I had to quit. I was actively taking part in their
activities. Doing morchas in their name, beating up the people in pubs, driving
away lovers in parks etc were my regular activities. All this was done to
preserve our culture and identity. I was young, jobless and frustrated with
many of my own internal conflicts. I was very vulnerable and easily provoked
just like many in that situation. I had to vent it out on someone and if I
could give it a name called preservation of culture, what more could I have asked
for.
We once picked up around 10 couples from a park on Valentine’s day and got them married. I later came to know that none of those marriages are in good standing. Yes we used to do charity but discriminative charity. Our very own existence was needed in first place because of the unity of our opposing groups from different communities. So each group helped only their own kind. Each detested the other. Time passed by. One day my IPS results came and I was selected. Yes I was a well-read jobless youth then but not some ignorant uneducated brat.
I still continued my loyalty towards our group by helping
new kids in the group escape law or the leaders to tweak law for our advantage.
My justification was that we have to help our own kind. Then finally the
eventful day came. We had a tip off that a rave party was going on in the city
outskirts that involved prostitutes and narcotics. My interest in the raid was
that the rave party was organized by our opposition group leader. I was in high
spirits thinking of the praises I shall get from my brethren after I grab the
opposition group leader and put him behind the bars. When we reached the place,
I found how betrayed I was and more importantly many people like me. It was a
party organized by and for the leaders of all the groups. They were celebrating
the fact that they made fools out of all of us. All of us were used to create
unrest in the city when needed so that some political parties could prove their
identity. That instance, I had decided to quit.
The very thought that I was fooled by provocations from a
person who actually did not believe in what he was saying was very frustrating.
I arrested all the leaders in the party without any discrimination. But some
unknown forces way above me jumped in and got them released without even the
news making to media. That was 20 years back. All these years I made it a habit
to question everyone until it appeals to my reasoning. I made sure no one would
manipulate me anymore. I have made it to
RAW as a senior officer on my merit since then.
Today I am sitting in a furnished office room in my house.
This room holds memories of so many sleepless nights dealing with highly
confidential national security issues. I
still remember the day when 26/11 attacks were going on. I was sitting in the
same couch as I am sitting now watching a news feed on my laptop of latest
proceedings from my sources and also the national media. It was the most
painful memory. Everyone was so angry, including our top level ministers who
usually do not lose their level headedness. By 28/11 we had our borders
tightened and some heavy weaponry was ordered for the guards. I have not seen
the papers move so fast in India prior to that but that incident indeed showed
me that if needed Indian government can work faster.
Tonight I am sitting here waiting for a call from my chief
regarding one more “highly confidential national security issue” or as we say
Hicon Nasi. I already got the news from my sources that there was a shooting in
the India Pakistan border where some Indian soldiers were killed. And I am
pretty sure this call is regarding that.
The phone rang.
“Hello Mr.Gopi. Your Superior Chief here. Code 94763992. Confirm
your code.” Said the voice on the phone.
I replied “Yes sir. Gopi here and my code 97551008.”
These are the codes we use to confirm each other’s identity.
They keep changing every hour. This is one way of securing this confirmation. Also
the phone lines we use are highly secure lines that cannot be tapped. There are
many algorithms written around the encryption of this channel. Any sign of a tapping
hit on this channel, the call gets dropped.
Voice on the phone continued. “We are secure now. 5 soldiers
killed in Kashmir. Get me a report ASAP. “
He hung up the phone. Yes these conversations are always abrupt
so to escape any type of tapping.
Talking about tapping every phone in India is tapped but the good news
is no one is listening to each and every conversation of yours. But the
programs running against the communication channels are constantly searching
for a database of words that hint at anything harmful to the nation. Once they
find a match that is when someone opens the call log and listens to in whole
while trying to decrypt any cryptography in the messages.
Usually in such situations the report contains a timeline of
events that happened that day. The ways we could have avoided it and who are at
fault. Frankly from any stand point Pakistan is always on the fault. But we
cannot say that. The wording should be somewhat like the counterpart on the
other side of the border is responsible. And the only way we can stop it from happening
again is get some new equipment to track their movements and act before they
start shooting. We have done that in the past and they have always bounced back
beating the sophisticated weaponry we used.
War is an expensive affair with so much collateral damage
but this cold war is equally expensive with some
.......................
A few thousand kilometers away across the border in
Pakistan, a man is being chased by Jeep on an open highway in a hilly desert area.
The man being chased is in an army uniform, the one which is worn by jawans of
Pakistan. The jeep that is chasing him in the dark night resembled a dark demonic
dragon thirsting for its prey. It had pitch black vehicle color accompanied by
bright blue lights and some heavy fiery stickering which is quite common in
this part of the world. Eventually the machine overtook the man and had him
crushed under its tires that were now his claws of death that dragged his life
out of him. The man driving the jeep called someone and said “Operation done.
Arms can be dispatched now to India safely.” He then drove away leaving the dead man behind
for the vultures of the desert.
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