SimplyCVR

All in the game – part X

2007-02-05T08:30:00.001+05:30

As Anil consoled Puja, he looked up to Lakshmi and said.

“Hello madam!! I never liked you right from the minute I saw you. Now that we are three and you are one you better surrender. Who knows, you might even get a better deal if you turn into an approver.”

“You fool, you think I am alone in this ship??? Do you have any idea how many members of our group have mingled in the crowd?? We have our men in all steps of the social ladder. Do you think your government can jail us?? We have grown beyond governments. In fact governments from all around the world come begging to us to carry out assassinations and other large-scale destruction operations. Terrorist organizations, political parties, religious institutions and all sorts of other social groups are contacting us to carry out their dirty work. Even the plan to bomb this ship is to create large-scale casualties and to strain the relationship between India and her neighbours. And also what do you mean by saying that you are three and I am one??I have just a puny little boy and a sissy girl in front of me” replied Lakshmi.

“I think you forgot Imran, Imran is no Arnold but he can sure handle a lady when he knows that his friends need his help.” Responded Anil with a proud tone.

On hearing this Lakshmi started laughing uncontrollably and sat on the bed. After controlling her laughter she said” will he help you?? You think he will help??? Let me flash you with breaking news buddy. Your friend Imran is a very smart man. He demanded to meet the captain the day you were interrogated and after recognizing the opportunity, decided to join with us. The plan was to plant the bomb with Imran helping me by keeping you pesky out of my way. Once the bomb is planted we shall lose you kids in the dancing floor and fly off in the chopper leaving you in dust.”

Anil couldn’t believe his ears. “Imran would never do anything of that sort, would you Imran??” so saying he turned towards Imran.

Imran stood without any expression in his face. “I am afraid whatever she was saying is true. I met the captain and had a long chat with him on that day. It was only when I realized the enormity of their operations I decided to join them.”

Anil still couldn’t believe it.“What am I hearing!!! What crap is this?? Don’t you see that these are the bad guys?? How can you decide to live a deceitful life deciding not to return to the real world??? How can you be so stupid as to choose the life of a criminal?? How can you do this Imran?”

Imran replied to him calmly”You think the world out there is completely true, devoid of any injustice?? Morality is nothing but lack of opportunity. There is not one person in the world who wouldn’t dare to hurt others if he is assured that he can get away with it. Everyone is clinging on to the false mask of righteousness because they don’t have the guts to follow their hearts. Instead they roam around professing stupid stories of right and wrong while waiting for a chance to cheat others. I do not want to lead such a hypocritical life. In reality there is no such thing as right or wrong. One man’s right is another man’s wrong. At the end of the day its every man for himself and it doesn’t matter how it comes as long it keeps coming!!”

As he was saying this, a loud siren started to sound and a revolving red light in the cabin started glowing. Imran looked around with concern as he exclaimed ”Oh my god!! It’s the fire alarm”.

He opened the door and looked out into the pathway. Then he turned inside the room and said, “ You guys wait here, I will get some info and be back “ so saying he stepped outside and started towards the bridge.

Anil exclaimed “Imran“ and opened the door to see which direction Imran had gone.

He felt a sharp pain at the back of his head and he pressed his palm on his head to realize there was blood oozing out of it. There was a loud scream from Puja and as He turned back,he could see that Lakshmi was holding the heavy wireless equipment in her hand with which she had hit Anil. He fell unconscious.

When Anil woke up he could see Imran holding a glass with water in his hand. The fire siren had become louder and he could see confusion all around. People were running all over the place with a life jacket. He could figure out that everyone was running to the observation deck to escape through the life boat.

.”Anil !! are you alright???” Imran enquired.

“Imran!! Imran ….you have joined the mafia?? Will you let me be killed??? Am I not your friend??” Anil muttered as he was still reeling in pain

“Come On Anil!! You know I wont do such a thing. I was just playing along with those guys to know their plans and to take stock of the situation. I couldn’t tell you because we were monitored all the while and whatever we spoke was being recorded. Now lets go”

“Where is Lakshmi?? What happened to Puja”

“As soon as I ran out of the cabin I was able to collect the information that a fire had started in one of the empty cabins and had spread rapidly as it was unnoticed. People were already rushing towards the life boat. So I came back to help you guys. I saw Puja running towards me. She said that Lakshmi had made you unconscious by hitting you with her wireless unit and had run away. Puja tried to wake you up. When that was not possible she came running in search of me. As the first of the life boats were taking only women and children,I got her seated in a life boat which set sail away from this ship. Hurry up the fire is spreading very rapidly”

Anil staggered to his legs and started to run with the crowd. By this time the fire had started taking its toll and the ship was beginning to sink very very slowly. Also the heat from the fire was getting unbearable. Anil was rushing with Imran holding him to keep him from falling down.

As they reached the stairs to climb up to the Observation deck, there was a huge crowd blocking the stairs. Both men joined the crowd and started pushing into the crowd to climb upto the observation deck where the lifeboats were being lowered. Soon a huge crowd assembled behind them and there were shouts, pleads, threats and screams all around them. People were falling down and were getting stamped over by the crazy mob, which was trying to save itself from the unbearable heat of the fire. Soon Imran and Anil got separated as they got pulled into the crowd by the uncontrollable force of the crowd’s frenzy. As Anil climbed up the stairs along with the crowd he started looking out for

Imran, but he was nowhere to be seen. The crowd was drifting him through the steps.

