Four Years on....

 

I came to Chennai in March, 2020. It is now 4 years since I settled in the city that was my home at various periods of time in my life. Initially from 1974 to 1977, while I studied for my under-graduation in Science from D. G. Vaishnav College, Arumbakkam. Then from 1981-82, while I did my post-graduation in Industrial Engineering from National Productivity Council's training institute in Kilpauk, Chennai. Though to be fair, I was in Chennai only for 15 months of those two years; the balance 9 months I spent in Bhopal where I was posted at the Regional Directorate there as a trainee. After joining NPC, I was posted to Hyderabad and I requested for a transfer to Chennai in 1986. So from 1986 to 1995, my base was in Chennai, but since the job required long absences due to consultancy assignments I used to be away from Chennai for months or weeks at a time. Anyway, home was Chennai. In 1996 I shifted my family to Bangalore and my home was there; though again my work would take me to different locations around India. Be that as it may, in 2019, my wife and I decided that we need to now come to our own flat in Chennai, where we hadn't lived at all since we bought it back in 1993. That's how after nearly 26 years, we moved to Chennai and now it is 4 years since we shifted home. Hopefully this would be my last 'shift'.

Even during the periods when I was away from Chennai, my parents, my sisters and other relatives continued to be in Chennai and that brought our family to this city quite regularly. I have seen the city grow (whether this is appropriate or not, it has definitely grown in population and area) over the last nearly 50 years since I came to Chennai as a young adult.

There are many things to like about this city; and many areas where the local government could do more to make our lives livable. This is also true of all cities in India, definitely; but could also be true of all cities around the world. One of the most important aspects that the local governments could do for major cities in India is lay decent pavements/sidewalks for people to walk. Most roads in Indian cities are poorly designed for pedestrians. It is as if the city is built, expanded, developed, and grown only for vehicles. If in any locality any road has to be widened, it is the pavement/sidewalk that is 'encroached' by the local government.

Anyway, my blog is about what my experiences have been over the last 4 years since I shifted to Chennai. I landed here with my belongings in the first week of March 2020. Within about 3 weeks Covid 19 struck the world and our PM announced lockdown across the country. We had about 3 days 'notice' since there was one day of a mock lockdown to test how the citizens would respond. The initial days were tough since we didn't know anything about this virus and its transmissibility. There were many TV 'experts' and YouTube 'advisors' videos about this; many honest attempts to educate the people, but quite a few were by half-baked idiots showing off their knowledge (later we realized that this was fear mongering). My wife and I remained confined indoors till August 2020 - a five month period when we both hardly ever stepped out of our doors. 

Covid 19 brought 'work from home' for many people who were employed and my children would often communicate with us about how they were coping up abroad. My elder son in Bangalore too followed our advise and remained confined at home.

Luckily processes were immediately put in place to minimise inconveniences regarding groceries and essentials and we were hardly ever put to any difficulty. I cannot vouch for other people around the country and images and visuals of migrants' return to their homeland on foot were heart-rending. But this blog post is not about others; it is personal. My wife and I escaped Covid 19 for two years. However, in early June 2022 we attended an event and I contracted Covid. That wasn't severe since I had already been vaccinated in 2021. The illness was mild and within a short while I recovered.

What changed within me due to Covid 19? That is the question that I have often thought about. So what changed? I think we saw what a pandemic can do to the common man and what the challenges were posed to the administrators around the country. Importantly, I stopped believing the 'experts' and 'advisors' on YouTube and WhatsApp forwards. On medical and science matters, I refer to my friends who have been studying and practicing their expertise. I have started being careful about cleanliness - more than what I used to practice earlier. I buy hand sanitizer and carry that during my journeys and travels and sanitize my hands. I also became regular in writing my blogs (thankfully! 😊). I have started listening to political speeches, press meets, and interviews on YouTube (experts, not pseudo experts) during my morning walks. Hopefully in our lifetime this will be the last pandemic that we will face! 🤞

 

Black Swan

 

