12. UNLOCKING THE LOCKER

12. UNLOCKING THE LOCKER India witnessed a tumultuous year in 1984. The political landscape of the country was a witness to dramatic metamorphoses. A charismatic and charming youthful leader was catapulted to adorn the highest position of the country. Thousands of eyes had welled-up with tears, millions wailed as he lit the funeral pyre of his mother sporting the sacred thread prominently across his torso. His mother who was the Prime Minister was felled by the bullets of ultras. A trail of violence erupted in the country following his mother’s unnatural death. This was accompanied by gruesome sectarian violence against a particular community. The year also witnessed utter callousness by a multinational company, where noxious gases leaked, killing and maiming thousands of people in a chilling manner. Unfortunately, the CEO of the company fled the country leaving the hapless population of the city gasping for breath. Malham-The Balm, Allahabad, 1985 Sudha Shukla’s theme for the evening was called Malham-The Balm. She was a gifted painter, singer and a dancer, who produced dramatic shows which were a fusion of Hindustani classical music, painting and dance. This style was way ahead of its time. The young, multifaceted artiste, through divine grace was an accomplished artiste, but still to arrive on the world stage and carve a niche for herself. After careful mulling, she had decided to opt for a fusion format to dexterously showcase the socio-political events of the times. Her immense creativity and talent were her tools. Current affairs of the day always captivated her mind. She was particularly interested in the political affairs of her state and the country. She was elected as the Joint Secretary of the Allahabad University and had lorded over the cultural section of the youth wing of the party to which she owed allegiance. “It is paramount that we as artistes do not shy away from current affairs and the subterranean political situation that shape our lives. Instead, as committed artistes we have an onerous covenant to demonstrate to the world various aspects of the human, social and political life of the state and country irrespective of ideology,” she would state loftily. “It is high time we graduate to more serious stuff rather than merely portraying Raas Leela. The Fusion series, spanning the events which marked the national political scenario of 1984, left a profound and indelible impact on the minds of the audience. The sequence of the chilling assassination of a sitting Prime Minister by her security cover, followed by the trail of bloodletting and macabre sectarian violence, and passing of the political baton to a neophyte politician upon winning the general elections with a massive mandate in the backdrop of thousands of people trapped in a gas chamber were successfully captured through Malham. It was an epochal show. Through paintings, music and dance it effectively encapsulated the political and social events of the period in a telling manner and assuaged the frayed nerves of an expectant and agitated audience. The multifaceted Sudha Shukla certainly managed to become the cynosure of art lovers of Allahabad. Glued to the show with avid interest were Pradip Tiwari an emerging politician and his advocate friend Gautam Pandey. Gautam hailed from a family of bureaucrats and lawyers. Invariably, those who could not crack the Civil Services or the State Civil Services became lawyers. This was and perhaps continues to be the tradition in the feudal states, particularly those in the swathes of Northern India. His bosom friend Pradip Tiwari’s kinsmen were all politicians and some of them quite inexorable. Gautam and Pradip were seniors of the beauteous dancer from their alma mater. And not surprisingly, both were singularly bewitched by the prepossessing, Rubenesque Sudha Shukla. Thirty years ago (19 85 -1991) Meanwhile the charismatic Prime Minister lost his way in the turbulence and labyrinth of powers and was mired in the charges of corruption in defence deals. Further, he could not manage various conflicting interests of the majority and minority communities of the country on a disputed land where the majority community fervidly espoused the cause of constructing a temple in reverence of Lord Rama, the scion of Ayodhya who was believed to have been born on the banks of Saruyu River. Meanwhile the ebullient Prime Minister lost power and dramatic events had swamped the Indian political cyclorama. There was another individual who once was part of the cabinet of the beguiling Prime Minister, and that man wore his financial honesty as his Teflon coat. He fired the imagination of the populace across the land, distressed as they were