The Man at Hotel Paris Heights

 

The day was cloudy. Weather forecast channels had predicted that there would be heavy rains but the rains gods had decided to stay away for the time being. Under the cloudy sky, a taxi drove down to the gate of the hotel and halted. The driver pulled down the window and looked at the security. The security personnel at the gate looked at the passenger on the backseat. A middle- aged gentleman who weirdly sat down inside the taxi wearing his glares on, looked at the security personal and waved. The security personnel couldn’t understand as to why the passenger was waving.

“Got him from the Airport. He wanted to rest for some hours before he could catch his next flight,” the driver explained to the security personnel. The driver, Carlos, was a routine visitor to the hotel. He had a business contract to get tourist from the airport to the hotel for accommodation.

After the routine security checks on the car, the taxi was allowed to drive in. The drive from the gate to the hotel was around three minutes. Three minutes later, the taxi arrived at the hotel entrance. The passenger got down and paid the taxi and picked up his only luggage of a handbag. As he stood at the entrance and looked at the name of the hotel, he felt proud. He had heard a lot about the hotel and finally he was there. Hotel Paris Heights welcomed Charles Anderson.

As he walked up the beautiful stairs that led to the entrance of the hotel, a middle -aged attendant welcomed him by waving his uniform cap,” Good day, sir. Hotel Paris Heights welcomes you.” As he walked ahead, Charles was confused by the revolving entrance door. He still had his glares on. He looked at the attendant and smiled and continued, “These seems like the new ones. Last time I had visited a hotel at Amsterdam, they had those simple glass doors.”

“Let me help you, sir,” the attendant uttered as he pushed the door which revolved and opened the pathway to walk in.

As Charles was welcomed to a beautifully designed and brightly lit foyer, his mood changed instantly. He felt cheerful. The foyer seemed exactly like the one his parents had explained to him. He was taken to the reception desk by the attendant.

A beautiful lady looked at Charles and welcomed him with a three sixty- degree smile,” Welcome to Hotel Paris Heights, sir.”

“Hello Merlin,” Charles replied back instantly. He had already read the name of the female receptionist who welcomed him from the batch on her uniform.

Ten minutes later after the initial pleasantries, when the attendant left Charles at the reception, Merlin started the check in procedure for Charles. He was allotted a single bed room on the fourth floor of the hotel. Charles had requested that he wanted a room from where he could view a good part of the city at the night. As Merlin finished entering all the details, she finally arrived at the personal identity section.

“Sir, as part of the hotel rules, since you are a foreign tourist, we would like to have a copy of your passport and the tourist visa.” She informed Charles.

“Oh, yes. I know. This is same in all the countries, I guess. Last time when I visited the United -kingdom of Traquasia, they did ask for the same.”

A crack formed over her forehead. “United- Kingdom of what?” she said back.

“United- Kingdom of Traquasia. It’s a heavenly country in the north Atlantic.” Charles replied back as he searched for his passport in his handbag.

“Really?” she asked in a confused state.

“Ah. Here it is.” Charles got his passport and handed over to Merlin.

Merlin immediately held the passport and walked back to her workstation to input the details. Meanwhile, Charles looked around in amazement of the beautiful foyer. It seemed like a very busy hotel to him. There were crowds of people leaving and entering the hotel. There was a total of seven reception desks and he was at desk number seven.

“Sir,” Merlin called Charles from her workstation.

A happy and excited Charles looked back towards the reception desk.

“I am sorry to say but the country from where this passport has been issued doesn’t exist on our list and for that matter it doesn’t even exist on any of the hotel lists in France.”

“Is it so?” Charles shot back and continued, “Can you check in detail. I mean I have travelled to so many other countries before but never did I get such a query.”

Merlin nodded her head and this time she walked towards her manager’s workstation.

Charles looked at her as she spoke to her manager.

A minute later, a tall and well- built middle -aged man, whose uniform batch read, Jimmy Wills, walked towards Charles along with Merlin.

“Sir, I guess we have a little issue out here,” Jimmy said looking closely at Charles.

“Really. What? Now you are also going to say that the country from where this passport was issued doesn’t exist in your records.”

“That’s a fact, sir,”

“So now what’s the solution to this mess?” Charles asked looking irritated.

“Sir, you will have to wait in our guest room while we sort out this matter.”

“Fine. Where’s the damn guest room?” Charles held his handbag and was ready to walk.

As Charles was seated inside a guest room that was subsequently locked from outside, Jimmy informed his seniors about the unusual situation. While he spoke to his seniors, he held the disputed passport in his hands.

Within no time, the issue was escalated to the government officials. Two hours later, three government officials arrived at the hotel to inquire about the unusual guest. Jimmy and Merlin met them and handed over the passport.

The head among them was a fifty -seven -year -old veteran named, Roger Lesky. As soon as he got hold of the passport and looked at the country from where it was issued, he was alarmed and excited. “No way. This isn’t happening again.” Jimmy looked at Roger and asked, “What isn’t happening again, sir?”

Roger showed him the passport and pointed towards the name of the country. “Abyss Bay”

Jimmy couldn’t get him, and said “but there’s no country by that name in the entire world.”

“Thirty years ago, a couple had visited Paris from this same country. They had been caught at one of the tourist spots and held captive for some days. When the investigating authorities went to meet them at their room where they were held, they couldn’t find them. They had disappeared.”

