THE MYSTIC: PART I - THE SEEKER (Part 1 - THE SEEKER)

by Arindam Bhattacharjee

  The rickshaw driver still standing there could not understand what Raghav was doing and thought he had gone crazy. Raghav still holding the firefly looked at the rickshaw driver and asked,

  “Can I help you?”

  The rickshaw driver switched on the engines and left the place. Raghav was happy like a child. With the inquisitiveness of a child he tried to understand the source of light under the wings. After a while he let the firefly go. It went careering from one bush to another as Raghav followed it until he got tired.

  In the meanwhile Christina had dug out more information on Raghav. She also sent the information to her think tank asking for more information about the individual. In the meanwhile she attended many social events in Kolkata city. She took part in interviews and photo sessions – something that Sagarika had expected from her. Sagarika had also put into action her spies to tail Christina and find out what she was doing.

  Christina’s views about Sagarika being a flagrant liar seemed to be confirmed by the inquisitive journalism Sagarika pursued accompanied by flattering those in power; she definitely was not someone whom Christina could trust. But while mixing in the social circles of Kolkata, Christina learnt the art of keeping her boss happy. She presented a very long report after returning to New Delhi. The report mostly comprised of images of her meeting top socialites in the city of Kolkata.

  Sagarika was very happy with Christina's work. Christina herself thought to be very substandard even from journalistic standards. Her boss had appreciatively called her colleagues and appreciated her

  “Christina is dour and taciturn. Once she accepted an assignment she would put every effort to complete it quick and fast.”

  She even appreciated her work on linguistic studies conducted in Assam. Christina could see the strong bias Sagarika had against the Indian reporters who were actually working very hard. She was getting the kudos for being a Westerner for doing a sub-standard work but this was better than being haunted constantly by her boss.

  Christina very soon learnt the tactics to survive in an Indian office setup but Raghav existence as a state enemy still disturbed her. More she read his blogs the more she became his fan. Slowly with the help of Sagarika she gradually entered the social circles of the politicians. This gave her an opportunity to understand the perspective of Raghav that he presented in his blogs.

  3.10: The Taste of Mayurbhanj

  Raghav’s nostalgic mood continued even after he stopped chasing the firefly. He took in the surroundings as twilight fell. The area had retained its entire pristine wilderness. In comparison to Kolkata’s development here there was still a sense of freedom. Raghav gazed at the landscape appreciating the subtle play of colours as the fields merged into the forests on the village outskirts.

  Mayurbhanj was a Naxal prone area when Raghav was studying at IIT Kharagpur and the village was a place where they used to come and hangout at nights. The village used to be his favorite as they used to camp near the forests and sometimes drink and smoke while working with the NGO. Nostalgically he started to sing some old Hindi songs that he used to croon with his friends over here. He started singing the old Dev Anand film song which seemed to mime his story...

  ‘mein zindagi ka saath nibhata chala gaya,

  Har fikr ko dhuye me udata chala gaya,

  Barbadiyon ka shok manana phisool tha, manana phisool tha….

  Barbadiyon ka jashna manata chala gaya,

  Har phikr ko dhuye mein udata chala gaya’

  For a moment, he dwelt upon the majestic scenery, but his thoughts soon changed as he recalled his personal tragedy. The smell of the forest reminded him of the time when he went to take the interview of the Maoists. Suddenly he heard some sounds of twigs breaking behind him and a chill went down his spine. It reminded him of how commandos entered the forests to kill him.

  His instincts made him duck and he crawled behind the bushes. From behind the bush he saw some cows entering the place. He smiled in relief and went close to a cow. As a child Raghav used to play with cows; he toyed with the tail of the gentle animals while visiting his grandparents. He had also tried to milk cows many times during his stay. He patted the cow’s back and touched her head. He remembered his wife and how she was fond of cows and used to feed them whenever she got an opportunity. He wondered what she was doing and where she was in the last ten years. He was now filled with the romantic memories of his wife and began humming.

  “Koi hota jisko apna, hum apna keh lete yaaron,

  Paas nahi to door hi hota, lekin koi mera apna”

  Debashish had told some of his of his comrades about Raghav's visit to the hut in the village. They waited near the entry point of the village expecting Vishnu to accompany Raghav but his absence confused them. Upon hearing the sound of the rickshaw stopping near the village they had come out to enquire but preferred to hide behind the bushes after seeing Raghav get off from rickshaw alone.

  Raghav's exhilarated mood further aggravated their confusion. They waited trying to confirm whether he was the same famous Raghav that they had heard about. He did not fit into the image they had of him. To them his behaviour was like that of an insane man and they could not decide whether to go and welcome him or wait. They were also afraid that he might be a decoy waiting for an ambush to happen since there was no sign of Vishnu.

