The Secret Man's Story.

One thing I liked about India is the Trains, the experience we imagine, the reality exceeds that, let it be good or bad, it stays with us, maybe for a short time or maybe forever,

This story is about the memory that not only stayed with me but to the thousands of minds and souls,

it was about the time when I had to travel from a small local station in Mumbai, Under the blistering sun, I was at my boarding point early.

To wander around the platforms of the station, eat at the various stalls & dipping my fingers into the oily spicy food was something I used to as far as I can remember, passing my time and waiting for the train to arrive, now there was a peculiar habit of mine that I was the guy who has to know everything, I went to look for the charts to know about the people that are going to be around me.

I traced my fingers through the chart & straight away looked for the person with whom I had to share my compartment, my fingers stopped at A1- 09, Dev Goyal,

Soon the train arrived & I reached to my seat, It was a first-class AC compartment, which was for the high-class people with high furnishing & private doors, people closed the door as soon as they reached to their seats, "being too much private",

However this wasn't new to me, although I wasn't a high-class man I had interviewed many of them, "high-class people", even the first-class seats, well they were gift tickets from the guy, whom I was about to interview so that I will butter him up onto the national TV.

I preferred to look outside ignoring all the luxury at hand, it was much more quiet & peaceful, every seller on the station was rushing, shouting through the sweat under the blazing hot sun, screaming as if they wanted the whole world to know about their pain that the poverty is causing them, looking outside anyone would see the real world, well on the inside everything was so hollow, oblivious.

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(The coach door opened)...

I turned around & saw a 5'7" young lad in his 20's, standing there with a large cylindrical backpack and many white bandages with patches on his oval head and heavy thick spectacles, I stood up and greeted him with a friendly handshake,

'Hi, I am Prakash Chakraborthy, you must be Dev right?', I greeted with a warm smile on my face.

(to my surprise, he stepped back a little), 'What... what!! , how do you know my name & who are you?', he replied.

by the pitch of his voice, it was established that my knowledge of his name had shocked him, I realized it was something I shouldn't have done, so I replied as fast as I could, 'from the charts, I am really sorry if I invaded your privacy somehow, it wasn't my intention'.

He took a big continuous pause & then he offered his thin hand with cuts and burns all over them, for that friendly handshake which was waiting for his hand until now, his hand was cold and so was he, well after some time & with not so many expressions, the journey started.

I decided not to bother him after that, he looked worried, constantly checking his phone, again and again, I didn't want to be the guy who just adds to his weights.

Even though he Looked like a rich brat, the scares on his head and body were tempting me for a story, at first, I hesitated, but then I couldn't stop the curiosity inside me.

'Hey, do you mind me asking how you got that?'(I pointed towards the bandage on his head).

At first, he looked at me through his black-rimmed spectacles contracted his eyes towards me, & then he took a long big breath,

He replied, 'I fell from a ladder'. 'What do you do Prakash ?', he asked me very politely.

'well I am a news interviewer for national tv you may have seen me on tv', I replied excitedly maybe I wanted to show off.

But with a tone of sarcasm and with a small grinning he replied, 'No, I didn't'.

I got the idea that he was more interested in mocking me rather than having a real conversation & talking more would make it worse, so I decided to put on the silent treatment and then the journey went on, without any sweet talks.

Hours passed by and we were busy with our work...

(Thud!! Thud!!), someone knocked at the compartment's door & as soon as I stood up to reach the door.

(STOP!!) , dev screamed at me.

He stood up, pacing to the door, he put up his ear onto the closed door,

Dev shouted, 'Who is it?'.

'Ticket please'.

Dev's action was appalling, he slightly opened the door in the slowest motion, It was the ticket inspector of the train, he asked both of us for the tickets,

TC suspiciously looked at dev for a moment while making weird sounds, & then he returned the ticket to him, Dev closed the door after him, bolting every lock of the door. it appeared like he was evading from someone and that intimidated me.

Well for starters, I got my chance to mock him, 'Nobody's gonna steal from us, so you can calm down'.

Dev was breathing heavily & after watching that, my sense of mockery ceased at once.

'Are you ok', I asked him.

Dev looked at me & nodded positively, he took some time & after a short interval he went back to his seat.

It took a while but finally, he broke the silence,

'You said you are from the news, right?', Dev asked.

My intuitions were telling me that something was not right, he was still panicking and wasn't calming down.

'Yes, I am', I replied.

DEV: How would you like a story Prakash? a story that could change your life?.

Me: Ok but what type of story? & what's it about.

DEV: it's mine, and it's something never heard before, just wait here I'll be right back!.

he got up and moved towards the lavatory & then after countless minutes of secrecy and curiosity passed.

Even I was starting to feel anxious, his reactions & mystery talks were something that could ignite anyone with curiosity,

the train stopped at a station & I saw some men boarding the train from my window, Dev came back & the train started moving again.

Me: Man you took long enough to decide whether to tell me your story or not?.