Soon he reached the observation deck and there was a full pitch battle between men as they tried to find a place in the lifeboats. One of the lifeboats got lowered with half the seats empty due to the confusion and urgency displayed by one of the men in the boat. Soon there was a major tussle between the men near the boat, which got lowered and the ones near the boat, which was to be lowered. As Anil was pushed to the boat he tried to stand still and look behind for Imran. All he could see was lot of angry faces but not Imran. As he was trying to locate Imran he fell into the lifeboat as the crowd pushed him from behind. Before he could recover half a dozen men jumped in to the boat. As he recovered he could see a 7-year-old kid crying helplessly behind him. He looked up to see the kid’s dad trying to make way and jump into the boat. But before he could do that the boat started going down. The kid started crying loudly and stood up and raised his hands, as he wanted to get out of the boat.

After realizing that there was no way by which he could get into the boat , the kid’s dad started reassuring the kid.

“Munnu beta!! Don’t worry; I shall be coming in the next boat. Don’t cry. You should take care of your sister and mom. The uncle near you would help you.”

Suddenly his eyes shifted towards Anil.”Sir,I beg you, please please please take care of my son. I will give you any amount of money you want, on second thoughts “he hurriedly fetched his wallets and threw bank notes into the boat. “Take this take this, please please help my son, I beg you”

But by the time the boat had been lowered to a fair distance and none of the notes reached the boat. Instead they flew off and fell into the sea beneath. Anil put his arms around the kid’s shoulder to reassure him. The boat touched down onto the sea with a thud. Anil looked up at the ship. He could neither see the kid’s dad nor Imran. The fire had started engulfing the majority of the ship.

The army helicopter rescued anil and the kid, after they were marooned in the sea for close to five hours.

To be continued…………………..

All in the Game – part IX

2007-02-05T08:29:00.001+05:30

“Virgin Princess” was the perfect destination for celebrities and other distinguished members of the affluent section of the society who want to take a break from their mundane life for a few days. It offered one most luxurious services in the industry and was known to be the most secretive of them all. All accommodations were outside cabins with full picture windows and private balconies. The staffs were trained to respect the privacy and leave their highfi visitors alone while they basked in the various luxuries the cruise had to offer. The ship even had a helipad enabling their customers to drop in through helicopters so that they can join the cruise in the middle.

When the helicopter carrying Imran and others landed on the ship the four of them got down and was escorted to suites with all respect and élan. The guys had a one standard cabin booked for them and the girls occupied another. Both of their cabins were in the promenade deck. Puja was the most excited of all four to be in the cruise. No sooner she got into the cabin she started making plans by looking at the schedule that was given to her by the staff. But Lakshmi did not seem to share the excitement.

“Whats the problem Lakshmi?? You are not looking very happy” Puja enquired.

“The ship is a lot closer to the shore than I thought,it will reach Chennai sooner than I thought” Lakshmi replied.

“But that’s a good thing isn’t it??” Puja asked in a doubtful tone.

“Yeah but that leaves me with very little time to finish ……my..work” Lakshmi bit her lips.

“Lakshmi ! can I ask you a favour???’

For which Lakshmi turned to her and nodded her head as if asking “what?”

“Can I please make a call my parents??? They would be worried a lot!! If I could just tell them that I am safe they will feel a lot better. Wouldn’t it be nice if I can just tell them that I will be back in Chennai in a few more days?”

Lakshmi came towards Puja.and gently hugged her ”Puja!! I understand how you feel, but you should understand that contacting your parents at this juncture should ruin the whole thing. That’s why I gave clear instructions to all three of you not to make any contact with anyone. Our organization is very powerful one and captain is a very angry man. If he realizes that you made any attempt to compromise our secrecy he will go mad. Just be patient for some more time. I have come here with the sole intention of getting you back to your place through the right channel. Till then just enjoy the cruise, have fun and be a good girl and soon you shall be back with your parents.”

Puja nodded at her lightly and with a wry smile said “ok”.

“That’s my girl” Lakshmi patted on her cheek and continued” Now take good rest and look around the ship with your friends, I have got some work to do”

“Alright” said Puja as she got up from the bed.

The guys got into their room and got into casual clothing provided to them. After that Anil reclined to the bed and said.

“Wow!!! What a life!!! There was a time when I thought there was not much happening in my life and now the only thing I want is some peace and quiet”

“Peace and quiet or happenings at sight shall be at your control, if only you can hold your mind tight” replied Iman.

“Ha ha!! Easier said than done man!!!” suddenly he got up and said.”hey tell you what ?I have got my doubts about this ‘Secret organization’”.He drew a virtual quotation marks as he spelt out the words “Secret Organization”.

Imran put his finger to his lips and then spelt out the sentence “we could be bugged” without making any sound.

Then he remarked ”Lets stop worrying about anything for a while, I am sick of problems and am gonna live it up in this luxury cruise when I get the chance. God knows if and when I would get another one.”

“You got that right man, hey let me check out on Puja” so saying he called on the operator and got himself connected to Puja’s cabin. After a bit of a chat he replaced the receiver “It seems Lakshmi has got some work to do, but Puja will be coming. Let’s rock!!” so saying he started walking out swaying like a samba dancer!!

They went to Puja’s room where they were joined by Puja. She was aptly dressed for the occasion and the three went up and down the various decks checking out the various facilities available in the ship. They roamed around before settling down at the auditorium which had acrobatic show from renowned circus artists. Then they had a sumptuous dinner and then lost themselves in the dance floor which was in the observation deck. After that they indulged in various games with the fellow passengers before returning to the cabin at around 1.47am.

Puja knocked at the door and waited for Lakshmi to open. It took Lakshmi a long time to open the door. She apologized for the delay and said she was busy with some work. Puja was too tired to enquire she went straight to bed and soon fell asleep.

The next morning Lakshmi was doing something with some machine setup. She was wearing a huge headphone and was having a having a rectangular microphone in her hand.

“This is Lakshmi speaking,do you copy? Over”

There was some response from the other end.