  Suddenly news came from Debashish that Vishnu had been killed in Kolkata by cops and there was no news of Raghav. While Raghav was still lost in a world of his own caressing the cows, the comrades jumped out of the bushes shouting and pointing their guns at him, asking him to kneel down on the ground or they would shoot.

  Raghav was surprised and alarmed. The old scene of attack flashed in his brain. Terrified he could not move as his heart started beating faster; blood rushed to his head coursing through his veins. The body failed him and his legs didn't have the energy support him. He began trembling and immediately lost consciousness frothing in the mouth. His body began to convulse. The comrades were shouting for the secret word but once they saw Raghav getting into seizure they stopped shouting. They took him to the hut and let him relax.

  Meanwhile Debashish had returned. Early next morning he went to the hut and was relieved to find that Raghav was still alive. The comrades told them the story of how he went into a seizure while waiting outside the village. Later Raghav woke up to the warble of birds and saw Debashish sitting next to him. Debashish told him that Vishnu had died in the crash and how Raghav was now completely safe to recover in this hut. Raghav felt a sense of relief for the first time since his escape from the Manipur facility.

  Christina had found out that Raghav had an impressive ability to provide counter arguments of the politicians in his blogs. She got fond of a religious leader Suresh Gupta who was one of the main targets of Raghav. Christina took Sagarika's help to get an article on the life of Suresh Gupta who was now a cabinet minister. Sagarika was more than happy to help Christina provided she wrote positive about the leader. Christina agreed to Sagarika's demand.

  She got a special invitation to an event organized by the Prime Minister and his Guruji. The guests were saffron clad rustics. There was strict observance of hierarchy as one by one the speakers took to the floor. The old sadhus would take the first position followed by elderly leaders. The hierarchy was by and large based on age. The young came last. The event was to felicitate Gupta for his efforts to popularize Sanskrit in schools all over India.

  Christina noticed that the meeting of the religious fanatics grew progressively noisier when the fundamentalist leaders started to speak. Decorum and discipline of modern democracy was thrown to the winds. Gupta was speaking on the ill effects of westernization of education and she thought that these guys have been playing the same music since last thirty years. The reactionary forces were eventually able to incorporate the old guru-shsihsya parampara.

  Even in the Catholic schools study of Sanskrit was made compulsory till tenth standard. Gupta has been fighting this petty cause for last coup
le of years and was felicitated for this. Christina couldn't just stop her thinking about the rotundity of the fundamentalist leader and wanted to write on the topic of whether his circumference or his political stature was bigger.

  She even took out her diary and wrote the topic down, but later scribbled fearing that Sagarika will someday spy on even her diary too. There were other things that Christina noted in her diary instinctively like the fact that his staccato speech reminded her of the sound of a machine gun. She also wrote her opinion that these regulations were also very stringent. Irritated by the context of the talks she went to the point of writing that,

  ‘I don’t know who his mentor was. I just wish political parties have this much maturity to filter out the stupid contents but I think the populist measures have prevailed resulting in this ignorance.’ But she later tore of the pages from her diary.

  Sagarika had also arranged for Christina to have a direct interview with Gupta after his long speech. She already had started becoming a fan of Raghav's writing and opened up his articles on Gupta in the middle of the speech. She was so fed up of Gupta's irrational statements that she used Raghav's articles as a talisman to wave off the evil thoughts going into her brain.

  Christina wanted an opportunity to tantalize Gupta's work in the same manner in which Raghav had done it in her blogs but knew that she was very handicapped in this scenario. The arrangement was running three hours late and Christina knew that she couldn’t go back without a picture of the charismatic leader. Waiting impatiently in line to meet the revered leader, Christina grew resistive on seeing him delay so much and started to fidget.

  After a long wait Gupta reached Christina and without even greeting her, he grabbed her hand. Christina had to struggle hard to break his tenacious hold; so this was the leader of the religious cult who had just given a talk on the culture of the country! She tried to ask a few questions but could not make herself heard over the tumult of those surrounding him; however she was able to send a message to Gupta that she did not appreciate him holding her hand. Gupta understanding the condition put his hands over Christina's shoulders making her more uncomfortable and whispered in her ears,

  “In India a visitor may be denied admittance to this country if she had been found guilty of moral turpitude. Give my regards to Madam Sagarika.”

  In the meanwhile the photographer took a picture of Christina with Gupta's hand across her shoulders. Christina had no option but to smile back at the photographer.

  3.10: The Conversation with Debashish Sarkar

  The next day Debashish took Raghav to another house in the village where a friend of his used to live. Here Debashish owned a farm for his floriculture research. Raghav met few of his friends living in exile in these houses and everyone was happy to have Raghav back with them. Debashish asked Raghav to explain where he was for the last ten years. Raghav said,

  “I don't know. Probably I was in the same facility in Manipur from where I had escaped and there were many others over there. I don't know; perhaps they were performing some sorts of experiments on us.”

