Some Revenge

Set in the farmlands and the coastline near the Alang shipyard, Gujarat, India.
                   
Shiv, a young farmer, lived south of the Alang Shipyard with his little sister, Geeta. There weren’t many farmers left in Alang. Shiv’s field was not his only source of income. He used to fish in the sea nearby.

Walking towards the sea one day, Shiv heard a couple of distant splashes. A ship was barely visible in the horizon. He saw a big dot and then two dots falling into the sea. He carried on towards the sea with his fishing net. Out in the sea, he again heard some splashes, this time they were more distinct. He could hear shouts and suddenly near the rear end of his boat, a hand appeared. He grabbed it and pulled it in onto his boat. Actually, he had pulled two people onto his boat.

The three stared hard at each other. No one moved a muscle. Shiv began,
“And you people are?”
None replied.
“I just saved both of you and you’re on my boat in the middle of a very dirty sea. I suppose I should know at least your names, shouldn’t I?”
Still, no reply.

Back on the shore, Shiv folded his net and turned around to see one of the men had gone.
“My name is, well you don’t really need to know my name. What you need to remember is that nothing happened here. Alright?”
“What are you talking about? I demand to know who you are.”
“It’s a bit complicated. You wouldn’t want to get caught up in this.”
“Fine. I’ll be on my way then. Don’t worry. I won’t utter a word about this. I don’t talk much.”
Shiv walked some distance and turned to see the man riveted at his position. He walked up to him and enquired. The man didn’t know anybody here and had no money. Together, they walked back to Shiv’s hut. Geeta went to sleep after serving food to them.

The man began.
"Many people recognize me, but they don’t know me. People call me by many names and you can call me Harish. I was into handicrafts and after a long time, I started to work at the shipyard. And after that, I started my own small recruiting firm to the shipyard.”
Geeta rolled over and snuggled tighter in the blanket. Shiv closed the window.
“My name is Shiv and she is my little sister. This is my field. Father died about 5 years ago at the shipyard. Mother passed away a couple of years after that.”
“Your father wasn’t a farmer?”
“Hmm, weird I know. He used to work at the Shipyard. And one night, I received the bad news from his friend. He said he died in a fire and that the manager was to be blamed. I never understood what he meant. I was shocked to such an extent that I didn’t put forward an enquiry to find out about the manager. I had the burden of my mother and Geeta.”
Harish was staring at the ground hard and said
“I could help you find out the cause. I know many people at the shipyard. It’s the least I could do to repay you.”

Next morning, they both set out for the Shipyard. Harish still hadn’t talked to Geeta and after that morning, he wasn’t eager to. She had a stone look on her face the whole morning. Shiv said she wasn’t used to having people in their hut for long. But, Harish wasn’t fully convinced.

Neither Geeta nor Shiv had many friends. She always played with a little purse she had got from a manager for whom her father worked. It was a little round one made of jute. Shiv didn’t know anything about that purse. The day she got that purse was the last day she had seen her father.
After months of travelling, searching and questioning, Shiv and Harish still didn’t have a clue about Shiv’s father. Nobody knew what exactly happened that fateful day. It had never appeared in a local newspaper. Three doctors had changed at the Red Cross since then. But during this time, Shiv and Harish become very close friends, sharing all joys and sorrows. They had escaped death narrowly on many occasions. Spending the whole day together, they had grown to enjoy each other’s company. Shiv knew about the chain of events in Harish’s life that shaped him. Everything, apart from the following:
Harish didn’t leave the Shipyard. He was thrown out, following a disaster that occurred during the scrapping of a cruise liner. Harish ordered his workers to clean the fuel tank of cruise liner. But, since hardly any safety precautions had been followed, a fire broke out in the fuel tank. It already had a little bit of fuel left which ignited. Nine workers died in the tragedy. Harish did not intentionally send the workers there, nor did he know the hazards involved in cleaning a fuel tank. Workers had died in Alang due to this before as well, but never did so many of them die in one incident. To safeguard the Shipyard’s business, Harish along with some of his junior workers was fired. Harish’s anger at the decision turned into rage and he resolved to take revenge on the administration of the shipyard. He became an illegal contractor in Amreli and employed naïve villagers. The slaves were grossly underpaid. Harish was making a killing from this business and had no intentions to leave this job.
One day he was discussing his grand plan for revenge with his associates but was overheard by some of his workers. Harish and one of his associates caught them and took them aboard a ship bound to the Gulf. When they were far enough from the shore, they tied stones on the waists of the workers and threw them into the sea. But Harish fell off the ship while throwing one the workers. Shiv had seen this incident that day from the beach. Shiv had saved the life of Harish and another worker, who had fled the scene as soon as they reached land.
Geeta remembered the face of Harish very clearly. It was Harish who didn’t recognize her since her facial features had changed drastically in the past 5 years as she neared puberty. It was not surprising that she was perplexed when she saw Harish coming into her hut that night. She was never asleep when the two were talking and when she heard that Harish used to be in the handicrafts business she felt something was unmistakably peculiar. But the really astonishing news came to her when she heard Harish’s story about being fired from the shipyard. Putting the pieces together, she concluded that Harish was responsible for her father’s death. Horrified that she harbored her father’s killer in her own hut for so long and that her brother was becoming ever closer to Harish, she desperately tried to convince Shiv not to talk to Harish anymore.

