Chapter 05: A Maniac

The wind moving past his face chilled him. He had lifted the visor of his helmet, since dirt and grime had settled on the visor reducing his visibility. A good few kilometres from the spot should do fine. That should take care of the lack of network range. After driving for nearly ten minutes, he felt he should stop and call for help. Stopping his bike by the side of the road, he pulled out his mobile phone. Still no range. That was strange. Trying to find his bearings, he pulled out his PDA to check his location using Google Maps. No GPS signal here, either. Very strange.
Well, nothing to do, but ride on. Starting his bike again, he decided that he’d keep on riding till he reached some signs of civilisation. A good twenty minutes or so later, he saw street lights appearing every few meters. After he passed a turn-off from the Highway, he could see other bikers and motorists travelling along with him on the Highway. This should be a place which has range. Cecil pulled over for the fourth time in the past couple of hours. He reached into the pocket of his pants to pull out his mobile phone, but his hand touched nothingness, apart from the inside cloth of the pocket itself. In disbelief, he checked all his pockets. No phone. The world seemed to be completely unravelling all around him. Cecil Thomas was desperate. He had dire need of two things. A phone, and an aspirin. A painful headache was starting to set in. Unknown, missed and in several pieces, his mobile phone lay where it had fallen on the Highway. Shattered. Useless any more. Far away, a man holding a whip smiled. This had been a satisfying day.

Life plunders the lives of several people, by stealing from the not-so-poor, and handing atuff over to the not-so-rich. The not-so-poor in things other than materialistic wealth. And the not-so-rich in things other than materialistic wealth. A hard thing to understand, life is. Whether people understand it or not, they are bound by its laws, and give in to its demands. Mostly.

Awesome. A cluster of lights lay up ahead. There must be a phone somewhere there. Cecil had gotten back onto his bike, and had decided to go for it, no matter what. This time, he really rode like a maniac. Worst of it all, he had to. It had started to rain. When you’re all alone on a pretty deserted National Highway, and all forms of communication to the external world have been cut off, and the one you love is missing, and you’re trying to get aid at the quickest possible time, rain doesn’t help the mood of the hour. Actually, rain seldom helps the mood of the hour. Unless one can dance in it. Alone. And free. Cecil couldn’t do such things. Atleast, not yet.
The sales man behind the counter of the general store where Cecil had stopped, looked up with a curious expression on his face. Why was this biker stopping here? From the looks of him, he should have stopped ages ago, if he had not wanted to get wet. He was thoroughly drenched. As the young man approached, the sales man quickly deliberated on whether Hindi, the supposed national language of the country, or the regional language should be used. He settled on Hindi.
“Kya chaiyi hai?”
What do you want?
”To wake up in bed and find that all this was a nightmare,” thought Cecil. But he asked instead “Phone hai?”
The man pointed over to a phone placed on the counter.
With trembling fingers, Cecil picked up the receiver and dialled.
1....
0....
0....
“Hello. You have reached the Police department. To report a crime, press 1. To file a complaint, press 2. To obtain details regarding police certificates, press 3. For an emergency, press 4.”
4....
“Hello. Inspector Indrajit speaking.”
“Sir... You need to come. My friends are in trouble... We’re on the Highway, and we don’t know what happened.”
Another one of those prank callers. Indrajit had atleast a dozen of them each day.
“Whoever you are, stop fooling around. This is the police. We can trace you and ....”
“Sir... You don’t understand. I’m calling from a public telephone...”
“So you think you can get away with it? We’ll find you and fine you. Do you know that harassing a police officer is a punishable offence?”
“Sir, please! I need your help. My name is Cecil. I’m on the National Highway, just outside the city. I’m telling you, this is not a prank call. My friends have gone missing. You’ve got to help me find them.”
“Alright. Let’s assume that I do believe what you say. When exactly did your friends go missing?”
“About a few hours ago. We’re not really sure.”
“Son, you’re wasting my time. We cannot file a missing persons report until 24 hours after the person was last seen. Where did you say you were?”
“I’m on the National Highway, en route to the Nagi Falls.”
“That’s not even under the jurisdiction of the city police! There’s really not much that we can do.”
“Sir, you need to find them. Please.”
Nobody needed to tell Inspector Indrajit that the caller was pleading with him now. At that instant, he knew that this wasn’t a prank call. It could be a mentally unstable person, with a good imagination. Whoever he was, he really believed that his friends were missing. And that the police should help.
“Listen... Why don’t you come over to my station, and we’ll have a chat?”
“We don’t have TIME, sir. We need to find them.”
“Without paper work of any kind, we’re not authorised to do a single thing. Please try to understand.”
Cecil was defeated. He felt that the Police Inspector talking to him believed him now, but he also felt that the machine of bureaucracy took a lot of fuel to get moving.
“Sure, Sir. I’ll come ...
Defeat. Giving in to life’s demands. Whether people like it or not, they are forced to live by certain orders of life. Life says jump, and they have to jump. There is no choice. Atleast, that’s what most people think. Many a time, the apparent lack of choice is harmless. At other times, it can be extremely dangerous to proceed past a certain point in life without acknowledging the available choices. Thankfully for Cecil, this wasn’t one of those times.
... Just tell me where.”
The Inspector told him. He knew the place quite well. It was atleast another half hour’s ride from where he was. At this time of the night, there would be not much of traffic.

