The Name : The Detective boys - Short story 1

 

It was late at night, may be around two in the night when they heard some sounds from outside. A commotion of some people perhaps trying to take away something. When Vimal Babu got suspicious, he had immediately got up and walked near to the window to peak outside. He could see shadows of two people and one person in body. By the time he raised an alarm, the two shadows ran while the third person could be seen taking away the particular steal for which they had come.

The only thing which Vimal Babu could hear was a voice, “Golok, chol palaa. (Golok, Come on Run)”. Vimal Babu couldn’t have a better view of that person. The only thing which he had known was perhaps a name “Golok”. They had taken away Vimal Babu’s most precious asset, his Bicycle.

Vimal Babu who was a resident of Kolkata since his birth, stayed in one of the houses which was located at Babu Bagan Lane, Dhakuria. He had been a teacher in one of the local schools. Now retired, he took tuition classes at his home. All his life, to commute to the school he had used a Bicycle which his wife had gifted him. The Bicycle was very special to him as not only did it last a life long but he felt an emotional attachment of nostalgic memory whenever he would ride it Though lately, the bicycle was not used much, but the Bicycle had seen better days and Vimal Babu never forgot to clean the bicycle every Sunday morning to make it look as fresh as it had been many years ago. Locals would tell Vimal Babu to sell off the antique so that they could use the space used for accommodating the bicycle for some other purpose. Once news about the theft of the Bicycle reached the neighbours, they visited Vimal babu to console him on his loss. Apart from his son, and daughter in law, Vimal babu also had a Grandson, who was referred to as “Poltu” He was fifteen years old and was studying in the final year of school.

Poltu was sad for the loss of the Bicycle. Priceless memories of his growing up years were attached with it. Though Poltu had consoled Vimal Babu, but he himself was not among the ones to keep quiet on the same. He knew his locality very well and would try to find out the culprit behind it, but the only clue which he had was a name, “Golok”.

Poltu since his growing up years cherished challenges, and if it was in the nature of a puzzle then it would turn out to be the cream over the cake. Poltu loved puzzles and his sharp mind had been tested with unlimited number of puzzles. Though what he was out to achieve was nowhere near a puzzle, but it challenged his investigative mind. Poltu loved asking questions. He was thought by his grandfather that you can learn the best by asking questions and subsequently introspecting the answers.

The year was 1994. There were numerous complains about theft and robbery in the nearby areas and also at Babu Bagan Lane, but those had been about money, jewellery and household accessories. The theft of a bicycle was the first of its kind.

The first thing that a medium heighted and rather healthy Poltu did was that he took a close look at the place of theft to identify any clue or belongings which the robbers may have dropped off. Standing at the spot where the Bicycle once stood, Poltu looked up towards his grandfather’s room’s window. Their house was surrounded by three more houses which had big gates. So, there was a chance that anyone from those houses may have seen anything. Poltu inquired with those houses but couldn’t get any more information. 

Poltu had a childhood friend who resided in the by lane behind their house. His name was Deep Das. They were friends since fifth standard. Though it couldn’t be said that Deep Das had any quality of being an intelligent boy, but he tried his best to match his friend Poltu.

“What would anyone achieve by stealing an old Bicycle which not even a scrap dealer would purchase?” This one question had kept Poltu busy over the next evening.

He wrote down the possible reasons for which a robbery takes place. Money, Jewellery, household items or personal envy. An old bicycle cannot fetch any good money. So, he wrote off all other motives and circled the personal envy point. Poltu didn’t want his grandfather to know that he was silently investigating the theft of the Bicycle.

Poltu was aware of Vimal Babu’s schedule for the last many years. Vimal Babu was majorly busy with his tuition classes and a walk in the park in the morning and in the evening. Apart from this, he hardly went out of the house. So, if there was any personal envy, then it had to be somewhere in the park or, in the tuition classes, thought Poltu.

Over the next few days, Poltu closely watched all the students who came for tuition classes to Vimal Babu. None of them matched the description which Vimal babu had given, though the description had been very sketchy. He had already inquired at the park whether there had been any scuffle involving his grandfather with anyone. So, his last option came down to the students at the tuition classes.

“Perhaps, one of them may have arranged for the robbery,” said a confident Deep Das to Poltu.

“Or perhaps, three of them may have personally carried out the robbery?” said a more confident Poltu.

In the meantime, Poltu gave Deep Das a task of inquiring with the scrap dealers in and around the Dhakuria area about a Bicycle.

Over the next week, Poltu personally spoke to many students from the tuition class on the pretext of some academic subject and tried to get some information. It was only during one of such session, when Poltu came to know that three students had stopped coming to the class.

“Since when?” asked an excited Poltu.

The boy informed that it was since some days that those three students had stopped coming. The boy further informed that Vimal Babu was not happy with their academic performance and had complained to their parents.

Poltu had a sweet smile on his face. He noted down the names of the students. Hiren Kumar Roy, Ashish Chaudhary and Omung Gupta. To his disappointment, there was no Golok in those names.

That night Poltu looked at the ceiling and was in deep thought. After continuously thinking deeply, suddenly he sat up and had a smile on his face.

Next day, Poltu and Deep Das went to the local school which was located near Dhakuria Railway station. The three boys studied at that school in the tenth standard. Both of them waited near an ice cream selling shop. As the last class got over, the school bell rang. This alerted Poltu and Deep Das. As they waited, the three students came out. It seemed that the three of them were good friends. As they started to walk, Poltu and Deep Das started to follow them. It was afternoon around 3.30 and in the by lane where they were walking was almost deserted.

Poltu asked Deep Das to do one act while he hid behind the nearby building pillar.

Deep Das shouted in a loud voice “Ae Golok,”. As he shouted, Hiren Kumar Roy turned around to find Deep Das. Poltu finally had a smile on face. So that night the third person who took the Bicycle away was Hiren Kumar Roy and two others were his friends.

Poltu didn’t go to the police. Rather he straight went to Hiren’s house and told the entire chain of events to Hiren’s parents. Hiren’s parents were enraged. Hiren finally revealed where he had hidden the Bicycle.

 That Night the old Bicycle stood its ground and Vimal Babu was a happy man.

“How did you guess that those three were behind the act?” asked a confused Deep Das.

“Initially when I came to know their names, I was disappointed as there was no Golok. But after giving a thought, I actually took me own example. Everyone knows me by my “daak naam” (unofficial) name, Poltu, while my actual name is Shoumik. So, it wasn’t difficult for me to guess that Golok was a pet name and not the actual name. In Kolkata everyone has two names, one is the “daak naam” i.e... unofficial name and the other one their actual registered named.”

Deep Das could only look at Poltu with wide open eyes.

Poltu looked at Deep and said “Stop staring with those bog eyes, we have more cases to solve dear.”