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Word Count : 4800

Audio Theme : Jee Le Zaraa

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35 | The Karate Kid & The Battle Of Revenge

13 May 2023.

| Morning: 0600 Hours |

Wiping the dampness off his torso, he wrapped the bathrobe around his body. Throwing a quick glance at the platinum band enclosing the fourth finger of his right hand, he lifted his head up to stare at his image in the mirror.

Silence prevailed over every other noise in the backdrop.

A survivor or an avenger?

Who was it that was staring back at him from the mirror?

A defender or an attacker?

Who was it that was slowly leering at him from the mirror?

Perhaps an amalgamation of all four.

But then, who was she?

Like him, was she a survivor too? And, possibly, an avenger as well?

From a certain distance outside the confines of the bathroom and the closet, the entranceway of the bedroom creaked, pulling him straight out of his reverie. He turned around and walked towards the bathroom door, got out of it, and closed the door behind his back.

Putting on his regular formal wear, he strolled towards the door. With one quick peek at the time reflecting on the wall clock in the closet, he walked out of it, shutting the door in the process.

She was unclasping the straps of her Kolhapuri flats from around her ankles, her ever-so-calm and composed self settled on the diwan.

"Where were you?" He asked, crossing his arms across his chest.

Lifting her head up, she faintly smiled. "Had some work." And then she got back to the task at hand.

"At a history-sheeter's shop cum house, that too at five a.m. in the morning? I wonder what kind of work it was." Adjusting his specs, he smiled.

She chuckled. "Why do you even ask about it when you know about it already? Playing mind games, are we?"

Slowly unclasping his arms from across his chest, he wended his way towards her. "You can't blame me for this, can you? I have finally found someone who is absolutely my match for playing mind games. I thought I could stretch some of her limits." Tilting his head towards the left side of his shoulder, he smirked.

"Good attempt; but just to inform you in advance, I am limitless." She joked, finally getting up from the diwan, her flats clutched in her left hand.

Her stygian orbs finally clashed against his earthly ones.

He lifted his right hand and traced his forefinger across her eyebrows. "What are you hiding?"

Taking a step back, she left his hands hanging in the air. "You want to know what I am hiding? Alright then, I will tell you what I am hiding-but-" Quirking her brow up, she continued, "You also have to tell me something in return. Deal?"

He chuckled. "Deal."

"Bend your waist and hunch over." She ordered.

Confusion took over his visage in a second as he scrunched his brows together. Nonetheless, he followed her instructions. Taking his specs off, he bent forward by great degrees to level his height with hers.

She raised her right hand up, placing it on the lush black curls on his head. He closed his eyes with a deep breath.

But his relief was short-lived because just after it, she coursed her fingers through his hair, ceasing the movements of her slender digits on that part of his scalp that was directly on top of the posterior segment of his frontal lobe.

Tracing her fingers on the extremely uneven skin on that part of his scalp, she rose up on her toes and gazed at his head, focusing her vision on a gnarled scar of around nine to ten centimeters in length on his frontal lobe. It was pretty clear that the skin on both sides of the scar was sutured together, which made it look so contorted and disfigured. From her deduction, the wound and the impact it must have left must have been intense.

Fortunately, for the man before her, his thick black hair came to his advantage, allowing him to conceal the scar in an extremely secure manner.

"Now," she whispered, "my turn. How did you get this scar? And when did you get it?" Patting his hair for one last time, she relaxed her toes by getting back on her feet, her stygian eyes again levelled against his brown ones.

His breathing quickened, but his calm disposition didn't falter even for a second. "There is still time for us to enter that territory." He passed on a faint smile.

She snorted in return. "Exactly my point. There is still time for us to enter that territory, Dogra Sahib."

He sighed. "When did you come to know about this?"

"Long back. I mean, come on, you are a person living with me in this very house." She paused for a breath. "Just because I am not saying anything or just because I choose to value my silence over my speech doesn't mean I am not aware of anything. Everything, every particular thing within my vicinity that's within my visibility range, shall be visible to me with my naked eyes. Don't you dare think otherwise. Yeah?"