He was doing better than, more relaxed & it was visible that his panic reactions and paced breathing was at a minimum, he asked for my hand in front and as soon as I put my hand out there, he put something on my hand, It was a pink color rectangular small old fashioned recorder.

DEV: 'for this, you will have to trust me, promise me that, only you will listen to this & if you could, you will tell the whole world'.

I nodded positively in shock and surprise.

Me: but I do personal interviews, face to face on national TV maybe after hearing this I would need a meeting, can I have your number ?.

Dev: No! but you should give me yours & I will contact you after some time to know if you are interested or not.

I offered my card to him & the journey continued with him being silent and me being boggling with my thoughts about his story.

After 30 minutes or so,

(Thud!! Thud!!), someone banged our door real hard,

Dev stood up & resumed his anxious & panic mode again, he was double-checking the bolts on the door so they remain shut and then he got little back & started throwing his luggage onto the door.

'What are you doing', I started shouting as hard as I could.

Dev replied, 'They are here for me'.

Me: who ?? who are they?.

Dev looked at me and held my hand in his, he was trembling with fear, every inch of his body was shaking and this was pervading me with fear, with him now I was shaking,

'promise me you will listen to that recorder don't share it with them, listen to it first', he said.

He was trying to be polite but in a scary way.

(thud!!!) ... some part of our coach's compartment door broke into half & through the large hole, A man was peeking through it & soon they started shouting,

mil Gaya mil Gaya !!! (found him!) Open up Mumbai Police!, Open Up now !.

I left Dev's hand abruptly, ran towards a corner near the window like a coward, away from the door and Dev both, I wrapped my arms around my legs and sat there with keeping my head down & my skin was chilling from the unforgiving cold & fear, the teeth in my mouth was chattering together relentlessly and uncontrollably & I couldn't stop myself from shaking.

Dev started throwing my luggage also, against them while I sat in the corner shivering, I was so sure at that point, that I was sharing my compartment with a terrorist. I didn't know whether it was by luck or planned, but our seat had an emergency window & dev started opening up the latches of the window.

The police were trying to barge in bashing something against the door, again and again, breaking the door apart. As soon as Dev opened the window, the sound of the train passing over a bridge was clear, the room was filled with the wind rushing against the train gushed into our compartment, the train was on a bridge which was over some river.

'Stop!, what are you trying to do?', I shouted.

Dev glanced at me and then he went to the half-broken door where the police were still forcing the door to break, He put his hand back & he started throwing blows of punches on to the policemen. Maybe I was going to be next under those blows of punches, so I started shouting & screaming for help, he was throwing his punches hard as he could to the people outside the door,

The uniformed guards were also beating the door with their long wooden sticks, Dev came back beside the window,

he looked at me & said, 'don't be afraid my friend, you will understand all this when you will listen to that recorder don't give that to them, trust me!'.

before I could reply to that, he with his loud voice shouted something like orikkal jīvikkunnu!!, orikkal jīvikkunnu!!,

his voice against the sound of the wind echoed to the whole compartment, he took some steps back, the door almost broke & one of the guards got some part of his t-shirt in his hand, Dev with his left out strength ran towards the window & shouting "orikkal jīvikkunnu!!",

he dived through the window. I shouted, 'NO!!!!!'. Out of the window of a running train a person leaped Out, The police started running towards the door to watch his fall & they started shouting to pull the emergency chain, but it was too dangerous to stop the train on a bridge so the TC stopped them & the train stopped as soon as it crossed the bridge.

I opened my left out coach door & some of the policemen barged in straight to his luggage, I too ran towards the door to look for him, The door was blocked by the policemen, One of them said, 'he is dead sir, nobody could survive that fall, we should call in the search units for his corpse now'.

Another one of them was saying,' after so much running he took his own life, bastard!'.

The recorder he gave was still with me, I got back to my seat, one of the head policemen came to me for some ID.

Officer: Do you know him?.

I replied, 'NO! who was he?'.

Police: I can't tell you that, has he told you anything ?.

Me: Um, only his name, we didn't talk much.

I don't know what I was thinking at that time, hiding the fact about the recorder but somewhere I believed in Dev to listen to the recorder first, my hands were still trembling, As soon as the next station came,

I decided to get off the train and reach to the nearest hotel, upon reaching into the hotel room, I snatched out & threw all my clothes from the bag to find my headphones, & without wasting any more time, I took the headphones and with lights off & eyes closed I started Dev's Recorder.

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(hsssssss!!!!!!). Hello, I don't know how to start or where to start & what to say right now, but this is my first, you know it's my first everything, the recording, the things I have done, the things I am about to do, My name is Dev, Dev Goyal,

what I have been through or what I am going through, I was alone & there was no one, no friend, even the person whom I loved the most, eh!, It hurts but shit happens !. I am recording this as my chances of survival now are very steep, but this, now! whatever is happening it all started with...