Chapter 6 – The Ascent
“Are you alright dear?” the voice on the other end of the phone was distressed and it was Anitha.
“Of course mumma, don’t you worry! It’s just one of those days” Chavi tried to pacify her hyperventilating mom. There was reason for it too.
The equestrian incident had spread out of the school campus like wild fire and soon it reached the Kumar family residence within no time. It was out in the papers and some local television news broadcasters ensured that the incident created a flutter.
It is the human psyche that always yearns for excitement, no matter how short lived it might be.
All of us just love to disturb a giant flock of pigeons pecking peacefully at grains generously donated by patrons, only to enjoy a few seconds of excitement that runs through the air when the doves vacate their feeding grounds as a singular entity & come back as quickly as they left. The media does something just like that; it creates ripples in tranquil waters. News of the stallion incident had both Anitha and Sunil worried and while Sunil was on his way to the school, Anitha had called up the principal’s office who had summoned Chavi.
“Please be calm, it was just an accident; we have never had any such incident in the school’s history. The horse was a trained one and we are still investigating into what could have gone wrong” a calm looking Aadarsh Prasad was seen explaining to the dozens of concerned parents including Sunil.
“We want you to suspend the equestrian classes altogether” Sunil demanded
“Yeah, we send our children here to study not to ride on horses” another parent chipped in.
“Please gentlemen please; the ACE management is committed to the safety and welfare of all its students. As I told you, this had never occurred in the school’s 12 year history and I assure you on behalf of the school that this will not repeat” Aadarsh Prasad was having a tough time fending off angry parents.
“It better not Mr. Prasad, I assume I speak on everyone’s behalf that our children are everything to us and God forbid if any such incident occurs again, I will dedicate all my resources to shut his school down” one of the beleaguered parents threatened the ACE principal.
The equestrian classes were suspended for a while as the management decided that it was in its best interests to let the embers cool down.
“Listen Chavi” Sunil held her daughter by her arms.
“You don’t need to do anything if you don’t like to. The school cannot force you on horseback if you are not willing to. You will always have me and Anu to speak to; Right?”
“I know papa. It’s fine. I can take care of myself you know. Relax and ask mumma to take it easy. She sounded very worried today” Chavi assured Sunil just as he hopped onto his car on his way back home and Chavi watched the car disappear past the school’s huge gates.
The school was quick in resuming regular classes as a suspension of the same would be detrimental to bringing a sense of normalcy amongst the school’s students and even the faculty.
Room no 417 in the girls’ hostel would have no bigger than a regular hotel room and yet there was an enormous distance between its two inmates. Peeya had been completely ignoring Chavi’s existence in the room and Chavi never ever felt that her roommate wanted to share with her what had happened at the equestrian course.
The next morning, Chavi and her three friends meet in the library. Though Disha was a little reluctant to join the trio, she being the head girl and the senior and all, she was coaxed into joining them by a pursuant Praneethi and Pawan.
“Stallion kills his handler in Intl School near Bangalore” the morning tabloid Indian Standard reported and Pawan scoured the page for every detail though Chavi had given the best possible description of the incident to her only three friends in the school.
“Do you think the omens have started showing up again” Chavi put the question on the tiny forum.
“It is quite possible; but I wonder why it took 12 long years for them to show up and why?” Pawan responded as he had been thinking about the stallion incident for some time now.
“Have you guys ever heard of the word ‘accident’?” Disha wanted to curtail Chavi and Pawan’s growing curiosity about an incident that was seemingly about a stressed out horse.
“May be the handler used to abuse the horse, may be it had enough and decided to end it all for once” Praneethi tried to give it a rational explanation.
“Are you listening to yourself? You are watching way too many movies Pranee” Pawan chided her for her immaturity.
“The police need to investigate into this issue properly, this was definitely no accident. It looked like it was all orchestrated” Chavi was thinking on different lines.
“Obviously the management has already got the case closed using its clout. They don’t want the press go bad – mouthing about the school’s programs” Disha told in a matter of fact way.
“Hmmm… that’s for sure, but my gut says that this is not going to be the end of such things in the school” Pawan spoke like he was an oracle.
The school library is usually deserted on normal mornings since the kids do not believe in sacrificing their time at the mess hall which is probably the only place in the entire school where the supervision of the faculty is relaxed. That day the library had, apart from the foursome, the librarian, her help and a few other students for company.
