Utopia page 45: Three stars to separate thought processes

NEXUS

Patil emerged from Aurther Jail. He was clean shaven, appeared partly tired. This day, he was no longer a DCP, Mumbai but was, an ex jail convict with a chequered past. Where was his beloved wife Leena, sweet daughter Monisha, where was his sprawling bungalow at Colaba, where were his flats at Ghatkopar and Andheri?? He had lost every material thing in his life.

While coming out from the jail, he asked for a cigarette from the gate sepoy. He badly needed one. The sepoy did not have cigarettes on him but had bidi. The sepoy was surprised that the one time famous DCP who had all the power and the luxuries of the world, had to bend down to the lowest rung for a puff.
*****
Once upon a time, DCP Patil was a terror amongst the ruffians, touts, rouges, dadas and dons of Mumbai and the suburbs. His name used to cause shimmers amongst all donning the underworld and indulging in nefarious activities. Patil was tough and shrewd and had the immaculate hawk eye for details. He was very popular amongst the professionals and had a meteoric rise in his fifteen year old career to become the youngest DCP.
This was years back…
*****
Salim Khan, a small time underworld don, knew everybody had weaknesses and could be purchased at any cost. Salim had to find a way and he found the same. He found out that Patil had weakness for imported scotch whiskey and lavish parties. YES, Salim would make sure that Patil melted away with the best of scotch which money could buy. Scotch would flow like the water in the Methi River at the party...
*****
Soon he had the opportunity to meet Patil at a wedding reception…
“Saab, how are you? I have a request. Day after tomorrow, Thursday, is my son’s birthday party at the Oberoi Towers. I shall be extremely happy if you could please join us at 7 pm.”
“Let’s see.” was the cryptic reply.

Patil as a smart and shrewd officer was not clear in his mind whether to attend or not. Would attending the party be looked after by his superiors well? But what if he attended? After all, Salim was affiliated to one political party which had a lot of credence in Maharastra. What if the party chief had invited Patil for his son or daughter’s marriage? Would Patil be in two minds then?

*****
Thursday came and Patil rushed home to dress up to attend the party. It was an extremely lavish party. The snacks, the food, the psychedelic music, the dance and the drinks were exotic. The drinks were flowing like anything. He had attended many parties in the past but this was some thing different, some thing memorable.
*****
This was a life time opportunity for Salim. From a distance, all he did was watch only Patil, what he was doing, with whom he was talking, etc. He could see Patil gulping down peg after peg of the scotch. Salim had a purpose in his mind and this was the golden opportunity.

Salim was smart as well.

“Sir, hope you are enjoying?”

“YES, definitely…take care of the others. I am pretty O/K. Lovely drinks...”

*****

Patil could see the stream of passing cars vanishing against the backdrop of tall skyscrapers and the psychedelic neon lights of the bill boards at a remote distance from the banquet room. After a few more pegs, Patil could now not see the cars moving clearly since his vision had got blurred, the neon signs looked hazy and the skyscrapers looked smaller. Patil was on the high of spirits that night…..

Salim had his day...his purpose was served.

“Mr. Khan, lovely party. I enjoyed every moment…..”

Since then, there was no looking back for Salim Khan and he became a close associate of Patil. For every smuggling consignment (be it gold or ganja or hashish), Patil would give him the back end support and ensure that the consignments were moved with precise accuracy to the destined location without any police interference. A great nexus was at play.

*****

Salim became a big-time don of Mumbai in three years time and in return for the gratitude and the services rendered, he started giving Patil cash worth lakhs, crates of the best imported whiskey and what not. The greed increased, the demand increased and so did the business and the nefarious activities of Salim Khan in Mumbai…

Patil had all the luxuries in three years which money earned by a DCP could never buy.... a sprawling bungalow at Colaba, flats at Ghatkopar and Andheri, land at Pune and Nagpur, kilograms of jewelry and diamonds for his wife, the best of cars…No one knew about these except Salim and Patil himself…all were in different names…

