It remained with me. I know it did. When he left my room that day, I knew that he had left some thing with me besides the cigarette stump he dropped in my ashtray. So I record this event in my diary apart from the routine documentation of official affairs. Infact, as per my usual way this is a time I go for a pleasant stroll in the Marine Drive with Rosy and my children after the successful completion of a pretty good business. I think I wont forgive my self for pondering over the jaathakam of a dead bo(d)y.
I wonder how human beings are subjected to odd behaviors. As an ordinary businessman in Cochin or rather Kochi, as they call it now, I had very little chance to deal with people like the one I am going top tell about. They say Kochi has changed a lot. However, as it is said in a film recently, though Kochi is not the old one, I must say the I remains the same from my shabby boyhood days to this man of Metropolitan Kochi. Changed or not, the city is just wonderful, though sometimes I think I want to flee some where when I take a walk through the city to recount my old days. Some times I stand kneeling on the balustrades of the Venduruthy bridge, feeling with fingers its familiar roughness, staring at the fearful depth of Vembanad and the poisonous blue sky against the irregularities of the shipyard.
I run a Private Transport Company in Kochi from 1988 onwards, named Velankanni Matha Transport Co-operation Private Ltd. I have five Volvo buses running between Kochi and Mumbai, and a five storied building amidst the city, which include lodges and a margin free market. I was very committed to my business and it was expanding literally and figuratively. See, as I judge myself, a man in the latter half of forties, I am very straightforward regarding all activities of my life, and am not averse to confessing to you those things which some of my friends, who are in the same business, thinks as something below their dignity to do.
Those who know me and my business know very well that my real business is Pani Theerkkal or Quotation as we say in local language. That means, in simple language, killing for money. In Malayalam we have a proverb that one shouldn’t forget the way he came. I followed it. It was my first profession. But I didn’t linger there but went on experimenting, and rendered a kind of respectability to this job. So today I am not that twenty- three-year-old Thotti Thoma who slept under railway overbridge near Ernakulam North station, but Thomas Kurisinkal of Velankanni group. That is hard work and professionalism, not to forget God’s grace. I spent a considerable amount of money every year for lighting candles in the churches, for muslim Yatheem khanas and for the Temple affairs in which my wife has a strong belief. I even used to put some coins in the synagogue in Mattancherry.
I digressed a little. I must say some thing about my business. It was one of the profitable businesses in the city, I must say, as a person who is in it for almost fifteen years. It was not the petty quotation of hundred rupees of old days, but deals involving lakhs. That’s it. If my knowledge is correct, there are more than ten companies in the city working under respectable names. I am proud to say that Velankanni group has earned the trust and admiration of its clients through these years. I was careful to provide every benefit and satisfaction to my clients. I lived happily in a two-storied house in the suburb of the city with my beautiful wife and two angelic children she has borne to me. I was a loyal husband to my wife and a loving father to my children.
The day my story started was a fine Monday morning when a young man in black dress tapped the door of my office-room and asked, “May I come in, Sir?” I was reading a book and munching my favourite seedless grapes, when I raised my head and motioned him in and asked him to sit down. He was a boy of early twenties with fine reddish brown beard and long hair which hung up to his shoulders. Through his shirt I can see an inverted crossed tattooed on top of his hairless chest. I knew that there were Satanists in the city and many youngsters were interested in it at that time. I offered him a cigarette.
“What can I do for you, young man?”: Me, as politely as possible in the way I usually deal with my customers.
He hesitated for a moment and said: I brought a business for you.”
With the look in his face, I guessed that he came with my “real business”. I smiled.
“Have some grapes”. I said.
“Thank you.”
I took the note-pad and pen, which was the usual procedure.
“Who is the fellow?”
He took a photograph and gave it to me. It was a good-looking, clean-shaven young man, who evoked a feeling of having seen
somewhere.
“Name?”
“Mine?”
"No.His.”
Is it necessary that I should provide details about him?
“We used to keep a record of our dispatched clients. It wont harm our customers.”
He seemed satisfied.
“Devin. Twenty years old. A sales man in a foot wear shop in the city. Lives in Kaloor, Kochi. Is it enough?”
“Thank you. Enough and more for the time being”.
“When it will be done?”
“As soon as my staff locates him. You will hear from us by tomorrow evening.”
“Thank you.”
Give your mobile number.”
“My number?”
“Don’t worry about it. It will all be safe and sound”
“Infact, I don’t have a set. No need to acknowledge me. I’ll know as soon as you finish your job”
“But we need you, because the balance amount will only be collected after the business is over. So we have to contact you. Now
you can pay your advance and return”
“ Sir, I will pay the full amount now”
I said: “That’s not our procedure”.
“Sir, But I wont be here by the time you finish your job. I had to leave the city soon”.
“In that case…you can pay the amount in the cash counter and get your receipt.” “Thank you, sir”
“Welcome”
We shook hands and he departed.
I kept the photograph and details in a cover and called Attendor Mony to handle it over to Murukan, who was the chief co- coordinator who dealt with that part of the business. Murukan was a wonderful guy who was more like a chum than an employee. He was with me from my street days itself . A well-built man with a Mammootty-like arrogance in his ways and deeds. He was a film buff and never left any movies unseen. As the day was free I went home buying a packet of popcorn for children and forgot about the whole affair.
Usually I used to leave rest of my affairs to Murukan and his boys. But this time due to some strange co-incidences I was drawn towards it. This is how it happened. The next evening I went for an outing with my family to Marine Drive and the park. We had some ice-creams and had some fun. Every week I used to find some time to spend with my family. Rima and Maria, my children ran ahead of us playing with a balloon while me and my wife walked munching some groundnuts. I was talking to Rosy about the strange guy that came to my office. She asked me why the man wanted to kill the other. I said it was not part of the business to inquire about it.
After a while I sent my wife and children home with my driver, as it was my routine to walk for half an hour each day. The street beside the lake was empty except few pedlars. The sky was turning red carving the silhouettes of ships and shipyard on one side of the street, with the black lake making noises on the stonewall. I noticed a young boy in red T-shirt was coming against me, lazily, watching the ships and chewing bubble-gum. Siren of a ship was heard.
Then I thought I saw him somewhere, just when he passed me, and realized to my surprise that he was the boy in the photograph whom my client brought the day before. I went forward with an ominous feeling in my mind. The road was desolate. There was a man-selling apple in a cart and two bicycle men passed me. They were whistling a song that was familiar to me from the old movie West Side Story.Then immediately I recognized them as Murukan and his boy as I know that the song had something to do with their work as a code or something. I told myself that I had to expect something behind me. And it was not wrong.
I saw a big container Lorry turning from the by-road to the road I was walking and passed me. I didn’t turn back. But I began counting in my mind and by six I heard a scream, which I recognize as that of that boy’s. I turned back and saw the Lorry speeding away spreading smoke everywhere and people running from all sides towards the victim. I was about to continue my walk, but the thought it would be abnormal and walked towards the crowd. Through the people I moved forward to see the boy.
It was not my first experience to see the blood. But that sight gave me dizziness. And I saw something, which shocked my heart to my mouth. His clean-shaven face smeared with blood was familiar to me. The shock was completed when I saw an upturned cross-tattooed on his hairless chest. The client and the victim were one and the same !
· Jathakam--- Horoscope
· Yatheem Khana----Orphanage.
· Thotti-----Scavenger.
· Mammootty—Matinee idol in Malayalam cinema.