We know of swans as white. In Hinduism, it is accorded a special place as a "vaahan" (vehicle) for Goddess Saraswathi (goddess of learning and music). Most depictions of swans are as a white bird. It also symbolises purity of thought and action. Purity of the soul. Probably, 3000 years ago, white was the colour of purity and black the colour of "rakshas"... (Picture of white swan from here)


Europeans, too, thought there were only white swans in the world.  If someone wanted to signify an event which would have a very, very low probability of occurrence, he would say, "it will happen when I see a black swan". Things went swimmingly, until someone found black swans to be native of Australia and New Zealand sometime in the early 18th century, perhaps. The shock and surprise was complete. Black swans did not come with an adjective of high improbability. They were just not native to Europe, but not rare at all.

The consequences of such realizations have been the subject of a book by Nassim Nicholas Taleb (more details here) and the title of his book is appropriately "The Black Swan, The Impact of the Highly Improbable". It has attracted the attention of people in Wall Street and academia who have come to recognize in this book the near impracticality of predicting "black swan events" - events that are extremely rare, but whose impact is far-reaching and probably global. (Image of black swan from here).

Extreme examples are 9/11 and the aftermath in terms of war, increased security, man-hunt and the changes that we see to this day - 11 years on. More recently, we had the Covid 19 pandemic that ravaged the world and killed millions within a very short time - probably of the scale of a world war. On the positive side, we have Internet, Google, mobile telecommunication (especially in India), and the rapid technological changes it has wrought in society and business as a result.

Could anyone have predicted these? There is someone who has, strangely. A futurologist called Ray Kurzweil (more here) who has been able to predict many "black swan" events with timelines. Among his predictions was the power of internet, wireless communication and internet access, nano-technology, and power of chess programs to routinely win against the best humans. His predictions are here.

Of interest to me is not these phenomena which are global. If there are black swan events on a global scale, can we not have black swan events at a country, province, district, village, or family level too? Events which are not foreseen, but which can have intense impact when it does happen. I can think of the 2004 tsunami which devastated many coastal towns and villages in Tamil Nadu, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Indonesia. For those villages and towns the event was a black swan event. Highly improbable, but with devastating consequences for life and savings. Tsunamis in the Pacific were the reasons for the advance warning systems that were established along the Pacific - from US through Hawaii upto Japan. But no one predicted that an Indian ocean tsunami could be so enormous - at least till Dec 26, 2004.

Without going through the country, state, province, district, and village levels for other examples, let me go to the black swan events that can rock a family. What do we say happens to Mr. Sushil Kumar who was the winner of the Rs. 5 crore jackpot prize during season 5 of the popular quiz show, Kaun Banega Crorepati (KBC) (inspired by the British show, Who wants to be a Millionaire)? A computer operator, whose monthly salary was 6,000 rupees. His life would have taken a totally different turn since winning the top prize in KBC 5. A black swan event in his family. On the positive side, no doubt. Coming to think of it, wasn't KBC itself a black swan event for Star Plus (now on Sony Entertainment Television) and for the career of Amitabh Bachchan, its host? 

At a personal level, illnesses and its consequent effect on the person can be a black swan event. I have had three of them in my life - each made an enormous impact in my life.

No, marriages are NOT black swan events in one's life - even though it changes one completely. You see, it is inevitable and you know you are going to "fall" into it. It is not in the category of "highly improbable".

 

IF.....

Reposted from another blog of mine that I do not access....at all. Just happened to visit that today and saw that the last blog of mine there was this one. Just copy-pasting that here without any edits.

This was published on October 2012. My family and I were living in Bangalore then.

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My wife and I need to meet our cousin who lives about 25 kms away. There are multiple routes to reach her place, and before we leave, we discuss the options. I feel going through the "ring road" is quicker since the roads are wider, and there are less signals to pass through. However, the route is longer by about 6 kms. The route via the city centre, though shorter, has more signals. Anyway, the options are only regarding which route takes longer. We don't want to be stuck on the road for a long time. No fun in that and with petrol prices at stratospheric levels, we cannot afford that too!

