The Astral Alibi

by Manjiri Prabhu

The night lamp flickered, announcing the return of the electricity, and Jatin switched on the tube, flooding the office with light.

  “I guess it’s time to go home,” Mohnish said, tugging on his jacket. “That ghost won’t return in a hurry, now that he knows we’ve made the connection between his notes and him!”

  “And because of my whack!”

  Sonia and Mohnish flashed each other amused looks. “And because of your thoughtfulness,” she acceded, and her assistant finally looked appeased and pleased.

  Sonia settled Nidhi on her pillow and stroked her till she curled up again.

  “Okay everybody, pack-up time!”

  Sonia studied the horoscope intently. She could very nearly visualise Asit—tall, silent, and romantic. She grimaced. Her head was groggy and filled with romantic nonsense, she realised, thanks to Mohnish! She had barely slept last night and the few winks she had managed had been interspersed with images of a make-believe Asit and a very real Mohnish. She had awakened disoriented and finding difficulty in sifting imagination from reality. She couldn’t help thinking back to last night. He had been different. More like the Mohnish she had met for the first time. Confident, almost arrogant with some hidden, inner knowledge. Mysterious, too, about the phone call. If the power failure hadn’t happened when it did, what would he have said to her? And more important, how would she have reacted to him? Sonia sighed. She felt totally confused and ill equipped to handle anything beyond simple friendship. What had he said earlier. A delicate boundary protecting friendship. Had he overstepped his boundary of friendship? And had she also unknowingly trespassed over that line?

  Sonia shook her head in frustration. She didn’t at all fancy her line of thinking. No doubt this case was giving her ideas and forcing amorous thoughts into her mind. She was an investigator and she had no time for relationships—at least, not yet. Besides, she wasn’t completely free of a certain man with blue-green eyes, who was invisible physically, but omnipresent like a road speed-breaker in her emotional path. There was only one thing to do, if she had to retain her wits and behave like a rational and practical human being—she had to forget the whole notion of romance!

  With fresh resolve, she buzzed the intercom.

  “Yes, Boss!”

  “Jatin, I need music.”

  “Right away, Boss!”

  It was only when Jatin had slipped a hard-rock CD into the player and had speedily escaped from the room that Sonia recovered some semblance of peace. The loud guitar music raked into her brain noisily. She focused completely on the horoscope, her foot tapping with the rhythm. Suddenly, her eyes were drawn to a constellation. The Lord of the fourth house Mars was in the ninth house in his own sign Aries! Which meant that ultimately Asit would settle in a city and in his birth place and prosper there. Where was he born, she tried to recall. Mumbai! That was it! Mumbai was where he ought to have settled! Something else attracted her attention. Venus and Mars in the ninth house indicated a very fruitful career in arts and media. There was a great possibility of him changing his career along the way. A powerful Mars, and Venus and Harshal in opposition further hinted at a very technologically advanced artistic profession. Sonia raised her head and closed her eyes. A bell seemed to ring at the back of her mind. What career could Asit choose? Opening her eyes, she quickly rummaged through her drawer and extracted the wooden box, withdrawing the letters. One by one she scanned them again, and suddenly she paused, excited. One single reference leaped up at her. Photography! This had to be it! After all, his horoscope indicated that he was talented and could pursue a career in it. Perhaps that was why she had not succeeded in finding an Engineer Asit. Feeling excited, she realised that finally she had struck gold—found a clue to his whereabouts. Mumbai and photography, the two important key words!

  Sonia thrust the letters back into the box along with the horoscope and hastened into the outer office. Jatin was wrapping a gift he had bought. But the moment he saw his Boss’s face, he paused.

  “Found something?” he asked.

  “I believe so. But I’ll know for sure in a minute. Jatin, you can do something in the meanwhile. Find out from the Mumbai phone directory if they have an Asit Rao listed.”

