“Forget my story Arjun; tell me about yourself,” Krish avoids the painful memories and changes the topic instantly. “We had such fun times during out academy training. We never communicated but I always knew your whereabouts. I heard you set up a software company abroad after the training?”
“Yes, my friend. I started an information security company. I patented this software that I created in my final year of study. It creates an unhackable protocol layer to shield critical applications, as in banking, or for use in organisations like NASA, intelligence agencies and so on. But you know my company was created to gather intelligence for RAW’s newly formed strategic intelligence wing. I will show you someday buddy. How important information and surveillance is in today’s world! It’s amazing how you can combat terrorism through technology and information intelligence.”
“Yeah, you’re right. So much is dependent on timely information. Your new role as head of this strategic intelligence wing is absolutely critical. I feel proud that you are my friend and that we trained together.”
“But where have you been buddy? I understand all around the globe right? Undercover operations directly reporting only to Lt General Khanna?”
“Yes, I have been a ground soldier buddy. I remained in covert operations throughout. I have been in Iraq, Afghanistan, USA, Europe, … Pakistan … Hmmm I have travelled a lot, saw a lot! Also witnessed daredevil friends getting sacrificed for the sake of our motherland; agents whose names will never appear on any government account book... those that the Indian government perhaps doesn’t even recognize existed!”
Arjun nods, places a hand on Krish’s shoulders. Suddenly, the radio crackles loudly.
“BSF Search team Alpha4 calling headquarters!”
“Headquarters here. Go on Alpha 4.” Arjun responds immediately.
“Sir, we intercepted the enemy in combat. We continued firing and the ISI commander has been badly hurt. But a big Pakistani battalion was around to provide safe passage, supported by the heavy shelling from their side. We have captured some of the operations on video and also captured two of their commandoes alive. But the ISI commander and the other three ISI agents in the jeep have managed to escape.”
“Ok Alpha 4. Stay alert, as the retaliatory fire may continue a while. Keep safe! Over and out.” Arjun puts down the radio speaker. “Damn. Got away, the bastard!”
“Don’t worry buddy! We will grab him another day. We have a big catch already today! Arjun, I have just received a message from Lt Gen Khanna. He wants the video evidence to be sent to him directly to Mumbai before midnight. I have asked for Air Force support because the Prime Minister is visiting Mumbai, and has asked RAW for an update on the operation first thing in the morning. Obviously, the firing on both sides of the border has caught the attention of the PMO. We need to place this video evidence in his custody before his meeting with the PM in the morning.”
“OK, Krish. Let me make a copy of the video evidence first and save it on to the RAW server. Hold on a minute.” Arjun opens his laptop, connects the camcorder as it uploads the video to the secure server. “Let me also send this link to Lt Gen Khanna. There, done!”
“We will fly the video cassettes along with two special agents. Arjun, why don’t you fly back with the Air Force as well?”
“Good idea Krish.”, Arjun looks at his watch, “It’s 9:25pm now. If I fly now I can reach there…ummm… by ten? I will brief Lt Gen Khanna personally and I can visit home for something important before midnight, and then fly back here immediately, for the morning de-brief. Let me speak to Lt Gen Khanna.”
“Cool, buddy… sounds like a plan!”
“Great! I’ll see you tomorrow then, Krish!” Arjun offers his hand as they shake hands firmly. Arjun makes a quick call to speak to Lt Gen Khanna and, upon confirmation he walks out to board the MIG jet immediately. A couple of special commandoes also accompany him to escort the video cassette safely to Mumbai. The operation, but for the failure to capture the ISI commander, has been a huge success. Besides the arms and ammunition, Indian forces have managed to capture the leaders of all the five terrorist organizations that were in the meeting. This achievement has been another feather in Arjun’s cap… one that surely deserves a party!
A Party for Two
Riya’s birthday party is over by now. She is in her room and looks at the clock on the wall; it’s 11:45pm. A pool of gifts lies in a corner of the room on her desk. Her elder sister, Priya, walks into the room.
“Hey, you were looking gorgeous during the party sis!”
“Thank you, didi.”
“Oh! You haven’t opened any gifts yet? Remember when we were kids we used to tear all the gift wrappers in a flash? Do you want to do it now… A race?”
“No didi. I am very tired,” Riya responds dryly. “Should we do it tomorrow? Maybe Rohan can help me tear the wrappers? Is that OK?”
“OK my baby. We will do it tomorrow. You get to bed now. Good night!”
“Good night.”
Priya leaves and Riya changes into her nightdress. She gets into bed and stares blandly at the ceiling and out of her window at the stars. A gentle knocking on the balcony window startles her. She looks out and is surprised to see Arjun. She immediately opens the balcony door.
“Arjun! How did you get here?”
“I climbed onto the pipe,” Arjun replies, smiling.
“No! I mean you were in Delhi right? How come you arrived here suddenly?” she continues, extremely excited and yet confused.
“Yeah, I went on a business trip. But you know, a stupid little girl had given me a ‘pinky promise’ to attend her birthday!” he looks at his watch, “And… we still have twelve minutes left of your birthday! So here I am…”. He brings a single red rose out of his rucksack, “Happy birthday Riya! Sorry; since I was in a rush I plucked this rose from your very own garden!... All yours!” He hands her the flower.
