This place was not too complicated in term of directions, the most crowded place here; was bazaar. Mostly all the business enterprises or local vendors hoarded stuffs and provided services, kind of one stop shop.
Locating "Pyaasa" was not too difficult of a job.
I stepped inside; the smell of booze & food was all around. There were prostitutes, who were trying to squeeze some money out of drunkards. The ambience was different I would say. Lanterns lit, wooden tables, chairs laid as sitting arrangements. Wooden bowls were used to serve alcohol. Everything here had an ancient touch to it's core!
Two or three janitor kind of guys were cleaning the pukes & stains made by drunk fellows. One or two guys who made ruckuss got thrown away by some muscular dudes, they would surely be called bouncers in modern world.
But, the whole business structure was almost as same as any modern day bar would have.
It was a two storied building, the top floor would most probably provide lodging.
Infront of me there was a huge table and a rack behind, where alcohol jars were stacked up.
A burly man with dark complexion sat there, his eyes emitted a domineering aura. This was the aura of a man, who was surely a tough nut to be cracked, in precise. Just my assumptions...
The man sat behind the table counter, two other assistants were filling up bowls & serving alcohol.
"Are you Rehmat Ali?"
The man didn't even looked up, he was counting money in the counter. In a hoarse voice he replied,
"Who's asking?"
A straight shooter.
In a minute or two, I gave him the gist of his recommendation.
He looked at my face, with his sharp eyes. Then he spoke,
"What do you need?"
"Informations..."
"One question costs 1 gold coin. Agreed?"
The price is too steep for a normal person but money was not big of a factor for me here.
"Ok."
He made a hand gesture by asking me to follow him.
In a secluded room, we sat. It was like an office room for doing shady stuffs.
"What would you like to have, country wine or something exquisite?"
"Nothing. Let's get back to business."
"As you wish."
Rehmat chuckled to my words.
"My first question; which year is it according to the international calendar?"
I could have said english calendar but I don't know what he would understand, as I myself was not sure about how to ask him this question.
The man was bit puzzled to my question.
"Are you sure, you wan't to ask me this."
In a confident tone, I responded.
"Yes."
"It's your money, suit yourself. The year is 1422 according to the firingis (colonists) calendar."
And the answer shook me up. Holy fuck, I am 600 years back in time. It took me some time to understand these things that I was facing. So it was clear that I am not in the time period of the Brits. The redcoats will come 200 years later, give or take some years; to colonize us again.
If my knowledge doesn't betray me, I was in the time of the Portuguese colonial era in India. Damn, I am actually living the history. Archeologists would have killed to get this opportunity.
But, to confirm my hunch; I asked
"Where is their motherland?"
"Their originate from Portugal."
I was right, now to the next question...
"I wan't complete info on Madan Mohan Banerjee."
"It is a big info with part answers so it will cost more gold coins."
I gave him a 100 gold coins in advance & asked him to keep it untill it's finished.
With a grin on his face, Rehmat continued.
"Madan Mohan Banerjee, local landlords tax collector. A man with questionable character. Madan Mohan's more or less 48+ of age, on the other hand Maya Devi's 15 years younger to him. Madan Mohan married Maya Devi's fortunes and absorbed everything she had."
"Even after having a wife so beautiful, Madan Mohan maintains 2-3 official courtesans to satisfy his carnal desires. Still he searches for new women every time, when he has the urge to satiate himself. Plus, there are many incidents of him, defiling womens."
"He took a hefty amount of dowry from Maya Devi's father to marry her. As, the groom left her unmarried at the day of her wedding. In the name of averting ill omen Madan Mohan orchestrated this genuis off a plan to engulf her ancestral wealth."
"He didn't stop there he even influenced her younger brother in gambling & drinking to absorb the remaining property by fraud."
"The rumours goes on, as people say that Madan Mohan has killed Maya Devi's father & brother to subdue these incidents of deceit."
"Some people say, Maya Devi is innocent enough to not know the real perpetrator behind these incidents & the other half speaks of a vengeance that's been burning in her heart for a long time. But all of these are assumptions, rummors, it has not been confirmed yet."
Fuck, what a piece of shit he is. I should have killed him that day. But, still there's always time for correction.
"Okey. Tell me all about the zamindar (landlord) & the rest of his people."
"Surya Singha Chowdhury a man of his words. He's kind of a man who's ready to accept changes if that change would bring any good."
