The companion

 Kaushikbabu was in slumber in front of his TV in the drawing room, his caregiver a woman from the agency had gone out. He was running temperature since two days but he was sure it was not Covid as he had no related symptoms like not able to smell, body pain etc. He was 85 years old and a widower, his wife died 6 years back, his only son who had not married was a marine biologist was in Alaska. Whenever his son would give ring via WhatsApp, he would see his laboratory in snow clad mountain and lake. He often jokingly ask Bikash his son, “How is your Ice station Zebra?” Alister Maclean was one of his favorite writers. As such, he was fond of spy thrillers, James Bond was his favorite character. While watching TV, mostly spy movies he would assume the role of the spy. While not watching TV he would construct a spy story in his mind where he would be outwitting the spy of the enemy country. He as a spy would imagine playing roulette in some casino. In real life, he first visited a casino was in Kathmandu hotel, Soaltee , those days in 60s that was the nearest Casino of course at a later stage he visited casino in Schiphol airport of Amsterdam. As he had visited most of the cities of Europe so in his imaginary incidences he either would be riding bike in Amsterdam or would chase through the narrow lanes of Paris. That day also he was daydreaming about his adventure in Red Square, Moscow when the front door opened. He was not wearing his specs, a blurred figure wrapped in white from head to toe entered. He could make out the person was not his caregiver but someone else. “Mr.Bose you have Corona and I have come to take care of you. I am in PP kit so you are not able to see my face. I have asked your caregiver to go home. I have collected her mobile number and when you become alright I will give call to her.”’ Kaushik Bose was still in half sleep condition and spy chasing mode, he lifted his right hand in a way as though he was holding a Walter PPK revolver and shot an imaginary bullet at the intruder by making a sound, “Bang”. The PP clad intruder played along and feigned to have got hit, slowly crumbled down with sound “Ah”. Kaushik Babu by this time was fully awake tried to understand the situation. As such in his house the costliest thing was a 40 inches LED TV. His son had donated all his mother’s ornaments to Ramkrishna Mission. Most of his money was tied up in various term deposits which were fetching him monthly interest enough to run his monthly expenditure including the maintenance charges of the society. So he was not perturbed with the new situation of the intruder, there was nothing to lose. “I will take care of you, I have brought fresh vegetables , fish and egg. I will be here till you become well.’’ “But I don’t have Covid !” “Yes, you have, here is the RTPCR, I have emailed a copy to the society office so that this flat could be quarantined. Tomorrow sanitary people from municipality would come for sanitizing the flat and the corridor in front. Now no one would come near the flat from this complex.’ Kaushikbabu realized that he was a captive but he was liking the situation and wanted to play along.In his imaginery situations he had been in tight corner many times and came out successfuly from such situations. It was evening already so that guy who informed that he can be called as Tinu had removed his PP kit and prepared tea for Kaushikbabu.Kaushikbabu could see that Tinu was a youngman of thirty years or so age. Tinu helped him to get up and go to bathroom for freshening up. Tinu asked him what kind of food he would like to have for dinner. Kaushikbabu generally ate one chapatti and a lightly cooked subzi with less masala. Tinu in the meanwhile informed him that he need not be scared as he was not really a care giver but wants to spend a fortnight in his house. He had no bad intention but he would do all those things what that caregiving woman was doing. For Kaushik Babu it was a change from that dull woman to this educated youth. Tinu knew his routine so put him to bed by 10 PM after allowing him to watch his favorite OTT platform Netflix. He watched a spy thriller as usual and Tinu too joined him. While watching TV Kaushikbabu kept talking about James Bond when Tinu informed him that he liked Jason Bourne. First time after a long time Kaushikbabu got a good sleep even with the unknown young man in the flat. He could hear Tinu talking to someone through his mobile , with that low volume conversation wafting from the adjoining drawing room, he fell asleep. That singsong sound acted as a lullaby to him. At midnight, he could feel Tinu entered his room to check. Next day morning Tinu helped him to bathroom and was there whenever he needed. Kaushikbabu was not interested in latest news so Tinu did not force him to watch any news channel. Kaushikbabu wanted to discuss about books and was surprised to find that Tinu was well read. Tinu’s favorite character was Sarat Chandra’s Devdas but Kaushik Babu liked Srikanta. Before James Bond appeared in 60s Kaushik Babu would imagine himself to be Srikanta who moved from place to place with an overnight sling bag. In Srikanta’s gypsy like life women played important role. In case of Devdas too women played important role. Both of them got into analyzing each of the characters. Kaushikbabu had collection of Sarat Chandra Chatterjee’s books, Tinu would read loudly from those books for him.For the first ime Kaushikbabu realized the importance of mental fodder which he was not getting since his wife died and his son took the oversea assignment. Somedays they would discuss about Hitchcock movies , Hrithik Ghatak or Guru Dutt"s movies. Tinu was fond of the writings of Samaresh Majumdar and he loved Kaal Bela,Moushalkal. Kaushikbabu had read those books and slowly he was getting the idea of who Tinu was. Tinu was no criminal he deduced; his reading detective books helped him to asses Tinu. He had showed least interest about his bank balance rather he was spending money to get vegetables through Big basket. They would leave the commodity at the society gate and Dilip , the sweeper would pick those up and keep outside the flat. As such, the 80 odd occupants of the flats would rarely come out because of fear of Corona. A close group of 10 families who originally came in 1988 would keep in touch with each other. Kaushik Babu did not fall in that coterie, so he was more or less isolated. No one could know that someone had entered wearing PP kit and had not gone out. Kaushik Babu smiled to himself while analyzing the typical situation where he was virtually in captive condition but the neighbors were not aware of it. It was a typical situation in big metros where neighbors rarely keep information about others, as they were too busy in balancing their own complex life. Added to that Covid had created a situation with lock down thrown in where most of the people were scared to step out of the sanctuary of their house. Honestly, Kaushik Babu was feeling free because his mind could imagine various other things away from his imagination of him being a deadly spy with license to kill. He knew someday Tinu would leave him but until then he wanted to have more time with him. He knew it was Stockholm syndrome as hostage he had developed a special bond with the captor. Tinu also started becoming fond of the old lonely man. He scanned the net to pick up interesting facts to share with Kaushik Babu. The intelligent questions raised by Kaushik Babu forced him to brush-up his own knowledge. He knew his time was slowly getting over and had to leave for the next mission. After a fortnight Kaushik Babu found a letter on his bed in the morning. ‘Uncle, I had to leave though I wanted to spend more time with you. Your caregiver will come today. I have kept fresh vegetable, egg for her to cook. Please take care. I may come some day when everything becomes normal. Tinu Kaushik Babu heard the door open and the woman Ritu come in. He was in mental shock as though he had lost some close relative. That slice of life what Tinu gave him would not come back. He wanted Tinu to visit him regularly but didn’t know how to contact him. He wished Tinu all well in his mission which he knew would not be successful, many bright boys of Bengal dreamt for such change of society but the materialistic world has buried those idealistic thoughts.

. Note; The books mentioned Kaal Bel and Moushalkal written by Samaresh Majumdar were about Naxal movement in Bengal.