I was completely speechless. How was this possible? Didn't Abdul Sahab tell me that her name was not on the passenger list? Moreover, I had closely looked at each and every passenger while they were coming out, looked very closely but I had seen no one who even remotely resembled Anita. If she had really come, if she was really in Srinagar, she would have given me a call, she knew the phone number. What was it that could have prevented her from making a simple call? The flight arrived in the morning, it was nearly 8 in the night, why the silence till now? My heart and mind refused to accept that she was in town and had not tried to get in touch with me. Not seeing me at the airport, assuming she had come, might have made her angry, not might , must have made her angry, but in spite of all the anger, she had no other option but to get in touch with me. She had nowhere else to go. She was a stranger in a strange and troubled land., I was her only hope and support so why did she not get in touch with me?
Things didn't seem right to me. I felt I was being mislead, I was being fed falsehoods, somebody did not want to see Anita and me together. But, who and why? I was beginning to get delusional. I had to hold myself together to face what was obviously going to be a troubling time for me.
"We asked you a question and we are waiting for a reply," The Major's booming voice broke into my thoughts.
"What question,"? I said, as if I had not heard what he had asked me earlier.
"You heard me the first time, didn't you? Where is Anita?"
"My goodness, major, I am absolutely amazed that you should be asking me this. How do I know, how do any of us know where she is and if we had known , why would I hide it from you? I have committed no crime. If she has come to Srinagar, she has done so at her own volition. She is the master of her own will. She can do whatever she wants. She is a full grown adult. You cannot accuse me of having kidnapped her. And, assuming, I had wanted to forcibly bring her here, how would I have managed it? I have not left Srinagar, not for single day and I am no superman who could have flown to Chandigarh and brought her here," I said all this while standing and looking straight into the major's eyes.
"Rahul, we know she is here. She is in Srinagar and she has nowhere to go but but here. So tell us where she is otherwise you know we have other means of getting the truth out of you," The mister had been removed from before Rahul's name and the polite major had been replaced by a rude and bullying one. There was a time when I used to have great respect for the army but after all the stories I had heard of their behaviour in Kashmir, after what I had seen for myself, the way they had almost beaten Khalid to death, I had lost all that respect, I had nothing but contempt for them. And when I heard his threatening tone along with the threatening words, I lost my cool completely.
"What the hell do you mean by all this?," I doubt if I had ever used a swear word before, I think that was the first time I made use of such an expression but I was really angry, I felt like shouting at the top of my voice. "Your threats mean nothing to me, major, I am not scared of you. you might have scared the hell out of the people here and in other places as well. I am sure you and people like you must have been posted in Punjab as well during the eighties. You seem to be extremely fond of all these methods of torture, don't you? Remember, I am not a criminal, I am not a terrorist, I don't even qualify to be part of your suspected terrorists list and I don't have to tell you why. You know the answer pretty well. I told you and I am telling you again, I have no idea where Anita is. As far as I know, she never came to Srinagar but if you feel that by abducting me, because that is what it is going to be, you have no authority to arrest me, go ahead and take me wherever you want, may fetch you a medal from that senior officer of yours." I had become breathless by now and I could feel my whole body trembling.
"Bittu Ji, stop all this, what do you think you are doing? You will only make matters worse. Just sit down and shut up." Babu Ji had got up from his chair, he held me by the arm and forced me back onto the chair.
"Rahul, what do you think of yourself? By shouting at us in this manner and accusing us of all kinds of preposterous things, you are merely digging your own grave. You are very well aware that under the special forces act, we can do anything and nobody can utter a word. I am not losing my cool because your love for that girl seems to have made you crazy. When I tell you, we know she is in Srinagar, you have to believe us. Just give us the information we need and we will leave you alone, come on, be sensible." Surprisingly, the major sounded as cool as a cucumber.
"Major sahab, please listen to me. I will tell you everything. It is true, Anita was supposed to come here by the early morning flight from Chandigarh. Not only my son (Babu Ji would never call me his grandson, it was always my son) but also I asked her to come because she wanted to marry Bittu and was not prepared to marry anyone else. She had told her father but this Sethi is an adamant old fool, no respect for the emotions of his daughter, he refused and arranged to get her married off to someone else. She was the one who contacted us, she was the one who told us, she would rather die than marry anyone else, a bit melodramatic that, must be watching a lot of movies." I could see a flicker of a smile on his lips when he uttered the last few words. Babu Ji went on with the whole story, the argument with Anita's father, the loss of temper on both sides, Babu Ji did not hide anything from the officers. He was honest enough to admit that he had encouraged me to call Anita to Srinagar and had assured me that he would get us married.