“Oh my God! Thank you so much!” she gasps in amazement, smiling, “You are kidding me! Did you tell Aunty that you are here?”
“Nope. Don’t want to either. I have to fly back to Delhi in two hours. As I said, I wouldn’t have done this if had not been for a stupid girl’s silly promise!”
Riya laughs, extremely excited that Arjun could make it to meet her just to wish her on her special day.
“What can I say, I had to uphold the promise; after all I have to stay in this neighborhood isn’t that so?”
“Ha ha! Of course… Otherwise!” Riya pretends to throw a punch at Arjun.
“OK, enough talk! Shall we cut the cake before your birthday is over?” he slowly takes out a small box from his rucksack and a small chocolate cupcake. Riya is absolutely thrilled, extremely excited and overwhelmed. Arjun places a single candle on the cupcake and lights it with a lighter.
“There you are; space for a one candle only! So let’s pretend you are one today.”
Riya laughs, as she blows out the candle, cuts the cake and offers a piece to Arjun first who then puts the rest of the piece into her mouth. It takes a moment for Riya to swallow the large piece that Arjun had forcefully put into her mouth.
“So what’s in this box?” Riya looks at the tiny gift box in her hand.
“Wait, before you open it… may I have the pleasure of a little dance?”
“A dance? But there’s no music?”
“Oh OK! You can open the box then!” Arjun responds nonchalantly.
Riya smiles and opens the wrapping to find that it’s a small musical box with a dancing girl on a boat in the backdrop of a beautiful valley. Arjun extends his hand as the music plays softly upon opening the box. They dance as Arjun swirls Riya around on the balcony in the light of a beautiful full moon. Riya’s giggles travel far in an otherwise silent still night. A grandfather clock chimes the stroke of midnight in the distant background. After the lovely dance, they sit on the swing in the balcony for a while, gently talking under the beautiful moon and stars.
After a while, Arjun looks a
t his watch, “Guess I should get moving now.”
“Yeah of course, selfish! My birthday is over and you are all ready to go!”
“I wish I could stay. But it’s important for me to get back. So Riya, it’s just our little secret that I came …Mummy will go nuts you know if she knows I came and didn’t meet anyone at home.”
“Yes, yes, I know. Thanks for coming Arjun.”
Arjun interrupts her for using the word “Thanks.” She laughs, amused and happy.
“No, seriously I am really glad you came Arjun!”
There’s an awkward pause because of the tone in which Riya made this last statement. She senses this immediately as the beautiful romantic setting of the moon and starlit night has added an amazing air of romanticism. Arjun tries to break the silence, and the uneasiness, with a rather poor joke.
“Listen, I came just because of your stupid promise. So don’t get any ideas, right?”
“Not at all!” Riya responds mockingly, “You are not my type anyway!”
“Ha ha! That’s cool. I’m safe then! Thank God for that!”
Both laugh uneasily. Arjun clears his throat, “OK then. Bye.”
“Bye Arjun”.
Arjun walks down the balcony stairs towards the garden. Riya waves him goodbye, and stands there till he is out of sight. She has a spring in her steps, as she swirls again to the music of the box, and then stops momentarily to smell the red rose in her hand, before letting herself fall like a stone on to her bed. She looks at the red rose again that she put by her pillow.
How quickly priorities change… on the other end by the table within those wrapped gifts lay expensive jewellery, necklaces, perfumes, and the most fashionable branded items that a girl could dream about. And yet a rose and a simple music box brought her more joy today than anything else could.
Is this the start of something beautiful? Riya asks herself as she closes her eyes. She dodged the awkward situation today, but contrary to what she said to Arjun, she has always felt a soft spot for him. And over the last few months, this deep-ingrained friendship has taken a new meaningful turn. However, she suddenly feels extremely nervous about this as well. What if Arjun considers her just as a friend? She simply cannot risk sharing her feelings and lose his friendship if he does not reciprocate her love.
“Let’s wait for destiny to take its own course,” Riya tells herself as she eventually falls asleep on her bed.
The Media Release – Setting the environment
The next morning, Mr. Sinha was watching the news on the television whilst reading his morning newspaper and drinking his morning cup of tea. The TV journalist is giving the news of yesterday’s operation in Jammu.
“In Jammu yesterday, the Indian army captured the leaders of five terrorist outfits in a special covert operation. Army officials say this was a multi-terrorist meeting where a big arms deal was being carried out. What’s more surprising is that the PMO has released excerpts from a video of the operation where an ISI commander is shown to be present at this meeting. We have with us retired Colonel and strategic think tank director Dilip Chauhan. Dilipji, what was an ISI commander doing there and where does Indian diplomacy go from here?”
“Not just Indian diplomats, the whole international community is surprised to see the ISI commander at a meeting where an arms deal and a multi-terrorist plan were on the agenda. The message is out now in the open. We have been talking of this to the world for over twenty years now. This is the most blatant evidence of Pakistan’s involvement in state-sponsored terrorism. Make no mistake; we are in the midst of a cold war. What it means for Indian diplomats is that they should realize that the days of passive diplomacy are behind us. We really need to mount pressure on Pakistan to shun its habit of supporting terrorists.”
