Hypotheses

 

I have always found beggars mysterious, especially family beggars. Many times I have noticed the exact same faces in different locations and many times I have seen beggars literally settling down at a place. 

Last week when we were discussing political theory in a lecture, our professor narrated an incident. While he was traveling by train, he witnessed a strange negotiation between two police officers and a beggar traveling by the same train. The police officers initially offered the beggar five hundred rupees in exchange of all the coins he possessed. The beggar didn't agree. The police officers increased the amount to one thousand rupees. Beggar still declined. The officers offered five thousand rupees. Still no affirmative reply from the beggar. The officers increased the offer to ten thousand rupees. Surprisingly, beggar didn't agree.

This narration was followed by a bunch of hypotheses from the students. Someone said that the beggar was trying to guard his self respect; someone said that the police was trying to mess with the beggar; someone said that the policemen were sure that the beggar possessed more that ten thousand and so on... But I had something else going on my mind. An entire film flashed before my eyes where a gang of beggars is planning a robbery and police department getting suspicious about them blah blah blah. फिल्में देख के हो जाता है दिमाग ऐसा अब क्या करें! 

The next day, I was waiting on a street for a friend on a Sunday at 11 in the morning. I noticed a beggar in a deep sleep on the opposite side of the street. Just like any other beggar he was covered under a dusty blanket.He was accompanied by a stray dog. They probably were good friends. The dog was trying to cuddle with the beggar while the beggar was still in sleep. Typical pet behavior. I don't know why but I was observing it with a great interest when I got a call from my friend for whom I was waiting. He said that he was struck in traffic and would take a little longer. For these few minutes, I was distracted. 

Later when I resumed my observation, I saw that the beggar had woken up and was having his brunch. An another beggar was serving him. I don't know where did that beggar come from. He was a typical beggar with torn out and dusty clothes and long and voluminous hair. But there was an atypical thing about him. He possessed a travel bag of red color. From that bag, he was taking out food and feeding the just woken beggar.That bag was in a really nice condition and I could infer from the sight of the bag that it was full of stuff. Obviously, I don't know what stuff it contained. The beggar took out a polyethene bag that contained curd. When he went ahead to serve that curd to the other beggar who was eating, his mate, the dog started snarling. 

The very next moment, my friend arrived and I left the location so I don't know what happened next. But I spent that entire day in wondering about those beggars and that dog. Why was that dog so emotionally attached with the beggar? Why was he snarling on the other beggar? Where did the other beggar get the red travel bag from? What was in that bag? Why was he sharing his fortune with the other beggar?

Later in the evening, I narrated this scene to my mother and sister. We again came up with different hypotheses. The beggars might be friends, there might be stolen goods in that bag, the dog might be a pet of the beggar, etc.But one question appeared in my mind and it appears every time when I think about beggars - why do they do it? I personally don't have any empathy or sympathy for beggars. At times, I'll respect a thief because at least he's taking an effort while stealing. Begging is the easiest way of earning money. Many times beggars are in a good physical condition to work yet they don't take up that option because if they can feed themselves by doing nothing only on the sympathy of the passersby, why should they work?

Begging is not right, not just. Yet, beggars tend to make it moral and ethical by bringing God in begging.This practice won't stop until we stop giving the beggars money every time we see them. If we continue giving them money, they will continue beginning. That one rupee might cost you nothing, but every time you give a beggar one rupee, you are giving him a reason to continue begging. When the beggars realize that we are not getting enough money anymore, they will definitely take up a job, an occupation of dignity.

Sometimes the nicest thing you do to someone is not being nice to them. So when you are not being nice to a beggar, you are leading him/her towards a better life.

53

 

Exactly one year back from today, I started writing blogs. I published my first article on 1^st January 2021 with the help of a friend named Kshitija. It was Friday. Kshitija was a good mentor and editor of the first few articles on Random Writes. My first article received a good response and that day, I made a new year resolution. I decided that for the next year, I will publish a blog every Friday without fail, no matter what happens! There were many disturbances and obstacles, but I am very proud to say that I haven’t missed a single Friday of 2021 and this is my 53^rd article on Random writes. And today, I can see self growth. I mean, when I read my recent articles and compare them with the older ones, I can myself point out how much I have evolved in the last year. And not only about writing skills, but I can find progress in many other areas. I can interact with different people effectively, can manage my team well, have also learnt good time management, and above all, have got to know myself better. I have developed socially, morally, intellectually and ideologically. This journey wouldn’t have been possible without the love and support from you all. Hence, I would like to start off this article with gratitude to all of you for being there with me on this journey.

