About the Book

"Believe in your thoughts,

Believe Everything has purpose,

You'll never control it."

I began writing this novel for the National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo)

[http://www.nanowrimo.org]. The novel in its entirety was conceived and written during

the month. It is the first novel that I have ever written. I took up this project as a

challenge on myself to test my skills in writing. The ordeal certainly seems worth it when

I look back as it was discipline that got me through the month.

All the characters in this novel are fictional. Their names are made up and so is their

behaviour. Any resemblance whatsoever to any living or dead person could be purely

coincidental. Or if you believe the title of the novel, it was meant to be so!

The book will be published as an e-book and is free to be distributed among friends

and relatives. All of the contents in this book are original. The couplets, the haikus, the

story, the ideas and the philosophy. I protect all of these under the Creative Commons

License of "Attribution, Non-commercial, no derivative". Which means if you like what

you see and wish to use it,

1. You will have to give me Attribution. (For e.g Sudhamshu Hebbar believes in his book

Everything has a purpose that ..)

2. You cannot make any commercial benefits off the content. (For e.g The Haikus,

quotes cannot be used on cards/websites and sold)

3. You cannot derive further work from this work.

If you wish to do any of it, do write to me at sudhamshuhebbar@hotmail.com and I

shall let you know how we can work together.

Everything has a purpose by Sudhamshu Hebbar is licensed under a Creative

Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 India License.

Everything Has a Purpose

Chapter 1: The Rocket

"My mom gave me a locket,

My dad gave me a docket,

You know what's in my pocket?

A cracker called Rocket!"

Bobbing his head rhythmically with the couplet, Sumant seemed quite pleased with

himself on having made words rhyme. Krishnan watched him and giggled. He knew that

Sumant was up to some prank. With much élan, Sumant took out his priced possession -

the rocket, and dangled it in front of them. It had been a few days since Diwali, but he

had rummaged through all the cracker pile for unexploded tiny bombs. By finding a

rocket, he felt like he had mined out a diamond.

"Now we just need to find a match-stick. Then this flies, whoooshhh", said Sumant as

waved the cracker in front of Vikram. Vikram was getting irritated.

"I know where to get a match!", Krishnan came forth.

"Crash! If you say cricket match on TV like last time, I will bash you." threatened

Sumant seeing the glee in Krishnan's naughty smile.

"Hee hee. No, no Montu. The watchman keeps a match box in his cabin for his beedis. I

have a plan to steal that. Vicks will call for the watchman. When the watchman goes to

him, you & I will steal the match box." suggested Krishnan.

"I am not calling the watchman! I am not playing this stupid game." protested Vikram.

"Shut up Vicks. I agree with Crash, you call for the watchman. Tell him you saw some

kids jump over the wall from the next building. Tell him they might be here to steal the

mangoes from our tree." said Sumant.

"Montu! I won't lie! What when he doesn't find any kids on the Mango tree? What do I

tell the watchman?", Vikram questioned.

"Think up something idiot! Now go on, don't be a spoilsport.", said Sumant getting a bit

irritated as Vikram was killing the excitement.

Reluctantly, Vikram went towards the watchman and called out, "Watchman chacha!

Watchman chacha! Some kids have just jumped the wall. I saw them climb on the

Mango tree. Come quick!".

He saw the watchman come towards him and he darted away towards the mango tree.

The watchman, a man in his graying years, was always pestered by kids. He would wield

his stick and threaten them, but would never beat any of them. He loved kids. As he

went out of sight, Sumant and Krishnan ran into the watchman's cabin. As they entered

the phone in the cabin rang. The two kids looked at each other. Krishnan was scared,

but Sumant had a mischievous smile on his face. He picked up the phone.

"Hello. Bahadur? I am Malathi Madam from B-57. The water from the bore well isn't

coming. Turn the motor on for some time, please.", said the voice on the phone.

"What number do you want, madamji?", said Sumant suppressing a giggle.

"Isn't this Bahadur's cabin in Divya Vihar Apartments?", asked the lady on the phone.

"No madamji, this is the Police Station. For water problem call Fire Department!", said

Sumant and burst out into uncontrolled laughter.

"Montu! Is that you?!", yelled the lady.

Sumant put the phone down still laughing merrily. Krishnan had already located the

match box by then and was pulling Sumant out of the cabin. Both of them ran towards

the back of the building, their meeting point. The phone rang again as they were leaving.

Vikram stood under the mango tree looking upwards. The aged watchman finally caught

up and started hitting his bamboo stick (lathi) on the ground yelling, "You monkeys! Get

down from there and go home! Don't let me catch you. I will break your fingers if I catch

hold of you. You will never be able to climb any trees in your life after that". When he

reached the tree and looked up. He couldn't see anybody up there. He gave an angry

glance at Vikram, "Where are the kids? Are you playing with me? You made me run all

the way up to here for fun, did you?"

"No chacha, they were here. They heard your lathi and your shouting and ran away. I

swear I saw them run away.", spoke out Vikram, a bit scared.

"I was watching from there. I am not blind. I didn't see any kids scampering away. You

kids play too many pranks. You need a lesson", said Bahadur as he lifted his lathi

towards Vikram.

Vikram darted away yelling, "I swear I saw 2 kids. It was Vinod and Aniket from Blue

star apartments. You are becoming blind, chacha. You are getting old and becoming

blind!". He ran as fast as he could. He ran towards the meeting point.

No matter how big or small a place, kids will always find safe hiding places. A place

away from the normal gaze of people. It is a mystery as to how they chance upon such

hideouts, places people will least expect anyone to be. It is possibly the same fact that

makes them find the spot in the first place. Behind 2 buildings in Divya Vihar

apartments, small concavities were made. The architect possibly saw some creative

ingenuity behind having such concavities act as chimneys for kitchens. For most of the

residents it was an eye sore. Too narrow to keep anything. Too dirty from the garbage

thrown out from the kitchens and bedrooms of the 6 stories of 2 buildings. That was

their meeting point. A rocket in Sumant's hand. A match box in Krishnan's hand. With

Vikram back from hood-winking the watchman, the 3 were looking for a launching pad

for their rocket. They tried broken bottle covers and a pile of colourful papers. But the

rocket just wouldn't stand still. Sumant hit upon another idea. He ran away and came

back with a small earthen pot with a tiny plant growing on it. Vikram got angry. "Montu!

Why did you steal that plant from my home? My mom will get angry if she finds it

missing. Put it back right now!"

"Shut up Vicks. We will fix the rocket in the mud. Once we have launched our rocket, I

will go and put it back myself.", countered Sumant as he got around setting up the

launch pad. He kept the pot in the middle of the concavity. Looked up. Clear skies.

Pushed the rocket in the mud. It stood straight. He looked at his friends with delight in

his eyes and said,

"Straight stands the rocket,

Fixed tight in its socket,

Its tail I will light,

Off it'll go on its flight!"

Grinning widely, happy that he was able to rhyme again, he asked for the match box.

Krishnan gave the match box adding,

"We burn and it will fly,

Up above in the blue sky!"

Sumant took out a match and struck it thrice, it wouldn't catch fire. He broke two

match sticks in the process. Krishnan grabbed it and showed him how to strike a match,

"Its like this, hold it slightly away from the centre. Grip it tight. Place the head once on

the box. Tap it once and then in one motion, run the edge of the head against the striker

putting some pressure." He did so. The match struck and Krishnan said, "And then there

was Fire!". He lighted the rocket's tail.

They were just kids aged 12. Much too young to know the dynamics of flying objects

or projectiles. Physics of flight path was something they learnt with experience. They

stood back, with half-closed eyes looking at the fire eating up the tail of the rocket. In

one moment, the fire reached the head of the rocket, releasing insurmountable energy.

The rocket took itself out of the mud in the pot and thrust itself skywards. As it was

wringing itself out of the mud, it was no longer straight. As it moved skywards, it swayed

leftwards, hit a closed window on the 2nd floor of a building, changed direction and

swerved rightwards still elevating. It finally ended up on a curtain on the fifth floor. The

curtain and the bedroom belonged to Mrs. Malathi Nair of B-57.

Chapter 2: Getting CloserDivya Vihar Society was a big complex of 15, 7-storeyed buildings, each named from

A to O. The complex was big enough for all the activities a kid might need to do whilenot in school. For their safety, the kids were prohibited from going outside the gates ofthe society unless they were accompanied by an elder. Watchmen on every gate weregiven orders accordingly.

When Sumant, Vikram and Krishnan saw their rocket hit the curtain of B-57, theywere held shell shocked. They stood there gazing as the curtain caught fire. Slowlygrayish smoke starting coming out of the window. A neighbour of Mrs. Malathi Nair sawthe smoke from her kitchen and gave out a shriek. The shriek got the kids out of theirstupor. They looked at each other. Their eyes were wide open with fear written all overthem. No words said, Sumant darted, Krishnan followed. Vikram looked up. There was aclamour upstairs. He turned around and his friends were screaming to him to join them.Someone upstairs noticed him & yelled. With no time to lose, Vikram shot past hisfriends as they tried to make their escape.

The human mind is a mystery. In its normal state, it is conscious of boundaries, ofrules and laws that bind a person to a society. But put it under some stress and it comesback into its elements. Ideas and decisions are made at lightning speed. The 3 knewthey were not safe within the walls of Divya Vihar society. Not even in those nooks thatthey thought were safe zones. They had to go outside, out of bounds. They came to thisconclusion with just one look and sped towards the gate where Bahadur stood watch atthe gate. As he saw them come towards him at such a pace he started searching for hislathi. By the time he got to it, the kids were already past him outside the gate. He ranafter them for a while screaming, "Where are you brats running? Where is my matchbox? I know it was you who took it. Give it back! What have you done with it?!" His legswere old and unable to catch up with those young legs of the kids. Panting, he ambledback to his cabin. The phone was ringing in the cabin.

"Hello. Divya Vihar Society.", said Bahadur on the phone."There has been a fire in B-57. We have called for the fire engine. Send people for helpto douse the flames by then. And don't allow anyone to go outside the gates", a voicesaid. Bahadur stood their unable to digest the gravity of the situation as he heard thephone click.

After running for about 15 minutes, the three of them stopped out of exhaustion.Vikram confronted the other two. "I always had a very bad feeling about this from thebeginning. Montu, this is all your fault. You got the rocket and it was your idea to light itup.""Both of you were with me all along. Crash stole the match and he was the one who lit itup!", countered Sumant."Don't blame Crash now! You did the whole setup of stealing the pot and also placed it inthe mud. You said you will put it back. But you left it right there and ran off.""Crash was the scientist with his detailed match-striking explanation. It must be hisincorrect angular calculations that caused the rocket to go left, instead of going straightup, the way I had set it up.""Shut up you two! Do you realise whose house we just set fire to?", interruptedKrishnan.

Sumant and Vikram turned to Krishnan. He was gripped with fear and was almost intears. Vikram tried recollecting the location of the house. "It must have been 'B' block. Ithit the fifth floor. Since the bedroom was facing the back side, it should be door number7. So B-57" and he yelled out a big shriek out of horror. Sumant didn't need the

deduction that Vikram just carried out. He already realised that the house B-57 belongedto Mrs. Malathi Nair, the mother of Krishnan Nair. Krishnan was crying because had beenan accomplice in setting fire to his own home.

Chapter 3: The philosophy

"The fire rose briskly,Everything went up in flames,A thirst finally quenched."

Mrs. Malathi Nair was a woman of philosophy. The philosophy on which she built herlife was very simple. "Everything happens for a purpose". Every little creature, human orotherwise, every action, every moment has a purpose that slowly builds up into a biggerpurpose. None of the actors in the whole design ever know about the other actorsinvolved. They do not know what goal they are working towards. They do not evenrealise that they are part of something. But soon everything would start making sense.When seen backwards, the whole sequence of events looks puzzling. Even confusingmany a time. But if you understood the smaller actors and the seemingly minute events,the overall design of things would be apparent to you. Everything would pan itself infront of you like a massive complex and interconnected network. But the smallest of thelots were sometimes the most difficult to comprehend.

While Mrs. Malathi Nair was busy in her kitchen preparing a meal for her family, sheheard cries from her neighbours. Then she heard her door being banged. "Has theelectricity gone again? Why can't these maniacs use the door bell instead?" she thoughtwhile yelling, "I'm coming, I'm coming. Don't break that door now!".

She opened the door and in flew her neighbour Lata screaming, "Your bedroom hascaught fire! Don’t you even smell the smoke? It just caught fire!" and ran towards thebedroom.

Malathi, struck by the suddenness of the news, was still not in terms with what washappening and blindly ran behind Lata. As both of them saw the ravaging fire engulf thecurtains, their instincts set in. "Water! Get the Water!" said Malathi as she ran to herbathroom. The bucket in hand, she opened up the faucet with wild ferocity wishing thebucket to be filled in an instant. A drop fell, a few more fell in succession and then therewas silence. "Oh! There has been no water for the past hour! Why this? Of all days?Why?!" and she was almost in tears when they heard commotion outside.

Immediately, two people ran in. Another neighbour had also seen the smoke and hadalready called the Fire Department and asked the watchman to send for help. One helperhad a fire extinguisher in his hand, the other a bucket of sand. The fire extinguisher wasput to work on end. While one portion fizzled, the other portion gathered more energy.As bits of curtain material or fire fell on the floor, sand was thrown over it. Slowly themen seemed to be getting control over the fire. They were taming the beast. The wholeroom became extremely hot and the smoke was almost suffocating their lungs. But thevaliant men battled the flames bravely until it was finally doused. The whole room wasruined. The glass on the window was pitch black and was almost melting in some places.The rod that held the curtain red hot. The ceiling near the window was black from thebillowing smoke. There was a bed close by and a rack where books were kept. Thehelpers had come in time to ensure those did not catch the fire. A major tragedy wasaverted by quick response. The rest of the house was unharmed and so was rest of thebuilding.

Malathi was still a bit shaken. Lata thanked the two men profusely, gave them somemoney asked them to leave. She then took the dazed Malathi to her home. Now was thetime to reflect.

"How did this happen? How did you come to know there was a fire?", asked the troubledMalathi.

"I saw some smoke first. I thought you were cooking something. I then realised it wascoming from your bedroom and not from your kitchen. I shouted seeing a fire on yourcurtain. Actually, how is it that you didn't hear my scream?", said Lata."I didn't hear anything. Must be because of the high volume on my TV.""Must be. By the way, after I saw the fire I looked downwards to see what might havecaused it and I saw Vicky standing there. I don't know why he didn't shout first. Ishouted out asking him to call Bahadur for help, but he saw me and ran away. Verystrange of him.""That kid is very strange. How can you even expect some help from Mrs. Saxena's son?""Let us forget that and here, have some tea. It will relax your nerves a bit."

Before they could finish the tea, they heard the fire engine below. In no time, thefiremen were there at Mrs. Nair's home taking a toll of the damage. They startedrummaging through the ashes and sand when they located the long stick. The diagnosiswas complete. The cause was a rocket, a firecracker that lost its way in the air and foundits place in the curtain. While Mrs. Malathi Nair could not fathom the reasoning behindsuch a tragedy, the rocket had served its purpose. It flew to burn and it quenched thethirst of the fire.

Chapter 4: Sumant Chakraborty (a.k.a Montu)

When fear grips your body, the mind has complete control over the body. Lungs aregiven more oxygen. Tired legs are given strength. Pessimism over the body's abilities iscompletely killed. The 3 kids were held by one such ghost when they ran outside DivyaVihar Society. They kept running. They saw crowded areas with men looking at themwith interest and they shifted their route, kept running. When a person feels guilty, healso feels that the rest of the world can see through their folly with one look. They feelevery action of theirs is giving proof of the act. The kids ran so much that when theyfinally stopped, panting, they had forgotten how they got there in the first place. Theywere lost.

"It was to go high in the sky,Against walls it dashed.It did reach very high,Now Crash's home is crashed!"

Sumant, the rhymer was back in his elements.

"Montu! Will you stop this nonsense? Sky, high, dashed, crashed. My house is burningthere and all you can talk about is silly rhymes?", remonstrated Krishnan."Oh, poor cry baby! His house is burnt. Try to look at the bright side.", respondedSumant."Bright side? How can there be a bright side to this fiasco?""For one: We have run so far from home that no one can find us.""They will catch us some time or the other.""By then their anger would be much lesser! And secondly, half your school books wouldhave been ruined in the fire. No more homework worries for you!""What? Noooo. Not my books. No. Not them!", saying which Krishnan began crying.

As Krishnan was being morose, Vikram was trying to find their bearings recollectinghow far they had run and what turns they had taken. Sumant, however, was in quite acheerful mood. In Divya Vihar society, Sumant Chakraborty was called Montu as that iswhat his parents called him at home. He was known as an extremely mischievous kidthat was always up to some pranks. His grades in school were not all that flatteringeither and the common consensus was that Montu was a "Good-for-nothing". Thiscaused a lot of chagrin to his parents. But his parents didn't care much about Montu'sreal talents.

There are some people that are born as sportsmen. Give the man a bat and he willsoon excel in cricket, hockey or baseball. Throw a racquet at him and he will soon bewinning games in Badminton, Tennis or squash. Tell him the rules of any sport, give himsome time and in a few days he will master the sport. Montu was one such sportsman.He was the star in his school. One of the best players in the Under 15 cricket team. Hewas their fastest bowler. Put him down as a batsman and still you could rely on him toget you plenty of runs. When he wouldn't play cricket, he also represented his school inthe Junior Football team. He had a wonderful stamina that would allow him to cover thewhole field. He was played as a central midfielder and he controlled the pace of his teamwhile also taking care of the defense. He had also tried his luck in Basketball, Tennis,Badminton & Table Tennis and even though he performed well, he was always attractedtowards the bigger team sports. Sumant Chakraborty was the dream student for anySports coach.

For a boy of age 12, he was quite taller than most of his classmates and all theexercise for the sports had made him strong. But he was never a bully. He would pull

pranks but then joke along and be friends with everyone again. Always the first tolighten up a tense situation. What was his most important trait was his self belief. Heknew what he could do and what he could not. He knew his limits and what was withinhis grasp. But no amount of confidence would be sufficient for what was in store for him.

Chapter 5: Vikram Saxena (a.k.a Vicky, alias Vicks)

"Freedom from moral duties,Freedom under the garbs of innocence,All slaves to Hunger."

The sun was highest in the sky when the mishap of the unguided missile occurred.The hardest of the afternoon was thrusting its heat on the 3 lost kids. They had runaway from dire consequences that awaited their deeds. They had run away from all thewrath that might have come their way. They had escaped from home. But home alsohad the unconditional love of a mother. A love that fed a child no matter how muchsuffering the child might have caused her. And in that searing heat, the 3 kids werebeginning to feel hungry.

Vikram Saxena, or Vicky as they called him at home, or Vicks as his friends calledhim, was now extremely hungry. If he were with his parents, he would have begun withhis tantrums an hour back. He had made it a habit to pester his mother for food everytime hunger would possess him and his doting mother always had something for him toeat. But now he was alone. Away from his mother. Away from food. He was gettingrestless. Distress always makes the mind active breaking away boundaries of consciousimagination. Being just 8 years old, he knew he could put the blame on Sumant andKrishnan who were elder to him. He could always say that he was misled by them intothe act and that he no hand in the mishap. Putting up an innocent face was not much ofa problem for him. But now, he was famished and being lost was causing him muchirritation. Something had to be done and he started roaming around hoping to hit uponsome idea.

When a kid is hungry, he does not care if his meal has enough proteins, vitamins orany other nutrients. He will eat whatever is available. If something irresistible is spotted,he will willingly devour it. And so, it happened, that fresh smells from Premium Bakeryemanated and caught the attention of the crinkling nose of Vikram. Like a manpossessed by spirits he was drawn towards the bakery. The moment he laid eyes on thedelicacies on display, the rumbling in his stomach were so perceptive one could actuallyhear the kid groan. His mind though was working on the double. He took stock of thesituation, looked at the owner, his helper, saw the items on display. The helper waseyeing him suspiciously, but the owner, a bulky man in his sixties had a cherubic smileon his lips. Vikram waited for a moment until the helper was busy. A few minutes passedand entered a lady. The helper went to attend to her. Now was the time for Vikram toput his plan into action. He went to the owner.

"Uncle, it is my birthday today!", he said putting on his best smile."Waah, beta, wish you a very happy birthday!", said the owner returning his smile. (betameans son and is used in Hindi to refer to kids)"Thank you uncle. My mother has sent me to pick whichever cake I like for my birthday.""Very good. What cake do you like best? We have pineapple cake which is ready rightnow. Do you like pineapple cake?""Chee. I don't like pineapples! I want Black Forest cake! Do you have Black Forest cake,uncle?!""We can make a Black forest cake for you. But that will be ready only by the evening,beta.""Evening? Ok. I am giving a party to my friends at 6 o'clock in the evening. Will it beready before that?" Vikram inquired with a slight glee in his face."Yes. It will be ready before 6 o'clock. Do you want your name written on it?""Yes yes. I want 'Happy Birthday Rohan Kumar' written on it. And I am 8 years oldtoday! Put a big 8 also on the cake."

"Okay, Rohan beta, we will put that on the cake. Now tell me where do you want it to bedelivered?""Delivered? To my home, of course.""Yes, but where is your home?""Oh! You don't know my home? Ok. See, you go straight on this road." Vikram went outof the bakery while staying in the sight of the owner. "Then at the blue building, youtake a right, then go straight till you reach one green house. There is a dog in front ofthe gate of that house. It barks loudly every time anyone goes near it! From that greenhouse you take a left, then right and then straight...""Arre beta, give me your address, not directions." interrupted the owner."Address? C-forty.. no no, E-32 is my address.""Ok. E-32. What is the building's name?" said the owner, writing down the flat numberon a piece of paper against the name Rohan Kumar."Building name is E", said Vikram."That is the block number, beta. What is the name of the society?""Society?""What do you call the apartments?""I don’t know.""Ok, give me your phone number. I will call your mother and ask her for the details."said the owner getting a little irritated."But my mother is not home. She has gone to her Yoga class.""Give me her mobile phone number, then.""Ok. 98 - 20 - 56, no no 36 - 27, no no, 17, 32." said Vikram trying to recollect anumber from his memory."So your mother's mobile number is 98203 51732?" said the owner slowly telling thenumbers."Huh? No no that is not the number! I can't remember my mother's number.""You know any other number? If you don't you'll have to come back later with yourparents." the owner was getting frustrated."Yes. 2452 6731. That is my phone number." blurted out Vikram."Ok. We will call this number for the address before sending the cake. Now give themoney and go home.""Money? My mother did not give me money. She told me to tell you to send the cakehome and take the money then. But she also told me to get 6 vegetable puffs, 6samosas, 6 cup cakes and some chips. And I saw that you have them now. I will take ithome. You send the cake later." rattled out Vikram and waited eagerly to see if the oldman took the bait.

The owner was already feeling sleepy in the afternoon heat and this interview wastiring him. He immediately called out for the helper to pack 6 vegetable puffs, 6Samosas, 6 cupcakes, 2 packets of potato chips and 3 pastries. When the packet wasgiven to Vikram, the owner looked towards him, smiled and said, "The pastries are apresent from me. Happy Birthday".Vikram's eyes lighted up and squealed out a "Thank you very much uncle!" and ranoutside the bakery. He ran towards his 2 companions with food in his hands. The ownersmiled as he saw the kid leave.

What Vikram had forgotten was that he had given away the phone number of hishome and the mobile number of his father.

Chapter 6: Realisation of Loss

"The fire withdrew,path of destruction was walked,realisation finally dawned."

The mayhem that the fire caused in Mrs. Nair's apartment took a long time to die out.The fire crew did their preliminary investigations. Photographs were taken. A FirstInformation Report (FIR) might have to be filed with the nearest police station to holdinquiries into the incident. A lot of neighbours had gathered in the place very eager tosee what the commotion was all about. Some had already begun floating controversytheories. One of them thought it to be the handiwork of an unattended iron box thatcaught the fire. Another one believed that it was an electrical equipment that had goneberserk. One neighbour that apparently had a very bad opinion about Mrs. Malathi Naireven spread rumours that Malathi had been showing signs of delusion. She probablystaged the whole fire to gather attention to her house. So that people would come to herhouse to see all the paintings she had recently made. And also to display the articles shehad purchased from her recent trip overseas. She might even have started the fire toclaim money from Insurance companies. It were the rumours that always spread fasterthan the actual truth. The truth being that 3 kids were missing and no one had noticedtheir absence yet.

After everyone had left, Malathi called her husband to update him about the news ofthe fire.

"Prashant, I have very bad news to give to you." said Malathi the moment her husbandpicked up his phone."Look, I have a meeting to attend in 10 minutes. Make it quick." retorted her busyhusband, Mr. Prashant Nair."You and your meetings. Ever thought about the home?""Ok. Fine. Tell me what has happened?""There has been a fire in the house. Krish's bedroom caught fire this after...""What? Fire? When? How?" the news caught Prashant completely off balance."It just happened 45 minutes back. The helpers from the colony came immediately andextinguished the fire before it could do damage. Lata had seen the fire from her kitchenand had already set actions in motion.""What had happened? How did the fire start?""I don’t really know. The fire rescue men came and did their investigation. The foundsome remnants of a cracker. They think that is what has caused the fire.""I've been telling the society committee to allot specific areas for such celebrations. Butnobody ever hears. They were waiting for such a disaster to come about.""Maybe now they might change their views.""Ok. Go on. What happened afterwards?""The firemen have told us to file a First Information Report (FIR) in the closest policestation. I don't know the documents you might need if you want to claim insurance forthe fire. The fire man was telling that a FIR might be necessary for this.""Alright. I will speak with Ravi. He is a lawyer and will be able to give us good guidanceon it. Tell me, are you hurt because of the fire?""No. I didn't even know about the fire. Only slight suffocation because of the smoke.Even now the whole house smells of the ashes.""And what about Krish. Is he safe?""Krish has gone down to play with his friends. Actually, he hasn't come back yet. I'll callfor him now.""Ok. I will come down home now."

"No no. You can finish that important meeting of yours and then start. There isn't muchhurry. I will manage things here until then.""Let me see how early I can make it to home. You take care and don't hesitate to call meif you need anything", said Prashant Nair as he put the phone down.

Malathi had already thought about Krishnan when the fire broke and she was ratherglad that he was not at home. To see a fire in his room, and seeing so many peoplerunning inside the home might have tensed the kid a lot. She knew how much he lovedhis books. The fire was very close to engulfing the rack where his books were stacked.Although safe from the fire, quite a few layers of soot lay on the books. Now thateveryone had left, she decided to call him back home. She saw the clock and realisedthat it was much later than she had thought and Krish should have been back at homefor having lunch much earlier. She got a bit irritated at the kid for forgetting time whenhe went out playing with his friends. She went out in search of him.

As soon as she alighted from the lift, she was so eager that she started yelling evenbefore she got out of the building, "Krish! Come home now. Enough of playing. Look atthe heat out here. You will get a sunstroke if you play in such heat. Don't you even feelhungry? Krish! Where are you playing? Krish!!". She was nearing the playground, shesaw some other kids and asked them if they had seen Krishnan, but all of themanswered in the negative. She then laid her eyes on Richa. Richa was also calling out forher son Vikram. Both looked at each other and then stood silently for a while.