with corruption at high places and the duplicity of those at the helm, especially the shifting stand on the construction of the temple on the disputed land. In this undertaking, he was supported by the left-wing and the right-wing parties. The latter espoused the movement to construct the temple and added the word “pseudo-secularism” to the political lexicon of the country. They were single-mindedly focussed on pushing to form an alternative government at the centre. However, this apparently plain sailing Prime Minister was unable to balance the ambitions of various state satraps and conflicting interests of other leaders of the party. Politics is the art of possible and this Prime Minister quickly revised his strategy to remain relevant. He surreptiously raised the bogey of positive affirmations in government jobs and education for certain deprived sections to strengthen his political base. A report which had been gathering dust since ages was revived which resulted in a social war between the communities perched higher in the social ladder of the Hindu community and those, they considered flotsam and jetsam. There was a veritable caste war in the name of social justice. Simultaneously the right-wing parties, to protect their turf gave a fresh impetus to the temple movement. Amidst the strife, the government collapsed which was followed by a short-lived government headed by a no-nonsense brooding politician. But his government collapsed as the former glamorous Prime Minister was piqued that two measly constables were spying at him, his family and the sprawling bungalow that he occupied. The fiery and self–respecting, brooding Prime Minister chose to quit rather than face unwarranted insinuations. Agni-Raudra Roop, Lucknow, 1992 Malham-The Balm made Sudha Shukla a household name. Her unique combination of out of the ordinary paintings, mellifluous music and breath-taking dance used as the medium to depict socio-political events of the day was a novelty and thought provoking too. This was the high noon of her career as she had carved a niche for herself. She and her troupe now offered Raudra Roop which encapsulated several winters and summers of the tumultuous Indian political and social scenario between 1989 and 1992 in a striking manner. The gathering was riveted to their seats as the dancers, and paintings along with soulful and haunting music dramatized the assassination of the charismatic young Prime Minister by ultras belonging to a chilling group from Sri Lanka. The angst of the “upper castes” which opposed the implementation of the positive affirmation report struck a chord with the stakeholders. Finally, the mayhem and scars inflicted once the disputed structure was dismantled by a fringe right-wing group to sloganeering and ranting by a section of the assemblage who espoused the cause. The cyclorama was besmirched with blood of Raudra Roop. The celestials appeared seething with fierce rage and demonstrated their furious form. The appalling and grisly events tormented the audience no end. It compelled Sudha Shukla to develop yet another Fusion to calm frayed nerves. Tranquillity in Delhi, 1994 The multifaceted dancer soon switched gears and dabbled in metamorphosing Zen stories into her fusion format. She crafted a simple and delectable Zen story which was a transition from anger, strife and bloodletting that had been the underlying theme of Raudra Roop, to the tranquillity and peace as practiced by Zen Buddhism. The result was Tranquility. It was an extremely simple narration but with an overwhelming and deep-rooted impact on the aficionados. Sudha always relied on flawlessness and as usual studied her characters and prepared the script to perfection. She had undergone a series of Vipassana meditation techniques and studied Zen Buddhism to understand Buddha and his teachings. Thus, she got into the skin of the character to assuage frayed nerves. There was once a Japanese father who handed his son a bag filled with nails. He told the boy that every time he burst out in anger, he should hammer one nail into their fence. On the first day, the boy hammered as many as 37 nails! As days passed by, the number of nails he hammered declined which was something inevitable. A day arrived in the life of the boy when he did not hammer a single nail, for he believed that he had not lost his temper at all. He announced this to his father with immense pride. The father merely smiled and told his son, “Now, you pull out a single nail for each day that passes without your losing your temper.” This too, was done by the dutiful boy. And after a lapse of several days, he informed his father that there were no nails remaining to be extricated from the fence. The sagacious