 

I already gave you an idea about today's topic through our social media handles. Today, we are going to have a verbal tour down the memory lane. Today, I am presenting before you the analysis of the year. Most of the statistics were already available to us. Thanks to artificial intelligence for that matter. So, we have had 6.69K views on our page this year. Our most viewed article was 2020 Roller-coaster followed by The Puzzle of Proverbs. The article that received the most comments was "Tapu ke Papa!!!". 

Apart from this, there was some data that we had to collect directly from the readers because the questions were quite personal and subjective. When we asked people about their most favourite article on Random Writes, we got many responses. Types of People we see at every Wedding and The Sweater were the most common ones. The Sweater is my personal favourite as well. We also asked people about the article they did not like at all. And I was not at all surprised when most of them said, Nature's Amazing Lessons. That's my least favourite too. Actually, the circumstances in which I wrote that article were not very stimulating. That's what I guess got reflected in the article. We also did a handful of experiments on Random Writes. Readers have seemed to like the letter to my favourite fictional character the most. On asking people the title which article caught their attention the most, we did not get a clear response because people remember the theme, the content and sometimes, a few lines. No one remembers the title, and Shakespeare wrote in his iconic play Romeo and Juliet, "What's in a name".

So, moving on to our next question, when we asked people which sequel they liked the most, no doubt they responded Let's talk about it and Let's talk about it - Part 2. I never thought my interview series would receive such an amazing response from all kinds of audiences. I was a little nervous when I was interviewing both - Shravani Buva and Dr Abhay Sukhatme. Taking the interview of Shravani about LGBTQIA+ was a very much challenging task for me because it was only the second time that I was interviewing someone and it was for the first time that the interview taken by me was going to be published. I was continuously haunted by questions like what if my next question offends her... or what if she denies answering some question, etc. This anxiety multiplied when I interviewed Dr Abhay Sukhatme regarding gynaecology. Because while interviewing Shravani, I was sitting in my room, accompanied by Tirthali, a friend. But while interviewing Dr Sukhatme, I was in his hospital, all alone and I had no prior knowledge about the field. Of course, I had done enough research and read a lot before interviewing him but somehow I continuously felt that is that enough... or what if I ask something that might sound stupid to him... or the worst... what if I accidentally happen to break a small yet expensive porcelain gift item kept on his table, etc. Thankfully, none of my fears came true. Both Shravani and Dr Sukhatme were very frank and welcoming.

Interviewing Dr Abhay Sukhatme is one of my most favourite memories and experiences in my life. I received an amazing response to Let's talk about it - Part1 and there were requests for more articles of that kind. So, I discussed this topic with Tirthali and decided to interview a male gynaecologist. Dr Sukhatme is a leading gynaecologist in Nashik so obviously, his name came to mind first. I was not very sure if he would agree to give me an interview in the first place, neither was Chanchal, my editor. But a strange voice arouse from my within and said, "Go to his hospital and directly ask. What will happen the worst? He will deny. If he denies, we will look for someone else, but assuming that he will deny before asking is not a good plan." I got the contact number of the hospital from the internet. I called and asked about the timings when I can meet the doctor. In the evening on the same day, I went to the hospital. Luckily there were no patients and I could meet the doctor. I told him everything clearly and he agreed in no time. I was being anxious for no reason. He called me for the interview the next day. I was over the moon that day. I came home, prepared the questionnaire and went to interview him the next day. This time, the OPD was full of patients. I killed an hour pretending to work on my laptop. The receptionist asked me to go into the cabin. She might have thought that I was a patient. I went inside and started taking the interview which lasted for an hour. The moment I came outside, the receptionist and the patients in the OPD were looking at me angrily, I was terrified and embarrassed. Without spending one more minute there, I left hastily. After a couple of days, the interview was ready to be published but, before publishing, I wanted to show it to the doctor for ethical reasons. This time when I went, the receptionist made hard eye contact with me through which she seemed to say "This time I am not letting you in unless all the patients are over". I was absolutely okay with that. I opened my laptop and this time, I was not pretending, I was actually working. The receptionist came to me after almost an hour, and said: "I can let you in only if you assure me that you will be back in 10 minutes". I said yes and she finally let me in. The doctor reviewed the article, prescribed some changes and wished me luck. 

Random Writes was also greatly benefitted by guest blogs. Guest bloggers Sanskriti Sonune, Ruturaj Kale, Shridhar Kulkarni, Sanskruti Pisal, Shruti Pathak and Manijiri Khuje have given Random Writes wonderful content. Our readers have enjoyed the works of Shridhar Kulkarni and Shruti Pathak the most. I am also very grateful to all of them. This is the last article of 2021. My resolution has completed today. So, I won't be publish a blog every Friday but I'll definitely try to publish something at least once a month. Random Writes is still open for all the guest bloggers. Henceforth we will be active on our Instagram page. Most of the content will be published there, and only a few selective long articles will be published on blogspot. So make sure that you have followed us. Hope to see you soon...

