The ransom ....concluding part of The mask

The ransom

“Yes,yes we will call it Coronavirus !” Soumaya yelled with joy while his fingers played with the laptop like he was playing a piano key board.

Samaranand, Babulal and Soumaya were in Samaranand’s flat in Golf Green to catchup with  the progress of teaching a lesson to the owner of Pakheer Basha. The readers would recall that Babulal had visited Prantik in Bolpur , under guidance of Samaranand could lift the curtain on the mystery of dancing mask at night that was the doing of the owner to get the guest move out much before scheduled time. Samaranand’s friend Dinu and his family was one such victim.

Samaranand had promised Dinu that he would teach that Ghose ( owner of Pakheer Basha) fellow a lesson. After that talk Samaranand sent Babulal once again to Prantik to collect data about the past guests who stayed in Pakheer Basha and also to collect guest list and details of similar setups run through B& B (bed and breakfast) at Prantik.

Armed with the data he framed a plan with Babulal and Soumaya. Readers may know that Soumaya is a computer geek and a hacker. Initial plan was simple, it was to lower the rating of Pakheer Basha in all social media platforms like Google, Facebook, B& B page etc. This was in Soumaya’s domain of expertise. Soumaya also carries out rating enhancement through his cahoots in Tollygaunge and Sealdah slums. He has 50 boys who carryout this, Soumaya has given each a smartphone and pays for the monthly subscription, the boys are excited with this free phone so they happily carryout the task of putting like in FB,comment, star rating etc in Google and so on as instructed by Soumaya. All of them have established false identity in virtual network. In this particular case false identity would not work as the guest who really stayed there would have to give the rating as the owner Ghose was clever enough to tally the name with the guest list.

Armed with actual guest list Soumaya had a meeting with his team in Sealdah slum. One of the boys who was also savvy in computer pointed out that if they assume the guest name then their IP address can be tracked in case Ghose becomes suspicious and takes help of some IT expert. They also knew Ghose enhances the star rating with the help of such group. Then Soumaya had a bright idea of involving Lee from Chinatown who was also a fellow hacker.

Next they had a meeting with Lee at Big Boss restaurant in Tangra. Lee suggested to use his hacker friends in China who can carry out the rating war.

Soumaya kept Samaranand and Babulal aware of his plan.

 The group in China was given the names of the past guests of Pakheer Basha, Samaranand supplied the content as Chinese were not good in English. Initially 3 star was given by the Chinese group by phising the identity of one of the past guests, they were routing through Pakistan. Immediately within 6 hours someone gave 5 star and the average rating was maintained as 4.5 in Google. It was clear that Ghose had used his agency to neutralize the poor rating.They started the war on Google first. Then 4 of them gave 2 each and the average came down below 4, we all know anything below 4 is shunned. The game of Star War was hotting up between unknown players in the virtual battle field. They found in the meanwhile Ghose was trying to reply on each of the comment by promising to improve the performance. Within 2 days the rating of Pakheer Basha climbed down below 3. The group from China hacked B&B page and put adverse comment about the setup. The group had the list of guests of other such setups in Prantik, they praised those and started discouraging people from going to Pakheer Basha.

After a fortnight Babulal was again sent to Prantik to make a discreet inquiry about the result of the cyber-attack. From the Toto driver Khokon he gathered that Gopi was complaining that no new guests were coming, the owner was unhappy, as Gopi could not make them happy; he feared that he might lose the job.

Samaranand never wanted Gopi to lose job. So he advised Soumaya to suggest the Chinese group to directly meddle with the webpage of Pakheer Basha and other business which that business group controls.

Now the attack was direct, first they meddled with their computing system and thus all emails got screwed. Next they got into their data base and blocked it by using Ransomware.This virus caused total paralysis of the computing system in Ghose's establishment. Ghose could not carryout on line transactions, email etc.

Yes by this time reader must have understood that why Soumaya yelled and said, “We will call it coronavirus” as it came from China, of course not from Wuhan city of China.

Ghose received a Text message on his mobile informing him that if he doesn’t a pay a certain amount then he cannot retrieve his data. The amount was to be paid in cash and at a designated place in Tangra, which will be informed, to him later.

We are not aware of Ghose's reaction but from the Chinese group it was gathered by Soumaya that Ghose was compelled to pay a good sum of money to make his computer system normal.

Overnight the rating of Pakheer Basha started going up and within 4 days reached to 4.5.
A certain percentage of the money came to Soumaya who utilized that in purchasing some smart phones for his new recruit from the slums. He with his team of slum boys were on the lookout for new business area. They had less overhead so could under quote established players. In addition to rating enhancement they were engaged in cyber security also.
Samaranand with a twinkle in his eyes suggested,'Tap Ghose for cyber security job!" Babulal and Soumaya laughed out loudly !
All three headed for WOW,China at Park Street to celebrate as the mission was accomplished  with the help of friendly Chinese hackers!