We choose the ring road, the over-riding reason being that I am driving the car. But we didn't contend with the traffic jam today. There are at least three places where the traffic is insane and at each place we spend almost 10 minutes navigating through 6 lanes of vehicles of all description crammed into three lanes of traffic, with motorbikes occupying all intervening spaces. With the stop-start-stop being the norm, my wife also starts the same "start commenting, stop commenting, start commenting". If you had listened to me, if you had driven through the city, if I had not finished dinner before leaving as you wanted me to, if...if...

How can wives know where the traffic will be lighter? Beats me. But during occasions such as these, they pretend they have a seventh sense (the sense to detect traffic jams).

We do tend to look back at various points in our lives to pause and reflect. If only I had prepared for my CAT more thoroughly, if I had applied for a US university, if I had not taken up my job at XYZ, if I had done this, if I had not done that...

In fights with my wife, we have said many things to each other including if we had not married each other. I have often thought of this, honestly..

Life is full of choices. We are confronted with this right from our school days, where our parents make the choices on behalf of us. They choose our schools and from there we form friendships and alliances and networks. These are some of the strongest influences in our lives. We remember many of our school friends even later on in life. Thanks to the internet and social networking sites, we can remain connected even when we are into our fifties. Later on when we move to higher classes, we need to make our own choices. The most important "fork in our life" comes when we move from X std. to junior college or Plus 1 or XI (depending on the board of education). Science, Arts, or commerce? PCMB or PCMC? Commerce with Economics and Statistics or Business studies? The decisions we take here determine the path along which we will travel for the rest of our lives. Oftentimes we consider ourselves too immature to take these decisions and leave them to our parents to decide. The more "mature" ones have even "maturer parents" who want their kids to take a particular course. Entrance exams, colleges, courses, jobs... and the list goes on probably culminating in "choosing" the life partner.

"I think Arup (name changed) should have taken metallurgy in NIT Jaipur instead of studying electrical engineering in a Bangalore college. You (this to her husband) told us then when we went for counselling that Arup need not go to Jaipur. The college is not so good. But now Lalitha's son, Prashanth, has completed B.E. Computer science from NIT Jaipur and has got admission in a US University. If only Arup had joined NIT Jaipur...."

It is comforting to live in the past and examine each decision and choice with the benefit of hindsight (which has 20/20 vision) and then find fault with one's own choice or with the choice of the partners. In my opinion, this is wishful thinking and doesn't take us anywhere. You cannot drive a car constantly looking at your rear view mirror. You only look at it occasionally to see what is behind you. Drive looking ahead.

Leave the "ifs" in the realm of flowcharting where it truly belongs. You need to ask yourself many questions starting with "if" while flowcharting, to understand the various choices people in the process make. What do you do if the invoice doesn't have the PAN number of the supplier? What will you do if there is no budget this year for the item indented, but it is a critical item needed now? Ask innumerable questions with IF at each stage of your process while creating your flowchart for the process that you are studying to determine what actions people take under various situations. 

However, do not live your life with an IF.

 

Special Session of the Assembly

 

I woke up yesterday to the raucous sounds of a particular type of bird that is distinct. These birds are seen all over India and are quite intelligent - even rivaling some distinguished people of our country whom we have mistakenly elected as our people's representatives. Their cawing woke me up around 5 am and after brushing my teeth, I went to the kitchen to prepare coffee. It was then that I saw a few crows outside on the neighbour's window shade crowing about in a very disturbed manner. There were angry responses from other crows whom I couldn't see from the narrow window of my kitchen. I wondered what the commotion was all about - and that too early in the morning. Had the crows taken over from the rooster to wake up humans?

Being quite well versed in the language of the crows, I beckoned the crow nearest to me and inquired as to what the whole discussion was about. Here's an edited version of the story. (Edited to remove certain 'parliamentary' words used by the crow).

I: Hi! Good morning. What is the occasion? Why are you so agitated?

C (Crow): Hey! Sorry to have woken you up today. Didn't know that you wanted to sleep for some more time. 

I: What is the occasion?

