Chapter 4: The Kailasa; Ellora Caves
The Kailasa; Ellora Caves: Designed to recall Mount Kailash, the abode of Lord Shiva – resembles a freestanding, multi-storeyed temple complex. Carved out of one single rock, and covers an area double the size of Parthenon in Athens. A metaphor for achieving a very difficult goal; finding something previously thought to not have existed e.g. finding Kailasa.
He had seen Billu Rani then. At the Royal Taj in Delhi. He wasn’t mistaken.Well, to be honest, one could hardly be mistaken about that jewel-like purple she had been clad in. To him, for that moment, she had looked like a column of purple flame, glittering. Burning. Catching his eyes, and keeping them trained on her. How could he have been mistaken about that? How was that even possible? It was as if his entire concentration... his being even, had been trained on her at that very moment. No. Billu was there. Arnav knew it. She had pulled her Cinderella Act, leaving behind her version of a glass shoe - the proof of her existence. The proof of it, the purple flowered fascinator still sat on his home office table. The Louis XV antique roll-top table that had probably belonged to his pseudo english great grandmother and now belonged to him. He smiled, wondering what she would have made of how callously he had treated it since it came into his possession. Arnav lowered the dark aviators over his expressionless eyes and turned to look at Aman. The young detective was trying very hard not to look at his lieutenant. As if he was a wild animal of some kind - a sudden eye contact might set him off. Arnav almost laughed again. Maybe someday he’d tell the younger man that it wasn’t such a big deal but now, terrorizing the young, newly minted detective just seemed like the thing to do when he had some off time. Aman couldn’t figure out what the detective lieutenant was doing with him, on the way to Lakshminagar, on a regular sweep - on his way to to check out on a possible suspect; the whore’s john. Why would the lieutenant come with him on something so menial? So trivial? So, in the way of the young, as was the custom, Aman had decided that it was about him. The lieutenant must not be happy with the way things were. With what he was doing. Therefore, the younger man was quite upset and very very careful around his mercurial boss. Brilliant man... but... he sighed, life wasn’t fair. Or else what would he be doing in the crosshairs of Arnav Singh Raizada?
Arnav looked on ahead, as the man beside him drove towards the little part of Delhi that if Aman was to be believed, Arnav wouldn’t even know, existed. He smiled to himself. Wouldn’t you be surprised Aman if you only knew. Then, they pulled in. Lakshminagar chawl. Arnav stepped down, bidding himself to think of now, instead of being lost in last night. In green, gold-tinged eyes. In what that might mean. What to say to her when he eventually tracked her down...
Then he heard it - Lucknowi urdu in the middle of Delhi? Arnav whipped his head around before he knew what he was doing- the hauntingly familiar husky melody making his eyes go wide in wonder. Was it... Could it be? “Oye ahmeq-o! Hamara pani kahan gayab ho gaya, oye bewaqufon ke Baccho? Pani chala do! Abhi! Warna...”
The threats came pouring out and Arnav didn’t flinch. Not once. He was transfixed. Here. In the middle of one of the poorer parts of new Delhi, stood the woman with green eyes streaked with gold. The woman who had worn a fortune in emeralds, and diamonds last night at the Delhi Taj. The woman who now stood wearing a cheap cotton suit in white and blue. The same woman (of which he was sure!) who had sixties inspired wave with a Phillip Treacy (yes he checked) fascinator perched on it. That same woman, who had been haunting his every waking moment (And his dreams too, but that he would never admit- even to himself- not even under threat of life) since the past three odd months. She now stood in the courtyard of the chawl shouting threats about doing grievious bodily harms to the men who had apparently cut off her water-supply. The dark, shiny hair that he had seen in waves, curls and styled before- was now hanging in a heavy looking braid down her shoulder, ending somewhere near her midriff. Her small oval face gleamed- glowed beautifully even now, her rose and ivory skin bare of makeup, she still transfixed him. As much as she had decked in silk. Even more so because, this.. this was just another facet of his Billu Rani - of that, he was very very sure. She flicked her braid away with a panache one would usually associate with the firecracker girl in front of him. Not a shade of the polished society diva stayed. Who was she? What was she?