There are a few acquaintances who are very untrustworthy. They are so, not becauseof some previous enmity. They wouldn't even have had the opportunity of having sharedan argument. They are so because of what they have heard about each other. DivyaVihar Society was a very huge society with people from all over the country. But evenwithin them, there was a sort of groupism. People from Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar hadone group. People from Karnataka, Tamil nadu, Kerala and Andhra Pradesh had anothergroup. Then there was the group of Bengalis and Oriyas. Maharashtrians had a groupwith a few Konkanis, so did Gujaratis, and the others. Mrs. Richa Saxena belonged to thegroup of Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar and they usually called those from down southas "Madraasis". Mrs. Nair, although from Kerala, originally, hence was a Madraasi toRicha. And she had heard very notorious rumours about Malathi from her group. Therecent rumour of a delusional Malathi Nair burning her own home for insurance moneyhad already reached her a few minutes back. The fire that the rocket caused hardlytroubled the bedroom in 10 minutes. But it took lesser time for rumours about Malathi tospread through the rest of the colony. If the axiom "News spreads faster than fire" everneeded validation, today was the day.

Malathi didn't know about these rumours. She was too busy in dealing with fire andthe people that came with it. Her group called the likes of Richa Saxena as "Northies",hailing from the North. She had heard stories of Richa beating up other kids becausethey used to tease Vikram. She had also heard stories of how Richa would quarrel withschool teachers for every mark that was denied to Vikram. Both the mothers had somepre-conceived notions about each other and it took a long time before Malathi decided tobreak the ice and approached Richa.

"Have you seen my son Krish... Krishnan. He is about 4 feet 10 inches with roundglasses..""I know who Krish is. I have seen him earlier. And no, I have not seen him today."replied Richa rather curtly."Ok. If you see him, then tell him I asked him to come home.", responded Malathi whocould sense a bit of coldness about Richa. But she was in no mood to be hostile. She hadbigger problems to deal. She started to look for Krishnan in some other block."Actually, I came to find my son. I can't find him either." said Richa letting go of some ofthe coldness."Oh! You think they were playing together then?"

"It could be so.""Ok. I'll go looking for them in E, F and G Blocks, out there.""Alright. I'll look for them near H, I and J. If you see Vikram then bring him here. Don'tlisten to him if he begs you to allow him to play another 5 minutes." said Richa andmoved towards her search area.

After about 10 minutes both the women were back. They both were almost certainthat the other might have found the kids. But they were surprised to see each otherempty handed.

"Where could they have gone?" said Richa who was beginning to get a bit nervous."I don't know. Krishnan usually never leaves the society without asking me. Lets go andask Bahadur if he has seen them." suggested Malathi already moving towards the maingate."Yes. Bahadur must have seen them. I'll come with you." said Richa tagging alonghastily.

They reached the main gate and questioned Bahadur."Bahadur, have you seen Vikram and Krishnan?" asked Richa."Maa.. madam.." Bahadur was very nervous."What maa maa are you doing? Have you seen them or not?""Madamji, I saw Vicky baba, Krish baba and Montu baba run outside the gate." said thegate keeper visibly shaken."What?! Why did you allow them to go out?" intervened Malathi."Yes! Why did you let them go out? Have we not told you clearly not to allow kidsoutside in the afternoon?", questioned Richa."Madam, I was trying to stop them. But.. but.." hesitated Bahadur."But what?" asked Richa."Just then I received a phone call from Lata madam to send for help with the fire. And Icouldn't see where those 3 kids ran." said Bahadur."So those two ran off with Montu? Why does that not surprise me? It had to be him.Come now let us go to Mamta's house." said Malathi and guided Richa towards the houseof Sumant Chakraborty.

Bahadur saw the two women leave and heaved a sigh of relief. He was glad that hewas not questioned more. He didn't have the nerve to tell them about his missing matchbox and who he really thought could be behind the fire.

Chapter 7: The Mothers

"No words fell on ears,No sight beheld of children lost,The mother's heart bleeds."

Unlike Mrs. Malathi Nair and Mrs. Richa Saxena, Mrs. Mamta Chakraborty was not asconcerned about their sons not turning up in time for lunch. Such an event was acommonplace for her. Sumant was always outside the home, playing sports. She didn'tmind his playing. She, in fact, enjoyed seeing him play football more than cricket. Shewas brought up in Kolkatta with her father being an overzealous fan of Mohun Bagan.She always dreamt that Sumant would become a mainstay of Mohun Bagan. The schoolauthorities were pushing Sumant into cricket a lot much to her chagrin. He was notletting them down in any way, but her heart always wanted him to play football. Whennot playing at school, Sumant would be seen playing football in the society whichgladdened Mrs. Chakraborty a lot. She, however, did wish at times that her belovedMontu would concentrate a bit more on his studies too. She was not much concernedabout the neighbours constantly complaining about the latest prank of her son. But shewas a well-educated woman to know the importance of education. Her husband hadalready written off Sumant as a good for nothing kid who is bound to fail in educationand bring them disrepute.

When Richa and Malathi came to G-24 to meet Mrs. Mamta Chakraborty, Mamta wasbusy watching her favourite soap opera on her television. When the bell rang, she cursedthinking it would be Sumant who had finally decided to come home out of hunger. Shebegan muttering expletives in Bengali even as she moved towards the door to open it.When the door finally opened she raised the volume by 2 levels and said, "I made yourfavourite fish for lunch, but no food for you ... Oh!" she stopped halfway seeing Mrs.Richa Saxena and Mrs. Malathi Nair standing in front of her door. Both of them wererather taken aback. Mamta, very well aware about the internal groupism within thesociety was a bit surprised to see these two women together. She however was veryfamous for being a wonderful host. Not missing the opportunity, she began.

"Arre! What a pleasant surprise. Mrs. Saxena and Mrs. Nair. How kind of you to come tomy home. Come in. Come in. Please, do." she said suddenly in high spirits as she guidedher guests to her sofa."Now before we start talking, you have to tell me what will you have? Tea or Coffee?"inquired Mrs. Chakraborty."Mamta, we are here to ask about ..." began Richa but was interrupted."Arre! We can talk all day, but you should take something. Tell me Tea or Coffee?""I'll take tea." said Richa."Coffee for me." said Malathi at the same instant.

Both Richa and Malathi looked at each other and got a bit embarrassed.

"Ok. Tea will do." said Malathi."No no. Coffee is fine." said Richa."Arre! You two can't decide anything. I like Tea myself in a hot afternoon as such. And Iwill make 3 for all of us." said Mamta smilingly. "What will you have along with tea? Myhusband just got some very delicious Rossogullas from Kolkatta few days back. Youmust have them.""No, no. We don't want any sweets." said Richa looking at Malathi who approved.

"How can you not have sweets at my home? That is not possible. I made some Sondeshjust yesterday. You will have to taste some of it. I won't take No for an answer." saidMamta and went into the kitchen.

Richa and Malathi looked at each other. The good humoured Mamta had already wonover them with her jovial nature. For a moment they had forgotten what they had gonethere for. Malathi looked around the house and realised that there was no sign ofSumant. Richa saw that too. Mamta came back with a tray containing Tea, few sweetsand some more dishes. She passed a dish to each of the ladies.

"They are Baingan Bhajas, made of Brinjal. I made it for lunch for Montu. But the brutehasn't come home yet.""Actually, it was about Montu that we both came to talk to you about." said Malathi."Oh God! What has he done this time? Did he trouble Bhicky and Krishnan?" askedMamta, half expecting the same since the moment she saw the two women at the door."We don’t know anything yet. We were hoping you would know about his whereabouts."said Richa who seemed to be getting very nervous about Vikram."I don't understand what you are trying to say? Montu has been out of home from 10o'clock." said Mamta, getting a bit anxious."Both of our sons and Montu were seen running outside the gate by Bahadur an hour orso back. And I and Richa were hoping you could give us some clue as to where theycould have gone. Do you have any idea where Montu could have gone?" said Malathi"I have no idea where he could go at this time of the day!" replied Mamta.

At this point, Richa lost her composure, "Oh my god! My Vicky is out theresomewhere. He is so little. I have never let him out of my sight all these years. What willhe do? What will he eat? What if someone...?" she left the question incomplete andbroke down into tears. Mamta and Malathi both took hold of her and began consolingher. The unspoken fears are always the worst and always leave an impact even on thelisteners.

"Look. Don't worry so much about Vicky. I know he is just 8. But Montu and Krish are 4years older than him. They will take good care of him. They couldn't have gone muchfar. We'll go and look for them ourselves. You stay here." said Malathi."How can I stay here when my son is out there somewhere. He is lost! Oh Vicky!", criedRicha."I understand how you feel. They might not be lost. They could just have gone to thenext colony. Montu keeps taking a match of football with the other kids. He picks anyonewho is willing to play with him. That Rohan from the Blue Star apartments is in the sameclass as Montu. They play so many games and also keep count of how many games theyhave won. Don't worry. We will go and look for them there.", said Mamta as she startedclearing the table.

The three mothers then went out in search of their kids. Richa was not hiding heremotions. Malathi put up a strong effort to stay from tears. She had already facedenough of trouble all day. Mamta was the strongest of the three. As they walked shekept up her pep talk not allowing the other women to lose hope. But deep within hermind, she had a very bad feeling brewing in her mind. The sense of impending danger,much likened to the female species of Humans had already taken over the minds of thethree women. The hearts of three mothers was bleeding profusely.

Chapter 8: The Lunch

"Nowhere to be seen,Ran away from the scene.Where have you been?Dear, Mr. Bean!"

The rhymer Sumant was at it again when he saw Vikram returning. His eye fell on thepacket he was carrying and remarked, "... and what do we have here? Hullo! Hullo! Mr.Bean is back with something interesting.""If you call me Mr. Bean, I will not give you anything inside the packet." said Vikram whodid not like being labelled a comic character."Ha ha Vicks retaliates! Now Crash. Will you stop crying over your books and comehere?", saying which Sumant went over to the moping Krishnan. "I am very sure the firewas extinguished before anything happened to your books. Don't cry now.""How can you be so sure?" retorted Krishnan."Do you hear fire engine after fire engine going towards our home?""No. But we don't really know which way our home is.""Not that far. But we would still hear fire engines if the whole building was on fire.Maybe even ambulances, if someone got burnt. Wait a minute. Vicks! Are you eating apastry? All alone? Give me one! Is that what you found in the packet?" saying whichSumant made a run towards Vikram who couldn't hold his hunger on the silly argumentbetween Sumant and Krishnan."Wait, wait. Don't take mine. I have one for everyone." said Vikram hiding his pastrywhich Sumant was about to grab."How did you get them?" asked Sumant surprised."That's a long story. I will tell it after we eat. I am very hungry.""You mean you have more food?""Yeah. 2 vegetable puffs, 2 Samosas and one pastry for each of us. Some chips too.""I don't want anything", said Krishnan who had stopped sobbing."Oh! Wonderful. Then I get his quota. Well done Vicks. You make me proud! Next cricketmatch, I am sending you as an opening batsman!" said Sumant."Really?! You promise?!" said Vikram. (To be the opening batsman had its ownprivileges. The opener is ensured to get a chance to bat. He has enough balls at hisdisposal to score as much as he pleases as long as he does not get out. Vikram, beingyounger, would usually be sent to bat last. He would hardly get an opportunity to bat.Either he got out, or his companion got out or the allotted overs were complete. Anopening position was like being held on a pedestal.)"Yes, yes. I promise." said Sumant as he tried to get his hands on Krishnan's allotment."Don’t you dare touch that, Montu!" shouted Krishnan. Hunger got the better of him too."Then come over here and have food with us."

The three sat under a tree and munched the food, while Vikram related his con job tothem. With awe the other two heard how Vikram had duped the bakery owner intobelieving his every word. The kid was just 8 years of age, but he had just shown whatcompassion for fellow human beings meant. He was hungry and he knew his friendswould be just as hungry as he was. They were squabbling without giving him anythought. He could have kept all that food he acquired for himself. But he did not. He haddone his mathematics at the shop and guessed how much food would have sufficed thethree of them. Such goodwill is not instilled into every person's nature. It comes fromthe virtues a guardian thrusts on the kid. There was no thanking required. They hadalready secured a deeper bond. A bond of close friendship. And friendship accepts theregrets and thanks without a word being said.

They finished off the food, but kept the potato chips for later. It is strange how aperson with an empty stomach alters his mood when he is fed with food to his heart'scontent. The three were smiling, giggling and seemed content. In between one of themwould say, "Happy Birthday Vikram, beta" and all of them would start laughing loudly.The scare of being lost was gone. The grief of running away from their parents wasgone. The guilt of having burnt a house was slowly waning away too. But now they hadto get their bearings right. Find out how far they were from home. Even though theywere not really keen on going back home, knowing that it was within walking or runningdistance would have given them much needed confidence. Certainly, better than beinglost. For when, enough time had passed and the anger of people had reduced, theycould go back home.

Chapter 9: The Jogger's Park

"Children scream, jump and play all day,Never do they stop, until it is dark.People walk and jog, while others lay,Philosophising this living so stark,They all smile, in surroundings so gay,Life has to be lived in a Park."

We have earlier delved into the actions of a guilty person in a crowd. The mind of thatperson at that moment is a flurry of activity. When the three kids were running awayfrom their home, they were extremely ashamed of their act. Their eyes were wide openpossibly from fright of their actions or just to concentrate on the road ahead. But thesewide eyes were piercing ones. In a second they could capture any casual gaze of abystander. Even a cursory glance of a stranger towards them, sent a shiver down theirspine. That single moment to them seemed to tell that person everything that hadhappened to them in the last few minutes without any words being said. Since runningwas what they were doing, running was what their mind told them to carry on, awayfrom that piercing eye of the stranger. Such is the state of the guilty mind. Always anextremity of attention. Maybe that is what is agoraphobia.But now they had discussed what had happened. Cried over it and ate and joked merrilyover it. The agoraphobia was no longer grappling them. Arms in arms they walked gaily.They did not know where they were going. As is the habit of the subconscious rootlessmind, they took the route that most people seem to be taking. If majority of the peopleare going one way, it must be an important way. And so they entered a tiny gate. Theyentered it and then stood and gazed at the huge green area that was in front of them.They had heard of this place. Heard a lot of stories. They knew they were at the Jogger'spark.

For its name, a Jogger's park has very few joggers at any time of the day. There aretracks laid across the whole park for runners. But it is the walkers that take up most ofthis track space. If someone is running he has to wade his way through people who evenwalk at a brisk pace are really slow for their pace. There are whole rows of benchesevery 10 - 20 metres. Those that have already finished their exercises would be sittingthere catching up on the gossip of the previous day. Then there is the green garden usedby kids that are busy playing some sport. Some schools even conduct training or inter-school matches in this area. On the sides there is space allocated for little kids. Slides,jungle bars, swings, see-saws and tiny merry-go-rounds. The jogger's park is always aflurry of activity through the day.

Vikram, Krishnan or Sumant had never been to the Jogger's park even though theyheard of it. They just walked aimlessly looking at what people where doing. An old mancame huffing-puffing towards them and went past. Another came and asked them tostay away from the track. "Don't stand here if you are not walking or running." he saidand went on. Vikram giggled pointing to the shorts of the old man. He hadn't seen anyold men wearing shorts before. A bulky man who to them seemed to come out of awrestling match had the full running gear right from a headgear, wristbands to asweatshirt and the latest Reebok sneakers. He sweated profusely, his paunch in front ofhim, his head craned backwards trying to balance his weight. Vikram started laughingseeing him. Sumant, in turn waited for him to pass them and then ran behind him, at hispace, in his style. His non-existent stomach jutted forward, his back tilted backwards,head tilted sideways, he ran with his trademark mischievous smile on his face. Now evenKrishnan couldn't control his laughter. The man did not hear all of that. Because part ofhis complete running gear was also his MP3 player and large earphones.

Before their laughter died down, they heard another group laughing all of a sudden.The kids thought that the others too had started picking on the 'wrestler' and they wentto see what this group was doing. To their surprise they found a large group of old menstanding in a big circle. And they were just laughing. Not standing randomly, but in aperfect circle and laughing. The kids stood with a gaping mouth seeing this curiousgroup. The laughter seemed completely fake. Continuous rhythmic sounds of "Ha ha haha ha", "Ho ho ho ho ho", "He he he he he". After a while they realised the group had aleader who began this nonsense and the other followed. This was the first time they hada sight of "Laughter therapy" in action. Sumant again got into his prank mode. He wentnear the group and pointed a finger at the leader and laughed like him "ha ha ha ha ha".The group leader, instead of getting angry, took the cue, pointed back at Sumant andlaughed louder "Ho ho ho ho ho". Others soon followed suit and began pointing at eachother while going about with their loud laughter. Krishnan and Vikram joined in themelee and soon, the laughter no longer seemed to be fake. They were all having a veryhearty laugh. A few of the elderly men even had tears rolling down their cheeks. Butthey continued laughing. People do not need a language to bond. Sometimes, laughter issufficient.

The laughter group later got down to Yoga. They had brought mats or mattressesalong, which they laid on the grass and began their exercises. The kids moved on toventure around the park. Apart from the area where most of sports occurred, the rest ofit was covered with big trees. They never felt the simmering heat of the afternoon asthey curiously moved around the park. They saw some colourful tiny birds glide acrossatop the trees. For somebody born and brought up in a city, any bird apart from thecrow or pigeon was a sight worth beholding. Krishnan began naming some of the birds tothe astonishment of the other two. They also came upon a tiny pond with a few ducks init where they stood and made noises to get the attention of the ducks. When there iswater and there are pebbles within grasp, the hand incoherently nudges the mind tomake it throw those pebbles to see ripples in the water. That was done too. There wasan arena marked and reserved for skating. Kids would gather there in the evening topractice skating. There was nobody there right now.

Big crowded cities have small houses. Small houses imply little seclusion. A huge parkis a boon for such people that find themselves surrounded by too many around them. Itis for the availability of some privacy that there is another common sight in such parks -couples. Couples is a loose term used to imply two young lovers. Some of them skiptheir colleges or work to find some quality time to indulge in each other. They find thecosiest places behind trees, in some shade or in some corner to murmur sweet nothingsto each other. Sumant saw one such couple in a corner and there appeared the nastiestof smiles on his face. "Hee hee hee, look at what that guy is doing! Sitting so close tothe girl!"

"Chee. Disgusting fellow." said the disapproving little Vikram."Hey, I think I have seen that boy somewhere." said Sumant with some suddenrealisation."His name is Rakesh. He keeps coming to our society on his motorbike." repliedKrishnan."Oh yes! He comes to meet that girl Ruchita in G-25. But that girl doesn't look likeRuchita, does she? We should go to him and ask him how far our home is. Maybe hecould help us." said Sumant as he started walking towards the couple.

The boy, Rakesh, suddenly turned to see Sumant walking towards him and gotagitated at the audacity of the kid who was invading their privacy. "Hey Kiddo! Get lostfrom her now will you?" he said curtly. The girl saw them and began hiding her face fromthem.

"Rakesh bhaiyya, we were hoping you could tell us ..." Sumant was requesting asRakesh got up and cut his speech."Who Rakesh? What bhaiyya? You have the wrong identity. Now get lost from herebefore I give you a slap. Go on. Go away.""But...""No buts. Get lost or I will..." he raised his hands to beat Sumant. Krishnan came bythen and dragged Sumant away.

Sumant was very unhappy, but Krishnan said that Rakesh was not worth the troubleand they went back towards the pond. They could hear the girl say, "That was so meanof you. They were just kids, for God's sake!","But dear, I was only doing it for us. They were causing disturbance. Now where werewe?""Stay away from me. I am not going to talk to you anymore." said the girl and stood upto leave.

Chapter 10: The search begins

"The heart feels heavier,Tears expended begin drying up,Lost faith reawakens."

A child gets in trouble. Repents. Cries over it. The misdoing is washed away with thetears. He laughs mirthfully once again. Is it because of his innocence? It is the innocencethat prompts people to forgive children. But the child never remains a child forever. Heis not given such an allowance once he has grown up. Every misdeed is thought to beconceived of some selfish motive. A motive that most certainly was the inspiration thatdrove him to cause the trouble in the first place. He may plead innocence. He mighteven be as innocent as he was as a kid. Forgiveness never comes so easily. He repentshis deeds. He cries over them. Begs to be forgiven. Such exemptions never comethrough words. Time heals his wounds. He laughs after a long time. But the scar remainswith him. The time it takes to heal gets longer, the older he grows. Such is the cruelty ofthis thing called Life.

The kids had grieved and they were already enjoying. Making fun of each other,playing with elderly men, they were laughing again. But the mothers were not the same.They never said it to each other but they all thought that some great tragedy had fallenupon their sons. Their thoughts kept delving in what terrible things could happen to theirchildren. One line of thought gave birth to yet another thought. Even more tragic thanearlier. Inside their heads, they had built up so much of fear that the only way it couldbe released by crying. And tears began rolling out of their fear-fraught eyes as theyscurried towards the adjacent building to see if their sons were playing there. Eventhough all the negativity in their head was driving them crazy, another side of the headgave them reassurance that they will certainly find their sons playing gaily. Oh! What asight it would be to see them safe!

The behaviour of a group is another interesting thing. If all the women cried together,their troubles would only get multiplied. One of them had to be strong. The one thatgave the shoulder to cry on. The one that would pat on the back and say "Ah! Nothinglike that has happened. You are just being silly." or "You have to be stronger. This tooshall pass." It was Sumant's mother Mamta that was taking this role in this group. Richabeing the youngest of them doted on Vikram like he were still a toddler. The thoughtthat he had escaped from her eyes made her curse herself. Malathi, on the other hand,had just braved the burning house. She was strong enough to deal with that. But to addto it the disappearance of her son was a bit too much for her. Mamta couldn't have anysuch exemptions. She knew that the other two women believed that her mischievous sonhad some hand in the disappearance of the children even though they did not say asmuch. She herself had started believing it to be true. But right now, she had to be thesupport for the grieving mothers. And she was doing that task very well.

As they left the gate for Blue Star apartments, Mamta told the watchman to keep alook out for the children and to let them know if he saw them. Another thing that womendo very well, is hide their grief from strangers. While Mamta was talking to thewatchman, Richa and Malathi wiped out their tears, fixed their faces and nobody couldtell they had just been crying. With the slightest of haste they walked towards Blue Starapartments. The place was all of 300 metres away. But their minds worked so fast thatthe distance seemed like 3 kilometres to them. They finally entered the apartments andstarted making enquiries. They found out where kids usually play and headed to theirplayground. There were a couple of dozen of kids there and the women immediatelybegan scanning each one of them. No sign of them yet. They approached the kids in the

playground and asked if they had seen Montu, Vicky or Krish anytime earlier. No leadinganswers came forth.

Richa came up to the other 2 women and said, "Nobody has even seen them. I'm soworried!"."Just try to put yourself in your son's shoes. Think that you were 8 years of age, wherewould you go?" said Mamta."I would be at home with my mother and would never ever venture outside the gates ofmy house!" retorted Richa."I said think like an 8-year old and not a 3-year old." replied Mamta."I have no idea. He must have just tagged along with Montu and Krish. They are elder tohim." said Richa with a tinge of sarcasm which didn't escape Mamta or Malathi. Theyhowever did not retort back."Who better to ask than these kids here." suggested Malathi.

And so they put the question to the kids who were playing. They found this questionto be extremely funny considering the fact they already seemed to be doing what theywanted to do at that time. One of them however said, "I would go to the ice-creamparlour in such heat!" and the three mothers looked at each other all at once. "Theshops!" And they set out to look for their lost sons in the shops nearby. They lookedwithin small shops from the outside. In some of them, they went and inquired if any ofthem had seen 3 children and described their appearance. However, "A kid in blue t-shirt, about 5 foot in height, another in a red t-shirt 4 feet 7 inches tall and another kidwearing a blue-white checked shirt" was too vague for anyone to recollect. The morepeople they asked, the more worried they got. The hope of finding their sons tooreduced every time they inquired. Eventually, they resigned to their fate.

Every person has his or her own limits. Once they reach that limit, they realise thereare things beyond their grasp. Which is when they look up to a person who could havepowers higher than they do. In most cases, they look for divine intervention. They turntowards God. With the pursuit of the three desperate mothers not bearing fruits they allheaded towards the temple that was the closest. They went there to pray. To pray thattheir sons stay away from trouble. That they don't get to face any tragedy. If theycannot be under the protective glances of their mothers, God, at least would look aftertheir well-being. They also prayed that if they were to face any such crisis, may theyhave the power to deal with it.

Chapter 11: Rules of the game

"Make a child lethargic,Inject him with a quest for studies,Never will he stop playing."

Sumant had a very good humour. It was very rare that he would be depressed. It wasmuch more rare to see him get angry. The actions of Rakesh in shooing him awaywithout giving him a chance to speak had been successful in making the rare occasionplausible. If Krishnan hadn't pulled back Sumant, he might have got himself into a fist-fight with a guy twice his age, knowing very well he might have got beaten up. Such isthe rage that grips a person who has been ticked off in a disrespectful way. But we havealready seen the passion that Sumant had for Sports. You could wake him up at 1 a.m.in the night and ask him if he would be willing to play cricket under the flood lights, hewould say, "Give me the ball". He would have run all day in a game of football at schooland would be resting home. But if his friends called him to play a game of Badminton, hewould immediately pick his racket and run to join his friends. That was his enthusiasm toplay.

And so it happened that while he was brooding over how better he could have dealtwith the situation of Rakesh, he saw 3 kids kicking a football between them. He stoppedin his tracks and pointed out those kids to Krishnan and Vikram.

"What?" said Krishnan."Look. Those guys have a football!" said Sumant getting a bit of his enthusiasm running."Yeah. So? You want to steal it from them?""No! Lets challenge them to a game of football! They 3 against the 3 of us!""What? Shouldn't we be finding our way home instead?" asked Vikram who saw the kidswere as old as Vikram & Krishnan. It would mean he would be the youngest personamong them. That did not work out well for him in a game of Football."You want to go home now?!" asked Sumant."Why what is wrong with that? It might take us at least another hour for us to find ourhome and get there. Enough time for our parents to have forgiven us, no?" said Vikram."Your parents possibly! Not mine! And certainly not Crash's parents! His house is the onewhich got burnt!", replied Sumant."Ok. So we play with them. But where?" asked Krishnan."In that skating rink. Nobody is using it now. It is big enough to play football. Smallenough to have a goal and small concrete walls will be our boundaries.", said Sumant."Fine. But will they play with us?""Let us go and ask them." saying which Sumant went towards the kids. "Hi! My name isMontu. This is my friend, Krish and this little guy here is Vicky. We were hoping that wecould take a match with you. A game of football. Will you play?"

The three kids stopped playing and looked at each other. They gave positive nods toeach other and then one of them came forward to meet Sumant, "Hi! I am Vishwas. Thisis my brother, Vinay and this is our friend, Karthik. We can play a match. But where willwe play it?""Good! You know that skating rink?" asked Sumant."Yeah. You want to play there? But if the skating master sees us playing there he willshout." replied Vishwas."When does the skating master usually come?""He comes in an hour or two.""Oh! That's a lot of time at our hands! Come lets go there and decide on the rules." saidSumant guiding the troupe towards the skating rink.

When a game that needs 11 players in a side is played by 3 players in a much smallerarea, the rules also need altering. Especially, when there was not going to be a refereeinvolved. And so they set upon creating the rules.