As Babu Ji was talking, I was observing both the officers. By that time, my temper had cooled down and I had started breathing a little easy. The officers were hanging on to each and every word that Babu Ji said, there was complete attentiveness in their eyes and also their bodies, it was as if, they were listening to a senior officer of theirs. I knew Babu Ji was good at English but I had never heard him speak more than a sentence or two at a time but here he was going on and on in that language, speaking almost non stop in flawless English without that trademark Kashmiri accent. This man never ceased to amaze me.
"So I sent Abdul, my neighbour and friend, you know him, of course, along with Bittu Ji to the airport. I trusted Abdul not just because he was my friend but also because he, being an army contractor, had a lot of contacts in the army, knew lots of officers of yours and he could make his way to the airport in spite of the curfew which he did" Now I understood the reason why we faced no problems on the way and why the army men seemed very friendly with Abdul Sahab. It was not his impeccable suit and tie which did the trick, as I had seemed to think.
"So this is our story and it is the truth. If at all Anita came by that flight, we have no clue as to her whereabouts. You are army officers, you run the show here, a young girl may be in trouble. Use your resources and try to find her instead of wasting your time in browbeating us, particularly my son, as it is, he has already been through a lot." Both the officers nodded their heads in unison, as if in agreement with what Babu Ji had said.
"Is it possible for us to talk to Abdul?," the major asked.
"Of course, why not? He lives next door but please don't go to his house, you know how things are, the very sight of men in uniform will send shivers down the spines of his family. I will call him here. Khalid, oh Khalida" Babu Ji shouted." He must have shut himself up in his room, he is terrified of you people since that unfortunate day, you shouldn't have done that to him, that was mighty cruel of you" There was no anger in Babu Ji's voice, just a tinge of sadness.
Khalid appeared at the door, he stood at the threshold, looking scared, not daring to step in to the room.
"Khalid, go fast and call Abdul. Don't say anything about these people, just tell him that I want to talk to him, something important has come up." Khalid, without saying a single word, just disappeared from the door.
"So, Rahul, you did not see Anita at the airport?"
"How could I when she was not there? You heard what Babu Ji said, Every word of it is true. Moreover, had I met her there, she would have been here with us, you would have met her, in fact it would have been a pleasure for me to introduce her to you people," I was being a bit sarcastic, I thought.
"There is no doubt about the fact that Anita left Chandigarh, that she was on that flight is also true, her name, Anita Sethi, was on the list of passengers travelling to Srinagar. So if she is not with you, where is she?" The major was talking more to himself than to us.
The Passenger list? Abdul Sahab had told me about it. He had said her name was not on the list therefore it was no point waiting at the airport. Had Abdul Sahab lied to me? But why would he do that, he was our friend, he was almost family, he loved me, he was incapable of doing anything to hurt me. So somebody was lying or deliberately hiding the truth. Who could it be? Was it the army or Could it really be Abdul sahab? But why?
Things didn't seem right to me. I felt I was being mislead, I was being fed falsehoods, somebody did not want to see Anita and me together. But, who and why? I was beginning to get delusional. I had to hold myself together to face what was obviously going to be a troubling time for me.
"We asked you a question and we are waiting for a reply," The Major's booming voice broke into my thoughts.
"What question,"? I said, as if I had not heard what he had asked me earlier.
"You heard me the first time, didn't you? Where is Anita?"
"My goodness, major, I am absolutely amazed that you should be asking me this. How do I know, how do any of us know where she is and if we had known , why would I hide it from you? I have committed no crime. If she has come to Srinagar, she has done so at her own volition. She is the master of her own will. She can do whatever she wants. She is a full grown adult. You cannot accuse me of having kidnapped her. And, assuming, I had wanted to forcibly bring her here, how would I have managed it? I have not left Srinagar, not for single day and I am no superman who could have flown to Chandigarh and brought her here," I said all this while standing and looking straight into the major's eyes.
"Rahul, we know she is here. She is in Srinagar and she has nowhere to go but but here. So tell us where she is otherwise you know we have other means of getting the truth out of you," The mister had been removed from before Rahul's name and the polite major had been replaced by a rude and bullying one. There was a time when I used to have great respect for the army but after all the stories I had heard of their behaviour in Kashmir, after what I had seen for myself, the way they had almost beaten Khalid to death, I had lost all that respect, I had nothing but contempt for them. And when I heard his threatening tone along with the threatening words, I lost my cool completely.
"What the hell do you mean by all this?," I doubt if I had ever used a swear word before, I think that was the first time I made use of such an expression but I was really angry, I felt like shouting at the top of my voice. "Your threats mean nothing to me, major, I am not scared of you. you might have scared the hell out of the people here and in other places as well. I am sure you and people like you must have been posted in Punjab as well during the eighties. You seem to be extremely fond of all these methods of torture, don't you? Remember, I am not a criminal, I am not a terrorist, I don't even qualify to be part of your suspected terrorists list and I don't have to tell you why. You know the answer pretty well. I told you and I am telling you again, I have no idea where Anita is. As far as I know, she never came to Srinagar but if you feel that by abducting me, because that is what it is going to be, you have no authority to arrest me, go ahead and take me wherever you want, may fetch you a medal from that senior officer of yours." I had become breathless by now and I could feel my whole body trembling.