“Chauhanji, the real question is will our government really do anything? We have heard this ‘diplomatic offensive’ so many times before, but without any results. We are still waiting for the verdict on the ISI lieutenant general case, and still we do not have any concrete action plan? Isn’t it time to really say to Pakistan ‘enough is enough’?”
“You see the world’s stance against terrorism is changing; with the advent of globalization, terrorism is not confined to specific parts of the world any more. No one is isolated from this phenomenon. You are right; we have to take a stance and undertake concrete action against terrorism. If you look at the US, if it is a victim of terrorism it is not hindered by any international regulations whatsoever. The operation against Osama bin Laden is the best example that illustrates how the US entered Pakistan and got their man.”
“Chauhanji, what’s the difference between US and India? Why do we not respond to terrorism in the same way?”
“The difference is power. USA has the freedom to do what they want. India does not have this flexibility because of Pakistan’s nuclear deterrence. Pakistan is a nuclear power and it has brazenly used this shield to secretly support terrorism in India. But what we can definitely aim to change is our mind-set. We have to be aggressive and need to proactively take things in our hands. We are plagued by our ‘Everything goes’ mind-set. In a country of billions, the government and the people only pay lip service to the lives lost in terrorist attacks. But if a single US citizen is killed in a terrorist attack, they deploy marines first and think about consequences later. But after the recent turn of events, I think the government realizes that lip service will not be sufficient anymore.”
“Thank you Chauhanji. You heard it, the time is ripe when simple diplomacy and lip service is not good enough. The country wants results! Will the Indian government do something this time or will they stick to the usual excuse of resolving things through ‘diplomatic channels’? Please keep watching Aaj Tak!”
Oblivious to the complex political game unfolding between the two border nations, Riya is still lying on her bed in her room. She has a diary open next to her pillow and there’s an old picture of Arjun between the pages. Riya is lost in her thoughts when Puja creeps into the room unnoticed and manages to see the picture partially before Riya hastily closes her diary.
“Puja!! You scared me!”
“What was that? Was that … Arjun’s picture?”
“No… not at all!” Riya gets up quickly and puts her diary into one of the drawers of her bedside table and locks it.
“C’mon don’t lie to me!”
“Why will I lie?” Riya responds nervously, “That was …Shahrukh Khan… You know I am such a big fan of SRK. Do you know he has a concert next month in Worli?”
“Hmmm… really?” Puja senses something fishy, “Anyway! Listen…” she turns to say something when she spots the red rose by her pillow, “Oh! what’s this red rose? What’s going on, my love?”
“Nothing… nothing at all!” Riya walks away towards the window to avoid Puja’s gaze, “I helped myself to a rose from my own garden! Is there anything wrong with that?”
“No! Anyway… Listen! I wanted to share something really special about me and Rakesh!”
Rakesh and Puja have been going out for over six years now. Both families have approved of their relationship and have been eagerly awaiting the time when the couple would formally notify their families about their desire to tie the knot.
“Puja!” Riya turns around immediately to face Puja, “Please tell me! Let me guess… has he finally…?”
Puja nods, shows her finger with a large diamond ring on it.
“Oh my God! What?”
“Yes!”, they both shriek together loudly, hug and jump. “You know he proposed to me… finally!”
“When? Where?”
“Last night immediately after your birthday party. We went to the garden for a while, sat down on the chair under the moon. It was such a beautiful romantic moon last night, isn’t it?”
Riya nods yes, smiling to herself as she recollects her night with Arjun. So she was not the only one feeling the love in the air!
Puja continues, “And all of a sudden you k
now, he proposed to me. And I’ve agreed, Papa and mummy are very happy too. But where were you? At night, I first came to your room to tell you; knocked on your door three or four times so loudly, but you, you lazy bum, had been asleep even before midnight!”
“Me…”, Riya mutters nervously, realizing Puja might have knocked at the same time that she was out with Arjun on the balcony, “I was so tired you know…”
“That’s OK, my darling! That looks good, doesn’t it?” Puja admires her beautiful large rock, “And you know what, papa and mummy spoke to Rakesh’s parents this morning and they want a quick engagement in two days’ time.”
“Wow! That’s great! I am so happy for you.” Both the girls hug again.
“All right I am off dear… I have to meet Rakesh in an hour…”
“Great! But hey listen! We are playing tennis in the afternoon, right?” Riya reminds Puja.
“Oh yes of course! I almost forgot! …Sure I will see you later then.”
Puja leaves and Riya hastily starts getting ready for her school. She glances again to the far end of the room, at the desk with the large pile of gifts still lying unopened. Until her last birthday she used to rip them all open the very same night, almost the very moment after her birthday party. Today, they have to wait—this time, last year, she would scarcely believe she would feel this way. She hastily picks up her book and bag for her class, eager to catch up with her best friend again later in the afternoon for a game of tennis together, and more importantly… to hear all of her story.
Cold Love Page 9
