Tete-A-Tete with SOUL

You are not air, water or land. You are a human being.

You are a number – birth registration/social security, roll, or employee.

You have the right to opine. They will hear you while you try listening to your conscience.

You believe something doesn’t seem correct. Say it. Others may/may not agree with you.

There is too much at stake. Your voice is too meek to be heard in the chaos that has existed for years. So you just add to the noise and sit still. If your turn comes in future, grab it. If it doesn’t come at all, just leave when you feel it’s the right time.

Remember the world was always there. You came. You are breathing. You will leave. The world will continue to exist.

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The headlights flashed illuminating the murky waters. Screeching brakes killed the silence. Brief halt. He got back into the car. The vehicle zoomed on the concrete path, leaving behind a muddy trail.
~~~~~~~~~
The wind swayed the trees gently. With one hand on the car steering, she removed her hat with the other and threw it on the back seat. Combing the auburn hair with her delicate fingers, she pondered as to what life actually had in store for her.
~~~~~~~~~
The doorbell rang. The maid was surprised to see the policemen at the wee hours of the morning. She informed Ananya about it. Some talks, few sips of hot coffee and off they headed in the police cars.
~~~~~~~~~
The police headquarters was unexpectedly calm. A sudden complaint by a famous socialite was enough to raise eyebrows and have a hive of media people asking “important” questions. But situation demanded otherwise.
He was an industrialist with loads of good will. The big marriage was on the cards and the entire city was looking forward to it. And now the prospective groom had placed an allegation on the soon-to-be bride. The police had driven her to the headquarters and there was some serious interrogation to be done.
~~~~~~~~~

Sam, the Chief Police Officer was to interrogate the suspected criminal.

Sam: We have Ananya here. Now lets talk about what the whole confusion is all about?

Sameer: Confusion… there’s no confusion! She’s been lying to me.

Sam: Lying to you. Hmm… and what makes you say that? You accuse her of murder, which by no means is a petty offense. It’s a serious matter. Hope you know what you’re talking about?

Sameer: Of course I do, officer. I am a respected citizen and I know my duties and responsibilities towards the society. So I stand by what I say. I believe she has done something wrong and no matter how much I love her, she has to answer what made her do that?

Ananya was quiet. She wanted Sameer to tell what all was on his mind.

Sam: So, Mr. Sameer please let us know what all do you know about this supposed murder. I know you have given a brief of it to the junior officer. But we would like you to please tell the happening once again.

Sameer: You want me to tell in front of Ananya, the murderer herself? Is this how you work? That’s amazing! And police complain that common man doesn’t “co-operate”! [He shrugs]

Sam: [Sternly] Please go ahead with what you have to say.

Sameer: Ok. So here’s my part of the chronicle.

My parents introduced me to Ananya. I liked her the very moment I saw her. She was absolutely normal until I went for a business visit to Australia. When I returned, so many things had changed. Life seemed all ruffled within a time gap of 20 days. Ananya wasn’t keen on meeting me quite often. She had these weird headaches for no good reason. Even if we’d go for a small party she would leave early with one or the other excuse. She had become irritable. Despite my continuous attempts to settle scores amongst us, there was no genuine effort from her side.

One day we were supposed to go for a cozy family dinner to my cousin’s place. At the last minute, Ananya told me that she was down with fever. Yesterday’s exertion had taken a toll on her and so she couldn’t make it. I didn’t reply anything on the phone. I just took my coat and started for her place. That was too much for me to handle. Yesterday she has this all-girls party and freaks out & today she is down with fever. I mean… she can be ill all of a sudden. But then… why didn’t she call me up & ask me to be besides her, the way she used to do? What’s been going wrong with her? Too many questions & lots of doubts… I wanted to find out if she was lying again or was it truth this time. I say ‘again’ because yesterday her best friend called me up to enquire as to what’s Ananya been up to these days. The friend wanted to invite us for a dinner party but Ananya didn’t pick up any of her calls or replied back to all the messages she had left.
Girl’s party… well… nothing of this sort was ever decided. It had been a month or more since the chirpy gang met!