The library was on the 3rd floor of the U shaped school building and the foursome had found seats near the window which gave them a splendid bird’s eye view of the assembly area and the large raised platform, alongside which the Principal’s office, the administrative office and the staff rooms were located.
While Pawan, Disha and Praneethi were engrossed with the news of the world, some movements in the deserted raised platform caught Chavi’s attention. It was Peeya, coming out of Aadarsh Prasad’s office.
“Hey guys, look!” Chavi turned the busy trio’s attention towards her mysterious roommate.
The three of them leaned towards the window to see Peeya, now timidly walking towards the assembly area from what looked like the principal’s office.
“The assembly is still a good 15 minutes away and we were the only four to come out of the mess early. I am sure no one else followed or led” said Pawan.
“I guess she might have got a call from….Oh my God!” Chavi ducked away from the window much to the trio’s surprise.
“I think she saw me, she turned her head up towards the window, how did she know?” Chavi whispered in a suppressed tone.
“Stop overreacting Chavi! We are three floors up, obviously it’s just a coincidence” Disha tried to allay Chavi’s fears.
“I guess you are right” Chavi looked down the window a second time and this time she could not find Peeya but she could see a stream of students gathering at the area for the morning assembly.
“Let’s go for now, shall we meet up after the classes? We will have at least 2 hours before reporting at our hostels. Moreover it’s Sunday tomorrow and we need to plan for our city visit” said Praneethi.
“We’ll meet at this garden restaurant ‘Baageecha’ in the city. It’s a nice secluded place and not many people know about it, it will be perfect for us to hangout” Pawan suggested.
So, it was decided that the foursome would be meeting at this old garden restaurant which was started by a retired army Subedar who was popularly called chacha by the young collegians who frequented this spot.
ACE made it a point to let its students take a trip downtown once in a month just to unwind and have some fun; responsibly of course under the distant supervision of their teachers in mufti.
It had been some time since the school had let out its students out but since things were not all that pleasant in the school, the management decided upon hastening this practice to avoid spreading the fear and hysteria amongst students and more importantly amongst the parents. The students will definitely have something good to say about the school once they are unleashed into the urban wilderness.
It was Sunday & Pawan was caught amidst the four girls who had decided that they would go about window shopping in the city. Poor chap had the moral responsibility of accompanying and safeguarding the three pretty girls from prying eyes. This meant spending intolerable amounts of time in ice cream shops, boutiques, and artificial jewelry.
“Aaw, come on females! I thought we had an agenda for today! It’s already been 4 hours and I don’t see anything in your hands. Do you even want to buy anything at all?” rued a dazed and tired Pawan much to the amusement of the giggling trio.
“Come come bro, we are almost done now, don’t have to be all that melodramatic. Let’s go meet your chacha” said the elder Disha.
“He is not my chacha” replied the grumpy ninth grader.
After a heartfelt roundabout of the shopping street, the girls and Pawan walk into the spacious restaurant with tables and chairs laid out under huge lawn umbrellas in the green lawn outside the hotel’s kitchen and a newly constructed air conditioned indoor restaurant. Baageecha on a typical Sunday afternoon was full of college students, especially of the love bird variety who craved for peace and seclusion. Hours together of sweet nothings would be exchanged over a couple of cups of coffee and if chacha was really lucky, they would order something to eat as well.
The chacha or Subedar Karim Siddiqui was a middle aged man with a pleasant face and a clean bald head. He had a distinct mark on his forehead indicating that he read his prayers regularly. He often would keep his shiny bald head exposed but sometimes his customers would catch him wear a skull cap and on some rare occasions he would also sport a fashionable fur cap. The lanky Karim would usually be dressed in simple & comfortable Patiala suits and his thick beard and moustache were flame red in color may be due to his habit of applying henna on his braid. He was someone who was hard to ignore even in a crowd.
Karim’s hotel was not very plush or over the top in its surrounding and ambience. There was an old world – homely charm to it. Karim made it a point that he welcomed anyone stepping into his sprawling green lawns with a broad smile and a nod of his head and in his absence, his manager or one of his three sons would do the honours. All the waiters were trained to be most patient and give the customers maximum space and time, after all Karim had accepted that the maximum of his revenue would be derived from innocuous college couples.
The foursome were greeted by the ever smiling Karim into Baagecha’s green lawns and a set of chairs, a round table and a huge beach umbrella at a corner of the lawn and by the side of a medium sized hedge seemed to beckon them towards it.
