by Deva,Mukul
‘It’s my late sister-in-law’s death anniversary,’ Payal murmured. ‘That’s why I’m going with Krishna to the temple. We do this every year.’
‘Oh!’ Reena was taken aback. ‘I’m so sorry.’ A wave of embarrassment swept over her. ‘Maybe I should leave . . . your brother may not like my . . .’
Before Payal could conjecture on her brother’s response, his Scorpio careened around the corner and screeched to a halt outside the house. Krishna leaped out. His fraught expression clearly communicated to Payal that he was still beating himself up for having forgotten Pooja’s anniversary.
Then Krishna spotted Reena and his expression altered. Confusion. Perhaps anger. Payal could not be sure. Whatever he felt Krishna caught himself very fast and his face became expressionless. For a moment an awkward silence held the three of them uneasily.
‘Hello.’ Krishna gave Reena a half, uncertain smile. Then walked up and hugged his sister.
‘Please give me a moment to explain,’ Payal whispered in his ear as he did so. ‘Reena, would you like to freshen up before we leave?’
Grateful for the excuse Reena fled into the house. Payal waited till she was out of earshot.
‘Reena called just a while ago. She was crying badly,’ Payal explained to Krishna. ‘She’s received word from her lawyer that her final divorce hearing is in a few days. And Raghav is badgering her to get back with him, which she doesn’t want to do, but is confused because of Azaan. That’s why she is very depressed and did not want to be alone. I couldn’t refuse her when she asked to come over.’
Krishna’s face lost none of its impassivity. For once Payal was unable to tell what her brother was thinking.
‘K, you have the right to be upset, but she was in a really bad shape when she called me and I couldn’t leave her alone . . . she is my friend.’
Still no response from Krishna.
‘If you want I can ask her to leave . . . or stay here while we go to the temple.’
Then the door opened and Reena joined them again. She was trying hard to mask her apprehension, but not doing a very good job of it. ‘I was thinking,’ she began, noting their tense expressions, ‘I’ll just go home and . . .’
‘Why don’t you come with us, Reena?’ Krishna interrupted. Softly. Shocking both women. Almost as much as he had shocked himself.
But, perhaps the indecision coursing through him was also making its presence felt, because both women gave him long are-you-really-sure looks.
‘I’d like that,’ Krishna added, but again, as though he was actually testing how he felt about it and trying to convince himself that it was okay.
‘Are you sure?’ Reena still looked doubtful.
For that one moment it was just between the two of them. Standing beside them Payal suddenly felt she was not even there. It did not bother her though. She held her breath, hoping . . .
‘Yes I am.’ Krishna took a while to answer, but no longer sounded uncertain, as though relieved that she had asked . . . and he had been forced to take a decision.
Payal slowly let out her breath. Relieved. And happy, for both of them. She sensed an important crossroads had been negotiated.
All three of them were mired in their own private prisons as they got into his car and headed for Kalkaji temple. Silence rode with them. Even the cacophony of the traffic flowing all around them seemed muted.
Cocooned in their thoughts, none of them noticed the unremarkable, off-white Tata Indigo sedan with two men inside trailing a couple of cars behind them. Or the helmeted motorcycle rider, sometimes ahead of them, sometimes running parallel, running a loose, box surveillance on them.
Nanda, aware that both the surveillance targets, Krishna and Raghav, were highly trained professionals, had made sure his best teams had been deployed on them.
*
Forewarned, Raghav, however, picked up the surveillance car within minutes of exiting the Satbari farmhouse.
The whisky he had downed till the wee hours of the morning, still swirling inside him, and the long, restless night, had left him with a pounding headache. But, powered by the hate throbbing inside him and his compelling need for revenge, he was completely focused on the task at hand. He knew he had to move fast and be very smart if he was to use this opportunity, provided by Karunakaran’s carte blanche on RIP, to get Krishna out of the way.