“Captain??captain this is Lakshmi”

“Puja?? She is sleeping, she slept very late yesterday. I don’t think she will wake up anytime sooner. Also this is an emergency, so I got no choice. over”

“The mission needs to be aborted. I repeat, the mission needs to be aborted. Over”

“There is a lot lesser time than I had estimated and the security is too tight. I don’t have enough time to plant the bomb. I couldn’t even choose the right spot.”

“what do you mean I got no choice??”

“I don’t care what you will do with these kids! I need an immediate pick up through the chopper”

“you cant just bark at me like that God damn it!! The mission needs to be aborted and that’s it!!!there simply isn’t enough time.I don’t give a damn about what you will do with them!! You can just shoot them off and have them thrown them to the sharks for all I care”

So saying she turned back to check out whether Puja was still sleeping.

To her horror, she could see that Puja was staring at her in disbelief.

“Damn!!! The girl is awake! I will contact you later”

So saying Lakshmi slammed the microphone on to the holder.

“I can’t believe this!! How can you do this to us??” Puja demanded.

Just then there was a ring from the doorbell. Before Lakshmi could respond Puja ran up to the door and opened it. Anil and Imran were standing outside and they entered with Anil exclaiming “Surprise!!!”

Puja hid herself behind the guys as Lakshmi tried to reach out to her.

“Anil this lady is not our friend. She has been planning to plant a bomb in this ship. Now the plan cannot be carried out, she wants to kill us and escape from the ship”

“Hey hey, cool down . whats going on here?? I always knew something was fishy with this whole thing.don’t worry now that we are here, nothing bad will happen.”

Anil was visibly shaken by the sudden revelations.

But Imran was not.

To be continued…………..

All in the Game – part VIII

2007-02-05T08:27:00.000+05:30

The trio was locked in a small room measuring approximately 10x8. It looked like some kind of storeroom, which was sparsely used. There was dim light emanating out of a bulb, which looked like it would run out of brightness any moment.

“Where the hell are we??? Who are these people??”Anil was the first to speak out.

“Be careful,this place could be bugged” replied Imran in a low voice as he looked around carefully.

“The only bugs that can be present in this room can be roaches and anyway I don’t give a damn! I hate these ropes!!” so saying he tried to reach out for the ropes that were being tied to his hand the back. After trying unsuccessfully he turned over to Imran and said”hey Imran !! can you please bite these off my hands“

“I wonder why did they leave us tied up knowing fully well we can bite it off us in minutes” remarked Imran as he moved towards Anil.

Just then there was the sound of men approaching the room. After a while the door was opened and three men came into the room.

They untied the rope off the hands and took them to three separate rooms. There they were separately questioned for hours. In the end they were locked up in three separate rooms with a bed.

They were given food after which all three of them slept for a night of peaceful sleep.

The next morning the three were taken to the captain again. This time he looked a lot relaxed than they had seen him before.

“Hope you had a good night’s sleep kids” greeted the captain.

“We are not kids” Anil replied in a low voice which was not audible to anyone and then he continued to say” Oh yes sir, thank you so much. In fact the stupid interrogation had exhausted us enough to ensure a sound sleep, thank you”

“ha ha ha!!” the captain started laughing loudly and then said “ you have got a very good sense of humour kid!! I like it!!”

Anil responded with a smile with fakeness written all over it.

“Ok listen up!! I have got a very important thing to tell you. We have checked out and have found out that you guys are not spies!! But we can’t just let you go or take you to the authorities as that will compromise our secret identity”

The subordinate slowly nodded is head in approval and the captain continued.

“But we have thought of an idea to get you back to your place. We will take you to the star cruise “Virgin princess” under the command of Lieutenant Lakshmi where you will await orders from her and shall be told the future course of action. We have made arrangements to get you to the proper authorities, who shall get you back to your homes without involving us anywhere. In return we expect you to forget all about us and this place and do not mention this to anyone for the rest of your lives, even to your spouses. Any situation that could compromise our identity shall be dealt severely.”

“You mean we can get back to our homes??wow!!!!!!!!!great great!!! I promise I would never tell this to anyone. Not even to my mom!!! You can count on my word“ Anil was visibly very excited as he said this.

The captain looked at him as if he was looking at a Neanderthal and continued “let me have the pleasure of introducing lieutenant Lakshmi” so saying he signaled to one of the guards. The guard went out and retuned with a lady in her mid thirties. She was a fairly strong woman with above average height and was wearing khakis. Her hair was cut short like that of a man and the lack of excess fat indicted that she exercised daily. One would be very careful while dealing with her as her mannerism was such that it looked as if she was always on the lookout for punishing people.

“Ha there you are !! This is Lakshmi! Lakshmi meet the kids I was talking about” the captain introduced as he pointed the trio with his open left palm.

Lakshmi who was chewing a gum scanned them from top to bottom and replied “good” as she took her nonchalant sight away from them.

“Alright kids!! You can go now .The guards will help you get ready!! “ The captain said in a dismissive tone.

Anil, Imran and Puja followed the guard with Anil turning back to have a one last look at Lakshmi before leaving the room.

After making sure that they have left the room,Lakshmi thundered.”I asked for Decoys, not a bunch of puppies and what’s with this lieutenant thing anyway!!”

The captain who sounded authoritative in front of the trio sounded more like a tamed cat in front of Lakshmi.

“Now Lakshmi,you should understand this is the best we could find . These kids would do just fine for our requirement”

“We are running a mafia, not a nursery and I need men who can distract the attention away from me, not a bunch pesky kids who would distract me from my work”

“Its just for a short time, isn’t it?? I have all confidence in your abilities. All you have to do is to let them roam around the cruise so that they don’t disturb you in your work ,plant the bomb, lure the kids into attending the party ,give them a slip and get back here with our man . If everything goes according to our plan the bomb will go off killing hundreds along with these kids and we get our remaining amount. Its that simple. You should know how handy it is to have a scapegoat around. Remember what happened during our “Pattaya*” operation??anyway we shall be monitoring them all the while so that we will know if they try to act smart”

Lakshmi seemed to be convinced by the explanation as she acknowledged with a thoughtful nod.”But I swear I shall just shoot these pests off my back if they turn out to be nuisance” so saying she got up from her chair.”Alright ,got to go now,got some preparations to do“.