- The goal on each side would be 20 steps (Steps taken by the length ofSumant's legs). The goal was marked by stones first. But the colour was notperceivable from far, so they instead kept their colourful slippers on each endabove the stones to make it easily discernable. No shoes. No slippers. They wouldbe playing bare foot.- The tiny concrete walls would be the boundary. If the ball went outside,there would be a kick-in instead of a throw-in.- To avoid the ball going outside too often, if the ball went higher than thewaist, it would be a foul. The game would then start with a free-kick from thespot where the foul occurred. A foul can be called by any of the players. Sincetheir heights were different, the height of the tallest would be the level. Ithappened to be Sumant who was the tallest. Everyone stood next to him to seewhich part of their body came up to the waist of Sumant.- There would be no designated goal keeper in the team.- The team that would reach 10 goals first would be declared victorious. Andafter 5 goals they would swap the sides. That would be half-time.- In case, there were to be penalties, one person would be allowed to stand infront of goal and when the kick is taken, he can try to block the ball with his legs.Penalty would be taken 40 steps from the goal.- If they got tired before 5 goals or 10 goals, they could take time-outs. Ifthey got really tired at the end, existing scores would decide the victorious team.If scores were equal, they would do a penalty shoot-out.

Children are thought to be too young to be aware of logic. They are thought to be toonaive about proscribing to rules. They are thought to be devious and always looking tobreak rules. But such is rarely the case. It might be surprising for the adults, butchildren usually stick to the rules, unless there is a bully around who completely despiseslosing. A spoilsport. The rules were decided upon and agreed to by all the six. And sobegan their game of Football.

Chapter 12: The Match

"They fight for victory,Kick the ball all day long,No goal in sight."

The teams were called Vishwas United and Montu United. Both the teams played witha triangular formation. Two ahead and one back. Karthik was the one standing back inVishwas Utd. Vikram being the youngest, Montu directed him to stay back. But Vikramwouldn't have it that way. He said, "But you said I can choose where I want to play.""That was for cricket that I said so, when I told you can open the innings next time."replied Sumant."No but I want to open in football too." retorted Vikram."There is no opener in football. Every player, no matter if he plays up front or back has avital role to play in the game.""No. If I stand back, I won’t get any balls coming my way.""Don't underestimate the opposition even without seeing them play.""No. I want to play ahead. I want to score goals. I can't score goals if I stand back!"

Sumant smiled. Krishnan volunteered on playing behind them. And so, the game,Vishwas Utd vs. Montu Utd began after a toss which Montu won. He selected one sidefrom where his team would start the game, while Vishwas kicked off the game bypassing the ball to Vinay from the centre. A few kicks between Vishwas and Vinayshowed that they had played a lot of football earlier. They had very good understandingof where the other player would be at any time and their passing was very good betweeneach other. The same could not be told about Karthik though. He was very flimsy withthe ball. He had difficulty controlling fast balls directed at him and his passes were a bitawry most of the time. But he was good at blocking balls. And he was a bit rough at thegame. He would just charge at the opposition without aiming for the ball. Sometimes hiskicks would hit legs instead of the football. Vikram would yell every time he would get akick on his shin. But the passion of playing always superseded minor pains.

Montu Utd, though was a completely different team. Vikram was too young to managethe ball with skill. His height was an impediment to his speed. But what he lacked inheight and skill he compensated with enthusiasm. He would run up and down the fieldwithout getting tired. Always next to the guy having the ball, he would keep blockingangles that would allow anyone from Vishwas Utd to get a shot on goal. Krishnan wasgood with the ball. He would keep a check on one of either Vishwas or Vinay all the timeand kept intercepting their passes. He would do the hard work of getting the possessionof the ball back for Montu Utd. Montu Utd, in short, was all about Sumant. There issomething about the craze that people from Bengal have for football. Similar passionscould be seen in those from Kerala or Goa too, but the flair with which the Bengalis playtheir football is a treat to watch. Much like the Brazilians. Montu was a wizard when hehad the ball with him. Three people were nothing for his dribbling, he could take on all ofthem with his suave skills. It was no wonder that it was Montu who hit the first goal. Hestepped on one side and pulled the ball on the other end opening up free space forhimself. The whole goal was open for him and struck the ball right in the middle of thetwo stones that marked the goal. Vishwas Utd 0 - 1 Montu Utd.

The goal woke up the Vishwas - Vinay duo, who started a skillful between themselvesrunning forward, passing the ball as soon as someone came to block. Sumant, Vikramand Krishnan were all over the place with such fluid passing and finally Vishwas kickedthe goal to make the equaliser. Vishwas Utd 1 - 1 Montu Utd. The brothers were in fullflow. They started off a similar passing game as soon as they got the ball again and thistime Vinay hit the goal. Vishwas Utd 2 - 1 Montu Utd. The game started again from the

centre, but Vikram this time was very agitated to know they were being outclassed. Assoon as he got the ball at his leg, he hit it with as much force as he had. He intended theball to go towards the goal, but it was nowhere near the goal when it went over the tinywall of the skating rink and straight out. It ended up in some bushes a few metres away.The rule in such situations is that whoever kicks out the ball goes and fetches the ball.With a frown, Vikram went to fetch the ball. He was about to pluck out the ball when hiseyes fell on something that possibly did not belong there. A finely packed green cover,almost the colour of the bushes itself, but distinctly different. He stood there thinking ifhe should open it. But Sumant called out, "Vicky! What are you doing there? Come backwith the ball quick". Vikram ran back with the ball. The game started from a kick-intaken by Vikram. The kick turned out to be very good and caught everyone off guard. Allexcept Vinay who received the ball and kicked it straight into the goal. Vishwas Utd 3 - 1Montu Utd.Sumant had had enough by then. He called in a small team meeting.

"Vishwas and Vinay together are very good at passing. Karthik is not much of aproblem. If we control either of Vishwas or Vinay, the other will be left alone with no oneto pass and all alone they are not that good. So Crash, you will mark Vishwas all thetime and Vicks, you try to stick to Vinay as close as possible. If any of you get the ball,you pass the ball to me. I can take on Karthik easily." said the captain of Montu Utd. Andthe plan was put to action.

It started showing results immediately. The threat of the two brothers was stalled fora while. Meanwhile, Sumant scored another goal when Krishnan stole a pass made byVinay and passed it as Montu had directed them to do. Vishwas Utd 3 - 2 Montu Utd. Asimilar opportunity arrived soon and Montu tried to score from far off again. But thistime, Karthik blocked it but the ball came to Vikram straight away. He saw the open goaland kicked with full ferocity. The same result as earlier. This time the ball fell betweenthe bushes on the other side. Angry at himself, Vicky ran to get the ball. When he gotthere, he gave it another kick out of frustration. When he finally picked up the ball, hesaw yet another package very similar to the one he saw on the other side. He went andtried to pick up the bulky package. It was heavy. Something was wrong. He wanted totell this to Sumant and Krishnan but they were screaming at him for not wasting time.So he returned back without saying a word.

Chapter 13: The Faith

"The clock keeps ticking,For a flicker of hope they pine,The wait is never ending."

The game between the kids became feverish with both the teams trying their best toget the goals. Vishwas scored two more goals after Krishnan was tricked from some veryslick one-touch passing between the brothers. Krishnan was furious with himself.Sumant looked on helplessly. Vikram hated to lose and the score line of Vishwas Utd 5 -2 Montu Utd was not helpful at all. But as they had agreed upon earlier at the end of 5goals they would take a half - time break for some rest.

So it was at half-time in the match that the kids were obviously too engrossed in.They did not even have an inkling about the tumultuous state of minds of their mothersat that very moment. While they were least concerned about themselves and were moreworried about winning the game of football, their mothers were having a turbulent timeamong themselves. They had gone to the temple. Metropolitan localities havemetropolitan temples. One large temple, big enough to have idols for every sub-faith inHinduism. Every idol from Krishna, Ganesha, Karthikeya, Jalaram Bapa, Lakshmi toSaraswathi. All arranged in a semi-circle. Mrs. Richa Saxena went before the idol of LordRama and prostrated as she said prayers remembering her son. She gave some moneyto the priest who was near by and asked him to perform a puja for the safety of her son.She also asked the priest to include the name of his friends. Mrs. Mamta Chakrabortywent towards Lord Durga and held her hands together and prayed. She prayed for LordDurga to keep the evil forces away from her son and those of his friends. She knewDurga Mata would take care of her son. Mrs. Malathi Nair was before the idol of LordAyyappa. She laid on the ground flat with her hands stretched forward. She lay there fora few moments mumbling a few mantras. She prayed for the safe return of all the kids.

Faith is a very intriguing phenomenon. To have faith is to confess your deepest fears.To accept that you are nothing but a humble being who is controlled by some superiorforce. And that you do not wield any power over the doings of this superior force. To putyour faith in something invisible is to accept that you are powerless. Stop trying tocontrol the flow of the stream but to be one with the flow. To let go. Sometimes faithgives the person a sense of relief. It is not a hope that all the wishes will come true. It isin the knowledge that whatever happens here after is now outside their own powers.What is bound to happen will happen. Or as Mrs. Malathi always believed, "Everythinghas a purpose". There are times you do not know what the purpose is. You could startresisting things but you are not successful in halting the eventuality. You can only delayit for some time, but the destiny is written. Such overpowering belief finally began tosooth the troubled minds of the three heart-broken mothers.

When they came out of the temple, the tension that had held them captive for thepast hour or more had reduced considerably. They had put their destiny in the hands oftheir Gods. They had laid down their burden on their faith. Silently they walked back totheir homes. No words were necessary. Words sometimes ruin the comfort that a silentacknowledgement gives. They were walking back home. They went across people theyhardly knew. People looked at them and they could not even guess the pain these hadbeen through a few minutes earlier. There was a girl walking in front of them with afrown on her face. She walked briskly. Behind her, came running, a guy.

"Listen, Gayathri. Listen to me for a minute." said the guy."I don't want to listen to anything you say." replied Gayathri."Just give me one little minute to explain myself. Don't keep running like this".

"I said, I won't hear anything you have to say. How can you be so mean to someinnocent kids?""I was not mean to them. They were mean to me. To us. They were disturbing us.""To hell with your 'us'. There is no 'us' anymore.""Don't say that? What happened was not so big. Don't make it so big!""Look. You dropped me near my home on your bike, I thank you for that. Now don'teven bother coming near my home again. Ever!""But why do you say that? Don't end all of this because of some unruly kids. Please! Giveit a thought! You are being very obtuse!""Obtuse? You called me obtuse? I like kids. I like them more than I like you. Sorry, thatshould be in the past tense. I like kids more than I ever liked you. And when some kidscome to ask you about something you shoo them away. And in what way! Bythreatening them to hit them? How can you even think of such a thing?""See Gayathri, I know all these kiddos very well. They are always up to some prank orthe other.""There was no mischief written on their faces. You are cruel. A very mean and cruelperson and I want nothing to do with you anymore. Leave me alone Rakesh." said thegirl and walked inside her house as Rakesh stood outside watching her go away.

She was a beautiful girl. Or as his jealous friends told him, she was a 'prized catch'. Ithad taken him 3 months to woo her. Deliberately running into her at different times ofthe day and acting surprised. Helping her out with her work led to flirting. Then camegiving her gifts. Which followed by bike rides. Oh! How she loved to sit on the bike! Andthen after 3 months she finally agreed to his proposal. All the efforts he put in 3 monthshad been washed away by those 3 sinister kids. He stood there gazing at her door, whenthe mothers of those 3 kids passed him by. They overheard everything. All they could dowas sigh and say, "Youth these days!".

Chapter 14: The Second Half

"We don't want to lose,So our minds we will use.Make them run till they are thin,Then this game we shall win."

His team was losing 5 goals to 2, but Sumant was never too perturbed to crack acouplet. He had analysed how their goals were scored. His team was not doing good indefending and was giving away the ball too easily. Vishwas and Vinay made the most ofit and kept scoring. Team games are a bit different from individual sports. In anindividual sport, the mindset of the person depends on his or her own level of motivationto come out of difficult situations. Some lack the drive and give up. It shows in theirgame that they are no longer trying to win. In a team sport too such moments ofhelplessness occur when the team loses direction and keeps getting hammered by theopposition. In such moments of faithlessness comes in the true captain. A captain is aleader that knows his team very well. He knows what they can do, what they cannot doand most importantly he knows how to inspire them to win. A break in proceedings ismost welcome for the captain. It is a time to regroup, analyse and plan. And so they allplanned.

To the surprise of Sumant, Krishnan turned out very good at analysing the game ofthe opposition in comparison of their own.

"You know, they are keeping the ball for more longer than us. They have more than 70%of possession with them." said Krishnan."How do you know such percentages?" asked Vikram."It is just an approximation. Now listen closely. They are keeping the higher possessionand are attacking at our goal more than we are doing. Montu, you told us to blockVishwas and Vinay and pass the ball to you. We are doing that, but because of that ourattacks are led only by you and these attacks come only in small spurts. I and Vickyspend too much time just trying to block those brothers." said Krishnan."What are you trying to say? I'm not scoring enough goals?" asked Sumant trying tounderstand the drift of Krishnan's analysis."No. You are playing very well. But if we need to score more goals we need to attackmore. If I and Vicks keep defending while you are the only striker, we hardly createchances." replied Krishnan."Ok. Agreed. So what plan do you propose to correct that?" said Sumant."We first need to have more of the ball time. If one of gets the ball, don't just throw itaway. Keep it. Let them come to you, then pass the ball to any of us. It doesn't have tobe passed forward always. Just keep passing." said Krishnan."Yes. And hence, all the three of us should not stand close to each other. As soon as weget the ball, spread out. Be open to get a pass." added Sumant."Once we keep passing between each other, they in turn will have to do the running tofetch the ball. It is the second half, so we get them tired earlier." said Krishnan."Excellent idea! But can I score a goal too, please?" intervened Vikram."Now see this Vicks. We play as a team. Don't keep kicking so hard from such longdistances. If you are close to the goal, I promise I'll pass the ball to you and you canscore all the goals you want, but choose accuracy over power. Understand?" saidSumant."Yes. I understand. Accuracy over Power." he repeated."Good. Now let’s go beat them!" said Sumant instilling some enthusiasm into the teamas they went into the second half.

Vishwas United suddenly was facing a completely different team. Within a fewminutes, Krishnan had acquired possession and he was passing the ball to either ofVikram or Sumant and they in turn kept passing back as they slowly kept movingforward. Sumant, suddenly took the ball and made a dash for the goal. In a state ofpanic, Karthik, Vinay and Vishwas, all three ran to block him. Sumant turned around andpassed the ball to Vikram who was standing behind him. He held the ball under his leg,looked at the open goal. Recoiled his legs and said, "Accuracy over Power" and with aslight thrust rolled the ball into the goal. He was ecstatic when the ball settled in thegoal. A goal is the moment of glory for any player in the game of Football. Vikram knewit like that. He had seen many footballers on TV celebrate goals and he always dreamt ofa similar celebration. His favourite celebration was that of Raul Gonzalez who would runtowards the crowd lift his hands high and then kiss the ring in his fingers. Vikram kissedthe invisible ring in his fingers leapt high and gave a whoop. Looked outside the rinkscreaming joyously to the invisible crowd. Vishwas Utd 5 - 3 Montu Utd.

This goal was soon followed by another goal from Sumant. Their plan was working.Their opposition though was not bothered much as they were still leading 5 goals to 4.There was a lapse of concentration from Krishnan where he mistakenly passed the balltoo slowly and Vishwas grabbed the ball and Vinay scored their 6th goal. When the ballcame back to Krishnan, he hit it real hard out of frustration. It was his turn to fetch theball. But Krishnan was not as conscious as Vikram. The ball had lodged itself right nextto the curiously large green packet. Krishnan did not find it interesting at all, took theball and kicked it back towards the rink, again out of frustration. Frustration sometimesworks very well for some people. It fuels in them a desire to perform what theirpessimistic mind considered difficult or impossible. Krishnan had willingly taken the roleat the back, because he believed he couldn't score goals. Now he was angry at himself.As the game started, he darted towards Vinay to get the ball. Intercepted his tackle,kicked the ball into open space and darted towards it. His speed amazed everyone. Hereached the ball, turned around Karthik and struck a goal and yelled "Yes!! Yeah! Comeon! We can win this game! Come on!".

This excited remark not only charged up the players of Montu Utd, but also theplayers of Vishwas Utd. What ensued was a beautiful game of Football between the twoteams and soon the score line read Vishwas Utd 9 - 9 Montu Utd. Whoever scored a goalfrom here on would be the winner. All the 6 players looked drained out. But it was onlytheir bodies that were tired, their mind was fixed on winning the game. Both the teamshad a small meeting to chart out a plan to get the winning goal. Both of them took aradical approach. For Vishwas United, Karthik came in front and Vishwas went back. ForMontu United, Montu and Krishnan both went back, while Vikram alone stood up front. Itappeared one team was going on the offensive, while the other went defensive.

Chapter 15: The Discovery

"In unexpected places,In most casual of all glances,Greatest discoveries are made."

Players of both the teams were tired. They all knew the rule that they had decidedupon earlier - "If they got really tired at the end, and the scores were equal, they woulddo a penalty shoot-out." The game was already being played in such good spirits, thatinvoking such a rule would be considered bad sportsmanship. Or, in the parlance of thekids, "cheating". Every ball that remotely went higher than the waist was called a fouland no one protested. A few rough tackles were made, but that stopped in due timeafter both teams understood they did not want to end up hurt badly. Nobody wanted tofinish the game on penalties, because they had no idea how to take such penalties. Theywould rather battle out the final goal with all their energy. And so they kept on tryingattempt after attempt. Attacks on one side countered by counter-attacks on the otherside but nobody could breach the vicinity of the two stones that marked the goal.

Eventually, the final goal had to come. Vinay took the ball from Karthik and ran pastVikram with a dribble, passed the ball to Vishwas. Krishnan immediately blocked Vishwasfrom going ahead. Vishwas turned around, passed the ball back to Karthik, Vikram andKrishnan both ran towards Karthik. Coolly, Karthik put the ball right between the twocharging players and it went straight to Vinay who kicked the ball towards the goal. Itwas going straight in, inching ever so slowly. Vikram & Krishnan looked at itdespondently. Suddenly they saw a foot stretch. Behind the foot, was the body ofSumant sliding towards the ball. Sumant dived with all his might and stretched as longas his body could endure to ensure that he would touch the ball and put it away from thegoal. Everything seemed to be happening in microseconds. Finally, the foot madecontact with the ball and it was kicked away from the goal. Vishwas, Vinay & Karthikwere almost half celebrating their victory by this time. They never imagined that on sucha concrete turf, anyone in his senses would risk getting hurt by sliding. But Sumant wasa sportsman at heart who hated losing. Not only did he save the goal for his team, healso got up immediately and kicked the ball in the direction of Vikram. Vikram got theball right in front of him, saw the goal and murmured yet again, for the last time in thegame, "Accuracy over power" and kicked the ball into the open goal. Vishwas United 9lost to 10 goals by Montu United. The victors were huddling each other and yellingvictorious chants as the other three sat down morose, unable to understand how theyhad lost the game. They looked at each other wondering if they could lay blame onanyone of them. But all of them had done well.

Sportsman that he was, Sumant saw them, left the screaming and huddling andwalked up to Vishwas. Gave him his hand to lift him up on his knees. Vishwas took thehand and stood up while saying, "Congrats on your victory."

"No. No congrats. Nobody won. It was a wonderful game." replied Sumant."That's very nice of you to say.""Not at all. You all played such a splendid game that nobody really deserved to win thematch. I was thinking of using the penalty option 5 minutes back.""So was I. But I didn't want the game to be won or lost on penalties.""Even I was thinking the same thing." Sumant said with a smile. "You guys played verywell too." saying it to Vinay and Karthik, he lent his hands to them to pick them up ontheir feet too.

All of them shook hands, congratulating each other. The smiles were back on all oftheir faces. And they started discussing the strategies, errors and other stories. Soon

enough, the tension, excitement and passion of the match had vapourised and wasreplaced by laughter. People in the park, who were walking past these kids would look atthese kids and they never could say if these kids were strangers just an hour ago.Finally, it was time for Vishwas and Vinay to leave. Vishwas said, "We have to leavenow, but I would like to buy you three an ice cream for having won the game!".

"Ha ha. Thank you Vishy, but that is not required." said Montu."No! I want an ice cream!" said the little Vikram. He had been sweating profusely fromthe game."Ha ha ha. Sure. Sure. Come let’s get you a nice Butter scotch ice cream." said Vishwas."I don't like Butter scotch. I want Vanilla ice cream." said Vikram."I'll take a vanilla scoop myself." said Vinay."Me too." added Karthik."Aah! Fine. I'll get us all a scoop of Vanilla ice cream. Come. The ice cream vendor wouldhave just arrived near the back gate." saying which Vishwas guided them all to the backgate of the Jogger's Park.

Vikram pulled out the extra packet of chips that he had saved from earlier and theyall munched at it as they reached the gate. The ice cream vendor gave them 6 vanilla icecream cones which the kids licked gleefully. Vishwas and team left saying goodbye andgradually everybody was silent. Krishnan, Vikram and Sumant suddenly felt lonely andstarted wishing they were home too. Not allowing the despair to take over them, Sumantsuggested that they go and sit on the grass for a while. Take some rest as they were alltired from the game. Once they had regained some energy, they would begin inquiriesand find their way back to home. So they moved towards a secluded spot as the sunbegan to set. The three sat down on the grass. Which is when Vikram saw it again.

There was yet another of that mysterious green packets among the bushes. This timehe went up to it, and pulled it out. It seemed a bit heavy to him, but he began dragginganyway. Sumant saw him struggling and went up to him and said, "What are you doing?That is not yours? Don't touch such things.""I saw 2 similar coloured packets near that skating rink when we were playing footballtoo." replied Vikram."That does not mean it belongs to you. Now put it back, before its owner comes and weget into more trouble." said Sumant."No, I want to see what is in this. Why is it kept hidden like this everywhere?"

Vikram finally tore open the packet and saw a plastic cover inside. It was stinkingvery slightly. But his curiosity would not give up and he opened up the knot. Themoment he looked inside he leapt dropping the packet and began yelling."What happened?" said Krishnan who was napping all the time."There are bones inside this packet! There are bones! I saw bones!" replied Vikram."Don't be silly. You must have seen something else." said Krishnan."No. He is right. These do seem like bones to me too." said Sumant who was looking atthe packet more closely."What bones are those? Let me take a look at it." saying which Krishnan went towardsSumant who was holding out the packet.What he saw was a skull and a few more bones. "These are certainly not human bones.These look more like... more like the bones of a..." he hesitated."Like the bones of what? Say it! Stop looking at us like that! Say it!" said Vikram."These are bones of a Tiger." replied Krishnan.

Chapter 16: Krishnan Nair (a.k.a Krish)

"Gather information,Learn everything you can,Knowledge is never wasted."

Krishnan Nair was a studious kid. He managed to rank first in the class most of thetime. If he could not, he would be disgruntled and would work extra hard next timearound. His friends called him many names. Krish, Crash and even Kiss-nun. He hatedgetting nicknames. They would also call him bookworm. He loved books. Not the booksthat secured him the first rank, but books that set him free from them. Books that spokeof Fantasies. Books that talked of historic wars and heroes. Books that described thebeautiful places around the world. Books that made him think. He cherished everythinghe read. His parents knew of this fondness of his and always encouraged him topurchase as many books as he wished. He had a very big collection in his room. Thevery room that caught fire from a rocket he had helped light up. The very book collectionwhich made him cry when he was told it could have been burnt.

Left to himself, Krishnan would never even venture out of home to take up sports. Ifhe was not reading his books, he would be glued to watching Discovery Channel or theAnimal Planet trying to learn about how animals survive in various parts of the world. Itwas no wonder that he was always chosen to represent his school in Quiz competitions.His quest for General knowledge was unquenchable. Unlike other students who wouldmemorise the names of countries, their capitals and their currencies, Krishnan wouldchance upon some country through a book. And then he would go about researching onthe country, its people, its history, its neighbours, languages and the animals thatthrived in that country. In a quiz, when a photograph of a springbuck would be shown,others would begin guessing between a deer, a blackbuck or a moose, Krishnan wouldbe ready to tell in which country the gazelle could be found, how high it could jump andhow fast it could run. Such details excited him.

He would watch Football or cricket sometimes on the TV, but he would do so more outof his habit to memorise records. Cricket for him was numbers and statistics. He neverliked playing it though. While his father would sit watching the cricket match, Krishnanwould religiously keep telling him, the runs required by the batsman to get to certainrecord, or his strike rate, or the required run rate for the team to win. His mother had toforce him into making friends when they first moved in. Although, he got along with afew kids, he never got close to any of them. He rarely found any of them interesting.They were always up to silly pranks or were talking nonsense. Ironically, when he talked,everyone in turn told him that he spoke nonsense. Even if they deliberately tried toantagonise him, Krishnan always managed to ignore them.

It was just a few days before the mishap of the fire happened that Krishnan waswatching a documentary on Indian Tigers. He was moved by the documentary that toldabout how the Indian tiger was about to be added to the endangered species list. Ittalked about poaching and many other industries that thrived from the tiger and its bodyparts. He saw the bones inside the packet that Vikram had located and he knew instantlythat they belonged to the mighty Bengal Tiger. His heart sunk as he saw those bones infront of him. The bones were wrapped around a cloth and there was a stench emanatingout of it. The kill could have happened very recently. He had seen how the bones wereexported to countries where they were used for making exotic medicines. He had to dosomething about this. It was his prerogative to do what is right.

He looked at Vikram who was covering up his nose with his T-shirt while Sumant waspeering at the contents of the package.

"These are the bones of a tiger. There is still some smell coming from the bones, whichmeans the flesh was peeled out of them recently." said Krishnan."How do you know all this?" asked Vikram from within his t-shirt."I saw a documentary on Discovery some days back. It was on the Tiger and how theywere being killed by poachers for money. This stuff certainly belongs to one of the thosepoachers." replied Krishnan."You mean these were kept here by some people and they left it for someone to see it?"inquired Sumant, who was getting curious."They were hidden here, until Vicky laid eyes on them. There are hundreds of people inthis park, how come nobody else saw this?" replied Krishnan."Yeah! I saw two more such packets too when we were playing football!" said Vikramwho was pleased that his skills of detection were being appreciated."What? Two more packets?" asked Krishnan."Yes. Two packets near bushes on either side of the skating rink. They looked exactlylike this. One was as big as this and another slightly smaller.""Oh! Yes! Now I remember seeing one myself when I had gone to fetch the ball! But Ijust moved it away and took the ball then.""I was going to open the packet the second time itself, but Montu was shouting at me tostop wasting time!""Which you were!" said Sumant."I was not! See, I opened it now and Krish says that it is important!" countered Vikram."Yeah! Sure! This is very important! We have Tiger bones, here, everyone. Come up andbuy some bones! Rs. 100/- for any bone. Rs 500/- for the skull. Who wants it? Comequick before stocks last. Bone for sale. Bones .. ""Keep quiet Montu! Don't attract attention! We are not going to sell these bones. It isagainst the law to kill tigers or to sell anything related to their bodies. Not their skins,not their bones and not their claws either. So stay quiet and let me think." saidKrishnan."What? It’s against the law? Then put these back. Quick. We don't want to get intotrouble because of it.""No. We have to do something about this. This has to be handed over to the WildlifeConservation authorities. They have to find out who these people are. This has to stop.""But how will you find Wildlife authorities? We can't even find our houses!""We shall inform the police about this." saying which Krishnan started packing thecontents back as they were earlier.

