Fruitcake - Volume 1
I woke up with a start at the slamming noise of the car door shutting. As I adjusted my eyes to the darkness of the midnight groggily, I saw that Vikash had the front seat in an inclined position and was resting. On looking towards the sharp sound, I could see Master Da entering the car.
I looked at my watch and it was around 3:00 a.m.
In a sleepy tone, I asked Master da “What happened, why are you in the hospital?”
Master da replied, “I am planning on waiting for Maanya. Tomorrow morning we will go home together.”
I could not help but observe that whenever Miss. Sengupta was anywhere Master da, he exhibits a certain softness and tenderness in his behavior. It was hard not to notice the increasing proximity and caring between Miss Sengupta and Master da. After master da lost his family a few years back, he has disconnected himself from this world and mostly kept to himself or in the company of the children of the villages. I had the better sense to keep my thoughts to myself and not bring them up in front of Master Da I and bring up old wounds.
Vikash was awake and enquired if we wanted some tea and I replied yes. He gestured the tea seller and ordered 3 cups of black tea. It is said that black tea is very good for relieving stress.
As we were waiting for our tea, I gathered the courage to ask master da more about Miss. Sengupta and the incident that took place in Mrs. Das’s residence.
“Master da if you don’t mind, can I ask you something?”
He replied, “Of course, go ahead.”
“What happened in Mrs. Das’s residence that evening, and how do you know about Tribeni Majumdar?” I asked.
Master da replied “Do you believe in Karma? Do you believe that you need to do just one good deed in your life, and God will send someone to protect you till eternity?”
I replied “To tell you the truth, I am not much of a believer in God or Karma, but my experience during the past few days has restored my faith in a higher power. But what has that incident got to do anything with Karma.”
“Do you remember, I once told you I teach children from the villages,” asked Master da.
“Yes… why,” I asked.
“Well, what happened was my reputation within the villages in Purulia grew to such an extent that the villagers and children nicknamed me Master. My house is considered a protective sanctuary for anyone, be it a villager who is in trouble or any person in need of help. During my years with the movement, I happened to meet Tribeni Majumdar once, and he showed an immense deal of respect towards my intellectual knowledge and my philanthropic activities.”
“Due to political pressure, Mr. Majumdar went into hiding back in 1984 and was never seen again. Just last week, he came and met me and said that he wanted to surrender and if I knew anyone from the home ministry, I should call them.”
I knew only one person from the West Bengal Civil Services, Maanya Sengupta. So I decided to call her and tell her about him.”
Remember the very day, you and Vikash came to my home with your sister and told me all about that child, Tribeni Da was hiding inside the house and heard everything.
I was in a dilemma on how to convince the teacher to quit, and then Tribeni dada gave me a great idea to make sure, she stays away from Geeta.
Right after you guys left, Maanya came to my place from Kolkata and I introduced her to Tribeni Dada.
They came here to check out Geeta’s condition with the doctor. You might be thinking, how come no one recognized him in the hospital, then it’s simple, no one has seen him for 24 years.
Now here the main story starts. Maanya had a daughter Sunaina who was killed in a road accident 7 years ago. You might have remembered that the sports body of India organized a tournament to find the 10 best basketball players from the country who would represent India in Youth Olympics 1994 in Florida. That day the team from Bengal played a match against Tripura. After the match, they were returning to their training center when they met with an accident. All the players were killed except for 4 of them.
I interrupted “Master da, we have seen the newspaper reports, It says there were 2 survivors only.”
“You are right, even though the newspaper reports mentioned that there were 2 survivors, but the truth was there were 4 survivors of which 1 of them died on the way to the hospital, and the other one died 2 days later.” clarified Master da.
He continued “According to Maanya, she says that the eyewitness reports say that 2 children who looked like they were not more than 7 or 8 years old tried their best to pull out all the children from the bus before it caught fire and exploded. The 2 children who tried to rescue the children, suffered a lot of burns due to the explosion and were also admitted in serious condition. She later came to know that both the children were in a comatose state, so the parents of the 2 children got them transferred to a different hospital. Maanya has been searching for the children since that day because she is grateful and believes that just because of the bravery of those 2 children, she was able to hear her child’s voice for the last time.”
“Master da do you know the names of these 4 kids?” I asked.