Shiv’s argument – If Harish was responsible for his and her ill fate, then why would he come so far in search for the reasons? Why would he support Shiv and her in their quest if it would lead to him eventually? The pieces just didn’t seem to fit for Shiv, but for Geeta, it was all too clear. But how can a 15 year old girl convince her 24 year old brother that his friend killed their father?

Why was Harish assisting Shiv? He didn’t know that one of the workers was Shiv’s father. Although he had a slight feeling after getting to know whatever they could find, he still hoped he wasn’t the one they were looking for. It would devastate Harish as he felt closer to somebody after such a long time. He liked Shiv’s laidback and casual attitude to his otherwise tormented life and the way he had handled himself after his parent’s death. Harish respected Shiv for that and thought he could share everything with him.
Geeta couldn’t get Shiv to agree with her. But, then as if out of nowhere, the man whom Shiv had saved that day on the beach came to Shiv’s hut to thank Shiv. Shiv and Harish weren’t at home that day and the man talked to Geeta. She asked if he could help her and the man obliged, saying that he had to repay Shiv.

Together Geeta and the man, who called himself Ravi, hunted for clues that would clarify Harish’s guilt. Ravi couldn’t believe his luck of getting caught up with a man like Harish. He told Geeta all about Harish’s rotten exploits, some that even Harish hadn’t told Shiv. They were both young and lost. Inevitably, love blossomed between the two. And one day, he told Geeta what he had heard that landed him in trouble. Harish along with three others, namely Shankar, Lalit ad one more whose name he couldn’t remember, were planning to kill slaves and brandish them as Alang Shipyard workers and making the news public, thereby putting Alang in the spotlight of inhuman torture. It would tarnish its image internationally and with more than half of its projects from overseas, it would cripple its business. But with Harish gone missing after that day, the plan had been scrapped.
Geeta thought that if Harish had given her a purse, then he would have given everybody else working under him, something as well. So, she enquired with the families of the deceased workers and found that many of them still had handmade souvenirs from Harish.
This was enough to convince Geeta and Ravi, but how would they tell Shiv about it? Geeta was afraid Shiv would blow up if she talked to him about Harish once more. But she had to talk this time because she had hard evidence.
So, one morning when Shiv and Harish were about to leave, Geeta introduced them to Ravi who had been helping her. As soon as Ravi saw Harish, he pounced on him and they collapsed on the floor. Talking in heavy voices, Ravi expressed his anger very openly. Harish had been waiting for this. He apologized for the incident in the sea. Exactly then, Geeta blew the lid off by claiming that Harish was her father’s killer. Shiv slapped her hard but that couldn’t deter her from voicing her feelings.
Harish slowly moved towards the window, and told them everything, including his grand plan and why he wanted to throw Ravi off the ship.
“... I had almost thrown Ravi off, but then he grabbed me while falling and I fell along-“
Ravi abruptly intervened. He told them he had never grabbed on to Harish, leaving Harish in doubt. Then, why did he fall? He couldn’t have slipped; the floor was dry at the time. If only someone else had shoved him, and then it hit him.
“KRISHNARAJ!”
“Who?” Shiv and Geeta asked together but it was too late. Harish had already disappeared in the darkness.
“Yes! The fourth and final one in their group with Harish was Krishnaraj Rengrajan,” explained Ravi. He had trouble remembering Krishnaraj’s name when talking to Geeta.