He watched as she tied the pale blue dupatta at her waist, shaking her head as the flicks of hair fell into her eyes and on her forehead, as her scowl remained etched on her face, her emerald green-gold flecked eyes glinting in anger, as her hands rested themselves on her slim hips- and he still gazed transfixed. Arching an eyebrow, she waited for the one of the men to come down. When he did, she tore a strip off of him - language salty enough to make Aman blush, who Arnav noted, distractedly, was watching the beautiful girl rip the men a new one. The man, a hulking giant stood bashfully, scratching his head while Ms. Billu went on and on, hands arching gracefully, the glass bangles at her wrist tinkling with a particular glee. The sparkled in the watery sunlight. It just seemed so natural to Arnav that even he felt... shaken. Poetry in his heart, who would have guessed? She was a creature made up of smoke and glass, light and sparks. She was what poets would probably have written about when they envisioned goddesses. Arnav felt... compelled to be near her. To find her. Who would have thought that Arnav could have felt that way? Then she turned around, leaving the hulking giant behind her staring at after her like a lovesick puppy. Did she know the effect she had on men? Arnav noted her glance; a quick one - barely noticeable. Lips pursed with a naughty smile. Yes. She wasn’t a naive one, this firecracker of a woman. She knew exactly what was happening here. Damned if Arnav didn’t just like her all the more because of it! The water supply was soon turned on it seemed, and the girl came back with a dish of... jalebis? 5 points for motivational bonuses Billu, Arnav thought with a very wry smile. Not that her flashing smile, glowing eyes weren’t motivational enough but still... While the men dug in, she stood, lips pursed with a secret smile. As if laughing at the world. As if thinking that this was exactly as smart as men got. That there were none her equal. Only if Arnav could show her that there was. Now only if he could find out who she was? Arnav looked to find Aman watching her just as avidly. Maybe thinking along the same lines. Arnav shrugged. Well, not exactly, he grinned. He was quite sure that the shy Aman neither had the imagination or the bravery where women were concerned to think what Arnav had been thinking right then. He was about to making a laughing retort when he suddenly turned around to see - Billu was gone. Arnav looked around, turning on his heels in an almost 360 degrees turn - Billu was gone. He looked around, but in that crowded chawl, with people crawling all over the streets, she could have disappeared anywhere. The workmen too had moved on, before Arnav could have his chance to ask around about that elusive girl who had nearly driven him insane. Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! Fuck it all to hell! Not again! Fuck! He swore, violently, watching as Aman stood, blinking dreamily at the spot where Billu Rani had stood not quite five minutes ago. Cinderella act again. He growled. Idiot, he thought as Aman looked on, with a grin on his face. Arnav didn’t know why but that pissed him off - “If you are done mooning after the unsuspecting girl there Aman, let’s get going?” he asked pleasantly, causing the younger man’s face to catch on fire. He quickly nodded, stammering and ran after his superior. He wasn’t the only person looking at the beautiful girl, Aman thought, bewildered. For a moment, he had almost thought that ASR (as he privately called his boss) was human. Guess not, he shrugged. Most likely he was checking the perimeters. ASR’s taste in women was notorious. How can a simple girl from Lakshminagar compare? And... What a girl... Aman shook his head at his thoughts, smiling, strode after his long-legged boss.
Anyone who had lived as she had, probably would have found life at Lakshminagar a bit of a setback - if Khushi was in the mood for understating something, she could definitely say so. However... Khushi had found out that it was here in Lakshminagar that she could rest and retreat from the world. It was right here at Lakshminagar where she could hide in plain sight. The world could be wondering about the green eyed woman who had transfixed the heir to the Raina fortune. The languid beauty. They would never track her down here. Therein lay Khushi’s biggest advantages. Khushi lived here at the chawl (when the mood struck) with her Bua. Khushi loved her but sometimes she couldn’t help but wonder if the old woman was senile... or semi-senile. She couldn’t be that thick! She didn’t notice that her niece wasn’t who she said she was... Or was it that she had but pretended not to? Khushi didn’t know. Surely, surely it couldn’t be that easy? It always felt as if the Sword of Damocles hung over her shoulders - ready to fall any given time. Khushi shrugged the thought away. There was a lot to do before the inevitable happened. There was a lot she had to accomplish. A lot she would like to finish. Now was not the time to give into maudlin sentiments. Khushi would... “Titaliyaaaaaaaa!” ahh, Khushi shrugged, grinning. Buaji summons.
One thing Khushi always appreciated about her Buaji was how larger than life she was. No. She wasn’t talking about her weight (although she wasn’t a petite woman, bless her heart). Buaji was a woman whose voice boomed. She took big steps. Strode instead of walking. She served big portions and, Khushi thought smiling, had a heart to match. Khushi was capable of keeping Buaji in a far more comfortable position - better housing, prettier home, more money but, then she would have to tell her Buaji where the money was coming from, on her salary as a “secretary” to a rich woman. Khushi laughed. If she was honest to herself, Buaji wouldn’t really live anywhere else except for Lakshminagar. She had come here from Lucknow as a young bride of 17, and all these years later - this is where she felt most at home at. Khushi would never hurt her in anyway. Taking her away from this place would most definitely be so. So, Khushi just did what she could. Tried to make Buaji’s life a little easier everyday. More ration. Better fans. She had been gearing up to by an air conditioner but she was wondering how she would explain it to her aunt. Well, she shrugged, she’d think of something. Delhi summers were a killer. Her aunt (much as she would like to pretend otherwise) was not as young as she had been once. It was Khushi’s job to make her life easier. After all, she was the only one who had taken in the daughter of her estranged brother without a peep or a reprimand. She had raised Khushi with all the love in her heart. Khushi owed her her entire existence. Buaji was still calling at the top of her voice and Khushi skipped in, resembling the very butterfly her aunt referred to her as.