Nature's Amazing Lessons - Part 2

 

A man once planted the seeds of bamboo. He watered them regularly. Time passed but nothing came out of it. He didn’t lose hope, he continued to water them on regular basis. Days turned into weeks, weeks into months and months into years. There was no sign of bamboo shoots on the field. The man still didn’t lose hope. He continued to water them. Suddenly one day, after five years, the man saw small shoots coming out of the soil. He was thrilled. The next day when he saw them again, he was surprised to see their phenomenal growth. Within few weeks, the bamboos grew to a height where the man couldn’t even see. This is what the bamboo tree teaches us. First work on your roots, your base. It will definitely take time, but once your base is strong, the overall growth becomes much easier and faster. Have you seen the construction of a building? It takes a lot of time to prepare the base. In countries like India, many times the work also shuts down; but once the base is ready, the other construction happens very fast.

Have you ever noticed what is the average life of any flower? It’s not more than one day. But does the flower ever worry about it? No, it doesn’t. From the very moment it blooms, it dances with the sun. It enjoys every moment of its life to the fullest and finally, with the sun sets, it falls down from the stem and becomes one with the soil. The flower thus teaches us that life is short and instead of worrying about the future, we should enjoy the present. Life is very short, live it to its fullest.

Every flower has its distinct colour, petal and fragrance and every flower accepts its qualities happily. The rose never whines to have a fragrance of jasmine, the tulip is never jealous of hibiscus’ petals and the orchids are never complainant about their size. All of them are very different from each other, yet they together make a bouquet. We should also inculcate these qualities, we should also be happy in what nature has gifted us, we should not be jealous of people around us. We all have a distinct purpose to serve and if we work together with cooperation and mutual understanding, we can make this world a better and beautiful place.

The seasons teach us that nothing is permanent in life, neither the times of crises nor the times of happiness. We should always remind ourselves that this too shall pass. In times of prosperity, we should develop foresight and start making necessary arrangements for our future and in times of crises, we should remind ourselves that this situation is not permanent and we will get through this.

Mother nature is in every way the best teacher. Every tiny aspect of nature teaches us some or the other thing. It is beyond the capacity of this article to explain them all yet we have tried our best to inspire and motivate you. If you have some more points which can motivate our readers, do share them with us in the comment section. 

Types of People we see at every wedding - Part 2

 

In the last article, we talked about two types of people we see at every wedding – the crybabies and the photoholics. I have noticed that photoholics are most of the time very much conscious about their appearance. They keep on asking everyone, “How do I look today” in different ways directly or indirectly. Many people think that these are the traits only seen in women which is completely wrong. Men are also appearance-conscious, sometimes even more than women. Do you think that the makers of perfume, men’s brooches, hair wax, gel, serum, etc. make profits out of a jinnee? The only difference is that women accept that they are appearance-conscious while men don’t. But I have seen a lot of men getting truly happy from within when I tell them, “By the way… You look handsome today”. And getting this complement from women makes them happier, and why not? Women get compliments about their looks very often whereas men don’t. So, it’s a bigger deal for them.

 

Young girls are on another level of this consciousness. Many times, they have a small make-up kit (usually of pink colour) in a small purse that they carry all the time at weddings. And after every 45 minutes, they sneak in a corner and do a touch-up. It looks very cute and innocent. This is a group activity. At every wedding, you are likely to find at least one such group. I used to do it when I was a child, and I often spot my cousins and nieces doing it. And teenagers are no exception. They only attend weddings in order to get more likes on Instagram. Many times we judge appearance-conscious women, men, and young adults unknowingly. I don’t find it right to be judgmental in this area. It’s a part of individual likes and dislikes. I read a post on Instagram a few months back. I don’t remember the exact words but there was a photo of a female athlete and her achievements were mentioned on the photo itself. I didn’t find anything wrong with the photograph. It was a good piece of information and a nice source of motivation. I was bothered by what was written in the comment section. It said something like ‘Today’s world needs the women who choose spending time on the playground, and not the ones who choose spending money in beauty salons’. Though I don’t visit beauty salons very often, I was offended. For me, women doing sports are also wonderful and women wearing make-up are also wonderful. Looking beautiful can make someone happy and every individual has the right to be happy. I find Manushi Chillar as amazing as Mary Kom.

 

But no matter whatever you do, there will always be someone who will judge you. And weddings are like formal assemblies of judgmental people. At a wedding, gossips travel faster than light. And again, people wrongly believe be women the source of gossips which is not always the case. Men love gossips as well. This brings me to another category of people – the critics. Some people always tend to find faults in some or the other thing. It might be the food, the dresses, the lights, the music, and sometimes even the bride and the groom.