“Ok!!! All the very best. I hope you shall finish this mission with the same efficiency as you have completed our other missions.” The Captain remarked on a parting note.

When the trio returned to their respective rooms, they were asked to get ready within an hour.

They found a new set of clothes and other accessories on the bed. They washed themselves and wore the new clothes. Soon they were taken away through the thick jungle to a far away place, which they realized as a helipad as they neared it.

It was situated very close to the ocean. There was a helicopter ready to climb up in the air with its blades rotating. Lakshmi was already seated inside. As soon as the three of them entered in it the chopper took off and soon it was crawling over the vast Bay of Bengal.

Imran pushed himself tight to the seat and as Anil was watching it with a smirk Puja enquired “Lakshmi where exactly are we going??”

Lakshmi who was thoughtfully looking into the sea turned her head with a jerk and said ”huh???”

“I said where exactly are we going?”

“We are going to the star cruise “Virgin princess” replied Lakshmi.

“”Virgin Princess”!! hmm tell you what? I like the name. So what “orders” can we expected from you once we reach there??” Anil interrupted with a lighter tone.

“Orders?? Just eat,drink have fun and then have a peaceful rest!!” Lakshmi replied slowing down as she uttered the last words.

Even though Imran had his eyes closed, his lips let out an involuntary smile as he heard this. But nobody noticed it and the chopper got lost in the blue sky as it tore into the horizon.

To be continued…….

*- a tourist spot in Thailand.

All in the Game – part VII

2007-02-05T08:23:00.000+05:30

Imran was too engrossed in pain to reply. He badly wanted to get his foot out of the trap mechanism. The more he tried the more difficult it looked. After a while Anil gave up with an expression of incompetence. Then Imran stopped and started looking around.

“Anil!!! Bring that broken branch to me na please” Imran said.

Anil ran towards the dry piece of wood and brought it to Imran.

Imran then tried to force open the trap by leveraging the wood in between. After what looked like moment of success the wood broke with a snap. The shoulders drooped.

Just then they could hear someone approaching. Puja looked frightened. The last thing she wanted was getting stuck with a bunch of poachers. She quickly ran and hid herself behind Anil. Three men emerged from the wilderness. All three of them were wearing army camouflage uniforms and were carrying guns. They looked totally surprised after seeing the three. Perhaps they were expecting to see some wild animal or some tribes stuck in the trap. Anil was the first to respond.

“Hi!! We are from Chennai, India!! Our plane was hijacked and then had crashed!! Now we are stuck in this jungle can you please help us free my friend from this trap.” he blurted as he waved his hand.

The three of them looked at themselves with a lot of questions in their eyes.

“Hum Museebat mein hain, please hamari help keejiye na*!” Puja spoke out in a pleading tone

One of them who looked like a leader signaled something through his eyes for which one of the others went ahead to relieve Imran. The leader barked out,”You guys stay where you are”. Anil and Puja were taken aback as the third guy pointed the gun at them.

Soon the trained hands of the man in the army uniform relieved Imran and then he stood up with his hands raised.

“You follow him”the leader commanded Puja and then he turned to Anil and said” you follow him” as he pointed Imran.

Soon they were blindfolded and were given sticks which they had to hold to follow the uniformed men.

After some 15-20 mins of walking the three could feel that they were ushered into a room. They were asked to sit down on the floor and their hands were tied to their back. Since they were not sure whether they were alone, they didn’t speak anything.

After a while they were asked to follow and were taken to some other room, where the blindfold was removed from all of them and their hands were freed.

All three of them rubbed their eyes and looked around to scan the room. It looked like an office of some kind. They were standing in front of a table. On the other side were two men.

One was a hard and stubborn looking man in his late fifties. One could see the cruelty of war in his face and the pain of loss in his eyes. He had a fairly thick moustache and very well defined eyebrows. The lips looked like it had never stretched for a smile for centuries. The eyes were thoroughly scanning and was constantly analyzing and judging the subjects in front of him. He was seated erect and there was the pride of success in his chest, which looked muscular and strong despite being hidden by a shirt and an expensive suit.

The second man who was standing to his right had softer features. He looked like he had just entered his fifties. His nose was a little blunt and also the hair on his face wasn’t very thick. He was wearing glasses through which two careful eyes peered on the three subjects standing in front of them. He was wearing a suit which was lighter in contrast and he looked a lot leaner. There was a constant smile in his face which was not very easily noticeable. It was easy to figure out that the man who was seated was the captain and the one who was standing was the subordinate.

“Sorry for the welcoming party kids! But we are not so used to visitors” the captain started without any smile in his lips.

“We are not kids!!! And I demand to know why the hell were we held as captives.what is this place??” Anil replied with childish looking anger.

There was cold stare from the captain, which took the breath away from Anil for a while. The smile from the sub ordinate grew a wee bit wider. After controlling his anger the captain continued ”You shouldn’t get so angry at such a young age kid!! This can lead into the kind of trouble, which you can’t even imagine.” He said that scornfully indicating fully well that it was a direct warning.” Are you aware that you have strayed into the classified territory of a top-secret organization working under the government of India and are liable to be kept under detention without trial? We have reason to believe that you people are spies and we are well within our rights to search and interrogate you in the best interests of the nation.”

Puja was terrified.”No no !! we are not spies. These guys were on a business trip to England and I was going to my uncle’s home in London. First there was a hijack attempt and then the plane crash and then Anil got ill and then we were with the Jarawas and after that Imran got stuck in a deer trap” Puja was screaming as if she had seen ghost. Her words were incoherent and were involuntary expressions of her fear.