  Jatin rose with alacrity and set to work, while Sonia settled once more at the computer. Within minutes she was Googling the words Asit and photography, and within seconds several sites scrolled on the screen. She ran an eye over them. The last name was a website called Sitara.com. Sonia stared at it. A photographer’s site. Sitara. Could it be? Sitara—a combination of Asit and Tara—her heart began a tattoo of anticipation, as she clicked on the site. Images unfolded—portraits and photos of men, women, and children in varied landscapes, seasons, and situations, touched up electronically, some with special effects. And then she saw a particular photo. She clicked on it to enlarge it. It was a black-and-white image of a beautiful woman dancing at a party. Her face was turned to the camera and she was smiling. And instinctively Sonia knew. This was Tara!

  The Mumbai seascape stretched into eternity. Standing near the monumental Gateway of India and staring up at its huge arches, with the sea breeze caressing her face, Sonia experienced a great wave of appreciation. The Gateway of India, with its four turrets and lattice-work carved in yellow basalt stone, was completed in 1924, built to commemorate the visit of Britain’s King George and Queen Mary. When the British rule ended, the last British ship had sailed from the Gateway. Steps led down it to awaiting boats which would either take tourists on a ride of the harbour or to the famous Elephanta caves ten kilometres away.

  Evening fell, casting a golden glow over the lapping sea and the majestic monument. Pigeons fluttered, pecking at grains thrown by tourists. Opposite the Gateway rose the grand Taj Hotel, which afforded a splendid view of the Mumbai harbour. Hawkers sat along the pavement, selling gift articles and picture postcards. Sonia almost felt like a tourist. It was rarely that she came down to the southern part of Mumbai, the prettiest part of the city, with its Nariman Drive fondly known as the Queen’s Necklace, royal Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, and the magnificent Gateway of India. It was also the perfect spot for her to meet with Asit.

  She had researched his phone number and had called him up. To her great delight, he had agreed to meet her here. Sonia hadn’t said a word to Devika, wanting to ensure his credibility before she broke the news to her. She had driven down to Mumbai in the morning, visited her grandmother in Bandra, and then arrived at the Gateway, all set to interact with the man who had provoked so much passion in the lovely Tara and so much curiosity within her.

  Artificial lights sprang up to illuminate the monument, and the sea lapped in folds of red and yellow. Sonia spotted a man, dressed in jeans and a loose black denim shirt, approaching her hesitantly. Asit, without doubt. Tall, dusky, and still handsome, despite the abundant grey in his thick hair. She straightened and raised an arm in recognition and he smiled.

  “Sonia Samarth?” he asked in a deep voice.

  “Asit Rao!” Sonia extended her hand. “I’m so glad to meet you!”

  “And I’m glad to meet you! Did you say that you have something for me from Tara?” he asked without preamble.

  “Why don’t we sit down?” She indicated a stone slab and he readily nodded.

  “How do you know Tara? Are you related to her?” Asit seemed impatient to get down to details.

  “Actually, no, but I’ve been hired to find you.” Strangely, she had the uncanny impression that she had known this man all her life. Tara’s letters—so explicit, and expressive—were no doubt responsible for this familiarity. After reading them, Asit seemed more like a lost friend to her than a complete stranger.

  “Find me?” He sounded genuinely surprised. “How is she, by the way? Doing well?”

  Sonia looked at his eager face and realised, with a tug of her heart, that he didn’t know!

  She took a deep breath, hating to be the one to break it to him. “Tara passed away last year.”

  He sucked
in his breath sharply and instant horror replaced his complacent expression.

  “I’m sorry if it came as a shock,” Sonia murmured.

  He stared at her unseeingly, then his gaze shifted to the sea. A look of yearning and wretchedness crossed his face.

  “I should have known. I’ve been feeling this hollow pit inside of me for months. I should’ve guessed that she was no more in this world!” Sudden tears began pouring down his cheeks and he brushed them away fiercely. “It’s over. The tale of lost love! She won!”

  Sonia caught her breath at this display of raw emotions, wanting to comfort him but knowing it was pointless. Instead, she turned her face away towards the sea, allowing him his private moment of grief. Finally he extracted a kerchief from his pocket and dabbed his face.

  “Did you say she left something for me?” His voice quivered.

