Snaffle at Sujoy’s place

            We were having a typical Bengali food when Sujoy’s mother’s blood-curdling scream came from the bedroom and was so loud that we thought she saw something terrible. No, in fact, it was the other way round. She hadn’t seen what she was expecting and that made her scream. We ran towards the room to see what had happened? We saw her holding a big clay terracotta pot in her hand. Looking at Sujoy, she showed the pot to him and started shaking it upside down in a way hoping that something would fall out of it and simultaneously said, “They are not here, they are nowhere, surely there has been loot.” The gravy of fish curry was dripping down my hands and my mouth was full of unswallowed rice.  I was dumbstruck, trying to make out what the matter was? How can a lady cry for water like this, or why would someone do a loot of water?

            While I was gulping down my food, Sujoy started to pacify his mother. The house’s environment had become tensed from a pleasant atmosphere. When I saw aunty, I didn’t take it seriously but when I saw Sujoy’s stiffened face I knew it was no small case. I went near him and asked what had happened because my mind was still in a storm that why would someone cry over missing water? It could have evaporated or something.

            “What happened?”, I asked  Sujoy. I was surprised to know the answer and at the same time I felt, how a person can have such a brilliant idea. He replied that his mother used to keep all her jewelleries in that matka....          

               Sujoy Chakraborty, my Bengali friend as one can easily guess from the name, and I were very good friends. Even though I was a student of philosophy and he a geography student, we still had a great understanding  between us; like we got the idea of each other’s  peaks and valleys (concept of subject).

            From the plains of Odisha to the Garo, Khasi, Jayantiya ranges in Shillong my initial experiences were never good. It rains there every day. At first I was scared of them but meeting the lurking and slithering limbless reptiles became normal and it just started to happen on a daily basis. The only problem which I was still not comfortable was to face the toilets because the toilets are made on the angle of 30 degrees. This very reason made me a gypsy. Some days I would be at my uncle’s place and sometimes at Sujoy’s. Only they were the people having the toilets I am used to.

            I was at Sujoy’s place when all the fuss started.

             My uncle was a telephone operator. He used to work in the nearby telephone office from his house. It so happened that three-four days back from this incident there was a similar scream but it was of frustration. The telephone line was dead and his mother was trying to call her relatives just to inform them about Sujoy, who was going to Pune for his further studies. The problem was that there were no telephone office nearby nor they knew whom to call to fix the problem. Additionally, they had to go far to report the problem and the worst thing was after decades the man would come. I did not want to disturb my uncle ( who was a telephone operator) but seeing their problem I thought I can request my uncle to help them.

            In the evening I took Sujoy’s bike and went to fetch my uncle from his place. After returning  I took him inside the house and further he was escorted by Sujoy’s father to the room where the telephone was kept. After sometime aunty went inside to give him some water out of courtesy, when aunty and I both observed, that my uncle was talking to the maid servant in some other language. It was maithli  the place my uncle belonged to and I came to know that  the lady was also from the same place; Bihar. So, it is quite natural to talk to someone who is from your region especially when you are staying far away from your native place for long. After the work was completed I went back to drop him at his house.

            After that incident the whole family was thinking about  lodging an F.I.R, but against whom?

            I said, “Look it is your matter and do whatever you think is right.”

That evening the police was reported with the theft that had happened a couple of days.  My uncle and the maid were the prime suspects even though I was not in the centre like my uncle and maid but I was at the circumference too. Everyone had a feeling that uncle and maid were talking that day so; they both had committed the crime.

Finally, FIR was lodged against my uncle and the maid servant and both of them were called to police station and both of them had their own explanations, which was very convincing. Maid was working in that house for a very long time and never picked up anything and she was considered as a trustworthy lady to whom they used to leave the whole house. It was impossible to think her as a thief.  So, uncle came to the target of the police. The police officer once called Sujoy’s father and said “It seems your maid is innocent, I think the telephone operator did the theft.”

 Uncle was very much tensed as he was called to the police station every now and then. I was in a fix as it was I who took him to Sujoy’s place. Had I not requested him he would not have gone to their place. He simply went and did his job. I felt guilty for taking him to the place. Though he never accused me for anything. He simply used to say everything was predestined. God would help him come out of the situation, as he didn’t do anything wrong.

Additionally, the maid servant’s son was working in an IPS officer’s house and the officer too intervened in the case. Finally, she was declared as guilt free.

Uncle’s point too was very clear. He was called to that place by the family members only to repair the telephone. It was his first visit to that place, so how could he know where the matka was placed? Moreover, it is quite natural to talk to someone who belonged to your place and in a foreign land meeting someone from your place naturally creates an interest to talk to the person.

Now the question comes when his mother did check the matka, was it possible that loot had happened before and she checked it very late. The case continued for few months and because of lack of evidence against both the suspects finally, the case was closed.

The place where they lived was small and even the smallest case used to spread like wild fire; like someone’s parrot died, someone got bitten by a dog etc. The police was in great gusto but gradually after not getting a single clue they stopped investigation and even though it was  still an open case it had gone numb.

After 2 months Sujoy and I both had to go to our respective destinations Pune and Delhi. Since then neither Sujoy nor I got any news about that incident. Even if he may have got any he might not be interested in sharing it with me.

            It has been 2 decades to that incident since then, I am living with my big fat family in Rajasthan and Sujoy with his in Kolkata. The culprit has not been found yet and would never be, not in this life at least. Aunty since then has not kept telephone and a matka full of jewellery, and not even jewellery. These incidents were not normal that time at that place so there was a clamour about it. Now only my peers would remember it and I still keep on pondering over the matter sometimes who must have done that loot?