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.

Virtually possible part 2, the deal

Virtually possible part 2, The deal

Santiniketan Express was about to pull out when Babulal and Soumaya entered the AC Chair car. Soumaya as usual was in his bomber jacket ,jeans with headphone strapped on his head , Babulal in light blue cardigan,jeans and a monkey cap lugging a rucksack on his back. He gave a broad smile to Samaranand. Soumaya took the window seat and Babulal took the middle seat next to samaranand who was occupying isle seat. 

“Finally we could seal the deal!” Babula said with a broad smile, he pulled out a bundle of two thousand rupee notes. Samaranad cautioned him with his eyes and gestured to put those back in his pocket.

Samaranand said, ‘’Yes,but let us not draw attention! I see, finally you could collect the other half of money from Sunil.”
"Yes last evening we collected the money, i left with the money but Soumaya stayed back to install the software."
The train started , Samaranand pulled out the book Sapiens and started reading, Soumaya took out his mobile and got busy playing video game, Babulal dosed off to sleep.
In the book repeatedly it was stressed that Sapiens are hunter and gatherer , he kept the book on the table in front and started thinking the events of the last few days, it was hunter and gatherer situation.

Samaranad’s mind flashed back to the lake and his usual morning walk . It happened the very next day after he had received the video of him being driver of Devanand in the song sequence of the film Hum Dono, Mein Zindagi ka sath...

He was walking fast on the track when he heard a hesitant cough, he looked back and found those two young men who were following him last few days were there. He stopped when one of them came forward and said, ‘’Can we talk?”

Samaranand pretended as though he did not get the drift of his talk,he raised his eye brows and asked,”About what?”

“About Babulal!”” the older of the two replied.

Samaranand thought there was no use of dodging it was better to face the problem squarely.

“Ok,let us sit down and talk!’’ He walked towards an empty bench by the side of lake.

The older guy introduced himself as Sunil Maity and his younger brother Anil.

-Anil knows Babulal well as Babulal with the help of Anil sells guess papers to 3 schools. We also know that there is one Soumaya who is a computer geek and has developed an algorithm for video where he can doctor it, mix new with old etc.

Samaranand;

-Why are you telling me all these. Why don’t you talk to Babulal as I know him casually and I am not involved in his business.

Sunil hesitantly said “We are not able to contact him but he had talked about you , how initially you helped him financially and looks up to you as a mentor. When you solved that case about planchet then he brought some of his friend to lake and showed you from a distance. One of them has identified you to Anil when we could not locate Babaulal, so that is why we have been following you lest Babulal meets you. Will you help to fix a meeting with Babulal? We have a better commercial proposition than what we offered last.”

Samaranand also wanted to close the issue and also thought it was a small algorithm developed by Soumaya and nothing further, so if those two boys could make some money from that deal then it would help Soumaya to purchase some modern computer hardware to develop video games which was his ultimate goal.

Samaranad said,’Ok, I will discuss with them and come to your office. Babulal told me that you run your office from your house in Lansdown and he knows the location of your house. He will call you and fix the time.”

Sunil ,the elder brother was happy and said, “’Let me promise you that you won’t repent!””

Samaranand had already judged Sunil and Anil, they were typical upper class Bengali with big ancestral property, as a matter of fact these type of young men only are getting into IT, cable or restaurant business. Their life style is sustained by the rents what is collected from the buildings they own, very often he had come across such characters in golf course. He was confident to handle them.

Those two young men left and Samaranand rang up Babulal and gave him some instructions about the meeting fixed for the next day.

Next day all three went to Sunils house at Lansdown. It was a sprawling old house. It looked as though the house had been renovated recently, it was a four storied building with a portico in the front. Gopal stopped the car in front of the gate, opened the big iron grilled gate and parked the car under the portico. Hearing the sound of the car both brothers came out with a third person who looked to be a Marwari guy.

They were ushered in a big drawing room with high ceiling. Samaranand could see the hooks for hand pulled pankha on the ceiling, now of course  modern fans with long down rods were hanging from the ceiling. In the front there were big windows and three doors of which two at two ends leading to inner sanctum.. It reminded him of his own ancestral red bricked house in Allahabad. The furniture were mix of antique and modern. The sofas were old style ,wide and leathery with a marble center table. The walls were decorated by pictures of ancestors and some paintings of English painters. Samaranad thought it was a classic Satyajit Ray movie setup with a big piano and brass phone missing. He was impressed. Babulal and Soumaya were totally nonplussed, they were just gaping at those trophies, antiques , wall hangings. Samaranad approached the sofa with those three when Babulal and Soumaya started going round the walls and touching those antiques.

“I am impressed by your this drawing room, how old is your house?’