As Cecil neared the city, he was leaving behind poorly paved roads, which gave way to the smooth, recently laid roads leading into the city. Now, he thought, I can really drive like a maniac. Usually, he was a careful rider. He never pushed his bike past 80-85 during the daytime, and never past 50-60 in the night. This night, he was past 75 kmph on unknown roads with the rain coming down in sheets. At those speeds, the rain was not falling down like dainty little droplets of water. The rain became thin ice-cold needles of pain that poked him wherever his skin was exposed to the elements.
He loved riding a bike. He really loved it. But this night, wasn’t filled with an ounce of joy. Sudha. She was all that mattered. If she couldn’t be found... If something were to have happened to her... If she couldn’t be saved in time.... Oh, God. No.

A strange thing. Love is. It beckons each person who partakes of it, to give everything with abandon, to fully empty himself or herself, and then expect nothing in return. Well, not nothing, really. All people want to be loved back. They love because they are born to love. From a mother’s womb, a human being is pursued relentlessly by love, throughout life, until on the deathbed, love holds their hands as life ebbs away; leaving behind love without life. As useless as a life without love.

Nearly an hour after the phone call, Cecil found the police station. Parking his bike outside, he rushed in. Inspector Indrajit was sitting behind the third desk on the left. The name plate on his desk said so. Cecil walked up to him. Struggling to push all emotion out of his mind, he sat down on a chair in front of the Inspector’s desk.
“Sir... It’s me, I’m the one who spoke to you over the phone.”
“Ah... Tell me. What has happened?”
Cecil told him. From the beginning. Of this terrible tale. He spared no detail. None that he knew. To expect Cecil to tell the Inspector of things he hadn’t yet seen, hadn’t yet heard or did not even know about, would be too much to ask.

When Cecil finished, the Inspector was all business. He instructed Cecil to immediately contact the next of kin of all six. When Cecil explained to the Inspector of the mishap with his mobile phone, the Inspector guided him to a phone which had a sign scrawled above it that read “PubLiC Greivances”. He called his parents, first. Assuring them that he was perfectly safe, he informed them of the evening’s happenings. They agreed to inform Susan’s parents as well. Informing Rohit’s parents was easy too; since it wasn’t their son who was missing, they were quite relieved. Sudha’s parents went into shock. They hadn’t even known that Sudha was taking such a bike trip. They were totally devastated. Sudha’s brother had to take over from his father and finish getting all the details from Cecil.
Finally, only Nate and Shiloh’s parents were left. Here was a problem. He didn’t have their parents’ contact details. There was only one option. Rachel. Nate’s girlfriend. She would be able to get in touch with Nate and Shiloh’s parents. With a heavy heart, he dialled her number.

With its many twists and turns, life can be quite harsh. With love, with hope, with determination, it still ends up being a tough ask, sometimes. At such times, giving in does not necessarily mean that one gives up. Giving up would be a total surrender to the situation. Giving in is a simple acceptance of the cards that life deals out, hoping against hope that better cards are on the way. Cecil hadn’t given up. He had simply given in. To life. Quite unlike a maniac.