The captain raised his eyebrow and looked at his subordinate with disbelief.

“You are the only survivors of a plane crash?? And you were captured by the Jarawas and came out alive??? Why don’t you kids atleast think of a credible story??” the captain’s voice was less tense now.

“No!!! We never said we are only survivors ,there could have been more and also Jarawas didn’t capture us they helped us and even nursed me back to good health as I was sick.”Anil retorted and then he muttered”we are not kids” which was barely audible.

“I have never heard of the Jarawas helping any mainlanders and you said you guys were on a business trip isn’t it??? What kinda trip was that??”the captain asked.

“We are software professionals working in one of the topmost IT companies in India. We were operating out their development center in Chennai for our London based client. We had to take up this urgent assignment due to …..er……some emergencies” Anil replied.

The captain’s expression was unchanged as he stared at them for a while .Then he signaled with a brief movement with the right hand to take them away.

The threesome had their hands tied to their backs and they were taken away, to be locked up again. This time they were not blindfolded.

After they were gone the captain looked like he was deeply engrossed in some thinking.

After a while, the subordinate cleared his throat and spoke in a clear low voice.”Virgin princess???”

“Bingo” said the captain with an uncharacteristic smile.

“Perfect!!” replied the subordinate as he reciprocated with a bigger smile.

To be continued…………….

All in the Game – part VI

2007-02-05T08:22:00.000+05:30

After a couple of hours she woke up and the trio started roaming across the forest in search of food. Anil and Puja were talking all through and Imran kept looking back to make sure they were never too far from the wreckage but after a while the smoke from the wreckage became almost non-existent ruling out the possibility of having the wreckage site as a reference point. After quite a bit of effort Imran was able to scoop out fish from the river but he then realized they wouldn’t be able to heat the fish, as they didn’t know how to make fire. Both the men were non-smokers, so they didn’t have a lighter or a match box with them. Anil came to know that Puja had just finished her college education and was traveling to her uncle’s place for the holidays in that fateful plane. She had a miraculous escape and had roamed around a bit in the darkness before being spotted by Anil and Imran.

Soon it was afternoon and the three of them felt very tired and hungry due to the constant walk. Suddenly Anil fell down as he was walking. Imran ran upto him and took him in his arms.

“Anil all you alright??” he enquired.

As he touched Anil he realized that Anil was having very high fever. Imran was beginning to get really worried. He knew that without any outside help saving Anil would be impossible.

When Anil woke up he felt fairly tired and weak. He could feel the warmth of fever in himself. He slowly opened his eyes and soon he caught the skull of wild boar staring at him! It was hung on the wall. He slowly turned his head and he could see a fireplace nearby and three women seated around it. It looked like they were cooking something!!! They were dark skinned and were naked except for the jewel around their neck.

Their hair was sooty black. It was in small rings and was distributed evenly over the head, and appeared to take the form of tuffs. The mouth was large, the palate was hard and slightly arched and the lips well formed. The hands and feet were small and well made. The ears were well shaped and the eyes were dark to very dark brown, bright, liquid and clear but prominent. The teeth were white, good and free from disease.

They had straps hung on their heads to carry their babies. He got up with a jerk. The women turned back at the sound and started smiling widely. One of them had a designer chain around her neck. It didn’t take long for Anil to figure out that it was Puja’s chain. Oh my God!!! Are they “cooking” Puja??

One of them said something in a totally non-understandable language. He wasn’t sure whether she said something or asked something!!

He muttered”I……..Iammmmmmmmmmmm…………..thankyou” as an acknowledgement and grinned with all his teeth showing.

He looked around to find that he was in some kind of community dwelling. He could soon see quite a bit of fireplaces all over the hut which was spread to some 50-60 square feet. There were quite a few people with some cooking raw meat and tuber in the fire. Then He saw Puja running towards him from one of the groups. She was wearing a few of the tribal jewellery. He realized that she must have got it as an “exchange offer”.He could also see that her wrist watch was also missing!!!! Anyway the very sight of her was reassuring.

“You feeling ok??” she asked.

“Iam .Iam “ he looked around and said” fine!! Where the hell are we??”

“we are in Andaman,these are the Jarawas,one of the indigenous tribals of andaman. I have read about them in books”

“yeah ..I have heard too.” He looked around suspiciously and continued ”Are you sure they are not gonna eat us alive!!”

“Shut up Anil that’s a load of crap. There is no record of such custom among these people. They sure are hostile towards strangers, but surprisingly they have helped us”

“What exactly happened??”

“Soon after you fainted , myself and Imran got worried a lot. Imran carried you for a while as we continued our food search, but even he was very tired and hungry so we just sat down under a tree.That’s when one of the Jarawa hunting parties spotted us. For a minute I was terrified as they pointed their bow and arrows at us and were about to shoot at us. But they were able to see that you were sick and also we ourselves didn’t look all that dangerous so they hesitated a bit. After that Imran somehow convinced that we are harmless and sought their help. After a bit of deliberation, the hunting team brought us here, but they had to do a lot of explaining to do before we were admitted in. This has never happened before Anil, I have never heard of the tribals helping the mainland Indians before. I think we are very lucky.”

“Hmmmmm” Anil was not fully convinced “are you sure they are not stuffing us ? getting us ready for some human sacrifice or something??”

“Anil!!!!”

“Ok Ok!!! Where is Imran”

“Imran?”Puja looked outside the hut for while and then exclaimed”there he is!!”

Anil turned around to see Imran returning with a few other Jarawan men. One of them had a wild pig on his shoulder while the other one had what looked like a turtle fish. One of them remarked something to Imran with a lot of laughter for which Imran responded with a big nod of head and a confused smile.

