© Atul Kaushal
He Must Die!
I knew
about Shuddha Rakht’s
planning all throughout
Akshant’s timeline through
a source that
I would choose
to keep safe
as a secret.
I then again
came in contact
with Mrs. Shanti
Sharma when I
went to congratulate
her on being
a grandmother and
she was looking
over a couple
of decades older
than I last
met her only
a few years
back. Only if he had
taken it seriously
and hired some
security, he still would’ve been
alive.
A not-so-old
lion had planned
revenge after coming
to know that
Akshant was the
same person whom
his younger brother
lost his job
to. He hatched
a perfect fool-proof
conspiracy to kill
him in the
Holi time before
Manuj died himself
and now his lioness was going to avenge his death by killing one of the people she held responsible.
After the failure
of the hijack
attempt, Manuj Joshi had come to know through media sources about Akshant and Nitin’s feat in defeating
his ’purifiers’ on
Lufthansa Airlines Flight
7 and thereby
making his plans taste dirt. Though his failed plan could not be fixed now, he was of the opinion
that he deserved
to exact revenge
from both the saviors of the Flight
7. Nitin had
been working for
the Economic Times
in the safety
of the capital
in his New
Delhi office. So
Manuj Joshi shifted
his focus towards
Akshant and he had injected
a spy in
his office in form of the second-in-command for Shuddha Rakht and his keep, Anuradha
Rohilla whom he had got her B.Sc. in biotechnology
done in these 3 years which had passed since the Flight
7 failed hijack
attempt, instead of her MBBS and then Anuradha put herself to job in Akshant Kautilya
Sharma’s office as a research
associate working with Akshant through
an underhand contact
in the Mathura
Refinery. Anuradha was staying low and was on constant
lookout for any good chance
to assassinate Akshant.
She had been told by Manuj Joshi to do the job as a suicidal mission
which was supposed
to be a retaliatory mission
in case Manuj died prematurely.
And Manuj did die in a military
operation on his hide-out in the caves of the Western Ghat Mountains in north-west Karnataka,
his home state.
In this attack,
Anuradha escaped the hands of the army and made a dangerous
plan to execute
Akshant by herself.
Anuradha who loved Manuj beyond
any limits made a firm mind on her decision
to assassinate Akshant
whom she held largely responsible
along with Nitin for her love’s death.
As Nitin was a difficult target
according to her
as such an
attempt in the national capital
was difficult after the increased
security that Delhi had seen after the Kashmir-linked terrorist
attacks’ frequency had increased in
Delhi. She made
up her mind that she could kill Akshant only by a suicide bomb attack. She planned her attack mission
while she worked
neatly and efficiently
for the last two months
along with him in his lab in Mathura on the finishing
touches of his biodiesel research
project. She even attended his and Anamika’s
wedding. She stayed
quietly under the shadows by not sharing
much about herself.
Friday, 22nd of December, 2017 was the day on which she decided to kill Akshant.
She knew it was going to be his birthday
but she was unperturbed by it.
The day was pretty
unlike any other birthday for Akshant, it was going out to be really
special for him, without him having even a hint of death’s
vibrant celebrations that the boy who had cheated her in past was finally
going to die
as a man. He and Anamika had gone out for dinner
on the previous
night and Anamika
had planned a surprise party for Akshant
when they got back to their home.
That day, his birthday
was going to be celebrated
in a special
way. Not only because it was his first birthday
after was he married to Anamika which she had attempted to make special
by inviting his friends from far away, but also because this was his first birthday
to a new life and his father
was going to be retired
the next May. Anamika had given good news to her in-laws,
to Akshant, to her parents
and friends, that she was two weeks pregnant! Akshant
was overjoyed, nothing
else could be better good news for him that soon he was going to be a father,
but this joy was going to be short-lived.
Never did he know that it was all going to be vaporized
in the flames
that would come to take him to the netherworld.
On the provision
by their bomb expert, who was a
frustrated chemistry teacher
with a disturbed
conscience, Anuradha Rohilla
wore a jacket
that day under her top which was charged with a mixture
of RDX with other improvised
explosive devices smart enough to be adjusted
in a thin layer of clothing.
The detonator
here was a voice-recognized password
on pressing a button close to the belly-button and saying, ’Shuddha
Rakht’ in her own voice which would be triggering
an explosion which would be enough to kill Akshant
along with herself.
This was going to be a fidayeen attack
in which the killer herself
was going to be killed
apart from the
target. Anuradha was going to gamble on this one as she had not tried out on this one previously
and this set-up
was a homemade
one, so it was quite probable that Anuradha failed
this time. But she tried with all her heart put in to it and as they say if one tries in such a way, they can even get to
meet the Devil
himself.
Anuradha acted well as if she was helping
Akshant by doing the various
laboratory petty jobs like washing
the lab apparatus
and other inventory
other than ably
helping Akshant with
the various experiments.
That day was
going to be
different, a lot
different, it was Akshant’s
ultimate day on which he
was going to
be killed. She wished Akshant
happy birthday and said that she wanted
to gift him a special
thing on his
birthday.
”Oh thank you dear! I have got to tell you a big news too – a
rather great news –
I am
going to be a father!
My wife is two weeks pregnant!” said Akshant
happily.
”Oh congratulations sir! Although it’s rather early
for her to
get pregnant – you two
just got married
– this calls
for a hug…” said Anuradha with
her arms wide
open while successfully
faking her false
excitement and advanced
towards Akshant after she pressed
the trigger inside
her coat which made the bomb tied to her body
vibrate.
”Yeah – oh yeah, sure! Thanks
Anuradha!” said Akshant
smiling and caught
unaware by Anuradha.
