“If the Left has a future in India , India has no future left” Cho Ramaswamy .

Cholo paltai …. Notun bangali….What these Bengal results mean ?

The elections verdict is out and as expected , all of the exit polls ( except for CNN IBN’s TamilNadu prediction )have not even been close. But I am personally very happy. The TMC – CONGRESS candidate Dinesh Trivedi has won over the left front candidate Tarit Topdar thus ending latter’s 20 years of (mis) rule. The Left front itself has been routed in Kerela and West Bengal . But the victory of Bengal is special and very important for the people itself. Let me tell you why.

Soumo Ghoshal one of my college seniors, told me that Tarit Topdar had managed to defeat his relative Debi Ghoshal in the 1980’s by the power of rigging. Amarabh Banerjee ,one of my classmates was not allowed to vote this year , as his vote , they said had already been cast. His mother told me that he had not voted ever. When people in his locality tried to object the local CPM councilor threatened them with dire consequences . The police is a mere state tool , hence not much can be expected from it. What I want to highlight from these two examples is that the Left has since long misused the state machinery and the party cadre to rig votes and there was this growing sense of hopelessness that was engulfing a lot of people including me. No proper roads no industry, no electricity …and yet the Left was winning for the Last three decades. The message being sent out was the people of Bengal don’t care about development , they are not bothered about industry and yes in a land where all is already dark who needs electricity. I myself was very disappointed with the way Bengal was perceived by other people . So now the rout has come as a eye opener for the Left . It has several messages if the Left is not dumb enough to ignore.

1) Don’t take the people of Bengal for granted. Muscle power can win you a few elections but in the long run it hurts the party image. Left was once seen as the meeting point of all the intelligentsia , now its thought to be a culmination of power hungry goons.

2) People of Bengal have brains too. You cannot fool the middle class with communal secular drab.

3) And one advice to you . Try opening all the jute mills that your great labour unions have closed all around Bengal and then give all this NANO crap. Left was and never will be pro industry….its not in your DNA.

4) Change your policies you no brainers, and let me give you one free piece of advice in that regard , your think tank or the politbureau as you like to call it …please see to it that elected representatives take party decisions and not so called intellectuals who have never in their lives won a municipality election let alone a Loksabha seat. Prakash Karat, Sitaram Yechury Brinda Karat….. the list of the so called intellectuals is endless.

Sangeeta Mondol a very good friend of mine asked me who I voted for , she too agreed that change was required. This elections have shows that change will come. Cholo paltai…………

THE COMPROMISE HUSBAND

By PRANAY TIWARI ……………………………..

CHAPTER 1

As Arpita was about to ring the bell she looked at the watch one final time. “My Love”. It had taken three thousand rupees to get those words imprinted on the back side of the watch. The Rado watch itself had cost her forty thousand rupees. Arpita knew how tough it had been to get the money. The two thousand rupees that she did receive from Seth Ramniklal (her father) each month wasn’t enough to manage her makeup kit let alone buy a designer watch from Mark & Bens. And then like lightning , she knew. Prakarsh could never say no to her. Within ten seconds the blank cheque was handed to her. A blank cheque! Silly Prakarsh . She laughed , almost cruelly.

Rishabh opened the door . When he saw the watch , the first thing he asked was its price. He wished he could have seven birthdays in a year. He pulled Arpita by her elbow and pushed her onto the bed. The cell phone was switched off . The next two hours he was not to be disturbed.

********************

Thirty seven kilometers away at the head office of Arthamoney in Elgin street, Prakarsh was pondering over the company’s profit for this quarter when the dormant fax machine sprung to life blurting out a piece of paper . It was from Prakarsh’s bank agent.

“ A cheque of 43,000 rupees has been withdrawn from your account ( AC no. 11/31587) in favour of Mark & Bens .”

Prakarsh noted the amount and then put the paper in the shredder .

This was the first fact he had ever hidden from Seth Ramniklal.

********************

Arpita put the crimson dupatta back on her. She always hated leaving .

“ Bye, “ she said “ and once again, happy birthday .”

He smiled and said “ I love you.”

Rishabh had told the same three words to three other girls that year.

CHAPTER 2 .

Prakarsh was the reason why Ramniklal became ‘Seth’ Ramniklal. A son of his former munshee, Prakarsh had joined Ramniklal immediately after his father’s death. In the next three years he had single handedly tripled the company’s profit, set up seven more offices outside Calcutta and put the company on the stock exchange. Last year’s profit had been a whopping 35 crores. Every single paper that Seth Ramniklal signed had to first pass through Prakarsh . He was indispensible and everybody at ARTHAMONEY knew it.

********************

It took just one look at Rishabh for Ramniklal to say an emphatic “NO”. The man was simply not right for Arpita . Moreover he had already selected the right boy for her.

***********************

After much thinking the impulsive Arpita made her decision .” lets run away.”she told Rishabh ,” I cannot marry anyone else.”

Rishabh had feared that this day would soon come. The next fifteen minutes he explained to Arpita a plan that had taken fifteen days to come up with . He only hoped that Arpita would agree.

***********************

That night Arpita rushed to her father’s room with tears in her eyes. “ You were right papa , he is not what I thought him to be .”

Sixteen days later six thousand people attended the wedding of Arpita Patodia , daughter of Seth Ramniklal with Prakarsh Agarwal , manager of Arthamoney

CHAPTER 3.