 

Before the arrival of tinder and shaadi.com, weddings used to be a platform for finding ideal in-laws. One wedding becomes a ground for another wedding. And this tradition continues even today to some extent. This brings me to the other type – the matchmakers. Sometimes I feel that there is a scanner installed in their eyes. Initially, they scan all people in their mid-twenties. Then, they begin an investigation where they try to find out the positive as well as negative traits of the scanned people from the people present in the same event. Then, they calculate these traits and find a ‘match’. Then they take these ‘matches’ on the radar and start a mission to get them married. And in their weddings, they repeat the same cycle again.

 

There are a few people who come to weddings only for the sake of fun. They are not at all interested in gossips, matches, photos, and make-up. They enjoy the rituals, the food, the dance and also the cries of babies. However, having only these people will make a wedding like a bowl of rice. But if you want to make a wedding a Biryani, it should have all the types of baratis in subtle flavours – the crybabies, the photoholics, the appearance-conscious, the critics, the gossip lovers, the matchmakers and the fun lovers! 

Types of people we see at every wedding - Part I

 

I am very bad with kids, especially infants. I can’t feed them, I can’t look over them, I can’t stop their cry, I can’t even talk to them nicely. A couple of days back, I attended a wedding, and my eighteen years’ experience of attending weddings has taught me one thing – no matter whichever wedding you attend, however fancy or local it might be, you are always likely to see at least one kid crying. That’s the truth of typical Indian weddings. At the wedding that I attended recently, I was surrounded by crying kids for a considerably long time. And to be very honest, it was the most irritating and hateful experience ever! I really feel pity for their parents. They can never enjoy any function. Every time I see them, they are either feeding them, or changing their diapers, or calming them down in case they are crying. 

But parents have become smart in recent days. At the recent wedding, I saw all the parents handing over their mobile phones to their kids. They were like – play with it, watch cartoons on the internet, click random photos or throw it away, just don’t come to us! Initially, my conscience didn’t approve of this idea but then I thought that those parents also have a right to enjoy, and weddings don’t come every day, right? If the kid spends half an hour on the phone, the parents get the same 30 minutes to talk to friends and relatives, dance and click photographs. However, they shouldn’t do it very frequently. 

Clicking photographs brings us to the next category of people – The Photoholics, people who love to get their own photos clicked. Clicking photos is a nice activity but when it goes beyond a limit, it becomes utterly annoying. The core objective behind clicking pictures is capturing the memories, but these days, in the madness of clicking photos, people fail to make memories in the first place. Memory is not candid poses, or different filters or fake smiles. If you are not making any memories, what are you even capturing? 

Anyways, I don’t mind being surrounded by such people as long as they don’t forcefully pull me in there. There is a cousin of mine who is a photoholic. She drives us all mad. Once we went out for lunch and we ordered a pizza. It was going to take some time for the order to be prepared and we were okay with it. We all were chatting, making jokes, recalling incidents from childhood and suddenly that cousin said “Samruddhi, let’s go there, I’ll click some photos of you”. I am not a photoholic but I don’t mind clicking a few. So, I agreed and went with her. She clicked only one picture and said “Now, you click mine”. I was like – okay, let’s click one and settle the account which didn’t happen. She said “One more please”. And before I could say anything, she had already posed. And the ‘one more please’ repeated so many times that now, I have lost the count.

Weddings are like a buffet of people. One finds all the types of people there - the appearance-conscious ones, the judgemental ones, the gossip loves, the critics, the matchmakers, the foodies, dancers, etc. I can and I will include all of them in Part 2 of the same article next week but it would be more entertaining if you tell us about the people you observe at weddings, what you like or dislike about them, etc. in the comment section so that we can include it in the upcoming article. 

The farm mystery

The extraordinary turn of events which I am about to describe - occurred on 9th October and continued till 11th. After our remarkable adventure of The Bluetooth Connection, more people in our city knew about me, and my friend - detective & psychiatrist Rahul. 

On the morning of 10th October at 8:30 - our bell rang unexpectedly.  It was Rajgopal Anna. One of the most famous people of Rajnagar & the owner of 4 big farms in the village nearby and was the biggest dealer in wheat, maize, and milk products. He indeed was more than well-to-do. We welcomed him into our room, offered him some water but he refused. He was a well-built man - probably in his near 50s. He had black hair and a mustache. Which resembled that he is very healthy. But after looking at his face, anyone could deduce that the man was in deep tension. 

"Hello, sir," said I and so did Rahul and shook his hand. 