“Disappeared? How?”

“No one knows. No one could know.”

“So, you’re saying that this Charles is going to disappear like that couple?”

Everyone looked at each other for some seconds until Jimmy suddenly turned around and made a run. Roger along with his team followed him. In no time Jimmy pushed open the door and hurriedly ran in. Behind him Roger and his team entered the room.

All of them looked around but to no avail. Charles Anderson was long gone.

“Thirty years ago, we didn’t have a close circuit camera but today we have one,” Roger said looking at the only CCTV that hung over the corner of the room.

 In no time the entire team was standing in front of the footage that was being played.

Roger very well knew it. He had investigated it thirty years ago.

As everyone looked at the footage, all eyes were shocked and surprised to the view.

Some time ago, while the government officials entered the hotel foyer, Charles just walked towards the window of the room. A strong light appeared and Charles disappeared in that light.

“What was that?” Jimmy looked at Roger in horror.

Roger smiled and looked back at the screen and continued, “Nothing son, that boy, Charles, had wrongly entered our universe. He is from a parallel universe in a different world where everything is same as it is in here with of course some additional futuristic events already taken place there. This keeps happening.”

Roger got hold of the passport and kept it in his coat pocket. He looked at Jimmy with a smirk and continued, “We have lots of such passports in our collection, dear. You see, sometimes they lose track and enter our universe thinking it’s theirs.”

 

The Lift

 

If there was anything that irritated Aniket about coming to work it was the office tower lift. The building had four lifts, all situated three meters apart from each other. What Aniket found oddly funny about the lift were the names given them. Gold, Silver, Bronze and Platinum as if the employees needed to earn their position to use a particular lift. But that was not what was the cause of irritation for him. In spite of having four lifts, all of them were supremely busy all through the day taking a hell lot of time to reach the ground floor or the top floor. Employees would use the lift for travelling from one floor to another and another set would then get in to come down to some other floor due to which the lift would reach the ground floor after almost an age. What added to the irritation were the ones who travelled by their private cars and after parking it in the building basement would travel by lift from either, B1 or B2, the two basement car parks level.

As Aniket stood there that morning waiting for at least one lift to reach the ground floor, he looked at all four closely. Just when the bronze lift reached the ground floor, the indicator showed the downward signal. The lift would go down first and then come to the ground floor again and then proceed up.

“That would take almost an age. I can have a nap during that time.” He joked to his Colleague, Vikas.

Aniket Joshi worked in the Data Analytics department of the company as an executive. In spite of being as young as twenty-three, he had jumped from being an intern to an executive at lightning speed. With exceptional Data analytics, Microsoft excel and power point talent, Aniket had become quite famous on the floor and regularly helped people with MS Excel formulas, Macros and his latest skills on Power BI. Having worked for one and half years with the company, he enjoyed his work and the company too, except the lift though. There was hardly any hiccup for Aniket during his one and half year duration at the company but off late his new reporting manager, Brinda Parekh was giving him some tough time.

Brinda Parekh was a twenty-six-year-old ambitious girl who worked as Data Analytics- Assistant Manager. Though she was quite good at her work and had earned praise for her contribution to the team, one aspect that stood as thorn for her was Aniket. It had become quite routine for Aniket to pin point lose ends in Brinda’s files and that too in front of the entire team during meetings. He would end up suggesting better methods and formula logics to get the desired results at faster and optimum speed. His exceptional talent in Advanced Microsoft Excel often made him forget that he was talking to his seniors and this trait of his had often put him in trouble.

“Never show your reporting head as wrong to others.” His colleague Vikas would suggest to which Aniket would hardly pay any heed.

However, being immature and inexperienced had its own cost and Aniket would often pay that cost by getting in the bad books of Brinda. That week too was no different. Aniket was working on an assignment for some five days and Brinda was continuously following up for the final file. Being the perfectionist that Aniket was, he never gave incomplete files. The assignment had two parts. One was preparing a MS-Excel working file from the huge volume of data that was extracted from the operations software and subsequently preparing a dynamic Dashboard presentation that would be presented to all the heads of the Data Analytics team. The assignment was important for Aniket as that would provide him an opportunity to be exposed to all heads of his department, from senior managers to VP.

Routinely, he would reach his seat by nine thirty and Brinda would arrive by ten. In spite of working till late night, there was still some patch work to be completed with the auto dashboard file. He looked at the time and it was 09.35. The meeting was scheduled for 10 30. He realized that he would easily complete the file by 10.00 but his headache was Brinda, who would arrive at 09.45 and ask for the files to be mailed to her. She would yell on him if he replied that he was still closing the loose ends. Shrugging aside his thoughts, he continued to work on the file at rocket speed without looking up even for a second. He looked at the watch and it was 9.40. He immediately called up Vikas at his desk.

“Vikas, Listen. Go to the lift and press all the buttons from 1 to 6 of all the lifts.”

“What? Have you gone crazy? I’m not going do such crazy stuffs for you?”

“I will make you a MS- Excel expert within a month. It’s a deal. Now please proceed.”