"Madan Mohan & his younger son Pralay Singha Chowdhury are both involved in betraying their landlord."
"Pralay Singha covers up Madan Mohan's for his misdeeds & in return he doesn't informs Surya Singha of his son's evil deeds like taking money from landlords coffer which was mean't for public welfare or tax to the king, colonist masters."
I was totally amazed at his info, this could be really helpful info's or he might be bullshitting me for money.
"How do you know all this? These info's may be wrong also! Who knows."
Rehmat smilled and said,
"This is not the first time, or the last time. People will try to verify my genuineness and then they will come back for more."
"Because one thing is for sure, Rehmat charge a lot but he's no scammer."
I was bit startled at the way he spoke, to ease it up I said.
"No, no it's okey. I was just asking, please continue."
"Madhubantilata Chowdhury, 28 years old. She's the daughter of Surya Singha Roy's relative. Her father was also a landlord. Due to constant colonist raids & the flood left her penniless & Surya Singha's door."
"Both of her father & mother passed away from these sad turn of events. Since, that time she's staying with them."
"Due to huge dowry demands, her marriage got postponed over & over. Nowadays she has stopped getting marriage proposal's too, due to her age."
"Amidst all of these, one night; drunk Pralay Singha tried to rape her. Due to Binodini Devi intervention, the demon got subdued that day."
"Binodini Devi's the wife of local landlord. She's a pious women; both the son's are apple of her eye. And that's also a reason why Pralay Singha Roy get's a free pass all the time."
"Aranyak Singha Chowdhury, the elder son. A man of knowledge, a patronage of literature. Writes novels, poems & stories in his spare time. He's an advisor to his father like the old nayeb Prabin Chandra Roy."
"Prabin Chandra Roy is the pillar to landlord's success. He's a farsighted man. Due to that our zamindars zamindari (lordhood) is still afloat."
"There are guards, sepoys (soldiers) & a lot of workers, employees employed at the lordship's place. They are inconvenient enough to be mentioned; what I said is the gist of the whole story."
"Anything else?"
"Tell me something that's interesting here & something I should be aware off."
Rehmat stroked his beard for sometime and continued.
"I don't know if it's interesting or not there's one arena at the end of the bazaar. It's a t1-t3 grade arena. Where you can bet on warriors or fight to earn money. They fight till death, I presume it will be somewhat interesting to you."
Fight to death plus betting. Another good source of income. Nice!
Rehmat continued after seeing that happy face of mine, it confirmed his gold coin.
"There are two faction of bandits fighting for territory, wealth and might. The bosses & the bandits are wanted dead or alive. They have a huge bounty over their head."
"Noshu dacoit (bandit) & Durgeshwari Devi Chowdhurani are having this conflict from a long time."
This Durgeshwari Devi Chowdhurani's name clicked my mind.
"Wait a sec..."
"What?"
"Is there any connection between Durgeshwari Devi Chowdhurani & Devi Chowdhurani?"
"Yes, but how do you know that?"
"I heard somewhere, I guess."
Rehmat was a smart fellow, so he didn't pondered long enough in that zone & continued,
"Devi Chowdhurani was her grandmother. She was..."
"Stop, you don't have to go there. Tell me about Durgeshwari & Noshu."
Basically Devi Chowdhurani was the wife of a landlord. She was deceived & betrayed when her husband died. Then she took up arms & became an infamous bandit queen marking her name in the history of Bengal. She mainly reigned during the mid of 12th century.
But, what history doesn't have is that, she had a child & a granddaughter who bears her name & might. Wow, that's a trivia for me. If someday I can go back, I'll definitely tell the world about all of these. I would definitely write a book.
"Noshu's father was in Durgeshwari's group. Due to insatiable greed, the man left the group to form his bandit group."
"At one certain day, Noshu's father assaulted Durgeshwari. She got badly injured & Noshu's father was killed with several of their members."
"From that day Noshu started attacking Durgeshwari's group to avenge his father."
"Ok."
"Is there any work, that would pay good money?"
"Yes, there's a board in my bar. Where various jobs are posted. Complete them & earn money from the one's that needed them to be completed."
"I would ask you to infrom the amethyst dealer whenever I need his service."
"Sure."
"I hope there's an auction house here, in this town?"
"Yes, there's one beside the grand arena."
"One last thing, I would like to rent the best room you have here for 7 days."
I gave him another 100 gold coins in advance.
Rehmat was overwhelmed with joy, as he passed me the key to my room.