What Just Happened...? Part 4

                                 Hemanth had been with us the whole time. We had actually asked the others, albeit not with as much venom as the CI could muster if they knew anything about the whole incident before we call the police. None replied in the affirmative, so we went ahead with the call to the law enforcers. I had previously come to the frightening conclusion as to the reason for the happening of the whole episode. Some guy who thought he had one too many balls had gone up to the terrace overlooking the cemetery and must have been sleeping, drinking whatever. Fuelled by my imagination, this thought led onto the sensational one that he had seen/encountered something out of the ordinary which freaked out the poor guy. In his obviously frantic attempt to run away from the apparition(?), he had been clumsy and must have either fallen or hurt himself after having struck something on the way, which explains all the blood. True, the theory had its gaping holes, but I was not thinking of those. Such things, I knew...humans, even the police could do nothing about. We didn't know what to expect from the police when they trudged towards us in the Jeep, but certainly this clear pin-pointed accusation was totally unprecedented.
                                All of us looked at him in shock. The guy seemed genuinely shocked too, but he could have been acting the part of his life. He was pleading with the police that he didn't know a thing. The CI looked at him for a second and impulsively looked at the rest and asked, "Take me to the terrace!"
                                So the entire bandwagon started up again. A friend of mine who was very very awed by the CI went over to him offering to take pics of all the blood strewn places on our way. The CI thought it was a good idea and asked him to do so. My friend obliged all the way, all the while beaming like the morning sun that was due in about a couple of hours. Anyway, we tried to explain all that had happened to the police as we went up slowly, showing the blood and illustrating the episode. He didn't say much but did not take his eyes off Hemanth and our hapless watchman. As we neared our flat, my enthusiastic friend offered to demonstrate what he THOUGHT had happened outside our door. He duly went up the flight of stairs leading to the terrace, made a good job of acting scared and flew down the stairs. While turning around to to take the next flight of stairs right beside our door, he made a shoddy job of falling on our door while doing so. That, he declared was why we heard the thud, sound on our door. I had a couple of doubts about it all, but didn't want to spoil his portrayal of the scared sprinter. He wanted to seize the oppurtunity to display his repertoire in method acting. We simply didn't care.
                                Once on the terrace and after having shown everything, the CI summoned Hemanth and asked him if he knew a couple of guys giving him their names. The manner in which he asked questions, even such simple ones really made us think again of the incompetence of the police. Surely, this man, notwithstanding all the foul mouthed language, knew how to deal with crime. Dint have a single doubt about that. Hemanth replied that he knew them and as the conversation went on, we could make out that these two guys once stayed at the apartment and still frequently came to our place. They had come that very evening according to Hemanth and he had had a rendezvous with them. This puzzled us, what did they have to do with all of this? We wanted to ask the CI but couldn't muster up enough courage.
                                 As it was nearing 3 AM, the defining moment of the entire night came upon us. The CI after having taken our names and numbers, went back to the watchman and asked him, again a very simple question. "When did this actually happen?"
                                 The moron replied, "Why sir, just about 10-15 minutes ago".
                                 We sang out in unison, "Sir, it's been almost three hours, sir...".
                                 The CI looked back at him and seemed to be searching for words to say . After about a minute of staring, even the loudmouthed CI had to give up. Such was the foolishness of our watchman. Legendary.
                                 He instructed a constable beside him to take Hemanth and follow him. We could see the investigation seemed to have come to an end. The constable shouted into the night, "Ramesh, take him into CUSTODY" with the last word spelt with much emphasis. Hearing the orders being barked akin to a guy being taken to the deathrow, Hemanth was close to tears.
                                Once back on the road, the CI said that their work was done and he was about to go back into the Jeep. In the background, the other policemen were standing around giving poses to my over awed mobile camera happy friend. The scene looked so out of tune. To the CI's query as to what they were doing, they replied, "Sir, we have just been to an investigation. We need to take pictures with us right!!?" Indian Police!! And so, they went off, with a new passenger in their already congested ancient vehicle. As the vehicle went away spewing dust, we looked at each other, What Just Happened??
                                The epilogue to the whole episode was delivered the next evening by Hemanth himself. The two guys he was asked about the previous night had had an argument that night, and it resulted with one guy stabbing the other. Now the other guy in his bloody ordeal came running for Hemanth but forgot the flat he stayed in. Apparently, he came all the way to the terrace, realised that there were no more floors above, panicked and ran away the same way he had come. Luckily, on the road while running, he accosted the police station and went in to lodge a compliant. In that complaint, he named Hemanth too. The exciting part was that that was exactly the time the police team came to us. The call to the CI was the key to all of us this. In all, it ended that way. An inexplicable episode explained rather simply in the end.
                                 I had mixed emotions on hearing it. Relieved to know that it was a mere stabbing and nothing more, but at the same time disappointed that there was nothing otherworldy like in the X Files!! No apparitions, no ghostly tinge to the incident. A very human and normal episode in fact. Anyway, I consoled myself, at least it was an exciting encounter if nothing else.

