The confession of a thief

The confession of a thief

Babulal ,my assistant called me.

"Sir,I want to meet you. I have an interesting diary with me . It is written in English."

I asked him why he thought it was interesting.

He informed me that it was written by a thief.

He came to my flat with the diary.

I asked him how he could get the diary. With a mysterious smile he said he knew the thief and on a suitable day he would introduce him to me.

Eagerly I started reading the notebook ,it was not a diary ,it was a leather bound frayed notebook. 

I come from Mofussil town near Siuri,Birbhum.

We were four close friends:Bhabla,Poltu and Tuku.I was good at studies and my father had a grocery shop in the market. From childhood I have noticed how my father used various locks for the shop and keeping money in the safe. I have been playing with locks and keys since my childhood and tried to figure out how those locks worked. I would go to a locksmith's shop to know more.

He explained to me how a tumbler lock worked.I came to know that when a key is inserted then it would move the individual levers into the appropriate position. As I was visiting him regularly I gained his confidence,also he knew I come from a respectable family.

I studied various types of old historical locks which often came to his shop.I designed some tools which could be used to open any lock.

I experimented with my tool in opening my father's safe, I didn't steal Iany money. It was for fun.

But that skill was not known to my friends.

Bhabla was bad in studies, he would copy my homework. Somehow he could pass through class 7 but flunked in class 8.

 My coaching didn't help,he flunked again.

Somehow his passing became my challenge. Then I planned to steal  the question papers from the school. I told my friends about my plan.

We went to the school before the examination in the night,my friends kept the guard engaged and I with the help of my special tool opened the lock of the  door of the room of the principal and also the almirah in which the question papers were kept. I was carrying a notebook in which I copied the questions and then locked the almirah and the door.

Poltu noticed me coming out,he signalled to Bhabla and Tuku. Thus having got the question papers we all forced Bhabla to mug the answers of the questions,not all questions but the easy ones which In the meanwhile Tukuwere enough to get a passing mark.

Having achieved my first lock breaking other than my father's lock I became confident.

I started looking for a challenge. 

One day we were returning from the football field. That time 40 years back I was to appear in higher secondary, when we noticed a poor farmer was crying in his hut. We approached him,he told us that by the next day he would lose his 4 acres of land if he didn't return 20000 the loan which he had taken from the loan shark Bijon Sil.

We went back to my house where every day we spent time after football,my mother would serve muri mixed with a tasty mixture,onion,green chilli,ginger etc. 

I had a plan.I stole 20000 from my father's trunk, by the way those days the modern safe was not heard of in rural Bengal,It used to be big steel boxes locked by 7 levers  Aligarh lock which was supposed

to be the safest but for me to open any tumbler lock was a child's play.

Next day we gave that money to the farmer and went along with him to pay back the wily Sil.It was around 11 in the morning when we approached his walled gated property. When we told the purpose the guard allowed us to enter.Bhabla knew the guard so he stayed bacck to have a little chat.

Sil was in his drawing room reading the newspaper of the day and was surprised to see us with the farmer.He was more surprised when the farmer paid the money and asked for his legal document of his land. Sil had no choice because we were with him ,he counted the money, went  inside  his bedroom and heard him opening a trunk to keep the money,then heard the sound of opening the almirah to extract the legal document. He was looking grave as he missed the opportunity of grabbing the land of the poor farmer. He knew my father so didn't make much fuss.

In the meanwhile I had gone inside pretending to go to the toilet and cased the layout of his house.

He didn't even offer a glass of water to us,the rascal!

When we came out,Bhabla informed us that Sil takes opium so that he could get a sound sleep.

The farmer left happy and thanked us profusely!

We went to our football field and sat below our favourite banyan tree and hatched our next plan,I had to return 20000 to my father's safe by next 2 days as on Sunday's he would tally the cash.

Next evening Bhabla went to the gatekeeper when he was away and mixed datura with his daal which he had already prepared.

The plan was the datura which was easily available among wild trees. We had grinded a small quantity so that it was not lethal but was enough to knock him out unconscious.

That night stealthily we came to Sil's house. Bhabla and Poltu remained at the gate to take care of the gatekeeper. He was knocked out lying on the floor. We lifted him and put him on the bed.

Me and Tuku went to the house,it had an old style bolt inside. Silently I drilled a hole and eased out the bolt. 

Sil was in deep sleep after ingesting opium,the bunch of keys was bound around his waist,I smiled as I didn't require any key. I have my burglar tools.

I instructed Tuku to stand by the bed of Sil in case he got up.

On tiptoe I approached the trunk ,the lock was not even 7 levers. I could easily open the lock. Not only did I take 20000 ,I took most of the jewellery which poor people had pawned. Against each the names were written with addresses. I locked the almirah and the trunk.

I put everything in the rucksack which I was carrying.

