Mr Raghu Biswas

seed #364

Mr Raghu Biswas was a bright child;
“too bright for his own good” they used to say. 

his name was the first in Presidency admission merit list and oh boy his swagger! The entire college lay mesmerised by. of the 3 years he spent in college pursuing graduation in mathematics, he was the pin up boy . his dhoti seemed softer than clouds; a little of which was tucked in his cream kurta pocket. they used to say he looked like Ravindra Nath Tagore.  well he did Brood Like the bard. one could always see him walking through many football matches on the presidency ground lost in thought. his Mishti doi dates were much talked about. He was good with women.

One could see him first thing every morning scribbling black boards with symbols and numbers, with his signature dhoti tucked in kurta. Such  intensity. he graduated with the gold medal and president’s appreciation award. he was selected for a prestigious government job. his family is

 very happy but not surprised. his sisters very proud of him and he was aankhon ka Tara for his parents. he was to go through training for the next 2 years and then he will be posted somewhere.

 he left with much Drama around. all the women from the presidency  and neighbouring locality had dropped over his place the day he was to leave. even those who have passed the way, even those who are doing jobs at other cities, even those who had heard of only Legends of Biswas. they had dropped in at 6 in the morning for there was a mutual consensus that everybody wants two hugs from him in the least and if they drop it even a minute later he will miss out on his train. everybody didn’t get a hug for even all the boys had dropped in  for the same.

 he used to write of him but it decreased over the end of 2 years. He  used to say training is rigorous and is exhausting.  his gifts stopped coming too. in his last letter he had said to his mother that he was going out on his first project and will write once he is back.

 in the next 6 months time Biswas family received letter from CIA claiming that “their is son was a brilliant soldier very smart and adored but he died on the mission he was sent. he will be very much missed.”

 what had happened was Mr Biswas joined the government, specialising in deciphering codes. after a rigorous training, he was posted in Shyambazar as there were heavy Maoist activity in those Times. he was to observe and report.

 it was any regular middle class Bengali locality, he blended well; plus he looked the authoritative and handsome. he was called mastermoshai. his morning and evening trips to the Bazaar where indispensable,known and religious. One night, Mr Biswas woke up at 3 a.m for his tummy was feeling funny. he used to preferred to drink warm water in such situations; while boiling the water, what over powered him no one knows, but he came in mood and added some tea to it. He couldn’t resist biscuits with his mug of black tea, despite knowing that its worst Idea ever. He shouldn’t have biscuits, it might kill him at this hour. But skipping all, he sat in the balcony where he always sits in the morning while sipping tea and staring out. But tonight he observed, in the building across, there flickering was a red bulb in the balcony of the second floor, where an old man used to live alone; they used to say he was a widow.

Mr biswas noticed that there was something and natural about the way the bulb flickered- the timing where in regular between the flickering. he was hooked to it. the more he observed the more it felt that he felt it was trying to talk. it was almost dawn when he decided it was morse codel. immediately he sat with pen and paper trying to decipher it. he couldn’t get much, for the sun was up and the bulb had stopped but he deciphered few lines- “ is it happening tomorrow? we are ready to create the biggest riots!”

 whether this was his stomach or it was what it was he could not decide, so through the day he would very frequently observe the building across through his binoculars.once or twice the old widower noticed him.

 that night when he returned home from he is daily Bazar, he didn’t eat much he was hooked to the balcony across. at 10 in night he made some tea, sat in the balcony  with binoculars and biscuits. he was dead in next 30 minutes. he was poisoned. Whether it was the tea or the old man, please let me know.