Chapter 17: The Realisation

"Disbelief in misdeed,disbelief of cruel intentions,Realisation dawned"

The trip to the temple had done the three mothers quite good. The mind was nolonger in a state of desperation to know the whereabouts of their children. Theysomehow knew that the kids were safe. They still hoped that their sons would show upas soon as possible. The kids could have come back in their absence. They could besearching in the wrong places and if their sons were coming home, they would bedistressed to see that their mothers were not home. So the mothers decided to stay athome and wait instead. The search came to an end. As they walked back to Divya ViharSociety, they halted at the gate and Mrs. Malathi Nair asked Bahadur,

"Bahadur, did those three return?""No madamji, I still have not seen Montu baba, Krish baba or Vicky baba." repliedBahadur."Ok. Tell the others to keep a look out for them too." said Malathi."Yes madamji, I will ask everyone to keep an eye for them. I will ask those shopkeepersand hawkers outside to do the same too.""That would be good. If any of you see them, call us immediately.""Yes madamji." said Bahadur. The women started moving towards their homes whenBahadur began mumbling something."What? What are you saying?" asked Mrs. Mamta Chakraborty."Madamji, actually... madamji, that match box...""What matchbox? What are you stuttering?""Madamji, Vicky baba had called me in the morning saying that some kids had climbedup the mango tree.""So what is it about match boxes you were mumbling?""Madamji, I went behind Vicky baba to shoo away those kids. But there were no kids.Vicky baba said they ran away before I came and he ran away too.""Where did he run to?""He ran to the back of the D-block.""What happened after that?""Madamji, I came back to my cabin and I wanted to smoke my beedi. And I was lookingfor my matchbox. But the matchbox was gone.""So what does Vicky have to do with it?""Madamji, when I saw Vicky baba, Montu baba and Krish baba run outside, they werecoming from behind the A and B block. The three of them were together behind theblock.""What? Behind A and B block? That is the side our bedroom faces!" intervened Malathiwith a surprise."Yes madamji. After the fire engines went away, I went to that place to see what theycould be doing there.""And what did you see?""Nothing. There was nothing there, madamji.""What do you mean nothing. If there was nothing why should you bring it up?""Nothing madamji. I just said that I went there to see if I could see my matchbox. Icould not find it there.""But what do you think the kids were doing behind those blocks? It is such a dirty place.""I don't know madamji. I only saw them come running from there. I tried to stop themand ask about my match box but they ran away outside the gate before I could get holdof them."

"Ok. Forget about it now. We will go and take a look at the back ourselves. Let us seewhat they were doing back there." said Malathi and all the three headed towards thespot where earlier that day a rocket was torched.

When they reached the spot they could see a lot of filth around and could not standthe stench. They thought it impossible that their kids could stand there for long. Which iswhen Malathi remembered what her neighbour Lata had told her.

"By the way, Lata was telling me that when she saw the fire, she saw Vicky standingright here.""Vicky? He was here? Are you sure Lata saw Vicky and not some other kid?" asked Richawho was a bit peeved that some blame was about to come to her kid. She did not likehis name being dragged in between."She was very sure it was Vicky, because when she shouted his name, he saw her for afew moments and then ran away." replied Malathi."So what are you trying to say?""I am not trying to imply anything here. I'm just telling what Lata saw.""Wait! Is that?" Richa got down near a small earthen pot. The plant on it seemed to havegot burnt. The marks suggested that the burns might have been fresh. But the potunmistakably belonged to her. "Oh! God! This is my pot! I had just purchased this plantlast week. How did it come here? And the plant on it. It seems to have been burnt! Whatcould have burnt it?" she asked with a tinge of shock."And look at this hole here. Looks like something was dug right here." said Mamtabending down to the pot and taking a closer look at the mud."Huh?! The fire crew said that the fire was possibly caused by a stray rocket! Since wewere so close to the wall, we thought it had come from some building outside the colony!We even told so to the fire men. They told us to book an FIR in the police station aboutthe incident for the same reason. But it looks like..."

The sentence did not need completion. It was completed by the disbelief in the eyesof the mothers who had just managed to realise what could have happened thatmorning. In their minds, they relived the sequence of events. They saw how Vickydistracted Bahadur for the other two to get the match box. They saw the kids lighting upthe rocket. The rocket flying up to Malathi's home. Curtains catching fire. The kidsgetting scared and running away together outside the colony as the watchman, Bahadur,had seen. The kids were scared of the consequences that they would have to face, ifthey were caught. They saw no choice but to run. Run as far away from home aspossible. Realisation finally dawned.

Chapter 18: The Wait

"When desperation passed,When all hope seemed lost,A sign appeared."

The mothers until now were a bit irritated at their sons for having taken the liberty torun away from home. Until now, they had no idea why they had done so. When all thenormal reasonings were proven incorrect, they started imagining some tragic incidents.Kidnapping of kids was an uncommon event in the society, but it was one of the firstpossibilities that had struck them. Abduction could also be done for many other reasonsthan kidnapping. But now they had found something that had removed such extremethoughts from their minds. They had found a reason for their children to run away. Eventhough that was not a prudent thing to do, they understood that their sons were youngand naive. The mothers would have certainly forgiven them for the act. They might haveyelled at them, given them stringent punishments, but they would have forgiven them.The kids never thought of the consequences. Their instincts made them run away.

Now that they knew the reason, they also knew that the kids would return eventually.And they would return together to apologise. The first place they would go to apologisewould be to Krish's mother as they had burnt her house. Hoping for it to happen, Mrs.Richa Saxena and Mrs. Mamta Chakraborty went to Mrs. Malathi Nair's home and waitedfor their sons to return. When they entered the house, Malathi's friend and neighbourLata came rushing asking what had taken her such a long time.

"Oh! It is a long story Lata. A very long story and I am tired.", said Malathi."But what happened? Where is Krish?" persisted Lata who seemed very concernedespecially when she saw Mrs. Richa Saxena and Mrs. Mamta Chakraborty accompanyingMalathi."I will tell you everything, but let me first sit and have some tea. Both of you would likeTea too, right?" replied Malathi."Yes. Tea will be good." said Mamta."It will be most welcome." said Richa.

And then they made some tea and sat down as Malathi related the events of the dayto Lata. Lata was just as concerned as the three of them when she heard of the kidsrunning away. She asked if they had looked properly in all the neighbouring buildingsand shops. And then Malathi told her about the find they made behind their home.Everything seemed to fit for Lata finally. She sighed as she thought about the kids. Richawanted to see the damage her son had caused from the fire. Mamta also wanted to seeit and they went to the room to see the remains of the room. Richa was now feelingsorry for having believed in the rumour of Malathi deliberately burning her house toclaim insurance money. Mamta felt sorry that her son had a hand in creating such amess. She started clearing up some of the dirt. Richa joined her and so did Lata. Soonall the women were engaged in cleaning the room. The walls and the window remainedblack. Repainting might have to be done on the walls, but that could be done later.

While they were busy clearing the burnt room, the phone at Mrs. Richa Saxena'shome was ringing. It rang thrice and no one responded. Then the mobile phonepossessed by Richa's husband, Akash rang. Mr. Akash Saxena was very busy at work. Hepicked up the phone.

"Hello, who is this?", said Akash."I am calling from Premium bakery. We have a delivery for your home." said the voice.

"What bakery? What delivery? Who gave you this number?", asked Akash who wasgetting annoyed thinking it was a wrong number."Sir, your son, about 7-8 years of age was here this afternoon and had ordered a Blackforest cake.""Yeah. Ok. So send it to home. Why have you called me here?""I called up on the number for your home, but nobody picked it up. Your son gave thisphone number too.""Ok. Fine. Note down the address. C-43, ..""E-43?""Not 'E'. 'C'. C for clock. C-43""But your son said E - thir...""You want the address or not?" asked Akash cutting off the caller halfway."Yes sir. C-43, which building?""C-43, Divya Vihar Society...""Oh! Divya Vihar society? Alright. I know where that is." this time the caller cut offAkash."Good. Send it over there. Anything else?""No Sir, thank you very much for the information. The delivery will be done in 20minutes. But will anybody be at home? I called and nobody picked up the phone." askedthe caller who did not want to go all the way and see a locked door."Note down this number. It belongs to my wife. Call her and then go there." sayingwhich Akash gave him Richa's mobile number and cut off the phone to get back to hiswork.

Even though the women were deeply involved in their search for their sons, thethought of calling up their husbands and informing them about the kids being lostoccurred to them every now and again. But they always thought that the kids wouldappear in no time and their husbands would get worried for no reason at all. And if theyleft work to come home just to aid in the search, their work too might get hampered.When they finally settled at Malathi's place after cleaning up the burnt room, Richa got acall on her mobile phone. It was her husband Akash on the other line.

"Listen, I just got a call from some bakery guy saying Vicky has ordered some cake.They will be delivering at home." said Akash."Vicky did what?" asked Richa. Hearing that the other three women became interested inthe call."He ordered a cake and he doesn't even know our proper home address. I have giventhe correct address to the bakery. He will call you any moment.""But how do you know it was Vicky?""Why? Didn't you send Vicky to get the cake? Actually, I never thought about it betweenwork. Why did Vicky order a cake? Is it his birthday today?""No it is not! You can't even remember your son's birthday?!" hearing which the otherwomen knew the call was from her husband and they braced themselves to see how hewould take the news."Ok. So it is not. But he ordered a cake and it is coming. So be at home to pick it up. Ihave to get back to work now.""But listen Akash! Vicky is not at home. He is lost!""What?!" yelled Akash on the phone."Yeah. He has run away from home.""What do you mean lost? Run away where? Why? Did you scold him?""No I did not. Listen now to what has happened..." saying which she narrated the day'sevents."Oh God! You wait there. I am leaving office immediately and coming home." sayingwhich Akash kept the phone down and started wrapping the work he was doing.

Seeing the reaction of Akash Saxena, the Malathi and Mamta too had called up theirhusbands and were narrating the stories of their son's deeds during the day. All thehusbands were on their way home. This gave the mothers some relief. Now that therewere more minds involved, the search could get easier. They all sat down and waitedpatiently for their husbands to arrive.

Chapter 19: The Indian Tiger

"Jungle is his abode,The beast walks in it with pride,No forests in sight."

Logic is a deterrent. Give a person a choice to do the heroic act or just let things be,he will choose the path of least resistance. In his mind, he weighs everything by theeffects they will have on the future. There are no certainties. No assurances. No binariesof 0 or 1. Everything is only a probability. Would he be willing to lose everything he hason a chance that he might succeed? Or will he save what he already has? The probabilityof anyone succeeding in a heroic act is very miniscule compared to the success of lettingthings be. We never hear of those people that barely became heroes. Those thatperished trying to become one. They are failures. Losers. The mind weighs everysituation that could occur. Every situation that springs reduces the chance of the heroicact happening. Eventually, the choice remains between sanity and impossibility. Wouldthe impossible have felt impossible had the person not mulled over everything? LogicKills Heroism.

Ignorance is bliss and the intelligent man is a coward. The kids had an option ofleaving those packages containing the bones of a tiger right where they found it. No oneelse had seen it and no one would see it later either. Everyone was too busy withthemselves even though they came to relax at the Jogger's Park. It has been said earlierthat the cosiest of places away from the normal vision of walkers in the park was usedby couples. The darkest of all places in the park was also the place where nefariousactivities occurred on a regular basis. Prostitution, drug dealings, illegal transactionswere a few of the crimes that happened openly in the darkest of areas of such publicplaces. Some of the most fraudulent and dangerous criminals were a commonplace inthe Jogger's park. If the kids ever thought about it, they were possibly meddling withone such criminal. Had they thought of the consequences, they would have left theirgoodwill that very moment and would have gone away in search of their homes. But aswe have said, Ignorance is Bliss and the intelligent man is a coward. We shall replacethe intelligent man with the highly informed man for the folly lies in the extrainformation.

Krishnan had decided he was going to do something about the tiger bones. He couldnot keep mum. The authorities had to be informed. Sumant and Vikram were not asinformed as him about the seriousness of the crime."But what is the big deal about tiger bones? Its just another animal." asked Sumant."Yeah. We have chicken bones and fish bones at home too. What is the big deal aboutTiger bones. Maybe some people like to eat tigers and they threw away the bones here."added Vikram.

Krishnan looked at them incredulously. He could not believe he had to hear suchnonsense. But he kept his cool. He had to inform his friends about the situation of theTiger in India. Maybe then they would appreciate the seriousness of the problem athand.

"Have you both seen Tigers on TV?" asked Krishnan."Yes. Of course." replied Sumant."Yeah. I have. Even in the zoo. Biiig cat with biig whiskers. It has black stripes all overhis body. He roared once and I was frightened", said Vikram."It is a big cat. Heavy cat at that. But the problem with this is much more deeper. Youhave to listen to me patiently on this one." said Krishnan and began on a discourse onthe Indian Tiger.

"A 100 years ago there were close to a 1 lakh tigers in India alone. More than anywherein the world. They lived in jungles throughout the country. But soon, people startedcutting trees and the jungles started dwindling.""Why did they cut the jungles?" asked Vikram."They wanted to make factories. Factories that would produce the things we utilise now.But with industries comes civilisation. A population has to thrive for the industry to run.So, they kept cutting away at jungle land and made their homes." said Krishnan."But if we are using what comes from the industry, how can it be bad?""They were taking away the homes of so many animals in the jungle to build their ownhomes. Would you like someone to take away your home just like that?""No. I would not.""Neither did most of the animals. The tiger actually likes to have his own area forhimself. Sometimes he marks his own area, his home for more than a kilometre aroundhim. But with the size of the forests reducing from every side, more and more tigersstarted living closer. They fought with each other. Some even tried to get their areasback from us, the humans. They would attack in the night. Eat away the cows, bullocksor goats that the people would domesticate.""Eat away cows?!" exclaimed Vikram."That is the food of the tiger. He can't eat grass and have such a body, would he?Coming back to the Tiger's story, the people were not happy with the tigers and called ita menace. They hired hunters to kill the tigers. Some of them put traps to catch thetigers.""Hunters?! What sort of traps?""They would dig big holes and cover it with tiny bamboo sticks and some grass. Or theywould have steel traps which would grab the legs of the tiger, the moment it stepped onit. Most of the tigers would be killed if captured. The people were happy that the menacewas being done away with. The hunters became heroes. They would mercilessly kill thetigers that never even ventured out of the forests, stand on it and take photographs tobrag to their friends. Some people would take away its claws and make necklaces andpendants out it.""But if tigers are a menace, isn't it good to have them killed?""They were not a menace. They were happy in their homes. We took their homes awayfrom them and hoped that they would find some other place when there was hardly anyother place. Apart from that, there is also the natural habitat to consider.""What is a natural habitat?""How do you think the animals in the forest lived for so long even though there alwayswere so many tigers? There is a food chain which you will learn next year in school.There are plants that grow from the Sun's energy. At the bottom are the animals thatlive on grass and vegetables like deer, cows, buffaloes. Then there are those that surviveon smaller animals like rodents such as jackals, foxes. There are others that eat the deerlike the tiger. Now if there were no tigers and there were only deer, what wouldhappen?""They would eat away all the grass?""Exactly. The food chain maintains a balance. Not just these, but there are other animalswithin water bodies in the forests. Besides, there are animals like vultures that live ondead bodies of animals. They are called scavengers.""Yuck!""Scavengers are very important too. When the body of a dead animal decomposes itgoes back into the soil and provides energy for all those plants and trees to grow. So,hence the whole circular chain goes on. Now if you take away something like the Tigeraway from the chain, it starts affecting the lives of vultures and indirectly the plants andagain the deer. Which is why each and every animal or living species in the forest is justas important as any other.""But how do you know so much? Montu doesn't know all this?"

"I know some of it. I don't keep watching Discovery or Animal Planet like Krish all day!"said Montu who was listening keenly all this time."It is not about what is known. It is about how to use what is known. Now we have to dosomething about these bones." said Krishnan."But why? I understand Tigers are important for the forests. But this tiger is alreadydead. There are no vultures here either." asked Vikram."I think I will have to explain even more.""I am all ears." said Montu with a grin."So am I." said Vikram.

Chapter 20: The Plan

"Do you kill for fun?Do you shoot to defend?How can it be even,It’s you with gun in hand."

"I said that there were more than a lakh of Tigers in India a hundred years ago. Do youknow how many tigers there are right now?" asked Krishnan."50,000?" guessed Vikram."20,000." Sumant made a guess too."Wow. You guys have no idea. I give you both two more chances." said Krishnan."Ok. 15,453!" said Vikram."10,000?" guessed Sumant."Wrong again." said Krishnan."Don't tell me we are seeing the bones of the last remaining Tiger here!" said Sumant."Of course not." said Krishnan."8,312" said Vikram."According to the last survey few years back, 1,411 tigers were there throughout India."said Krishnan."That’s all?" exclaimed Vikram. Sumant had nothing to say but showed disgust in hisface."Yes. That is all.""Are we still taking away their forests from them? I don't see any photographs of hunterswith tigers. I have not even seen necklaces or pendants of Tiger nails." said Vikram."The problem now is a bit different from earlier. The problem of forest encroachment stillpersists, but some steps have been taken for that. There are forests that are declared asTiger reserves and it is a crime to make houses within those reserves. The hunters arenow called Poachers and even they are banned within these areas. These are Nationalparks like Ranthambore, Bandhavgarh and others. There are forest guards that roamaround all day looking for offenders. The penalties for breaking the law are very stiff.""But still! Just 1,411 tigers?""There are plenty of problems that are causing such dwindling numbers. The skin iseither sold or kept as a memento to show off bravery. The biggest of the problems is theChinese medicines. China too had just as many tigers as India did. But centuries ago,some Chinese doctors found out some medicines that could be made from Tigers bones.China's tigers started reducing as these medicines became popular. Once their tigerswere gone, they still wanted the bones and Indian poachers are now providing them withthe bones to make their medicines.""Medicines from bones? Is this where these bones are going?""Most probably, yes.""So the Chinese will be coming to this park?""No. There is hardly any use of such bones in India. Some Indian definitely is behindthis. He will get this and then take it to China to sell it for a high price. And we have tostop it from happening. If these people get caught, tigers will be much safer.""I hate these people already!" said Vikram with rage filling up his eyes."What do you propose to do?" asked Sumant who was listening very keenly all thiswhile."Vicky says he saw 2 more packages. This package weighs around 2 kgs. 3 packets isstill just 5-7 kgs. A tiger weighs at least 200 - 250 kgs and its bones must weigh around50-60 kgs. Even if it is just one tiger, there must be at least 10 such more packages ofjust bones lying here. We never know what other body part of it they could be selling.We have to find them and then hand them to the authorities." said Krishnan.

"But if we are going to handle so many packages wouldn't we be attracting attention ofthe people? We still don't know who will be coming to claim these packages as theirs."said Sumant."That's a good point. Okay. So we first need to find some other hiding place for thesepackages. Some place where those criminals will not find it so easily." said Krishnan."No. First, we have to locate all the packages. We can think about hiding them later. It isgetting dark already and it will be difficult to search for them later. Vicky is very good atfinding these packages. He's already seen 3 of them. We should send Vicky to find theother packages throughout the park. One of us will stay there behind that tree. We keepdropping the packages there and that person looks after it. It is a good hiding spot. Noone will see us." said Sumant."Yes. That is a good plan. You stay here Montu. I will search in this direction and Vickycan start searching in the other direction. We meet again in another 20 minutes." saidKrishnan."No. Vicky might get lost if he went alone. As I said, its getting dark too. I will go withhim and search with him. We find 2 packages we come back here. You can stay behindthe tree or look around for more packages. But keep the packages within your sight."said Sumant."Ok. That will do too. I might also start looking for places to hide these packages in themean time. We should get going immediately. There is not much time left." saidKrishnan.

Vikram was already scurrying to begin the search. He was extremely happy to be ofassistance. Sumant followed him looking about him to see if there was any threat.Krishnan began moving the packets to their temporary storage space. He began keepingvigil while scanning the surroundings for safe hiding spots. The plan was set in motion.

And so began the search for the remains of a dead tiger. No other dead tiger everattained as much importance as this one. It was a majestic animal in its lifetime. Itdeserved such attention even after its death. What happened to it was not known. But inits death it could help find out the people who made a living out of killing its brothersand sisters. Maybe they would never have to face the fate that it had to face.

Chapter 21: The Indian Tiger - IIWhat Krishnan had told his friends about the Indian tiger was very true. What he

knew was too much even for a 12 year old. But that is what passion does. Leads you ona quest for information and the thirst takes a long time to get quenched. There wereplenty of other things that Krishnan had not yet known about the Tiger.

The tiger is very shy of human beings and is not a man-eater. But he might turn intoone if he is extremely hungry and cannot find his regular hunt of wild boars, deers,sambhars, or buffaloes. It marks its territory in the forest and most often it is assured toget its prey within its territory. Only when such territory is breached or encroached doesit become a man-eater. Attacks are a method of self defense for the tigers if they arecornered. It is also known that it only kills when it is hungry. It does not believe inhoarding food for later. Rotten meat is for the scavengers.

It is true that the Chinese seek the tiger bones for making medicines. Tonics aremade out of churning these bones and given away as wines in many places. These tonicsare said to cure diseases like rheumatism and arthritis. The tonic sells for approximatelyUS $200 for half a litre. Although, there still is no medical or scientific proof validatingthese claims, the demand exists. The Chinese government had imposed a ban on alltiger products, but the demand ensured that the trade continued illegally. This resultedin increased costs of the tonics. Which in turn, raised the demand for Tiger bones as itassured sufficient remuneration. It was a cyclic event. If some medicine were to be soldat a very high cost, it acquires a perception of quick and certain remedy. Everything isdone under the garb of Traditional Chinese Medicine while it would most probably be afolklore. Similar is the case with the tiger bone derivative medicines being used asaphrodisiacs. There is a complete list of medicines and cures that utilise every part of thetiger's body to cure almost every disease known. None of them proven to be true. Someof them even seem ridiculous to be true. Skin or brain of the animal to cure mentalillnesses, blood for gaining strength and will power. Eyes as costly as US $1700 to cureepilepsy and cataract. Whiskers to reduce toothache, stomach to cure upset stomachs,testes and gall bladders to cure tuberculosis and watery eyes respectively. Only thingthat comes out as certain is that the Chinese revere the tiger as a perfect creature morethan anybody else in the world. Which is why they probably feel that consuming the tigerwould be like an elixir to all human diseases.

When we have seen the amount of money people are willing to pay for tiny parts of atiger, it becomes clearer why the demand for tigers increases in India. There are noknown uses of a dead tiger in India as yet. Even if there are, the market economics willdrive the poachers to make their sale in China rather than in India. The network ofpeople that are involved in the whole process is very interesting. A casual hunter of avillage might actually kill a tiger because he was approached by some villagers whocomplained of their livestock and cattle being devoured by a tiger. The hunter will getpaid a very nominal fee or food by the villagers. But if the news of the kill were to bemade public, the exporters start approaching the hunter luring him to share the spoils ofthe tiger. The hunter does not really know how much he himself could get if he sold theremains directly. A number like Rs. 20,000/- is dangled in front of him for the skin andbones. That amount is a small fortune for a poor man and he does not even think twice.Such dealings are done by middlemen. The actually exporter pays him a smallcommission for his services. Something to the tune of US $5000 which is close to Rs.2,25,000. The exporter in turn gets paid almost US $50,000 for each tiger. A whopping22,50,000 (2.25 million). When such amounts are involved, even those men with toughcharacters become weak. The money would spell an end to a life full of sacrifices andmisery. The money is a promise to a better life. There are cases where a nexus betweenthe wildlife authorities and exporters have been exposed.

Efforts have been made by the Indian Government to put an end to this trade and toprotect the Tiger. The tiger is after all the National Animal of the country. In 1972, aWildlife Protection Act was passed where in strict laws were drafted against hunting andeven stricter penalties were mentioned. From 5 national reserves, a total of 40 Tigerreserves were designated throughout the country. In 1973, the Project Tiger waslaunched to save the National animal from facing extinction. The government funded theproject to maintain all the Tiger reserves and spruce up the security for them. The WorldWildlife Fund (WWF) also provided aid initially for the project. For a few years, the tigerpopulation showed an upward trend. It turned out that a lot of malpractice was going onto show improvements to get more funds. Moreover, the methods used for tracking thetigers was done through their pug marks. It was only by the year 2008 that telemetryand camera traps started being implemented to collect data about Tigers. It turned outthat the tiger population was just a handful of 1,411 by then.

Apart from the main problem of poaching, there were other issues that failed toprotect the tiger. The forest officials were given low grade vehicles and weapons withwhich they were to protect huge areas. Even if they got wind of poaching within theirperimeter, they could hardly capture any poachers. There were reports of the forestofficials being killed and some poachers were even brutal enough to cut off the toes ofofficials so they became immobile. A forest official at the prestigious Jim Corbett NationalPark was shot down by some hunters. Litigations and enforcement of laws was evenmore tougher with rampant corruption. The poachers were backed by rich individualswhereas all the forest officials had was the meagre government funding. Some of theofficials are known to fund the continuing litigations with their own money. Such is thepassion and love they possess for the National Animal. A tiger protection force has beensetup and the Government has promised to fuel in almost Rs. 600 crore over 5 years forprotecting the habitat of the Tiger.

But despite all the efforts, there were lacunae. There were pitfalls and wronglymotivated people that still managed to kill a tiger (or two) in one of these National TigerReserves. People driven by the greed to earn money by killing animals. The Tigerprotection was already hot on their heels and they just wanted to sell off their kill asimmediately as possible. Now they had come upon something that they had notanticipated in their plan.

Chapter 22: The Pursuit begins

Distressing situations set your priorities right. It is only when you are put in a spot tochoose between two available options do you realise which one is more important. If onthat fateful morning had any of the mothers asked their husbands to come home quicklyto attend some function, they would have instantly rebuked them about how important awork they were doing. They wouldn't even have time to have a proper lunch and cominghome early just to be part of a party kept for their own son was pushing it. They couldjust not do away with their work. On the same day, the moment the fathers come toknow of some misfortune that their sons might have gotten into, they drop all of thework which could not be postponed at an instant and ran home. The mothers are knownto dote on their children and the father is known to be the stone-hearted one who takesdecisions without caring about consequences. Decisions that are right for the child'sfuture. But that is the manner in which he shows his love to his children. He has to betheir mentor at home.

The news of their sons being lost shocked the three fathers and within 5 minutes ofhearing the news Mr. Prashant Nair, Mr. Akash Saxena and Mr. Subhodit Chakrabortyhad put away their work or handed it over someone else and hurried homewards. Akashand Subhodit reached their homes and started calling out to their wives, but they neverresponded back. Calls were made and finally all six of them gathered at the house of theNairs. Questions needed to be answered and actions were to be taken. They first went tothe room to see the damage from the fire. Thankful that nobody had been hurt, theymoved on to the bigger problem at hand. To find out where there sons could have goneaway.

"How can he be so stupid? Running away? Is that all that he has learnt? When a problemcomes run away?", said Subhodit with disgust over Sumant."He is a kid after all, Subhodit." said Mamta in defense of her son."Kid? Ha! Every day I get a complaint about him and his pranks. Some of them arehardly done by kids. Kid! He is a coward. That is what he is. Ask him to own up to aproblem he has caused and he runs away.""Don't be so hard on him, Subhodit. My son is just as old as yours and he has run awaytoo. They might be 12 years old, but they are still kids. They saw a house burn from 5floors down. They see such things only in the movies and you know how the fires areexaggerated in the movies, don't you? People getting burnt, buildings falling down. Asmall rocket is capable of doing such damage? Not really. But that is what they thoughtwould probably happen. What do you expect them to do? Stand and wait or come up andclaim responsibility? I don't think even grown-ups would do such a thing, Subhodit." saidPrashant."Alright. Now let us not deal with what has already happened. We can question the kidsand possibly teach them not to run away. But first we need to find them. You have anyplans on locating them? Or should we just report to the police?" said Akash.