C: Ha! Our Chief Crow called the special session of the assembly of Crows to discuss why you humans have stopped feeding us? We are going hungry and our chicks are starving, you know. Hardly anyone serves us freshly cooked rice anymore. I have been told by my grandmother crow that she used to enjoy the ghee soaked rice with some dal which probably your mother served her many years ago. We have hardly tasted such food recently. Our chicks are dying of hunger and you are least bothered. That is the prime reason for our special session today.

I: Oh! I thought you were objecting to the काला कौव्वा jibe that we people use.

C: That is another pet peeve of ours. In fact last evening there was a speculation among some of us that the special session may be because our Chief Crow wanted to change our names from कौव्वा to something else. In fact some of us were voting for some interesting names. Some wanted us to be referred to as कागा or कृष्ण काग: However, that is not why our special session has been called for.

I: Any reason you think you have a right to demand food from us? Do you know we work for our food. We struggle with our bosses, our traffic, our inflation, our children's school fees and their tuition charges. Hardly anything remains after all these expenses. How do you expect us to prepare extra food on a daily basis to feed you folks? What work do you do to 'earn' food?

C: Haven't you read your holy books? Isn't it mentioned that we are the reincarnated form of your ancestors. Don't you think it is your duty to feed your ancestors? After all it is just a spoonful for you; but that is enough to fill the stomachs of at least three of us. Can't you show some kindness towards your fellow species? As for doing work, do you know that we are also one of the 'cleaning staff' for your city? We have been reduced to eating the leftover food that people throw away on the roads and near the compound walls. Most times that food is what even you folks couldn't tolerate. The Swiggy and Zomato stuff that you waste money on. You just throw them away. We try and salvage some from there and feed ourselves and carry that for our chicks. But that is giving us poor health. Many of us are just collapsing and dying - probably of food poisoning. You are responsible for many of our deaths. You should be held accountable. Our Chief Crow wants to find out if your Chief Justice would take a suo-moto case on our behalf and tell your PM to come out with a law to feed us fresh food every day.

I: Wow! You folks have discussed all this today in your special assembly session so early in the morning?

C: Yes, indeed. We woke up early today for this special session. It was called for so early so that we could pass on our request to some people who can understand us.

I: It is quite early now, and my wife hasn't yet prepared rice. Would you mind if I keep a few biscuits here for you? Will that suffice for the present? I will try and persuade my wife to feed you with your rice soaked with ghee and dal everyday. Though she is bound to ask why I am making that request to her today. She doesn't know that I can converse with you in your language. I generally do not 'crow' about my abilities, you know. Pardon the pun. Do you like fresh filter coffee? I can keep a cup for you.

C: No need for biscuits and all. That is not healthy. In fact even stale bread that you throw away after its expiry is harming us. We want rice or roti. Why is that so difficult for you to understand?

I: I will pass on your request to all.

C:  There is another problem for us. Why do you folks call a group of crows as 'murder of crows'? Why do you call the collection of owls as 'parliament of owls'? We object to that. In fact, our Chief Crow wanted to call our 'assembly' as the 'parliament of crows', but you folks have given us another poor label.

I: Actually you should be happy that we do not refer to you as the 'parliament of crows'. Have you heard of what really happens in our Parliament? How our elected representatives debate? If you had heard, you would not have come up with the request for the label change. In fact, I think the owl fraternity may call for a special session tonight to request for a change in their nomenclature.

C:  Oh. Ok then. I will inform the Chief Crow about this and we may drop the request for the change.

_________________

Appeal to all: Please do keep food for the starving birds. Help them so that they can help us. 

Most importantly, do not litter.

The Cost of Values - 7

 

In case you happen to just come over to this blog post 

and are wondering what this is all about, 

please do go to the earlier posts, and especially  

The Cost of Values - 1. 

The story starts there. 

You may please read the other chapters before reading this one.

 

This is the 7th Chapter in the serialized story that I am writing.