That was quite a lucrative deal for him. Vikas had his seat near to the floor entrance. He immediately ran out to the floor lobby and pressed for the first lift. It had just arrived. It opened up and people came out of it. He entered the lift and looked towards the floor security who were busy with sorting some keys in the key block of the floor. He did as was told as he pressed the buttons of the all the floors. He immediately walked to the next lift and did the same. The other one was on the fifth floor. He gave a run to the fifth floor and just managed to reach before it was about to close. He pressed all the floor buttons again. The fourth one had left the fifth floor and was approaching the sixth floor. He immediately ran up again to the sixth floor and waited for the occupants to empty the lift and then finally concluded his part.

At the same time, on the ground floor of the building, Brinda looked at all the lifts in extreme rage.

“What the hell is going on?” she uttered to herself.

“Why are the lifts so slow today?”

She closely observed that one by one all the lifts were halting on the fifth floor and then the fourth floor. She was terribly irritated. She looked at the stairs but considering that she had to walk to the sixth floor, she kept aside the idea and waited for one of the lifts to arrive at the ground floor.

The clock on the ground floor showed 10.05 and finally the first lift, Gold, arrived. But there were too many people by now wanting to get in and Brinda couldn’t enter as the lift had surpassed maximum carrying capacity. She waited for the next one and immediately got inside. Finally at 10.15, Brinda reached her seat. There was one Power point print out on the table and a pen drive with a note on it.

“All files mailed and also stored in the pen drive and power point print out kept on your table.

 Going for a quick coffee. Will be at the meeting on time.”

At the floor cafeteria, As Vikas filled in his coffee mug, Aniket had a 360-degree smile on his face.

“What’s the smile for?” Aniket asked as he sipped his coffee.

“The building lift isn’t that bad. Is it?”

 

Copyright(c)theshortstoryblog.

The Infatuation

 

Arnab Ray was extremely punctual when it came to having his daily lunch. He firmly believed that delay in having lunch impacted the productivity of the second part of the day and it was no different on that afternoon. The digital clock on his table showed 12.30 PM and it was almost lunch time. The official lunch time for the company started at one in the afternoon but due to shortage of space in the canteen, Arnab often reached the canteen five to ten minutes earlier. Arnab, who worked as deputy manager with the Claims department, was getting ready to proceed to the canteen when the landline phone on his table rang. He looked at the number of the incoming call and was immediate to pick it. It was the Chief Manager, Claims department.

“Yes, sir.” Arnab didn’t even wait to hear from the other side.

“Arnab. Listen. There is an internal transfer in our department. Though I know we are quite full right now but considering that Sakshi would be leaving for her maternity leave within a month, I thought it would be prudent to get someone in her place. The candidate would be coming from the Operating expenses department. Please do the needful and introduce her to Sakshi.”

Post the call, Arnab quickly reached the canteen from the third floor to the second floor through the stairs as the lifts were always late during that time of the day. An hour later when he arrived back at his desk, he saw a young lady busy talking on her mobile phone standing near to his desk. He waited patiently till she finished her call. She turned around and found Arnab standing. “Yes. May I help you?” She asked in an authoritative tone. A confused Arnab was out of words for a second.

“Actually, this is my desk.”

“Oh, Sorry sir. I’m extremely sorry. My name is Jagruti shah and I am an internal transfer from the opex team. I was told to meet you at your desk but you were not here so I stood here waiting.” She uttered non-stop. She seemed embarrassed to Arnab for being ignorant.

He smiled and said, “it’s ok. No issues.”

Without wasting time, Arnab took her to Sakshi who was one of the Assistant Managers in the Claims department. The Assistant Managers sat just a row behind Arnab. They walked to Sakshi’s workstation, Jagruti following Arnab.

Seeing the reporting senior approaching towards her workstation, Sakshi halted with the work she was busy with.

“Hi Sakshi. How are you doing?”

“All fine, sir.”

“Okay. Sakshi, meet Jagruti. She would be taking your place.”

Jagruti and Sakshi exchanged formal pleasantries.

“Jagruti, Sakshi would be going on her maternity leave from the next month. So, you have to take over from her. You have one month to learn things and get sorted out. Sakshi will help you settle down and in case you face any problems, you can connect with me anytime.

Jagruti seemed a sweet young girl to Arnab, perhaps too energetic and excited to be working in such a big multinational company. She came about to be confident girl to him. And of course, she was pretty. He was impressed with her neat and sharp corporate style of dressing and her body language conveyed positivity.   Moving his attention away from her, Arnab got back to his desk leaving Sakshi to handle Jagruti.

Jagruti found that the third floor was much more peaceful and calmer than the second floor which was extremely busy at all times of the day. She observed that the third floor consisted of three departments. The Claims department, the risk management department and the outsourced Information technology team hired by the company for implementing large IT projects. Another important aspect which she noticed was the fact that there were no cabins on the third floor and the floor lighting was bright unlike the second floor where the lighting was a bit dim and natural light was more prevalent due to the cabins where the curtains were kept tied up.  She felt relaxed compared to her time at the Operating expenses team. She found Arnab sweet and very helpful. Based on the initial conversations, there seemed no attitude problems with him and he spoke rather respectfully than being overtly authoritative.

Jagruti’s new profile involved work in relation to processing of Death claim files which she received from the branches all over the country. Her primary work included checking the supporting documents as per the requirements of the Standard operating procedure manual, putting out requirements for further documents to branches and the claimants, filling up the checklist for each individual death claim file and passing it to Arnab for his review.