The mention of police brought a silence in the room as everyone started looking ateach other. Involving the police meant making things dramatic. They were certain theirkids would be back soon. Involving the police would be letting the news out to the rest ofthe society. And they all knew very well how the rumour mills worked in their ownsociety. The kids were very young and some rumours stuck with them forever, howeveruntrue they would be. The parents knew that very well. The believed somehow that thekids were safe and would be back, but the mothers had been thinking the same thing formore than 3 hours already and their beliefs were being shaken as every minute passed.

Finally, Subhodit broke the silence and said, "I think we can delay involving the Policefor an hour or so. We need to think like our kids. What would we do if we were in theirplace? It is getting dark outside. The day ends for them as soon as the sun sets. Theywill be afraid to stay far away from home in the dark. They will try to come back."

The others looked at him and nodded in agreement."But we cannot sit here and keep waiting and hoping they will come soon. Somethinghas to be done. Maybe we should start looking for them in the neighbouring buildings.Make some enquiries. Do you have a picture of your son? I think I have one photo ofVicky." said Akash taking out a picture from his wallet."We already looked for them in the neighbouring colonies. We have even told Bahadur totell the shopkeepers and hawkers to keep a lookout for the kids. If he sees anything hewill let us know immediately." said Richa to her husband."We still cannot sit here waiting for something to happen. We have to start a search.Some of us at least." said Akash."But how do we start about our search?" asked Prashant."I'm not really sure. Maybe we could ..." Akash was about to finish when the door bellrang.

All six pairs of eyes got fixed on the door. They all had one thing in their mind.Malathi ran towards the door to open it. There were no kids on the other side of thedoor. A man stood with a packet in his hand.

"Madam. Is this Rohan Kumar's birthday party?" asked the man."Rohan Kumar? There is no Rohan Kumar here. What number are you looking for?"asked Malathi as the others peered over her shoulder at the stranger."Madam, I went to C-43 with this, but nobody was there. A man at C-44 told me thatyou would be here." said the stranger with the packet."I live in C-43. I told my Mr. Gupta that I would be here. What is it you want with me?My name is not Rohan Kumar." said Akash."Sir, your son, Rohan Kumar, ordered a Black Forest cake this afternoon. I am here todeliver it and take the payment for the cake and the rest of the eatables." said thehelper from Premium Bakery."Look. I don't have a son by the name Rohan Kumar. You must be having the wronghouse number." said Akash."But sir, I was given your house number and phone number by your son!""Can't you hear me? My son's name is not Rohan Kumar. You have the wrong address orsome kids have played a prank with you." said Akash who was getting angry."Wait. Wait a minute. Don't go already. Did you see Rohan Kumar?" asked Prashant."Yes sir. I saw him this afternoon." said the man."Then describe how he looks." said Prashant."He is about this high." said the man placing his palms near his waist. "he had a roundcheerful face and messed up hair. He was wearing a checked shirt...""Oh my God! That is Vicky!" shouted Richa."Did he look like this?" asked Akash taking out the picture of Vikram that he possessedin his wallet.The man took it and peered at it for a while and said, "Yes. That is him. That is the boywho was there in the bakery this afternoon. But he told his name was Rohan Kumar!"

The parents looked at each other with glee. They had found the first clue sincemorning about the existence of their sons somewhere.

"Ok. Now where is this Bakery of yours? We would like to pay it a visit." said Prashant."Sir. But .." said the man."What now?" asked Prashant."Sir, the sahib will be angry if I went back without the money for this." said the man.

Akash flicked out his wallet and asked, "Alright. Leave that cake here and tell me howmuch should I owe you.""Rs. 175 sir." said the man forking out a bill."Rs. 175 for one cake?" said Akash as he pored through the bill. "6 Samosas. 6Vegetable puffs... Looks like the kids had lunch with these!"

A smile passed through the face of the mothers. They were not starving."Here, take this. Now take us to your bakery. Subhodit. Prashant. You are coming? Wewill follow this man in my car and we will start looking for our sons from the bakery."said Akash forking out Rs. 200/- to the man from Premium Bakery.

The men went towards the Bakery to start the pursuit of their sons from the clue thatthey luckily had found out. The mothers went back to waiting. That horrid thing thattests one's patience. But this would be easier. They had heard some news about theirsons after all.

Chapter 23: The Conversation

"Composure takes control,Aimlessly the mind wanders for calmness,Desperation drives him insane."

"Where is the package? When are you going to deliver it?" screamed Kishore on thephone."Sirjee, it will reach your godown by tomorrow afternoon." replied Mahesh."That is what you said yesterday. And the same thing 3 days before that." said Kishore."Sirjee, that police squad has been following us very closely. We almost got caught daybefore yesterday.""You can't get rid of a handful of policemen? How many of them are there?""There are only 4 policemen in that team. But that NGO has put some more people tokeep a track.""How many people from the NGO?""I don't know exactly how many. They have plenty of volunteers who will report forthem.""Stop that nonsense. You are just trying to create stories for your incapability ofdelivering the package.""No Sirjee, that is not true.""You are being delusional. Are you afraid of completing the job? You've already begun it,complete it now. And be assured that I will never use your services for such jobs again.You are an incompetent fellow.""I'm not mad. I have done this job many times before. I know most of the people thatwork for that NGO. They seem to be using new people now.""I don't want any excuses. Why could you not give the package yesterday?""The police was hot on our heels. They finally stopped us and searched our vehicle. But afew minutes earlier we had taken a detour and dropped the package in a safe place. Sothey found nothing and let us go off.""You fool. You don't have the package with you now? Where did you drop it off? What isthis safe place?""Believe me it is very safe. We have taken extra care for that.""Tell me the safe place you idiot. I will send my own people to pick it up. Enough of yourincompetence.""Your people won't be able to find it even if I told them the place. It is that safe.""Where is it?""It is in a Public park.""Public Park?!" the tone of Kishore's anger reached a new high as he threw expletives atMahesh. Mahesh on the other end of phone tried to compose himself for a minute."Are you still on the line or have you hung up, you idiot? If you have hung up, I willensure that you are hung until death. Then I will chop your body into pieces and thenfind people who will willingly buy those to eat it. Speak up!""I am still on the line. You don't have to lose your cool like this, Sirjee.""You send that package to me and then tell me not to lose my cool. I have already foundthe clients and they want the package to be fresh. If you keep delaying it, the packagewill not remain fresh, you understand that?""Yes I do. I'm trying my best.""Best?! You just put the package in a public park! Anyone is allowed to go there. Anyonecan see it out there. How do you say that it is safe?""We have split the package into 25 smaller packets, camouflaged it well and hidden allthe 25 packages in places where no one will lay their eyes on."

"It is a public place! How can someone not see anything there? Did you even think aboutit before putting it there?""Sirjee, it is a very big park. Most of the people that go there are kids that play thereand some old people. There are no trouble makers around. Above that we took extracare in finding spots where nobody even sees. Only if they went with hunting dogs wouldthey find it. And we know very well, that they cannot do any such thing in a public place.Think of the chaos it might cause.""But why did you even have to take such a risk? Couldn't you think of something else?""There was no time, sirjee. They were following us very closely. We took a devious turnand lost them for a while. We were parked out side the park when they saw our vehicleagain. From the back, we had two of our guys empty out the package. Those policefellows came and searched the vehicle. They did not find anything, but took away thevehicle for violating orders.""What violation?""We did not stop our vehicle when they asked us to.""What happened then?""They took away our vehicle. But since there was nothing in the vehicle, I am notworried. I can tell them that the driver was drunk and didn't see or hear the sirens. Atthe most, I might have to bribe them up to Rs. 2000/- for letting the driver and van go.""You bear that expense. It is your fault. I'm not giving anything for your mistakes."

Mahesh kept quite. Silence, he knew would let Kishore know that there were plenty ofother expenses involved which would have to borne by Kishore later on. He also knewhow helpless Kishore was without the package in his hands. It wouldn't be a ransom, buta delay always makes a person desperate. And when the final hand out is done, all hecares about is to get hold of the package, no matter how much extra money he mighthave to throw. As long as it is a small percentage of the eventual profit.

"You did that yesterday?! Why didn’t you pick it up this morning?" asked Mahesh."We went there last night and this morning too. But we saw a couple of that police squadroaming around. And one of that NGO fellow was also lurking around. They would begone by the evening. We know they haven't found anything. We have a man watchingthem. This evening we are going to get the package. You will get the delivery bytomorrow afternoon.""If I don't get the package by tomorrow afternoon, you can consider yourself as dead."said Kishore and put the phone down.

Chapter 24: The search continues

"Roving eyes meander,A search for treasures within sight,Lost sight of goal."

Does the brain control the eye? Or does the eye direct the brain? Inquisitive is aninteresting word. There might be an object that might capture your attention. You gazeat it endlessly. Everything around it suddenly becomes obscure. You pick it up, turn itaround and then find out that it is just another shiny stone in the mud. Soon enough yousee plenty of such stones and these things no longer interest you. Everything except it isinteresting. The shiny stone is obscure from the eye. A very apt case of the eye gettingthe brain's attention and then the brain directing the eye to stay away from the obvious.A new born is the most inquisitive mind that a human comes across. Parents paint thekid's environment with vagaries of colours and mysterious objects that always keep thechild's eyes busy. Whatever your brain has never seen earlier always captures the eye'sattention. The brain grows with the kid and becomes full of information. It has seeneverything it could have ever seen. So it believes. If you ask a group of people to lookfor something that is out of place, it is the youngest ones that mostly come up with thequickest results. Their brain takes nothing for granted. Or so the mind would like us tobelieve.

Vikram probably was one of the best suited for the task at hand. To locate packageshidden around the park. He had already located 3 packages. The truth was that he hadfound them by accident because he was not looking for them. Now, he was entrusted thetask to find these packages and he was having very little success with it. Sumant,though, had successfully sighted a couple of these packages and they were off to drop ofthese off with Krishnan.

"I saw that before you, you know. The second package. I was about to point it out, whenyou picked it up yourself.", said Vikram.

Sumant saw him and smiled. He knew that this search was something Vikram waslooking at as a competition. He did not retort back saying anything. The competitivespirit brings out the best out of both the sides. "You sure did, Vicky. And I want you tobe just as alert for some more time. We have to locate quite a few more packets likethis."

Another 30 minutes passed by as Sumant found 5 more packages, Krishnan foundone and Vikram was still unsuccessful. 11 packages were found. They did not know howmany more could be there, but they knew they had to keep searching for a little moretime. Vikram was very frustrated with himself. "Why am I not able to find any package?"he asked."You are thinking too much about the packages. Our goal is to find them. It doesn'tmatter who finds them." said Sumant."It matters to me. I want to be helpful too.""Of course, you are helpful. Who said you are not? You are the one who found out thefirst three of them.""Yes, but why can't I find anymore?""Look. If it weren't for your finding, we wouldn't even have got a wind of such a crimehappening. So stop getting frustrated. Your problem is simple. You are looking at placessimilar to the ones where you found it earlier. Whereas, I am finding them in placeswhere you are not looking. You don't have to use your previous knowledge to find some

more. That is where you are making the mistake." saying which Sumant went under abench curiously standing between a few trees. He bent and picked up another package."You found one more?!""Yes.""Ok. I didn't think it will be behind that place. Why can't I imagine where they could be?""Stay calm Vicky. You'll spot a few yourselves.""But how?""Okay. Have you played hide-and-seek?""Yes! I have played that.""Just think that you have to hide in this park. Krish is searching for you. Where will youhide so that he does not spot you. Go to those places and see if you can find anything.""I can do that!" saying which Vikram found inspiration again. Soon enough anotherpackage was unearthed. And soon another. A total of 15 packages were already locatedby the three kids.

Meanwhile, Krishnan was busy trying to find some places where they in turn couldhide these packages. He had found a place at first. But then, the packages kept pouringin and he realised that his hiding place could not take more than 5-6 packages. So hebegan searching for some more places. After about an hour had passed, they met eachother and saw what they had in front of them.

"This looks much more than a tiger to me, Krish." said Sumant."It does look a lot more." said Krishnan."You think there could be 2 or three tigers in all these? Because if there are then wehave to be looking for more packages." said Sumant."We have to find more! I have just found 6 till now, where as Montu has found 12." saidVikram."Vicky, this is not a competition. Montu, it is unlikely that there could be more than onetiger. A male tiger usually stays alone while the female tiger looks after the youngerones. We don't know if what we have found is a male or a female. If it is a female, thosepoachers might have killed the young tigers too." said Krishnan."How can they kill the young tigers? Are they not innocent? The young tiger cannot killanybody. Why kill it?" asked Vikram."These people don't think like you, Vicky. They only see tigers as how much money itcan fetch for them." replied Krishnan."Ok. Now do you think we should search for some more time? The sun has set long timeback." asked Montu."I have found 3 places where we can hide these. I think we should first put them there. Ican't do it alone, I will need your help. Once we have done that, we can look for more. Itis easier that way, right?" said Krishnan."Yes. Now what places have you found?" asked Montu."You remember that pond we saw with a few ducks in it? Did you notice where thoseducks were going when Vicky threw a stone near them?" said Krishnan."They were swimming away towards that small rusted bridge on the side." said Vikram."Yes. There are no lights around that place. It is very dark now. But when there wassome light I saw a small area under the bridge where water does not reach. We can hidea few packages there. It will take 5 or 6 packages at the most. Someone will have to getunder the bridge for that.""I will go there." said Sumant and picked up 3 packages. Krishnan took 3 with him.Vikram tried picking 2, but they seemed quite heavy."Vicky. You stay here and keep a look out on the rest of these. We will be back soon."said Sumant who saw him struggling.

Sumant reached the bridge and put the packages on ground. Bent down and startedpulling up his pants to his knees. Took out his slippers and stepped into the water. A few

ducks cackled from far off. He slowly tested the depths of the water with each step as hewent under the bridge. Then held out his hand. Krishnan passed a package to him.Sumant placed it in the place where Krishnan had pointed out. It was a good place.

"I have put six packets here. It can take 2 more. 3 at the most. You go and get 3 more.I'll stay here." said Krishnan from under the bridge."We won't come back here just for two or three more, Montu. Other places can takesome more. Come out of there. I can already so many mosquitoes here. Come out of thewater. Six is enough for this place." replied Krishnan.Sumant heeded his advice and came out of the water and they headed back to whereVikram was standing. 13 more packages to be disposed off.

Chapter 25: Pursuit of the Fathers

The helper from Premium bakery had come on a cycle to deliver the cake to theirhome. Akash Saxena wanted to get to the bakery as soon as possible to start the searchfor his son and his friends. Following a cycle in a car was not prudent. He told the helperto leave his bicycle there and come with them. But he wouldn't listen. He was afraid thathis master would get angry for leaving the cycle. So instead, he explained the route andthe location of the bakery. Akash, Prashant and Subhodit sat in Akash's car and spedaway towards the bakery. But addresses and directions always have a problem ofapproximate distances. When the helper told them it was half a kilometre from the firstright that they should take a left, he was not sure how long a kilometre was and howmuch half of it was. From his cycle it always seemed long. He did not know anylandmarks on the road for better directions. What eventually happened that Akash couldnot locate Premium Bakery for 15 minutes. Finally, when he took directions from Panstall and Tea stall owners, he found out the bakery and the whole trip was a little over akilometre ride. The helper was already in the bakery which caused much irritation toAkash.

"What sort of directions did you give? Half a Kilometre? That left is not even 250 metres!You said your bakery was 3-4 kilometres away from our home. Do you even know howmuch is one kilometre?" he said with a heated tone."It takes me 3-4 minutes for one kilometre on the cycle. 15 minutes on cycle to yourhome. So 3-4 kilometres." replied the man."Have you ever read Mathematics in Scho..""Akash, leave that. We have found the place. We are here to find our sons. Leave himalone." interrupted Prashant bringing up the main reason why they were there. He wentto the owner of the bakery and asked him about the afternoon meeting with Vikram."Vikram? There was no Vikram here in the afternoon." replied the owner."Here, this is his photo. Your man, here told us he had seen him at this bakery thisafternoon." said Akash showing the picture of his son to the owner."Aah. This is Rohan beta. Yes, he was here this afternoon. It is his birthday today, isn'tit?" replied the owner with a smile lighting up on his face. But he saw the grim faces ofthe 3 men in front of him and stopped the smile half way. "So his name is not RohanKumar. It is Vikram?" he asked."Yes. And it is not his birthday today either. I am sorry that my son lied to you. I havepaid for whatever he had ordered though." said Akash, a bit embarrassed that his sonhad lied to somebody."Arre, no sorry is required. Not required at all. Where is Rohan... sorry, where is Vikrambeta now? I hope you haven't scolded him for lying about the birthday and the cake.They are kids. Kids keep doing such things. It happens." said the owner."I was hoping that you would tell me about him.""What do you mean?""Vicky, or Vikram and both our sons are actually missing from home from thisafternoon." said Subhodit."What? Have they run away from home? Why?" asked the owner."We don't know that yet. I don't think they have run away. They just seem to be lost.We had difficulty finding this place ourselves. They are kids. We wanted to know wherewe could start our search from when your man came and told us about him seeingVicky." said Subhodit."But why did they go so far from home? You live in Divya Vihar society, don’t you?"asked the owner probing for information."Look. They did some mischief and they were scared that people will shout at them, sothey ran away. Rest of the questions can only be answered when we find the kids.Where did Vikram go when he left your bakery?" said Prashant.

"Kids will always do mischief. You have to forgive them." said the owner smiling again."We have already forgiven them. We just want to find them to take them back home.Where did they go from your bakery?" said Prashant."I only saw Vicky beta. He went on that road with whatever he took from here. I thoughthis home was there.""Is there any place there that kids can be?""Most of the kids that come here play inside their colonies only. There is not mucharound here where kids go apart from video game stores.""Video game stores? You mean for Playstation or Xbox? Those video games?""Yes. Kids like to play that Wrestling game a lot. All the time they are huddled up in thatvideo game store.""Where is that place?""You take a left from that yellow building there and on the right side you can see thevideo game parlour. You can't miss it. Even now lots of kids will be there and they havea huge board with photographs of those wrestlers outside.""Ok. Anywhere else they could be, if not for Video game store?""Not close by, but if you go straight, take a right and second left, there is a Jogger'spark. Many kids go there to play.""Thank you for your help." said Akash and went out of the bakery as the other twofollowed him."You think they would go to a Jogger's park?" asked Prashant."I don't know. Vicky would want to be home." said Akash."Montu would certainly go to the Jogger's park out of curiosity. If he found peopleplaying Football, you can say that he would never want to come back home." saidSubhodit."Fine. Then let us go to the Video game store first. If we don't find them there we will goto the Jogger's park. I really don't think they would go to the Video game store. Theydon't have any money with them." said Akash."Ah! You underestimate our kids, Akash. Look at this bakery job. Who would havethought, they could have got away with such a job!" replied Subhodit who was actuallyslightly proud of what Vikram had achieved."Ok. You two keep a look on the outside to see if we pass by them while we are driving.I will drive slow." said Akash as they all got into the car again. The three of them hadvery little hope of finding them at the video game centre or at the park.

Chapter 26: The Re-search

Sumant and Krishnan came back to dispose off the remaining 13 packages. They sawthat Vikram was standing feeling very scared and gazed at every person who passedhim. It was trouble if someone got curious. As soon as he saw his friends approaching hefelt relieved.

"Did you put those away?" asked Vikram"Yes, we have put those 6 packages under the bridge." replied Sumant."Are you going back over there to put some more?""Not now. We will first put these remaining packages in another place that Krish knows.If that place does not have sufficient space, we might go back.""It has sufficient space. Trust me." said Krishnan."Fine. Let us go there then. But Vicky, are you sure you can stay here alone while I andKrish put these away?" asked Krishnan."How long will you take?" asked Vikram."What is it that you are so worried about, Vicky?""I don't know. I was sitting here alone and I saw some people. I felt scared when I sawthem.""There are so many people here. Why should you feel scared now?""They looked different from others here.""What do you mean different?""I don't know how to explain. The other men here are in t-shirts, shorts or track pants orsweat shirts and most of them wear sports shoes. These two or three guys did not wearany such thing. They were not here just to walk." said Vikram. The thought of thosepeople put the fear back in his face.Sumant did not like what he was seeing. He asked Krishnan, "Krish, this next place youwant to hide these packages. Do you need my help there?""Yes. You can carry 3 packages at a time. With 2 trips we should be able to finish it off."replied Krishnan."It isn't safe to leave Vicky here all alone with these things especially after hearing himspeak about his fears from strangers now.""Well, he can carry 2 packets, I'll carry 3. In 3 trips we should be able to hide them all.Will you carry 2 packets, Vicky?""Yes, I can carry 2 packets." saying which Vicky picked up 2 packages."Fine, then come with me. This way." said Krishnan, picking up 3 packages and leadingthe way to the next drop point.

Carrying weights to some distance is very different from lifting weights at one place.While Krishnan was able to lift 6 kgs and walk with it with ease, Vikram was havingtrouble walking with 4 kgs. He kept lagging behind. But he did not want Krishnan tothink that he could not lift it. His little ego would be hurt. Boys like to be as strong astheir heroes. Krishnan told him to keep up the pace and Vikram tried running with whathe could not walk with. Krishnan finally came up with a solution. He told Vikram to holdone bag in one hand, while he shared half the load of the other bag by taking one half ofthe package handle. This was easier. They finally reached the second hiding spot thatKrishnan had discovered. Vikram saw it, wrinkled up his nose in disgust and said,"Cheee! Not this place!".

Most of the large parks have small dustbins lined up all along the park that read "UseMe" on the bellies of funny looking animals whose mouths are always open. So insteadof littering, people 'feed' those animal trash cans. But there is bigger trash can for thewhole park, where every morning, the smaller cans are cleared out. Once every 2 or 3days a vehicle from the city's corporation comes and clears out the trash. Because of the

infrequent clearance this area was extremely filthy and smelt very bad. An ideal place tohide something you did not want others to see. Krishnan told Vikram to stay away fromthe dustbin, while he went behind the dustbin and started placing the packages one afterthe other at the back. As a thumb rule, most of the litter was thrown from a bit far awayfrom the dustbin. Only a few people actually dumped their trash inside the bin. Becauseof which, the bin was half empty while there was more dirt spilling outside in its front.The back however remained almost unused. Krishnan still took extra care to see thatthese packages were not visible from the front.

They went back to Sumant. There were just 7 more packages left to dispose. Sumanttook 3 heavy ones, Krishnan picked up 3 more and one was handed over to Vikram asthe three went towards the dustbin. Sumant saw the spot and patted the back ofKrishnan. He was very amused by the brilliance shown by Krishnan. Sumant andKrishnan hid the last remaining packages behind the dustbin and came out.

"Alright. I think that's it. Let us go now and find some police station to report this." saidKrishnan."Yeah let us go now." agreed Sumant. But Vikram stood in his place."What happened Vicky?" asked Sumant."What if there are more packages here?" asked Vikram."It does not matter if there are more, Vicky. We already have 19 with us. It is sufficientproof for catching hold of the criminals." said Krishnan."But why should those criminals get away with the remaining packages?""We really don't know how many there could be. 19 seems sufficient, Vicky. Come. Letus leave.""No. Sumant found so many packages. You found the hiding place and you both hidthem. I didn't do anything. I want to find more packages. I also want to do something tosave the tiger." said Vikram."Vicky, this is not a competition. You were the one who found the first 3 packages. If notfor you we could not even have known about them." said Sumant."I want to find more!" protested Vikram.Sumant looked at Krishnan. Krishnan finally said, "Fine. Vicky you have 10 minutes withyou. You go where you want to and search for these things. I am not interested insearching anymore.""But if I find some, where will you put it?""We will put it under the bridge. Do you really want to go searching for more?""Yes. And I am going now." saying which he walked off alone determined he would findwhatever he was looking for.

After about 5 minutes had passed, his wish came true and he did locate a package.Delightfully, he ran towards it, dislodged it from where it was stuck and started runningback towards his friends. It was just then that a man spotted his run. In a jiffy, hestarted running towards Vikram. Sumant and Krishnan were resting on the grass whenthey saw Vicky running towards them. They were about to get up when they saw a mangrab him from behind.

Chapter 27: Another clue

Akash swerved his car to the left and began searching for the video game parlour thatthe bakery owner told him about. The man was right, there was no way that they couldmiss the parlour. Glowing neon lights, large posters of wrestlers, fast cars and footballplayers adorned the surroundings of the parlour. There was a buzz around the place.Kids were shouting out instructions, some cheering, others cursing. The shop seemedquite small and had 5 LCD TVs with Playstations attached to them. But the number ofkids that thronged to the place made it look even smaller. Some of the kids spilledoutside the parlour for lack of space and most of the cheering and jeering was comingfrom the outside. They were awaiting their turn at the joystick. Subhodit looked at Akashand they knew that this was a place that their sons could certainly not resist. The samecould not be said about Prashant, but he was the one who approached a kid outside andbegan making enquiries.

"Have you seen 3 kids from Divya Vihar society playing here?" Akash asked a kid peeringfrom the window."What society?" asked the kid."Divya Vihar.""Never heard of it, Uncle." saying which he returned his attention back to the wrestlingmatch inside."Did you see 3 kids who don't come here regularly? Just today.""That could be anyone in this crowd.""You don't come here every day?""My father does not allow me to play here. He has told my mother not to give me moneyfor playing. So I'm just looking. I don't know anybody here."Akash, by then, picked up another kid and showed him the photograph of Vikram andasked,"Have you seen this boy playing here?"The kid took the photograph peered at it for a second or two and said, "Nah. Not seenhim.""He was here with two more kids. They were elder to him. About 12 years old.""I don't know. Ask Vishwas. He knows most of the kids who come here." said the kid."Who is Vishwas? Where can I find him?""There he is. Inside. Next to his brother Vinay, who is playing NFS.""Playing what? Where?""NFS! Need For Speed! The car racing game! There is only PS2 for NFS here." said thekid, who seemed disgusted to know that somebody did not know what NFS was."Oh! The car race. Ok. Could you please call him outside for me?""VISHY!" yelled the kid as Akash almost jumped back. He didn't expect that shriek."Vishy, there is an Uncle here who wants to talk to you. Come out!"He had caught the attention of Vishwas who looked outside to see who was calling forhim. "Tell him to wait, my turn is next. I don't want to give away my spot." he said."Vishwas, it is a bit urgent. Could you please come out." said Akash trying to get hisvoice between the cackling of noises.

An elder's noise was very rare in the place. The only elder that was present there wasthe owner who would only yell at misbehaving kids. There was a sudden silence as allthe cackling stopped and every kid looked to who was the man outside. The kids thoughtthat Vishwas was in trouble. A parent coming there to pick up a kid was very common.Angry parents was even more common. Some parents were even known to beat theirkids in front of everyone for disobeying them. Everyone thought that one such lashingwas in store for Vishwas. Vishwas walked out and soon the cackling started again as

some kid took advantage and scored a goal. "You cheat! I wasn't looking and youscored!" shouted his opponent."Your mistake, not mine!" said the kid.

