The Great Downpour

Chapter XI

Chapter XI

Fr. Anthony Mascarenhas had never, in his entire life, seen or confronted so many bad people as he had today. He was at a loss to decide what needed to be done to send these … these goons away and to make the students … his students feel safe. He was scared for their safety more than anything else. He decided that if he gave in now, his students would come to immense harm. At the same time, any foolish move might endanger his own life and those of his staff and students, and he was well aware of this. Hence, rather than shout back at the horseman, he merely stepped back one pace and said, “Yes, I understand.”

The dacoit chief laughed loudly, and his men all joined him in the derisive laughter that now enveloped the entire habitat.

This is ridiculous, thought the Principal. Here we are, just embarked on a picnic, and guess what happens? There is a horde of dacoits out after my college students. And there seems to be on one around who can face them or fight them. What am I going to do? Mindful of his precarious position, the Principal consciously decided to make one attempt, just one, to raise an alarm. He looked at the dacoit-chief and then at the other dacoits and asked, rather bravely, “What do you all want? Why are you here and why are …?”

The dacoit chief cut him short with a carefully controlled burst from his sub-machine gun. He aimed it just in front of the Principal’s feet. The Principal recoiled in horror and there was a collective gasp from the nearly 600 students.

“Shut up, you lousy man!” boomed the dacoit chief.

Fr. Anthony looked the dacoit chief in the eye and said, a bit less strongly perhaps, “I mean … I know who you are … obviously you want something from us … but I mean, why here and how did you know about us?”

The dacoit was not used to being questioned. He pointed his gun at the Principal.

“I’ll shoot you if you utter another word.”

True fear set in within the minds of most of the student. Everyone knew that the dacoit was not issuing an empty threat and that he would really pull the trigger if the Principal spoke again.

The dacoit chief asked his men to surround all the college students and staff.

“Take everything from them, and do not wait for my orders to shoot if anyone disobeys,” said the dacoit chief ominously.

The dacoits, all with their faces covered, panned out in all the four directions and surrounded the staff and students of St. Aloysius College of Arts, Science and Commerce. The looting began in earnest. One after another, the students were divested of their wallets/purses, hand-bags, mobile phones, cameras and whatever else the dacoits fancied. A pall of gloom descended on the crowd as some of them were not so rich and dreaded the thought of what they would do and how they would manage without the money and the goods that they carried.

***

In the main office, four of the Hawaldars were tied up to their chairs or to any available furniture while two lay bleeding in the centre of the floor. The C.F.O. was not to be seen anywhere.

The teacher, who had silently and cunningly managed to leave the courtyard and come to the office, had tied up the hawaldars after they had been hit on their heads by one of the dacoits with a large baton-like instrument. After this, between them, they cut the lights and the telephone cables and smashed up the main radio console, disabling the wireless network completely.

This task done, the dacoit went out to join his other friends, while the teacher remained within the office bungalow and began to move towards the kitchen. There, next to the stove, lay Jankilal Shastri, the Chief Forest Officer, quite dead. The teacher spat on the dead man’s body and laughed nervously. “You deserved to die,” said the teacher to no one in particular. Touching the body, which was still warm, the teacher added, “You miserable bastard!”

Suddenly there was a burst of gunfire from the courtyard. The teacher rushed to the window that faced the courtyard and looked out surreptitiously through the thin stick-cane curtains. The Principal stood in the centre of the courtyard and was obviously in a tight spot, the teacher noticed with some satisfaction. Serves him right for trying to be the smartass in College. Filled with glee and happiness, the teacher returned to the room and did a small pirouette and went up to the strong-box located in one of the corners. I wonder what this contains, the teacher thought. Maybe lots of cash? Some important government documents? “I am going to find out soon!” So saying the teacher gave a kick to the box and moved on.