One month passed away at a lightning speed particularly due to the quarterly closing review. Sakshi had left for her leave and Jagruti was now on her own. Over the next few weeks, Arnab observed that Jagruti was a quick learner and a very efficient one too. On a continuous review of her work, he found that she had grasped the work given to her exceedingly well. Further, she had some great inputs to improve the overall documentation of Claim files which she conveyed to Arnab. After consulting with his senior Manager, Mr Parekh, Arnab didn’t hesitate to implement those small little changes.

During this time as they worked together on daily basis, Arnab unknowingly got infatuated to Jagruti. Being a Bachelor at the age of thirty had its weakness and Arnab was very well feeling that weakness. He wasn’t sure about the reason for his feelings. Was it her looks or was it her confidence or her positivity? He wasn’t sure at all. He started to give special attention to Jagruti. They regularly had coffee at the floor mini- cafeteria which slowly became a daily routine.

“So, Jagruti. How are you finding the Claim department?” asked Arnab one evening during their routine coffee break.

“It’s quite interesting, sir. But looking at the papers and files of people who have passed away is stressful and depressing. I don’t know how Sakshi did it.” Jagruti would regularly look into his eyes talking to him which made him a bit uncomfortable.

“I can understand. But if you look the other way, you are doing an important work of ensuring the family members get the insured amount correctly.” Arnab was always good at encouraging his junior team mates and it was no different with Jagruti.

As the days passed, they started to have lunch together with other team mates and Jagruti always sat near to Arnab and shared her food with him. Some days, she would bring his favourite Gujrati snacks from home made by her mother which Arnab would cherish for the rest of the day at his desk. Unlike earlier, Arnab had started to sit late to help Jagruti with her work. They had late sitting coffee and snacks and many a times even dinner. Some weeks later, he started to drop her home in a private cab.

By now, Arnab and Jagruti were even connected on Facebook and they chatted non-stop on Whats App. Jagruti would like and comment on every post of Arnab on social media and Arnab would reciprocate the same way. It was a surreal feeling for Arnab. He enjoyed his work much more than before and his performance too had risen when it came to meeting deadlines.

Six months passed and by now, Arnab and Jagruti performed exceedingly well along with other assistant managers. Arnab’s mind had by now presumed that they were more than colleagues, perhaps very good friends. He enjoyed the work place more than his home and on high work pressure days, he would come even on the weekends to finish off work.

A month later, Arnab again received a call from the chief manager of his department.

“Arnab. Listen. That girl, what’s her name? Yes, Jagruti. The year end closing is coming and the Finance and accounts team needs someone who has had a prior experience in operating expenses accounting to help them out so that the seniors can concentrate on other critical aspects. Why don’t you release her for two months and then she will be back to your department? “

Arnab was silent for some time. “Sir, but we have load here to close the files?”

The chief manager was silent for some time. “Arnab. I will arrange two juniors to help you out for two months. But we will have to let her go for two months. Okay. Please make the arrangements”

“And yes. Don’t tell her that this change is for two months. That will make her disinterested in the new work. Tell her that it is as a part of inter department shifting based on resource requirement.

“Right, sir.” He kept the phone down almost heartbroken.

Arnab didn’t inform Jagruti about the proposed change at office. He messaged her in the night on Whats app.

“Got a call from the chief manager. There has been a requirement in the Finance and accounts department. They have selected you to join them.” He wrote without informing that the transfer was for two months.

“Ohh.”

“From when?” she replied back rather lamely.

“Next week.”

“Okay. No issues.

“And what about the work I am handling currently?” she asked inquisitively

“Two juniors will be provided to us in your place.”

“Okay.”

They didn’t speak much that night.

Within the next three days, two juniors from the Revenue department joined Arnab. Jagruti handed over everything to the two juniors. That day, she was quiet at the coffee meeting. It was the same even during the lunch and evening snacks time. Arnab could understand her dilemma but he made her understand that it was the very way that corporates functioned.

Jagruti joined the Finance and accounts team early next week. The finance and accounts team were on the second floor. She was back on the busy floor away from the peaceful third floor. On extremely busy days, she could see people running around from one person to other. On other days, when all the cabins are occupied by the top management employees, everyone from the departmental AVP to Finance controller would be in a different and extremely serious mood as if it was the last day on earth.  As Arnab was unable see Jagruti, he sometimes went for a stroll down on the second floor and found her extremely busy.

That weekend, he messaged her on Whats App.

“Hi. How is life?”

There was a very delayed reply and that too a cold one. “Going on. A bit busy. Will catch up with you later.”

Looking at the message, he nodded his head with a smile. He didn’t reply back.

That Sunday, he put up a picture of his on Facebook wall. Generally, Jagruti would like his posts and pictures within ten to fifteen minutes after being uploaded. To his surprise that Sunday, neither there were any comments from her and nor did she click the like icon on his picture.

Weeks passed and Arnab got busy with the year-end closing. He never received any message from Jagruti. She stopped having lunch with him or his team anymore. One day, he saw her having a late lunch with the Finance and accounts department – Manager, Manav Kohli.

Though in his career of five years in Corporate, he had been through almost everything possible but what was happening with him currently was something he had never experienced. It was a new learning for him. He thought from Jagruti’s point of view and realised that there was nothing wrong with her behaviour considering that she was only twenty-five years in age. Perhaps she felt pressured or perhaps she thought that it was the way it worked in the corporate world. He felt ignored.

