Email from Janiki to Naadiya:
Naadiya love, have you heard from Asha? I’m a bit worried as we were chatting on email and suddenly it stopped. She does have your address and phone number and should have arrived today – morning your time. I couldn’t sleep a wink all night, kept checking my email and as I haven’t heard from either of you I’m terribly worried. Did she come? It’s 6 a.m. over here, so must be late afternoon in Madras. Please tell me she’s safe and sound with you!
Janiki waited and waited for news: another mail from Asha, a mail from Naadiya confirming that Asha had safely contacted her. But: nothing. She paced her room in anxiety. Had something happened before Asha could escape? What a fool she had been, to waste Asha’s time looking for a stupid password! The important thing would have been for Asha to escape. What if they had come back and found her? What if her captor had somehow bribed the police and returned home? Everything was possible in India.
The last thing she had received from Asha was the password of her captor’s mail address. And an idea popped uninvited into her head. She wasn’t sure if it was a brilliant one or a terrible one or just a very stupid one, but it couldn’t hurt. So, to fill the time, Janiki logged in to the account. There were hundreds of mails waiting to be researched, but she hadn’t time for that now, nervous as she was and waiting for Naadiya’s reply. She didn’t care about the past mails; those she could read later. She only cared about the present, an answer to the question: where is Asha? It was while checking the recipients of the mails that she had her brilliant, or stupid, idea. The mails, it seemed, were sent to several recipients. Eleven in all. Many of the replies in the email exchange were a simple Great, or How many? Or Maybe K should go? Or, I agree with Kapoor.
The arrest had not yet been mentioned. That meant the other recipients possibly did not know that one of their group had been arrested. Once they knew, perhaps they would remove his address from the cc list. So Janiki did something very naughty. She replied to the last mail with an innocuous question, from Ramcharran’s mail address: Are you sure about that? And added her own work mail address, jiyeng@grit.com, to the list of cc recipients. They won’t notice, she told herself. They won’t even check. And if they don’t check, they won’t know who I am or who added me. But I will get all their future mails. It was a risk worth taking, and could do no harm. So she did that, and since time hung heavy on her hands, she began to scour Ramcharran’s old emails.
Email from Naadiya to Janiki:
Well I stayed home all morning expecting to hear from Asha but not a word. Do you have an address? If I knew where the house was I could go and take a look.
Email from Janiki to Naadiya:
No, I don’t have an address. I do have the mail account details of the asshole who was keeping her captive in Madras. I’ve been reading all his mails and you know what? He’s not just an asshole he’s a big time criminal. From what I gather from his mails he’s involved in a ring of young girl prostitutes. All stolen from their homes. He’s in charge of the Madras branch of the ring. I’ve no doubt that was the plan was for Asha too but seems he was arrested yesterday. I can’t imagine what happened after that. Asha and I emailed a few times back and forth but then silence. I’m desperate with worry. There was no clue in the emails as to where the house is so no help there. I’m thinking you should just go to the police and ask. Open a FIR case. They might know something. It’s terrible being so far away. If I don’t hear back from Asha today I’m going to have to come myself. I’m halfway through my internship contract but Asha is more important. Let me know if you hear anything and thank you SO MUCH for your help! Xxx
Email from Naadiya to Janiki:
Anything for you, my love! I remember Asha from when you brought her that time, such a sweet little girl! I can’t bear to think of what she must have gone through and I’m praying that she’s still safe. Anything more I can do, just say the word. If you do come you know I’m here for you.
Email from Janiki to Naadiya:
No word at all from Asha. It’s now 24 hours since I last heard from her and I just KNOW she’s in danger. I’m trying to contact her biological parents but I have no idea how to find them. Paruthy Uncle will never tell me. I can’t believe this is happening! Poor poor Asha. She’s the last person this should happen to, such a shy, sensitive girl! Not that it should happen to anyone but you know what I mean. I’m going to move heaven and earth to find her. But I need to find her parents. They have to know.
Janiki bent over her desk, her head in her hands, trapping her skull with her fingers, which was what she did when she needed to concentrate. Think, Janiki, think. How can you contact Kamal Uncle and Caroline Aunty? Caroline Aunty was in New York. She remembered Amma had sent a letter with her address and telephone number, but she, Janiki, hadn’t bothered to write at the time – who wrote letters these days anyway? And she and Caroline had never been terribly close so she hadn’t rung her, either. Had she written the address in her book? She checked. No. Damn it! Had she kept the letter from Amma? Probably not. Her apartment was so tiny, Janiki didn’t keep paperwork she didn’t need. She hadn’t thought she’d ever need to visit Caroline Aunty in New York or even write to her, so she had not bothered to keep it. Damn, damn, damn.
As for Kamal Uncle – Janiki had been fourteen when she last saw him on one of his sporadic and short visits. He had been friendly enough and obviously pleased that Asha and she were so close, but after all he was an adult, living in his important engineer world, foreign-educated besides, and Janiki had been in awe of him. She thought he had moved to Dubai – hadn’t Amma said he had a big-shot job there?
Think, Janiki, think.
All the information would be in the house.
Finally she shot off an email to her second eldest brother, Daav:
…you need to find a way to search all their papers. I know that Caroline Aunty and Kamal Uncle used to write Appa and Amma regularly. The letters must be there somewhere. I need their addresses, phone numbers, anything! Preferably email address and telephone numbers. See if you can find Appa’s old phone book, the numbers must be in there.
Email from Daav to Janiki:
They were both out yesterday and I searched the office. Not a single letter from Aunty and Uncle. And that old phone book of Appa’s? You mean the one with the black cover that was falling apart? They threw it out long ago. They have a shiny new phone book. I once saw a letter with an American stamp on it in the waste paper basket, unopened. And later that day Aunty burnt all the paper in the yard. I think that’s probably what she does with all their letters: burn them. Sorry I can’t help. If I can do anything else let me know. When you find Asha give her a hug for me.
Damn it. Typical. There was only one option left for Janiki. She had to go there herself. Back to India. Somehow pick up Asha’s trail. She had just one hope remaining, and that lay in the email trail left by Asha’s captors. She’d have to read those mails, one by one; some, the ones in Hindi, she’d have to get translated. There must be a clue in there, somewhere. If there was a clue she’d have to follow it. She had to be present. But she had another idea too. Quite a brilliant one, in fact. Amma had been so impressed because Kamal Uncle was really a prince. And he came from a magical kingdom called Moti Khodayal. The name of the kingdom had stuck. There, he would have relatives. There, she would track him down.
Email from Janiki to Naadiya:
Just about to leave for the airport, see you soon; flying to Bombay. If I don’t find Asha I’m going to look for her father, Kamal Uncle. He needs to know. I have no idea where he is so I am going to see his grandmother, who apparently lives in a palace in Gujarat. Amma used to tell us that Kamal Uncle is really a prince from this old kingdom called Moti Khodayal. The kingdom no longer exists but the palace does – it’s where Kamal Uncle grew up. He’s bound to have family there and they will know where to find him. He needs to know. The more people looking for her the better. We will probably need money too and hopefully he has some, because I am dirt poor. Used every bit of my savings and sold my beloved PC to buy my plane ticket home.
Email from Naadiya to Janiki:
By the time you get this you’ll probably be here in India already but just wanted to say don’t worry about money. I have enough to help as much as I can. You should have told me earlier – you didn’t have to sell your PC! But no worries, I’ll buy you a new one.