"Bittu Ji, stop all this, what do you think you are doing? You will only make matters worse. Just sit down and shut up." Babu Ji had got up from his chair, he held me by the arm and forced me back onto the chair.
"Rahul, what do you think of yourself? By shouting at us in this manner and accusing us of all kinds of preposterous things, you are merely digging your own grave. You are very well aware that under the special forces act, we can do anything and nobody can utter a word. I am not losing my cool because your love for that girl seems to have made you crazy. When I tell you, we know she is in Srinagar, you have to believe us. Just give us the information we need and we will leave you alone, come on, be sensible." Surprisingly, the major sounded as cool as a cucumber.
"Major sahab, please listen to me. I will tell you everything. It is true, Anita was supposed to come here by the early morning flight from Chandigarh. Not only my son (Babu Ji would never call me his grandson, it was always my son) but also I asked her to come because she wanted to marry Bittu and was not prepared to marry anyone else. She had told her father but this Sethi is an adamant old fool, no respect for the emotions of his daughter, he refused and arranged to get her married off to someone else. She was the one who contacted us, she was the one who told us, she would rather die than marry anyone else, a bit melodramatic that, must be watching a lot of movies." I could see a flicker of a smile on his lips when he uttered the last few words. Babu Ji went on with the whole story, the argument with Anita's father, the loss of temper on both sides, Babu Ji did not hide anything from the officers. He was honest enough to admit that he had encouraged me to call Anita to Srinagar and had assured me that he would get us married.
As Babu Ji was talking, I was observing both the officers. By that time, my temper had cooled down and I had started breathing a little easy. The officers were hanging on to each and every word that Babu Ji said, there was complete attentiveness in their eyes and also their bodies, it was as if, they were listening to a senior officer of theirs. I knew Babu Ji was good at English but I had never heard him speak more than a sentence or two at a time but here he was going on and on in that language, speaking almost non stop in flawless English without that trademark Kashmiri accent. This man never ceased to amaze me.
"So I sent Abdul, my neighbour and friend, you know him, of course, along with Bittu Ji to the airport. I trusted Abdul not just because he was my friend but also because he, being an army contractor, had a lot of contacts in the army, knew lots of officers of yours and he could make his way to the airport in spite of the curfew which he did" Now I understood the reason why we faced no problems on the way and why the army men seemed very friendly with Abdul Sahab. It was not his impeccable suit and tie which did the trick, as I had seemed to think.
"So this is our story and it is the truth. If at all Anita came by that flight, we have no clue as to her whereabouts. You are army officers, you run the show here, a young girl may be in trouble. Use your resources and try to find her instead of wasting your time in browbeating us, particularly my son, as it is, he has already been through a lot." Both the officers nodded their heads in unison, as if in agreement with what Babu Ji had said.
"Is it possible for us to talk to Abdul?," the major asked.
"Of course, why not? He lives next door but please don't go to his house, you know how things are, the very sight of men in uniform will send shivers down the spines of his family. I will call him here. Khalid, oh Khalida" Babu Ji shouted." He must have shut himself up in his room, he is terrified of you people since that unfortunate day, you shouldn't have done that to him, that was mighty cruel of you" There was no anger in Babu Ji's voice, just a tinge of sadness.
Khalid appeared at the door, he stood at the threshold, looking scared, not daring to step in to the room.
"Khalid, go fast and call Abdul. Don't say anything about these people, just tell him that I want to talk to him, something important has come up." Khalid, without saying a single word, just disappeared from the door.
"So, Rahul, you did not see Anita at the airport?"
"How could I when she was not there? You heard what Babu Ji said, Every word of it is true. Moreover, had I met her there, she would have been here with us, you would have met her, in fact it would have been a pleasure for me to introduce her to you people," I was being a bit sarcastic, I thought.
"There is no doubt about the fact that Anita left Chandigarh, that she was on that flight is also true, her name, Anita Sethi, was on the list of passengers travelling to Srinagar. So if she is not with you, where is she?" The major was talking more to himself than to us.
The Passenger list? Abdul Sahab had told me about it. He had said her name was not on the list therefore it was no point waiting at the airport. Had Abdul Sahab lied to me? But why would he do that, he was our friend, he was almost family, he loved me, he was incapable of doing anything to hurt me. So somebody was lying or deliberately hiding the truth. Who could it be? Was it the army or Could it really be Abdul sahab? But why?
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