-----------------------------------------------

 CHAPTER -7

THE CONVERSATION

 

A few hours earlier

 

Akshay found himself in an unfamiliar surrounding. He thought he was in the cafe like structure one moment, and the next moment he found himself alone in a 'room'. There was light, but he couldn't place the source of the light. It was definitely not natural sunlight; though it seemed like that. He looked around and didn't find any windows or apertures through which he could look out and determine where he was. Given that he was naturally a curious person, he was not overcome with fear; though anxiety was there. Yes, certainly some anxiety.

 

Akshay checked himself and found that he was dressed in the same dress that he woke up in. He hadn't carried his mobile phone, which was under the pillow of his bed in the camp. Hopefully his friends would be taking care of it and answering any calls that his parents may make. There was a chair and he sat down. These actions and thoughts may have taken about a minute. Akshay called out to no one in particular, since he couldn't spot anyone, "Hello!"

 

"Hello!"

 

"Who is this? Where am I?"

 

"You will get an answer to these questions and anything else that you may have by and by. First tell us why did you enter that structure without any permission?"

 

"I did call out 'Hello!' when I entered through the open door. I thought it was a cafe and we could grab a cup of coffee."

 

"Do you want anything to drink or eat?"

 

"Yes, some water, a cup of coffee, and something to eat would be great". Akshay didn't in the least feel that he was in any kind of danger since the 'person' speaking to him was very polite.

 

All that Akshay asked for appeared almost instantaneously and was placed on a stool in front of him. He was taken aback by this. How did these food items suddenly appear out of nowhere? He drank the water, ate the slices of bread and sipped on the hot coffee. Are these items for real? Where did they come from? Looking around he found everything almost the same. But where was the other person who was speaking to him?

 

Suddenly he heard a voice, "We are 'beings' from very far off and visit your planet once every few years of your time. We have been visiting your planet off and on and whether you believe it or not, we have a decent knowledge of your planet."

 

"You are surely joking. What nonsense! We haven't been visited by any life form outside our planet till now."

 

"How can you say so? Aren't you surprised that we are able to converse in a language familiar to you?"

 

That is when Akshay realized that he had taken the language for granted. But still there were many possibilities that the 'beings' were from some part of our Earth. Why should Akshay believe that he was 'captured' by aliens? It could be Chinese too with some advanced technology or a secret project of the Indian government and he may have inadvertently stepped on to something that was being tested. Yes, that seemed to him to be the most plausible explanation.

"How do you know so many terms that we use conversationally like 'hunger', 'coffee', 'water', etc?"

"As I mentioned, we have been visiting often enough and have a reasonably good idea of the languages spoken by you humans. We have interacted with other life forms that live in water, on land, and in the air and have a decent understanding of their language too. We can converse with them as well, and have met them in similar surroundings over the last thousand years."

"What is the purpose of your visiting us?" Still no sign of any fear in Akshay.

"We have helped your civilization in many ways. Do you think you came about due to evolution? From apes? That was a theory that Darwin proposed, and yes, we have got that information too. Actually we helped the creation of sapiens and have watched you evolve, and nudged you biologically over time to help you reach this stage of 'intelligence'."

This continuous volley of information was too much for Akshay to process. He was not fearful of any unknown generally, and took anything that he didn't know about with a curious mindset. He also looked for logical explanations when faced with things that he didn't know about. If this was true, was he some sort of guinea pig or lab rat for them to experiment on? As if reading his thoughts, he heard the voice again.

"No. We do not experiment with any beings from your world. We nudge your brain a little; but sometimes that little nudge results in a huge breakthrough in your world. We may do that to you too so that you can benefit your people."

"Why should you do that? What do you gain by this?"

"Why do humans have pets? Why do they 'train' them?"

"We like to keep pets for our mutual benefit. Pets care for us just like we care for them. Ignoring some people who may keep wild animals as pets, generally our pets like dogs or cats are good for both of us."

"Good. Can you tell me why your scientists have experimented with plants? Why do marine biologists go under the sea to study marine life? Why do ornithologists study birds? What purpose does it serve the birds or humans?"