"Yeah. I am here. What do you want to know?" asked Vishwas to Akash.Akash took out the photograph of Vikram and gave it Vishwas, "Have you seen this boyhere today?"Vishwas stared at it for about 10 seconds just to be sure and said, "I played football withhim this afternoon."Hearing this, both Subhodit and Prashant got interested. "Played football with them?Here? When did they leave?" asked Akash."No. Not here. I played with them in the Park. There were 2 more boys with him. Montuand Krish." said Vishwas."That's them! Where are they now?""I don't know where they are now. We played the game some 2 or 3 hours ago in thePark. We left. But they were still there.""Oh! Thank you! Thank you very much for your help Vishwas!" saying which Akash rantowards his car. Subhodit and Prashant followed him at his pace.

As they were sitting in the car, a man next to them was speaking on the telephone.

"Boss, there is a problem.""What happened now?" said the man on the other line."We saw two of those fellows from the NGO sitting inside the park. There is thepoliceman too doing the rounds.""Go in stealthily and pick up the packages. We can't delay it anymore. Keep 2 guys tokeep an eye on them, and let other 2 pick up the packages.""Boss, Raju did not come today. It is only the 3 of us.""What? Tell Raju that he can forget about the payment.""Boss, his mother has fallen sick again. He had to take her to the hospital. He doesn'thave money for the medicines too, boss.""Then you pay from your pocket to help him. Did I tell him to waste his money onliquor?""Boss, he was the one who came up with the idea of the park. He is the one who dividedall the packages into 25 smaller ones in no time.""We'll see about him later. For now, you keep an eye on the policeman and let Sanju andImran get back the packages.""What about those NGO fellows, boss?""Ignore them for now. They won't do anything on their own. They will only go to thepoliceman to report to him, if they spotted any of you. Either way, you will get to seethem and you will have enough time to make an escape.""Ok Boss.""Have you got a new van?""Yes boss, we got another van from a travel agency. He gave it for one day. We willhave to return it to him by tomorrow evening.""How much is he charging?""Rs. 2500/-""Ok. Fine. In half an hour I should get a call that you have already started off for thegodown. Now get on with your work.""Yes boss." said Irfan as Mahesh on the other line put down the phone.

Chapter 28: The Encounter

Irfan finished his call and began walking towards the park. He did not get far andsoon there was another call for him to attend. It was his brother Imran on the other line.

"Yes, Imran, what happened? I am 5 minutes away from the park. I'm just about to getthere." said Irfan."Bhai, we have a big problem." said Imran."What happened? Those NGO people created a problem?""No bhai, its not them.""Then the police man? Did he sight you all? Or any one of you?""No bhai, not even him.""Then what is the problem?""We went to two of the spots were Raju had put the packages two days back. And wecan't see them anymore.""What? What are you telling me? But Sanju was there this morning, wasn't he?""Yes bhai, he came here in the morning. He still swears that he counted all the 25packages and all of them were untouched. Left just as we had kept them.""Who could have taken them away?""I have no idea.""Ok. I'll get there as fast as possible. You two start searching in the other locations. Letssee if all of them are lost or only some of them." saying which Irfan put the phone downand started walking briskly.

He wanted to run. Such was the tension in his mind. But he could not run. He wouldattract undue attention if he ran. So he stuck to walking fast.

A few metres away, Akash stopped the car outside the park as Subhodit and Prashantjumped out and scurried towards the entrance of the park. They entered it and stoodthere spell bound. They did not like what they saw. Night was already upon them andthe lights in the park were not that good. Only the tracks where many people werewalking was lit very well. Apart from it, a few other areas like benches had a light nearthem. The rest of it was complete darkness. At least from what they could see. Thewhole park was so huge that it would be difficult to find out where there kids were at themoment. It could even be possible that they would have left the place long back. Butthere was no choice. Their trail had brought them here and they had been lucky to anextent to find a trail in the first place.

Akash joined them and said, "What are you doing standing outside! Come on, let us getsearching.""Did you see the size of this place, Akash?" said Subhodit.Akash took a look at the huge park and sighed. "We have no other choice. We have tosearch for them here.""Yes. Let us split ourselves. Akash you go on the left. Subhodit you take the right side. Iwill go straight towards that bunch of kids. Keep asking people about our kids." saidPrashant."Our biggest problem will be those dark regions. What do we do about them?""If you stand for a while, your eyes will get adjusted to them. You don't need to goinside. Just take a look from the outside and see if you can notice any people there. Andthen make your move." said Prashant."Make your move?!" asked Subhodit."To go and approach the people who are there. You know what happens in such darkplaces, don’t you? You don’t want embarrass yourself. And certainly not the couples."said Prashant.

All of them took their respective routes and started the search for their sons. Theirpace was brisk. It was fuelled by Hope. Hope that they were very close to their sons.They could feel it. That sense that lets you know that what you are pining for is veryclose. Your destination is near. It was only a matter of time. They made a few enquiriesoff people."Have you seen three kids? Two about this high and one younger, about this high. RedT-shirt, No? Thank you." asked Subhodit to one walker."Hey kids, did you happen to see three kids of your age around here today? Red T-shirtboy about 12 years old, another boy same age about 5 feet tall and one younger boywith a checked shirt? Did you see anyone like them playing here?" asked Prashant tosome kids that were playing near the children's area which had the see-saw, jungle gymand slides.

But they only got negative responses. They did not have the advantage that Akashhad of always carrying the photograph of his son along with him. He was showing it tothe walkers and the elderly men sitting on the benches and kept asking, "Have you seenthis boy? He was with 2 more boys slightly taller and older than him.""Have you lost them?" asked one elderly man."Not really, I am just trying to find them here in the Park." replied Akash."You have lost them, haven't you? How can you be so irresponsible?""Have you seen him here or not?" asked Akash who was in mood to get intoexplanations or debates."No, I haven't." said the man and saw Akash moving ahead with his inquiries. He lookedat his wife and told her, "These young parents these days, I tell you. They give so muchfreedom to their kids. They lose them in such big parks and then try to act smart. Serveshim right. Let him learn a lesson.""Don't be so harsh. Think of the poor kids for once." replied his wife.

It was about 15 minutes since the three parents had walked in to the park and theirsearch had borne no fruit so far. Desperation could be sensed in their walk and theirdemeanour. Almost everyone they saw was being questioned. Subhodit even got thewrath of a couple that were involved in merry-making behind trees. But he did not careabout the curses they hurled at him. His troubles were larger than the couple couldimagine. Prashant had some success initially when one of the kids playing on a swingsaid that he had seen 2 kids similar to his description near the pond. He asked where thepond was and ran towards it. But there was nobody there. The ducks too seemed tohave gone to sleep. He got disappointed. But this was another clue. The kids were still inthe Park about an hour back. They must be close. Very close. It was only a matter oftime when they would finally meet. He could feel it.

Akash ran into a man who was standing curiously between two benches. The place hestood was very strange as there was hardly any light on his face. But the man wasattentive. Akash dangled Vikram's photograph in front of him and asked him, "Would youby any chance have seen this kid here?"The man took the photo and looked at it closely. "Is this kid lost?""No. He is not. He usually comes home by this time, but today he is just playing a bitlonger. I'm trying to find him to take him home." said Akash who had rehearsed thisanswer after the previous altercation with the elderly couple."Look. If he is lost you better contact the police.""Police? Why do I need to involve the police already?""I don't know why you don't have any belief in the police.""They are not lost alright. I just can't see them, that's all.""Look. Don't tell this to anyone. I am an undercover policeman who is on special dutyhere for some other task." saying which he showed his Identification card to Akash.Akash read out his name and designation and looked at him.

"Alright, Inspector Ahuja. This is my son, Vikram and he is lost. He has been lost sincethe afternoon.""Go on." said the inspector."Actually, he and two of his friends are missing since afternoon. They lighted a rocket,the rocket somehow burnt my friend's bedroom, they saw it and ran away from home. Iand the fathers of the other two kids finally managed to trace them here from a lot ofenquiries. Last we know is that they were here around 2 hours ago." said Akash."I'll tell you what. Why don't you send somebody from your home to the police station toput a First Information Report for the missing children?""But I'm very certain that they are right here in the park. Why trouble you policemen?""There is no trouble. Such information is best shared with the policemen. If they havethe photographs and descriptions of your son and his friends, the information will go tomost of the beat constables on duty in the area. They in turn will be on the lookout foryour children while doing their regular work.""Oh! Alright. I shall tell my wife to do so immediately in that case." saying which Akashstarted calling his wife."Richa. You need to..." started Akash but was cut off."Did you find them? We've been dying out here with no updates from you!" said Richa onthe phone. She seemed very tensed out of concern."No. Not found them yet.""Oh God!" she started sobbing."Look Richa. We found a good trail. Some kids have seen them here some time back. Weare here in a Park and Vicky should be here somewhere. Its just that it is so huge and sodark in here that we are having trouble locating them.""I am coming there to help you search for him.""No. You don't have to come here. I just spoke to a helpful policeman here. He hassaid...""What? You already informed the police?" interrupted Richa."Richa. Cool down. I know he is close by. I can feel it. But this policeman here advices usto inform the police by writing a FIR. Take Malathi and Mamta with you. Take thephotographs of Vicky, Montu and Krish along. The police will transfer information aroundso that all constables on duty rounds will look for them too.""Ok. I am leaving right away. I hope you find Vicky, Montu and Krish before I reach thepolice station though." said Richa and cut the line.

Chapter 29: The night grows thicker

Hope can be debilitating. It will make you believe something improbable. It will buildaround numerous stories that will strengthen your belief. A belief once cemented makesthe mind think that it is nothing but the truth. Every action the mind directs is directedtowards fulfilling that belief. There are no distractions. Everything is clear. Action afteraction, results after results. Sometimes, nothing happens the way it was supposed tohappen. But the belief is so strong that the hope never dies. Other options appear,newer actions are performed, renewed consequences are enforced. Everything has itslimit. The mind eventually drains out. A huge sigh is released. Moments of despairthreaten to take over the hope. The man stands helpless and is ready to give upeverything he believed in. He went wrong somewhere. He doesn't know where. He willhave to brood upon it. But now is not the time. For the hope is not dead. It is onlybreathing its last. Can it be resuscitated? Brought back to life? Everything seems beyondthe control of mortals. A divine intervention is sought. A miracle.

Prashant had a very tough day. His boss had assigned him to an insurmountable task.He had no idea how he could ever accomplish that. He was summoning every bit ofintelligence he ever had to figure out a way to complete that task. Which is when Malathihad called him and told him about the fire in his home. He was taken aback. But he wasvery lucky to have found a wife like Malathi who could handle such mishaps withouttroubling him. He knew she had got everything under control and had called only to keephim informed. The house would have to be looked after, but now was not the time. Hehad to tackle the problem at work first. Some idea finally struck him and he beganslicing away at his work. He possibly had found a solution and his boss would bestumped by his ingenuity. That is when he got another call from Malathi. His sonKrishnan was lost. This time he got a jolt. Work was secondary. He had to leave. Therewould be consequences, but they could dealt with later. And so he left whatever he wasworking on and scurried home. Then the long and unnerving search began. He wasalmost certain that he would be able to find his son. Where can a 12 year old child getlost? It should not be too difficult a task to locate him. But the whole process seemeddaunting and he was losing faith. Eventually, the whole day's burden finally took himover and he could not take it anymore. It was all futile. It was time to accept theinevitability of things. It was time to give up.

Prashant sat down on the grass and exhaled a long sigh while looking up towards thesky. The night was upon him. A tumultuous day it was which still did not seem to end.There was very little that he could do now. His eye fell on the horizon. That beautifulbeacon that has given poets inspiration to write shone ever so brightly. It was a fullmoon that night. Prashant gazed at the moon. He could not recollect the last time hehad ever noticed the moon in its complete splendour. As a child he used to be fascinatedwith the moon. Staring at the Sea of Tranquility and other craters, he used to trace outanimals or faces from their patterns. He looked at how huge the moon seemedcompared to all the sky scrapers on the horizon. No matter how big humanity thought itwas, it was always humbled by the moon. It was also amazing how the moon somehowseemed much bigger on the horizon than while it was highest in the sky. Only in his lateryears had he realised that the size was always the same. It was only because he foundobjects to compare the Moon's size with, that he thought it looked bigger on the horizon.Comparison was such a distraction. A small tear rolled down from his eyes, streamedthrough his cheeks and finally ended up as a blot on his shirt. He wiped it off. He couldnot be weak.

Another little known statistic that Prashant did not know about the moon was that,the number of crimes done on Full Moon nights was markedly higher than those on

nights when the moon was engulfed by Earth's shadow. There was no known co-relationfor this statistic. It could not even be called as a fact. It was just something that mostpeople dealing with crimes knew of. Prashant looked away from the moon. He got upand turned around deciding to leave. It was then that in the moon light he saw somecommotion in one corner. Silhouettes of agitated bodies could be seen in the dark place.He changed his track and moved towards the commotion.

Irfan was hurrying towards the Park. Things were getting difficult for him all of asudden. Poaching was never a problem for him. He always found people who would tellhim about some animals causing trouble to certain villages. He had a network of hunterswho were willing to kill for a few bucks. Deers, Blackbucks, Chinkaras were all common.They paid little, but were abundant and easy to capture. It had a decent market in thecountry. But the prize kill was the Tiger. The amount of money that he could make byselling any part of the tiger was certainly worth all the trouble. It was only 10 days backthat he had learnt of a tiger causing menace in a village. The village was actually built onan encroached land captured from a National Park. A buffalo and a few goats had gonemissing. A tiger was initially suspected, but the suspicion turned out to be true when aTiger was seen mauling a 5 year old kid. The villagers managed to scare the tiger awaywith fires. The kid survived with a few gashes. They called out for a kill. News reachedIrfan and the next day, he reached the place with 2 of his hunters. They went into thejungle laid a trap and waited to sight the tiger. It took them 2 days to capture the tigerin the trap and in the meanwhile they had already hunted down 3 black bucks. It was afemale tiger that had got trapped and it was injured very badly. It was going to die.Irfan had very little time at his hands. A lot of its body parts would fetch a handsomeprice were they taken away from a tiger that was just killed. He immediately tried toarrange for buyers and called up his regular contact Mahesh. Within a day, Mahesh saidthat he had found a buyer. He never told him about Kishore Desai. Information was whatgave him power. His clients were his and he would take a margin. With a buyer lined up,he told his hunters to shoot the wounded tigress a day after it was trapped. They thenskinned it. The skin neatly removed, the flesh was then removed and then the bones.Everything was then loaded with the blackbucks and sent away in a van. The troubleshad started only after that. Some villager had informed the forest official casually abouthiring hunters who in turn alerted the NGO and Wildlife conservation society. They wereon the run hiding from the police. Little time was left to dispose off the remains of thiswily tigress. It would fetch a good price. Good enough for him to survive another year.The current problem of some of the packages missing was something that irritated him alot. He was about to enter the park when he got a call from his brother Imran.

"Bhai, Sanju just caught a small kid with one of the packages. He was running away withit, when he caught him." said Imran."What? A kid?" asked Irfan."Yes. 7 or 8 year old.""Do you think he stole the rest of them too?""I can't say. He looks to young to even be able to carry to 3 of them.""You keep him quiet. I will come there immediately. Where are you now?""Near the 3rd exit.""Where we put package No. 18?""Yes. That one. He was running away with package No. 18.""I will be there in 2 minutes." saying which he started running. Now he did not care ifpeople saw him or not.

Chapter 30: Brutality

Desperation drives people crazy. When they are captivated by greed they thinknothing about morals. The distinction between the right and the wrong seems to lose itsmeaning. There are plenty of things that cause such desperation and a greed for moneyranks very high amongst these things. Money is an escape. An escape from a wretchedlife. It is the key to a treasured life that is to be spent blissfully. Where sane people stopwith their actions, the insane go forth without a thought for they are gripped all themore tightly by that hope of a better life.

Sanju was heading towards one of the spots where he had hidden the package twodays ago. It was the 18th package of the 25 that they had hidden in that place and theycalled it No. 18. He was about to reach the place when he saw a kid moving around inthat place. Sanju thought that the kid was possibly searching for a lost ball out there. Sohe waited. To his surprise, the kid dug out his package and immediately started runningaway from him. The kid had not seen him. But what went through Sanju's mind couldnot be understood by the kid for another 15 years at least. What Vikram was runningaway with was something that held a promise to Sanju. He would be getting a lot ofmoney from helping out in selling those packages. He could set up the stall that hewanted to do when he came to the city. Money had always eluded him in this big city. Awife and two kids lived in his village with a hope that Sanju would keep sending moneyfor them to survive. He also had an ailing mother to look after back in the village. Thedaily wage work that he initially did, barely got him through for the day. But he had tosave for his family to send back the money. He worked 15 hours a day. The money wasstill not sufficient. It was then that he had met Irfan who would give him work now andthen. A work for a day or two would fetch more money than he earned in a wholemonth. He gladly accepted. Transporting dead animals was not criminal for him. It wasnot dead people that he was carrying around. It could be considered illegal, but that iswhat ensured he got more money. He could kill his conscience for a while. But thiscurrent job was proving to be a pain. He had already lost 3 days doing the job whichmeant he could not earn anything in the 3 days. All he wanted that night was to collectthose packages and send them to the godown in the next town and get back to hisvillage.

To see Vikram taking away his package was akin to him running away with hisfreedom. The blood boiled in his body and he ran behind the kid. In a jiffy, he had pickedup the kid, covered his mouth and whisked him away into a dark corner. He called outfor Imran and told him."Imran bhai, this kid has got one of the packages. Here take a look at this." he said,snatching away the package from Vikram's hands.Imran picked up the package and looked at Vikram in awe. "What were you doing withthis?"

Sanju removed his hand from Vikram's mouth to allow him to speak but Vikramshrieked out as loud as he could. Sanju immediately covered his mouth again. Imran, bythen, began making a call to his brother Irfan to find out what needed to be done of thekid."You yell again and I will slap you. You understand that? Stay quiet now." said Imran.

Krishnan and Montu had just seen their friend being whisked away by some man. Fora moment they were shell shocked and looked at each other to ensure if they had reallyseen the same thing. Without a word being sent, they both ran towards the direction theman had taken Vikram away. They had lost him for a moment. They were cursingthemselves for having wasted the time staring and not running immediately. It was thenthat they heard the shriek and they knew it was from Vikram. They ran towards the

sound. Vikram was being held by one man and another was on the phone. Their friendneeded help. They could not see him in trouble. He was younger than them and theyautomatically had a responsibility to look after him. But these men looked dangerous.Cowardice was not what stopped them from going forward with help. It was the lack ofideas that made them wait a moment. They did not know how they could free theirfriend from two full grown men. After a minute or two, they weighed their options. Comewhat may, they were 3 against 2. Even if they were beaten up, they could always causesome problem. One moment of luck would be sufficient for all three of them to breakfree and run. And thinking so, they started running towards the men. Sanju saw themcoming and told Imran about them. Imran turned and suddenly found Sumant hurlingpunches at him. He blocked his punches and grabbed his hand deftly. Krishnan made arun for Sanju. Sanju let go of Vikram's mouth but held him tightly from the other handwhile he tried to block punches from Krishnan. The criminals were being outnumbered.Vikram was also trying to wriggle himself out of the grip of Sanju. And then suddenlyanother man appeared. He was running towards them as fast as he could. It was Irfan.He came and took hold of Vikram.

Three men against three kids. The equation was imbalanced and the kids were heldprisoners. Irfan dragged them towards a corner that was very dark. He looked at thekids and figured that Sumant would be the easiest to talk to. And so began theinvestigation.

"What are you doing here with our packages?""What packages?" said Sumant."This package, here. Your little friend here was seen running away with it.""I don't know anything about that. Your man grabbed Vicky. That is all that I know.Which is why Krish and I came running behind to rescue him."

Krishnan looked at him with his eyes wide open. Sumant had just given away theirnames to the criminal."So we come to the park to find our package and we don't find them. It just happensthat Vicky here, picks up our package right in front of us and starts running. It alsohappens that you come behind him. What am I to make of it?""I don't know what you are talking about. Vicky would have just found something hiddenand he picked it up. He always does that even in our colony. He finds lots of interestingthings. Toys, Balls and crackers.""You speak a lot, kid. You don't even have any idea what this package contains. It is notone of your toys. It is something very important to us and he was found stealing it fromus.""He was not stealing! It does not belong to you!""Have your parents not taught you not to pick up things that do not belong to you? Whatwere you doing with this when it is not yours?" saying which Irfan moved towardsVikram and Sanju slapped him.

The slap resonated in the hearts of Krishnan and Sumant whose eyes suddenly hadimmense fear written over them. Vikram's muffled cries could not be heard much, buthis tears had started running. Irfan saw the reaction of the other kids and hintedtowards Sanju to continue with it. Sanju laid another tight slap on Vikram's cheeks. Itwas hit so hard that his neck turned around and when it came back to its initial position,his cheeks started getting red. Soon there was a streak of blood that appeared from thecorner of his mouth. It was seen as it oozed out between the fingers of Irfan who heldhis mouth tight. This did not stop Sanju from laying another slap on his face, followed byanother. Everything that was wrong in Sanju's life seemed to him was being alleviatedby Vikram and he kept directing his hatred mindlessly at the poor kid. Another slapbrutally landed on Vikram's other cheek from the back of Sanju's hand. And then

another. Blood did not terrify him. He could not even see it. He was so full of rage. All hecould see was his ailing mother. His wife, his kids going hungry. And he blamed this kidfor being the cause of all his misery. He had to be dealt with as strictly as possible. Not athought crossed his mind that this little kid was just as old as his own son whom heloved so much. It would break his heart were any man were to touch his son the way hewas causing pain to this kid. Insanity had gripped him and taken full control of his brain.He was not responsible for any of his actions. It was just desperation.

Vikram was in so much pain that he could not endure much of it and his mouth beingshut he started getting convulsions. Breathing was getting difficult. But the brutality didnot stop.

"Say it! What were you doing with our packages?""Those are not your packages. Dead tigers do not belong to you, you filthy creature!"shouted Sumant. The secret was out."Aha! So how do you know about dead tigers when you have no idea about what yourfriend was doing with the package? And as far as I can see this package here is not evenopened."

Chapter 31: The Saviour arrives

We have seen how desperation brings out the worst in a man. Sanju was driven tomadness and was not in control of his own actions when he kept hurling slaps after slapsat Vikram. He showed no mercy. Mercy is something that only the sane possess and notthose who have been driven to insanity with rage. Desperation however brings out thebest in some people too though.

Now that the cat was out of the bag, Irfan knew that all the three kids were involvedin stealing those packages. He had already suspected it and was using Sanju's rage as atrap for one of the kids to breakdown. Krishnan all this while was shell shocked andcould not even move. Sumant was the one who broke down the secret.

"How many packages did you steal?" asked Irfan."We stole all of them and we burnt them you animals. We burnt them." said Sumant."Burnt them? Do you even know how much time bones take to burn? And you will burnthem in this garden of all places? You think nobody would have noticed the smokes?""Yeah. Ok. We have thrown them in water. Go jump inside the pond and find it. Or goand ask those ducks to fetch it for you."A slap now found its place on Sumant's face. But Sumant was very strong and he did

not even budge. "Hit me. Hit me all you want, you cowards. I am not telling youanything."

Irfan was actually very amused by the bravado being shown by Sumant. He realisedthat this boy was very strong. The only time he broke down when his friend was hurt sohe directed Sanju to continue his beatings at Vikram to see how Sumant reacted. Thecrying and bleeding and swollen red-cheeked Vikram got another blow to his face by themerciless hands of Sanju. Sumant yelled, "Don't hit him you coward. Hit me. Hit me ifyou have the guts. Why do you pick on such a small kid. Is that what makes you a man,you coward? Hit me." Another blow to Vikram. Vikram was having uncontrollable fits. Hewas exploding from within. His pain was driving him insane and the only outlet one hason such occasions is to let the pain out by shouting or crying out loud. But his mouthwas blocked and he was completely disarmed. His breathing grew heavier and heavier ashe kept grappling for air.

And then finally, he gave up. He fell unconscious in the hands of the crook Irfan. Irfansaw this happen, took off his hand off Vikram's mouth and began laying him down on thegrass. Sanju was slightly taken aback by this. His senses perhaps showed one glimpse ofits existence. As a result, his grip on Krishnan reduced a bit. Krishnan saw this as anopportunity. He leaned his back against Sanju and in one motion pushed his body as faras it could and let loose his right leg. The leg flung in the air and landed right betweenthe legs of Irfan who had bent down to put Vikram on the ground. The sole of Krishnan'sshoe had hit Irfan's crotch so hard that he instantly fell on the ground holding his crotchand started shouting inanities. The move made by Krishnan saw him fall on the ground,his hands still held by Sanju. Imran was about to help his brother, when Sumantunleashed his elbow on Irfan's face with all the lethal power that he had left in him. It hitImran right on his cheek bone and he fell to the ground. Sanju was now alone with twokids to handle. Sumant landed a punch at Sanju's face. Krishnan set himself free and hekicked the shin of Sanju. Sanju's knees buckled. The three men were on the ground forthe moment and Krishnan and Sumant both ran to get hold of Vikram. Before Sumantpicked him up, Sanju and Imran both were up on their feet. Sanju was running towardsSumant when Krishnan put his feet in his path. Sanju tumbled over. Imran was aboutland a punch at Krishnan when someone from behind yelled.

"HEY! You there! You dare not touch my son!"

The scuffle that Prashant had seen from far had drawn him towards it. He did notexpect much. He had faced enough of disappointment from people saying they had notseen his son anywhere. He thought that it was some drunkards who were just beingmirthful. But something drew him towards the gathering. He could not really tell whatforce that was. As he neared he heard sounds that distinctly could not be of men. Couldit be his own child and his friends? He quickened his pace. He saw some more dustcoming from the place and his heart beat faster. He started running. Something waswrong there. Even if it was not his son involved, somebody needed helped. He was aboutto reach there when he saw his son. A man had just raised his hand to hit him.

He shouted so loudly that Imran instantly turned around to see who the intruder was.Sanju got up and even Irfan was getting up. Krishnan saw his father and he was takenover by his emotions. All day he was hoping to get back to his home and was wonderinghow his parents would treat him for having burnt the house. He had prepared himselfmentally to accept anything that his parents would dole out. But the choice of words thathis father had chosen was something he had not expected. In those words lay theunspoken love of a father. A father who had forgiven everything his son could havedone. A father who stood by his son. A father who would do anything to get his sonback. He ran towards his father screaming, "Daddy! Daddy! Thank God you are here.Daddy! These people, they just killed Vicky!"

The three men were on their feet and Sumant was dragging Vikram away from them.But the words hit everyone by surprise. Those people were poachers and courier men.People who were only in-charge of smuggling goods from one place to another. Theywere not murderers. To be accused of committing a murder came as a rude shock tothem as they tried to grapple with the situation at hand. They might have been driven toinsanity by the greed of money that they would get once they saw off this small task ofdespatching these goods. What the kids were doing to them was only a hindrance. Aminor inconvenience. But to be accused of murder had its implications. They were notthinking about the law and the punishment they would have to suffer. That was not theirfirst instinct. They had quitened their conscience when they first took up this job. Whatthey were doing had been illegal. But their conscience was not ready to accept the guiltof they having taken somebody else's life. A life of a 8 year old kid at that. Some of theirsons were just as old as him. They did not move a muscle as their eyes fixed itself onthe immobile body of Vikram.