  Debashish asked, “So you have no idea of what happened in the last ten years?”

  Raghav replied, “I have no idea and that is the first thing I want to know.”

  Debashish took Raghav to a separate room filled with fertilizers. He removed some fertilizer boxes to take out what looked like an album. Debashish said,

  “This is the list of people whom we think were either killed or missing since last ten years. We have not recovered the body of any of these individuals. You may look and know if they are still alive.”

  Raghav opened the diary to see his picture on the very first page. He looked very decent and smart in the suit but now he was riddled with scars all over his body. He recognized images of few of them. He hurriedly ran through the album to see if his wife was on the list. But there was no picture of his wife in the album!

  Raghav looked at Debashish and asked

  “Do you know anything about my wife?”

  Debashish responded,

  “I am afraid she is also missing. Since she had nothing to do with the movement, we have not kept her image here.”

  Raghav looked visibly upset and comforting him Debashish responds,

  “Don't lose hope Raghav. She might be there in the facility or might be living in hiding. We will find her for you now that we know you are alive”

  “What happened to my financial company?”

  Debashish replied,

  “That company was shut down by the state. After your reported death the government put a case of fraud against your company and pulled it down. The reporters also spoke about your character and your false dealings with foreign agencies.”

  Raghav then asked,

  “What happened to the Naxalite movement that I was asked to mediate?”

  “I am afraid that movement has been completely destroyed. Anyone who was even slightly associated with the movement was either killed or neutralized. There is nothing left of the past.”

  Raghav still absorbing the information comments while showing visual disgust at the situation,

  “What I came to know from you is very depressing indeed. How can the government machinery become so active in taking down a movement but has still not removed rampant poverty from the country? There are definitely loose ends.”

  Debashish replied,

  “We have been living in exile and that is what we have come to know from the resources we have. Nowadays all we know is what the press tells us and apparently they told us blatant lies about you and many others.”

  “In that case I will like to go through the newspapers of the last ten years.”

  Debashish said,

  “That we have in our archives. We have been collecting all the dailies for the last ten years. Remember it was my hobby. But why do you want that for?”

  Raghav said,

  “I want to relive the last ten years of my life. I want to know the reason why I was in that facility.”

  “I know most reports are not right but I don't want to suffer from the absence of memory and this might hinder me from taking any decision in the future.”

  Debashish said,

  “Your wish is my command. I will provide you with all the newspapers of last ten years. We have translated the local papers and have them in a soft format that is easily searchable. So all you need to do is search by tags and events and you will get what was written about it in the media.”

  In the meanwhile, Christina had returned from the meeting with pictures of her with Mr. Gupta and reported to Sagarika how Mr. Gupta misbehaved with her. Sagarika completely rejected the idea that it was even impossible to think that Mr. Gupta would do something of this nature. Her reports were dismissed as fledging reports.

  To add to the insult and Christina’s surprise, Sagarika gave a speech to her employees which was eulogistic rather than critical in tone about Mr. Gupta and displayed the pictures of Christina enjoying the company of Mr. Gupta. Christina was surprised that an agency known for its research journalism was so hypocritical. They claim lack of funds and yet they indulge in page 3 articles and gossips!

  Now she had started believing that the previous boss must have been removed by a conspiracy hatched up by Sagarika alone and probably he was innocent in the sexual harassment case. Praising Christina’s work Sagarika said,

  “A new article on the social circle of the Indian fundamentalists would help us build grasp and give more impetus to our growth.”

  Christina remarked,

  “But we were not able to get anything out of the leader. He did not say anything to us.”

  Sagarika responded,

  “Why are you bothering to make such inane remarks? I hope you just got notes from his speech. He is such a busy man that he stopped to give you a picture. What else do you want?”

  As part of BBC, Christina had often taken interviews of world renowned dignitaries. This guy was just another idiot speaking on som
ething no one understood. But she had to play nice to Sagarika and said,

  “I will provide you the report on his speech very soon.”

  Sagarika patted her and said “Good Work.”

  Christina now had more reasons to follow what Raghav had written ten years back as he was so accurate in describing the sycophancy of these individuals.

  On getting what was required, Raghav pondered. What did he want to be in a self-imposed exile in the small hut. Firstly he was keen to study the events of the last ten years in silence with minimal disturbance. The next day Raghav went into the hut. He come out only for some routine exercises or attending to Nature’s call. Food was kept on his doorsteps. He did not talk to anyone while he was going through the ten years of information.

  He was trying to create his own memory which required churning up information from various sources, rejecting the one that looked framed and imagining how the whole event would have occurred just based on the picture evidences. With the help of his imagination and experience, he tried to relive the last ten years focusing mainly on political news were related to the leftist movement of India. He stayed in the hut, for a month and half without going anywhere trying to unravel the past.