                                After this episode:

We Room mates: We try to open our door at the first knock.
Eager friend: Uploaded bloody pics to facebook.
Hemanth: Wary of every guy who comes to meet him and terrified of khaki wearing people, Auto drivers included.
Bloody guy: Went through treatment worth a lakh of rupees!!
Our opinion of the IPS: Slightly bettered
Watchman: Being tortured every night by the nightly patrol team. (They visit every night and shout out his name, shaking him awake). Sadly, it hasn't helped with the foolishness though.

What Just Happened...? Part 3

                                  It runs in all of us, yet many swoon at the sight of it. The British swear by it and the colour red is best known for it. Blood.
                                  Fresh drops of blood lying on the floor and on the stairs above us. Glistening in the yellow light thrown by the cheap Edison hanging above us. We had to endure yet another minute of stunned silence...something that had become a repeated exercise that night. No one offered any opinion. Our watchman, a 40 something guy who possessed none of the traits that a watchman should have, had a stricken look on his face. Thankfully, one of the others said that we'd better go up and have a look. I didn't like it at all though I knew that that was the right thing to do. So we traipsed up the bloody stairs wondering what lay above us.
                                  There was no light at the terrace and we had to contend with the eerie lights of our mobiles. We slowly went around the whole place looking for any people left behind or more blood. People, there weren't any, but blood, yes. At numerous places throughout the terrace, there were drops of blood and the scene looked more ghastly, looking through the light from our Nokia's and Sony's. We didn't know what to do, we looked at the others for advice. One man suggested we call the police. Sensing that it was the sensible thing to do, my friend called the nearest police station. A person from the police fraternity picked up the call. He seemed drunk but listened attentively. And promised he would send a couple of people right away. We came down and looked around the cellar. More blood. The guy, whoever he was, seemed to have been battered around quite a bit. We went out of the apartment and stood near the gate on the road outside. I looked at the time on my mobile. It was close to half past one. I sighed, remembering that I had to rush off to work tomorrow. But what the heck, you don't experience things like these every day. What more lay in store for us?
                                  All around us, in the dead of night, people in bed were either snoring away or doing something productive while we were standing almost next to the dead waiting for the police to investigate a screeching bloody intruder. While waiting in the semi dark on the road under the slightly larger but just as cheap street light, I couldn't help but vent my raging doubts inside me about the whole thing. I turned to my still stricken watchman and asked him simple and straight if they had had any such noisy episodes in the past. He almost too vehemently denied any such happening before. I knew I was barking up the wrong memory. He was a very incompetent man, leave alone watchman. So I posed the same query to the other people, the men not the boys amongst us. They replied with the same denial minus the vehemence though. I couldn't keep it in any longer.
                                  "I'm asking about the cemetery....did any disturbance originate from that source"?I asked trying hard to keep my tone from sounding too girlish.
                                  The men smiled and replied I hoped at the time truthfully, "No". While I was ruminating over the honesty of these respectable men and while the other people who lived on the road either were sleeping or again doing something productive, we heard the roar/rumble/rattle of the erstwhile Indian Police vehicle-the Mahindra Jeep. As the vehicle tugged on towards us, with smoke seeming to come out of every corner of the vehicle, we were left wondering as to what this much criticised and notoriously incompetent branch of the IPS would do to offer any semblance of meaning to the apparently senseless and mysterious incident. How wrong we were man, how bloody wrong!!