He replied, “No, the sports body decided not to reveal the names of the 4 kids and due to a lot of pressure from the higher authorities, Maanya was not able to intervene in that case.”
Did I hear it right, “Why would the higher up’s stop a cop from doing her duty.” I asked.
“Well, we both have been trying to figure out the answer to that question all these years.” he replied.
“So did she stop looking for the child?” I asked.
Master da continued, “After her child died, Maanya has been searching for the 2 children ever since. Till today she has not given up on those children. With time passing the chances of finding the whereabouts of the 2 children grew slim to none. All Maanya could find out was how the children looked, and that too through a photograph which her daughter had.”
“Amidst all those investigations that took place for the search of the missing children, on the eve of 22nd December 1993, Maanya came really close to finding one of the 2 kids when Mr. Banerjee approached her to help his child. When she saw the child’s photo and the police report, her search ended, she found the child she was looking for.”
“She started to keep a close watch over the child, helping the child in every way possible. However, one day the child went missing again. She came to know from Mr. Banerjee that he had sent the child abroad to complete the studies.”
“Sorry to interrupt you master da, but I have a question,” I replied.
“Yes… tell me…”
“That day when Mr. Banerjee came and told you she was Addl. Superintendent of Police, Did you pretend that you never knew, she was a cop or you really meant it? I mean, your face clearly indicated that you didn’t know that she was a cop.” I asked.
You are right, I didn’t know, she was a cop. I knew that she cleared the West Bengal Civil Services, so I concluded that she would have taken up an administration job instead of opting for the state police service. An administrative officer, doing investigative work was not a new thing.”
“Now coming back, 6 years passed and then Tribeni Dada happened. I told Maanya about Mrs. Das and Geeta and then she agreed to help me, find out a way to convince her to leave. They came to the hospital that night when everyone had left. They interacted with the doctors and when Maanya saw your friend Geeta in that condition, she was moved to tears. She couldn’t bear to see a child in such a poor condition. Her maternal instincts clicked in and she promised me that she will not leave Purulia till she is absolutely sure the child is safe”
“Maanya, Tribeni dada and I devised a plan to trap her. She called up her team in Kolkata and did a background verification on the teacher, which included her phone records, bank transactions, etc. We wanted to find out a loophole that can help us in blackmailing her to quit. We found out that every month thousands of rupees are transferred into her account. and in the name of tuitions, she only teaches one child, someone at the Banerjee residence. She lives in a bungalow which according to her husband doesn’t belong to them, but has been gifted to her by Mr. Banerjee.”
Finally, Tribeni da came up with a plan. He asked us to try talking to her nicely first, if she agrees then it is fine, however, if she doesn’t listen, then I should make a call to him from her residence. Maanya should inform her team that she had gotten information that one of the most wanted Naxalite leader Tribeni Majumdar who has been in hiding for the last 24 years has suddenly surfaced and is believed to be somewhere in Purulia and that they should start tracking his calls. So when he receives a call, they would be able to backtrace the call, which would show up from her house. You guys can then force her to quit the job or go behind bars, and we both know what would be her answer.
We can get a lawyer and get her out on bail and considering the judicial system of India, she would be a free woman.
The 3 of us felt that it is a good decision, and no one would be harmed, however, the problem happened when she used those derogatory words against that child and finally yesterday when she used that particular word to describe the child, Maanya thought it would be better for her to spend a few days behind bars.”
“Wow… I don’t believe it… You guys have gone to such an extent… What if you land into some sort of trouble.” I asked.
Master da replied, “Trust me, everything has been planned to the last detail.”
Master da’s honest but nonchalant description of all these events scared me to a huge extent. I could not shake this impending sense of doom and logic that if I stay with that man, I might end up in some sort of trouble sooner or later. It feels like my father is right, I should be immensely careful of the company I keep. But in the current context, I had no other option but to maintain my cordialness with him. Not because of Geeta, but for the sake of my family, I had to be strong.
A lot of things had happened during the past 19 hours. The number of surprises I received in the past 19 hours was enough to render me sleepless for a few days. Amidst all this, I kept wondering where were the missing pages of the journal, What happened to that child of Mr. Banerjee. Where have they been during the past 6 years? Gosh… things are really getting confusing and much too mysterious out here…
