I woke early the next morning. Yesterday's chain of events kept running through my mind. I felt this incessant urge of visiting the Banerjee house and checking up on Geeta, but it is much too early in the morning I refrained.
I decided on having a cup of tea, and waiting for everyone to wake up. As I got down the stairs, I saw Monica standing on the carpet and dancing. I stood beside the door and was impressed at my sister, she is an amazing dancer. As she performed a Pirouette, she saw me standing behind the door. She stopped, and quietly ask me, "Why are you up so early at 4:00 a.m. in the morning?" I replied "I was going to prepare tea. You want some?" She nodded her head.
As I was getting the tea ready, it dawned on me that Monica has never been an early morning riser so why was she awake at 4 a.m. Something did not seem right. I decided to ask her later. When the tea was ready I poured the tea into 2 cups and brought them to her.
As I was drinking my tea, I planned to surprise my parents with breakfast. I asked Monica if she had school today and she replied that she did. I told her, once she had her tea, she can go and get ready for school and I will get the breakfast ready. She gave me a disbelieving look and smirked: "Are you sure bro? You do know we had our kitchen recently renovated.". I smiled at her remark and didn't retort anything. I knew I am not a good cook.
As I was sipping my tea, I asked Monica "Can you tell me something, is there any time of the day when Geeta is left alone, I need to talk to her alone.". Monica replied "It is difficult, she is rarely left alone. The sisters leave for school at 8:00 a.m. and Aunty leaves work at 10:00 a.m. Geeta's tutor comes for tuitions from noon and continues till 5:00 p.m. so you have a two-hour window between 10:00 a.m. and 12:00 pm to talk to her alone. What's on your mind bro." I responded, "Thanks, I think 2 hours would be sufficient for me to ask her what I want to know. I just want to know more about her."
I finished my tea and went to the kitchen to get breakfast ready. Opened the refrigerator to check for available contents and decided to cook french toast and tea. I knew this was going to be a heavy breakfast for all of us. It took me nearly one and a half hour to finish cooking breakfast and setting up the table. I found an apple in the fruit basket and sliced it into quarters, one for each of us.
I exited the kitchen around 6 o'clock and saw mom and dad coming down the stairs and Monika dressed and ready for school. I saw my mom's surprise look as she took in the sight of the breakfast ready on the dining table. Mom came to me and gently touched my neck with the back of her hand and asked me "Are you, alright son, you don't seem to have a cold."
I understood mom was pulling my leg. I went to my room and decided I had time for some physical exercise and went to the balcony for some fresh air and push-ups. I could see the Banerjee residence very well from there.
I saw Aamaya dressed and ready to go somewhere. It didn't look like they were getting ready for school but on some trip. So I decided to go and check out. I came down and went to our garden which borders their residence through a fence. Amaya saw me and walked towards me.
I asked her "Are you guys going somewhere."
She replied, "We are going to Kolkata for the weekend, we were missing daddy, so mom decided to visit him over the weekend."
I said to Aamaya "I am going to miss you, dear. I mean all of you"
Aamaya replied, "Don't worry, We will be away for only 2 days, we will be back by Sunday."
I continued "You can let your mom and your sisters visit, meanwhile you can stay at our place. I know Monika will be very happy to spend some quality weekend time with her favorite sister."
Amaya replied "I know Monica would be very happy, but papa wants to meet us. It has been more than a month since he had seen us. I promise I will make up to you both, once I am back."
I asked her if I can get the contact number of their Kolkata house, to which she hesitantly obliged.
Finally, she raised her hand to bid adieu.
I replied "See you soon" and I came back to my room and started planning my next move.
It was around 7:00 a.m. and Monica was waiting at the gate for the school bus to arrive. I wanted to use my father's laptop during the day. He told me that it was in the room and I can use it whenever I want. I got ready to go and meet Vikash at his place. I called him up and asked him to keep the video recording of yesterday's match ready. I had my breakfast at home after about half an hour.
It took me about 15 minutes to reach his home. Vikash's caretaker opened the door for me and took me to his room. As I reached the room, he asked me to lock the door, gave me a CD, and told me that he has recorded yesterday's match on it.
I replied, "Thanks bro, I owe you one".
Vikas replied, "Well, actually you are going to owe me two."
"I beg your pardon," I said.