But this is not all. When I reached Ananya’s place last night, before I could enter the fenced yard, I saw Ananya entering her car. She was in such a hurry. She slammed the car door & rushed. As expected I followed her to know where was she heading. A sick girl down with fever, fully clad in a long, black coat & tall hat, she looked suspicious. Never ever have I seen her dressed like that?

Sameer: Ananya… why? [He sobbed]

Everyone in the room was startled by this sudden cry. Sameer was given a glass of water to calm down. With Sameer’s confirmation that he wanted to go ahead with the narration, every one settled back. Tears rolled down Ananya’s rosy cheeks. This was the last thing Sameer would have wanted. His beautiful darling was hurt. But then he was almost devastated. It was a situation neither of them must have imagined they would be a part of.

Sameer: Ok. So as I followed her she drove to this spooky place near the lakeside. She got down the car. There was another suspicious looking man waiting for her. I was watching this all from distance. There were some loud words exchanged. I heard words like ‘liar’, ‘deceiver’, ‘opportunist’ and others. But what was obvious was that the 2 of them were fighting over some issue. The hand gestures, the shaking of the heads in disagreement…many small things indicated it was not a small fight. I was confused to see this guy… wonder how Ananya knew him? I’d never known she had been in some past relationship. Was he her ex-boyfriend? So many questions popped up in my head. I tried by best to concentrate on what actually what was going on there. The worst happened. Ananya removed a dagger from the coat and stabbed him on the back. He fell to the ground letting out a distressing cry. Ananya ran back into the car and left the place within no time. I was shocked to see all this. I was frightened stiff. I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t want to go near a corpse at the middle of the night. But then I couldn’t stay quiet about this. I just took few steps towards the dead body and rolled it over. There lay a middle-aged guy with a long nose. All I could think of was to get into the car & speed back on the road.

I halted at the nearest phone booth & called the police informing them about the dead body by the lakeside.

Sam: [interrupting Sameer] Oh…so it was you who had called?

Sameer: Yes Officer. Even though I informed the police about the crime, I couldn’t sleep for a minute. I was loaded with the guilt of seeing a live man turn into a dead body. I didn’t know what to do about it. I just drove to the police headquarters. And here I am… telling you what all I saw. I feel so low right now. This incident… is it for real? A night and everything is changed!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

There were lots of discussions.
A witness confirmed that at the middle of the night he did see 2 ‘guys’ across the banks of the river.
Doubts were raised & answers were given.
Everything was settled.
Sameer & Ananya left the headquarters happily.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Sameer: I never knew you were that brave!

Ananya: Yeah! Me neither. [Giggles] But when Uncle Sam asked me to help him out, I couldn’t say no to him. He’s been a father figure. Also, dad told me to go ahead. Earlier dad was a bit skeptical as our wedding was on the cards. But I believe life comes before anything. So eventually both mom & dad agreed to it. I helped law and am glad I am with you now. I am sorry that I didn’t take you in confidence before I agreed to do this benevolent deed. You were off to the foreign lands for a critical meeting and I didn’t want to you to get all worried for me. So I…

Sameer: Hey sweetie, don’t explain all this to me. What you did makes me feel more proud of you. I am surely going to marry someone who will be my ‘better’ half.

They hug each other tight. They get into Sameer’s car and leave for home.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~

[Back in the police headquarters]

Sam: [To his junior officer] So you see… everything’s fine now. [With a mocking smile] And they say… you cannot hide truth.

Jr. Officer: Don’t you feel Sameer believed us too early - Ananya helping us out, doing that river side drama to trick a suspected criminal and accidentally just injuring him.

Sam: Well, that’s all what you are thinking about? We have to move. Get ready.

Jr. Officer: Where are we going now?

Sam: To relate things. I’ll drive. I just want you to come along, not the entire team. Lets go!

[Off they headed in a normal car.]

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
[At Sameer’s home.]

Sameer: I am just completely exhausted. A quick shower and some tea would do wonder, what say?

Ananya: Sure dear.

Sameer goes to take a shower. As Ananya turns back to get some coffee, she notices an open briefcase with something peeping out. Ananya is shocked. Meanwhile, Sameer comes out in the room

Sameer: Oh ho! So now you know too much…

He snatches the gun and the fake passport from Ananya’ s hands.