Shrugging aside his thoughts, he concentrated on his work along with handling the two juniors assigned to him. The year-end closing ended and Jagruti was informed by the Finance and Accounts team to move back to her previous department.

A confused Jagruti suddenly got tensed. She immediately thought about Arnab and how she would face him. All this while she had ignored him badly. That night she consulted with her friends working in other companies about her current dilemma. Everyone had a different take on the situation and it confused her more. Finally, she decided what she had to do.

Around 11.30 that night, Arnab received a message on Whats App.

“Hi, sir. How are you?”

Fifteen minutes later when Arnab looked at the message, he had a three sixty-degree smile on his face. He was waiting for this moment. He didn’t reply back and it made feel great.  He did reply but only the next morning during his travel.

“Hi, Jagruti. Good here. How are you?”

Jagruti informed him about the transfer aspect and Arnab welcomed her back. But the conversation from his side was kept strictly professional. Jagruti joined back to her position at the claims department and started to report to Arnab. Over the next few days, Jagruti observed that things had changed now. Arnab only spoke about office aspect with her and that too concerning only their department.

“Sir, coffee?” she asked one evening.

He looked silently towards her for some time and looked straight into her eyes. That look said a lot to her. She didn’t ask again and walked away alone to have coffee. They neither did have lunch together anymore. Though she enjoyed her work, but Arnab’s coldness towards her disturbed her greatly.

Finally, it was that time of the year when annual appraisals had to be done. Every reporting head had to convey the ratings for their team. Arnab had waited for this moment so badly and Jagruti somehow had to make up with Arnab to get a good rating. Both of them had different motives.

 That Friday, the rating windows on the company’s performance reporting software opened up. Arnab didn’t log in to his window until his entire team was gone for the day. Around eight in the evening, Arnab finally gave the ratings for his team. He was particularly happy to give it for Jagruti.

Jagruti didn’t have a great weekend. She was tensed and disturbed. She wanted a promotion very badly as most of her friends were promoted to the next level. She very well knew that she was childish in her behaviour. She realized her mistake but guessed that it was too late. Her nine months would almost go uncounted. She was currently at Assistant Manager level 1 and there were two levels more before she could become the Deputy Manager. She thought that the results of the rating would only be released fifteen days later and till that time she had to go with flow.

Fifteen days later, one Monday morning, when Jagruti reached office, she checked on Arnab’s desk. He wasn’t there. There was a company envelope on her desk. She opened it and was about to almost faint. It was a promotion letter from the head of department. The letter informed her that she was promoted to the Assistant Manager level 2 (AM- Level-2) which meant she will have her own team of executives to work with now. She kept her bag on the table and immediately walked to the HR department in which she had a known friend.

“Archana, can you tell how much rating I was given?”

After checking into the reports, she shot back. “Wow. Ten on ten.”

“What?” Jagruti was shocked.

“Who gave it?”

“Who else? Your reporting senior, Arnab Ray.”

Jagruti walked back searching for Arnab on the floor but she couldn’t find him. She reached her table and looked at his desk. It was still unoccupied. Arnab didn’t come back at his desk. It was clean, tidy and arranged as always. The PC and keypad were covered with a black cloth. She read her promotion letter again and felt ecstatic. While she kept the letter back in her bag, her mobile phone buzzed. It was a SMS from Arnab.

“Congratulations. You got your promotion for your work and dedication and nothing else. On the work front we both have excelled. Keep up the good work and carry on. And by the way, I have been promoted as Manager – Claims. So, you will have a new reporting head. Take care”

A second later, she received another SMS from him that got a smile on her face.

“And yes, we will keep meeting on the floor. All the best”

A smiling emoji ended the SMS and also the one-sided infatuation.

Nostalgia

 

There was nothing new to the last day of the month. It had always been the same for the last eight years for Kazuki Tanaka. Sharp at six in the evening, Kazuki stepped out of his office. His month end pay check had already been credited in his bank account some one hour ago. He hurriedly walked towards the Tokyo Station from where he would take the JR Chuo Rapid line train to his home situated at Kichijoji. As he stepped into the train and got a window seat, his thoughts travelled back into time.

Kazuki Tanaka was born to a middle- class Japanese family. Both his parents worked in the electronic goods industry so they had to go out for work while Kazuki was kept with his aunt. After their working hours, Kazuki spent the entire evening with his parents. When he joined school, he would spend enormous amount time with his friends after school and reach home around the time his parents would be scheduled to arrive. 

A bright student in his school, Kazuki’s father wanted him to study engineering and hence would make sure that he got good marks in his school so that he could get into a good college for his higher education. As was planned, Kazuki ultimately ended up joining an engineering college. Like his school, he made great friends at his college too. In their free time, they would walk out to explore the developing city of Tokyo at that time.

 As time went by and as Kazuki kept passing level after level in his college, he got busy with his studies and internship. Kazuki had managed to secure a good internship in the Toyota Engineering Company. He was exposed to a new world and in between his studies and managing work, Kazuki hardly could find time for his friends and family.

Time passed by, years also flew by as Kazuki finally passed his engineering and got a fabulous placement in one of Tokyo’s most promising futuristic companies. As the Company was a developing one, there was tremendous work pressure as Kazuki managed the core product engineering section. 