                                  As the vehicle halted to a clumsy stop, we almost gaped at the sight before us. There seemed to be at least close to a dozen khaki law enforcers in that ancient vehicle. All we did was report a mysterious incident! What on earth were so many policemen doing at our place? Yes, of course! Only that day the Ayodhya verdict had come out. Not surprisingly, they were jumpy and didn't want to take any chances.
                                  Out came the guys, some too conspicuously drunk, almost staggering while the rest seemed sleepy. But the best...it was saved for the last, people. A monster of a man emerged from the Jeep, still smartly dressed even at the late hour, minus the cap though, wielding the most ferocious looking piece of wood I had ever set my eyes on. A bit of history here. About a couple of years back, while jumping around with half of the city on Dec 31st at our good ol' beach road at Vizag, my innocent shins among many others were caned mercilessly by a lathi. So I had an inkling of what a lathi was capable of and why even after Kalashnikov's and AK 47's were deemed as modern deadly arm ware, the police still arm themselves with this simple, uncomplicated yet beastly weapon. This particular man though had the meanest looking lathi. That piece of wood looked like it could beat your bones to a pulp with a single strike. However, it was only an accessory to the mean, mean policeman.
                                 The Circle Inspector of the Crime Department and looking  every part that. Over six feet, a hefty build coupled with muscle at all the right places and a severed head, yes, not a single strand of hair on his scalp. He was dark and looked like he came from the dark. I was instantly reminded of the police villains of yesteryear Telugu cinema. Boy, I thought, let the games begin!!!
                                 It was crystal clear that he was the guy in charge. He gave his lathi to a young constable beside and almost charged towards us. He went straight for our watchman. I promise I have never seen a grown man cower so timidly before a younger person. For, our watchman, that incompetent man I had talked about previously was almost shaking with fright. The CI towered over him and asked a simple question, "What happened"? It easily must have shaken awake a dozen sleeping people in the apartments on the street. True to his behaviour, our watchman blabbered incoherently much to the anger of the CI. He nevertheless listened for a while, made out that there was an intruder and asked him in that thunderous voice of his, "Did you see anyone go up after you had bolted the gates"?
                                 The stupid guy promptly replied, "I saw someone run out of the apartment building".
                                 The CI was patient enough, asked again, "Did you see anyone go up"?
                                 We were aghast at the audacity of the imbecile, "I saw someone run out of the apartment building".
                                 The seething CI raised his arm and the trajectory was about to complete its deadly course and crash on the watchman when he shouted pleading, "I'm sorry...I'm sorry...I was asleep!!!" The CI did not finish what he had started to do, physically. But he started on a barrage of expletives that was most remarkable....permutations and combinations of all the foul language, correct in grammar, awful in meaning...it made us choke in fright and disgust. The watchman looked ready to fall down to his knees. This was when the mobile phone saved him. The CI's cell rang with a screeching tone and he went to attend to it. Having got a reprieve, we looked at each other while the watchman looked at his feet.
                                 After about a conversation which mostly involved the CI listening and replying with a frequent "Yes,Sir", "Yes, Sir", he finally came back to us. Armed with a glint in his eye in place of the lathi, he asked a definitive question, "Who is Hemanth here"? A guy from one of the other bachelor rooms replied almost trembling, "Ee..It's me Sir".
                                 He barked, "Band ekku ra!!!!"**
                                 Repetitive though it as it might sound, I would have to say again...we were stunned,stupefied,shocked....consult a thesaurus.

** Get in the bloody jeep!!!