Ananya: [Trembling with fear] So you lied to all of us.

Sameer: Yep! So now that you know ‘too’ much, goodbye forever my love! [He holds Ananya at the gunpoint.]

~~~~~~~~~~

A gun shot. A scream. A cry.

~~~~~~~~~~

Ananya: Uncle Sam. [Ananya sobs and runs towards Sam.]

Sam: Don’t shed tears for this cheat! He would have ruined your live. I know you are too stunned to see all this happen so quickly. But we were waiting to track down this beast for quite a while now.

Jr. Officer: Sir, how did you expect some action here in the house tonight? And our doubts about Sameer were indeed true! You knew he was lying at the headquarters. What was the missing link?

Sam comforts Ananya.

Sam: [Turning towards Jr. Officer] Well, remember the guy who pretended to be the witness, the one who saw 2 guys across the banks and all…

Jr. Officer: Yes sir, I do remember. What about him?

Sam: He’s the same guy Ananya “killed”. [He laughs.] Sameer never recognized the dead guy, the long nose and all rubbish. He never went near the corpse. All he had to do was to hide the truth, not tell a lie. But he wasn’t good enough.

Jr. Officer: [Amazed with surprise] What?

Sam: That’s what I felt but didn’t utter when the witness entered the room. I was expecting Sameer to jump off the chair and identify the ‘corpse’. But he was as cool as a cucumber. He didn’t budge at all. That’s when the things got connected.

Ananya: But… it was dark near the riverside. Sameer might not have recognized him properly?

Sam: A man having a big scar on the left cheek… well, very few brains would forget that face. Long nose! Who had that? You, him or me? No one! It was all made up. He never had to even attempt describing the dead guy. Even without that he could have proved Ananya to be a law-breaker.

Jr. Officer: But how did Sameer come to know about our plan?

Sam: Well he never knew the entire plan until now, before he died. He heard half-truth and constructed the remaining, only to fail miserably. Remember when we came with a search warrant to Sameer’s house, only to find he had gone on this business trip, Ananya was on the phone?

Ananya: Yes. I was talking to Sameer. You gestured me to disconnect the call, which I did.

Sam: Well, you disconnected. But Sameer had called you, hadn’t he? Besides you were so surprised to see us that you made the golden mistake that brought us here.

Ananya: [puzzled] What mistake?

Sam: You just kept the cordless instrument on the coffee table. Sameer overheard whatever I told you about helping me out in nabbing a suspected criminal. A rough looking guy with a long nose!

Jr. Officer: Ok! So that’s where the fake appearance description given by you to Ananya misled Sameer. Poor chap.

Sam: Sameer assumed that Ananya would just help us nab the ‘criminal’ and not kill or attack someone. Never in his dreams might have he guessed that it was him we were trying to get hold of. He was this ‘ideal’ business tycoon. Catching him red-handed was a distant dream for me. His now-and-then foreign trips were raising alarms in the entire department. He was happy to know that by committing a serious crime like murder, now entire media focus would shift to Ananya and he would emerge out as an ‘respected’ citizen!

The other guy at the river and the witness and the ‘criminal’ were all the same person… I just wanted to test how a criminal mind would react to some live criminal act. Sameer tricked me by informing the police of the murder committed by Ananya. I expected him to protect her and try hiding the truth. That’s were the equation got sorted!

Better name to his credit so that his bad deeds don’t see daylight for some more time – let the ‘bride-to-be’ become the hot news! Sympathy & support all would pour in from the people & media. I doubt if he ever wanted to get married, he must have given up to parents’ pressure.

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With loud wailing sirens, several police cars arrived at Sameer’s house.

Now the ‘investigation’ would begin.
No one would be projected as brave.
Media would ask “important” questions and the papers would scream out the ‘truth’ as told to them.
However, there were things to be unraveled. Each single day out of those 20 days must have harmed humanity quite a bit!


Hiding truth and telling lies – there’s a difference.

“Hope you have a nice stay!” with a friendly smile, Mr. A. R. from Ella Cabs wished me these kind words as I carried the luggage to the flat, my dwelling for the coming 2 weeks – Warley Hill, Brentwood, UK.

