Yantrixa-6: Delhi

I have never like Delhi, I don't know why - I grew up in Bombay and Delhi doesn't make sense to me. As Siddarth Basu once said to the famed Mayank Austen Soofi, - there is a jiski laathi uski bhains culture in Delhi. I can't figure out where it comes from but I can't be bothered with it. The city is inherently not as cosmopolitan as Bombay. I don't know what else to say.

I parked myself in the Ambassador where I usually do. I had setup a meeting with an old friend in Metcalfe House but as I was busily picking through my sumptuous breakfast - when I realised the "thing" sitting across from me bundled in bandages and a plaster cast was Barsha.

You know people say terrible things about her, but honestly - I've found her to be perfectly decent. Starting a conversation with her - given her state proved difficult. Most of this nasty stuff started from that incident that was captured on the ATM video camera but I don't think it is fair to keep dragging her name through the mud for that.

Turns out that she was driving back from Meherauli late one night when she had some sort of altercation with a bunch of college girls driving an SUV. The girls pulled her off the road and beat her up and smashed her car. She had no idea who they were and apparently the Police didn't exactly believe her story. A social worker from the Crimes Against Women unit had come to see her to ask her if she was in an abusive relationship and it was only a call from her father that had prevented the Police from arresting her boyfriend on suspicion of battery.

I was shocked - in a bid to distract from the obviously distressing situation I told her what I was working on. What followed was one of the most bizarre and fortuitous conversations of my life.

Me: So that is it really. I think I might call it "Qayamat ka Din".

B(arsha): Nice catchy - I am jealous. I started developing something like that a few months ago but the MD wouldn't have any of it. I managed to get them to approve a related story but that too got shut down.

Me: Care to tell me what it was?

B: Sure - why not - its all ancient history now.

B: So that part where everyone thinks the Tetravaal are imported? - there is something funny going on there.

B: I decided to go poking around and I found out that the initial import proposal was shot down by Metcalfe House and yet somehow the whole thing went through. I thought they were overruled and most likely Daal me kuch kala hain. So I thought why not go talk to them? after Qayamat ka Din, I figured people might be more up to sharing. So I set up a meeting with a source there.

B: Now when I got there - the feeling was quite bizarre. The source denied all the stuff about Metcalfe House ever having objected to the import. That didn't make any sense either. If there was a time to say "I told you so" - it was now right?

Me: Yes that is strange.

B: I know - but the source was categorical - he denied that Metcalf had anything to do with refusing an import. After I pushed him for an hour, he finally said that the intelligence community had made the objections.

Me: The "Intelligence Community"? Who the hell is that?

B: That is what I thought also. So I went around poking and probing but everyone I spoke to told me that they had no idea what I was talking about. They all parroted the story about Metcalfe House stalling imports.

Me: That's weird.

B: So anyway after a few months of searching around, I finally came upon someone who might be able to clear this up. One of those residents of the 14th floor of Lodhi Road. I had an idea where he lived and so I caught up with him outside his house.

Me: Ooh.. that sounds very bold.

B: Yeah - turned out he was not amused. I fucked up - I didn't know that the 14th floor crowd has its own gorillas. He rounded on me in ten seconds after I asked him about the import issue. He began to question me, how did I know who he was, how did I find where he lived, why was I asking such questions, who sent me, what was my MD thinking... and so on. And seconds later he set the gorillas on my camera man and sound tech. They beat them senseless and they smashed up my support van. A fucking mobile parked one hundred feet away did nothing and after the incident was over they acted like I wasn't even there. They didn't even call an ambulance.

Me: Holy shit - seriously? what did the MD say?

B: Something sympathetic at first and then some time later the MD quietly informed me that I was not to poking around there again. I kept agitating for some action to be taken against these people but then I had that accident on Meherauli road and I have been on medical leave since.

Me: Wow.. I don't know what to say.

B: I know - I spoke to Manoj., I thought with his experience, he should know. I asked him if this was how people behaved. He said usually people were civil, but then if you got too close to something, then their hands were tied. He said that I should let it go lest I ended up like some guy called Hiren but when I probed he clammed up. Do you know what he is talking about?

Me: No .. no idea.

The conversation rolled back and forth and I kept my mouth shut for most of it. I am extremely lucky I met her.

I know exactly what old Manoj was refering to. I know all about Hiren and no I don't want to end up like him.

I think I am going to skip the meeting with the fellow at Metcalfe House, and go home. I really hate Delhi.