to eye witnesses on that local train, Arjun started to feel sick. It was an almost empty train.He was sitting on a window seat.One of the passengers helped him to walk near the open door area so that he could vomit.Then the passenger came back to his seat. When the train was about to reach the next station, passengers moved towards the gate to get off from the train but they saw no one at the gate. Arjun was not there. Later railway police found Arjun’s body beside the train track. He was sick and fell down from the running train. So it was an accident. Nothing suspicious. I noted down his home address and started going through other student’s accident report also. Nothing was much suspicious here too as there was not much about them in the report. I felt sleepy.
K N O C K K N O C K !!! – “Ohho” - “Ravi – ya ya – thank you for your morning hammer on my door”. Ravi loved to hammer at my door whenever I wake up late. He turned to the green monster ,HULK that time.Yes, I am really late today. Thanks to Mr.Hulk, I might avoid from being VERY late to LITTLE late. I was 30 minutes late, though most of the people in India have a habit of reaching late to show that how busy they are. But I find it as an extreme stupidity. So I always try to reach in time. Sunaina made me surprise when I found that she was exactly on time and was waiting for me from last 30 minutes. I felt bad and with my humble apology we started to discuss our work. She was confident and had a pleasant personality which matched perfectly with the character. I confirmed her selection.
After office, I was returning back home when I asked my driver to take me to “Jogeswari Temple”. Last night I had noted Arjun’s address. It was in “Janta-Colony”, just 5 minutes walking distance from the Temple.
After a bit of searching, I found his home. His parents were devastated, so I just asked few questions, mainly if they noticed any change in Arjun’s behavior before the unfortunate incident. Their answer made me feel suspicious for the first time. They told me that Arjun was upset because even after scoring higher marks, he couldn’t get job. But other students with lower marks got those jobs. Arjun’s parents thought that it was his misconception due to failure, that someone with much lower marks got those jobs. Still they did not ask much to Arjun as he was upset, but then they overheard about something related to Conspiracy & Scam when Arjun was talking on the phone. Arjun started to meet a reporter but they had no idea about his name, his mother thought that the day of Arjun’s death, he might have gone to meet the reporter.
I could not ask them more and left. Back home, I created the time line.
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ARJUN LEFT HOME [4.30 PM]
ARJUN DIED [10.30 PM]
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Where was Arjun between 4.30 PM to 10 PM ? [If he took the train at 10PM]
Who was the reporter?
What was the CONSPIRACY & SCAM?
I didn’t know when I slept while thinking these. I woke up early and had an early morning shoot. After that I went to the police station to meet Tamble Sir. I asked Tamble Sir a list of names and details of accidental and suspicious death happened in Mumbai during the week of Arjun’s death. Tamble Sir was a bit surprised but gave me the list. I came back home with the list and started my research. After 2 hours of research I found nothing much. No death seemed connected, except one. On same day of Arjun’s death there was another road accident and a reporter of local news had died. Then something came to my mind and I started to search nearby Café from the place of the road accident and found four Cafés. I planned to visit those four Cafes tomorrow just out of an intuition. Next morning I went to the Cafes to do inquiry. I had a picture of Arjun with me and showed it to the staffs of those cafés. Most of them could not remember but one of the café had security cam. I had to bribe the manager with some money and asked him to let me go through the footage on that day of Arjun’s death. Bingo ! ! ! I found Arjun. He was there from 5 PM to 9.30 PM. He had 4 cups of coffee but no one came to meet him. He was waiting for someone sure as he was looking at his watch many times. That local reporter also died in the road accident at 6PM. What if Arjun was waiting for him and had no idea that the reporter was killed already? and on the way back home he was also MURDERED. OH my god! If my theory was correct then it was much bigger than what Tamble Sir and I had expected. It could be an organized, well planned murder.
“Right now I cannot fill my mind with such perspectives because I have an ad shoot to execute.” I told this to myself and turned my focus at work. Shoot was good. Sunaina and the other girl did their job perfectly. I was about to leave the shooting floor and saw Sunaina was standing in front of her car. It was smoke all around.
I – “Smoking is injurious to heath.”
Sunaina – “I wish my idiot car was a bit smart. Then I could have saved him.But now it’s too late.”[With a sad face].
We both laughed over our funny conversation. I told her that I could drop her at home but she refused and told me that she would take a cab from the nearby cab-stand. Then with a warm exchange of smile I was walking towards my car but felt bad and it was 10 pm already. So I turned back to her and insisted her to walk along till she reached the cab-stand. The stand was 15 minutes walking distance from our shooting studio. So we had few normal chat regarding work by the time we reached the stand. One cab was there but the cab driver was having dinner so he asked us to wait for 5 minutes and then he would drive. So we chatted a bit more. I was standing on the edge of the road and was facing her. Suddenly I heard a sharp noise and before I was able to understand anything, Sunaina pulled me with all her power and I fell on my face beside her. While I tried to get back on my feet, she already started to apologize for dragging me and the cab driver also helped to pull me up. There was a car which lost control and was about to hit me but Sunaina dragged me away from the way of car and saved me or else I would have ended up in a hospital bed with a very critical injury. When I fell down I hurt my left leg. It was bleeding. I thanked Sunaina for saving my life and told her to go home as it was already late. But she took me to a nearby medical store and helped to treat my wound then she left for home. She also noted down the car license plate number which she gave me.
I opened my eyes and saw Ravi was standing near my bed. I was so tired that I forgot to close my door last night. I also did not tell Ravi about the accident. But there was some blood on my bed, probably leaked from my wound. Ravi saw the blood when he came with my morning Coffee. So he was waiting for me to wake up. I told him the incident briefly. After listing the incident Ravi went silent for few minutes.
I – This time she saved me Ravi. I did nothing.
Ravi [with a thoughtful face] – you need to get married now.
I – What? haha.. What is the relation between an accident & marriage?
Ravi [With a very intelligent look] – In our village there’s an old saying that when your son/daughter reach marriage age but are avoiding marriage and he/she are facing problems unknowingly then it was God’s sign to get married.
I laughed and was rolling over my bed on Ravi’s intelligent solution. Ravi did not like that so he left my room. I heard the doorbell just then. A bit later Ravi came with a surprised look and told me someone came to meet you. I nodded my head and asked him why he was looking so surprised suddenly. Then I went to the drawing room and saw Sunaina there. I understood Ravi’s reason to be surprised. She told me that she could not sleep last night after the incident and it was coming to her mind again and again. I thanked her again and really no thank you could be enough. Sunaina was humble and requested me not to thank her any more. Then she asked me if I had informed the