Then he came to where Anil was seated.

“hey man!!!!! So you have become a hunter now??”Anil enquired!!

“Hunter or the hunted, roles can change, but the hunt is always on” Imran replied with his usual style.

“You got that right buddy! and really really nice to see the old philosophical Imran back!!” Anil replied.

For the next few days Anil had a chance to bask in tribal “hospital”ity as he was nursed back to health by the love and support of the tribals and not to mention, the constant care of his friends. The Jarawans seemed to have taken a special liking for Anil with the children curiously watching him all the time and laughing out loud after sheepishly whispering something to themselves. He also got to know a lot about the Jarawan rituals and culture and food habits.

He watched the traditional dance , which went on all through the night around the fire with participation from one and all. He enjoyed the warmth of the fire as he lazily watched the monotonous movements with rhythmic drumming of the feet on a specially rounding board.

After a few days Anil was back to his health and soon it was time to leave. Imran received instructions from the tribal chief about the direction to take to head back to civilization. Imran couldn’t understand a thing!! The tribals bade a tearful farewell with some of them taking the hand of Imran and blowing into it exchanging sentences of conventional farewell.

The trio walked silently for quite a bit of time lead by Imran. Then suddenly out of nowhere Anil broke the silence.

“So now what??”

“Do not worry, I have got clear instructions from the chief. He kept repeating about a “big fat snake” which I guess should be some road or a high way. I think that marks the end of their territoty and aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah”

Suddenly Imran fell down. Anil and Puja ran towards him and found out that Imran’s foot was stuck in the deer trap, which was neatly hidden beneath the grass.

“Oh my God!! Are you alright??” exclaimed Puja.

“Iam ok , if I could just get this damn thing off my foot!!!” replied Imran as he tried to bear the pain.

“Look at the brighter side” said Anil as he tried to set Imran free,”if there is a trap here,then it means whoever set this trap shall come back to check it out!! , and that could be our straight ticket to mainland”

For some reason Puja didn’t seem to like the idea. But nobody noticed it!

To be continued…….

All in the Game – part V

2007-02-05T08:20:00.001+05:30

When Anil came back to his senses, he was lying on his back near a small river. There was peace and serenity all around and he could feel that there would be daybreak very soon. Although there was no bright light, it was lot less dark and he could see the things around, albeit everything looked hazy. He rose from his position and sat. He could see that he was in a forest of some kind. There were primarily a lot of shrubs with quite a few trees thrown around randomly. A river was flowing peacefully nearby and his view was restricted to a few tens of meters due to the density of vegetation around him.

As he was scouting the landscape with his eyes he could see a dark figure moving towards him. It was Imran.

Suddenly all the happenings of the previous day flashed before him. The onsite offer, his preparations, the take off, the hijack and finally horrific crash. He could feel his body shivering involuntarily as his mind went through the memories of the crash. By the time Imran had reached closer.

“Imran!!!!!! My God !! Are you alright???? Where…What……What happened man??”

For which Imran turned towards Anil. Anil couldn’t note the expression in his face due to darkness but he was sure that Imran hadn’t lost his composure.

“I am not entirely sure. I can only make an educated guess based what I had pieced together.” Said Imran.

“God!!!!!!!! Cut the crap Imran!! You are not talking to your boss. Just tell me what happened” replied Anil.

“Alright listen. You must be quite clear upto the point when the plane was hijacked. I think there must have been some attempt to overpower the hijackers in the business class or by the pilots in the cockpit. That’s when you felt as if the plane had caught in turbulence. As the struggle went on the guy from our economy class went to support his comrades. I think there must have been bigger struggle then which ended with a bullet being fired which could have broken the window glass.

“Due to this or some other reason the airframe must have been compromised due to which the plane descended .After all, sonny!!! Whatever goes up! must come down. Then there was boom!” so saying he clapped his hands as if he was playing cymbals!

“How are we here???what happened to the others?”Anil was too surprised.

“As the plane started its descent the airframe was getting more and more damaged as more and more air got sucked out of the plane. Any non rigid portion, like the doors were dislocated. This led to lot of holes in the plane. The ones who had not fastened their seat belts were thrown out of the plane through these holes and fell to death into this thick forest. We were saved as we were clutching the armrests like we were clinging for our dear lives”

“My god”, Anil closed his eyes as he tried to imagine the horrific scene.

Imran continued.

“but soon you became unconscious and your grasp on to the armrest weakened. And you started falling. I tried to catch and while doing that I lost my hold on the armrest as well. After being juggled into the plane we were thrown out of the plane. But by then the plane had almost reached the ground and we fell into a river. Any fall into water with such high speed will be like hitting into concrete. But the strong currents transported us for a while before we reached this calm part of the river. The plane touched down and was dragged on to the ground for a few meters before it blew into a huge ball of fire over there!!!!!! “

Imran pointed his finger onto a direction where Anil could see a fair amount of smoke rising up in a distance.

“Man!!!!!!! I cant believe it. Whatever you are saying is like its straight from a kollywood* or tollywood* movie” remarked Anil.

“agreed! all this sounds too flashy and dramatic but just because they sound that way doesn’t mean that it cannot happen” Imran replied!!!

“Hmm we are quite a long way away from the wreckage , isn’t it??” Anil asked with doubt ”how are we ever gonna reach there?”

“You can either swim upstream against the heavy current in this river or you can walk through this thick jungle by somehow finding your way through the trees and tons and tons of shrubs”

“oh my God!!!!!!!!!!! Are we going to die here??????????? I always knew this onsite offer shall be tough but I never prepared for this”

“Shut up!! I hate it when people crib!! Look at the beautiful sunrise.”he was pointing to the orangish pattern in the sky on top of distant hills.