"We have learnt many new things from them. In fact we may also have invented some drugs to benefit us by exploiting what we study in the forests and in the oceans." Having said that Akshay now had a tinge of worry whether life forms on Earth are likely to be 'exploited' by these aliens for their purpose. He didn't voice his suspicion, but realized that his brain was being studied while they were busy keeping him talking to them. He asked, "Where are you from?"

"From a place very far off. Since you do not have any interest in astronomy, I may not be able to make you understand within the time that we have."

"What will you do next? Will I be able to return to Earth, if I am not there now?"

"Of course. As I mentioned, we don't take captives. You came to us; we didn't capture you."

"Ok. That is a relief. How much time has elapsed since I came here? I do not know how time moves in this environment relative to ours."

"Maybe about four hours. To answer your previous question regarding what we will do to you, we have already done that. As I said, a positive nudge in your area of specialization for you to achieve some breakthrough in your life and benefit humans."

"If I am asked about my experiences here, I may not be able to explain anything at all. This is just a seemingly vacant room and all I am hearing is your voice."

"Oh relax. You will not remember anything that happened here. We take care of that. We know that many of you folks are distrusting of anything you do not know and have historically tried to kill it and kill the messenger too!"

"But this is really sad. I want us to meet more often; not necessarily with me, but with many of our more intelligent and smart scientists, engineers, and technologists. They can really benefit with your interacting with them."

"Are you sure?"

That was what he heard last; though Akshay wouldn't remember these words. He now found himself at  the edge of the woods adjacent to the grassy lands near the campsite in Kanatal. He wondered how he got there. It was afternoon, though according to him it was just early morning a few minutes ago. He remembered walking with this friends towards a structure that had appeared suddenly the previous night, but now there was nothing there. When he looked towards the campsite, he could see the tents fluttering in the afternoon wind. He saw Amrutha, Ganesh, and Vikrant with some others. He started walking towards them.

_______________________________________________________________

 

Note to readers:

 

Thanks for your support and encouragement. Quite a few commented within the blog in the initial chapters, but quite a few wrote words of praise on WhatsApp. I thank them. I also thank those of you who took the time to come here and read this 'serialized story'.

 

Before beginning to write this story, I had no previous experience in this genre. I like to write and I look at this effort more like an experiment rather than an achievement (😁).  

The Cost of Values - 6

 

In case you happen to just come over to this blog post 

and are wondering what this is all about, 

please do go to the earlier posts, and especially  

The Cost of Values - 1. 

The story starts there. 

You may please read the other chapters before reading this one.

 

This is the 6th Chapter in the serialized story that I am writing.

 

CHAPTER - 6

The call to Ramu had eased the tension somewhat of the three persons in Kanatal. At least they felt that Ramu and Prema had not suspected the three friends of any foul play. That was a relief. Now they needed to tackle the authorities. They presumed that they would have to contend with the police since this was a case of disappearance of a person! How wrong they were.

Vikrant and Amrutha cleared their camp and were about to leave for Dehradun when Amrutha received a call from an unknown number. Again with great trepidation, she answered the call.

"Hello!"

"Hello! Is this Amrutha from DataLogix?"

"Yes. May I know who is calling please?"

"I am Pramod Gupta from the Government of India. I would like to speak with you. Where are you now?"

"Which department of the government do you represent?" asked Amrutha in a tremulous voice.

"That I will tell you when we meet. Where are you now? Please answer me honestly."

"I am in Kanatal. But why do you ask?"

"This is in regard to the disappearance of Akshay. We would like to talk to you about it."

"Are we in trouble?"

"That depends. I will be able to know more only when I meet you three - Ganesh, Vikrant, and you Amrutha. Just stay where you are and do not move away from your campsite. A team is coming over to you now to talk to you. We want all of you to be there. Do not leave the place. I repeat, do not leave the place under any circumstances."

"Ok sir!" Amrutha looked at Ganesh and Vikrant and all three of them realized that the situation is grave if some government agency is involved. Who knows what they may ask!

 

Within about fifteen minutes a police vehicle came to a halt near the campsite and a senior police officer got down with an Inspector in tow. He looked around and checked the tents of the three campers, turned around towards Amrutha and asked, "Amrutha?"