He kept on looking at her, assessing each and every facial feature of hers. "Sometimes, I feel you are just an illusion."

Seconds passed into a whole minute.

And finally, staring right into his eyes, she replied. "What if I am?"

And his lips curled up once again, though quite faint in their appearance. "Then I will be the first one to know about it." He mouthed, tracing his fingers across her face.

"Indeed, you'll be the first one to know about it."

Saying so, she turned around and started walking towards the closet, leaving his hand hanging in the air once again.

"By the way," She heard him say, "If you do need information about Ms. Manoramaa, you can directly consult me. No need to involve some third party in this or hacking servers once again, right?"

She chuckled once again, this time genuinely. "I'll try to."

"She has a clean record, Inu." He voiced it out in a genuine tone himself.

"Trust me, I know." She assured him.

And then, with one quick bow of her head, she turned around and continued with her movement towards the closet.

Ninety minutes down the line, he got up from the dinner table after breakfast. Vijaypath, Karim, and Gurung followed suit. From his peripheral vision, he caught a sight of her feeding the toddler dressed in pristine white Karate Gi, settled on her lap. For a change, instead of the white saree she was clothed in, an hour and a half ago, she was now dressed in crisp black formals and a white shirt-her Sankha pola, wedding ring, kite-shaped gold studs, analogue watch, and slight hints of her nuptial chain peeking from behind the lapel of her black blazer, still intact on her frame.

"Everyone, I need to discuss one last thing with you all." He heard her announce, getting up from the table with the toddler still in her arms. "Especially you, bhai." She added, shifting her focus towards her brother.

The commander shrugged his shoulders. "Okay."

Meanwhile, Gurung and Karim exchanged glances.

Quietly cleansing their hands in the grand wash-up area, all four men marched towards the living room.

"Bhai," she called out.

Vijaypath Rao quirked up his ears. "I am all ears."

"Change in plans," she paused, adjusting the chubby kid in her left arm dangling down her short frame and licking on a piece of paratha. "We had previously decided on you and Dogra Sahib being introduced as friends, right?"

Vijaypath Rao nodded. "Yes."

"Well, I don't think that's exactly feasible."

Gurung, Karim, and Vijay appeared perplexed. The head of the Dogra clan, on the other hand, maintained a placid mien. He was kind of aware of the way in which her brain worked after all, or so he thought.

"Why?" Karim's voice sliced through the blanket of silence.

"Because of his highness." She said this, pointing at her brother.

"What did I do, young lady!?" Eyes agape, Vijaypath took a step forward hurriedly.

"With your frequent re-runs of Munna Bhai MBBS, you have made him habitual of calling you 'maamu' instead of uncle!" She scolded him, directing her gaze at her son, who was still licking the paratha. "If he calls you uncle in the academy in front of everyone, it would still be fine because that's a general way in which children address male adults, but if he calls you 'maamu', it will be a huge mess! Did you get it now, your highness?" She mocked.

"Oh." Vijaypath passed on a sheepish smile.

"Can we please come to the main matter of concern now?" Mahadevan interrupted.

"Yes." She shot back and then pointed her finger at a blueprint-like structure of a building laid out on the center table. "Come here."

All of them moved forward and surrounded the center table.

"This is the blueprint of the academy." She announced.

Eyes enlarged, Vijaypath, Karim, and Gurung stared at her with their mouths wide open. Mahadevan remained unbothered. He was used to her ways anyway.

"So," Directing her finger at what looked like the sketch of the main entrance of the academy, she began, "This is the main entrance." And tracing her finger across the passage to the central hall, she continued. "This is the hall where the children get their training, and this is where the orientation is going to take place. If I am not wrong, chairs are laid out systematically in rows over there today for the parents and guardians to sit down. From my deduction, they will definitely make Dogra Sahib, you, Karim bhai, and Gurung sit on the first row along with Ani, and that's exactly the problem we need to avoid because just one shout of Ani addressing you as 'maamu' and we are gone for good." She finished.

