Taklu and Shroom

by Ranjit Lal

  ‘Now, what’s your name?’ Vijaya asked. ‘We haven’t even been introduced yet.’

  ‘I’m Zara, Gaurav’s, err, friend. I came from Bombay to see him.’

  ‘Right, Zara, you can sleep in this room. But first, a bath.’ Vijaya opened her cupboard and took out a pale-pink cotton nightgown and housecoat. ‘These may be a little large for you but they’ll have to do, I’m afraid.’ She pulled out an old navy-blue overcoat and shook her head. ‘I’m afraid Gaurav will have to do with this for tonight. Maybe the girls can clean up your clothes now.’ She smiled and left as Zara ambled wearily into the bathroom.

  Vijaya went up and handed the overcoat to Gaurav. ‘What exactly has been going on here?’ she asked him. ‘The PM’s chaps are already jumping about with fleas in their trousers downstairs and it’s all I can do to keep them at bay.’

  ‘Umm, ma’am, please go easy on Shroom. Actually, she saved us – she took the batteries out of their detonators, or whatever, so the bombs didn’t work. If they had gone off, we would have ended up in the valley.’

  She took a deep breath. ‘She’s quite something, isn’t she?’ There was an unnatural brightness in her voice; she was very near tears and they both knew it.

  ‘Yes,’ he said simply.

  ‘Okay, you must be ravenous. I’ll send up some soup and eggs and toast for you.’

  ‘Thank you.’

  ‘No – thank you. You saved Rukmini’s life too – she told me what happened. I don’t think she meant to but she was kind of overexcited, nearly delirious, probably the reaction – she fell off the ridge into a tree, she said, and hung like a leopard’s kill. Unbelievable!’

  Gaurav didn’t know where to look or what to say. What would she think if she had known his intentions? Sure, he had saved the little girl, but after he had nearly killed her…

  There was a knock on the door and Zara peeped in. Her curls were wet and tangled, but she was looking extremely fetching in the housecoat, which was sweeping the floor behind her like a cloak.

  ‘Hello, my dear, you look like a different person! I’ll leave the two of you alone and send your soup up.’ Vijaya went back downstairs, a faint smile on her face.

  Zara shut the door. ‘You know,’ she said conversationally, ‘I could have sworn I was wearing jeans this morning, not a skirt.’

  Gaurav turned crimson.

  ‘It’s okay,’ she said. ‘I was just wondering… That overcoat suits you,’ she giggled. ‘Must be what, 1935?’

  ‘And you look like some Victorian dowager,’ he teased back, sliding the housecoat off her.

  ‘Poor Rani, she would have been so annoyed if she caught us now,’ Zara murmured.

  There was a knock on the door. Hastily, Zara grabbed her housecoat from the floor and wriggled into it.

  Gaurav opened the door. Savita stood smiling, with a tray of thick steaming chicken and corn soup, and buns with butter. Gudiya was beside her, holding an empty bucket. ‘You can put your soiled clothes in this and leave it outside,’ she said.

  They ate ravenously, suddenly realizing how hungry they were.

  ‘You know,’ Zara said, ‘this whole thing is just so surreal – that cave, those men! I still can’t believe all this has happened.’

  ‘I know. I came this close…’ he gulped, ‘this close to pushing her off the cliff. I must have been crazy.’

  ‘But you didn’t. You saved her life. Twice, probably.’

  ‘I couldn’t. It would have been too unfair.’

  There was another discreet knock on the door. It was Savita again. ‘Baby’s calling you,’ she said.

  They entered her room quietly. It was dim, with just a night light glowing. Shroom lay propped up in bed, her bandage resplendent as a prince’s turban.

  ‘Hey, Special Agent Taklu. Hi, Zara…’

  ‘Hey boss, why aren’t you asleep?’

  ‘Did they get the fellows?’

  ‘I guess they will. The commandos are probably searching for them as we speak.’

  ‘Hmm, so they were the ones you wanted to kill?’ Shroom smiled. ‘I guess they must have been the Mad Killers of Killjoy Mountain…’

  ‘Who?’

  ‘You mean you haven’t read it? Actually, Miss Monica never finished reading it to me.’

  ‘Oh.’

  ‘This girl Juhi and her brother were to go up the mountain…’ She brightened. ‘Say, we were up a mountain too with mad killers around.’

  ‘Uh-huh, but I didn’t manage to kill them, did I?’