"I have come here to get your help, sir. Will you please help me?" said our visitor. 

"I will surely help you Mr. Rajgopal. Will you tell me what has occurred in detail, so that I can help you?" said Rahul in a friendly tone. 

"Yes sir. I will describe them as I know," said he. 

I and Rahul sat on our chairs and as per Rahul's notice to me - I kept a notebook with me to take important notes. 

He began - "As you know sir that I own 4 farms. 2 in the west of Rajnagar, 1 near the Shripad Goshala, and the last one in the north of Rajnagar. This incident occurred on the farm which is to the north. 

That is the farm I live on with my family and I have - In my possession - 1 cow shed on there. Before the main incident - I intend to tell the basic features of my farm. Is that okay with you?"

"Oh...yes. It is okay with me. Please continue." said Rahul.

Mr. Anna proceeded - "My farm is of 1acre. It has a bungalow for me and my family and we also have kept one room inside it for my 2 servants/workers - Rajan and Soman. Adding to that - I have 5 more servants who help for household chores and my business. Other than that, I have 1 storeroom where we keep all the farming equipment and machinery. Except for 1 main entrance and exit, my farm is surrounded by fences all around.” he stopped and drank water. 

Then again continued - “So what happened is that yesterday after 9 pm, one of my workers, Soman went missing! We don’t know that if he ran away or somebody kidnapped him. But if you ask me, I would say that - maybe Rajan kidnapped him for some reason. For that, he took an emergency holiday from 12:15 pm on 8th October saying that he has got some very important work to do & I allowed him to go. Well, he returned yesterday at 8 pm & was shocked hearing about Soman.” 

This sounded like a normal case to me but Rahul was thinking it over seriously. After a minute or so, Rahul began to ask some questions to our visitor.

“Were there any disputes between Soman and Rajan?”

“Not which I saw sir. They were very friendly with each other when working,” answered Mr. Rajgopal. 

“Was there any note or sign in the servants’ rooms?”

“No sir...nothing. The room was the way it is always.”

“Was anything stolen? Either from house or storeroom?”

“Nothing from my house but I cannot say anything sure about the storeroom, as I did not check it.” 

“When did your servants join?”

“They both are good friends sir. So they joined on the same day - some….3 years ago.”

“Hmmn...so they must have a good knowledge of your farm. Anyway, how many members are there in your family?”

“4 people. Me, my wife, and my 2 sons.But they went to the their grandparents day-before yesterday.”

“Okay. And did anyone before the event ask for some information from you or talk to you?”

“No sir. No-one.”

“Ok. Thank you so much for your co-operation, Mr. Anna. I would love to investigate this so mysterious a case. And now it is 9:15 - so me and my friend Sumit - would come to your farm with you now to observe the surroundings. Is it okay for you?”

“Certainly Mr. Rahul! Do all that you can to solve this case. Because I am in a great worry if this affects me or my business.”

“No sir. Please do not worry about that. I will take care of it. And do you mind if we take Inspector Ajay Rajwade with us?” 

“Oh...he is welcome sir as I want this matter to get quickly sorted!” 

After this prolonged discussion with our client, we went to the Police station to get the inspector Rajwade. We all, then - went to Mr. Anna’s farm. It was indeed a very big and beautiful farm with the crops moving in the direction of the swift and cool wind. Our client took us to his bungalow and offered some refreshments. All of us accepted them & then, Rajwade and Rahul started to observe the surroundings and so did I. Rahul was observing the storeroom with the owner and they found out that one steel chain and 2 ropes were missing.

“Well, Mr. Rajgopal - do you have any idea of who could have done this?” enquired Rahul. 

“I cannot say anything for sure but I guess It could have been Rajan as he went on an unexpected holiday,” he answered.

“Can you please call Rajan over here? I want to talk to every important person in this case.”

“As you wish sir.” he said and called Rajan. He came instantly. 

Rajan was a young fellow. Probably in the mid-30s. He had short hair. Had a quite good height and body to work on a farm. 

 The conversation continued. 

“So Rajan...do you know anything in this matter? Or do you suspect anyone who could kidnap your friend Soman?”  asked Rahul. 

“I do not know anything of this. Also, I do not suspect anyone of this.”

“Can you tell that how was your friend Soman in daily life and did he have any strange illness?” asked Rajwade. 

“Soman was very friendly and hardworking. He never hesitated to help anyone. We both are good friends sir. But I do not know nor it came to my attention if he had a strange illness or something like that.”

“Ok. Did he fight with anyone else?”

“No sir. He did not talk to much people out there. I don’t think if he fought.”

“And where did you go yesterday?”

“Umm… to buy some things for my household,” he said. 

“But why after 12? You could have gone early in the morning.” argued Rahul. 