  She nodded. “Letters.”

  “Letters? She never wrote me!”

  “Letters which she never posted. I don’t have them with me at the moment. I simply came to confirm your identity. Her granddaughter will hand them to you.”

  “Letters from Tara…How I’ve longed for one from her. From that first moment I saw her, at her house, I knew that I had found my soul-mate. Age didn’t matter, there was only one woman I would ever love in my life. It was Tara. And it was the same for her. Time and again she would ask me to leave, but I managed to convince her that there was a future for us. Specially after my graduation and as I pursued a career in engineering, I tried to make her see reason. And she accepted for a while. But though she knew it deep in her heart that we were meant to be together, she wouldn’t accept my marriage proposal. She was petrified that she had let it go that far, held herself responsible for encouraging me. She couldn’t see that I was beyond encouragement. I loved her far too much and her only offence was not to let me into her life, as I wished. But her priority was her children and the dread of others’ comments. I told her I didn’t care, but she was determined. After the proposal, she asked me to leave. She made me promise never to contact her again. I tried once or twice, but each time she got so agitated that I finally decided to leave her alone. She promised me that when she needed me, she would get in touch with me. I’ve been waiting all these years, in the dear hope that she would see sense and that we could be together again. And now it’s too late.” His voice shook with an emotion he had no power to control.

  “She wrote about five letters to you. There may have been more, but we never found them. She wrote to you immediately after your graduation and whenever she wanted you to leave but didn’t have the courage to tell you so to your face.”

  “Courage? Tara had plenty of courage. She managed to reject me several times. Perhaps she succeeded, that’s why she never sent me those letters!”

  “And later, she really did wish to send you the letters but she didn’t have your address. That’s why we’ve been trying to locate you.”

  “She wanted to meet me?” Tears sprang up in his eyes again. “I wish I hadn’t listened to her! I should have just stormed into her house, brushed aside her protests, and swept her away! I wish I hadn’t wasted our lives and our love!” Asit covered his face with his hands as regret ravaged his soul.

  Sonia watch helplessly, empathizing with his powerful distress and heartache. Love was a supreme emotion, an essence of life, a vital flame, a throbbing energy, an elixir. But the hold of love over the heart, body, and mind was terrifying!

  Suddenly he looked up. “Can you come with me?”

  Without awaiting a response, he rose and began striding towards a car. Sonia hastened after him, feeling as if she was caught in a tidal wave. She slid into the passenger seat of the car and he edged it out of the parking and onto Nariman Drive—a street which swept all along the sea like a necklace. Night had fallen and the illuminated street lamps curved with the road like jewels.

  Within minutes, Asit turned into another parking lot, leading her into an elevator up to the tenth floor. Fishing into his pocket, he took out a key and inserted it into the lock, swinging the door open.

  “My home and studio!” he announced brusquely.

  He flicked the button and a row of lights in the false ceiling bathed the long hall with brilliant lights. Sonia gasped. Directly opposite her, a window covered a whole wall, overlooking the Arabian Sea and the twinkling lights of Mumbai.

  “Wow! What a view!” she remarked spontaneously.

  “Beautiful, isn’t it? But certainly no more beautiful than this!” He walked forward, switching on lights as he did so. Sonia stared. Life-size, black-and-white photographs of a beautiful woman covered the wall. Tara. As Sonia moved from photo to photo, admiring the beauty of the woman captured by an expert cameraman’s lens, her eyes grew misty. Then she turned to face Asit. He was staring at a close-up of Tara, who seemed to be smiling straight at him.

  “You still love her, don’t you?” she asked, almost in a whisper.

  “I will always love her, till my heart stops feeling and beating.”

  “You never married?”

  “I was married to Tara in thought and soul. There was no place for any other woman but her. If only she had seen it. If only…” He choked, stumbling into a chair.

  Sonia felt her heart fill with sadness. For equations gone wrong, for exhausted love, for time which pounds on regardless of life or death. For witnessing the debacle of a great sacrifice…

  Devika hugged Sonia warmly, enveloping her in the folds of her designer, mango-yellow Salwar Kameez. “Thank you so much, Sonia, you have no idea what this means to me!”