father then held the boy’s hand and led him to the fence. “Well done, son! But look at the damage caused on the fence in the exercise of forging and disencumbering the nails from the fence. This fence will never look the way it used to for all these years!” He continued, “Words uttered in anger only inflict scars. One may stab a man with a shrapnel several times. It could be several times, but by uttering three magical words ‘I am sorry’, the wounds disappear.” But anger, arrogance and words uttered in contempt only result in scars which last for a long time. The nails were representative of the events spanning 1989 to 1992, which included the political chicanery of those times, the deviant politics played by the principal characters, the termination of a former Prime Minister’s term and the resultant uproar, the widowhood of his wife and how the family was a witness to two exterminations in the family within a period of seven years, the macabre consequences of the positive affirmation by a Teflon coated leader and finally the split wide open once a disputed structure was dismantled. Each nail had led to inflicting scars and wounds on the society which was with remarkable ingenuity burnished through the Zen story. The onlookers could connect quite easily with the sequence. If Malham-The Balm was the first step, and Agni-Raudra Roop the anchorage of her cultural voyage, the peregrination reached a high noon with Tranquillity. Tranquillity was performed at Kamani auditorium, Delhi and received a standing ovation and Sudha became the toast of the town. She was soon feted with Sangeet Natak Akademi Award and several other decorations and badges. *************** Late in 1994 Gautam Pandey was now a leading advocate, Sudha a prominent danseuse and Pradip Tiwari was now a Member of the Legislative Assembly of the most populous state in the country. The three had had a meteoric rise in their respective fields; their sphere of influence extending into the by lanes of the political capital of the country. Between Pradip Tiwari and Gautam Pandey, it was Pradip who had first expressed his love to Sudha Shukla and she had reciprocated in equal measure. Soon the two broke all barriers of physical intimacy and chastity during amorous moments. Srikrishna Shukla, the Chief Minister of the state was singularly impressed with the political acumen, administrative capabilities and debating skills of Pradip Tiwari. The Chief Minister, like Pradip hailed from Purvanchal, the eastern belt of the state. Pradip apart from certain exceptional qualities was also developing into a Bahubali, the local strongman, who commanded influence over the region through brute power and money. “Sir, Pradip Tiwari with his demeanour could pose a threat to Anand bhaiyya and the dynasty in the future,” Devi Pandey, the political secretary to the Chief Minister shared one day. Shri Srikrishna Shukla parried the remark of his secretary. “I believe he is fond of women and wine. And also savours non-vegetarian food, Pandey. I have come to understand that young danseuse Sudha Shukla and Pradip Tiwari share a very close bonding, perhaps even physical?” he commented instead. **************** Gautam Pandey was in his chambers at the High Court in Allahabad. He was being felicitated by his colleagues for successfully defending his client who was charged under Section 352 of the IPC for usage of criminal force against an individual on grave and sudden provocation. But this was a minor case that he had he won with consummate ease. The leading advocate blessed with uncanny legal acumen had saved people convicted under IPC 302 and IPC 350. He had built a formidable reputation and had a battery of young lawyers working for him. The legal luminary frowned at the message on his cellular phone. Cellular services had just started in India. “HM in town. Meeting him at Circuit House for some work. I will be late, you have your dinner,” was a message the legal eagle received on his phone. “Even though she is married now, she will never change. Sudha has high testosterone levels and ambitious to over reach. Something I am unable to fulfil,” mused Gautam Pandey to himself. After the day’s hectic proceedings, he headed to El Chico in the upmarket Civil Lines area. He had a hot cup of coffee and smoked his favourite cigarette 555 before heading home. HM or the Home Minister was none other than Pradip Tiwari. He had clambered the political ladder through his musclemen and by striking fear in the Purvanchal area. The Machiavellian Chief Minister had been watching the rise of Pradip Tiwari warily. The note of caution sounded by his sagacious secretary made him realise it was time to act. He laid a minefield in a treacherous