Lucky that nothing abnormal happened. I bolted the door through the hole which had drilled and closed the hole by using the putty which I was carrying.

Thus my career was launched.

We returned those jewellery to the owners with a warning of not to disclose that they had got back those. I put back 20000 which I had borrowed from my father's trunk.

Sil realised those were missing when he opened his trunk to put fresh jewellery for giving loan but was puzzled as there was no sign of break-in.

Next week a story appeared in the local newspaper that a mysterious thief had come stealing from the rich without opening the safes. There was speculation that it could be a ghost. The paper went on to inform that the same type of stealing was reported from the adjoining area.

The local station house office of the police station  who was known to 

us was puzzled. He advised us to be vigilant,we promised to bring to his notice if we observed anything abnormal.

I passed my higher secondary and before moving to Kolkata for higher study I had to use my lock opening skill in our town under an odd condition. 

Well that's for another day.

The man from the moon

The man from moon

 Like every visit of ours in Australia this time too spent a day with Sharon and Dave who are like our extended family in Australia. Sharon is tomboyish and very much interested in outer space. Both call me Baba and my wife Ma as they are close friends of our son Anish.

She goes out of the way to help, recently they gave shelter to a drug addicted destitute girl. While discussing that girl she shared a weird story about a man whom her group has given shelter by rotation. 

This is what she told us.

One day our friend John brought a Caucasian man who was wearing an oxygen mask and was walking with a drag. John introduced  that man to us and requested to give shelter for a few days.He had a duffel bag . He had no identification papers except for a strange looking handheld gadget which he stated contains all information about him.

John separately told me that the previous night he found him loitering in his open acreage.John is a plumber by trade and is not much educated . That guy was talking about the moon.

Hearing about the moon I got interested so agreed to keep him in our house. 

After John left him,I accomodated him in Dave's man cave. I offered him food,he declined and pulled out an aluminium can and opened it to eat the pasty stuff inside.

I asked him about his country of origin.

He informed me that he had come from the moon.

"Moon? But the moon is not habitable yet. Recently India landed Chandrayan 3 which also didn't indicate any habitation."

With a twinkle in his eyes with a visible smile wrinkle behind his Oxygen mask he informed he is a time traveller and has come from 2091. 

"What a time traveller from 2091,but that means our scientists could establish habitable domes as shown in sci-fi movies. But how could you travel?"

"A group of us scientists stole a spaceship to do this experiment of time travel through a wormhole. We were lucky to locate such a wormhole which could take backwards to 2023. It was kind of an adventure for us. We don't intend to go back, there is no chance for that. At this time on earth the space travel technology for Interstellar movement is yet to get matured from experimental to working model. My 3 friends are out there like me."

"What are you eating and why are you walking with a drag? Are you sick,why do you require the Oxygen mask?"

He replied.

I will first tell you briefly about our domes where we 4000 people stay. You must be knowing that the moon has a thin atmosphere of helium,argon,neon,methane,ammonia,carbon dioxide. The gravity of the moon is ⅙ th of earth so you see me dragging as I am still to get habituated to this high gravity of earth. The earth's atmosphere has oxygen plus nitrogen,carbon dioxide etc but for survival 20 percent of oxygen is enough so our Aluminium domes with thick glass at the top are pressurised with 20% Oxygen. So as of now I am with this oxygen mask but gradually I will remove this.

Initially when the domes were getting made we carried big oxygen tanks from earth but now oxygen is by product from Aluminium refinery. As you know Aluminium Oxide has 3 atoms  of oxygen.

We don't grow crops instead we get these canisters of food which have all elements required for a human body with artificial taste and flavour chemicals from earth on a regular basis. Basically we manufacture aluminium and glass on the moon now.

There is regular tourist flow from earth and also some super rich people have made the moon as their second home. We get fugitives and social outcasts. The moon administration is with a private conglomerate consisting of super rich American,Saudi,Chinese,Indian etc.

Anything more do you want to know?

I asked whether he has any knowledge about earth in the intervening years.

He informed us that there had been wars, epidemics,asteroid strikes which kept the population in check. In that future the sun was the main source of energy on earth.

As I am a scientist so with your help it shouldn't be difficult to get citizenship as I can share my knowledge of the future technology.

When Sharon finished her strange experience I was eager to know more,so I asked her whether I could meet him.

She informed me that she got in touch with agencies and he is in their custody now.

I started imagining how people stay in those domes but then I realised that in India itself we have gated communities with all facilities thrown in such that one need not go out anytime with the work from home concept. I remember in Vizag I was with my family inside a submarine and had lunch with the captain. There he explained how for days they don't come in touch with land.

I told Sharon that if the moon would have been available then our fugitive billionaires would have taken shelter there.

I thought to myself that the ageing will be slow on the moon because of low gravity as strains on muscle will be low.

I am sure in 2091 many Indian super rich would be going to moon for destination marriage.Practically they will have honeymoon there.