“It’s about 150 years old! My great great grandfather built it, he was a stevedore , with his own company and warehouse along Khidirpur   dock. Now of course we have sold that company, so many other ports have come up in India, the business opportunities have reduced with major old English companies of Kolkata going bust .”

“Yes I know some of those old company owners who still do the job of stevedore in addition to expanding in restaurant or some other such business. I have come across them at Tolly Club.”

In the meanwhile Babulal and Soumaya after taking round of the room came and sat by the side of Samaranand.

‘Ok what is your proposition?”’

‘”We know that Babulal and Soumaya has no reach in the society. Initially we want to sell the products, I mean videos made to order in close circle. Let me introduce Khaitan who as you know is from a business community where there is a big community link. We can share 5 percent from that earning.”

“”But how much is the up front? Plus how do we know how many you have sold and at what price?”

“’We have not yet decided about the price as it will vary from  case to case plus the buying capacity of the person.”

“I suggest that you pay an amount of 50 lakhs to Babulal and Soumaya as upfront , we don’t bother about how much you earn. Let it be one-time deal as it will be difficult for us to monitor your day to day activity plus we want to be disassociated after signing the confidentiality clause of the deal. The software will be yours to use the way you think commercially viable.”

“That’s too much, you give us time till tomorrow to decide.”

“Ok, we meet the same time tomorrow.” Samaranand got up, Babulal and Soumaya followed him.

Those three walked them out to their car. When the car came out of the gate Samaranand asked Gopal to stop the car. He got down with Babulal and walked towards the beggar woman. It was Pagli, he gave a ten rupee note to her and Baulal hunched before her and started talking in low voice. Samaranand walked back to the car and after sometimes Babulal joined him.

In the evening they met at Samarnand’s flat in Golf Green and discussed strategy to fix the price.

Next day at the same house in Lansdown they had the meeting. 

“We can offer you 25 lakhs with a promise that if there is any glitch then Soumaya will help to solve it.”

Samaranand was happy that talk was going as per his scheme, at least the offer has jumped to 25 lakhs from their initial offer of one lakh.

“’In yesterday’s talk Soumaya’s requirement was not there so you pay 20 lakhs for that and the amount becomes 45 lakhs, it is less than what we asked yesterday.”

“Let seal the deal at 40 Lakhs.”” Khaitan said.

“You pay 20 lakhs now and Soumaya leaves the hard disc with you. When you pay the other half he would help to install in your main frame. If you want we can sign the contract on a stamped paper.” Samaranand said.

Khaitan pulled out a paper with the amount already written, Babulal and Soumaya signed as co-owner, Sunil and Khaitan signed from their side. They handed over a brief case full of money and asked Babulal to count. Soumaya handed over the hard disc.  They all shook hand over a cup of tea.

Samaranad jerked back to present hearing jhali muri fellow shouting near their seat. 
 It was Soumay’s idea to give a treat to Samaranand, they knew he loved to go to Santiniketan and so the trip. Soumaya had duly installed the software next day and both collected the remaining money.

Samaranand patted Babulal for his bright idea of bugging the drawing room of Sunil. When they first entered then both Babulal and Soumaya were busy in putting bug behind those big picture frames but pretending to be awed by those pictures. In the morning of the same day Babulal had instructed Pagli the beggar woman who generally sits in front of the lake to station herself in front of that house in Lansdown Road.While coming out he handed over the recording device to pagli, as the bug cannot transmit beyond 100 meters so it was required to position someone within 100 meter range. The same day evening Babulal collected the device from her and played back the same during their strategy session. From that recording they could know that Khaitan had already contacted ad agencies to make videos with the software. The acquaintance angle was red herring,as Samaranand had given an offer of 50 lakhs so they decided that they could go between 30 to 40 lakhs rupees. Having known their internal discussion it was easy for Samaranand to pull off the deal. The bugs were not touched, pagli was permanently placed in front of the house in Lansdown Road.

The train left the platform, Babulal and Soumaya exchanged seats. Soumaya took out his lap top with a wifi dongle and fired it up. Then he started teaching Samaranad a video game called Tomb Raider . He created an Avatar for Samaranad who looked like a Chinese warrior and then he showed him his own Avatar, it was Tintin. In the game both are partners. Samaranand was thrilled like a child to learn that virtual game. Soumaya showed him a chat box at the side where they can discuss their strategy privately. He told him that both can play the game from any location. Samaranad got busy with the game by himself against some other players may be located at US,UK or any place in India.He did not notice that train had stopped, Soumaya got up to get down at the platform to stretch his leg, Babulal was snoring away.

The train started with a jolt, Babulal woke up and said “Where is Soumaya?’’

The train picked up full spead, Babulal checked the toilet,Soumaya was not there. They both split and searched the full vestibule train but Soumaya was not there.Soumaya had vanished.