The nexus continued and so did assets for Mrs. Leena Patil, Miss Monisha Patil along with fat bank balances.
Patil did not take leave or any break for quite some time, lest the nexus should get exposed during that tenure to some other person.
*****
Against his own wishes, he had no option but to go on a short holiday to Dehradun with his wife Leena and daughter Monisha. His boss approved of his leave…
His wife suddenly had an acute attack of asthma in the hotel. Patil was puzzled as to what to do. Would there be a good doctor in the hill station and that too at midnight?
He spoke to the lobby manager to have a doctor called immediately. Patil could not see his wife suffering so much. Had this been Mumbai, a number of doctors would have been by his wife’s bedside by this time.
He had no answer nor could he do anything….he was simply perplexed, he could not do any thing. Monisha was crying…
Patil was soon to get a call on his mobile.
“Mr. Patil, Salim speaking. Your dirty cops have seized my consignment. Please instruct them to release them immediately. The truck has crores worth of hashish and marijuana. Urgent.”
“Salim, I am on leave and at Dehradun. My wife is critical…I cannot do anything now…”
“Mr. Patil, I am not interested in your story …. I have given you whatever you wanted …..Please do what I want....get the consignment released immediately!”
“Hello! Hello!!” The mobile was disconnected. What could Patil do at this stage? He was on leave...He was out of station…He could not manage and if this consignment was not released, he could imagine what the repercussions from Salim would be like.
The truck along with the driver was seized....four people were arrested. The names of Salim and Patil surfaced along with proofs.
That night Leena died…Baby Monisha could not digest the death of her mother…
The cremation was done at Dehradun. Patil and Monisha came back to Mumbai.
What a cruel turn of events….That night changed the fortune of Patil…He realized that money, power, a fat bank balance, jazzy cars; the latest electronic gadgets have no meaning in life….nothing could save Leena that night...
*****
Years later, one day…
“Papa, I hate you, I hate you, I hate you...”
“What happened Monisha? Tell me ....what happened???”
Little Monisha was shocked. Patil could not make out what had happened and why little Monisha was saying this. Before Patil could realize anything, she rushed out of the house running…..met with an accident across the road with a speeding car and died on the spot.
Is it what Patil had in store…his beloved wife Leena was no more, his sweet daughter Monisha had had a tragic death. What more was in store in his life??
*****
ED & CBI conducted enquiries and found huge assets disproportionate to the income of Patil…a sprawling bungalow at Colaba, flats at Ghatkopar and Andheri, huge amounts of jewelry in various bank lockers in Mumbai and huge bank balances...
Patil was stripped of his uniform and was sentenced to five years of rigorous imprisonment…
*****
At the jail, he could see what he could not see even as DCP…He had seen two of the inmates in an overcrowded cell apparently starting to fight for no reason, he had seen senior prison officials and other prison officers, reportedly attacking prisoners in the cell indiscriminately with wooden poles (lathis),he had seen 180 inmates in the cell, designed to hold 50 or 60 and packed like sardines….He had heard that the circle officer reportedly demanded money from some of the detainees and beat them indiscriminately when the poor inmates refused to pay. He did not find any journalists in the jail and understood that they had been banned from the jail to prevent media coverage. None of the inmates had received proper medical treatment. He had heard from inmates that the jail officials prescribed the same medicine for all of them, regardless of their injuries. He had seen that the prison conditions were cruel, inhuman or degrading…He saw that all inmates were alive, sickly but like veritable vegetables with no sense or purpose…
*****
Life had cruel turns for Patil and he was now a changed person…
He had earned a good name in jail for being a hard working, decent, soft spoken jail inmate. He had intended to start a meditation and a spiritual course at the jail for all inmates…he was sure that the chants of Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna inside the jail would reverberate in every corner with every brick and mortar in the prison...
The initiative was appreciated by the jail authorities who gave all the support to Patil.

"It gives me a great feeling," said Juntu who was accused of murdering his friend and was under trial. "I had never participated in such programs so far. But after spending three years in jail, I feel this is the best thing that has happened to me ever," he said.

Vinod Singh, another murder accused, said, "So far, I did not know the meaning of Bhagwad Gita. But now I know the importance of the Gita in my life and more important, my religion, of which I had no clue till date."

The meaning of the Gita was explained to the inmates. This was once a week (every Monday) with meditation being undertaken every day. This new initiative went on to create a spark in the jail for all the inmates.

*****
Patil could see the change, although he himself was an inmate. Some of the prisoners realized their mistakes and had taken a vow to change the quality of life for improvement and had promised to continue to follow the teachings of the Gita.

Patil would recall that one day when the Bhagwwad Gita was being distributed free to the inmates; some inmate could be heard saying: "Please pass on a Marathi Bhagwad Gita."

"For me a Gujarati," shouted another.

"For me a Hindi," shouted still another.

This program had lasting impact on his life. One day, he committed to one volunteer of the trust coming for such programme to the jail that … “I dedicate my life, after release, to the trust.”

Patil took a bus to reach the trust office and continued to serve the trust until the present day. He had no regrets now...

The police criminal nexus was broken and in its place, a new spirito-human nexus had blossomed as a lotus…