As she hugged
Akshant tightly saying,
”Congratulations sir on
the good news of
being a future-father!” and
Anuradha brought her
lips close to
kiss him briefly
on his lips,
for he no clue that
this was the
kiss of death.
Akshant was taken
aback by these
preemptive advances of Anuradha
and opened his
mouth to say
something but any
words of protest
were cut short
by Anuradha who
put her cold
hand on Akshant’s
mouth and said
in a dangerously
low whisper to him,
”And you know what? He was
everything to me,
my love, somebody
whom I considered
more than my own father
who disowned me
and my best-friend.
I loved him who was
killed by the
Indian Army that
night in that
covert operation. I
hate you for
that! I hate
you! And good bye sir, good bye – Shuddha Rakht!”
On the last two words shouted
by Anuradha, Akshant
had just managed
to raised his brows to the crisp-short
beeping sound of
the trigger mechanism
only to see
into her flaming
brown eyes which
were seemingly freshened
up after tasting
revenge, a revenge
that would satiate
her soul. And
death was ready
with lunch on her plate,
the boy who
had betrayed her
on two previous
occasions would die
finally.
Before Akshant
could have even a hint of it or any
pain could be
felt by his
body, Anuradha’s jacket
was blown away and he was dead along with the suicide
bomber in his own official
laboratory. And both
of their body
parts were scattered
all around the
laboratory floor along
with the blood-stained
glass shards that
were bound to
sprinkle all over
the office like
the sand particles
in the Thar desert
and Akshant didn’t
even get the
time to let
out a wail
seeking help, he
dropped dead the
instant the jacket
that Anuradha had
worn for the
purpose of killing
Akshant ripped apart.
The blast was
of the regular
kind and a big noise
issued from it.
Although the
bomb echoed all
through the Mathura Refinery campus,
Anamika’s father, Mr. Vinayak Das Belgaum was the first person to know about it as he streaked
out of his
office’s door on
hearing the blast
ripping apart like
a huge Diwali
firecracker through the corridor to the laboratory
next door and
he stood flabbergasted
after seeing Akshant’s
masculine arm lying on
the entrance of his laboratory.
He then gathered
himself and dared
to call the
police. As the news spread,
it burnt holes in the hearts of people who knew Akshant.
Neither any conspirators
were going to be held, nor would any group claim the responsibility for the attack,
only guesses were
to be made.
On hearing
this horrible piece
of seemingly impossible
news, Akshant’s parents,
his wife and
other relatives were left in a state of high shock, Arjun
Kautilya Sharma, his
father stood dumb-struck,
as silent as the clock and
while he was
slowly rising up
from his armchair
his eyes were brimming up
with tears. Akshant’s
mother who was
a heart patient
suffered a minor
paralytic attack and
fell down on
the doorway of her office
in the State
Bank as she fainted after listening to
this worst unbelievable
piece of news
by an apprentice
from Mathura Refinery.
I too was
broken as I felt like
I had lost a
piece of me.
As he was somebody
whom
I used to
share the various
day to day
stories of my
life, the bitching
about the office
and my in-laws with
online on e-mails/chats. I
had met his wife Anamika, an
action unknown to
Akshant and became
good friends with
her when Akshant
was alive. But
when I went
to console her, I sensed
that she felt as though
it was the end of the world for her,
so I tried to
comfort her, ”Anamika,
I wouldn’t be
the right person
to say this
as I myself
can’t keep my
tears, he was
someone for me
whom I considered
my best friend
and a secret-keeper. I
can’t say the
words to console
you but I’ll
just tell you
how he immortalized
himself in his
songs and in
what he has
done for the
world.”
I am
sure that Akshant
must have been
a good husband
and a great
friend for Anamika.
She felt that
it was the
end of the
world for her. But she knew that
she had to live on to bring up their twin children
who she has
given birth to, as they are going to be Akshant’s last traces on earth and
Anamika keeps herself
busy in the
kids. Her retired
in-laws and the excessive workload
that she has
taken up at
the office, keeping
her way too
distant from even
the thought of
marrying again – not that
no one would
be enthusiastic marrying
a widow too
busy in her
own work and in bringing
up the twins
that Akshant had
gifted to her
prior to his untimely departure.
Mrs. Shanti is
recovering from the
paralytic attack with
help from her
retired husband. The twins are named just as Akshant
had wished them to be known as, the girl’s
name is Sankshaya
who looks like
Anamika but has
her father’s forehead and the boy
is aged 3 now, just
as his twin
sister. They are
not completely identical,
they have slightly
different features, which
is not a
rarity for twins
in this part
of India, but
it is surely
an unusual thing
anyhow. While Sankshaya
looks much like
her mother, they
and everyone else
is reminded of
Akshant’s childhood when they look
at the playful
Sanchay, he looks
exactly the way Akshant looks
in his childhood
photographs as if Akshant
has taken rebirth.
The kids call
me ’mausi’ and
are really overjoyed
whenever I visit
their house because
they know that
Satyaa mausi would
be telling them
more about their
dad apart from bringing sweets
for them, the
best ones of which would
be the imported
ones from Germany,
something which Akshant
used to relish
upon, every time
he went to
Bangalore where he
would go to rendezvous with
his holidays-visiting maternal
cousins who lived
in Chicago where
all stuff from
Germany, including these
chocolates would be
available at any
megastore in all
neighborhoods.
Interestingly, a
new engine that
can work amazingly
well with an
efficiency of over
40% on neat
biodiesel which has
been developed by Indian Oil
has been named
after him as the Kautilya
Engine as a
homage for him
as he showed
a path which
the world has walked on
and is gaining
more and more
buyers among automakers
with each passing
day. I never
feel that he
has died and
left us all,
neither would I ever feel
so, not unless
his contribution towards
biodiesel research, poems
and songs are
forgotten by his
family, friends and
admirers.
