It has been
raining incessantly since the day Samaranand returned from Australia but
maintained his morning walk around the lake by carrying his golf umbrella every
day. Babulal has been in touch with him through WhatsApp but he could not meet
him face to face.
That day
while he was completing his round in the heavy rain under his wide golf
umbrella then he realized that someone has ducked below his umbrella, without
looking he said, ‘So Babula ,finally you could find time to meet me.”
Babulal
pressed his triceps and chuckled.
“Looks like
you have been busy earning money, your new jeans, T shirt and the new pair of
loafers indicate that.” Samaranad looked closely at Babulal and smiled with a
twinkle in his eyes.
Baulal shyly
replied, “Yes I have struck gold and I wanted to share that information with
you!”
-You have
struck gold or is it one of those dodgy schemes?
-This one is
of altogether of different nature and I am only an agent in the scheme of
things.
Samaranand
was curious to know so he started looking around for suitable place to sit, the
rain was continuing, luckily they could locate one of those newly built
canopies with bench below to sit.
-Come
Babulal let us sit on that bench and let me hold the umbrella at the left side
so that rainwater blowing in with heavy gust of wind don’t drench us.
So from a
distance one could have seen an elderly gentleman in shorts sitting under the canopy by the side of the
lake with a short young man in flashy dress talking inanimately, with an
umbrella held in inclined position. The heavy rain was splashing on the canopy
and producing that constant sound like drum beat. All the birds were huddled in
the trees and chirping wildly.
-Yes tell me
about this new venture
Babulal
coughed lightly and started his story.
Do you
remember once when we went to donate stationeries, geometry boxes to those slum
children in that coaching class in Adarsha Vidaylaya in Tollygaunge where you
were approached by a boy in high powered spectacles for a desk top computer.
Samaranand
vividly remembered that day when this small stature spectacled boy approached
him for a computer, it was about a year back. He had donated his old computer
to him.
-Wasn’t that
boy staying with you in the slum after he lost his mother.
-Yes the
same boy, he then organized to get some Oracle programmes from his friends in
his school. Now he has developed a programme through which he is predicting the
mathematics question papers for the annual tests of class 8 in his school.
Samaranand
knew that Oracle has developed ERPs for sundry use ,of course for which data
have to be fed, he asked Babulal, “Your that boy Soumayya must have developed
an algorithm ,he must be collecting mathematics question of weekly class tests,
feeding those in his programme and then taking out a probable test questions of
course he has the last few year’s
questions as reference.”
Babulal
didn’t know the process he was scratching his head and said , “Yes, something
like that!”
-So you are
his agent and selling guess papers to whoever pays you a certain sum.
Babulal
smiled shyly and nodded his head and said, “Now I am selling in his school for
class 8 and 9. He studies in class 8 but I have caught hold of a class 9 boy for
providing monthly questions, thus he is producing for class 8 and 9 for his
school. Soon I will be rolling it out in some of the prestigious schools where
rich kids study. So I have changed my wardrobe and visit those joints in Park
Street where these rich kids hang around. I have already made some friends and
may use you as reference!”He smiled mischievously.
“No, not at
all, I don’t want my name to be linked to such scams, though it is not really a
scam but an Artificial Intelligence helping to predict question paper.”
Then
Samaranand realized that naughty Babulal was pulling his leg. Samaranad told
Babulal about his trip to Australia and cycling expedition with his grandson
Shuddy. Babulal was listening attentively and asking some probing questions about
Australia.
In the
meanwhile the rain had stopped, Babulal got up and said, “ Don’t worry I will
not use your name but you have to guide me to the right direction. Now I have
to meet Jan in CCD to plan for my next target school.”
Samaranand
thought-He too has a plan for that boy Soumayya for which he requires Babulal
to do more intense legwork.