Which is when Sumant told, "Krish. He is not dead. He is still breathing.". Vikram hadfallen unconscious as he could not breathe. It is a wonder how the body shuts itselfdown when it is in grave pain. A conscious mind can never endure such pain. So itdirects the body's mechanism to shut itself down temporarily.

On knowing that Vikram was still alive, the poachers found a new awakening. Theywere no longer thinking about the packages. They were caught in a very difficult tangle.One injured immobile kid being helped by another. One man and a kid, they stilloutnumbered them. Prashant had realised that already. He took out his mobile phonehanded it to his son and told him, "Take this and run! Call Akash uncle or Subhodituncle. They are here in the park searching for you. Shout, scream do whatever you wantto get them here. Run. Now. Run Krish!"

Chapter 32: Help arrives

Krishnan's mind was on overdrive. Sometimes a mind works better when it is givenone task. It devotes all of its resources on getting that one task done as quickly aspossible. Just a few minutes back, Krishnan's brain was almost static. It was figuring outhow Krishnan could get away from the grips of his tormentor and also about how to savehis friends and also about the escape route. While thinking of all these goals, it was alsotrying to figure out how each of them could get linked to each other and what actionsfrom everyone could prompt it. In short, his brain was running about circles thinking ofvarious things. But now it was given a focus. An objective. Krishnan had to informSumant and Vikram's father about the where-abouts of their sons. His only goal rightnow was to get help. He ran at a frenetic pace while searching the mobile phone for oneof the phone numbers and Akash Saxena was right on top. He dialled it and continuedrunning. Akash was still looking around the park, but was very alert about the mobilephone. The phone hardly rung two rings when he picked it up and said,

"Yes Prashant?""UNCLE! Those thieves... Those thieves have taken Montu and Vicky..." Krishnan washuffing and puffing from his running and the excitement of getting help."Cool down! Cool down Krish. Speak slowly. Tell me where are you first."Krishnan had spent the whole day in the Park and he knew the park very well by now."Do you know those swings and see-saw for kids? They are on the left side of it. There isa small gate in between. You have to go beyond that gate.""Ok. I know which side Prashant went. But I have not seen that small gate.""Where are you now, uncle?""There is a pond here close by.""Ok. Can you see a bridge on its side? You have to go towards the bridge and take aright from there. After about 200 metres you should find those crooks.""Did you say crooks?""Yes there are 3 thieves there and they would have started beating up Montu and dadalready. I have come out of there to get help. Please get there quickly. I will callSubhodit uncle and get back there myself."

Akash put the phone and ran backwards instead of going towards the bridge.Krishnan located the number of Subhodit Chakraborty and gave him a call. He was

still running directionless. Subhodit picked up the phone."Hello? Prashant? Did you find them?""This is Krish here, uncle. Yes, dad found us. But he has gotten into trouble. He is stuckwith some thieves and he needs help.""Where are you? I will come there immediately.""I am at the centre of the park. There is a skating rink here next to me.""Oh! Wait, I can see you." saying which Subhodit began running towards him whilewaving his hands and shouting out his name. Krish saw him and started running backtowards the place where his father was. He kept looking back and urged Subhodit to runfaster to join him.

Meanwhile, Prashant was caught in a very bad scuffle. He was alone against three fullgrown men who were driven to hurt him, come what may. He was an impediment intheir plans. The three of them began hurling punches and kicks at him one after theother. Prashant's shirt tore from multiple places. But he did not give up the fight.Sumant, by then, put Vikram on his shoulders and ran for a distance. There was a treeclose by and he placed Vikram there. He checked his lungs. He was still breathing. Helooked at Vikram's face. His face was red with blood, but it seemed to have stopped fornow. He looked back and Prashant was fighting a lost battle. He was down on the groundas two men kicked him. The third, Irfan, was running towards Sumant.

On any other day, Sumant would have run away. It was the easiest thing to do. Heknew very well he could not match the power of the man that was running towards him.But today was not any other day. He had experienced a lifetime of travails on this dayand nothing could make him run away. In another moment of bravery, he charged uponthe assailant with all his might. He kept recollecting all the blows that Sanju dealt on hisfriend and his pace quickened even more. He was a very good footballer. The movingbody of Irfan was only just another moving football. He kept saying that to himself. AsIrfan neared, Sumant moved to the left and then to his right fooling Irfan who lost hisbalance. Sumant, then flew a punch on his chest that toppled him to the ground. A kickat his already injured crotch assured that he would stay like that for the next fewmoments. He then ran to help out Prashant. Sanju was caught unaware by the suddenkicks he started receiving on his shins. He turned around to see Sumant and a punchlanded on his face. Soon another on his stomach. He blocked the next couple of punchesand hit one real hard punch into the stomach of Sumant. It knocked the wind out of hissystem and he fell down. Sanju was about to land another punch at Sumant when hewas brought down to the ground by a huge force.

Subhodit had arrived just in time to save his son. Imran left Prashant on the groundand started hitting Subhodit who was wrestling on the ground with Sanju. Krishnan triedto kick Imran to stop him but he just pushed him away. Irfan was back, Sumant was stillknocked out from the punch and Prashant was writhing with pain on the ground. Thepoachers were winning the battle again.

In the mean time, Akash had run away from the scene of the scuffle. The moment heheard of thieves his thoughts had only one direction. He ran back to the police man withwhom he had spoken just a while back. He reached him and told him about thesituation. The police man did not need any urging, he just asked where it was and ranbriskly towards the spot. While running he even picked up his walkie-talkie and calledout for backup. When he reached there with Akash, they could see two men kicking andpunching Subhodit who lay on the ground. Krishnan was helping out his father to standup while another man kept hitting Prashant. Sumant was getting up and moving towardsVikram who still lay motionless against a tree. The police man ran towards Irfan,grabbed hold of his shirt and pushed him to the ground. He took out a pistol and placedit right at the temple of Irfan.

"Both of you! Stop immediately or I will shoot your friend here."Sanju saw the police inspector and started running. But Akash was right on his tracks.

He tripped him and as soon as Sanju fell, Akash took his hands behind his back and saton him. Imran's brother was under a pistol. He could not leave his brother like that.Inspector Ahuja then raised the pistol towards Imran and told him to raise his hands."Get down on your knees. Now. Your hands up. Stand down."

He took out hand cuffs from his pocket, cuffed the hands of Irfan on whom he stood.He asked Krishnan to sit on Irfan and to see that he did not move. He then went towhere Imran was and asked him to lay on the ground. He took out his walkie-talkie andorder for 4 constables and 2 ambulances immediately.

Chapter 33: End of Travails

There were a couple of beat constables on duty in nearby areas. Within a few minutesthey were at the crime scene. They had handcuffed all the 3 poachers. In another 5minutes a police van came and the three of them were whisked away to the policestation. In another 10 minutes, two ambulances arrived. Akash was extremely tensedseeing his son in such a state. The attendant of the ambulance put an oxygen maskaround Vikram's face and placed him gently on the stretcher. Akash sat next to Vikramon the ambulance. He took his son's hands and began rubbing them. He could not stopcrying.

Prashant was put in the other ambulance. Krishnan was crying seeing his dadbleeding profusely. Subhodit was hurt too, but he could walk and he told Krishnan not toworry about his father. He sat next to him on the ambulance. The attendants took a lookat the bruises of Krishnan and Sumant and gave them some first aid. They would befine. Just minor injuries. Krishnan and Sumant were taken to the police station. A reporthad to be written about the incidents.

Krishnan still had the mobile phone of his father in his hands. He looked at it. If hehad that device with him in the afternoon a lot of things could have been avoided. Hisfather would not be hospitalised. Vikram would not have got unconscious and Sumantand his father too would not have to get hurt. He could just have called home in theevening and someone would pick them up to take them back home. They would havebeen chastised for the fire and for running away. But he would trade that punishmentany day of the year for such an outcome. He found the phone number of his home andcalled his mother.

"Amma, this is Krish here." he said.Malathi on hearing her son's voice was so taken with relief that she began crying out ofjoy. "Oh! God! I knew you would be safe! I knew your father would find you. I knew Godwould protect you son!""But everyone was not protected, Amma." said Krishnan sobbing."What happened? Are you fine? Are Montu and Vicky with you?" the joy of relief inMalathi had now turned to concern."Yes Montu is with me. But Vicky fell unconscious. He was beaten up very badly.""Beaten up? By whom? Oh God! What happened to you all?""Amma, even Appa has got hurt. Subhodit uncle has gone to the hospital with him.Akash uncle is with Vicky at the hospital.""Oh God! What has happened?""It is a very long story. I will tell all of it later, Amma. You first need to go to thehospital.""Yes, I will go to the hospital to see your father. What hospital did they take them to?""The Government hospital. Vicky's mother also might have to go to the hospital. Can youask Montu's mom to come to the police station? I and Montu are alone here.""Yes. I will take Richa aunty with me to the hospital. And Mamta aunty will come to thepolice station to stay with you and Montu.""Amma, I have to tell you something.""You can tell me anything you want later.""No. I have to tell it now.""Ok. What is it?""That fire in the house. It was I who lit the rocket.""I know about it. We all figured out that you, Montu and Vicky had something to do withit.""I am sorry about that Amma. I hope the house is not burnt completely because of it. Ihope nobody got injured."

"Nothing happened to the house. Only the curtain in your room got burnt and the grillabove it. Rest of it still intact.""My books? Are they still intact?""Yes. Your books are also intact. Now you stay calm and Mamta aunty will be there withyou very soon."

Inspector Ahuja looked proudly at the two kids who sat at the back of his jeep as theywere being taken to the police station. The kids were just about 12 years of age andthey were taking on men who were almost the age of their fathers. They were braveenough to deal with such criminals. He also overheard the conversation Krishnan washaving with his mother and was amazed at how much courage the kid possessed. Heknew how much courage is required to tell a truth.

Inspector Ahuja was on special duty for the past 15 days. His task was to nab somesuspects who possibly were poachers. He had learnt that they had captured a tigressfrom a National park and were about to sell. He was hot on their heels for the last 3days. But 2 days back he had lost trace completely. Something about the size of theJogger's park gave him belief that the poachers might be back there. He had nabbedthem eventually, but he knew none of it could have been possible if it were not for thosebrave kids at the back. They certainly had a story to tell and he would listen to it all. Butthere was work to be completed first.

Chapter 34: The Assessment

Inspector Ravikant Ahuja had been involved with the Project Save Tiger for over anyear. He enjoyed doing what he was assigned to do. It was not work to him. It was apassion. Passion driven by the realisation of the importance of the Tiger to the habitat.The tiger would not become extinct. Not while he could do something about it. He spentmonths together researching on the whole network of people that were involved rightfrom the hunters that shot down and killed the tigers to the eventual buyers. He realisedthat the root cause was the demand for the tigers and high rates that those people werewilling to pay for it. But there was very little that he could do to them. They were out ofthe jurisdiction of his country. He could work from the bottom upwards, tracking downall the hunters and poachers and arrest them. But they were too many. Far too many foreven a dozen inspectors as him. What he could do was track down those within thecountry who made deals with the eventual buyers. He would downwards from them andthen bust the network. In his 2 years of research, he had been able to get the names ofa few eminent businessmen who were making such deals. But he needed proof againstthem. Indictment never came easily. He had little success in keeping a track of theiractivities, but that was as far as he could get.

His main line of attack so far had been concentrated on one of the largest illegalexporters of wildlife, Kishore Desai. Kishore Desai was an importer who bought toys fromChina and sold them in India. He had plenty of sources in China that would help him gethis goods. Soon he expanded his business to electronic equipments. The market in Indiawas opening up very briskly for such equipments and his sources were able to supplyhim enough goods to keep him busy all day. His goods were cheaper than most availablein the country and his business had flourished. Then came some problems of defects andthe brand he used to sell had a blot against it. He set in measures of quality whileimporting and ensured that defective pieces were as little as possible. But once theconsumer loses his trust on a brand, he never goes back. Business had got affected andhis wealth dwindled. His contacts from China still remained quite helpful. He had beenthere plenty of times to meet most of them. It was in one of these meets that heoverheard about the Traditional Chinese Medicines that utilised animal parts asingredients. He was a vegetarian and he could never get himself to try out any of thesemedicines himself although plenty were suggested to him for his arthritis and asthma.Out of curiosity he enquired about its prices and got a rude shock. It is then that helearnt about the huge demand for such ingredients. He came back and then startedputting the word out that he was willing to very good prices for purchasing the remainsof Blackbucks, Deers, Chinkaras, Leopards and also the Tigers. He still struggled with hisregular business for a few months when he came in contact with Mahesh. Mahesh gothim his first sale, that of a Leopard. Kishore made a meagre profit from the sale, but helearnt how to bargain with the customer and with his supplier Mahesh. In a year's time,he was known among the illegal traders as one of the best buyers for wildlife goods.Kishore's side business grew almost tenfold compared to his legal import business. Buthe needed to continue with that for multiple reasons. It was the face he showed to thecivilised world and to the Income Tax department. It was also his backup for monthswhen very little sale happened in the illegal trade. But most importantly, he need hislegal business so that he could mix the containers and pack the illegal goods with all thedefective pieces that he returned back to China. In China, his men segregated the twoand sent each to its rightful buyer.

It had taken a lot of time for Inspector Ravikant Ahuja to find out about all of this. Hecould never catch Kishore Desai red handed though. He had very recently been informedthat a consignment of illegal goods was being directed to the godown of Kishore Desai. Itwas also being done inside the state where his jurisdiction lay. He dedicated all hisresources to capture the network of people that worked for Kishore Desai. When he

returned back to the police station, he directed one of the constables to take down thestory from the kids and he went straight away to question Irfan. He certainly seemedlike the leader of the courier men. He threatened him, gave him the treatment thatpolice is known to use to extract information and finally got out of him the names ofpeople involved. By the next morning he had captured Mahesh, the boss of Irfan. Andinformation from Mahesh had guided him to the godown that belonged to Kishore Desai.Mahesh's phone had phone conversations with Kishore Desai. This was the moment ofsuccess that Inspector Ahuja had been waiting for all along. He had acquired hardevidence and proof of the involvement of Kishore Desai. He also needed those wildlifegoods that were being transported. They were the proof that could indict Kishore Desaias having been caught red-handed.

Inspector Ahuja was extremely proud of the kids. He had not known any other kid ofhaving shown such bravery as them. He spoke to Krishnan and learnt about how he feltthat he had a duty to protect the tiger and how he, Sumant and Vikram had gone abouthiding the packages that they located. Krishnan gave him the location where they hadhidden two sets of packages. They turned out to be intact. The interrogation with Irfanand Sanju had revealed the locations of the remaining packages that the kids had notyet located. Together the whole catch was displayed to the media. Media was necessaryto create awareness about such crimes being done. A skin of a tigress and 3 skins ofblackbucks. Bones of the tiger, various parts of the tiger wrapped with a balm to keep itintact for a few days and antlers and pelts. Everything was on display. Media was also amethod to dissuade exporters. Although, such a thing might not seem necessaryconsidering how well information flowed within the illegal network. However, they cameto know about what the citizens of their country treated people of their ilk. The tolerancewas very little for people like them. The message had been very clear. But Ahuja hadtaken extra care to not divulge the identities and the names of the kids that had helpedhim nab the poachers. Such secrecy was needed to protect the kids from the glaringmedia and also adverse impacts from those that were impacted by the subsequentarrests made.

After about a few weeks of hunt, Kishore Desai was finally nabbed in one of his guesthouses in a hill station. Details about the whole sale became very clear after that.

Kishore Desai was to earn close to Rs. 25 Lakhs from the sale of all the goods thatwere being smuggled.

Off that Rs. 5 Lakhs were to be given away to Mahesh, his aide.Mahesh in turn was to pay Rs. 2 Lakhs to Irfan on handing over all the goods intact.

He had arranged for the transport and took care of other expenses which mounted to Rs.1 Lakh.

Irfan had promised Rs. 40,000 each to Sanju, Raju and his own brother Imran.He had also given away Rs. 10,000 each to the two hunters that helped him capture

and kill the tiger.

The whole network was just like any other industry in the corporate sector of thecountry. The man who did the actual work and worked the hardest made the leastamount of money. He was assured of the money and remained happy and had no ideahow much money others made out of their work.

The hunters that killed the tiger had made Rs. 10,000.Irfan who accompanied them and took away the loot was to make an earning 6 times

of theirs - Rs. 60,000.Mahesh who provided the logistics and promised to find a buyer within the country

made a profit of Rs. 2 lakhs. More than thrice that of Irfan.Kishore was to make a profit of Rs. 20 Lakhs. He had no other expenses apart from

paying off Mahesh. The cost for transport were all handled by his legal importing

company. His profit was 10 times that of Mahesh. All he had done was arrange for theeventual buyers.

No one knew how much profit the eventual buyers in China would have made fromthe sale of the medicines that were made from these goods.

The whole cruelty of life lay bare in front of Inspector Ahuja. A tigress in the wildroamed happily. Her surroundings were grabbed away by encroachments. Food becamescarce and it had to rely on the buffaloes or goats that the encroachers reared in theirhouses. She had to kill these to feed her young ones. Hunting was how she survived.Then the eyes of those that had been blinded by the power of money had fallen uponher. She was killed and her young ones became orphans at such a young age that theycould hardly take care of themselves by hunting. Her killing though brought joy amongstthose that hardly cared about anything but money. Greed had killed a mother and madea orphans of her children.

Chapter 35: The Hospital

Vikram, Prashant and Subhodit were all injured in the scuffle with the courier men.Vikram was the one everybody was worried about as he had fallen unconscious afterbeing brutally beaten up. His cheeks were swollen and blood had filled his face. Luckilyenough his injuries were not so serious. He came into consciousness much before hismother and Malathi had come to the hospital. His face was swollen and had a bluishcolour to it though. Subhodit had minor cuts and scratches. He required a couple ofstitches on him arm to sew up a cut. The worst affected had been Prashant. Three fullgrown men had been hitting him with all their might and he lay helpless trying to blocktheir attacks from all sides. There were plenty of cuts, internal injuries that caused bloodvessels to rupture inside the skin and his arm was broken too. An operation had to beperformed on him to arrest the blood that he was losing internally. Before the morningappeared the operation was complete and he was declared to be safe. The braveryshown by a father to save his son was something astonishing to the doctors that treatedhim. They smiled with relief as Prashant showed signs of recovering.

When Richa had learnt about her son being unconscious, she could not bear the grief.Malathi was with consoling her all the time telling her that her son was in good handsand would be alright. When they reached the hospital, she was allowed to meet Vikram.She was extremely delighted to hear that Vikram was conscious. But one look at his faceand her heart gave away. She could not fathom why anyone would assault a smallinnocent kid so. Her heart repulsed with so much pain that she hurled thousands ofabuses on the assailants. She took hold of her child and cried in grief.

"Mom, you're hurting me. Don’t hold me so tight, mom. My face hurts." said Vikram."Oh, I am so sorry, Vicky. Look at you. I will not leave those people." said Richa."Mom, where are Krish and Montu? Are they safe?" asked Vikram."Yes, they are safe. Police have caught all those 3 men and have taken them to thepolice station. Krish and Montu have gone with the police to give an account of whatthey had seen." replied Akash who had sat besides Akash all this while."And what about all those packages?" asked Vikram."What packages?" asked his father."Those packages that contained the Tiger bones. We had to save the bones. Save thebones, catch the criminals, save the tigers. That is why went to finding and hiding thosepackages.""I don't know much about them, but I am sure that inspector will do something about it.Now you don't worry about it. Krish and Montu are there with them. You take rest. Youare hurt badly."Vikram put a finger on his blue cheek, winced in pain and put the finger back. "Papa,that man did not stop hitting me. I don’t know why." he said to his father."Forget about him now. The police will deal with him. He will end up in Jail for a verylong time.""But why was he beating me so badly? What did I do to him?""Didn't I tell you to forget about him? When you grow older you will probably understandhim. For now, just think that he was a madman. And mad men need to be sent behindbars when they do bad things. You go to sleep now. When you wake up tomorrow, thepain will be lesser.""Mom, I did a very bad thing this morning." he said to his mom."Is this about the fire?" asked his mother."Yes. I was with Montu and Krish when they lit that rocket. I helped them get the matchbox by cheating Bahadur. I am sorry, mom." he said repentantly.

"Nothing happened to the house. Malathi aunty is right here at the hospital. I was withher all evening. Nobody is angry at you for burning their curtains. We were only angrybecause you ran away instead of facing the consequences." said Richa."I am sorry, mom." said Vikram as a tear rolled down his blue cheeks. Had he not run,he would not be in this hospital now."Look, Vicky, the doctor has given you medicines and they will work only if you takerest. Now forget everything about today and go to sleep. You will feel much better bytomorrow morning."

When Vikram finally fell asleep, Richa went in search of Malathi. Malathi was sittingalone outside the operation theatre sobbing. It was only then that Richa realised howbadly Prashant had been hurt. It was her turn to console Malathi now. She sat next toher, while Akash and Subhodit arranged for some coffee and food for the 4 of them fromwhat was available at the hospital canteen. Subhodit said that he would go to the policestation to look after Mamta, Krishnan and Sumant. The other three then waited patientlynext to the operation theatre to see what happened of Prashant. They knew one thingfor sure. The worst was behind them. And that their sons were with them again.

In the police station, Krishnan saw Sumant's mother and felt relieved. A known faceamong so many unknown vile faces was a welcome sight. Sumant, though did not giveout the same emotions. He had been extremely brave so far throughout the day. It wasbehind his courage that Krishnan and Vikram unknowingly had felt secure that theywould be safe. Through the day, he had run, he had played and run more, and then haddone all that hiding of packages activity and was tired. He still had energy in reserve toput up a fight with those poachers. Never did he drop a tear. But now he was completelyexhausted. The moment he laid eyes on his mother all of that composure and grit waslost. Tears flowed unstoppably as he ran towards his mother. Only his mother had suchpower over him.

Chapter 36: The newspapers and the TV media

Three days after the eventful night, all the newspapers published reports on anetwork of poachers being busted. In most of the most newspapers the article featuredin the 4th or 5th page. A photograph of the tiger skin held by one of the constable wasshown accompanying all of these articles. Details about the area from which the tigerwas captured and the quantity of goods was mentioned. Names of Irfan, Imran, Sanjuand Mahesh appeared in all of them. Nothing much was written about the moneyinvolved. No mention of Kishore Desai either. A few quotes by Inspector Ahuja. But nomention, whatsoever of the boys that had aided them in capturing the poachers andcertainly nothing written about the scuffle and the injuries suffered by Prashant Nair. Thenewspapers did carry quite a lot of quotes from wildlife protection activists who took thiscase as a victory for their work. They were delighted at one of the poaching rings beingbusted. It would be a warning for the others in the business.

When Kishore Desai was eventually caught, Inspector Ahuja finally released detailsabout the costs involved. It was only then that the mainstream media began takinginterest in the whole project. When so much money was involved for so little, therecertainly was a lot more that was hidden. Some media men began their owninvestigations into the event. After questioning multiple people, somehow from a certainbakery owner and a kid playing in the park they came to know about the involvement of3 brave kids. How they were involved was something even more hazy. They had tobreach the ranks of the police personnel to get that story. Amongst the personnel, thekids were considered citizen heroes. It was a known secret among them that theirsenior, Inspector Ahuja, had written a long report on the help gathered from those kids'bravery and that report had been sent to their superiors. There might be a medal orsome recognition that would eventually come to the kids. One of the personnel thoughleaked out all of this information to the investigators. Two weeks after the incident, theinvestigator's report appeared in his newspaper. The excitement around the whole eventhad died out much earlier. Everything about the poaching business was forgotten andthe conservation of Tiger and its awareness took a back seat yet again. The report thathe wrote talked about three kids that had braved brutality by mindless poachers on thatnight. It lauded the courage of kids as young as 8 and 12 years of age. They were drivenso much by their love for the tiger that they had braved 3 full grown men and hadsuccessfully foiled their plans to smuggle the remains of a Tiger. He also mentionedanother secret that was not known even to the kids or their parents themselves. It saidthat Inspector Ahuja had reported about the bravery of the kids and had recommendedsome recognition to be provided to them. The Government had actually decided to putall of their names in a prestigious list - A list of children who receive a bravery awardevery year in recognition of their outstanding deeds and selfless sacrifice. The NationalBravery Award was presented to such kids by the Prime Minister of India during theRepublic Day Parade. The list would be announced on the 14th of November. The threemade it to the shortlist of candidates whose acts of bravery would then be scrutinised bya panel. In all, around 24 children below the age of 16 are given this award on theRepublic Day, following which the President of India hosts a reception in their honour.

Needless to say that getting an opportunity to get mentioned in such a prestigious listwas itself an honour. The medal and the cash award that comes along with it is merely amemento. A certificate that comes along with it can ensure a secure future for the kid inthe country. Children hailing from poor families who achieve this award are ensured ofgetting free education. Even when they wish to seek admissions in Engineering orMedical colleges, they are given special reservation despite the marks they might haveobtained in the examinations. For years, the bravery awards were used to show howchildren fought for justice against robbers, dacoits and terrorists. Other awardees were

used to showcase the virtues of selfless acts like saving people who are drowning. Butrecently, other brave acts such as standing against child marriage, child abuse and manyother crimes that go unnoticed for being a social stigma in the society were beingfelicitated. The awards seemed extremely effective to create awareness on issues thatdemanded desperate attention from the media that was not willing to cover those issues.Tiger conservation was certainly a need of the time and the chances of Sumant,Krishnan and Vikram seemed very good.

This was understood extremely well by the media. Very soon, the phones at thehouses of all the three children kept ringing through the day with news channels,journalists and photographers desperately requesting an appointment to meet andinterview the brave kids. Some journalists even came to Divya Vihar Society, but couldnot get through the security to meet any of the three kids. No story on the TV or thenewspaper was complete without accompanying video footage, photographs or excerptsfrom the brave kids. The futility of the attempts of the journalists could not be digestedby the editors of newspapers or producers of News channels. For lack of other excitingnews coverage, some of the biggest journalists now joined in the queue and began luringthe parents of the three children.

As soon as the first call for an interview was received by Akash Saxena, the parentshad held a very long discussion on the course of action they were to take. Prashant wasrecuperating at home with a broken arm. The internal injuries required him to take twoweeks of rest in the bed. The parents congregated at his house and discussed endlesslyall the pros and cons of letting their kids go public. Fortunately, their society in itself wasa mini-news media of sorts. The rumour mill and grapevine were on work from the verynext day. Few knew the truth and had congratulated the children whole heartedly. Thetag of 'good for nothing' would not be associated with them anymore. But the otherswere not so helpful. Some of them, said that the truth was not being doled out toeveryone. Knowing Sumant and his antics, some even said that Sumant had kidnappedVikram and taken him away to an undisclosed location. He then had demanded lots ofmoney from Vikram's parents. Krishnan took his father and tried to rescue Sumant. ButSumant had drowned Vikram and had bashed Krishnan's father with a cricket bat, whichshowed in his injuries. It was these people that were giving out all the contact details tothe media. They even gave this story to them. But apart from a few journals nobodyreally bought such controversial theories. What that had shown to the parents though,was more than enough. Hype can be really dangerous. Their children were young andthey did not want to jeopardise their careers on statements taken out of context. Theyall unanimously agreed to ignore all attention from the media. The issue would boil for awhile and then die out in some time. Some bigger issues might surface and then thetruth, if required, would be given to those journalists that truly were interested in thecause of Tiger conservation.