Vikas told me to give him a minute. He picked up his tablet, lying on his study table and showed me a recording of the match which we were discussing yesterday.
I couldn't believe my eyes and asked Vikash "How did you get this video and how did you know that I will be searching for this video."
Vikas replied, "If you are Tom Sawyer I am your Huck Finn. I know you, bro."
I thought of taking the video home but decided, it would be better if I do it here. I asked Vikash if I could borrow the laptop and he agreed.
He replied "Bro whatever you are planning, I want in. I am getting a strange vibe that you are up to something big."
I told Vikas that I had some inkling about the girl who scored the three-pointers yesterday. I played the video and paused it where Geeta scored the first basket. And then I told Vikas to play the other match on his tablet, I wanted to compare the shots.
After repeatedly playing and comparing both, the resemblance was too uncanny to refute. We hit a hornet's nest when we went through the full video and found that two children were performing the same step, and it was difficult to figure out if one of them is Geeta. The video was 6 years old and the recording was not very clear.
Vikash replied, "We can go through old news articles and search for the name of the players. We might find Geeta's name on the list. We started searching for any news relevant to the match and after some efforts found a few articles mentioning the team. It said that after the match, when the team was returning home, they met with an accident near Alipur. There were only 2 survivors. I was shocked to see this news, knowing that one of the best sub-junior basketball team of West Bengal is no more.
I asked Vikash to read what is in the article.
"Alipur: In a tragic incident, 10 children and 3 adults lost their lives, after the van they were traveling in crashed into a tree in the Alipur town of West Bengal in the late hours of Tuesday. According to reports, a total of 14 passengers were in the vehicle when the driver lost control and collided it against a tree.
Superintendent of Police, Ajay Joshi has confirmed that there were 2 survivors of the crash. According to him, the incident took place when a speeding truck hit the van from behind, which led the driver to lose control, toppling the van and crashing into a tree.
The police further stated that the children were returning from a basketball match in Salt Lake Stadium.
The sports community is in shock and mourning the loss of the 8 talented souls who brought glory to the state of West Bengal in basketball."
I faintly remembered the incident. Back then I was very young hence I don't recall much about it. We kept looking but we were still not able to find the list of passengers who were there on that vehicle. I asked Vikash if there is any way we can get the names of the surviving players.
Vikash replied, "Let me make some calls, give me an hour, I might know someone who can help us."
Over the next half an hour, Vikash contacted a few people he knew who could get him the information. Finally, Vikash looked at me and raised his thumbs indicating that he found something.
He told me "Dude, wait for some time. Arusha di from Bangla Post says she has that information we need. She is a Sports reporter there."
As we were waiting for Arusha di to respond, I kept browsing for relevant details about the incident and discovered a picture on the web. This was the same picture Monika showed me the other day. I asked Vikash if he can recognize the uniform the players were wearing.
He looked at it and said, "I think this school uniform looks like it belongs to DPS."
Before we came to Purulia, we used to live in Kolkata. A few years ago, due to unknown reasons, Monika started showing signs of depression. Her low spirits and dejected nature and her decision to quit playing basketball worried us a lot. No matter how much we tried to understand what was causing her despondency, we could not figure out how the most cheerful person of our family has lost her sense of hope and spirit. Dad decided to transfer the family to Purulia, thinking that being near me, might restore our Monika to her usual self. I tried zooming into the picture, but the pic kept getting distorted.
We waited for about an hour for Arusha di's response. She finally called Vikash. All I could hear were his yes's, ok's and thanks.
After the call, Vikash informs me "Aarusha di found the names of the players, as well as their addresses. Of all the players who were involved in the crash, get this, one of them was from Purulia."
I asked, "What about the survivors, Does she have their names?"
Vikash replied "That's the shocking part, both of the survivors had the same residential address. However, when she tried to hunt the whereabouts of the 2 surviving children, she was unable to trace them.
She went to the address and could only find a middle-aged person living in that address, and when she asked him about the children, he replied that they have left the city a long time back and that nobody knows where the family is?"
I asked, "Do you have the names of the players.".
Vikash was already browsing through his email and replied "She has just sent me." showing me the list of survivors in the mail.
Our doubts were proven correct when he found Geeta's name on the list. The other survivor was someone named Abhinu Banerjee. Is our Geeta the same girl and where is Abhinu?