  Zara held Gaurav’s hand and squeezed it.

  ‘His NSG backup team will do it,’ Zara said loftily. ‘They do his dirty work. Now you’d better get some sleep.’

  Shroom nodded and yawned and closed her eyes. Zara bent forward and kissed her cheek. Then Gaurav gave her a tight hug and laid her back on the pillows. She opened her eyes, smiled and put her hand to his cheek.

  ‘You’re prickly,’ she murmured. ‘You need to shave.’ And then she fell asleep.

  ‘You,’ said Zara, taking Gaurav by the hand and leading him out of the room. ‘Come on, in here.’ They entered the guest bedroom. She put her arms around his neck, pressed her body against his, and kissed him. Then she drew back and smiled. ‘Now I’d better go back down.’

  At the forest rest-house, Raveena and Monica were pacing up and down the living room, glaring at the phone and willing it to ring; it had been the longest evening of their lives. Stay put, Vijaya had told them; those men are dangerous. But Gaurav was out there somewhere, alone – so they thought.

  ‘Where the hell do you think he’s gone at this time? Surely he must have realized it’s going to pour buckets.’ Raveena sat down heavily. ‘Really, he’s so stupid sometimes!’

  ‘Boys his age usually are. Do you think he’s gone to meet Shroom?’

  ‘At the house? But Vijaya would have mentioned it.’

  ‘The only other place I can think of where he might have gone is Shroom’s Perch.’

  ‘He’d have to be nuts to go there in this weather.’

  ‘No point debating it – let’s go and find him.’

  The sisters got out of their chairs and picked up their raincoats, umbrellas and a torch.

  ‘If he is there, I am going to whack him!’ Raveena exclaimed.

  They set out, stumbling and splashing and cursing as they clambered up the treacherous slope to the upper path.

  ‘Monica, just look at the stream; there’s too much water.’

  ‘And it’s flowing so strongly.’

  They had reached the point where Raveena had met Gaurav shooting butterflies when they saw a light flickering through the trees and coming swiftly if jerkily towards them.

  ‘Hey, look someone’s coming this way. It may be him!’

  ‘Shh! Jump down, Rave! Let’s see who it is – those men are out here too!’

  Raveena swiftly folded her umbrella and leapt down lithely but Monica skidded and fell along the path, her umbrella bouncing away from her.

  ‘Oh!’ she squealed, scrambling around for her torch and trying to catch her breath. She looked up.

  Panting heavily, Anantram stood over her, flashing his torch into her face, his teeth gleaming unnaturally. ‘What are you doing here, and where’s your sister?’ He flashed his light around.

  Crouched in the muddy ditch next to the path, Raveena put her head down. Instinctively she had switched her torch off the moment she had landed. That bloody Gaurav would have a lot to answer for…

  ‘Raveena’s… at the rest-house,’ Monica stammered. ‘She’s not well – I… I want to go to the big house for help.’

  ‘I saw two lights!’ Not convinced, Anantram flashed his light around again.

  ‘Must have been a reflection in the rain!’ And then, because there was no way she could not have noticed it and not commented: ‘Anantram, why do you have a gun in your hand?’

  Suddenly he grabbed her arm and pulled her up. ‘You won’t understand. There are wild animals here.�
� He was holding her close and staring at her. She was wet and soft and so beautiful…

  Anantram, what are you doing… no, get off me!’

  At that moment the leopard, crouched under a lantana bush about twenty feet away, snarled angrily and slunk off, disturbed by the ruckus. Anantram, who had shoved Monica down on the path, froze. Raveena quickly got up from the ditch and raised her big brass torch, swinging it and smashing it on Anantram’s head, just as he had turned around, gun in one hand and the other still pinning Monica down. Raveena saw the flash and heard the explosion almost in her face and staggered back, her ears ringing terribly. But Anantram was falling too, beside Monica, who was already struggling to her knees.

  ‘Rave!’ she screamed. ‘Are you all right?’

  ‘I think I’m deaf! That bastard…’

  They stumbled into one another’s arms, sobbing with relief. Monica picked up her torch and flashed it over Raveena. ‘No blood,’ she said, relieved. ‘Thank god! Can you hear me?’

  ‘Yes, it’s better. He tried to shoot me!’

  They flashed the torch over Anantram. He was bleeding from the head. Raveena’s torch was next to him, dented with its lens shattered.