The media demanded attention. They first lured with the fame that their kids wouldget. They had done a brave act for a noble cause. It was their right to become famous inthe society. But the parents never budged. They then came up with the causes for whichtheir sons had almost 'laid down their lives' - Tiger conservation. They said, that theyhad people from the World Wildlife Fund and various National Parks in their panels toshow authenticity. But still the parents did not give in. Some even went into overkill andoffered money to the parents for an interview. That only strengthened the stance theparents took. There was a positive side to the denial of the parents though. Instead ofairing the interviews from the children, every channel was on an overdrive mode tocreate awareness about Tiger conservation. The journalists that made a beeline outsideDivya Vihar apartments were now inside National parks trying to spot tigers in the wild.They took interviews of forest officials who talked endlessly on how their jobs weregetting tougher by the day for the lack of funds. Some adventurous journalist evenpicked up a few poachers who had worked for Irfan earlier and took their interviews.There were shows on Chinese medicine. Shows on the animals that were used for

making Traditional Chinese Medicines and their body parts, the costs involved, thenumber of such animals that had already joined the endangered species list. Soonenough, many networks of poachers started getting busted. There was a raging fearamong every illegal exporter. Nobody wanted to risk their names being included in thisbusiness. The silver lining was certainly worth all the trouble being faced by the parents.

Chapter 37: Dealing with Fear

It was a bit fortunate for the children that their summer vacations were going onduring that time. Had they been in school, they would have been under the spotlight of athousand kids and dozens of teachers. Not to forget the journalists and thephotographers who were roaming around like wolves initially. They would undoubtedlyencounter and lure the kids from their schools by talking to the principal. Schools arealways on the lookout for promotion and a full page coverage for the school would beincentive enough to make the children available for an interview. It was also known thatwhenever some achievements of children are highlighted, the schools to which theybelong to are also mentioned. Everything adds up to marketing the school. There wouldbe none of that.

Vikram left the hospital the very next day and was at home. He was still very weakthough. Fear can leave a dark scar on any mind. He would be alone for a few minutesand his mind always ran over those few minutes of insanity where Sanju kept hitting himruthlessly. He would turn in his bed and yell out. His mother would come running andstart consoling him. He used to get nightmares of the same event. Late into the night,he would turn in his bed. He would keep mumbling thinking his mouth was beingcovered tightly by Irfan again. He wanted to yell in his dream, but he could still not do it,the hand seemed so real on his face all the time. His mind would go through the sametumultuous emotions of that fateful night and then he would finally wake up and shoutfor his mother. His mother would come running to his bedroom, would turn on the lightand see his face sweating, and fear raging in his eyes. She would show the whole roomto him and say,

"Look Vicky, I am here. There is nobody else in here.""No! No! I just saw him. He was holding my mouth. I could not breathe. He was here. Hewanted to kill me, ma." Vikram would say crying."There is nobody here, son. Nobody.""No. Look under the bed. Look behind the curtain. Look near the bathroom. He must behiding somewhere."Richa would go to all these places and say. "See. No one.""But I saw him! He wanted to kill me!" Vikram would burst out crying with pain."I will not allow anyone to get near you. Not a single soul can cause you harm, son."Akash would say coming to his room.

Vikram would clutch at him and then slowly his crying would subside. Love has itsown ways to provide comfort. The pain does not go away, but a balm is applied to numbthe pain for some time. The numbness is gone, the child is alone and the fear is back tohaunt him. There are plenty such balms that will make you feel that your fear is gone,but there remains only one solution to all fears - To face the fear.

Akash tried his best to distract Vikram from the trauma he was facing. He had seenthe buzzing excitement, constant cheering and unbridled enthusiasm of those kids at thevideo parlour. He was quite surprised that day to not find Vikram among the crowd. Heknew Vikram would enjoy playing video games. The next day he had purchased the PlayStation for his son. He also purchased all the games that he saw at the video gameparlour. He then invited Sumant and Krishnan over to play along with Vikram. He stillwas not so sure if he should allow Vikram to mingle with other kids in the colonyknowing the way kids picked up fights for no reason. Vikram, in fact, felt very safe whenhe was with Sumant and Vikram. They played the car racing games with as muchexcitement as other kids. Football was the domain of Sumant. He excelled at it even onthe gaming console. But every now and again, he would request to play the Wrestling

game. Vikram would see some wrestler in the game get hurt and he would startsweating. The fear and shrieks would be back. Sumant and Krishnan felt very bad fortheir friend. They wished it was they who had taken all that hammering instead of littleVikram. Something had to be done about this.

The next day, Sumant came to Vikram's house in the afternoon. He had a smilearound his face that said that he was up to something. Richa saw that and suspectedsome foul play.

"What is it that you are planning Montu?" asked Richa."Oh! Nothing. Nothing at all." said Sumant with a smug."I can see it in your face. Tell me what are you going to do?""I have just gathered 15 players outside, and one more player is needed to play 8 a sidegame of cricket. Vicky will be No. 16.""Oh God! No. I can't allow Vicky to go out. His father has told me very strictly not toallow him to play with other kids.""Aunty, I can assure you that nothing will happen to him.""No. This won't do. Call up Krish and you can play cricket on the Playstation here, if youwant. But no cricket outside.""But Aunty, 14 people are waiting outside. 7 in one side and 8 in other side type of gameis no fun at all. Unfair advantage to one team. Please ask uncle to let Vicky join us."pleaded Sumant. The pleading seemed to have worked with the extra charm that he putin his face. Richa called up Akash."Akash, Montu is here and he wants Vicky to go out and play cricket with them." shesaid on the phone."How many kids are there?""He says 15 kids, including him and Krish.""That is a lot of kids. You think Vicky can handle them?""I really don't know.""It would not be good if he started getting his attacks of fear in front of other kids. Theywill mock him for days and weeks and make it worse.""I know. Which is why I am worried. But Montu is very persistent.""Ok. I think we should let him go. Playing with other friends should do him some good.Its better than sitting at home all day.""Fine. But I will keep an eye on him.""Good." and he kept the phone down.

Sumant had heard the conversation keenly and he did not even wait for Mrs. RichaSaxena to tell him that he could take Vikram along. He immediately trotted along toVikram's room.

"Bright and shining it is today,Why at home sit and rust?Come, together cricket we'll play,Now who gets to bat first?!"

The rhymes of Sumant were back. His cheerfulness behind the couplet did not escapeits intended victim.

"Me me me! I will bat first!" said Vikram as he started putting on his pants to join hisother friends.

Chapter 38: The Summons

The enthusiasm with which kids play sports is a treat to watch. No worries aboutimpending tasks. No tensions from personal life. No restraints from responsibilities.When children play, they play for pure joy. The commitment and the passion that theyshow for every moment in the game is unparalleled. Commentators of cricket mightkeep rambling about how a game has to be played, what techniques are the best, how towin the game, but they rarely dwell on the spirit with which a game needs to be played.There are no victorious, there are no losers, every single moment played in joy is a tinystep to the victory. When the eventuality finally arrives, the triumph is of the sport.Playing a sport with a kid's passion is like living in the moment.

When Vikram joined his friends to play cricket, little did his mother know that he hadcompletely forgotten about the torture that his mind had endured in the past few days.As promised by Sumant, he went in to bat. Played a few shots here and there, keptrunning, and then scored a couple of boundaries to his mother's delight. He got out soonenough, but he did not show a single sign that he might be ensnared by his nightmaresagain. He kept egging his team mates on to put up a big score. Mrs. Richa Saxena didnot wait for the game to end. She did not care about who won or lost. She was happythat her son was having a wonderful time. She was going home when she saw her newclose friends approaching her. Malathi and Mamta were on their way Richa's house. Theyseemed a bit tensed.

"This is a nice surprise, Malathi? Hello Mamta. How are both of you doing?" asked Richa."I am doing very good. I just finished preparing the dinner for the night. I was free so Ithought we could talk." replied Mamta."And how is Prashant keeping, Malathi?" Richa inquired of Malathi's husband."He is better. He can roam around the house without grumbling about pangs of painfrom the stomach. The hand is still in a cast. Next week, the doctor might take an X-rayagain to see if it is better." replied Malathi."I wish for him to get better soon." said Richa."Yes. And so do I. If you need any help, Malathi, don't hesitate to ask us." said Mamta."Thank you for your concerns. And what have you thought about those court summons?"asked Malathi."What court summons?" asked Richa a bit surprised by the sudden question."Did you not get the letter from the court? I got it this morning. Mamta said she got ittoo. Which is why we were coming to your place to discuss what we should be doingabout the appearance." said Malathi."What letter? I didn't get any letter this morning? What appearance are you talkingabout?" asked Richa."The case of those poachers is still running in the court. They are going to bring in eyewitnesses to provide details of the night. From the First Information Report written thatnight, Montu, Krish, Vicky, Prashant and both your husbands have to attend thehearing." replied Malathi."Vikram has to go to the court? Oh God! Will those poachers also be there in the court?""I think they will be there. What is the problem, Richa? Why are you so scared?""You know about the nightmares that Vicky has been having since that night, don’t you?He keeps thinking that that poacher will come to kill him. We have had such a difficulttime trying to keep him calm all night. After so many days, I am seeing him smile andlaugh when he is playing. And now you tell me that he will have to be in the same roomas that man?""I understand Richa. Even though not as much as Vicky, but even Krish and Montu willbe a bit tensed to be with those poachers again. The law is important too though, don't

you think? They all fought them for saving the tiger's remains from being sold. Theywanted those men behind bars to ensure that no one else would try to attempt whatthey had done earlier. We have to do this for them. No matter how difficult it will be,Richa." said Mamta."It will be very difficult to convince Akash and Vicky. When is the court hearing?" askedRicha."It is 3 days from now." replied Malathi."3 days from now and they send out the letters today? I haven't even received themyet.""Well, it is called snail mail for a reason."

Richa decided that she would not tell Vikram about meeting his assailant until the lastmoment. There were 3 days at hand and he looked very happy after playing outdoors.When Akash came she told him about the court hearing."What? How can we take Vicky along with us? Especially after what he has been throughall of last week?" said Akash."I thought about the very thing. But we cannot be weak. We have to give him thestrength he desperately needs." replied Richa."Well, that is true. Let us see how that goes. Have you told Vicky already?""No. I haven't. He has been keeping a normal behaviour for the whole of the day. I didnot want to ruin it.""Ok. Then we will tell him tomorrow."

What the day hides in its brightest of sunshines, the glowing night beams it withluminosity. Vikram had too much to brood about the day. He had no time to think aboutwhat bothered him a few days back. The distraction was working very well for him. Butwhat lies behind the mind is not lost. It is only lowered in its priority. As his sleep gotdeeper that night, those thoughts surfaced again. He began turning in his bed mumblingout to help. Sweat beads began forming on his forehead and in a flash he screamedagain. The nightmare was back, just as vividly as before. This troubled Richa and Akasheven more. They decided to delay giving him the message about the court hearing untilthe last moment.

Two more days of frolic in cricket, two more days of innocent joy and two more nightsof heart rending nightmares. The day was upon them. Vikram was playing Need ForSpeed on his Play Station. Akash approached Vikram with complete caution.

"Vicky, you have to get ready now. We are going out somewhere." said Akash."Where are we going, dad?" asked Vikram."Turn off the game and sit here.""Just this lap, dad. One more lap. I want to beat my best score.""You can do that later. I have to talk to you now, Vicky." said Akash sternly.Reluctantly, Vikram put away his console. The stern voice was something he dreaded."We are going to the court today." said Akash."What for?" asked Vikram."Justice needs to be done. Some people need to be sent to the jail.""So what do I have to do there?""You were the eye witness and you have to talk about what you saw that night."

A shock passed over the face of Vikram as the realisation slowly dawned upon him.He was to come face to face with his assailant. He brooded on it for a while. A tearappeared in his eye. He wiped it away. He had to be brave. But what if this man wouldcause him even more harm? What if he was allowed to get his hands on him again?What if he was set off free? What if...?"Ok. I will come." said Vikram as he went to change his dress.

Richa and Akash looked at each other completely baffled. They saw his expressionschange but he did not utter a word about Irfan or Sanju. They wondered if he realised hewould be meeting them there. They let the question hang in the air.

Chapter 39: Facing the fears

All the three families entered the court room together and they waited. The lawyerswere poring over their papers. A little crowd of journalists had gathered. Somephotographers had already started clicking the children. Inspector Ahuja was there too,and he ordered the photographers to refrain from breaching the rights of the childrenand that of the court. Proceedings began as soon as the judge made an appearance.After a while the judge ordered the poachers to be brought to face the charges. As theycame in chains one after the other, Sumant, Krishnan and Vikram looked at them with asense of dread. These were the same people who were willing to beat them ruthlesslyand possibly even kill them. As the assailants sat with a morose look on their faces andlooked down, the kids started reminiscing sequence of events of the fateful night. Whenthey looked back, causing the fire was only an embarrassment to them now. Runningaway seemed like a foolish thing. But all of their thoughts stopped on one moment ofdecision. The moment that possibly caused the whole fracas. The decision that they tookabout hiding the bones they had found. If they had walked away at that moment, theymight have found their home in an hour or two. Got scolded for being foolish for burninghouses and running away. That would not be so bad compared to seeing Vikram beingbrutally whacked to unconsciousness and seeing Krishnan's father lying on the groundwith all the three men kicking him without pity. They had done what they thought wasthe right thing to do at that moment. Now they were not so sure.

The poachers looked very dishevelled. Information had been extracted from them andthe partially covered marks on their bodies showed the methods used to get the factsout of them. The defense lawyer was speaking about the state of their families in theirhometown. He pleaded that the judge make a note of the impact their wives, parentsand kids would have were they to be robbed of their sole bread owner. All of them hadpleaded guilty to the crimes levelled on them. They even claimed to be repentant foreverything they did on that night and before it. Sumant, Krishnan and Vikram wereasked to repeat the story they had said about a hundred times since the first time theytold it to the officer that filled up the First Information Report (FIR). Krishnan spokeabout how he discovered that what they had unearthed was actually bones of a Tiger. Hestressed on how important conservation of wildlife had meant to him. Sumant recountedhow they had located the packages and hid them in locations where they could not befound. They both told the judge about the scuffle that ensued with Vikram ending upunconscious and Krishnan's father, Prashant being injured very badly. Vikram quiveredas he tried to tell the judge about how he was being beaten by the man called Sanju. Hetold about how his mouth was shut so his screams would not raise attention and howrepeatedly he was beaten mercilessly. As he raised a finger towards Sanju, Sanju lookedup. Vikram was sweating as he looked into the assailant's eyes. The eyes looked straightback at Vikram. They had pain written all over it. It looked nothing like Vikram hadimagined in his nightmares. In his dreams, the eyes would stare wildly at him. Theywould be as red as blood waiting to cause him unbearable pain. But he could not see anyof it now. Behind the assailant he noticed that his family was sitting. A woman withragged clothes holding a toddler with nothing to cover him. Another kid, just as old asVikram sat with a tattered shirt and kept staring at his father. The woman kept weepinghelplessly as the kid kept tugging at her to stop. What Vikram saw now in Sanju, was ahuman and not the evil person from his dreams. He wondered how a man capable of somuch rage at one time could look so listless now. It is very strange, this thing calledFear. It will grapple you with its ferocity. It will strangle you from its savagery. The mindwill be mesmerised by thoughts of how worse things could get for you. But once you faceit with all the grit you possess, the whole deal about fright escapes your understanding.You look back at what caused you to be so upset and you still cannot stop wondering

how wrong you were. Vikram was no longer afraid. He, in fact, felt pity at his assailant'sfamily. He was gazing at him when a lawyer asked him.

"You did a very brave job. If you were given a chance, would you do it again?"

The question was left unanswered as Vikram began sobbing. These were not criesfrom fearfulness. These were cries of pity. A moment that woke up the soul to the bittertruths of life. Sumant and Krishnan had been asked the same question and they had saidthat they would have done it again for the Tiger. It was the plight of the Tiger thatneeded more attention than anything else. But within them, even they were not so sure.Medals, certificates, people treating them like heroes, friends and enemies gettingjealous of them, these were all miniscule benefits that came out of it. The horror of thenights still lingered every time they saw Krishnan's father with his scars and a slingaround his arm. The certainty with which they had set upon the brave act was no longerwith them. Logic had crept into their heads. The heroic act did not look all that heroicanymore to them. They were too young to have moral dilemmas though.

The night trailed off and another day appeared. Vikram had slept through it without aconcern. He had overcome his fears. He had won the fight he never thought he couldconquer. His father picked up the paper and in the 4th page saw the photograph of hisson. It was accompanied by photos of Sumant and Krishnan too. "Brave children standup for the Tiger" read the title. Irfan, being the head of the gang and the man behind thekilling of the tiger and planning its export had been given 3 years of rigorousimprisonment. His brother Imran was given 2 years of imprisonment. The samepunishment was given to Sanju. Their 4th accomplice who was not present in the scufflethough escaped with a punishment for just 6 months. The trials of Mahesh and KishoreDesai would take longer. It was apparent how different the rich were treated from thepoor. The rich could afford rich lawyers that bent the laws in their benefit. Their moneybought them time. Time was very important. The longer the trial would take, the lesserthe passions related to the justice behind the crime. Kishore Desai's lawyers were verycertain that he would go scot free. At the most, he might have to settle for a penalty.That too for innocently looking over illegal goods being transferred among the goods ofhis company. Their biggest concern was the press. The press does not have a memorylike the normal man. It never forgets any story. But some of them could be bought overtoo. Not all of them though.

The amount of press coverage that the mainstream media gave to the court hearingwas mild. This was very gladdening for the Saxenas, Nairs and Chakrabortys. They hadnever wanted those media men that would create hype around their children and makesuper humans out of them. A burden no mortal could survive through his life. Theyfinally agreed to one of the serious journalists covering Wildlife protection for aninterview with their sons.

Chapter 40: Everything has a purpose

The journalist Satish Majumdar arrived the next day to the house of Mr. PrashantNair. Satish was a wildlife enthusiast for almost 3 decades. He was born into a family ofconservationists. His father was a forest official in Kaziranga National Park. Although hehad lived in the city, all his vacations were spent with his father in the National park.They would go on animal rescues to help injured animals. He would look over theveterinarians perform surgeries at various animals from small birds to deers to hugerhinoceroses. As he grew older, he had taken a liking to photography. With a NationalPark at his disposal, wildlife photography became his forte. Closely documenting thevarious species of birds, animals and reptiles living in the different regions of thecountry, he had built a name of his own. He was getting plenty of offers from magazines

all across the world. A promise of a rich life stood before him. But he opted out. His mainconcern was in his own country. His country had plenty of endangered species thatneeded just as much protection as the other countries did. He devoted his life to theconservation of wildlife in India.

Satish Majumdar had approached the Nairs, Saxenas and Chakrabortys only once.That was in the court. He was moved seeing the way Krishnan had narrated how theconservation of Tiger was necessary and how he had been so determined to do anythingto ensure no other tiger was shot. He could see a bit of his own passion from hischildhood days in the kid. Such kids had to be nurtured. Their stories had to be told tomake other kids aware of the threat the nation would face if it left the poachers getricher. But Satish had been rejected the interview by all the parents. It was only whenKrishnan said that he had seen the man on one of the shows on wildlife conservation, didthe parents do a research on the past of Satish Majumdar. They were moved by his storyand immediately called him to apologise him for their refusal earlier. Satish understoodthe reasons very well and just smiled knowingly.

He spoke to all the kids lovingly. He told them about the stories of tigers. The storiesof tiger cubs that were left orphans by poachers but yet grew up to be just as powerfuland magnificent as their parents. The order of the jungle it was. Always taught the rightpath to every living being. When he had made them feel comfortable around him, heasked them plenty of questions to know what drove them to take up a decision that hadsuch consequences. The kids were so happy with him that they spoke without anyinhibitions. He helped them overcome their fears and doubts when they told they werenot sure about the question posed to them by the lawyers when they had asked if theywould do it again. Never fear the consequences. Do not let the overall good of the deedshadow the minor inconveniences. He assured them that their act had already put inplace plenty of changes. The Government had been pressurised to invest more onsecuring the perimeters of all Tiger reserves. It was ensured that all encroached land betaken over. The forest officials were given better vehicles and guns to deal withpoachers. All of this would have been looked over, were it not for the brave act done bythem and the media overdrive that ensued later on.

Vikram then spoke of the pity that he felt when he had seen Sanju. He said he startedcrying when he put himself in the place of Sanju's kid. He didn't know what he would do,were his father to be sent to jail. No matter what his father might have done to anyone,a father was a father. And a father is super hero for any kid. Satish was moved by thequestion and tried to console Vikram. He ran a club, a Non-profit organisation that did alot of work for wild life conservation. He assured Vikram by saying that his club wouldensure that enough aid was given to the families of the poachers who were arrested.They were innocent after all. It is a pity as to how everyone sees a criminal and thencurses them to a life full of woes in a dungeon. Little do they think of the people thatthey might have to support. A criminal activity could be one spurt of madness. Amoment when the mind is not in control of the body. Many do such acts. Some acts arenot as dangerous as the others, but there is a portion of helplessness amongst the firsttime criminals. The poachers had no motive to harm the kids. Sanju was caught in a fit,thinking of how he would have no money for a week, if he could not finish the delivery ofthe package. His son would have to go without food for a few days too. The only personspoiling everything for him at that moment was Vikram who was withholdinginformation. What he did was out of madness and he repented that every moment afterhe regained sobriety from his madness.

It was only after an hour or two through the interview that Satish Majumdar realisethat the three brave kids had never actually seen a living tiger in all their lives. Heimmediately gave them an invitation to the National park in which his father still workedas the forest ranger. He promised them that he would personally take them on a safariin his vehicle. They would roam around for 3-4 days until they spotted tiger. This news

brought utter delight on the faces of Sumant, Vikram and especially Krishnan. It was adream come true for him. Sumant also requested Satish to teach him somephotography. He had seen Satish's work on the Internet that very morning and wasamazed at the pictures of deers, birds, wild boars, lions, elephants and tigers that hehad taken. Satish accepted that request too.

After spending two hours interviewing the kids, Satish Majumdar left the home of theNairs. He was very pleased to have got the interview. The opportunity to take suchenthusiastic kids around the National park would be the least he could do. He knew thekids deserved much more. He could not wait to complete the write up for the article thathe had in mind. It would certainly be an inspirational piece of writing for any kid.

Sumant, Krishnan and Vikram were excited about the National park visit. But for threefamilies to go for a week's vacation, they needed to do a lot of planning. Dates had to bedecided. Modes of transport were to be finalised. Their houses might be left closed for aweek or two. Arrangements were to be made for people to look after them. As theparents sat discussing about their commitments on some weeks and the weeks that theywere free, the kids went out to play. The heated discussions of the parents bored them alot. It took away all the excitement of the National Park visit. As they went out, Sumantgrabbed a match box from the kitchen. Krishnan noticed it and caught his hand.

"What are you going to do with that, Montu?" he asked."With what?" asked Sumant rather cheekily."I saw you steal that matchbox, Montu. What are you going to do with it?""Ah. Just wait and watch." replied Sumant."Don't tell me you have found another rocket.""No. I have found a coil bomb this time!" said Sumant excitedly showing his pricedpossession."MONTU! How can you even think of something like this?! Have you forgotten whathappened the last time?" said Vikram not believing what Sumant was thinking about."Vicky, you silly fellow, this is not a rocket. This will not go and burn anybody's curtain.""But what are you going to do with it?""I am going to burst it, stupid!""Don't call me stupid. Of course, you will burn it away. But where?""I have learnt my lesson, kiddos. You should never light crackers near houses or near aplace where there a lot of people.""So where will you light this one, Montu?""In the park.""But there are kids over there now.""Not near the sands, where the see saw and swings are kept.""You are going to put the bomb in the see-saw?""No. What's the fun in that? I am going to put it on the swing and then swing the swing.I call it the swinging bomb!""You are stupid, Montu" said Krishnan.

Sumant went towards the swing. As he had expected there was no kid playing there.He placed the bomb on the swing. Took out the match box and looked over his shoulder.Krishnan and Vikram were peering at him eagerly. He turned around suddenly andlaughed when they both looked around.

"Ha ha. I know you want to see this swinging bomb just as much as I do. But you justwill not accept it. Very well. Here we go. 3... 2... 1... " saying which he struck the matchand placed its tip on the bomb. It caught fire and Sumant gave the swing a slight tug tomake it swing.

But he was scared of the bomb and ran towards Vikram and Krishnan. The threelooked back at the swinging bomb. One last burst of flame and the bomb got ignited. A

boom was heard and then some smoke. When the smoke disappeared, only the chains ofthe swing were dangling listlessly. The seat of the swing sat on the bottom of the sand.

Sumant looked at Krishnan. Krishnan looked at Vikram. Vikram was giggling seeingthe seat and the dangling chains. Nobody noticed the prank. And the three kids decidednot to run this time. But Sumant threw away the match box none the less. Two crackerdisasters were too many. They did not want to run and become heroes again. Kids willalways be kids.

By the time the Saxenas and the Chakrabortys left the Nairs' home it had been anhour. They had finally chalked out all the plans and had decided among them who wouldbe assigned what task. In two weeks' time they would all be going to the National park.Prashant's cast would be taken off by that time. His wounds had already healed verywell. Subhodit and Akash would be with him if he needed any help. It would be a welldeserved vacation for all of them after everything they had to face in the past fewweeks. It would be a welcome change.

Malathi went to the bedroom of Krishnan. She had gone there to get herself a book toread and relax. But something caught her attention and she went into a reverie. Arelaxed mind broods endlessly on its philosophy. We have already learnt about thephilosophy that Mrs. Malathi Nair believed in. She stood at the door and looked at theceiling near the curtain. The ceiling was still black from the fire. She looked at it andthought of the tumultuous ride the last few weeks had been. It had been a test of theirstrength, integrity, patience and will power. They had all come out of it. This was whereit had all started. If she had not sent Krishnan to play, he would not have mingled withSumant and Vikram that day. They were now his best friends. Almost inseparable. Theywould not even have burst that rocket that would have burnt the house. The houseburning seemed unnecessary, but even that had a role. Without the fire, the kids wouldnot have run away. They had felt hungry and had conned a bakery owner into feedingthem. They had played a game of football with three unknown kids in a park when theyhad been lost. If it were not for the bakery and the kids, their parents would never havebeen able to trace them. And then they went on to meddle around with unknownpackages. Things they had nothing to do with. They had come to know about Tiger'sremains and had decided to hide it. Vikram got caught, got bruised. Inspector Ahuja wasthere luckily, or was it really luck she brooded. Before more harm could come to the kidsor to their fathers, help had come in the form of Inspector Ahuja. The incriminatingevidence leading to the sentences of the poachers. Court proceedings, media coverageand this interview. She exhaled a deep breath thinking of it. All of it had come to a goodend. The kids had a good chance of winning the coveted National Bravery Award. Andthey would finally get to see a tiger in the National park safari that Satish would givethem two weeks from now. They had planned everything with their new close friends. Itwas surprising to her to know that just two weeks back she was saying things behindMrs. Richa Saxena's back and now she was a close pal of hers. She was certainly nothinglike the rumours she had heard. The same was with Mamta. Even the husbands of thewomen had become very close in the last few days. Stopping over at each other's houseto discuss everything from Sports, Politics and Movies. It was all for the good. Shepassed a look at her new curtain and again at the remaining stains of the fire andremarked, "Everything has a purpose."