Chavi, Praneethi, Disha and Pawan quickly occupied their places around the table and took cursory glances at the menu cards placed by the waiter.
The waiter was accustomed to receiving orders very late and by natural instinct he backed away from the young crowd immediately after he had placed the menu cards, not that the foursome had anything specific in mind to order.
A few moments later, the girls ordered watermelon – mint smoothies while Pawan ordered an iced cappuccino.
“Now people! Coming back to the agenda, let’s not forget we are here today to discuss about the mysterious girl of room no 417, not you Chavi; Peeya Mukherjee” Pawan announced in a lowly circus side show manner to a crowd of three girls with raised eyebrows.
“You are so cheap, Pawan” Disha was quick in expressing her feelings.
“Alright then, let me summarize this..” Chavi went about loud - documenting the events that had led to the stallion incident right from the slaying of Richmond.
“I was just wondering guys, didn’t you say that Chavi’s parents were killed in a car crash when she was just a kid?” queried Chavi and it seemed like she was on to something or someone.
“Yeah that’s true, Peeya was born and brought up in an obscure town near Kolkata. Her family was like, big landlords or something and her father owned acres of land there. They were quite rich. Nothing much is known, but I heard rumors that Peeya was adopted” Pawan narrated to Chavi what was well known amongst the seniors in the school. Peeya, after all had been in the school for a very long time now.
“The whole family was killed with the car’s driver. It was messy; the car smashed right into a truck parked on the side of the highway. Some say, the driver was a little tipsy, while some say he was just very tired. The most weirdest account I have heard is that the car lights just went off seconds before the collision and the driver had lost control completely over the car and the next thing they know is a huge truck within inches of the car” Praneethi continued with a sense of terror in her eyes.
“Was Peeya in the car too?” queried Chavi.
“No, she was lucky. Apparently her mother threw her out the window in the nick of time before the car was blown to smithereens” told Disha.
“How old was she then?” Chavi had queried.
“Don’t know, if the loonie hasn’t lied about her age, then she could have been 2 – 3 years old back when the incident occurred” Pawan answered.
“Tell me Pawan, didn’t you say something about a girl of about 2 years back when the school foundation stone was being laid?” Chavi was definitely on track to finding out something amazing.
“Yeah it was when the first omen occurred. The D’Cousta dogs were just inches away from the girl, but somehow they did not go any further” Pawan replied.
“Any idea who that girl could have been?” Chavi put forward her stupendous question in front of the forum. “We don’t know, It could have been anyone for all I know. It was a huge party that day and all the trustees, guests and investors were present for the occasion” Praneethi answered.
“Is there any way we could trace out the guest list?” Chavi pondered out loudly.
“Are you kidding me? It happened a good 12 years back and moreover how the hell are we supposed to get hold of such a document?” Disha fumed.
“I have a hunch about this Disha di, trust me on this. Something’s definitely not right with my roomie” said Chavi.
“You mean, you suspect that little girl at the party was Peeya?” Praneethi almost gasped.
“I have a hunch like I said, not sure, first we must get to know when Peeya’s parents, if they were really what that, were killed in the car crash and when the school’s foundation stone was laid” Chavi said.
“Well the dates are not hard to trace, a simple search on the internet would give us some answers” Disha guided the ‘kid’.
“That just gives us part clarity, but most importantly, we must ascertain if Peeya’s parents were really her biological parents or she was indeed adopted as the rumors say” said Chavi.
“Well that sounds a bit out of our syllabus Chavi, how on earth are you going to find out about that? Peeya’s uncle and aunt live in faraway Kolkata and there is no way we can contact them. You don’t exactly have an equation with your roomie, do you?” Pawan was perplexed with what Chavi had come out with.
“Keep me out of this stuff, this is really stupid. Moreover what’s the need to play Sherlock Holmes now? Just finish the semester and get out of here for the vacations” Disha never had been a willing partner to such schemes.
It was a difficult proposition that Chavi had set for herself and her group of friends, but may be her brush with crime and justice in her hometown had spurred her on to spark off the inquisitive side in her. The usually retracted and introverted Chavi was slowly spreading out her wings and was showing signs of a very articulate detective, if one might call her that.
It only takes a moment for greatness to ascend; the efforts of the world & the universe culminate in the formation of something amazing and larger than life. There are several instances in everybody’s lives when they experience an inkling of greatness within them; a queer desire to fight ones’ inhibitions and fight the ebb. Chavi was now on the path of her ascension to something monumental for her and her close ones.