“Sir It was because I had farm-work in the morning and also earlier we were searching for Soman.”

“Ok. But why did you return after 1 day? What were you doing till then?” asked Rajwade intercepting Rahul. 

“My family members made me stay. And I have a 2-year-old child so I had to stay for all of them.”

“All right. Thank you,” said Rajwade.

“...wait! Wait here, do you use a phone?” said Rahul. 

“Yes sir. I do.”

“Will you give it to me for a minute?” he asked and Rajan gave his phone to him. 

Rahul did checks on the phone and gave it back to him. 

After the series of questions, and observations, I and Rahul went to our room and Rajwade bid us a goodbye - thereafter went off to the Police Station. 

After witnessing the investigation, I was also quite lost in thoughts trying to connect the dots that lead to the main culprit - till when Rahul was making lunch. Later - we both conversed about this. 

“What do you make of all we heard and saw, Sumit?” he asked in his similar old way. 

“I don’t know. Rajan is his friend. That too a close one. Why would he kidnap him according to the sayings of Mr. Rajgopal? That is quite confusing for me. Also, as Soman was described to us, I do not think that he had many enemies.”

“Hmmn...‘Let us assume that Rajan kidnaps Soman for some reason as he went on a day off. But why would he do so? Were they doing some other business earlier? Were they robbers? Or was it due to some personal reason? Well…-” Rahul was interrupted by Rajwade rushing into our room and telling us that Rajan has also gone missing!

We all quickly went to the scene. Mr. Anna was awaiting us and rushed to Rahul for help. 

“This is unexpected!” said Rahul

“It indeed is sir! Please do something, sir, please!” said our client in fear. 

“Will you please allow us to explore your entire farm?” I asked him on our behalf. And we got the permission to do so. 

Rahul insisted to our client for checking his bungalow and cow shed. We then, went in the bungalow. It was quite well decorated and pleasant to live in. It had some plants, number of beautiful paintings and some holy idols. The bungalow had 2 bedrooms, 1 kitchen, 1 big hall, a dining hall, terrace and 2 personal store-rooms along with servants’ quarters. 

“Do you mind if we see all the rooms in your bungalow,sir?” asked the inspector. 

“Not at all! You are free to check anything you want. But just avoid the storeroom over here as it has various insects and we havn’t cleaned it in a while.” said he - pointing to the storeroom at the back of us. 

We then resumed our search for clues. 5 minutes later our client was talking to Rajwade on the terrace. That moment Rahul surveyed and cross-examined every servant there. His face looked satisfied after he did it. 

We went into the first bedroom to examine it. It was a children’s bedroom as it had a double-decker bed and lots of cartoon posters. We saw every corner of the room until I stumbled upon something unusua behing a quite big cupboard. I called Rahul and we both saw that it was a sealed wall and something lurked behind it. It was already 8pm. So we decided to continue the investigation tomorrow morning. But before leaving, Rahul told me to take photos of all the corners of the bungalow and whatever we felt important. I took 151 photos in total. And then we left for our homes. 

“Wake up! Wake up Sumit!” Rahul shouted early in the morning near me. 

“Why…?” I somehow uttered the words. 

“To investigate. Quick now...get up, have your breakfast and we shall leave.”

“But why now? It is 4:30 now!” I said in heavy sleepy tone.

He did not speak a word but threw a glass of ice-cold water on my face. That shook me entirely and I ran after him to hit him. I hurt him a bit in his left cheek. 

“Don’t you ever after today wake me up in so early morning!” I said angrily. 

He chuckled and said “Well...you look cute when you are angry.”

After this childish conversation, we reached to the farm secretly at 5:15 am along with inspector Ajay Rajwade - who was informed by Rahul earlier. There was dead silence there. No soul awaken. We tip-toed in the cow-shed to search for clues but suddenly, we heard voices. However we could not understand them. We crept from behind and found 4 servants there. Rajwade suddenly had them surrendered to us on Rahul’s sign to do so. Rahul thanked him and went to the bungalow. We went with him. 

“Open the door Mr. Rajgopal.” said Rahul in a surprising friendly tone. 

The door opened and it was Mr.Anna himself. 

“Actually lately today morning, I have some other work to do. Do you mind if we do the investigation now?” asked Rahul. Me and Rajwade nodded our heads. 

“That won’t be a problem sir. Do what you want.” he said. 

After entering the hall, Rajwade called one remaining servant in the hall with our client and then bought the 4 other servant which surrendered to us in the cowshed. After this, we could clearly see the fear in the eyes of Mr. Rajgopal and his 5 servants. Rahul alone went in the prohibited storeroom and cracked the wall with a hammer while I and Rajwade remained in the hall keeping watch over the people - staring into their guilty eyes. Rahul called me to him and after I got into the secret room - I saw lot’s of files and paperwork, thousands of cash and to my biggest surprise - Rajan and Soman tied with the rope and chain which were missing!