manner such that Pradip could not disregard it. The strapping Home Minister was married to the Chief Minister’s daughter Bhavana Shukla. And as part of political deal, he was made the Home Minister. Any possible threat from the Janus-faced Pradip Tiwari was further nipped in the bud when Anand Shukla was made both Party President and Deputy Chief Minister in the Srikrishna Shukla-led government. All the power of the state vested in the Shukla family. Pradip Tiwari though holding the portfolio of Home Minister, could not exercise the powers and his muscle to the fullest. He was hamstrung by the father and son duo. Meanwhile Sudha Shukla was devastated with these developments. “How could you do this to me? I am appalled at your actions,” she addressed him agitatedly. He held her lustfully and ventured, “My dear, words may not comfort you, but just imagine how our careers will parachute into the stratosphere. In my new avatar I would be the damaad of the most important Chief Minister of this country. I will one day become the Chief Minister and will trammel upon those who come my way,” he uttered menacingly. Once a Bahubali always a Bahubali. This will provide you a chance to have a whirlwind rise in your cultural sphere.” “I have already made a name for myself through dint of sheer diligence and brilliance. I do not require your assistance,” she said haughtily. Sudha was not convinced by his words but very quickly realised that the die was cast. She had no option in a man’s world. She was also scared of the dark side of Pradip’s personality. She accepted it as fait accompli. “But our relationship can continue only on one condition. You have to promise me a ticket to the Legislative Assembly,” Sudha stated her condition. Pradip Tiwari’s jaws dropped upon hearing this and had no reply. It was sometime in late 1996 Sudha Pandey hailed from a wonted background. Her father was a priest at the powerful Hanuman temple in the Civil Lines area of the city. Pandit Ramcharan Shukla and his wife Radha had borne two daughters and a son. Among the three siblings, Sudha was exceptionally talented and yearned to arrive on the world stage. And she achieved her objective triumphantly. Her father was always chary of Pradip Tiwari and his unsavoury methods of clambering up the political ladder. Without blinking an eyelid, he accepted the marital proposal for his daughter from the estimable Pandey family, dominated by civil servants and lawyers. The pandit was well aware that his prepossessing daughter was once passionately in love with Pradip Tiwari and that their relationship had encompassed physical and emotional dimensions. He was anxious to erase this chapter from the cranny corners of his mind and his daughter’s life too. *************** Sudha Pandey the prominent multifaceted artiste of Uttar Pradesh, made her political foray. She was successfully elected to the Legislative Assembly for three consecutive terms. She entered the portals of the august house in 1996, 2001 and 2006 espousing women’s issues. She had now successfully switched gears, weaving her fusion series using tales from the epics; the very ones which at the beginning of her career she had touted as mere Raas Leela. She felt this was more in keeping with her image of a humble servant of the people. Gautam had virtually paled into insignificance as his wife continued her fatal relation with Pradip Tiwari. The relationship between the husband and wife sunk to the nadir and young Aditya, their child, was to see his father in a state of stupor physically assaulting his mother. He was to witness this wretched sight virtually every day and developed great antipathy towards his father. Even though Sudha Pandey was the real culprit, she ingenuously portrayed herself as the wronged individual and poisoned her son about his father’s misdemeanours. But as he grew older, some closets opened and secrets tumbled. He came to know about his mother’s fatal attraction and secret dalliance with Pradip Tiwari, once the powerful Home Minister of the state. It was also suspected by some members of his paternal family that in order to further her political interests she cultivated Anand Shukla the Deputy Chief Minister and allegedly had a roaring affair with him. Meanwhile Anand Shukla was mysteriously killed in a car crash, which devastated the Chief Minister. There was a tussle for political power in the Shukla Parivar. The devastated Chief Minister decided to forsake politics but not before his machinations and chicanery. The wily Chief Minister engineered a coup in the family and got his son–in-law arrested on the charges of eliminating Anand Shukla and anointed his daughter Bhavana as the next Chief Minister and also President of