22

Susan and I went to a nearby Indian restaurant for a quick lunch. It was a nice South Indian joint and we ordered two Masala Dosas. Masala Dosa is a variant of the popular South Indian food, Dosa. It is made from rice, lentils, and potato, and methi, curry leaves and served with chutneys and sambar. Of course I didn’t tell her the Dosa had around 400 calories.

“So Rahul tell me about the case,” said Susan as she put the first bite of the Dosa in her mouth, and continued, “Hmmm... This is yummy and full of calories. Do you intend to fatten me and make me a couch potato?”

I thought in my mind a bit of fat would only add beauty to the body. “I am glad you liked it, yes it has a bit of calories, I confess, but I am sure you are going to burn them in the gym in the evening.” She smiled looking at me. I was hoping for some more casual discussion, when Susan broke my dream.

“Tell me something about Nikhil. I read he is one of the suspects on the case.”

Getting back to Arjun’s story, it is probably time to discuss another important character in detail in this story. The reason to introduce him and now weave him into the story is that he was one of the suspects in the murder of Karishma, and a very strong suspect.

Nikhil Gaitonde was in the same class as Karishma. From the moment, he had seen her the first time on the day one of college, he had started liking her. Nikhil’s childhood was a bit troubled as he had abusive parents, which led his brother Randhir to become Ron bhai, one of the underworld kingpins in Mumbai. This was a time when the underworld had a significant influence on the financial capital of India. Being the brother of Ron bhai, meant that Nikhil often got what he wanted without having to worry about anything. Be it fast cars, branded clothes, international travel, lavish night life, Nikhil had it all. He got very influenced by his brother and started dreaming of his own career in the underworld.

He was surrounded by friends who thought similar to him, and were obviously impressed by the power Nikhil enjoyed wherever he went. After all, birds of a feather flock together. They never let Nikhil forget about his career ambitions as they themselves had linked their own career ambitions to his. This group of people was a nuisance in the college for everyone, fellow students, teachers and staff. There were enough stories of them ragging students, not paying attention in class and disturbing proceedings, creating a chaos in the Students Room and the canteen. Once a complaint was filed by a teacher who was abused in the class by Nikhil and the principal had called Nikhil’s parents for a discussion. The person who turned up was Ron bhai, who in front of the principal asked Nikhil to behave himself. However, one day later the teacher who had complained resigned from his job, no one knows why, but speculation was rife that Ron bhai had something to do with it. After that people were scared to complain about Nikhil fearing the ‘bhai’ impact. The college also could not take any action as no complaints were being officially made.

Nikhil’s advances towards Karishma were known to all and he would be seen floating around Karishma very often to the irritation of Karishma. She had told him to behave a number of times, but to no avail. Arjun also did not interfere as Nikhil had not yet crossed any boundaries, although he himself was feeling very uncomfortable about the whole issue. He had followed Karishma right upto Dubai and had tried his best to be with Karishma trying to take her out for his dream tour of Dubai. When he had found out that Karishma had been out with Arjun the entire day, he had felt very uncomfortable about the issue and had warned Karishma of dire consequences to Arjun if she got involved with him. Everyone had ignored this warning, which probably was a mistake in hindsight.

Even during the award ceremony he had hugged Karishma in front of everyone and I am sure Jitu bhai had skipped a heartbeat. Arjun had still controlled himself, thinking with time Nikhil will give up.

However, the story of the famous kiss on the steps of Jai Hind College had reached the ears of every student. Arjun was the hero of the college, especially after the victory in Dubai. It was as if romance was in the air and romantic proposals on the steps had suddenly become fashionable. It was love euphoria for everyone except one person of course, Nikhil. Nikhil could not take the insult when he heard about the kissing incident. He immediately approached Karishma and caught her when she was alone.

“Listen Karishma, I have told you earlier as well to stay away from that bastard Arjun, you don’t seem to understand,” yelled Nikhil.

“Mind your language Nikhil, this is no way to talk to a girl,” retorted Karishma extremely angry.

“You don’t teach me to mind anything; you are the one who has to mind your steps. You can’t be kissing him in front of the whole college.”

“Okay, next time I will kiss him in private.”

“Don’t try to play smart with me. You know exactly what I want.”

“And what is it that you want Nikhil?”

“I want you, you are only mine.”

“Shut up Nikhil, you are insane.”

“You haven’t seen the insanity yet, my love for you is pure and that bastard. Arjun can never love you the way I do.”

“There I agree with you, he cannot love me the way you could ever do.”

“Exactly,” beamed Nikhil

“He is zillion times better than you as a person and as a lover.”

“That’s enough Karishma, you are only mine and anyone else who comes in my way, I will finish him.”

“That’s the problem with you Nikhil, you think love can be attained by a knife in hand, you have no clue how to win a woman’s heart.”

“Don’t teach me how to love, I know everything. Do you know, my brother gets the best of women he wants, we know how to satisfy a woman.”

“Shut up Nikhil, you are crazy and now you are crossing the line,” Karishma was losing patience.

“Give me a chance; I can prove that I am better than him in kissing your beautiful lips, and in loving your sexy body.” Nikhil said that and held Karishma’s hand.

Karishma had had enough. She just turned around and slapped him hard with her free hand. “Fuck off and never show me your face again, you creep.”

