Escapades of a PSU Executive - Love in the times of kidnapping.

Escapades of a PSU Executive – III

This is an imaginary series of the experiences of an idiotic PSU executive, working in a global fortune 500 company. Please note that any resemblance to any person living or dead is purely coincidental.

Love in the times of Kidnapping.

On 12 August 1998, there was an attack by a militant organization on an important storage dump of Teliya Oil in Nagaon district of Assam. The incident was a landmark event because it made every officer of Teliya Oil working in NE fearful. They started feeling increasingly vulnerable.

The Idiot was posted in Mohanbari Aviation Fuel Station – where he was station in-charge. The situation at that time was extremely sensitive. The frequent safety and security advisories and phone calls that he got from his Head Quarters disturbed him a lot. He never faced any problem in his day to day life but nevertheless, the fear remained at the back of the mind.

One day, the district police chief rang him and told him to keep in touch with the local police team and to keep them informed about his movements and whereabouts. It was a safety precaution because kidnappings of senior officials were reported from various parts of that area. The Idiot started feeling like as if he is living in an executive prison.

One day during that period the head of the Quality Control department of the Eastern Regional Office, a senior officer named Sachin landed in Mohanbari.

After reaching he told the Idiot that he will inspect Doom Dooma AFS the next day and Mohanbari AFS the day after that. Doom Dooma was at a distance of 80 Kilometers from Mohanbari. The place Doom Dooma was again a very disturbed. A few years back a major tea company evacuated their executives from Doom Dooma by airlifting, due to a threat from the powerful militant organization.

However, he arranged for the office jeep and an old driving hand named Chatterjee to take Sachin to Doom Dooma AFS. The plan was to make the up and down journey to Doom Dooma on the same day. Since the AFS was small it was possible to complete the inspection of Doom Dooma AFS in a few hours.

Next day, very early in the morning Sachin left for Doom Dooma so that he can return during day hours to his hotel in Dibrugarh.

A brief recap about Sachin is given here –

Sachin was actually born in a small village of Bangladesh. Sometime in the later part of the 60s, the whole village migrated to India. Sachin's father came to Guwahati and built a house in a place named Kalapahar. The other people of the village settled all over the north-east part of India in places like Silchar, Karimganj, Agartala, Doom Dooma, Makum, etc.  

Although Sachin finally became a resident of Kolkata, by heart he always remained a person of the North East. He could speak Assamese very fluently. Moreover, when he spoke Bengali it had traces of the way Bengali's of NE speak - which is called Sylhetti in common parlance.   

Sachin also had a tragedy in his life. His wife died during the birth of his second daughter. He did not remarry. By the time of this story, both his daughters were grown up and working. Sachin was looking for suitable boys for each one of them.

Sachin by nature was a very obscure bureaucrat with a blameless career and a bland personality. He was a typical hardworking officer of Teliya Oil who thought that Teliya Oil is the world and the world is Teliya Oil. The death of his wife did not make him pursue any woman and there was no blemish on his character.

In the early morning, Sachin and Chatterjee left for Doom Dooma and the Idiot prepared his AFS for the inspection on the next day. After slogging for the whole day he was dog tired by the time he reached his quiet quarters, in the evening. He was staying alone during that period as his wife was away studying in Guwahati. Bored with life and things in general, he was reading a book and relaxing when he heard a knock on his door.

He opened it to find Chatterjee’s wife standing with her son. She told the Idiot, “Sir, where did you send my husband, he is not back yet and it is already 7.30 PM in the night”. In those places, 7.30 PM is deep night and 09.00 PM is midnight.

Hearing this, the Idiot got perturbed. He made them sit down and tried to contact his counterpart in Doom Dooma to inquire about Chatterjee and Sachin, but he could not establish the connection vide the landline telephone. Mobile communication was unheard of during that period.

As the hands of the clock moved to 08.00 PM he rang up his Boss in Kolkata and informed him about the situation. His Boss immediately informed the DGM (HR).

A few minutes afterwards the Idiot got a phone call from DGM (HR) based in Kolkata who coolly took all the information. After that, the DGM (HR) told him to immediately contact the local police and told the Idiot that he himself will contact senior officials in the state capital.