I must join the College people soon or my game will be up, thought the teacher. Moving to one of the side doors of the bungalow, the teacher slowly and silently walked up to within a few feet from where the last of the students stood under a Pipal tree. Let the crowd panic, and I will be in without anyone knowing, thought the teacher. I must wait for the chance.

***

Sandy and Sunny signed to each other.

“We must do something,” signed Sandesh.

“What?” signed Sundeep.

Rati looked at the two of them and got worried. If that goon standing behind us sees them communicating, God only knows what he might do.

Sandesh slowly raised both his hands to just above his chest level and spun the fingers round and round. He then made signs to pass on the message that what he would like to do is to make everyone move helter-skelter. He took out a pen from his shirt pocket and scribbled something on a small chit of paper. He slowly passed on the chit to Muhammad, who relayed it to Sundeep.

It read, WE MUST CREATE PANIC AND CONFUSE THE DACOITS!

Sundeep read the tiny chit and looked up. He nodded silently. In his handbag, he carried a small air-gun which he had brought along for some fun. It seemed an odd thing to carry, since Park rules clearly mentioned that the animals in the park were under the protection of the government and no mischief would be tolerated. And yet, Sundeep had carried the gun as if to “defy” rules. I might even get to shoot a duck or a quail - was his thought while packing the gun.

He wondered how he would take out the air-gun and fire it without endangering his own life. Just as he was debating this to himself, he saw, out of the corner of his eye, the dacoit behind him moving away to begin robbing the students. Now is my chance!

Sundeep took out the air-gun and fired it in the air.

The loud “plop” immediately caused the nearby students to jump to the ground or to run. The action began to spread much like a wave of cheering people in a football stadium. Before the dacoits could realize it, nearly 650 people started running in all directions.

The dacoits saw what had happened and began to shout and scream for order. The students, already at the very edge of unreasonable panic, were in no mood to listen to them. They swung their bags at the horses, making them jump and raise their legs in fear. One or two dacoits fell off their mounts to the ground, their guns dropping from their hands.

The students saw this and got emboldened. One of them took one of the dropped guns in his hand and went up to the dacoit who was just getting up from where he had fallen.

“Get up, you stinking son of a whore!” he shouted. The dacoit was too stunned to respond. The other surrounding students too came up to the dacoit and began manhandling him. Soon, the dacoit was reeling under blows.

Back in the centre, the dacoit chief sensed that the operation was going bad. He took out a whistle that he kept tied to his fatigues and blew hard on it. The dacoits, some of them still in reasonable command of their own territories, looked at him for further guidance. With parts of their minds still grappling with the truth that the students were going on the offensive, the dacoits were ready to leave immediately if their leader so indicated.

To their utter surprise, they saw their leader, the Pahelwan, dismount his horse and approach the Principal.

The Principal sat down on his knees and folded both hands in prayer before the dacoit chief. There were angry gesticulations from the latter. The Principal once again bent forwards with supplication. There was more shaking of the head from the dacoit leader. Finally, the dacoit chief shouted, “Stop, all of you, or I shoot him!”

The crowd was in too much disarray to hear the command and continued to go about either running away from the scene of action, or mauling whichever dacoit they caught or overpowered, or were on their way to where the buses were parked.

The staff of the College, which stood just a few yards away from the Principal did hear the command and tried to pacify the students around them. There was no tangible response and the confusing milieu was finally shattered by a short burst of machine-gun fire which issued from the barrel of the gun that the dacoit chief held in his hands. In front of him lay the dead Principal of St. Aloysius College, Fr. Anthony Mascarenhas.



- ##Dr.Taher##

Check out:

The Great Downpour  (13+) A handful of college students fight for survival in a Wildlife National Park. #866998 by Dr Taher writes again!

"Yes, I Do!: "Married" to W.com" 
"The Last Prayer" 
"Trying" 

** Image ID #854840 Unavailable **

** Image ID #863053 Unavailable **

I do not suffer from insanity. I positively enjoy every moment living it!