Driving up to the DLF Emporio Mall past Vasant Kunj he made the driver drop him off at the entrance and sauntered inside. In the swinging glass doors of the mall he noted the surveillance car also come to a halt and one of the cops alight and follow him inside.
Without looking back Raghav headed for the elevator in the mall’s central arcade. At this early hour the mall was still coming to life. Most of the high-end luxury goods showrooms had yet to raise their shutters.
Ferragamo.
Dior.
Monte Blanc.
Hugo Boss.
Louis Vuitton.
The glass encircled elevator swept past these glittering boards. Coming to a halt at the third level.
Exiting Raghav ambled across to the coffee shop. Even at this early hour it was comparatively busy. He stopped at the entrance, surveyed the tables, and then headed for an empty one in the far corner. There was only one man at the adjacent table. Raghav neither looked at him, nor at the two others who arrived a moment later and took the table on his other side. Ordering a coffee he opened the newspaper and began to browse through it. From the corner of his eye he noticed the cop who had been following him come up.
The cop surveyed the coffee shop and then took up a table near the exit.
Raghav was aware that from there the cop could easily keep an eye on him, yet was far enough away to allow him the space for what he needed to do.
The cop did not realize when Raghav, under the cover of the newspaper, began to talk softly to the three men on the tables on either side of him. Neither of them looked at him, nor he at them.
Twenty minutes later Raghav paid for his coffee. The money returned to him by the waiter slipped from Raghav’s hand and fluttered to the ground. Stooping briefly he picked it up and the SIM card thrown down by his man at the adjacent table, and left.
The watching cop thought Raghav looked a bit smug and wondered why. But he was unable to give this more thought as he also hurried to pay for his coffee and followed, warning the others in the car outside that the subject was on the move again.
Raghav had every reason to feel satisfied. He had not only briefed his team and set in motion his plan for revenge; he had also collected a new SIM card, which the CBI would not be monitoring. Satisfied he headed for his Sheikh Sarai office, wanting to spend a while there and then footloose around the city some more.
Let’s give these bloody cops some thing to write about in their reports.
He rewarded himself with a cynical smile as his driver pulled out into traffic.
Perhaps he would not have been so smug if he had come to know that he had totally missed the motorcycle rider comprising the second element of the CBI surveillance team.
Raghav was good. But the CBI men were no novices either.
*
Hesitant and unsure Reena made no move to alight when Krishna pulled up to a halt in the parking lot outside Kalkaji temple. Payal got out immediately and headed towards the group of women selling flowers.
‘Aren’t you coming in with us?’ Krishna got out, crossed over and opening the door for her, asked Reena. He was quite close to her now. So close that she could smell the eau de toilette he had applied that morning.
Body Shop Activist.
She placed it instantly. Raghav too had used it often. She was acutely aware of his proximity. But strangely it did not make her uncomfortable.
‘Are you sure?’ she asked. Very softly.
He did not reply. Instead he touched her arm lightly and nodded. The touch, light, very fleeting, sent rivulets of emotion coursing through both of them. Neither was sure what, but both felt it.
‘I’d . . . we would like that,’ he said finally.
Studying him closely Reena could sense his certainty, as though the soldier had crossed some really relevant, strategically important bound. She was not sure who the ‘we’ used by him indicated. But she was sure of the lightness that swept through her. Alone for nearly three years now and already pounded by the emotions of the past twenty-four hours she felt a dam within her burst. For some reason she wanted to cry again. A few tears slithered out before she caught them and held them back. But she knew these tears were not of sorrow, or hurt.
Alighting she began to walk up with him towards the temple.
‘I’m happy I am here to share this moment with you,’ she whispered, as much to herself as to him.
Krishna heard her, but he did not reply. There was really nothing much left to say.
Turning after buying the flowers and required prayer ingredients Payal noticed the proximity between them and felt a tug at her heart. Pooja had been very close to her. More a sister, than a sister-in-law. Her death, and the manner of it, had devastated her almost as much as it had Krishna and Sachin.
