Murder
in the neigbourhood and Arun’s
dilemma
Understanding
moral wisdom of a village
school master by his son after
40 years.
Arun Sarkar, an
engineering graduate from
a top institute
of Kolkata, now is a
General Manager in a Company located
at Haridwar(Uttarakhand). Arun is a very hard working
and sincere professional and has
rose to his position very fast and is
currently next to CEO of the company and
enjoys strong faith and confidence
of his CEO. The manufacturing block
headed by Arun works in three shifts
round the clock. Apart from workmen
& supervisors, some
senior executives are
also deployed in
each shift to
have effective control
on the operations of
the block.
It was an extremely
cold winter weekend
night of Haridwar, around 11
PM at night
when Arun was
about to go
to bed, his
mobile phone received
a call. It was from
a senior shift incharge, Shrivastav.
He was
literally agitated and gasping when he
said “ Sir, I am extremely sorry to
bother you at this odd
hour. But I need your urgent
help. I don’t know how
to put it to
you. Sir, I find myself trapped
by someone. Sir, I will explain
to you but I am running out of
time. Would it be possible
for you to reach the factory gate as fast as possible.” Realizing something
has gone terribly wrong, Arun said “ Don’t worry,I will be there within
minutes” He immediately called his
driver to get the car fast and turned
towards already tensed wife and
said in a very controlled voice “ Just
relax ! I need to rush to the factory gate
for some urgent assignment”
saying that he ran
towards
the exit door.
Shrivastav
was one of
Arun’s trusted lieutenant
in that manufacturing
block and has directly worked
under supervision of Arun
for around 20
years or so. Arun reached
the factory gate
and took the
charge of the
situation immediately. After talking
to Shrivastav and
the security staff posted at
the gate , Arun quickly
realized that Shrivastav
has been trapped
by some unscrupulous
element of the shop
floor who had
tried to settle
an issue which
probably he could
not do otherwise
in revenge of
some unknown grievance.
Arun
took Shrivastav into
confidence and asked
him in a low voice “ Do you suspect
anybody for this mischief ?” Shrivastav told “
Sir, right now I am unable to exactly pinpoint. But
whoever has done it, he
has done it very smartly. When
the security staff had their
routine check, to my
utter surprise, they
have found this
piece of precious
metal lying in
the luggage space
of my Maruti 800
Car which can be opened
with the help of
even a plastic scale by any wrongdoer .
Before Shrivastav
could visualize the
gravity of the
situation , the
security staff threatened
to report the
matter to CEO
immediately which he
managed to delay
for few minutes
and in the meantime
rang up Arun
for his immediate
intervention before any
substantial damage is
done by reporting
of the incident
to the CEO.
Arun checked with to
the security staff
and got confirmed that
there was indeed
an unanimous tip off received
by the security
staff just before
Arun’s Car arrived
at the factory
gate, warning the
security staff for
possible theft of
some valuable item
by an approaching Maruti
car.
Arun took
very little time
to assess the situation
as he knew
Shrivastav very well.
To him, Shrivastav’s integrity
was beyond doubt.
He applied his
mind to the fullest possible
and concluded that
there was no point
in reporting that
matter to the
CEO at that point of
time and initiate
vigilance proceedings against
an honest officer
like Shrivasatav . So
he exercised his
positional influence on the security
staff and hushed
up the case under
the carpet to
prevent any damage to
the image and
career of Shrivastav.
While
Shrivastav left relieved
by the intervention
of his boss, Arun
returned home for
immediate relief of
his anxious wife
there, little unsure
about his actions
at the factory
gate on that
fateful night.
Before
going to bed
very late at
that night, an incident
of Arun’s childhood
flashed across his
mind which bothered
him for another
hour or so
before he could
actually fall asleep.
The
incident took him
almost 40 years
back when he
was studying in Vth standard.
His
father was a village
school teacher and
was a respected person
in their village.
On a rainy
season evening, his
father was tutoring
Arun and his
brother, when Puja, a tiny
girl of a
neighbor came running
to Arun’s house
and cried out
to Arun’s father
“ Uncle ! please come quickly
to our home . My
mother is terribly ill. We don’t
know what has happened to her.
Neither she is
talking nor she
is able to
move her limbs.” Arun’s father
alongwith Arun and his
brother took no
time to reach
Puja’s house. What
they found was
no less than
a heart breaking
story. Puja’s father Santosh
and his elder
brother Naresh had
a big fight
on that fateful
evening over sharing
of caught fishes
from a pond
which was jointly
shared by Santosh
and Naresh, though they
were living separately.
Santosh
was a very
poor farmer without
having any farm
land to cultivate
on his own
and was passing
through a hand-to-mouth
existence for quite
long and a
very big family
to support. Moreover, Santosh’s wife
was suffering from
a chronic disease.
Whereas, Naresh was
a very rich man
with his own
business as well as
enough farmlands of
their own. While
Santosh and Naresh
were engaged in
heated arguments for a pretty
issue like sharing
of small amount
of fish, the matter
worsened further when
their wives too
joined in the
fight. And during
some extremely hot
discussion, Naresh’s wife Vibha, a
strongly built women, caught
hold of the Puja’s
mother Arati by her
neck, by her
forceful hand and
started tightening her
grip. Arati cried
out in instant
pain and tried to
get her free
from Vibha’s tightening
grip. Santosh reacted
very fast and reached
to both of them
and tried to
loosen Vibha’s grip
and pull Arati away.
Perhaps
it was too
late, as Arati’s
thin and frail
body lay breathless
and motion less on the ground.
Arun, his
father and brother
probably reached at
the spot after
few minutes of the
incident. Everyone present
there were speechless
and unable to
grasp the incident
with their logical
mind. Puja and
her brothers started
crying inconsolably over
their mother’s body. Arati
had a very
special affection for
Arun as Arati ‘s
eldest son, Nitish
and Arun were
born in the same
year and were
studying in the same
school. Arun could
hardly control his
tears and absolutely had no words
to console his
friend Nitish.
The dark evening
appeared to be
longer and longer.
Arun observed
his father to
swing into action
and take the
charge of the
situation immediately. He called
upon all the
immediate neighbors for
a closed door
meeting where no
kids were allowed.
Next day, early in
the morning, the
dead body of
Arati was quickly
put into flames
without informing police.
Later Arun came to
know that his
father was instrumental
in arriving into
an agreement wherein
Naresh agreed to
transfer five acres
of his fertile
farmland against Santosh’s
name as a compromise for
not reporting the
incident to police
and thereby saving
both the families
from judicial proceedings
and possible ruin.
Even today
Puja’s crying voice
haunts Arun when Aarati’s body
was just being put
into flames “ Ma , please don’t
leave us alone. Ma , please tell me which
golden world you are destined
to ?” Arun was
quite unsure about
his father’s action
about forty years
back as he
is now about
his own action
at the factory
gate few hours
back.
Image Courtesy: Pinterest