  ‘Hey, Rave, someone else is coming. Many people…’

  It was the NSG team, running through the rain at a steady trot, in pursuit of Anantram. They drew to a halt, astounded, and levelled their guns at the girls.

  Half an hour later, Raveena and Monica were escorted into Vijaya’s house.

  ‘Now what?’ Vijaya said as Savita knocked on her door. She came out. ‘Monica! Raveena! What are you girls doing here – and look at you!’

  ‘Is Gaurav here, ma’am? These fellows won’t tell us anything! We went looking for him.’

  ‘Yes, he’s upstairs. He and his girlfriend and Rukmini turned up earlier tonight, looking rather like you are. What on earth is going on? Wait, let me get you some towels and a brandy first – you must be freezing!’

  ‘Ma’am, they took out the second terrorist!’ the team leader informed her. He removed the smashed torch from his pocket. ‘With this! Who are they, ma’am? They say they are your granddaughter’s teachers and live in the forest rest-house, but they had no identification on them. We’ve sent a team there to verify.’

  ‘That’s right. They’re Rukmini’s tutors – I can vouch for them.’

  She led them to her bedroom and opened the door softly. Zara, awakened by the disturbance, looked up from her bed.

  ‘Sorry, my dear, more refugees from the rain,’ Vijaya explained as Monica and Raveena followed her in. ‘Raveena, Monica, this is Zara… Gaurav’s upstairs in the guest room.’

  ‘Hi…’ Zara smiled sleepily.

  ‘Let me pull out some of my things you can change into. There should be a spare mattress on the bed and one in the closet. There are sheets in the closet too.’

  ‘But what about you, ma’am?’

  ‘I’ll sleep upstairs in my study on the divan. Don’t worry, I’ve done that quite often.’ She paused. ‘To be near Rukmini,’ she said softly, and shut the door.

  They made their beds and rather self-consciously changed into Vijaya Abhinav’s pyjamas.

  ‘This is so weird!’ Raveena said. ‘Getting into a Booker prizewinner’s pyjamas!’ She glanced at Zara. ‘How’s Gaurav? He must have been over the moon to see you. He dotes on you.’

  Zara blushed. ‘He’s okay. He was very upset earlier. He wanted to… do something really bad, but he sorted himself out.’

  ‘He told us about what had happened. We knew he was hurt and that he might try something drastic. It was sort of building up – though things did improve. That’s why we went looking for him when we found he wasn’t at the estate.’

  ‘Thanks. Sometimes I think he’s nuts. He just takes things too much to heart.’ Zara sighed. ‘But Rani was everything to him. You know, we brought her up together but in the end, she was his dog. She would have done anything for him… I think it was the first time he realized that some other living creature could be so dependent on him for her happiness.’

  ‘And I don’t think it was the last time,’ Raveena said gently.

  ‘What d’you think will happen tomorrow?’ Zara asked. ‘I mean, with the PM involved and all that they’ll have all sorts of investigations going on.’ She looked worried. ‘And Gaurav has already been involved with the PM’s security – they’ll try and find some connection…’

  ‘Let’s see,’ Monica shrugged. ‘Somehow I think Shroom might sort it all out for us.’ She looked at Zara. ‘We were afraid he’d jump off the ridge.’

  ‘What he wanted to do was worse than that. But I can’t tell you…’

  ‘That’s okay. We’d rather not know.’

  But both Raveena and Monica had gone slightly pale, and Zara knew they had guessed.

  THIRTEEN

  It was still raining when Vijaya knocked on the girls’ bedroom door early next morning. Tousled and sleepy, Zara stirred, opened her eyes and wondered where the hell she was. Vijaya knocked again.

  ‘Coming!’ Zara stumbled to the door, yawning.

  ‘Good morning, my dear. I’m sorry to wake you so early, but the security people are insisting they talk to you all at the earliest,’ Vijaya said, bathed and fresh, but apologetic. ‘I’ll send you some tea, and hopefully your clothes should be washed and dried. You’d better wake up Raveena and Monica too.’

  Half an hour later, all three of them were dressed and happy to be wearing their own clothes, which were now clean and crisply ironed. Vijaya joined them for tea.

  ‘Where’s Gaurav, and how’s Shroom?’ Zara asked.

  ‘Gaurav is probably still sleeping – I haven’t woken him up yet – and so is Rukmini. She’s fine. The cut on her head wasn’t deep, but she’ll be looking like a prizefighter for a while. Brigadier Diaz is upstairs in my study; he’ll talk to you one by one. Raveena and Monica, you can go in together; he says he’ll see you first. Zara, you’ll be next.’