But life must go on. Everyone needs to be happy.
Payal could not stop the tears that forced their way out.
Both Reena and Krishna saw her tears. Both misconstrued them, confusing them with the occasion they were at the temple for.
*
‘Guys, anyone spot anything unusual?’ Karan asked for possibly the twentieth time.
‘Nothing.’
‘Nope.’
‘Not yet boss.’
‘Nada.’ That was Kashif, showing signs of the influence his daughter, who was studying Spanish in school, was having on him.
One by one K-Team replied. They had Mark in a wide box. Yet again he was in the party office at NOIDA Sector 16. Lately this seemed to have become a part of his daily routine. Going by what the papers were reporting it was not surprising; the Mark’s party was planning a major political offensive against the state’s ruling party, which had been dumb enough to try some dubious land acquisitions. The sudden death of Kalpana Kumari, the state’s CM, at the hands of the RIP, had provided the NDC with the opportunity they needed to try and seize power in the state.
‘Right.’ Karan fiddled with his mobile headset as he pondered the situation. The Mark seemed primed for the hit. Everything seemed to be okay.
Should I call the colonel now? Or wait and watch a bit more?
Deciding caution was the better part of valour he decided to give it some more time.
Better to be sure than sorry. Also, not a very good day to bother the colonel. He’d be busy going to the temple and all.
Pooja and her death were never very far from the minds of K-Team. Not a day had passed when they had not wondered who had fired that fatal shot. Not one of them could walk away from the fact that it could have been their weapon that had delivered death to her. They would all carry that terrible cross to their graves.
‘Stay with it guys.’ Karan finally spoke into the headset. ‘Kunal, Kulwant and Kevin, head back to base and grab some shut-eye. Kashif and me will hold the fort for now. Spell us at 1600.’
‘Roger that.’ One by one K-Team responded.
Karan settled down again. The long, generally boring surveillance routine did not faze him out. Or any of the others. K-Team was used to watching and waiting. For the right moment to strike. And they were used to succeeding. Till now they had never failed to bring down their target.
They had no intention of allowing that to happen even now. Each one of them would die willingly, rather than allow the Mark to get away alive. With K-Team it had always been so.
*
The tide of conflicting emotions had not yet receded when the trio left the temple and headed back to the parking lot.
Payal’s mobile began to ring as they were getting into the car. She grimaced as she saw the calling number. ‘Damn! The office. They can’t do without us even for a day,’ Payal said to Reena as she took the call. ‘Are you sure?’ she asked the caller after a moment. ‘Okay, if it’s that important I’ll see you in a bit.’ Returning the phone to her bag she turned to Krishna with a sheepish grin. ‘Sorry K, but I need to go. An office crisis.’
‘If you have to, you have to.’
‘Have to.’
‘Then let’s drop you off to the office.’
‘No, don’t bother. I’ll just grab a cab or auto, but could you please drop her off,’ Payal said, gesturing to Reena. ‘If they see her they might decide they need her too . . . and she’s in no mood to work today.’
Despite their protests Payal left them and got into an auto rickshaw from the several clustered outside the temple. Leaving Krishna and Reena considerably flustered. Somewhere in the quiet solitude of the temple, something had come in between the camaraderie they had established a short while ago.
‘I’m sorry . . . I know I shouldn’t . . .’ Reena could not think of what else to say. ‘Could you please drop me to Payal’s place? I left my car there.’
‘If that’s what you want.’
No response.
‘What will you do?’
‘Go home I suppose.’
‘Payal had mentioned that you didn’t want to be alone today.’
‘I didn’t.’ Reena replied truthfully, but only after a moment, unsure if she should open that window to her mind to Krishna.
‘Then why go back?’ Krishna’s level gaze disconcerted her. ‘Would you like to spend the day with me?’ His eyes were unfathomable.