"Yes."

"Mr. Pramod Gupta spoke to me about an hour ago and asked me to come up here and be with you and ask a few questions. Do you mind if I ask each of you individually what you experienced today?"

Ganesh and Vikrant felt a bit relieved that they need not have to go anywhere since the police was here. But was that a good news or bad? They went a few feet away, but the Inspector took them about a hundred yards away from where the senior police officer was speaking to Amrutha. Probably they wanted to query each of them individually to ensure that there was uniformity in what they saw today morning. Already the disappearance of Akshay seemed to be so distant. Things were happening real fast.

"Amrutha, don't be scared of us. We are here at the instruction of Guptaji. My name is Shailendra and I am the Additional SP of Tehri Garhwal district. The Inspector there is Mr. Vikas Singh from the police station at Tehri. So we would like to ask a few questions before Mr. Gupta reaches here. He is already on his way and would be joining here within about 2 hours."

Amrutha explained in detail what they saw that day in the morning. Shailendra asked a few questions to clarify things that he didn't understand. Amrutha also showed him the pictures that she had taken. Shailendra looked at the pictures intently and complimented Amrutha for her foresight. Not for a moment did Amrutha feel that she was under any suspicion; but Ganesh and Vikrant, standing so far away that they couldn't hear what was being discussed, had some apprehensions.

Shailendra then called Vikrant over and checked with him about his impressions and later spoke to Ganesh as well. He soon realized that the three of them had prepared well what to say when questioned since their responses were, for the most part, identical. All five of them then went to the place where the 'structure' appeared and then suddenly disappeared. As they were about to reach there, a car pulled up near the campsite and they saw a gentleman in a formal suit gesture to them to return to the campsite.

"I am Pramod Gupta and this gentleman here with me is Mr. Somanathan. As I mentioned to all of you over phone, I am from the Government of India and am here to investigate this.....well... this issue. By the way did any of you three call Mr. Ramakrishnan, Akshay's father, to inform him of this event?"

Amrutha said, "Yes sir. I called up Mr. Ramakrishnan and informed him. He was shocked. Later I spoke to his wife also. They said that they would be coming here to meet us."

Pramod said, "Yes, I spoke to them afterwards too. But later they called me to inform that they may not be coming today."

Meanwhile in Bangalore, Ramu and Prema had finished their packing and were getting ready to leave for the airport, when there was another call for Prema.

"Hello!"

"Hello amma!"

"Akshay?"

To be continued next Sunday - 20-August-2023

 

The Cost of Values - 5

 

In case you happen to just come over to this blog post 

and are wondering what this is all about, 

please do go to the earlier posts, and especially  

The Cost of Values - 1. 

The story starts there. 

This is the 5th Chapter in the serialized story that I am writing.

 

CHAPTER - 5 

 

Ganesh and Vikrant discussed between themselves regarding which police station to go to for registering their complaint. The nearest police station may not have the necessary expertise for registering or investigating such 'disappearances', they felt. Hence they called up Amrutha to voice their concerns and involve her also in the final decision regarding which police station would be appropriate to meet with and register their complaint regarding the disappearance of Akshay.

It was finally decided that they would go to Dehradun and all three people were unanimous in their final choice since that was the capital city of Uttarakhand. There was a great mystery associated with Akshay's disappearance and they all felt that speaking to any other police officer in a smaller town may not get the attention that this event deserved.

Amrutha realized that the one-way journey for Ganesh and Vikrant would take about 4 hours at the least and she may have to stay back in the campsite for the full day and possibly spend the night alone too. Ganesh and Vikrant too realized this as soon as they had left; so they decided to return to the campsite. Now another quandary presented itself. If all three had to leave by vacating and clearing the campsite, they would have to remove Akshay's belongings and pack up the tent too. This would disturb Akshay's tent and may have a problem with the investigation. So they realized that they were back to square one on the next course of action.

 

Ganesh asked around if any among the three had any relative in the police department anywhere in India and whether contacting that relative would be helpful. Vikrant said that his uncle was a senior officer in the police in Rajasthan and he could contact him to inform him of the situation and get the contact details of the senior officer in Dehradun. 