I was so shocked that I could not speak anything of this. While Rahul untied them both, handed over some cash and papers to me and we were in the hall. Rajwade smiled at us - indicating our success. 

“Well...Mr. Anna, what a turn to this story! Incredible yet not well planned.”

Rajgopal sobbed and said “I...I…-”

“Don’t speak a word!” exclaimed Soman.  

“You have played enough with our lives” said Rajan and went to hit the owner but I stopped him. He was in great anger as he fell over me. 

“What did you get in the secret room Rahul?” asked Ajay

“Files, paperwork and lot’s of cash and 2 innocent workers!” he said and looked at all the servants and their owner in a superior way. 

“But...how will you explain it to others Mr. detective? You have no witness, no recording nor any solid proof against me!” remarked Rajgopal. 

“But I do have the logic!” he said. Then sat down as he does while explaining something.

“Before coming to main events - You did corruption and bribery...right Mr. Rajgopal?”

“Yes..” said he in tone of disgust. 

“So this corruption was the main reason of all these events. Soman and Rajan knew about your dirty business and corruption. That is the reason you and your servants actually wanted to kidnap or hide Rajan and Sumit at the same time but Rajan leaving for his work was quite a disappointment for you but on the other hand, you got the chance to do your work nicely and with great precision. First you kidnapped Soman on the night of 9th october. The next morning, you came to us to avoid being suspected directly in the first place in a hope that you do not come in the light of being a culprit.” he drank some water and then continued. 

“When we all came to investigate the scene, the behaviour of your fellow servants was quite unusual and somewhat like in fear of what lies ahead. Also, when I was asking questions to Rajan, the way you looked at him with such a panic and fright that - your reaction made me think about you as a suspect of all this. Later questioning your servants my suspicion on you as villain - got stronger. The reason was that all of your servants stuttered and were in fright to answer me. And the final thread in this - the secret room which my friend Sumit found out and the content inside with Rajan and Soman - clearly made you the complete villain. Correct me If I am wrong anywhere describing the set of events.” Rahul stopped and looked at all of us after telling this brilliant and wonderful explanation & theory.

“You..are..correct.” muttered Rajgopal with open eyes and mouth. 

“Great! Ajay, now if you may, please call some of your constables to arrest these criminals.”

“Sure.” said Ajay. 15 minutes later, all of them were arrested. 

Rajwade then took us to a hotel at 10am to express his gratitude towards Rahul for the help which he gave.

“But, Rahul, why did you tell me to have the 4 servants in the cowshed surrendered to us despite they were just talking there?” asked Ajay. 

“My friend - you see but you don’t observe - those 4 servants had rubberbands in their palms indicating that they were making bundles of notes and hiding them in the cowshed. For the notes, there was a big sized nylon nag kept there.” explained Rahul.

“Amazing! Just amazing!” Ajay said in a happy and satisfied tone. 

After our casual talk, me and Rahul made our way to home. 

“What do you want to say in this case Sumit?” he asked

“Nothing except one fact that - our country cannot develop like other countries unless the bribery and corruption comes to an end here.”

“Well quoted! You indeed suit as teacher Sumit!” he said and smiled at me with a proud feeling. 

But after all of this - I still was thinking about how does Rahul catch so much information from his eyes that we cannot.

"What are you thinking, Sumit?" he asked me. 

"I am thinking that - how do you catch so much details in your eyes that we can't? And also about how you use logical reasoning.." I answered. 

"Oh well... everyone has their own techniques & styles.So I have my own!"  he said and, by putting over his fancy,black hat he walked away in style.

Shridhar Kulkarni.

Born in India, Made for World.

I don't like being a part of social media debates. First of all, they emerge out of any Random post or comment which is actually least significant in today's world where people are witnessing bigger problems that need to be addressed. Secondly, the participants of such debates are many times not at all well-read. They bring in any baseless data from non-authentic sources. And what does one achieve from such debates... nothing. They all end in an "I agree to disagree" note. We are all witnessing one such debate now. From the last few days, I can see a lot of WhatsApp statuses and Instagram stories about Parag Agarwal who recently became the chief executive officer of Twitter. There were two types of people - the ones who celebrated and the ones who mourned. Both have their own reasons for respective behaviors and both the arguments are equally justificable. 