Decoding the mask

Decoding the mask

“’The owner of Pakheer Basha at Prantik is a crook!’’ Samaranand said when he on his morning walk routine met his friend Dinu. Yes same Dinu who had to cut short his trip because of a mask. They were sitting on a bench by the side of lake when Samaranand was narrating his discovery. This time he had his assistant Babulal with him

Samaranand’s said, “You gave us the details like email id of the owner,mobile number of Gopi,and the location of the bungalow. I sent Babulal to Bolpur to nose around.” Then he looked at Babulal to tell his side of the story. 
Those who have been following exploits of Samaranand are aware that Babulal who had been assisting magicians, Sadhus in Delhi had run away from there and now with the help of computer wizard Soumaya is in various schemes of making money. He was helped by Samaranand to settle down in Kolkata and often does the legwork for Samaranand as he loves adventure. He is slightly built with modern spikey haircut. That day he was in jeans, sneakers and a bomber jacket. His appearance is ordinary and innocent, easily melts in a crowd.

Babulal coughed slightly and started his narration hesitantly.

Uncle (he calls Samaranand uncle) gave me all the details he collected from you and I rang up your nephew to get some details about Gopi. I came to know that Gopi is a son of a farmer and maintains the garden of the bungalow. He with his family stays in the outhouse, his school-going son is good in studies.He coordinates with the guests for food and local movement by totos (battery powered auto rickshaws). Your nephew Shubho mailed me a picture of the mask which you took while you first entered the bungalow. I got a similar mask made by an artisan in kumortuli.

I went to Bolpur and took a hotel accommodation near prantik, there are cheap lodgings available around that place. After checking in I did a quick reconnaissance of Pakheer Basha by taking a toto as suggested by uncle. On inquiring, the toto driver informed that Gopi has some fixed toto drivers who he calls. I became friendly with that toto driver Jhontu. I took him to a tea stall and fed him snacks. He promised that next day he would introduce me with one of those regular drivers of toto.

Next day Jhontu took me to the nearest toto stand at Prantik station and introduced me to Khokon. I was carrying the duplicate mask in a side bag when I went to meet Khokon. I used my charm to make friend with Khokon, I offered him imported cigarette which uncle had given me on his return from Australia.

Samaranand smiled and said, “As a ritual I purchase a pack of 10 Dunhill packets at Singapore. I gave one to Babulal, I have one for you too.”

“No, yar I have stopped smoking. “ Dinu said and then with his eyes he signaled Babulal to continue.

Babulal continues addressing Dinu.

I asked Khokon about your group , whether he remembers ferrying you. He remembered your group as you did not do any haggling with fare. He was feeling bad that you left abruptly but then informed that very next day a big group had come. It was one of those NRI ,Bengali groups. I got suspicious that how come very next day a group can come when your booking was still there. In the evening, I invited Khokon for dinner and drink. After a few peg he informed that Poltu is the most trusted toto driver of Gopi. That day while going to Kankali tala he had seen Gopi and Poltu in a huddle near the gate of Pakheer Basha and passed on an opbject looking like a mask. I pulled out the duplicate mask, and showed him , he jumped up in his chair and confirmed that it was the mask.

I requested him to introduce me to Poltu. Next day Khokon took me  to the same toto stand near Prantik and introduced me to Poltu as  cousin brother. Poltu suspiciously looked at me, I gave him a broad smile. I hired him for Kankali tala. He was silently driving, we were passing the serene mustard field there was not much crowd on the road, and occasionally overloaded bus would pass. I put on the mask and tapped Poltu. He looked back gave out a gurgling sound and stopped the toto. He was of average height with shifty eyes.

“Who gave you that mask?” Poltu shouted at me.

“Who else, Gopi.”I said.

“How can he give you the mask, you are a new person."

I removed the mask and sternly said, "I am from police" and showed him my false id card. 

"A few days back you hired a boy to pretend to sell the mask to an elderly passenger at Kankali tala. He had reported to police.I have been sent to inquire."

Poltu was on his knees, started babbling, "If i go to jail who would look after my old parents. This Gopi fellow asked me to play the prank on that gentleman."

"How frequently do you do the mask drama?"

"Mostly during busy tourist season."

"Then what happens?"

"Mostly next day the tourists leave Pakheer Basha."