  The sisters entered the study with trepidation. A handsome gentleman with grey hair and piercing eyes sat at Vijaya’s desk. He smiled at them and bade them sit. ‘Good morning, I’m Brigadier Diaz,’ he said, extending his hand. ‘I’ll be asking you some questions, and everything will be recorded. Is that all right?’

  The girls nodded.

  ‘Okay. When did you first meet Gaurav Roy?’ It certainly wasn’t the question they’d expected.

  ‘Umm, several weeks ago – at Lodi Gardens in Delhi,’ Raveena replied.

  ‘How did you get to meet him?’

  Monica smiled. ‘He was changing his sister’s diaper in the Bada Gumadh. He had his Alsatian with him.’

  ‘Sir, I have a photograph,’ Raveena said. ‘I can show it to you if you like.’

  ‘I see… What happened next?’

  ‘We walked a bit and then went our separate ways. We were to come here that night, and had to finish packing.’

  ‘Sir, what does this have to do with what happened yesterday?’

  ‘Please, just answer the questions. After that, where did you meet him?’

  ‘I met him, sir,’ Raveena replied, ‘here. I just bumped into him. He’d cut his hair and I almost didn’t recognize him. I met him on the upper track…’

  ‘Did he recognize you?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘He was just walking along and bumped into you?’

  ‘Not exactly, sir.’

  ‘Then?’

  ‘Umm, he was shooting a butterfly with a catapult. So I slapped him.’ Raveena was getting nervous. ‘He seemed very upset, sir – and, well, so was I when I saw what he was doing.’

  ‘Did he tell you why he was upset?’

  ‘He just ran off.’

  Monica chipped in, ‘He did tell us later. He’d been very upset because his dog was killed by the police in Delhi on that same evening when we first met him. He said they accused him of trying to cause an accident to the prime minister’s motorcade or something ridiculous
like that. He said no one listened to him.’

  ‘He said the cop shot his dog in cold blood.’

  ‘What did he tell you about his friendship with Rukmini?’

  ‘Well, nothing. We all met together at the waterfall. Shroom, I mean, Rukmini, had called him there and taken us with her. He’s very fond of her.’

  ‘Don’t you find it strange that a teenager like him would be so friendly with a little girl? It seems they would have nothing in common.’

  The sisters looked appalled. Monica spoke bitingly, ‘They just get along very well.’

  ‘Didn’t it ever strike you odd that Gaurav should (a) turn up here in the first place, next door to where the prime minister’s grandniece lives and (b) make friends with her? Especially after what happened to his dog?’

  ‘You mean he had an ulterior motive?’

  ‘You don’t seem surprised,’ Brigadier Diaz said and the girls realized just how sharp he was. ‘You thought of this too.’

  ‘What, sir?’

  ‘Didn’t it occur to you that Gaurav could have been planning some kind of revenge against the PM for what happened to his dog? According to Rukmini’s bodyguards and her grandmother, they used to go to the spur of that mountain very often. It’s quite a dangerous place, from what I’ve gathered.’

  ‘Gaurav would never have harmed Shroom. He admires her. Besides, he saved her life. Zara told us what happened last evening.’

  ‘What was his relationship with the two researchers?’

  ‘He didn’t appear to know them at all.’

  ‘Now tell me exactly what happened yesterday evening, please.’

  They complied, and at last the man nodded and smiled. ‘Thank you, you’ve both been very helpful. I might need to ask you some more questions a little later.’ He looked at Raveena. ‘You did well; there are very few girls in the world who can boast of taking out an armed terrorist with a brass torch.’

  ‘My god,’ Monica whispered, appalled, as they left the room, ‘they’re trying to pin something on Gaurav again!’

  In the hall outside, Vijaya was waiting with a tall man in plain clothes. ‘Come downstairs, into the drawing room’ she told the girls. ‘They insist you don’t meet or talk to anyone until they’ve asked all their questions. Really, to think such nonsense can go on in my house! This is the last time he’s coming here for a visit.’ She popped her head into her bedroom, where Zara waited nervously, twisting her fingers around a handkerchief. ‘Run along upstairs, dear; Brigadier Diaz will see you now in my study.’ The plainclothes fellow smiled like an executioner and escorted her upstairs.