the party. Meanwhile back in the holy city of Prayagraj, Sudha cannonaded Aditya’s mind with the melancholic thought that Gautam Pandey, legal luminary of Allahabad had walked out of their lives and in a drunken state snuffed out his life. For several years, the young man had believed in the veracity of this theory, till one day he happened to read a note that he found in an old diary lying in his father’s chambers. His mother’s extensive involvement in politics meant that she was spending more time in Lucknow and Delhi, while he was in Allahabad and following his father’s footsteps had taken up law as his profession. “By the time you read this I may not be alive. But open my locker No. 555 in the State Bank of India – you will discover some startling facts about our lives,” scribbled Gautam Pandey. **************** Sudha Pandey willed herself not to check her phone to see if Aditya had replied. It had been about three days now. Sudha hated that she was constantly checking Aditya’s ‘last seen at’ status and to her surprise, yes, he indeed had logged in barely five minutes ago. Yet, she could not prevent herself. This sinking feeling to find absolutely no communication from her son had now become unbearable, almost torturous. She was at her tether’s end. And then, just as she sat down in her chair, her phone vibrated. With her heart thudding in her ear, Sudha Pandey unlocked her phone and stared at the screen. Finally! It was Aditya’s message. But when she opened it and read it, she nearly stopped breathing as she gasped for breath. Her mouth was parched and she felt absolutely dry. In desperation she swallowed a few pills of Zapiz and a few sips of gin-tonic. After a few shots her head swam and there was a wry smile on her face. She didn’t know if Aditya was joking or not. Meanwhile she could hear some murmuring sounds outside her plenteous bungalow. Where were security guards she wondered? She was exceedingly unsteady as she got up. The lethal combination of gin-tonic and Zapiz had taken its toll. What was this? Aditya Pandey rushed to the State Bank of India and opened the locker. As he read the note he sobbed inconsolably and sank to the ground. Gautam Pandey’s note stated, “the adversary is not Pradip Tiwari or Anand Shukla but some one more dominant”. The senior Pandey also fervently prayed that his son got his DNA test done. “I despise to call her my mother. You filled my being by spewing negativity about my father. But he was absolutely innocent and naive,” he thought aloud. *************** Aditya Pandey had gathered voluminous information about the misdemeanours committed by his mother. He did not quite know how to deal with it. He required sharing this data with a confidante. And there was one person he could rely upon; the person was his aunt Rachna Pandey. Over the last few years, the two had become very close and were party to each other’s confidential matters. They spent several hours together. Rachna was a spinster and in Aditya she found mental support. Aditya in turn, saw in Rachna Pandey the maternal figure he had never found in his mother. They were always in touch with each other via texts and phone calls. Only ten years separated the two and they seem to be attracted to each other. An Oedipus complex was slowly burgeoning between the two as their confabulations bordered on movies, film stars, models, six packs among other things. Their bonding was in wraps with none aware about the transgressions which occurred. From Rachna aunty he was to address her as Rachna and even R. She fondly called him my A. One night, Rachna Pandey was awakened by a WhatsApp message, “Rachna I need to meet you urgently. It is very important.” The two met the following day at El Chico and an inconsolable Aditya shared some dark secrets about his mother. Rachna Pandey, the IPS officer and Aditya’s aunt helped him in decoding the case. She furnished a warrant to arrest Sudha Pandey on the charges of murder of her husband Gautam Pandey and elimination of evidence. The other culprit was an octogenarian. He was once the formidable Chief Minister of the most populous state of the country. Aditya using his legal skills could ensure the DNA testing of the octogenarian Srikrishna Shukla. The DNA test revealed that Aditya Pandey was the son of Srikrishna Shukla and Sudha Pandey. Years ago, Sudha had caught the fancy of the Chief Minister and traded herself to climb the political ladder, once she realised that Pradip Tiwari had been effectively neutralised and would no longer be able to assist her in fulfilling her political ambitions. Not all the text messages her husband saw were of his friend Pradip and or even Anand. Several of them were of the spirituous Chief Minister.