I asked him to return back and instructed him to bring Gopi to me or otherwise i would be compelled to arrest him.
Pronto by evening time Poltu brought the caretaker Gopi to my room in the lodge. Gopi was a thin fellow , average height of 5ft 5inches with a shabby pant, torn sweater and sandals. In the meanwhile i had befriended a local policeman and requested him to be there in my room as i was going to expose a scam.
In presence of Gopi i told the constable that here was the culprit of the scam about which i was telling him. Gopi was in tears and i could sense that Poltu had already briefed him. With folded hand he said, "I am a poor man. I have to feed my family so i did whatever my master from Kolkata instructed."
Tell me ," did you you stage the mask fiasco in the night."
"The ground floor bedroom has a sliding door in the cupboard from the adjoining room. I took off the mask from the wall, entered the room and breathed down on memsahib with the mask on my face. by the time she was stirring up quietly i got in the cupboard and came out."
"You must be doing this often to scare away guests. Let me guess you then went up and repeated the act with others.But then how did you get out when all assembled in the hall?"
"That was not difficult sir, i went down the pipe from the balcony"' He told sheepishly.
Thus my investigation completed, i have been reporting the progress regularly to uncle. I asked the constable to deal with the situation. I am sure that the constable might have taken some money from Dinu and left him scot free.
Dinu was seething with anger as cunningly they had been fooled , he asked, "why did they do this to us?"
"First you have picked  a fight , given low star rating and secondly they must have charged a tidy some from the NRI group. As we know for such short booking there is surge pricing in hotels and such places which is much higher than what you had paid as you booked 2 months in advance.." Samaranand explained patiently.
"So they have been doing this trick during peak seasons."Dinu asked.
"Yes, also i checked in Google about your giving 3 stars rating to Pakheer Basha. Immediately within 4 hours of your posting there was another posting giving 5 star to the joint. The average of 4.4 star was thus maintained."
"It means they have lackeys who boost up the star ratings in all such platforms, rascals!" Dinu said brightly.
"Yes, haven't you noticed those advertisement about work from home earning for house wives and retired person. There are agencies who manipulate ratings by utilizing ids of such individuals against some monthly sum. These people retweet, give like in Face Book, manipulate ratings in all kind of virtual platforms." Samaranand explained patiently.
"How to teach a lesson to this rascal?" Dinu looked at Saranand and Babulal.
"Uncle has a plan!"Babulal said with a broad smile.
Yes,Samaranand has a plan to screw those rascals.

The mask

The Mask

“Yes we had to cut short our stay in Bolpur because of a mask!” exasperatedly told Dinu.

Samaranand was surprised to see Dinu taking a morning walk in his usual grey tracksuit and a black fleece hoody that day. When he last met, Dinu a few days back then he informed Samaranand that he would be away for a week or so to Bolpur where his brother with his family from Delhi would join. His nephew had booked a bungalow called “Pakheer basha “ ( Bird’s nest ) through B&B at Prantik. But to his surprise found Dinu taking walk within 3 days of his tour which was of more than seven days.

On inquiring the reason of Dinu’s early return, he got the answer.

Sensing an interesting story Samaranand invited Dinu to a bench by the side of the lake and eagerly asked ,”Tell me the story of mask !”

Dinu coughed and looked sheepishly at Samaranand and said you , “You will not believe as you are a rationalist !”

Samaranand laughed out loudly , winked at Dinu and said , “Even an interesting ghost story or supernatural would have some logic. Come on tell me in full, don’t leave any small detail.’’

Dinu started telling about his trip to Santiniketan.

Me and my wife reached by 9 am to Howrah station to Catch Santiniketan Express which leaves at 10.10 am from platform 12. We asked our driver to wait and trooped to the Food Plaza for breakfast. Had alooparatha my favourite.

Dinu took a breath and mischievously looked at samaranand and said ,” Look I am not leaving any detail!”

Samaranand smiled and said “”continue, leave the semantics .”

Dinu continued…

We got in the chair car and occupied our seats 45 and 46 in Coach C2 . The train started as scheduled. In front of us a group of six oldies with wives were travelling and were noisy as hell. I couldn’t concentrate in reading the book by Jeffrey Archer  “Nothing Ventured”, my wife was trying to get sleep in the window seat. The train reached on time at 12.30  and Bappa was there to receive.

We took a toto after haggling for fare, we reached near Camelia but then the toto driver was not able to locate the Pakheer Basha. He took guidance from some local youth and took a kuch pakka road deep inside Prantik.

Samaranand said, “I know Camelia hotel, I had stayed there many times about 20 years back, Prantik was just getting developed, a few scattered houses could be seen from the hotel.”’

Dinu continued..

Now Prantik is full of Bungalows but the connecting roads are bad.