"So?" Vijaypath probed.

"Here." She picked up a pair of black colored UV sun protection face masks from behind her and kept them on the sofa. "Wear this."

Vijaypath Rao looked at his younger sibling, absolutely confused. But, in the end, he followed suit with her instructions.

"Woman, I look like a bank robber!"

"Not my issue. Just tell them that you are down with the flu or that you have a severe UV ray allergy." She covered her face with the second mask. "You should have thought about this before making your Munna Bhai dance on television time and again in front of my kid."

Fastening the face mask properly around her visage, she carried on, "It will be a problem if Anirudh gets a glimpse of me by any chance as well. 'Maamu' and 'Mamma'; we need to avoid both of these problems no matter what in the academy. So, both of us will reach the academy at the times we discussed yesterday, but we will both hide and settle down in the last row. You, in the left column, and I, on the right column. Yeah?"

Vijaypath Rao frowned, resigning to his sibling's instructions at the end.

Hinduja then pointed her finger at the blueprint once again. "You see those two passages there? Those are the back exits. Both of us will exit the academy from there. Okay?"

All four males consented, while the toddler gulped down the last bit of the paratha in his hands.

"Also, bhai, I hope your security personnel are not around here today."

"No, I don't bring them along with me when I visit you people. It raises suspicions." Vijaypath thoughtfully answered.

"Good." Hinduja signed a thumbs up.

"Moving on, it will be Circuit's first day at the academy today, so let's click a few pictures." The commander suggested, after a prolonged thought.

"Alright." Mahadevan nodded.

With one quick nod, the commander rushed towards his nephew's playroom. He returned two minutes later with a foldable camera stand and a black leather bag. Taking his DSLR out of its leather cover, Vijaypath stationed it on its stand two meters away from the sofa.

Karim and Gurung looked at each other, scratching their cheeks simultaneously.

"You brought this with yourself?" Hinduja questioned.

Vijaypath advanced towards her and whispered. "What do you think I was here for all along? To see that Burj Khalifa-sized Banyan tree romance your hormone deficit minion self?! No! I was here for Circuit, obviously. To capture his first time going to the academy!"

Hinduja grimaced. "Gross!"

Mahadevan scowled, quirking his ears up, trying to hear what the brother-sister duo were whispering at each other.

Some ten minutes and a dozen photographs later, Vijaypath Rao shoved his camera back into its leather confines.

In the meantime, Gurung, who was chewing on a Hajmola after the heavy breakfast, latched his gaze on his boss keenly.

"Men in love, I am telling you, Karim Bhai, are the most comical kind of creatures alive." He trailed, still suckling onto the Hajmola.

"Why?" Karim frowned.

Directing his gaze at his boss and the boss's wife, he said, "Come on, look at Saab Ji. Back in the Dogra headquarters, he behaves as if he will gobble anyone down his throat absolutely raw without even a second thought. Now, observe his face at the current moment; he looks as if, with just one look from Madam, he might as well wear a saree and dance in front of the whole city on a Bhojpuri song or perhaps even sell momos in Sarojini market. That's how whipped he looks."

Appearing absolutely confused, Karim trailed his gaze in the direction of the spot where the head of the Dogra corporation stood, along with the Dogra Matriarch and the cranky toddler between them.

Well, the man did appear lost somewhere in his daydreams, his eyes fixed on his wife and lips stretched to form a silly wide grin.

"Sounds reasonable." He shrugged.

"I told you." Gurung smirked

At nine a.m., the whole contingent found itself stationed at the karate academy in their respective positions as per the pre-existing plans. Mahadevan, along with Karim, Gurung, and the man of the day, Anirudh, were settled in the front row. Meanwhile, Vijaypath and Hinduja were settled on the last row in their respective columns. Fortunately, no one had really asked them about the invitation cards or anything else. All the karate instructors were busy in their own world with their newly admitted students. But the brother-sister pair did get furtive glances by the parents and children passing by because of the masks they had donned.

