1966, Mayatalav Temple

"I don't understand" the woman replied with the same coldness stealing glances at the crowd flocked near the sanctum, "Me!?"

Kalicharan adjusted his shirt and patted his gradually blackening dhoti. Then he spoke fiercely, "I don't have time for you to second guess!" Kalicharan raised his gun towards the crowd. People broke into screams immediately. Then he talked louder and clearer over the sound of wailing, "I'm very particular about who I hurt....!"

The woman extended her left hand, "Okay okay!" she pleaded. Breathing slowly to control the quiver in her voice, "what should I tell the police!?"

Kalicharan stood up, lowering his gun, pointing his index finger at the crowd to keep them quiet.

"Ask for a silver Willys jeep!" Kalicharan lowered his voice while talking to the woman, "and betadine with some long bandages!"

The woman whispered to herself before saying, "That's all!?" a jeep and first aid could not be worth so many lives.

Kalicharan smiled again and said more calmly, "Do what I asked you! I promise I won't hurt anyone while you're gone!"

The woman hung her head down and walked towards the door in small steps. Kalicharan held up his gun and took his position behind one of the pillars away from direct sight from the door. Looking behind at the hostages huddled up the walls of the sanctum, the murals painted at the Ardha-mandap and the sanctum staring back at him from the opposite sides.

The woman slid open the doors to find the same police officer still standing on the rotunda. The officer questionably looked past her towards the gun peeking behind the pillars. The officer looked back at her. The woman walked out shaking and looked to her right. The dead body of the drunkard was gone. However, the walls and the ground were slick with blood.

"He wants a silver. Willys. Jeep." the woman suddenly had difficulty remembering the words.

"Are you hurt?" the officer asked, "Is anyone else hurt?"

"No, he says he will go away if you provide the jeep and first aid for his wounds!"

"Did you see these wounds by any chance!?" the officer asked.

The woman arched her eyebrows again, "You are gonna let him go right!?" she said doubtfully, "you are not gonna start another firefight, that can endanger the devotees!?"

The officer smiled, bending over to her height, he kept a hand on her shoulder, "I'm an Inspector with the Naxalbari police, while I understand your need to avoid violence, I must tell you...," the officer breathed looking towards the pooled blood by the side, "....this new ideal of equality, That is just an excuse to rob people! The man in there is not an idealist. He just has a purpose to display more refined forms of cruelty. And such men....rarely keep their promises! So I will bring the jeep but I will need time and I will make sure none of you are hurt!"

The constable brought a first aid box. The officer took it and handed it to the woman. She started walking back to the temple. The officer stood straight and ushered a constable, "bring the jeep!" he rubbed his lips, "No more than 200 ml of petrol!"

Suddenly thunder crackled across the sky. The woman gripped the doors more tightly as she slid them close.

Kalicharan waited as the woman closed the doors and then emerged from behind the pillar. He took the first aid from her and lifted his shirt to reveal the bruise at his right lower ribcage.

"So they need time to arrange the jeep!?" Kalicharan momentarily looked up as he applied the betadine.

"Yes!" the girl said forcefully.

Kalicharan smiled as he heard the thunder crackle again, "Frustrated are you?"

The woman kept looking at the fearful crowd behind him.

Kalicharan wrapped the bandage once around his torso and tied up the free end. Kalicharan breathed melancholically as he turned to the woman lowering his shirt, "I assure you, whatever I set out to do today. This was not where that ended!"

"Where does it end?" the girl raised her voice, "robbing people to establish a grand plan of all people living equally, how does that end exactly!?"

"Screw the ending!", Kalicharan mocked her, "All I know I couldn't feed my wife and now I can! So..."

Kalicharan turned to the cliff, suddenly his eye caught the ray of light dancing from within the valley. He furiously walked up to the woman and then grabbed her, dragging her towards the door, "But maybe someday you can find where it all started, how did it come to....."

"I thought you'll wait for the jeep!?" the woman struggled to free herself.

"No, we'll take another ride!"

Kalicharan slid open the door and before he could bring her to the front, there was a familiar flash. It started raining heavily muffling the loud sound. The woman suddenly gained balance, no one was dragging her. Her kurti was drenched and stuck to her skin. She hazily saw the officer coming forward, gun in hand.

"As I said, they don't keep their promises!"

Thunder roared, the woman looked back, as a streak of lightning fell straight into the ground from the sky. She keenly watched every drop of rain within the view, all of it was hollow.

The woman looked up to the present from her memories. She had considered Dr Vaibhav Roy to go about doing his work and she believed she was wrong.