We reached the destination , my brother and his family were already there. Two bedrooms in first floor and one in ground floor, we took the ground floor bedroom. The living room,drawing room and dinning room combined is a big hall. One of the walls of the drawing room is decorated with various masks, some of those are scary one. I commented that the house owner must have put CCTV camera behind one of those masks.

Samaranand stopped Dinu and commented, “”Are those chau dance masks, typical of Bengal.”

“No, there was not a single of Chau kind, those were pretty scarry. I asked Gopi the caretaker about those masks and pointed a particular black mask, where can I get one like that?’’

He told that those masks are not available in local ethnic markets. We finished our lunch quickly. We were famished so did not bother about the quality of food.  Took rest and then called totos through Gopi to take round of Sona Jhuri market. The journey by toto through that kacha pakka road was bone breaking . After marketing we headed back through the same pot holed road. I was irritated because of bumpy journey, I was cursing myself for not checking the location prior to booking. The dinner was terrible, it appears that all these B&B type bungalows get their food from a common kitchen which  must be a typical Bengali roadside joint of cheap type. My nephew lost cool and sent angry email to the owner. I started reviewing Pakheer Basha in Google , gave three stars, before posting it I looked at the mask and said loudly I am giving 3 stars, I wanted to give 2 stars but the bungalow with it’s amenities compelled me to give 3.

The breakfast was worst, half-cooked puri. My nephew informed that the owner has replied and put the onus back on us saying we had a choice to go elsewhere. I was not expecting such reply when we know that there is dog eat dog meat competition out there in the market.

We took toto and headed for Kankalitala. As usual the toto was organised by Gopi,the caretaker. We reached Kankalitala in 20 minutes. While taking round of the market by the side of temple I was approached by a boy who pulled out a black mask like the one hanging in the bungalow and asked whether I was interested in buying. I asked him to wait and took out my mobile to take a snap, when I turned the boy had vanished. I was flummoxed, I patted my trouser pocket to check whether my wallet was still there. I narrated this incident to my brother and nephew. They thought I was pulling their leg.

We spent two hours at the temple, took snaps. Kankali tala is one the 51 shakti piths, it is said that Devi’s rib cage had fallen here.

“’Yes I know the mythology. As we know Lord Shiva was seething with anger on sati’s death, he was doing his earth shattering tandav dance. All the Devas approached Vishnu to find a solution. All of them came to the conclusion that until the dead body of Devi is not removed Shiva would not cool down. Vishnu with his Sudershan chakra dissected the body of sati, those 51 parts thus cut fell throughout India and each place had become a Pithasthan, Hindu devotees throng to those 51 pithasthans. Satis two parts fell in Pakistan, then of course it was India. Those two places are Hinglaj and Shivakaraya, many devotees from India go on pilgrimage to those places.”” Samaranand added.

Dinu continued;
After finishing round of Kankalitala we headed for tourist lodge for lunch, we wanted to avoid lunch in Pakheer Bashaa because of bad experience. We spent rest of the day going round Tagore's abode, Santiniketan.
Before dinner we had a few pegs while again the masks on the wall were looking down at us. I lifted the glass and said, ' Cheers"'  to the mask. After a drink we asked Gopi to serve dinner. As usual it was bad. My nephew Shubho again sent an angry email.
It was getting late, we hit the bed. My wife who is a light sleeper suddenly got up  and woke me up. 
"There is someone in the room. I have clearly seen that black mask breathing down on my face."
I got down from the bed and searched the room including looking below the bed. There was no one. I opened the connecting door to the drawing room, switched on the light and went to the wall, the mask was missing. Hearing us moving in drawing room my bother and Shubho came down. They too were shaken as the mask was seen by them too either in the far corner dancing or looking at them through the window. We shouted for Gopi,he came from the outhouse rubbing his sleepy eyes. We were all agitated and confronted him. He showed total ignorance about the mask incident. We could not sleep properly in the night.
During breakfast we decided to leave for Calcutta, we had paid money in advance so Shubho once again spoke to the owner regarding our decision of vacating the rooms earler than schedule. That rascal told that he can refund ten percent of the balance money. He knew anyhow we would leave so blackmailed us. Somehow we managed to get reservation in ordinary chair car of Santiniketan Express for our return to Kolkata.
Samaranand is a rationalist and does not believe in supernatural so his binary mind was busy in finding a logical reason, he believes in black and white, there is no place for grey.
Samaranand decided to find out the truth about the incidence of Mask at Prantik. He immediately rang up his assistant Babulal and started making programme for Santiniketan.
"I will go to the root of the mask mystery!" Samaranad said with resolve to Dinu.