In between everything, Kazuki got married to girl who was the daughter of one of his father’s friends. As years passed by and Kazuki got promoted and led a very happy family life, he realized he missed something very much and that was the reason that he waited for the month end so eagerly.

That evening, as he recollected all his memories sitting in the train to Kichijoji, he was excited because it was the last day of the month and on the last day of every month, he followed a ritual since the last eight years.

As he reached home, he told his wife and two daughters to get ready with their favourite dresses. “Not again, father,” one of the daughters who was busy with some school home- work commented.

By late evening, Kazuki along with his family were back in the train to Tokyo. At around eight thirty in the evening, they reached the spot where they would visit each month end. It was a small eating outlet named, “Tokyo Corner”. It was a forty- year- old outlet with no other branches in the entire country. It was known for its authentic and traditional Japanese food. It also served some authentic continental and Thai food.

Kazuki got his favourite seat in the outlet that he had already reserved by calling the owner in the afternoon. As the waiter got all the regular items which Kazuki had ordered, he got excited like a small little boy. After all it were those same dishes that he had cherished along with his parents when he was small and young at this same outlet. His parents would take him to this outlet every month end after they would get their pay check. All the dishes that they would eat in those years were chosen by his mother.

That evening, as the dishes were laid down on the table, Kazuki looked at each of them like a small little boy. They all looked the same as they did then. He closed his eyes, and he could see his parents. It was some eight years ago when they had passed away due to some age -related issues. As he finished praying and they started to eat, the first taste of the food took him back to nostalgia. It tasted the same as then when he had eaten those dishes for the first time sitting along with his parents. 

As he slowly cherished each of the food items, chewing slowly and enjoying the taste, his wife looked at him and smiled. She would wait for the month end to see her husband revisit his childhood memories. She knew that it was never about the food but about the memory. It was about the nostalgia of going back into time to meet his parents through those same dishes which he had cherished along with them during his growing up years. The taste and the feeling transported him back to time as if he had time travelled to relive his growing up years. It was about meeting them in the memories through the food. His wife very well knew that the food outlet was the most memorable part of his childhood and hence Kazuki would take his family there every month end in the same way his parents had taken him there.

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The Thief - The Detective Boys - Short Story 9

 

It was surprising to many in the neighborhood. It was the first of its kind, especially in the Babu Bagan Lane. The neighbors had gathered all around. Everyone kept looking at the object of the surprise.  Anil Dutta was a resident of Babu- Bagan- lane for the last one month. He had shifted from the north to Dhakuria as his office was located nearby. But little did he ever wonder that he would have to go through this day. The entire external pipeline of his house had disappeared overnight. It was a house without external pipeline connection which was earlier attached to the backside wall. It had baffled the neighbor to no ends as they had never seen such a situation where pipelines to a house disappeared overnight.

The irony about the disappearance was the fact that when asked about the pipeline, people had hardly noticed it in the first place.

“Who would observe a pipe or a pipeline structure?” was the reply given by locals who often walked by the house.

So, the question in the first place was “whether there was a pipeline in the first place?”

Anil Dutta seemed amused by the question not because of its presence but rather due to its logic.

“How can there be a house without any external pipeline which would take the unwanted water outside to the drain below?”

Ritwick wasn’t amused. For him anything was possible anywhere as long as humans are existing on the planet. So, the first question was about the existence of a pipeline.  The drain below the house was dry when investigated by Ritwick and Deep Das.

“If there was a pipeline where did the water go?” asked a bemused Deep Das.

“Does that man even live there?” Deep Das looked confused asking the question.

Anil Dutta’s house was located at the start of Babu- Bagan- lane. The one storey house was previously occupied by many tenants over the years and also a bachelor who had left abruptly without informing the neighborhood.

Little did anyone know about that bachelor except the fact that his name was Kanak Ray and Ritwick had inquired about him, the house and its owner. The owner lived far away in the north of India and would rent the house through a local agent.

The Disappearance of the pipes seemed to be a hyped matter to Ritwick. It could be that a local thief would have simply cut the pipes and ran away. But to Ritwick it seemed something else, something planned in advance.

He did a recce of the house and the area surrounding the house. On a lazy Sunday afternoon Ritwick and Deep Das took a walk down the backyard of the house. They tried to look for clues which would help them clear their confusion. It was on that lazy afternoon that Ritwick observed something unusual. Two tiny little items which seemed to shine beyond normal limits.

“This is a diamond!” exclaimed the jeweler who checked the two tiny items. Ritwick and Deep Das were perplexed, shocked and full of anxiety. Deep Das had never seen a diamond before and hardly did he realize that diamonds looked as they did in those hands.

Though no one had complained about the theft of the pipeline, it seemed very unusual for Ritwick that Anil Dutta wasn’t much interested in the taking the matter further. Ritwick’s grandfather had known the real estate agent who would give his services in and around the Dhakuria locality.

“Do you know Anil Dutta personally or did he connect with you through some acquaintances?”

The agent seemed jovial and unaware of the purpose of Ritwick’s inquiry. He cared the least.

“Anil da had approached me saying that he had come to know of me through one of his friends”

“Did you ask him about that friend?”

“Why should I as long as I am getting business?” replied the agent in a more jovial tone.