Out of the blue, I got an opportunity to go on a business visit to Brentwood.
UK, being second last in the list of countries I would like to visit [USA being the last], I was a bit … ok ok, a lot tensed to go there. The work wasn’t bothering me. It was the flight journey that was.

It had been years since I sat in the airplane. My last experience during a domestic flight wasn’t a very pleasant one. With rains pouring down and lightning all over, the plane thudded. The childhood memories came back, only to make me more nervous. But as they say, the best way to overcome fear is to face it. I did that religiously. [Maybe it sounds ridiculous as to how some one can be so timid, believe me if you have seen death from very close, you too would shiver.]

All said and done, as I had promised myself that if work gives me an opportunity to travel abroad, I would take a plunge and fly again. [At least, I wont be paying for my death… sounds sick, true! Just kidding!] By God’s grace, I got this chance and here I was in the English country.

The cab drive from Heathrow Airport to Brentwood was amazing. With M25 [highway] all spread ahead of us, the cab zoomed. Mr. A.R. now-and-then confirmed as to whether I was comfortable. I was too quiet to say anything. I still couldn’t digest the fact that I flew all the way to this foreign place. I guess my silence made him worry. The in-between “am fine”(s) made him sport a smile and a nod as an acknowledgement. In approximate 1 hour and a quarter more, we reached Brentwood.

Brentwood comes under Essex County. Without much knowledge about where I was actually going, I had come up with a plan to spend 1 day for site seeing. That’s all I could grant myself J. A friend, who had recently been to London, guided me as to what I might like to see. So, London Eye, Westminster Abbey, Tower of London and Tower Bridge, in that order, were finalized.

With considerable amount of work [meetings, considerable brain-storming sessions and developing a prototype within 3 days], the idea was to just forget work for 1 day. On 23rd September 2006, I was too meet Central London J.

The site seeing day had arrived. With a bag pack stuffed with some biscuits, khakras, water and digital camera, I toddled to Brentwood station. The Day Travel card is supposed to be cheaper then the normal to-fro tickets. So hastily I bought the same. The route was fixed:
1. Normal train from Brentwood to Stratford
2. Tube train from Stratford to Waterloo

Couple of days back from today, for a business meeting, I had been to Southwark [pronounced as “sa-darq”]. Southwark comes before Waterloo.


Thus its…
Brentwood – ‘n’ stations – Southwark – Waterloo.

So I was comfortable with the rail route to be traveled.

After reaching Waterloo station, I tread on my way to take a ride in what is called as the London Eye. From considerable distance itself, I was in awe of the London Eye’s height. With my digital camera out and rolling [figuratively, of course!], I started taking pictures of the Eye.

My eyes were too excited to see the Eye!

The queue to buy tickets for the flight was okey-dokey. They have this facility of booking tickets online too. I chose to get them on the spot. With a £13.50 ticket and lots of expectations from the flight, I joined the queue leading to the cute looking capsules.

For record, a group of 4 English people was immediately ahead of me in the queue. The youngest of them (mostly in late 20’s) was the most scared to take up the flight. The other 3 elderly people comforted him.
Well, was I scared to enter the Eye? Not until the not-so-young kiddo ahead me repetitively said, “Am worried…am worried. It’s too high!”
** Oh really! Good God you confirmed. Else we all were about to believe that suddenly we shrunk. Duh! **

Before entering the capsule, there was a security check going on. The security person checked my not-so-small bag. Within couple of minutes I was returned the bag. I moved ahead eagerly to finally fly!

The slow ascend of the Eye makes one barely feel any kind of motion. As the capsule moves high, the view from the Eye becomes better and better. With the capsule reaching to meet the sky, the earth starts looking prettier J. The amazingly lit [by sun’s rays] tall structures start appearing closer laterally. I was engrossed clicking pictures at this end, and that end of the capsule. The capsule has North, South, East and West directions marked on it. The flight lasts for about 45 minutes or so, can’t remember exactly, was too busy enjoying :D.

What I liked the most during the flight was seeing the almost picture-perfect skyline. The view of couple of the bridges down below is something I will remember for long time. The time in the flight flew very fast. For bird’s eye view of London, go ahead and enjoy the London eye!