“hey idiot , is that the only thing you can think of??? How will we get back , what are we going to eat?? Who knows where we are!! May be there will be wild animals here or even cannibals”

As he was speaking they could hear some ruffling sound nearby!!

Imran instantly became attentive and asked Anil to keep quiet by pressing his finger on to his lips.

Anil became silent and got behind Imran. As both of them were looking around for a clue, Imran turned to Anil and said in a low voice”Anil ,can you please walk upto the bush and see whether there is anything behind it?”

Upon this Anil was scared to his limits but he didn’t want to show it ”wh..whaat…what??? me?? Mme mmmme?? Why ..i mean.yeah sure ………..why not????he he” so saying he started to walk slowly toward the bush.

But before Anil could even reach the place he could hear a sudden sound of leaves rubbing against each other and then a huge scream.

He turned back to see Imran near another bush. He ran to the spot and saw Imran looking behind the bush with disbelief and a bit of guilt. There was a girl fainted behind the bush.

“Anil, could you please bring in some water??”

Anil ran upto the river and tried to scoop some water in his palms and bring it to Imran but the water drained off as he walked. He soon found a huge leaf nearby and brought some water in it to Imran.

“Think she must be one of survivors of the crash. I must have scared her. Poor thing, she already must have been confused.” So saying he sprinkled some water on to her face.

The girl sat up with a jerk as she regained her consciousness.

“Do not be afraid. My name is Imran and this is Anil. We are the survivors of the plane crash” so saying he pointed to the direction of the wreckage.

“My name is ……. My name is Puja.I………..I……….” she was struggling a breathe.

“Cool down and relax we can kinda figure out what happened and iam fairly sure that it must be the same as what we went through!!” so saying he smiled assuringly.

Puja smiled back palely but she looked very tired and closed her eyes.

Both guys decided to leave her alone for a while.

Imran looked around the forest. He had no clue what to do next!
To be continued………

All in the game – part IV

2007-02-05T08:10:00.001+05:30

Anil couldn’t believe his ears. Plane hijack with a bunch of girls???

As if to reflect his views, he could hear guffaw from few seats around him.

“Yo man!!! That’s so funny!! Why don’t you just sit down and chill!! Hey babe! Why don’t you put that thing aside for while? Its probably hurting your soft hands!” a freaky looking guy remarked followed by ridiculous sounding laughter!!

“This is no joke!! And you sir, you better shut up your mouth and sit tight or else the results can be quite unpleasant to you!!” it was that gentleman in suit.

“Oh yea!!! What if I don’t sit tight?? What if stand up and what if I roam around and just have a nice time??” so saying who stood up and tried to put his hands around one of the air hostesses with the gun.

The next moment the girl hit him hard into his stomach with her left elbow. Then there was kick onto his face as she turned around. After that she indulged in a series of martial arts maneuvers ending with a blow aimed below his waist.

The audiences were spell bound with this display, which lasted only a few seconds. The freaky guy was dragged away from the place as he fell down reeling in pain.

Anil could barely hear Imran murmuring,”I always knew girls are painful”.

The gentleman in suit continued,”Ladies and gentleman, as you all can see, these girls are very highly motivated and meticulously trained. And I think you have got a clear demonstration of their martial arts prowess. So it’s in your best interests if you don’t try to do anything stupid”.

“But why??? Why this hijack??? What are your demands??” A lady from the seat just behind Anil asked.

“What did you ask? Why are we doing this?? “ the man shook his head in disgust.

“Humans!! How insensitive you can be??? You run around destroying nature’s wealth and complain when you have to bear the consequences of your deeds! You mindlessly misuse the treasures of Mother Nature and spit at her face with pollution in return. You gape at the beauty of her features; you go to hill stations, beaches, forests and throw trash like some crazy animal!!! I am sorry!! Why do I have to insult animals by comparing them with you??? Man is the most uncivilized animal nature has ever produced!!!! And she regrets that!!! Cant anyone see that Ma’ earth is crying????????”

“That explains the unusual amount of rain recently in chennai” Imran commented which was barely audible to anyone.

“For years organizations like Greenpeace has been trying to educate you dumb souls with ways to salvage the situation. But you greedy idiots are too ignorant to listen to them. Your governments have conveniently ignored all their peaceful initiatives. So we decided it’s high time they took notice. We started the organization “Samurais of the world”. Like the ancient Japanese warriors who had sworn to protect their emperor, we are committed to protecting and sustaining mother earth in her full glory and this is our first operation.”

“What are your demands???”

“Signing of the Kyoto protocol by all countries in the next 10 hours and a few more genuine demands. That is being taken care of by our leader in the cockpit even as we speak”

There was a bit of a buzz amongst the crowd as the people were trying to come to terms with the situation.

“I assure you all comfort and respect if only you people can appreciate the objective of our mission and help us achieve it! But any effort to disrupt our operation shall be dealt with the harshest possible punishment.” The gentleman in suit exclaimed.

Anil swallowed his saliva. He was not sure what to feel. But even though the plane was being hijacked there wasn’t too much of a tension in the plane. For a minute he even wondered whether he could sleep. He felt that quite a bit of the passengers were sympathetic with the cause of the hijackers. As he looked around restlessly he discovered something very important. He found out some of the air hostesses were actually men dressed as women. He was not sure how many passengers had noted that but he was sure that this would make them think twice if they plan for any heroism.

Thinking of heroes he looked at Imran to find him peacefully!! Was he sleeping?? It looked more like he was meditating. Just then his eye caught an unnoticeable eye play between two of the passengers. As he started watching them curiously the plane shook a little throwing everyone off balance.

And then there was a bit of a rough ride as it looked as if the plane was caught in turbulence. After a while the plane started shaking a lot more wildly. The bespectacled gentleman was beginning to look worried and after ordering through the eyes to hold fort he headed towards the cockpit. After a couple of seconds there was noise of a struggle and a gunshot was heard from the direction where that man had gone.