Ganesh asked, "Do you think your uncle will believe us?"

Vikrant replied, "I am not sure. But do we have any choice? This is a unique situation and inspite of carrying out an internet search, Amy hasn't been able to get any information on similar occurrences in these parts, or anywhere else in India. We have to start trusting someone. I think this option is our best bet to make the authorities believe us."

 

Ganesh asked with a hint of sarcasm, "As if there would be news about such an occurrence! Even the most liberal and transparent country like US doesn't reveal any existence of such paranormal phenomena. Do you think Indian government would do so?"

 

Both Vikrant and Amrutha did not have any way to counter this argument of Ganesh.

Amrutha was pensive for a while basically thinking of her next step, which was to contact Akshay's father Ramu, or his mother, Prema, to inform them of the sudden disappearance of their son. She was struggling with how to explain. But she  had to call and Vikrant and Ganesh realized that calling Akshay's parents should be their first priority.

"Hello!"

"Hello! Is that Mr. Ramakrishnan?"

"Yes. May I know who is speaking?"

"I am Amrutha, Akshay's friend and colleague in DataLogix at Gurugram. I am here in Uttarakhand in a camping site near a place called Kanatal. I am here with two more of my colleagues, Ganesh and Vikrant."

"Ok. So why are you telling me all this? Is Akshay with you? Is anything the matter?"

"Sir, I am sorry to inform you, but today early morning when we woke up, we saw a structure had suddenly appeared near our campsite, which was not there till yesterday evening, and when Akshay went ahead of us to investigate what it was, the structure and Akshay both disappeared. Sir, please believe me when I say this, the structure and Akshay who had just entered the building, both disappeared instantaneously in front of our eyes! We are still unable to wrap our heads around this event. We do not know how to make anyone believe us."

Ramu felt all this was some sort of prank by scammers and they were after some extortion. That was his first impression and he didn't take this seriously. Amrutha, Ganesh, and Vikrant explained to Ramu in detail about their work in DataLogix, their individual contact numbers, and also mentioned that he could disconnect the call so that Ramu could call Amrutha back.

As he was speaking Ramu realized that he needed to involve Prema in any further conversation and both of them could think of their next move. He started towards his apartment and met Prema near the lift. He told her of the phone call and immediately saw that Prema gestured to him to return to their apartment to discuss further and investigate this call.

Prema and Ramu went back home and Ramu called up Amrutha, who picked up the call immediately. Prema wanted to hear from them directly and so Amrutha, Ganesh, and Vikrant told her what had happened that day. Prema said that both he and Ramu would take the next available flight to Dehradun and would plan to be there by the same day afternoon. Prema suggested to Ganesh that he should stay back at the campsite and Vikrant could take Amrutha to Dehradun after speaking with his uncle and contacting the senior police officer in Dehradun.

Things started moving speedily. Ganesh was mildly surprised that Ramu and Prema did not say anything that could suggest that they suspected any foul play by the three.

Prema contacted her office, informed them of a family emergency and said she would be travelling to Uttarakhand and may return after a week. Ramu did the same with his organisation. Prema had contacts with a travel agent who could organise flight tickets for them, which he did by the mid afternoon flight.

While they continued with their plans to travel, the 'loss' of their son in mysterious circumstances took a backseat. Though the concern was there, they were busy in organising themselves for the next phase of their task. That was to determine what happened in Kanatal and take the help of anyone who could help solve this riddle.

There was a call, again from an unknown number, to Ramu.

"Hello!"

"Hello! Is this Mr. Ramakrishnan?"

"Yes."

"Sir, I am Pramod Gupta from Delhi. We have heard of the news that your son, Akshay has disappeared suddenly today from a place called umm....Kanatal in Uttarakhand. Have you heard the news?"

"Mr. Gupta, who are you?"

 

"Please do not worry, Mr. Ramu. I am from the Government. I would like to discuss with you regarding this."

 

To be continued next Sunday - 13-August-2023