Krishnaraj Rengrajan used to work at Alang even before Harish had joined. But, owing to Harish’s ability to flatter and convince people, he had shot up the ladder and he soon became senior to Krishnaraj, attracting hostility from many, including Krishnaraj. It was a little peculiar that Harish coming from a handicrafts background became a manager at Alang. Harish was not the best of the bosses there. Many projects that were supposed to be awarded to Krishnaraj were awarded to Harish or to some one who Harish proposed. Harish also had an eye for Krishnaraj’s wife. Krishnaraj did not have to wait long to take revenge on Harish. Harish had given orders to clean the tank and Krishnaraj was responsible for workers who scrapped the paint off the walls of the tank. The fire occurred due to the workers of Krishnaraj, but he framed Harish to be responsible. The fire grew out of control and Krishnaraj’s workers also died. As a result, Krishnaraj was also fired. He couldn’t believe his plan backfired, but soon he learnt that Harish was planning to take revenge on the Shipyard. Serving two purposes, one of himself taking revenge and the other, getting another chance to thwart Harish’s plans, he joined in.
Aboard the ship, Krishnaraj pushed Harish off the ship but he saw Harish being pulled up by Shiv.
In Harish’s final confrontation with Krishnaraj, he learns he was not responsible for any of the charges levied on him. Krishnaraj almost killed Harish by throwing him off the ship into the dirty and treacherous sea, but Harish survived. After a major tussle, Harish is left lying on the ground at gunpoint. But, suddenly enters Shiv and shoots Krishnaraj. Shiv thus saves Harish’s life for the second time.
Harish gets up, heavily wounded and turns to Shiv, who had a smirk on his face. Puzzled, he asks the reason for his expression. Shiv kicks Harish in the stomach. He falls backwards, hits a wall and freezes. Shocked and bleeding, he hears Shiv shouting,
“You think I came here to save you?”
“Argh, Shiv, what’s wrong with you?”
“Knowing you had a hand in my father’s death; you think I would’ve let you go off that easily? I killed Krishnaraj in front of you. Your other associates are dead. You are lying on the grounded barely alive and I have a gun in my hand. You ask what’s wrong with me.”
“I,” Harish replies, panting, “don’t understand.”
“Why do you think I rescued you from the sea? Didn’t you ever notice I was so stern with Ravi but not you? Why couldn’t Geeta convince me that you killed my father?  How did I know you could be here? How could I have a gun?”
Harish stared at the ground and said,
“So Krishnaraj had ordered you to save me?”
“Of course. Hmm, people can be so naïve sometimes. Even Krishnaraj, who was always manipulative, jealous of your success. He was blinded by revenge. Idiot. He saw me rescuing you and thought he could get me to do his dirty work. But I am a little rotten myself. I tried killing you many times, but you always escaped. He was growing impatient and I don’t like such people.” Chuckles, and continues,”Left all his money and belongings in that bag. He was about to leave Alang. I couldn’t let him go, could I? After what I heard him say, I had to kill both of you.” He walks over Harish, picks up a heavy bag, turns around and shoots Harish in the back. A shriek sounds in the warehouse. Apparently, Geeta and Ravi had followed Shiv and had heard every bit of the conversation. Shiv sees them standing there and drops the gun. Walking slowly towards them, he calls out to her to not to run away. She runs away with Ravi forever, leaving Shiv completely alone.

Shiv stole all that Krishnaraj owned and also got his revenge from Harish. But his mother and father were dead and his sister had run away. He had everything but still; it felt like he had nothing. Such is the bitter taste of revenge.