“Yes, but one thing I remember that he himself asked me about that address in which he is currently residing, as if he already had made his mind to stay there. It seemed odd but I didn’t care.”

Ritwick introspected the information obtained from the agent.

“What about the previous tenant, Kanak Ray?” asked Deep Das.

“I personally didn’t meet Kanak Ray as I directly deal with owners but I had heard he had disappeared one fine day and one more information the owners had given me. That man Kanak and some his friends had got involved in some crime at that time and hence the owners had warned him to leave the house after paying the rent but he disappeared.”

In the by lanes of Mukherjee lane, there was an old scrap dealer who had a collection of clippings of the newspapers of the last twenty five years. Ritwick and Deep Das didn’t waste much time and checked the clippings of the year 1986.

It was Deep Das who caught the news article and also picture on that article. Both Ritwick and Deep Das were stunned. Humans do have a short memory. The news article dealt with a news about a diamond robbery at a wealthy person’s house which was located at Jodhpur Park locality, some ten minutes from Dhakuria bus stop. The image of person in the news was that of Kanak Ray. The news article stated that when Kanak Ray was arrested, they couldn’t recover the diamonds and had to let Kanak Ray get off. After that Kanak Ray disappeared from the city not to be seen again.

Ritwick and Deep Das couldn’t control their anxiety. They didn’t waste time and went to Ritwick’s grandfather who in turn contacted the local police head.

It was the evening of twenty second December 1998, three days to Christmas. While the city was getting ready for Christmas that evening, there was a raid at Anil Dutta’s house. Anil Dutta was arrested.

Anil Dutta was the same Kanak Ray who had disguised himself and got into the city. Ten years ago, he had hidden the Diamonds at a secret spot on the side of the pipe and closed the lid. The spot was created in such a way that it wouldn’t be impacted by the flow of water.

That night, he had got his diamonds from the same spot but he was seen by one of the locals who had been standing at a first storey balcony of the nearby building. As it was dark the native couldn’t see the face.  After mid night, Kanak Ray again walked back into the backyard and uprooted all the pipes and made a false story of his pipes getting robbed.

“How did you know that something was wrong?” asked Deep Das.

“The witness who had seen Kanak or Anil Dutta was none other than me dear but I didn’t see the face and neither could see the diamonds. Next morning when Anil Dutta broke the theft story, I felt something was surely wrong.”

“But why did he wait ten years?”

“Because if you remember, that house was occupied by other tenants during that period. When he came to know that it was free, he contacted the agent and got the deal.”

 Deep Das looked at Ritwick and said, “God knows when will I also solve a case on my own.”

 

 

The unexpected guest

 

The sound from the television filled the other wise silent room. Its only current occupant, Yamato Sasaki, sat watching the day end news surfing around the various news channels. His wife and his son were already to bed. It was around eleven thirty in the night. Mr Sasaki continued to surf channel after channel to get a hold over the important events all around the world. Working in equity research for the last fifteen years had made him realize the importance of global news from all around the world that would have an impact on the next day stock market indices.

It was only ten minutes later when he finally settled on a channel and listened to the host with utmost interest. At exactly five minutes to twelve, the door- bell suddenly rang bringing back Mr Sasaki’s attention out from the television news. He looked at the watch and found it surprising that someone would come to his door at that point in time.

He stood up and before walking towards the doors, clicked the mute button  on the television remote. He walked hurriedly and opened the door. He was astonished, partly shocked but majorly surprised looking at the person standing outside the door.

“Uncle?” he said surprisingly.

“Hi Yamato,” the man called Mr Sasaki by his first name.

Yamato had almost gone blank looking at the person. He was the last person on the planet he had ever imagined to see standing outside his door at mid night.

“What happened uncle? Is everything alright?” Yamato asked inquiringly almost forgetting to let the person come inside.

“Nothing, Son. I just came to say sorry to you and your wife.”

“Uncle?” Yamato said.

“What happened uncle? Why are you saying all these things?”

“It has been my fault all these years, son. In the greed of the family property, I went to court against you and your wife. I shouldn’t have done it. Forgive me, son.”

At that brief moment, the last fifteen years almost floated around in front of Yamato’s eyes. The person who had visited him that night was his father’s brother, Mr Hashimoto Sasaki. After his father’s death, there was a property dispute among the family members. Due to this, Mr Hashimoto had filed a case in the court against Yamato and his wife. The court case continued for years and was still pending to be concluded.

Yamato went silent for a second. “Please tell me that you have forgiven me, son. I have made all the arrangements to withdraw the case. You will not have to go through all this anymore.” Hashimoto said.

“Yes, Uncle. You don’t have to say all this. I have never had any ill feeling towards you.”

Suddenly, a voice appeared from behind Yamato. “Who is it there Yamato?” his wife, Akira spoke as she walked towards the door.

As she saw the person standing outside, she was surprised and shocked.

“Akira, I have come here to apologize for the court case that I had put against you two. I made all the arrangements to withdraw the case. You don’t have to worry now. Have a peaceful life ahead.”

“Uncle, please come inside. We will talk inside.” Akira said looking at Mr Hashimoto.

“No. I am in a hurry. I have to leave. I had come here only to meet you two once. I will leave now.”

As Yamato and Akira looked on, Mr Hashimoto walked towards the lift and got into it.