“Titaliyaaaaaaaaaaaaa!” her Bua was at it, she thought with a smile. What had gotten the easily excitable woman stirred up this time? “Yes Buaji?” Khushi smiled, eyes dancing, unable to quite suppress her glee. “Titaliya, go check what those ahmeqs are up to! The last time I went to the kitchen, the water was turned off! What are those idiots thinking, I ask you? Turning off our water. Why, I oughta...” Buaji was on a roll, Khushi thought with a private smile. Let her have her say. There were things being said about ungrateful, audacious wretches. About death. Dismemberments. About the might in one of her slaps. Khushi just stood and waited. Until the old woman ran out of steam. She huffed. Muttering about useless men of this era. Khushi decided to chime in before she started on again. “Buaji!” she butted in. “I spoke to them already. The water is back!” Her aunt geared back and looked at her. Smiling bemusedly. She went into the kitchen and turned on the tap, when the water rushed out she giggled. “You are a good girl Titaliyaa,” she happily proclaimed. “You do so much! Your abba would have been so proud of you...” she added sentimentally, not noting that Khushi had frozen. She probably would have said more had Khushi not decided to make a run for it. “Yes Buaji, thank you. Buaji, I will be in town tonight. Madame wants me to stay and do some work. Do you need anything? Ration? Soap?” Her aunt nodded, “No bitiya, you get going. I wouldn’t feel comfortable with you going there in the dark. I have so many serials on the new tv you bought for me! Time passes like that!” She snapped her stubby little fingers as if to demonstrate it. Khushi nodded distractedly at her aunt, and smiling, she walked out. There was a text in her phone. The number held her rooted, for a moment. Their message collector had found a new one, it seemed. Something about that particular message though, worried her more than she let on.
Y-Candies need moving. Ye? Nay? Answers needed today.
Khushi quickly texted back: “Nay”
Y-Candies. Crystal. It was a pretty well known fact that they didn’t deal with drugs. Why had they been approached? How had they found their message system? Theirs was not a well-known system. Infact, Khushi and NK had made sure that they were thought to be incredible remote. Then... how had they been tracked down? That too to move something they had never worked with. And... what bothered her more was, if they had found that much, how long before they figured out who Khushi and NK were? There were things she and NK had to figure out. Now. As soon as they could. Meanwhile, Khushi had to develop a new message system. Maybe she would finally give in to NK’s internet things. He would dabble. He would build. Khushi had full faith in that. He wanted to make a virtual message box that was virtually untraceable? He can do it this time around. Things were getting more immoral for them than Khushi had assumed. They needed to get off the grid again. That’s how they had remained safe for so long... and it was something that they couldn’t compromise on. Either of them. There was just far too much to lose with this. Drawing out her phone she dialled, “Where are you? I need you to pick me up ASAP! We have trouble. ” Khushi pulled herself together, and with a fake smile pasted on her face, walked towards Buaji again. Might as well chat with her to pass the time.
Arnav had just stepped out of a musty-smelling shack of a room on the third floor of the chawl, after he’d watched Aman terrifying the whore’s john into near-incoherence with unusual gusto. Well, he shrugged, making Aman think that he was not satisfied with his work helped here. He had just rolled his shoulders and whipped his Aviators out and was in the process of putting them on, when he saw the pale blue flash that he had been dying to see. It was her. Billu Rani.
She was almost running down the corridor- her face a troubled mask. He had just turned to follow her and pin her down this time, when he heard a loud voice call out behind them and he turned back. A heavy looking woman, with a traditional ghungat on her head and a sandal teeka on her forehead was calling out to... Billu.
“Arey O Titaliyaaa! Wapas kab ayegi, bitiya?”
He heard that husky voice answer in a loud- “KAL AAJAYENGE BUAJI! APNA KHAYAL RAKHIYEGA! BYE!”
His chest seemed to have heated up from the inside. Titaliya. He had been standing stunned for the past five seconds as the new name- the new facet of his emerald-eyed Mystery unveiled. And then it struck him. That Titaliya was racing away from him again. As always. He sighed... a deep breath and then, he followed. He saw her running out of the Chawl gates as he was on the first landing and sighed. It was time for ASR to follow. And with his skills kicking in- he bolted down the rickety stairs and leaped straight over the railing of the first floor and landed on his two feet, crouching down on the ground for half a second before getting up and racing after her- full speed. His eyes never leaving her form.