Nikhil didn’t know how to react for a few moments; no one had ever slapped him in his life. He looked around and fortunately there was no one who saw it. The slap shook his frame and he suddenly changed his tone, “Sorry Karishma, I didn’t mean it. I am really sorry; I really did not mean what I said. I beg of you, don’t go, I forgive you for the slap also. If anyone else had slapped me, he wouldn’t be breathing right now.”

“Nikhil, just get out na of our lives, for God sake. I love Arjun and am going to be his no matter what you think or what you do. So just get the fuck out of my life!”

“You can’t do that to me, I love you, I love you so much Karishma and I am ready to do anything to prove that.”

“I don’t care,” said Karishma and started to walk away. How she wished Arjun was there at that moment, but he was away for the day and there was no way to contact him. She started to walk.

“I will give up my life for you to prove my love is real, even Arjun cannot do that,” pleaded Nikhil. He was trying to convince Karishma about his love.

“Do what you want baba, I will not stop you,” said Karishma and disappeared from the scene.

The next morning when Arjun was in college, Karishma told him everything that had happened. Reshma was there as well when Karishma narrated the story. This time Arjun lost his cool and was seething with anger, he was about to go to settle the matter with Nikhil, when Kunal came running in and was breathing heavily as if he had been running a marathon.

“Karishma, Arjun, something terrible has happened!”

“Relax Kunal, take a breath and then speak. What happened?” asked Arjun.

“Nikhil…” Kunal started saying as Karishma intervened, “Now what about Nikhil?”

“Karishma, will you let him speak, he is about to say,” ordered Arjun.

“He was with his friends a few minutes back at the Yankee Doodle Ice Cream Parlour. I happened to be there as well at that time. Then suddenly he stood up on the table and declared that ‘Duniya walon (the people of the world), there is no respect in this world for true love. You all should know that I love Karishma very much but she doesn’t care at all for my feelings. I proposed to her yesterday and she asked me to fuck off, she was so rude. I told her that I can give my life for her and she said it’s ok with her if I die. So I will do what true lovers do, if I cannot win her love in this life, this life has no meaning. If I cannot win her, I will lose myself. Please tell her after I go that my love was true and that I am giving my life for her,’ he said that and consumed the poison that was in his pocket,” Kunal narrated in one breath.

“What the fuck, is he crazy or something,” a shocked Arjun said.

“I never asked him to die, he is a fucking liar,” Karishma said and started crying. Reshma consoled her.

“Where is he now?” inquired Arjun.

“His friends have taken him to Bombay Hospital,” clarified Kunal.

“Reshma, you take care of Karishma, I will go to the hospital. Karishma, you don’t worry, everything will be OK,” ordered Arjun and ran with Kunal to go to the hospital.

When they reached the hospital, they found Ron bhai present there. Nikhil’s friends whispered something into his ears, while pointing at Arjun. Arjun expected the worst of Ron bhai on him as he approached him.

“Bhai, how is Nikhil now?” enquired Arjun.

“If anything happens to Nikhil, I will kill Karishma, tell the bitch that. As far as you are concerned, you may not be aware, but your father has helped me twice and therefore I forgive you, but be careful, you had only one life from me, which I have spared,” warned Ron bhai.

“Take it easy bhai, all will be well. And Karishma has not done anything wrong, I spoke to her before I came here, she never asked Nikhil to end his life.”

“I don’t care what she said or she didn’t say, because of him my brother is fighting for his life, just pray for her sake that he becomes okay.”

The doctors just came out at that moment and bhai asked them how Nikhil was doing. In a typical Bollywood reply the doctor said, “Thank God, Nikhil was brought in time to the hospital, if he was five minutes late, it would have been difficult to save him. He is out of danger now; you can go and meet him.” Everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

“Your girl-friend is safe as of now, but remember one thing, if she cannot become Nikhil’s, she won’t become anyone else’s,” warned the bhai again and disappeared to meet Nikhil.

“That we will see later bhai,” said Arjun after the bhai had left. There was no point aggravating the situation at this point of time. “He talks as if he is the only bhai in Mumbai, I can reach his fathers and teach him a lesson,” Arjun told Kunal.

“You relax now, let’s go and tell the girls that everything is okay here, they will be tensed.”

“You are right,” said Arjun and they went back to college. Once Karishma and Reshma knew about Nikhil’s condition, they felt relaxed. Karishma was visibly tensed.

“Don’t worry Karishma, I have spoken to Ron bhai and all is well. Nikhil will not trouble you anymore,” Arjun lied to Karishma to console Karishma who looked very tensed and scared and only that would have made her feel easy.

“I hope so yaar,” said Karishma and rested her head on Arjun’s shoulder as Arjun ran his fingers in her hair to comfort her.

The Nikhil matter seemed to have been resolved, at least for now, but Arjun was thinking about the warning Ron bhai had given to him for Karishma.

Susan heard the story carefully and while munching the last bit of the Masala Dosa, asked, “So what do you think?”

Mesmerized by her beauty, I replied, “that you loved the Masala Dosa, and a bit of the potato is stuck on your lip.”

“Very funny,” said Susan wiping her lip, “I obviously meant what you think of Ron or Nikhil being involved in the Karishma case.”

“They are strong suspects for sure but we haven’t been able to lay our hands on any proof of their involvement. And because of the confusion prevailing, we sought your services and called you to Mumbai.”

“Oh,” said Susan with a chuckle in her eye, “And I thought you called me for having Masala Dosa with me.” We broke out into instant laughter on her remark.