Anirudh was called to the front too. Mahadevan followed behind him, followed by Karim and Gurung. The rest of the security professionals were either stationed inside the central academy hall or outside the hall.

News about the supposedly 'single' premier of the Dogra empire visiting the academy with his cute little son and security entourage had spread around the academy like wildfire, causing a herd of female students and even instructors to crowd the entire academy hall.

The toddler was being cooed upon by the female species in the hall. He initially made faces, then turned around to roam his eyes around the hall in search of his mother and uncle. Finding none of them, his face turned sullen, but then he bounced back to his original grinning state the moment Karim handed over a mini packet of cake to him. Gurung grinned at the kid.

Mahadevan patted his son's back comfortingly.

Hinduja looked at everything happening in front of her with a strange ache in her chest. Life was never easy after all. Her situation didn't even allow her to accompany her little one on his big day completely.

Taking advantage of the crowd, Vijaypath Rao got up from his seat and shifted to the seat next to his sister on the other column.

Perhaps he sensed the thoughts surrounding her head; she felt her brother rubbing her back in a consoling manner. He smiled and said, "This too shall pass, Molu; cheer up! It's his first day here at the academy. Being present with him physically or not does matter; I won't deny this fact. But what matters more is that, years later, when you'll think and reflect back on this day, you'll be grateful for all the decisions you took, because, all of this, is for his safety at the end of the day. Long-term safety is more important than short-term happiness, Molu. Cheer up."

Tears finally dropped down her eyes and slithered down her cheeks, seeping into the fabric of the UV mask as she finally nodded her head and smiled. "Yes."

Vijaypath Rao gently reposed his sister's head on his left shoulder, patting her head comfortingly. "Do you remember your first day at school?"

She kept quiet; her breathing pattern was peacefully rhythmic.

He continued nevertheless, "I was so scared because you were so tiny." Leveling his hands to the level of his knees, he said, "A squishy pink and chubby toddler with pigtails. You used to walk like a baby penguin, which I think you still do." He felt her elbow in his waist. "Anyway, I remember carrying you to your class-Nursery; Section A-a class filled to the brim with a bunch of some twenty lunatic toddlers. You were roll number twenty-one. The moment your class teacher took you away from me, you cried so much. I remember waiting the whole day outside your class for two weeks straight until you got used to your new environment and until my own class teacher called our manufacturers to complain about my absence from school for such a prolonged period of time without any proper application. Oh, what a thrashing I got later on!" He chuckled.

She joined him.

The brother-sister duo watched the orientation program transpiring in the front, organized by the authorities. The very next second, Vijaypath's gaze fell on the Xerox copies of some official documents reposed on his sister's lap. "What's this?" He asked.

"Anirudh's karate academy admission documents. Dogra Sahib has the original ones. This is a Xeroxed copy." She answered.

Picking up the papers from her lap, he went through the documents enthusiastically. Out of nowhere, something interesting caught his attention. "Anirudh has a middle name?"

"Yes." She continued. "Mehul. His complete name is Anirudh Mehul Dogra."

"That's interesting! How come I never came to know about this?" He probed in amusement.

"Even I didn't know about this until the fifth day after we got married."

Suddenly, her phone rang, bringing them both out of the conversation at hand.

The commander glanced at her and said, "Take it."

Bobbing her head, she fished out her phone from her blazer's pocket. Swiping the telephone icon towards the right side of the screen, she brought her phone to her right ear.

"Jai Hind, sir!" Getting up from her seat, she walked towards the entranceway for some quietude while Vijaypath's gaze followed her moving figure.

"Report at the S.I.T. headquarters, right now!" Raghav paused. "As per your deductions, the next five girls were supposed to get abducted by the syndicate today. Well, two girls have already gone missing since this morning. Rituparna Kukreja, age 15, and Misha Debbarma, age 18. The search team is on alert. We might get something."

