Chain Reaction: Chapter 2

Chapter 2: Astounding News Inspector Rathore had woken me up at 10:50 pm that night. Before we move ahead with why Inspector Rathore called me up for Jyotirmoyee’s case, first let me introduce myself and why I am narrating the sequence of events to you. My name is Joydeep Bhattacharya and I am a close friend of Investigator Biren since childhood. Since Biren went to Yorkshire to continue his higher studies, we did not meet each other. But for many years during his stint in Yorkshire, we were in constant touch through our e-mails and mobile conversations. Biren used to call me and discuss about the investigations which he happened to be part of along with his interesting but weird boss Alastair. I had continued with my studies in Kolkata and went to US to study my MS in VLSI Design. After working in a US based firm for 3 years, I managed to take a break for a month and had travelled back to India for Durga Pooja. That’s when I met Biren again and decided not to go back to US. Biren got me involved in his first case in India since when I started writing about his investigations. Biren was a tall guy 6 Feet 2 inches, well built and hair always neatly combed. He was a man who loved charminar, tea, chess, cards and of course to think a lot. The aspect I found in him was that he was very energetic and enthusiastic when it came to solving cases. I was staying with my cousin and used to visit Biren very often. Inspector Rathore got acquainted in one such case. Since then he turned into an admirer of Biren. This was the reason he had called me up after Jyotirmoyee’s incident and invited me and Biren for tea the next day afternoon. After Rathore hung up from the call, I had tried reaching Biren. But the call went unanswered. Then I realized it was a Sunday and Biren had the habit of visiting his friend who was an artist at the local theatre. Then somehow I managed to reach him and made him visit Rathore for Tea the next day. Rathore stayed in the police quarters. A simple man by nature, kept his home very tidy. We were offered Tea, Buscuits and Dalmot by Mrs.Rathore. Meanwhile, Rathore took us through the sequence of events. Biren was listening to the sequence of events and he got into his thinking mode. We were silent for 10 minutes after Rathore explained the situation. Then Biren Spoke, Biren: “Did Jyotirmoyee have the pendant with her when she was found?” Rathore: “I’m afraid I didn’t ask that” Biren: “I think we need to check on that and also search the house” Rathore: “Search the house? Why So?” Biren: “I will explain when go there” Rathore: “Why don’t we go there now if you have some time? Biren: “Sure. Joy, don’t you think it is time for action for you too?” Smiling, I started getting up to call my driver. A man clad in starched police uniform rushed into Rathore’s House and saluted him. He hesitated for a moment on seeing us, but then started telling Rathore the message he was carrying. The information which the policeman conveyed was astounding. Jyotirmoyee was rushed to hospital also for reported traces of Poison but, she was out of danger. Akhilesh’s postmortem report also showed traces of same poison though his body was mutilated.

Srinkhol Protikriya - Chain Reaction

Chapter 1: A case for Rathore It had been a few weeks since Jyotirmoyee had called Bakul. They were school time friends. Jyotirmoyee still remembered the time when they had played together and had fun. The Wednesdays when they used be standing in front of the Dayanora Showroom waiting for Programs to start on Doordarshan Bangla. Nor would she ever forget the way they had made fun of Banshi, the pot bellied ever frustrated sweet vendor near baliganj station. Now, why was Jyotirmoyee reminded of all these? She had come to Kolkata the last week. Back from her exciting onsite visit to France. Akhilesh had called her today morning and said that they can meet up somewhere and discuss about their future. Jyotirmoyee was yet to begin her discussions about Akhilesh at home. Akhilesh…a cute boy he was. Jyotirmoyee was sitting at the Park Street Chai shop waiting for Akhilesh. That was when Naduprasad had come over to her table serving chai and wished her asking about here whereabouts and why it had been long since she had visited the shop. He had also asked how Bakul was. This had triggered the series of thoughts in Jyotirmoyee. Jyotirmoyee and Akhilesh made a good pair, making heads turn. They had a wonderful time going around shops and watching a movie. Akhilesh bought a diamond pendant for Jyotirmoyee amidst half minded refusals from her. It had been a Sunday to cherish. Akhilesh dropped her at her house at Hazra by 10:30 pm and left to his ancestral house deshopriyo park. Walking towards her house, Jyotirmoyee was thrilled about the new diamond pendant. But she was afraid about starting talks regarding Akhilesh at home. She would have to wait for the right time. Then it happened. All of a sudden Jyotirmoyee felt dizzy. She felt suffocated and s pungent smell filled her nostrils. Since, it was a few metres from her house so she assumed she could make it, but she suddenly felt a jolt and then lost consciousness. Jyotirmoyee woke up with a hammering headache and heavy eyelids. She felt as if she had been hit by a train. She recognized the place where she was lying as her very own bedroom. Other than her parents, there were Dr.Indira Chakraborty and Inspector Rathore. She realized that her parents had called the Doctor to check if everything was ok with her. But why Rathore uncle? Slowly Jyotirmoyee tried to sit up in her bed with the help of Munshi ji. Munshi had been with them since her grandpa was retired. He had taken care of Grandpa well and was continuing his dedicated services to the family even after her Grandpa’s death. To her astonishment, she found Akhilesh’s mother standing to the left of her bed. “Hello Aunty, How are you? How come here at home?”. There were a thousand calculations running in her mind. Then she also saw something which made her shiver. Akhilesh’s mother looked pale and her eyes were puffy. She had been crying. That’s when Jyotirmoyee’s father broke the silence. What he said, was no less than a thunderbolt hitting straight through the spine of Jyotirmoyee. Akhilesh’s mutilated body had been recovered from a lake very close to Jyotirmoyee’s residence.