I felt like digging deeper but was not sure where to start. Suddenly I remembered Monika telling me earlier that Geeta's uncle lives in Kolkata. Perhaps we can get some information out of him. I was not sure about his address. Suddenly I recalled the phone number Aamaya gave me. I can call her and find the address.
Vikash suggested, "You know, I think we should go to Kolkata and go to the address given by Aarusha di. We might be able to find something."
I replied "Actually I was thinking the same. We can also go and meet Mr. Banerjee out there. We can find out more about Geeta from him.".
Vikash picked up the phone and called someone. "Aunty, this is Vikash here, Joe's friend. Well, I wanted to ask you if Joe could stay at our place tonight."
I was about to call my parents but Vikash beat me to the same. He gave the phone to me and said: "Kaki wants to talk to you."
I picked up the phone and on the other end I could only hear my mom telling me one thing "Wherever you are planning to go, make sure you don't smoke and you don't drink."
I told mom "Please mom, you know me. I am only 15. By the way, how do you know I am going out somewhere."
Mom replied "I am your mom. I know you. God be with you. He will help you." I thanked mom and disconnected the call.
I asked Vikash how we are planning to reach Kolkata. He took me outside and opened his garage. There was a beemer parked inside. Vikash belonged to a family of sportsmen. His dad used to play for East Bengal football club. His mom played nationals hockey and he is into Basketball. He told me that they have recently got this masterpiece from Germany, for his collection.
Vikash called up a friend and after 15 minutes, 2 guys came to meet us.
"Meet Sonjoy and Joy dada. they will help us reach Kolkata and back. They are the best." Without wasting another moment we got in the car. I was very tired as I woke up very early today so I decided to try to sleep. Sleeping in a car like a beemer is comfortable. Feels like heaven. It was about 3:00 PM when I woke up. We had already reached Kolkata.
Vikash told me that we have to meet Aarusha di first, so we went to the famed Coffee House of Kolkata. She was already sitting there when we reached. Vikash introduced me to Arusha di.
Arusha di wanted to know why after 4 years we were trying to investigate an incident which people seemed to have forgotten.
I told Aarusha di "The other day I happened to witness a basketball match, and observed that one of the kids had the same set of identical moves as one of the children from 4 years back."
Arusha di asked me "How do you know so much about basketball and the match?"
I replied "I have played nationals. During our training, we were shown video clipping of players with great style and one of those clippings was from that match."
Arusha di said "Ok then, you guys get on with whatever you are looking for. Let me know if I can be of any help."
She gave me her card and said "In case you want any help from the press let me know. I can do anything for this good looking charmer."
She looked at Vikash and gave a wink. Vikash got nervous at her attention, and without saying another word, we made our exit.
I looked at Vikash and said "Wow, charmer ha. Great work bro."
Vikash gave me a look and said to change the subject, "Come on let's go, we have to visit 2 different locations today."
We decided to visit the Jadavpur address first, and once done, I will call up Aamaya and get her father's address."
By the time we reached Jadavpur, it was about 5:00 p.m. We kept searching for the address, and finally, we reached our destination. Sonjoy was about to go inside the bungalow when all of a sudden a car parked on their driveway caught my eye. I told Sonjoy to stop the car and reverse.
Vikash asked me "What was wrong? " and I replied, "Trust me, please park the car outside, I need to check something."
Sonjoy parked the car on the other side of the road. I took Vikash's DSLR and zoomed it into the car parked on the driveway, took a click and then started to browse through the house to see if I can find someone else and there it was, Garima was standing on the balcony with a cup in her hand.
I told Vikash "This is the Banerjee, residence. I remember this car. I saw it in the morning. Their younger daughter is standing on the balcony look." pointing towards the balcony of the house.
Things suddenly became clear. Geeta Banerjee is none other than our Geeta. "I told Vikash, I think we can get the rest of the answers from Geeta once they are back in Purulia. However, there were still a few unexplained questions.
"Why did Geeta stopped playing basketball?
Why is Geeta been kept hidden from the rest of the world?
The other survivor was also from this household. Abhinu Banerjee. Who is he?
Where is he now?
The Middle-aged man who Aarusha di has met was probably Geeta's uncle. But why did he lie about the family's whereabouts? Is there more to it than what it meets the eye.
TO BE CONTINUED...