Hinduja exhaled, her hard gaze turning soft the moment it fell on her little one. Shaking her head, she turned around, her body rigid.

"Yes, sir. I will be there in half an hour."

"Jai Hind!"

"Jai Hind, sir."

Rapidly tracing her steps back to her brother, she crouched down to his ear level. "Urgent call. I need to be at the office in half an hour, so I need to leave right now. Inform Dogra Sahib, on call. Yeah?"

Vijaypath Rao nodded. "Alright. I will inform him. Be safe."

Glancing at her son one last time, she whispered. "Please look after him."

Vijaypath Rao smiled while caressing the crown of her head tenderly. "I will."

***

Jason Chacko kept walking to and fro, having completed almost thirty laps from the Brazilian Rosewood door of his boss's imposing Victorian-era office to the elegant and stately davenport stationed at the left side of the very same office since the time he had entered the posh workspace.

"What is it, Chacko? Can't you at least sit down at one place quietly?" Gurung reprimanded him.

Jason coursed his fingers through his already messy-looking hair for the eleventh time. "You are not understanding, Amar! I have my family to look after-my wife and my two kids! I can't really involve myself in any of these."

Manoramaa rolled her eyes in contempt. Meanwhile, Karim stood next to the escritoire emotionlessly, his eyes fixed on something inside his wallet.

"Karim bhai, Make this elephant understand something! He wants to back out. That too, now!?" Gurung bellowed.

Manoramaa ignored the drama unfolding before her eyes, focusing all her attention on the weekly schedule she was preparing on Mac for their boss.

"Listen, you Panda! I will shove that week old spicy momo chutney kept in my fridge right up your ass, if you back out now!" Gurung yelled in frustration, swiftly taking his cleaver out of his professional security gear and swinging it in the air.

Jason Chacko flinched, taking a step back.

"Let him go if he wants to! There is no place for cowards here!" Suddenly, Karim Khan's firm voice echoed throughout the entire office, causing even Manoramaa to straighten her back in utmost attention.

Gurung scowled.

Jason gulped.

Eyes ablaze, his visage absolutely stern, and his body turning stiff in a quarter of a second, Karim Khan clasped his hands behind his back. "You think you are the only one at the losing end of the rope?" He trailed, training his gaze on Jason.

"Karim Bhai-"

Karim raised his right palm, signaling him to stop. "Let me finish."

Jason nodded, swallowing the saliva down his throat.

"Yes. Now, tell me-you think you and your family are the only ones who are in danger here?"

Jason remained mum.

"Didn't Sahib assure you of your family's safety? He even assigned guards for all four of you. Did he or did he not?"

"He did." Jason mumbled, his eyes trained on his shoes.

"If there is one thing that you need to be aware of while standing on the premises of this office Chacko, it is that loyalty, courage, and accountability are valued here above everything else. I don't know how loyal you are, but you definitely are faltering in the courage and accountability departments." Shoving his purse back into his security person gear, Karim continued, pointing his finger at Gurung. "Do you know how old he was when the late Miss Darshana Dogra-may her soul rest in peace-rescued him and his sister from a begging cartel in Darjeeling?"

Gurung immediately ducked his head down. "Karim bhai, please."

"Let me finish! He needs to know the price of freedom! Of what all it takes to live and not just exist!"

Gurung immediately marched towards the washroom.

The atmosphere had suddenly taken a gloomy turn. Manoramaa shifted her weight onto her feet uncomfortably.

"He was only seven, while his sister Megaara was twelve. It took them years to come out of what they had gone through. And just when life was all happy and back on track, he found his nine-year-old niece's body gang-raped and murdered in front of his sister's house. No clothes. . . Blood. . . and bite marks. . . all around." He trailed, his voice faltering and his heart shaking due to the visuals registered in his mind. "He hasn't met his sister or brother-in-law since then. Because he knew what had happened to his niece was a result of his profession and his connection with the Dogras, But did he stop working here after that? No." He paused, taking in a deep breath. "That's loyalty for you, Jason."