After the flight was over, I crossed over the Westminster Bridge to reach Westminster Abbey’s star attraction – Big Ben. There’s nothing so worth-a-watch about it… especially if you have no clue about the history [bet most of us don’t know, that’s obvious to!] behind this belfry and have seen it in one of those Hindi movie songs :P.

There’s quite a history about how the clock tower came into being. One of the requirement specifications for the clock tower was:
“The first stroke of the hour bell should register the time, correct to within one second per day, and furthermore that it should telegraph its performance twice a day to Greenwich Observatory, where a record would be kept."

Talk about punctuality and specifications!!!
The requirement did get fulfilled though.

Some interesting facts [Courtesy: Googling] about the Big Ben should be listed down:
1. Technically speaking, the name "Big Ben" does not refer to the famous tower; instead, it refers to the largest of the five bells inside the clock tower.
2. The placing of old pennies in the mechanism controls the accuracy of the clock movement.
3. At first, the bell was to be called "Victoria," in honor of the Queen. However, "Big Ben" was the name that came to be used. At the time that the bell was built, there were two well-known men named Ben. One was a champion boxer -- Benjamin Caunt. The second Ben was Sir Benjamin Hall, a Member of Parliament who, as Commissioner of Public Works, had a great deal to do with the clock tower and the bells. His name was on the side of the first bell that had cracked. Either of these two men could have inspired the nickname "Big Ben," but no one is really sure which it was!

Hope the history didn’t make you snore J). Now that you know at least this, you would identify a bit better with the ‘Big Ben’! I am not too sure but there are tours to the see the Tower. I didn’t even bother to enquire about it. […Had to judiciously use ‘time’. Irony, is it? ]


After the camera was satisfied zooming and capturing Big Ben from ‘n’ angles, we (me and camera… yaar!) moved ahead to meet the river. Thames cruise was next in the pipeline.

Frankly speaking I had no clue as to why I should take the cruise. It has been days since I’ve read something about some tourist place – city, country, continent! A vigilant tip – in case you are going to land up in a totally unknown place, better do some homework as far as site-seeing is considered. It proves helpful in time management!

Ok. So back to the cruise. There are various options available as far as duration, destination to reach is considered – to-fro tickets are cheaper. [That’s obvious too!] After the cruise, ‘Tower of London’ tour was on the list. So I settled down for the cruise up to the ‘Tower of London’. Now with a £6.00 ticket and no clue as to what to expect out of Thames, I stood besides a crowd waiting to pour into the cruise.

The cruise … hmm… what shall I say. I could have never imagined how beautiful the surroundings would look once the small boat starts moving. A very smart, entertaining and witted cruise member told wonderful facts about the ‘n’ structures fencing the Thames. Besides being humorous and gripping, the narration was very informative too. I felt so ignorant of the world around me :(. This complex once again became stronger post this UK visit. God bless me! [Did I hear ‘Amen!’ :P]

For me the cruise ended up really fast. Poor me wanted to sail a bit more. The twinkle in the eye, which I carried right from India to see the ‘Koh-I-noor’ added to the eagerness to enter the Tower of London (TOL). The cruise temporarily halted at TOL as it was bound up to Greenwich. I got down and eagerly walked towards the Tower’s entrance.

I lined up, bought a 15£ ticket and waited at the entrance of the TOL for a guided tour to begin! I had the idea that there was some history to be listened too…but it kind of only increased my intrigue. And then I saw one more really witty, humorous man called Dave. Dave is a Yeoman (Officer in the (ceremonial) bodyguard of the British monarch). He would be guiding the curious crowd through the Tower.

What followed was almost 3 hour or so of just seeing the wonderful things around. As we neared any tower, realization of interesting/cruel historical facts (told by Dave) generated mixed emotions. My favorite things have to be:
- Seeing the little chapel within the TOL and knowing about the history related to it
- Seeing the “Koh-I-Noor”… boy-o-boy, diamonds just shine ;). Also the footage of the Queen’s coronation ceremony that is shown before one can see the two crowns – namely, “The Imperial Crown of India” and “the crown with the Koh-I-Noor” in which lumps-and-lumps of gold was exhibited was overwhelming ;)

I purposefully bought a T-shirt with a crown painted on it and wore it today. Only later did I realize the crown actually depicted ‘the imperial crown of India’! The crown had heads turning :P.