15/4, Gandhi Road Srirangam

A work of fiction is where names and characters, places and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination or are used fictitiously. They also safeguard themselves stating that any freaking resemblance to events or locales or people, living and making others die 'or' already dead and making life peaceful for others, is entirely unkowingly coincidental. Oh my god...really? I dont care. If you feel it resembles you, pick up the phone and talk to me dude. It will be a nice way to catch up. And dont even think of putting up a fight with me for what i have written or a stupid lawsuit for what i scribble...after all its just blogging. Take it in the lighter vien and move on...Its one life that you have! Do you really want to waste it? My physics tution ended. And i am not telling some calendar event which changed the face of the world here...so i really dont remember the date and time like all those famous best selling authors do. So..just read on will ya?... Walking down the old wooden creaking staircase was fun, but running down was even more fun. Me and my friend rushed out to grab our cycles. We had very less time. Had to make it to the regular 'Jhi' pani puri stall and then to ayyappan's shop for either a drink of 'pannir' soda (Rose flavoured soda) or lime drink before heading to my friend's house to watch the WWF tournament which featured Stone Cold Steave Austin. After a few lunch crunching pushes on the old 'hercules' second hand cycle pedals, the cycle started flowing with the wind. I let go of my hands and filled my lungs with fresh air. I felt like i wont leave this place. This place was close to my heart. It was a dramatic scene as i still think about it. We used to cycle down effortlessly after the initial push, with the background audio of chanting of 'Sriman Narayana Charanao Charanam Prabhadye...Srimathey Narayanaya Namaha' keeping our spirits up. I am not a very very high end ultra religious personality. I am a practical common man, seeking god's attention when in distress and forget to thank him when i am happy. Every time distress steps in i keep thinking i should thank him probably when i am happy for keeping me happy at that point of time, but fail to do it when i become happy. The abode of Sri Ranga, is not only the most religious place i have seen but also the most entertaining place too. Some people may take this offensive, but i want to state what i saw in the place i spent close to 9 years of the most exiciting years of my life. It is an entertaining place where you can find people of different shades and situations. From a man who keeps lifting his right hand quiet often pointing it to the sky and talking to himself and walking on the road, to a successfull writer who was once born here and later grew up to write stories which entertained many people across the globe. This is the varied levels of people you can meet. You can find people saying 'anything' and also get away with it and join midway in a long queue to get the lord's darshan like what Eddie Murphy does in the movie 'A Thouzand Words'. Jhi, 'Oru Pani Puri, Oru Samosa Channa' i shouted standing behind an old man who was enjoying his cutlet channa and asking for some more 'gravy' to spice up the already spicy plate of cutlet. He was wiping the sweat which was dribbling down his nose, due to the heat. The heat came from a combination of the sultry weather, the heat from the yellow lamp glowing near him which was stationed right in front of the pani puri stall and also the spicy intake of cutlet with 'gravy'. Me and my friend were among the 14 people eagerly waiting to get their small white ceramic plate filled with the locally made delicacies. Crushed puri and little gravy spread over every dish that is served kindles your taste buds. After having our quota of one plate per person and paying 'Jhi' with multiple coins which summed up to the 2 plates of delicacies, we walked down pushing our cycles towards Ayyapan's shop. Today Ayyappan was not there but his dad was there. A regular greeting with a smile the old man gave peeping in between the hanging magazines in tamil and english. Thinking about it even now makes me feel happy. 'Rendu Pannir Soda' (2 rose flavoured sodas) my friend said. Then we started our usual chit chat about the magazines that were hanging with cinema heroes and heroines, gosspis lines written on it and political leaders in some magazines with animated faces and fingers pointing to someone, forgetting what they had not yet done to the society. Then after finishing our pannir sodas we took our cycles and drove at break neck speed (to the level which the cycles could manage at the max) and reahced my friend's house opened the door and switched on the Television set to see our favourite star's entry into the arena... with 'Glass Shatters' - 'Step up! Cause you're the next one in line for the kill. You don't believe me but I'm betting that you will' running in the background and Austin stepping in with 2 cans of beer in his hand. We shouted out loud...we had made it on time To be continued...