Someone posted a photograph of Parag Agarwal on Instagram with a caption (which I can't remember word to word now) saying that it's a proud moment for India. The Indian faces in IT sector like Sundar Pichai, Satyam Nadella or Parag Agarwal for that matter are a part of India's soft power. They in a way represent India's intellectual potential in international markets and that's why many of us feel proud of them which is obvious. This attracts many international students and MNCs to India. And some people, as usual criticized this post in the comment section arguing that they don't represent India, they represent the respective American firms for which they work. They contribute to the development of USA's economy. Instead, they should stay in India and do something for our country. This too makes sense. Now, I knew that this debate is going to stretch out long. So, I decided to get off. But moments later, I found myself engaged in a trail of thought. 

If we keep our nationalism aside for a moment and think then it makes complete sense. Indian companies can't offer huge packages as western companies. Not only in IT, but the opportunities one gets in arts and humanities in USA and Europe are huge compared to India. Take fields like museology, content writing, library science, and music for example. These people struggle to get a job in India and if they can easily get one abroad, why shouldn't they go? 

"Better a brain drain than a brain in the drain"

- Rajiv Gandhi

Not only in private sector, but the number of jobs offered by the government in USA are also more than in India in spite of USA being a capitalist economy. I recently read an article in the Times of India. I can't recall the exact figures but it said that the number of class one officers per 80000 population in Kerela is 3 to 5 (approx) and the number of equivalent executive officers per 80000 in USA is 350 (approx). Maybe that's why our system lacks in efficacy. Only few people are overburdened with all the responsibilities ranging from cleanliness drives to vaccinations, providing food and shelter to the underprivileged, peaceful conduct of huge events in the city, and even corrections in certain documents. This as a result, reduces their efficacy and even petty tasks take a long time to get completed. These increased responsibilities also bring larger jurisdiction to the executives giving them the authority and monopoly which if misused, increases the number of white collar crimes like corruption, bribery, etc.

Now, let's bring back the nationalism that we kept aside a while ago back into our senses. They are paying taxes there, they are boosting the economies of other countries. In a way, Indian talent is being drained away in other countries. Their presence in India can enhance the startup culture thus attracting more capital, creating jobs, etc. Anyways, their departure leaves us only disappointed but some departures leave us distressed. Can you guess whose?

Well, I am talking about the notorious fugitive Indian businessmen. I am very sure that you guys remember Vijay Mallya, Nirav Modi and Mehul Chowksi for that matter. You must have notice that many times, these people seek asylum in UK. I wondered why they choose UK. So, I did some research where I found that after Brexit, UK has adopted very aggressive economic policies. But I don't think that it might be the reason, because Brexit happened very recently but this trend of flying away to UK has been prevalent since independence. Almost 6000 fugitive businessmen from India have eloped to UK and you won't believe that only one of them has been extradited so far. In a nutshell, UK has become a safe heaven for such people. The reason for that is that there are many loopholes in the extradition treaty signed between India and UK in 1992. The fugitive businessmen thus enjoy a legal protection from the top legal firms in UK which delays the extradition process. For instance, Samirbhai Patel (the only extradited person so far) who had been wanted since 2002 (for Gujarat riots) was extradited in 2016. 

My concern is not what's the legalities in UK and how they protect these fugitives. And I don't find UK at any fault here. Why do we take efforts once the matter has gone out of our jurisdiction? Why don't we take any action before any third party gets involved? It's not that nobody gets a hint that something irregular is happening. People who are a part of the system are many times aware of these happenings but sometimes they choose to sell their integrity and sometimes they are forced to be quiet by coercion. People who actually show the courage to challenge the system are many times considered 'stupid'. People who watched 'Scam 1992' can interpret whom I am referring to... 😏 We all admire these fugitives until the morning we read the news of their flying away in the newspapers. 

Through this article, we do not intend to defame or devalue any person, organization, or any country. Our objective behind presenting this data in front of you is very different. I feel that now it's just enough! How long will we keep on just debating over this? I completely agree that a change, a revolution first begins with a debate. But now, we have had enough of debates; now, it's time to finally strike a change. If brain drain situations are becoming a crisis with every passing day, something must be done to provide better opportunities to the youth so that they don't need to go away. If lack of efficacy, corruption and malpractices are the problems with governance, new posts must be created which ensures equal distribution of responsibilities, duties and power. If fugitive businessmen cases are rising, laws and other legalities need to be reframed. 

The only solution for all these problems is CHANGE. We need to change our practices, our ways of thinking and our way of functioning if we want to cope up with the modern world. 5 executives might have sufficed the needs of population 50 years ago, but now the population has changed, both in terms of number and in terms of nature. The needs of today's population are different than the earlier ones. Some of you might have felt that I am criticizing India which I am not. I am simply putting forward what I expect from my country as a citizen. I am sure that you also might be having some expectations. Do share them with us in the comment section.