Then the plane started behaving real violently. There was suddenly a steep drop and Anil was almost thrown off his seat. Then he could see tension on the faces of people around him. By this time the plane had started descending steeply.

He felt nauseated due to the abrupt change in the pressure and he could see that people were falling all around him. He felt like he was going to throw up. The yellow oxygen masks dropped in front of him and started dancing as if a ghost had possessed them. He could hear the glasses breaking all around him and the air rushing out due to the unbalanced pressure. By the time people had gone completely crazy and they were shouting, chanting, praying and screaming into a huge noise of confusion. Quite a few were not able to cope up and soon there was an unbearable stench of vomit culminating around him. Anil knew he was going to die. He was clutching harder at the armrests and for a brief moment he even thought he should put on the seat belts!! But that was not possible. The bodies of the passengers started making sound by hitting onto the seats and the things like bags,shoes,cameras,etc were seen flying all over the plane. Some people were rolling all over the plane due to the shift in the plane’s position and due to the abnormal speed with which the plane was dropping. Anil felt as if he was going to faint. He could suddenly see bright light, pain, pressure, ecstasy, stars and finally miles and miles of enduring blackness.

He fell unconscious.

......... to be continued

All in the game – part III

2007-02-05T08:09:00.001+05:30

All in the game – part III

---------------------------

Anna international airport welcomed Anil with all grandeur it had to offer. He practically didn’t have any time for anything. All he had in his little suitcase were unwashed rags!! He had to run around the campus to get various things done in a very short time. But Imran looked as cool as ever even in such tense times. He arrived at the last possible moment to the airport and looked like he was going for a vacation.

As they were going through the formalities Anil asked Imran.

“Man!! How can you be so unaffected by anything around you??”

“The game does not affect you much if you realize that you are just a spectator and not a player.” Imran replied calmly.

Anil didn’t want to talk any more about it!

If there is one thing that made him look forward to the trip then it was his expectations about the airhostesses. He had never been in a flight journey before and had been to the airport just once. He had once come to see off his friend. That was when the famous “kissing the sculpture” incident took place, which was briefly mentioned in first part of this story. His friend looked the other way after the incident and Anil had to return home ruing his bad luck.

As he walked up to the plane he was thrilled by the size of the huge bird. Here is one machine which regularly transported scores of people over thousands of miles across seas through the air!!!!!!!! The enormity of the functionality stunned him.

He walked up the steps and handed over the ticket to the hostess who guided him to his seat in economy class. His seat was in a three-seater setup. As he sat on the one corner, Imran took his seat in the middle. The other seat was already taken. There was a lean man with a very neat moustache and fancy spectacle seated there. He was wearing a dark suit and looked very decent. He was more like “don’t-disturb-me-and-I-wont-disturb-you” kind of guy by the looks. He was comfortably seated and was reading a magazine.

As they settled on to their seats Anil’s heart was beating faster with excitement. He looked at Imran only to find that he was as composed as you would find him sitting in his cubicle. Being a restless chap Anil couldn’t help talking to Imran. So he said!!!

“So!! Imran, how do you feel?? aint it exciting???”

Imran turned to him with his lips expanding slightly into what looked like a smile. Then he said

“Giving in to feelings shall only leave you reeling in the end”

On hearing this, the bespectacled gentleman looked at Imran through the space on top of his spectacles and then continued to browse through the magazine. But his behaviour wasn’t the same after that. He looked disturbed and soon closed his magazine and put it aside. For a minute he looked like he was deeply in thought and then he took his fingers to his eyes as if to control his tears.

Anil who was watching all of this, felt bad for having talked to Imran. He resolved not to talk to Imran during the course of the journey, but wasn’t sure how long he could keep this new resolution.

After a while he could hear the announcement ”Good evening, ladies and gentleman, this is your captain speaking, please fasten your seat belts as we will be taking off very soon”

He could see that the airhostesses were helping the passengers to put on their belt. He was hoping to fumble with his belt long enough so that he can get some help from them but surprisingly and sadly there was no need for that and he got it right after a couple of tries!

As the plane took off he could feel the butterflies in his stomach. He felt the way he had felt when he got into the giant wheel for the first time when he had gone to an amusement park during his childhood. As he was struggling to come to terms with the anxiety he felt someone strongly clutching his hand. He turned to see Imran closing his eyes tightly and forcing himself to the seat. And the funniest part was that his other hand was grabbing the hand of the bespectacled gentleman who was looking at Imran with fear and confusion. Anil suppressed his smile with a lot of effort.

Soon the plane was into the sky and Anil was able to see the beautiful view of the lights from the city under him. Imran had released his hand and apologized to both Anil and the man on the other seat. While Anil acknowledged with a smile the man responded with a hesitant shake of his head. He was looking a lot more nervous and confused than the way he looked before. After a few minutes Anil decided to break his resolution and wanted to tease Imran about his fear of flight travel!!

“Hey Imran bhai!!! How were you feeling some time back??? Or should I say you were reeling !! ha ha ha!! “ exclaimed Anil

Imran who was visibly disturbed by this replied with a mild smile!!

“Feelings and Reelings are inescapable when you are a pawn in God’s dealings!!”

Upon hearing this, the bespectacled man threw a disturbed glare at Anil and Imran. He looked at his watch and grew restless as he started looking around.

Then out of nowhere he jumped up from this seat and shouted “Long live mother earth” and suddenly all the airhostesses pulled out sophisticated firearms and started pointing it on to passengers nearby to them.

At the same time there was an announcement from the speaker nearby.

“Ladies and gentlemen, this is your new captain speaking. The plane has been hijacked, just sit tight and be nice boys and girls and nobody will get hurt”

Anil couldn’t believe his ears. Plane hijack with a bunch of girls???

To be continued…………..