Excuse me for comparing seeing these jewels to the Nizam’s jewellery I had seen about 3-4 months back in Hyderabad [wonderful trip with friends… wish times just come back!]. For record, the Nizam’s jewels were aaammmaaazzzzzzziiinnnggggggggggggggggggggg! I have never fallen in love with anything like ‘Blue Sapphires’ since then. All the jewellery exhibited in Hyd was exclusive and extremely eye-catching. I still remember, instead of seeing the entire Salarjung Museum, we unanimously chose to get blinded by the glitter ;). There was this ‘Jacob’s diamond’ which really caught everyone’s attention. It was worth 400 crores or so… and just to amaze any reader – it had been used as a paperweight once.
[We had this greedy joke – gimme all the moolah worth Jacob’s diamond, and I am ready to be a human paperweight :P]

Back to TOL. The camera was a bit unhappy, as it wasn’t allowed to shine in front of any of the jewels :(. But it made sure to capture the surroundings. At a point I got so tired walking, that I sat down on a bench and nibbled some stuff I had carried. I am this crazy soul who had one samosa early in during at Stratford and since then was not even feeling the urge to eat anything. Hadn’t I nibbled on to something now, returning to Brentwood would have been a distant dream :-S. I just finished eating and again started walking to discover the place around. It’s strange but I was enjoying so much seeing the surroundings. I have always liked Brit things I guess … the Fort area in Mumbai is one of my fav places too!

Ok so now its 5:30pm and the guards are asking all the visitors to leave the premises. I was a bit sad, as I couldn’t see the White tower. All I saw was the Bloody Tower, the Crown Jewels, the chapel, change of guard and a bit here-and-there. It’s only human to want more ;).

I walked out of TOL towards the Tower Bridge. A cup of tea was all I was looking for and successfully managed to grab it before the café would close for the day. One thing, which really amazed me, was that they just close the outlets and all by 6:00pm… nothing like “let’s earn more”, at least at tourist spots!

After climbing few stairs that take you to Tower Bridge, I just walked at leisure. The walk was to see the things around, especially the bridge construction and all. The sun set made the surroundings more pleasant… quite romantic too ;;). I walked all the way to London Bridge station. On the way, there were these wonderful tall structures – Hilton hotel deserves a mention :).

Never ever did I imagine walking all by myself on a foreign land and today I did that for the entire day. It surprised me too considering how able my ‘sense of direction’ is! Guess keenness to explore the scenic beauty just overtook any inhibitions that were somewhere rooted in my mind. Good for me!

I took the tube train back to Stratford. From Stratford, I took normal train to Brentwood. The day was over, but the dreams had just blossomed. Which dreams… dreams of being able to travel to as many beautiful places as possible in this small life :). Lord, hope you are reading this too :)

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When asked by my family, friends, dear ones as to how I felt during this short visit…I have only this to say:
1. It was really a good learning experience
2. London is picturesque… [It has its share of problems, but still it’s the way they describe in the story books ;;) ]


~~~~~~

“Would you like to come back?” Mr. A.R. from Ella Cabs asked me as the cab stopped at Heathrow airport. Call it coincidence; he drove me back to the airport from Brentwood. My immediate answer to this question was “not really very keen to come back soon but wouldn’t mind coming in some due time”.

He asked whether I didn’t like the place [maybe he was expecting a ‘Yes, why not’ as a reply.]. I had no particular answer to give. I was just not thinking much then. Matter of fact, being from South Africa, having come to UK to earn money for the family, life had given quite bitter experiences to A.R. in 4 years itself. He also had an embroidery business. He was sour towards the very place that supported his clan back home. This ignited a line of thought.

~~~~~~

Now I have successfully undergone the entire ‘process’ of getting through the airport norms and ‘duty free’ awaits me :). Believe me … the ‘duty free’ is wow!!! Swarovski
And Harrods shops were really good. At least I am seeing what all I can never buy :P. Will meet you back in India :). Cheers!!!

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Written especially for you… this is the gist of what all I did. When we meet dear, there are more stories to tell ;). Miss you always!!! Take care!!!