He had just followed her to the end of the street and turned when he saw her making her way to a Silver Mercedes Benz at the opposite side. He followed, cursing creatively and very, very colorfully under his breath. This was not going to happen again. Not Again! He had almost reached it- it was only a few feet in front of him, close enough for him to make out the Stewie of The Family Guy fame hanging from the rearview mirror of the Mercedes Benz E-Class in which his Billu... Titaliya had just disappeared. His eyes had already streaked to the number plate and his mind had already recorded it. This elusive woman was not getting away this time. Not if he could help it. Just then he heard that deep, amused voice- a dimly familiar voice, but not one he could place. “Come on then, Billu Rani! Let’s go!” And as Arnav Singh Raizada closed in on the passenger door of the car, it roared and sped away, leaving him cursing, again- as billows of dust blew up around him. He turned away, then. Frustrated, yet determined as ever.
“DL 01 AH 007.” He muttered, looking back over his shoulder as he dusted the dirt off his jacket and put on his Aviators again. I’ll get you, Madame Butterfly. He thought, and as he headed back to the chawl and to a waiting Aman, he found that he didn’t particularly care for the Man who seemed to be accompanying his Titaliyaa everywhere. Who was he? What role did he play in her life as a woman of... facades? There was a lot that he could draw a conclusion on. Plenty of it bad... dirty. That’s what his line of work meant. What made him a good detective though, was the fact that he wasn’t in the habit of forming sudden, proofless hypotheses. Arnav wouldn’t do it today, either. He just needed his answers. Whether the mysterious Madame Butterfly or Billu Rani liked it or not, he would find them with the tenacity of a bloodhound on scent. He would have them. Then, he would have her. If that had sounded too arrogant in his head, Arnav shrugged inwardly, he was Arnav Singh Raizada afterall. The name itself was entitled to it’s own arrogance.
If Aman had found it odd that his superior had sped off in the midst of an interrogation which he hadn’t been required to be at, then had come running back, sometime later, heedless of the dust on his very expensive jacket and dialling furiously on his phone, he didn’t let on with a bat of his lash. That endeared him to his boss, a little. Arnav was furious. He had been certain that all he would have to do was call his dispatch at the office and using that license plate number, he would have found the Man and through him, Billu. Easy peasy fucking lemon squeezy - he had thought. Arnav growled with frustration, and Aman sat up, a little... apprehensive. His boss’s temper, after all, was on a notoriously short fuse and he would have liked to be at least fifty paces away when it erupted -if it did. No... Arnav thought, frustrated, he should have understood it. With Billu things were never even remotely easy. What had made him think that this would have been an exception to that fucking rule? “DL 01 AH 007 is registered to one Rajesh Koothrapali,” the dispatch had told him in her singsong voice that Arnav didn’t quite like. Okay. If he was honest, had often found that it gave him the heebie jeebies. Arnav had blinked. Did he hear that... right? Rajesh Koothrapali? Arnav had asked cautiously. “Yes sir. Rajesh Koothrapali. An astrophysicist. Do you need his address sir? It’s 2311 N. Los Robles Avenue. Where is that sir? I can’t seem to recall such a street in Delhi... ” Arnav swallowed. A reluctant laughter. Fucking A! The fucking joker had used a character from The Big Bang Theory as his alias. The pathologically mute Indian character. Arnav was in the middle of a furious internal rant when the rational side of his brain sat up, and took notice of something very very interesting.
Something that Arnav should have noticed a long time back, if he hadn’t been so freaking enthralled by that creature he was sure wasn’t quite human. Because... let’s face it - no woman should have the ability to do to him what she was doing, without even knowing that he existed in her vicinity. That was dangerous. Therefore, in Arnav’s mind she was no mere woman - she must have been one of those mythical changelings they talked about in every mythology you read. Arnav shook his head to clear it. To focus. The realization. Arnav’s eyes widened as he took in the full meaning. If he hadn’t been this fascinated... he... Arnav swore. This was no game of Clue! If he hadn’t been so caught up in the thrill of the chase like a fucking dweeb being led around by his cock, he’d have seen this a lot earlier. Why was it that a woman would require that many faces? That many aliases? Why was her companion registering his car with the name of a fictional character? This... he realized, was no game. No.
This was far more serious than that. There was something wrong in this story of Billu. He meant to find out just what. Then.. he thought, a shark-like smile flashing - one that caused Aman to slide towards the very corner of the passenger seat of the SUV they were riding on their way back to the office - Then, he thought, a dark smile emerging, causing the other passenger to gulp and pray to the various Gods, then he would have his answers. Regarding the Man. Regarding Billu. The former would have to go, he knew. Arnav Singh Raizada didn’t... share. He clenched his fist as blood seemed to pound with a renewed rhythm through his veins, when her beautiful face flashed in front of his eyes again. Mine.
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