 Yamato closed the door. Both, he and Akira walked inside towards the drawing room. Both were just about to come to terms about the visit when the Yamato’s cell phone buzzed.

He looked at the caller.  It was his brother Keigo calling. “Why is Keigo calling at this hour?” Yamato said looking at Akira as he attended to the call.

As Akira looked at Yamato while he spoke, she observed his eyes turning almost in shock.

“What are you saying, Keigo?” Yamato uttered shockingly looking at his wife.

“What happened Yamato?” Akira asked.

Yamato held the phone, and looked at Akira “Keigo is saying that Hashimoto uncle passed away today night at ten.”

“What?” a shocked Akira couldn’t find any other word to utter. She looked at the watch. It was around 12.20 in the night. It was only some time back that Hashimoto uncle was standing outside their door.

She walked towards the intercom and pressed the security number.

“Security, was there a visitor to our flat sometime back?” she asked while she looked at Yamato.

A second later she kept the phone down. “The security informs that there was no visitor.”

 Both Yamato and Akira look at each other.

At that moment, as Yamato continued to hold his cell phone and Akira sat down near the intercom, they both realized that it was the last goodbye visit from their uncle’s soul to finish the only incomplete thing in his life before his soul would leave forever.

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The Fraud

 

The stylish fountain pen held by the accountant stopped on the line item that gave the comparison in between budgeted and actual expenditure with respect to employee conveyance reimbursements. The variance was substantial and the accountant didn’t miss it. Almost a variance of more than 55 %. That was material and needed some explanation to be provided to the financial committee of the Company. It was not every day that significant variances were observed in employee conveyance reimbursements.

The Accountant, Mr Patel, looked at the detailed sheet that was attached for the monthly employee conveyance reimbursements. He observed that the first three months were in with the monthly budgets. The significant variance started from the fourth month and as the months passed the gap increased. Mr Patel couldn’t understand the reason for the same.

Every year, the budgeting team made annual and monthly budgets based upon business expectation and related cost. Employee related costs were budgeted based on head counts but the expense head of employee conveyance reimbursements generally never showed any significant gap in comparison to the budgets.

Mr Patel asked for the detailed employee wise monthly report for conveyance reimbursements. Over the next two days, he went through the report in detail. He observed that three employee who were at the post of managers in various departments contributed to the significant varinaces. He highlighted the three names.

His next stop was the supporting bills which were provided by those three employees whom he had marked out. Over the next week, he received the files in relation to the supporting back up document for the reimbursement claims. After in depth review of the supporting nothing seemed out of order to him. All the supporting were properly marked and signed by the concerned employees. Proper authorization was also present on all of them.

Concluding that perhaps, he was overthinking, he closed down the files. He looked at the variance sheet once again. Almost everything seemed fine except the employee conveyance reimbursements. Mr Patel decided that before he would give the final go head for the variance to be included in the finance committee meeting, he would do a on field walkthrough.  

He noted that majority of employee claimed reimbursements for either cab rides or routine bus and rickshaw rides. The next section of employees claimed reimbursements for their car fuel. For these fuel reimbursements, the bill from the fuel station was submitted. Mr Patel had checked all the fuel bills for the employees where in varinaces were observed and found nothing exceptional.

Over the next three days, he made a on field walkthrough on the process of authorization and checking the conveyance reimbursements which didn’t reveal any malpractice. Finally unable to get any lead, he finalized that it was time that the variance report be approved and included in the docket of the finance committee meeting.

That morning when he arrived at office to give a final approval, he got down from his car and met Mr. Sharma at the car park.  They both wishes each other and walked together from the parking lot to the lift. As Mr Patel arrived at his workstation, he sensed something. He recalled to see something which was important but couldn’t link it.

He walked to the floor cafeteria to get a quick coffee. As he sipped his coffee, he sprang up from his chair. He hurriedly walked to the files which contained the supporting bills of the reimbursement. He turned them abruptly until he arrived at the employee which he seeking to. He looked at the bill and then recalled what he had seen in the morning. A smile appeared on his face.

He quickly ran through the bills of the other two employee who had shown significant variance in reimbursement. He took a copy of the bill on his mobile and quickly walked out of his office to the parking lot. After searching for some fifteen minutes, he found what he was looking for.

That evening, Mr Patel sat at his workstation with all the bills of the three employees. He called them to a nearby conference room.

The three employees, one of which included Mr Sharma included, arrived at the conference room and saw Mr Patel and the company’s internal auditor sitting.

Mr Patel kept the bills in front of them to which all three agreed that it was submitted by them.

“But what’s the problem? These are original bills.”

Mr Patel showed the fuel bills to the internal auditor. It was original ones. Each of the bill had the car number and fuel type and amount handwritten by the fuel station person who had fueled up the car.

Mr Patel looked at the bills and looked up at Mr sharma.

“Mr Sharma. You have been submitted a bill of Petrol reimbursement for the last nine months.”

“Yes,” Mr Sharma replied confidently.

“But the car number that is mentioned here. I checked it in the parking lot. It’s not a petrol car. It’s a diesel car.”

Mr Sharma went silent.

“The same is for the other two of you.

“You three have been submitting petrol bills for the last nine months when actually all three of you have vehicles that run on diesel. You three surely have taken advantage of the rising petrol prices to your advantage it seems.”