  “I believe I do.” Sonia smiled. “And you don’t need to thank me. I’ve learnt a lot from this whole experience, to say the least. Now you better hurry and contact Asit. He is eagerly awaiting your call.”

  “I will! Thank you again, Sonia. I shall be leaving for Mumbai immediately, so you and I may not meet on Christmas. I hope you have a wonderful holiday! And a very great New Year!”

  “Same to you!”

  Sonia felt deep contentment as Devika left. She relaxed in her chair, closing her eyes to appreciate the inner peace. It had been a while since she experienced this sense of accomplishment. Feelings of incompletion and of not having done her best were usually tagged to the end of an investigation. As if justice was a result of the intricate weaving of cross-purposes, adversity, and tribulations. But this time it was different. She revelled in the novel feeling of total achievement.

  Now she could concentrate on Christmas, which was the day after. She had yet to buy gifts and suddenly she sat upright. She hadn’t bought a single gift! Panicked, she rose hastily, patted Nidhi, and sailed out of the room.

  “Jatin, I’m off to do some shopping. You can take the rest of the day off, too!” she declared. “We deserve a holiday and a celebration. It has been a good year for Stellar Investigations, don’t you think?”

  “You could say that. But not so wonderful personally,” Jatin remarked, a little glumly.

  “Oh, come off it! You are better off without a criminal in your life! However beautiful and charming she may be!”

  “I hope that applies to you, too,” Jatin responded cheekily.

  Startled, Sonia frowned at him. “And what does that mean?”

  Jatin shrugged. “Your obsession with The Owl. Not very healthy, is it?”

  “My obsession with—! What in heavens gave you that idea?”

  “His Christmas and New Year card lying on the table!” Jatin grinned.

  “What!” Sonia almost snatched the card from the table top. Inadvertently, her excitement spiralled. Aware that her assistant’s watchful eyes were observing her minutely, she flipped open the envelope and extracted the card. It depicted a gorgeous winter landscape in the early hours of the morning, with just the hint of the sun behind the hills. Inside, a calligraphic scrawl read:

  My Dear Sonia,

  Whatever you may say,

  The dawn is not far away….

  How much ever y
ou may decline,

  One day, you will be mine!

  All the best, my Glowworm, for a love-filled X’mas and New Year!

  Your Admirer.

  Sonia blushed a deep red as she read the lines, her body tingling with thrill. Simultaneously a quick anger surfaced in her. How dare he make such declarations! And send them written in a card for all to read! He had some cheek!

  “Boss? See what I mean?” Jatin tilted his head.

  “He’s got no business sending me useless cards. If he had any guts, he would cross my path with a problem and this time I would set the score straight!”

  “You never know, The Owl seems gutsy enough to land up at our office door, insolently demanding your help!”

  “I’m waiting for that day!” Sonia remarked vehemently. Tossing the card on the table, she stormed out of the office.

  She spent the morning before Christmas shopping, enjoying every minute of strolling up and down the decorated streets. She moved from shop to shop, contemplating what was perfect for her parents, for Jatin, Devika, and of course Nidhi. And for Mohnish. Despite the coolness, she felt hot and tired trudging along the picturesque Mahatma Gandhi street, the shops festooned with streamers and Christmas trees, and glowing with the bright colour of the season. When she finally returned to the office, she was laden with glossy parcels. Jatin was giving the last touches to the Christmas tree, putting silver baubles on its branches.

  “Wow! That does look good!” Sonia exclaimed, dropping her packages on the table.

  “Doesn’t it?” Jatin stood back to appreciate his work of art. “I particularly liked these shiny curler streamers.”

  “How has Nidhi behaved? She loves to play with these baubles. I’m surprised that none are broken as yet.” Sonia slipped into a chair.

  “Nidhi?” Jatin looked surprised. “Isn’t she sitting outside, bathing herself in the sun?”

  “If she is, I didn’t see her. You continue your work, I’ll go find her,” Sonia suggested, rising from her seat immediately.