Reena could not figure out how he was feeling or what was going through his mind. Uncertainty, insecurity and sudden longing seized her. She knew she did not want to be alone any more . . . especially not today. Yet her past held her back.
Could I? Dare to trust again? Do I even want to? Am I just rebounding? Seeking straws where none exist? Do I even have the right to?
When she did not reply for a long moment, Krishna simply opened the front passenger seat’s door and gestured to her.
Relieved to have the decision made for her she got in.
They drove off.
The silence in the car nagged at them. Mercilessly. Unable to stand it any longer Reena reached out and switched on the car radio. Then she wished she had not.
Whatever happened to my love, I wish I understood. Abba sallied forth. Pounding at them. It used to feel so nice; it used to feel so good.
‘I want you back Reena. I need you . . . both of you. I promise I will make up for everything.’ Raghav’s words began to echo in her head. She began to cry again. Silently, but copiously.
From the corner of his eye Krishna saw her reach up and wipe away her tears repeatedly. He watched her shoulders shake. He could sense her anguish and wished he knew how to help her work through her pain. But he sensed she needed to be alone right now. He did not say anything, waiting till the outburst had passed.
‘It’s okay to cry,’ he whispered finally, when he saw she had settled down, reaching out and touching her wrist lightly. Again it was a light, tender touch.
When he pulled his hand away Reena found herself wishing he had not. It had been ages since anyone had shown her such compassion and caring. She became melancholy again. Krishna sensed it.
‘I was planning to go home and make some coffee. Is that okay with you?’
She did not respond for a moment, her dilemma clear on her face.
‘I make a mean cup of coffee,’ he added softly. ‘And if you don’t like it you can make it yourself.’
That lifted her mood. A smile. A weak smile, but at least a smile. ‘Okay, but only if I can make the coffee.’
‘Suits me.’
The rest of the journey passed in silence. But now it was a comfortable silence. Neither of them knew what had brought about the transition, but neither wanted it to end.
Neither did they realize how the hours slipped away. The coffee became two cups. Then lunch.
Krishna was surprised
when the doorbell rang. [ ‘How come you’re home early today, dad?’ Sachin gave a happy yell as he hugged him. Then he noticed Reena in the corner of the living room. ‘Hullo, aunty!’ He beamed. ‘How are you? Is Azaan also here?’ He looked around excitedly.
‘No Sachin, just me.’
‘Aww, you should’ve gotten him. It would have been such fun.’
‘His grandmother picked him up from school today. He’s going to spend the day with her because it’s his birthday tomorrow.’ With a start Reena checked her watch. ‘In fact she should be dropping him home soon.’
Krishna watched the two of them chatter on for a while. He was thrilled that Sachin had taken to her so well.
Then it was time for her to go.
‘I’ll just drop Reena aunty and be right back,’ he promised Sachin. ‘You get your homework done and we’ll have some fun when I get back.’
‘Pizza?’
‘All right.’ Krishna laughed.
‘You’re doing a great job with Sachin,’ Reena told him as they drove away. ‘It’s remarkable. Not too many single dads that I know of. It must be tough.’
‘As tough as it is for you, I guess.’
Then. A bit later.
‘Sachin is a very lucky boy.’
Krishna picked up the wistful regret in her tone. He could not think of anything to say.
‘You miss her very much . . . your wife?’ Reena was shocked when the question slipped out.
‘Yes I do.’ Krishna’s tone was soft, but firm.
Reena did not reply, but in her heart she acknowledged and appreciated his frankness. So it should be.
‘So it should be.’ Her tone gave the past the respect it deserved.
Then she realized he was heading for Payal’s house. ‘You don’t need to go all the way, just drop me to my place.’
‘What about your car?’
‘I’ll pick it up on my way back from work tomorrow. It’s not worth the effort . . . going all the way to Payal’s in this crazy traffic.’
Krishna would not have minded it a bit; he would have gotten to spend more time with her, but without a word he changed direction.