By that time, the pressure had built up and everybody was in a hyper feverish state. All the inhabitants of the residential colony had come to the Idiot’s house and Chatterjee’s wife started crying loudly and giving accusing glances at the Idiot.

The Idiot started panicking internally but externally he kept his cool. He rang up the SP of Dibrugarh District. Since Doom Dooma was under the jurisdiction of Tinsukia district, the SP told him to contact the Central Control and Coordination room and gave him a number.

When the Idiot called the police central control and coordination room, he found his friend a DSP named Ms Gogoi there. She was manning the post for the night. After he furnished all the information regarding the matter she told the Idiot to call her back after half an hour.

Ms Gogoi then passed a wireless message to all the police check posts in the route between Doom Dooma and Mohanbari. After 15 minutes at around 09.00 PM, the Idiot got a phone call from Ms Gogoi. She told him that as per information the vehicle had crossed Panitola (about 30 KM’s away from Mohanbari) sometime back and both the occupants seemed safe and comfortable.

The information was immediately passed to the official in Kolkata so that they may sleep peacefully in the night.

After dropping Sachin in the hotel in Dibrugarh, the driving hand Chatterjee reached Mohanbari around 10.00 PM. His wife flung her arms around him and cried buckets of tears.

When the Idiot asked Chatterjee about the reason for the delay, he was reluctant to talk in public but said that the delay was not due to a vehicle breakdown.

Next day Chatterjee told the Idiot confidentially what happened.

Chatterjee said that they reached Doom Dooma at around 09.00 Hours. However, instead of going to the office Sachin requested Chatterjee to take him to a residential area where a lot of Bengali people stayed. After searching for some time Sachin located a house and asked Chatterjee to stop the vehicle. 

The house was a quaint little Assam pattern one with a neat garden and a lawn. Although small it was well maintained and cute.

Chatterjee saw Sachin knock on the door and a middle-aged decent looking lady came out. She shouted, “Sachin, you” and hugging him started crying. Sachin also hugged her and started crying. The whole drama happened on the front porch in full public view.

After some time, the lady ushered Sachin into the house. Chatterjee realized that the couple will take some time. So he sat on the vehicle and after smoking a cigarette went to sleep by putting his head on the steering wheel.

He was woken up at 10.30 AM by Sachin and the lady who wanted him to take them to the market. In the market, the lady purchased groceries and some vegetables. After that, they went to the little fish market where fish was purchased. All throughout Sachin acted very caringly towards the lady. He lifted her bags and they talked like old friends. Whatever, be the relationship between them, it was intense.

Coming back to the small house, the lady told Chatterjee while getting down from the vehicle – Brother, you too have lunch in my house.  

The lady cooked a sumptuous lunch for all of them. When having lunch Chatterjee realized that the lady stayed all alone. Sachin left her house around 04.00 PM. As per Chatterjee although Sachin was welcomed with a lot of emotion but the farewell was restrained and normal.

After reaching Doom Dooma AFS at around 04.30 PM Sachin started the inspection and left the AFS at around 07.00 PM. The rest of the happenings had already been described.

Sachin conducted the inspection of Mohanbari AFS that day. He made a great show of seriousness and pointed out little faults of the Idiot in a brusque manner. It was apparent that he was trying to hide his guilty conscience.

Sachin’s relationship with the lady could not be gauged. She might have been his sister. A brother hugging a sister and crying is nothing abnormal. She might have been his ex-lover too. The relationship remained an enigma. 

Chatterjee said, he is sure the lady is not his sister. As per Chatterjee - had the lady been his sister Sachin would have openly stated that he is going to his sister's house. The visit would have been open and not so secretive.

In fact, Chatterjee asked him about the lady on their return journey. Sachin was evasive in his reply and only stated that the lady is an old acquaintance. 

Life was tough for the Idiot and he did not think too much about the matter other than the fact that all were safe and sound.

Chatterjee said the lady’s name is Shukla and the Idiot somehow remembered the name.

Interestingly after a few years, the Idiot got transferred to Agartala. Sachin again came to Agartala for two days to inspect his AFS.

Although he came for two days to inspect the AFS he spent only half a day in the AFS conducting the inspection. He spent the rest of the time in the house of a middle-aged lady in Jirania who again was named Shukla. 

It seemed Sachin had a lot of “Shukla”s tucked up in all the small towns and villages of the North East.