He next directed his gaze at Manoramaa. "How old do you think she is?"

"Twenty-four or twenty-five, perhaps?" Jason mumbled.

"Exactly. And it has been ten years since her brother is in a vegetative state. Gurung at least knows who are the culprits of his niece. This girl here is not even aware of her brother's perpetrators. She is the soul breadwinner of her family and handles an entire segment of the Dogra security force like a boss with an iron fist while taking care of her brother simultaneously. But you would never witness her breaking a sweat about it or giving up on her brother and taking him off his life support. And that, Jason, for you, is courage, even in the face of the worst kinds of adversities. To never sweat the small!"

Quietude engulfed the whole of the posh Victorian workspace in a tight embrace, waiting for the impending words sitting on Karim Khan's tongue.

"I have buried the dead body of my wife with my own hands. Her slaughtered and unmoving body-I carried it in my arms to the burial chamber because it was already decomposing. Ayesha Mohammed died in the early hours of December 17, 2017. Her body was found by me, her husband, on December 19, 2017 at five thirty a.m. in the morning. Her burial ceremony took place at seven a.m. in a graveyard in Kerala. And Karim Khan was back in Delhi, reporting at the office at ten a.m. that very day, here at the headquarters. That, Jason, for you, is accountability."

Unclasping his hands from behind his back, he folded them across his chest. "I have a seventeen-year-old daughter, studying at a boarding school in Dehradun, whom I haven't met in the last six years. Not because I have grown distant, but because I simply don't have it in me to meet her eyes. I am scared of the accusations that those innocent pairs of eyes will throw at me the moment I look into them. Our affiliation with the Dogras was the reason why my child lost her mother anyway."

A thin layer of sheen covered his eyes. "Every morning, I wake up to an empty bed. Every night, I open the door to an empty house. Every day, I am greeted with the sight of an empty kitchen and barren dining table. Every Eid, I try to replicate her recipe for Sheer Khurma, but I fail at it as always." He chuckled. "But what can a man do, Jason? The heart wants what it wants. I crave the taste of her hand cooked meals, and my eyes crave a glimpse of her smile. My hands crave the touch of her hands and my whole being, the soft warmth of her soul. Alas! Allah has snatched all of these rights from me."

In a quick turn of events, he finally walked towards the grand presidential chair meant for the head of the Dogra empire. "The owner of this chair-the formidable Mahadevan Dogra of the business and construction empire - out of all of us, he has gone through the worst sides of life. Yet, how many times have you seen him act out of honor and cower back in fear in all these years? Not even a single instance, I can assure you of that. He upholds himself to his name and surname!"

Slowly moving his forefinger in circles in the air, he concluded. "All of these people in front of you are survivors, and the greatest survivor of us all is the rightful owner of that chair." He pointed at the presidential throne. "And what do you think all of this is about, Jason? It's revenge! And Revenge is best served cold, and what you are going to be involved in, is the battle of our revenge!"

He roared, looking dead straight into Jason Chacko's eyes, then he finally marched towards the entranceway of the office.

Just as he was about to open the door with the handle, Jason Chacko finally voiced out. "I am sorry."

Karim chuckled. "Life, Jason, unfolds in two separate realms. With your soul or without it. . . One is filled with the essence of the soul, while the other is devoid of it. One is vibrant with the spirit, and the other is a hollow shell. When your soul is alive, you experience the beauty of living. Without it, you either drift through existence or succumb to oblivion. I, however, am caught in a twilight state; I am neither fully alive nor truly gone, but I persist. I neither thrive nor perish, but simply endure. And my existence will persist until I fulfill my quest for vengeance."

Finally getting out of his boss's office, his rigid frame strode straight into the corridor, his eyes meeting a pair of earthy, unfeeling eyes.

Mahadevan patted his shoulder. "Take a break."

Karim nodded, and both of them strode in opposite directions.

***