Virtually
possible Part 4…Illusive characters
Samaranand
slowly opened his eyes, a lingering drowsy feeling was there. He found himself
lying in a strange bedroom in some high-rise building, he guessed the room to
be on 5th or 6th
floor. It was a neat bedroom with tastefully decorated walls and light curtains
draping the windows. He could see the wall clock showing 8pm, but then he tried
to recall how he landed here. He was still in his street dress of corduroy
trousers, black and white striped shirt with his loose fitting fleece half
jacket. His feet were bare. He remembered to have come to the Kolkata Book Fair
to check the sale of his newly published book in stall number 488.While he was
wracking his brain to remember then a middle aged person with a small paunch,
loose shirt and high-powered specs smilingly entered the room and said, “Thank
god you are back in senses, I was contemplating to call a doctor.’
Seeing that
gentleman Samaranand recalled the event of the evening.
He just came
out of the book stall 488 of Abhijan when he was confronted by that gentleman
who introduced himself as Nirod Dey. He was selling books written by himself
when Samaranand jokingly told him ,” I can purchase your books provided you
purchase my books from that stall!’’
Thus he got
connected with that friendly soul, both took round of the book fair together. That
afternoon he had heavy lunch of illish fish and rice , though morning started
with a heavy breakfast of pea kachuri. Those stuff were still struggling in his
stomach to get digested but then he while talking to that Mr.Dey forgot about
the heavy food. He could feel the mild stomach growling. He with Mr.Dey walked
out of gate number 5 ,crossed the road towards the car park. Mr.Dey suggested
to have jhaal muri so that he could spend some more time with Samaranand. He
agreed reluctantly inspite of the growling stomach. After having a few fistful
of that concoction of muris with all kind pf fries he started feeling dizzy, he
started looking for a place to sit and then everything went blank.
That Mr.Dey
was standing in front of him.
“Do you go
out like this often?” Mr.Dey asked him.
“Yes, I have
this problem of fainting when I have some odd combination of food in quick
succession, probably a gastro problem, unfortunately today is one such day.
Where am I ?”
“You are in
my office cum house in Rajarhat, I brought you here when you fainted. Should I
call a doctor?”’
“No, please
don’t bother. I must leave now.”
Mr.Dey
smilingly said ,”You can’t leave now, there is something else we have to
discuss. My meeting was not accidental but it was designed like that and your
fainting came handy to execute the plan. I have been following you for quite
sometimes. Now you take rest, there is kurta, pajama of your size in the
cupboard. You can freshen up in the attached bath. I think you will not like to
have heavy dinner, I will organize some light food.’
Samaranand
was taken aback by the preposterous proposal about his not living for home.
“No, I am
feeling alright now, this is not the first time that this type of blackout
happened to me, you please make arrangement for my going home.” He told these
words rather sternly.
Mr.Dey
without losing cool smiled at him and said, “It is for your good we are holding
you back here ! Your family has been informed.”’
“Are you
holding me as a hostage or what? “
“If you
think like that then I can’t help! I want to have some conversation with you!”
“Is it
something to do with Soumaya?”
“You will
come to know by tomorrow. In the meanwhile, you can freshen up and join us in
the office. We work for 24 hours and all the days of the week.” Mr.Dey left the
room. Samaranand put his hand in the pocket and found his mobile, he quickly
punched the number of his wife but the call was not getting through, he tried
for some time but then realized that it was futile, there must be a jammer to
block the call. Almost all the IT companies put jammer. He derived that he must
be in some IT company as the fellow mentioned that they work for 24 hours and
also while he mentioned Soumaya’s name then the guy reacted as though he knew
who Soumaya was.
Samaranand
quickly went to the bathroom, rinsed his mouth and splashed cold water on his
face, wiped his face with a fresh towel which was hanging from the towel rod. Then
he reasoned with himself that so far he had been treated nicely so why not
cooperate with them and find out more about their plan. He quickly changed into
a fresh pajama and kurta , wrapped a shawl around , it was mild winter in February. He parted
the curtain of the window and found that the accommodation was in a cluster of
new towers and after that it was barren with new construction coming up, he
could see the broad road running towards New Town. He once visited this area
which is about 4 kms away from New Town and rarely anybody was seen on the
road, a pretty isolated complex with some IT companies and private residential
towers sprouting up.
He
cautiously walked in the adjoining hall where he found rows of computers with
young people sitting with headphones clamped on their heads. Mr.Dey who was
talking to a young man approached him with a smile.
“I have
ordered chicken soup for you and some sandwich. If you want you can relax with
a headphone and music, then you can use this bone contact headphone with this
music device. Samaranand had come across such headphone which is not put on the
ears bout on bone.
Bone conduction allows
one to hear sound through the vibration of the bones of ones face
,jaw bones and cheek bones. This means that
the sound waves are bypassing the outer and middle ear ,where the eardrum is
located, and directly stimulating the inner ear ,hearing organ..
He took the headphone and
the device sat on a sofa by the wall, he watched the activities from a
distance, Mr.Dey was busy in instructing the staff.
Samaranand knew that he is
now a captive of this group which does not look like criminals. Soumaya was
still not traceable. What was in store for him, may be next day when Mr.Dey
discusses then he would know. As such he was feeling pretty weak, waited for
his dinner while listening to his favourite Rabindrasangeet in the device. The
listening device was clamped behind his ears and the music was smoothly wafting
in through the bones, as such he could hear the murmur of the office through
his ears. Another long wait…..
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