Maggi(d)essert

Hot (Or) Cold 'Maggi(d)essert' What do you need? Maggie Milk Honey Kesar (or) Vanilla Essence Permitted Color (Kesari Powder) Cashew Raisins Chocolate Sauce What to do with these? Boil the milk and keep stirring till it turns mild yellow and you get a nice aroma of extra boiled milk (I can see Harish Jaiganesh is already drooling...) Add 3 spoons of non-flavoured Honey to it and continue stirring for 1 minute (Ramakrishnan Gunasekaran wants the taste it right out of the gas stove...) Add Plain Maggie to it (Keep tha masala packet aside and use it for som other snack preparation) and Remove the container from the gas stove and add Kesar (or) Vanilla Essence to it (Ankur Priyadarshan's eyes are open extra wide now) Add permitted color and decorate with Cashew, Raisins and Chocolate Sauce and serve hot or refrigerate and serve cold (Subramanian Nagarajan asks why have you made only such less quantity...I want more)

The enigma of Kolaveri Di

Mama notes eduthukko...appidiye kaila snacks eduthukko. (Mama take notes and along with that take some snack in the hand). After hearing the above lines, As i sit down to write this blog, Pawar getting slapped or Indian IT companies among world's lowest-paying employers are also news which i got to hear this week but the video of Kolaveri is counting 7,640,926 now and is making news.

Dhanush's Expressions shown during the recording is vivid. I can see Anirudh enjoy his recording. This single has taken the media by storm for sure.

There was a similar song released for a selvaraghavan movie named Mayakkam Enna which also stars Dhanush is equally catchy. Check it out

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TB7r1g6ABMk

Rewards and Recognition

Many a times we do crib back at office that we are not rewarded aptly for all the contribution we do to a project or an organization or whatever.Today i realised that it holds good a million times more at home too.In personal life have you ever rewarded people at home for what good they have done good to you countless number of times?

Now you will ask What made me realise this all of a sudden. I was appreciated for something which i did today by my beloved.A surge of energy, a feeling of satisfaction filled my heart...

So now, when was the last time i did something like that at home to my wife, dad, mom, sis, bil, fil, mil....Still thinking? Now thats bad...isnt it?

If you think it would be foolishness to do this at home as it would look formal, cut that idea out of your mind. Take my advice, this is not formal at all.

It would be the most personal thing you ever did ...Its appreciation time.
Get set go!!!

'Superheroes' ...what do they do to their costumes

Was watching Spiderman for the 'n'th time and then a sudden thought came to my mind....Be it spidey or the man of steel...they disrobe in a corner of the street and resume from their non-charismatic alter egos to the 'Superhero' status within seconds during times of crisis...leaving all the thoughts about how they would 'Save' the world...my thoughts went to the costumes.....!

Maybe given the current economic crisis this though crossed my mind....

What would happen if they kept disrobing from their humane attrie on some street corner every time they saw some need for their Superheroisms...how much would they be spending on costumes...or would they fly back to get their costumes and put them in the washing machines daily...Isnt it a million dollar question????

Anybody wanna turn hostile after reading this...forgive me! All this just came to my mind and i scribbled it down...Happy reading!