Nine months had passed. Today was Arpita’s birthday .

When Prakarsh put the diamond necklace around her she could only mutter a feeble thankyou.

He looked into her eyes. As his lips moved closer to hers’ he thought for a second. Damn it , he said to himself and kissed her passionately on her lips. His hands rubbed on her neck and for a moment she responded. When he was about to take off her necklace….snap. Arpita regained her composure. She felt so guilty.

“ I am sorry Prakarsh I really am. Its just that I need some time .”

That night Prakarsh was going through the presentation that he was to give the next day when his eyes fell on Arpita , sleeping ..serene …. so beautiful. A thought struck him. A happy thought. Today he felt for the first time that Arpita was forgetting the past. Maybe her past will fade away from her mind , go into deep depths of oblivion never to bother her again. That day , the kiss would be complete.

When he had shut the laptop , he could sense that the room was not completely dark. He went near the sofa and found out it was the green luminescence of a watch. A watch ? He picked up the watch and stared at it. It was a designer Rado watch . On the back of it were imprinted two words ‘My Love’.

That moment , Prakarsh was reminded of the harsh fact. The past could never be forgotten.

CHAPTER 4

Prakarsh knew Arpita was a social activist. But this time around , when Arpita told him that today was her groups meeting on global warming , for the first time he did not believe her.

***************

Arpita had the constant feeling that she was being followed . She had lied many times but today she was feeling nervous. She looked around twice before entering Hotel Hindustan International ( HHI) at Camac street. The door of room 311 opened even before she knocked.

Rishabh always made her feel vulnerable, helpless. That was one thing that Prakarsh had never nade her feel This time , they were meeting after two weeks. Rishabh shut the door .

“You don’t know what a tough week I have had.” he remarked and saying this he started undressing her.

*****************

Fifteen minutes through the presentation, the vibrator of Prakarsh’s cell phone went active for a second. It was the man from the agency. The message was short but it made perfect sense.

‘ She was with him. HHI . Room no. 311.’

Prakarsh knew what he had to do next . He was waiting for the right time.

Six months later when Seth Ramniklal died at the Appolo Ganglieas due to twin heart attacks Prakarsh knew that the time had come.

CHAPTER 5

The meeting had been very abruptly arranged but Rishabh did not see any reason to be unruffled. Prakarsh was very calm during all of it.

“ I think Arpita loves you a lot and you do the same. You should marry her.”

Rishabh smiled inside. The PLAN had worked.

“ Well Mr. Prakarsh , I want to but its all very unclear for me… I mean my business is not doing all that well and I don’t know….”

Prakarsh cut him short. He wanted to know the price without the dramatics.” How much?”he asked.

Rishabh understood . “ How much can you give ?”

“ I have 56 percent shares of the company. You get sixteen percent of it. The forty percent goes to Arpita.”

“ What will you take ?” asked Rishabh .

“ Nine months that I spent with her ……with the false hope that one day she would truly love me.” Prakarsh remarked and walked away.

Six days later Arpita Patodia became Mrs. Arpita Motwani , wife of Rishabh Motwani.

CHAPTER 6

Prakarsh spent the next six months in Koth , a small village in Uttar Pradesh managing his ancestral property.

That night it was raining hard. Prakarsh was almost asleep when the cell phone rang. The person on the other side did not speak but Prakarsh understood.

“ Arpita why are you crying?” he asked, back to his senses.

“ Prakarsh” , she said with her heavy throat hindering her voice, “ it was all a lie. He is already married .” and then …she could not talk.

From his cupboard Prakarsh picked his .31 semiautomatic. He had never used it before. All that was going to change.

***********************

48 hours later, in ITC Sonar Bangla, a hotel near science city, two shots were heard from room 431 at the fifth floor .

When the police came they found it to be an open and shut case. The murderer himself had called the police. The hotel staff had heard the shooter repeat the same line again and again“ She loved you so much . Why did you do that to her?” Some identified the shooter as the ex manager of Arthamoney.

Prakarsh Agarwal was sentenced to life imprisonment for killing Rishabh Motwani.

As Rishabh Motwani had not made a will , the 56 percent shares of Arthamoney ( the forty percent of Arpita having been got by cheating) came back to Arpita .

Arpita was the new chairman of Arthamoney.

CHAPTER 7

Seventeen years had passed.

When the Lal bazaar jail door opened hawaldaar Ramu looked at the man who was being released . He was frail and thin, the stoop in his walk evident and yet his face and mannerisms commanded respect.

The old man walked aimlessly the whole day and in the evening he sat down on the shores of the Kali temple at Shayamnagar. Someone was distributing halwa puri to the beggars sitting near the temple. When he had finished eating the same his eyes fell on the newspaper strip in which he had received the food. It was carrying a picture of a lady , smiling to the cameras as she planted the trees. Underneath the headlines read ‘ MINISTER’S WIFE ARPITA GOES GREEN.’

That night the man slept like a baby. He had a wonderful dream in which he was kissing the woman he had seen in the picture. It was a complete kiss.

*************

The next morning a motley crowd gathered around a dead body near the temple. When the man’s wallet was searched (to find his identity) they found a few coins, three credit cards ,a picture of awoman whom they all knew as Mr. Arpita , wife of the state health minister..and a business card with the name ‘ PRAKARSH AGARWAL’ written on it.

Strangely enough , the dead man had a smile on his face.