Red

It is a typical Spring Morning and she was sitting in a garden along with a cute kid, both holding a tender coconut, taking one sip at a time. A man with a black jacket emerged from behind and stood in front of her.

Man: Do you know who I am?

She: vacant and expressionless face

Man: (Taking out a gun from his pocket) I hope you have not forgotten this.

BAMM... BAMM.... two shots are fired at her..her white Chudidar is slowly getting turned to Red....

==========================================================================

It was an unusual hot night of Mumbai, Prashant has just finished his report on the Massacre in Mumbai, a report on 26/11 in Mumbai which made the city Red, not to mention the people and the political leaders of the country who went and became anger in Red. Since then, there has been multiple rounds of discussion, multiple rounds of follow-ups to make things normal between the two countries but it is not the same. Tired as he was already from the busy day, he looked at the alarm clock on his table; it was showing 11:30 pm. He stretched out his hands and legs, he looked up at the wall-mounted picture of his deceased parents, in ever smiling pose. Lots of thoughts came down to his mind, his eyes moist. He reached out for a glass of water from the jug, took a big sigh as he stood up. He opened his cupboard and pulled out to give another glance at file-books, old newspaper clippings, hospital admissions, the dead and missing persons reports, the FIRs logged in different Police Stations, hoping to find some clue about his target, Preeti. She is missing since 26/11. Prashant has been running after all the clues, all the leads about her for the past five years, all ending in failure. Disappointed in not finding anything today too, he rolled down his sleeping mat and switched off the light.

==========================================================================

It is morning time, the light and noise outside has already waked him up and he was just lying on the mat.

“Prashant...Prashant...can you come out...there is a dead cat in here” he heard his doors banging.

He woke up from his mat, pulled out the window curtain to see a distinct crowd outside; he then came out to see what is going on. Apparently a bike has run over the cat, the cat was lying dead on the side of the road, with a curious crowd surrounding to it. He did not understand why there are so many clowns like these surrounding and mourning Deva re Deva over a dead cat, nobody doing anything more than that, with some even predicting the day to go as a bad-day. The scene there was pathetic and it was making Prashant uncomfortable. He went to the nearby temple and informed the priest to do the last rite of the cat. He returned back to his home and lied down on his sleeping mat, thinking of an exactly similar day earlier. It was about five years back on 26/11/2008, and a cat was found dead and he received an advice of not going out but he went ahead. He heard of his parents getting killed, sprayed down by machine guns in the ill-famous CST Station in that same night.

==========================================================================

“Rang Rang Mere Rang Rang Mein”- his mobile rang...The number starting with STD code 080, that of Bangalore.

Hello?

Voice at other end: I found Preeti.. Come to Sai Hospital, Whitefield, Bangalore...

He could able to identify the voice at other end and said: OK, are you sure?

Voice at other end: Yes, definitely it’s her, I am sending the picture to your mobile...don’t wait up, come quick..wait... one more thing, don’t forget to bring the gun.

==========================================================================

Life in this Hospital has always been colourless, probably it is due to the kind of food and soups they serve or the fact that everybody end up in hospital with colourless and sad story of their own or the way people try and pretend to maintain silence with pain. Some fortunate patients get cured in small time, but most don’t. And there she was Preeti, sleeping in a small dormitory room, holding her blanket tight. Her treatment has been going on since she got admitted here, about five years back. She was badly injured when got admitted. Although doctors were able to save her, they were unable to save her baby. She is not able to speak since then, nobody able to identify her. Silence is her best friend now.

But today looks to be different, birds chirping in the garden outside. New visitors are coming into her dorm room. She is getting irritated partly due to the distinct audible sounds from them and also due to the fact that the window curtain is left open with the sunlight coming in. She turned to the other side of bed and tried to concentrate on sleeping some more time.

“Eww... these pills are so bitter...” hearing with the voice again, she turned around to see what is going on. A cute kid, about 5 years old was standing nearby her bed, holding a pill on his hand and another falling on the floor. It is probably the only colourful thing that the kid has found inside the hospital premises, but that too turned out to be bitter. A nurse who was attending another patient nearby came hurriedly towards bed and threw away the pills from his hand scolding him. Preeti cut short the scolding and got up from her bed taking help from the nurse and holding the kid’s hand. They went out of the room to walk around in the garden. They sat on a bench, switched ON the cell-phone and turned to Red FM Radio Channel. There was a small shop nearby selling fruits, biscuits and tender coconuts. They ordered a tender coconut from the shop, gave money to the shopkeeper and started sipping in.

==========================================================================

Prashant took the first flight out of Mumbai to Bangalore. After a long time he got news about Preeti, hopefully he is going to meet her today, he does not want to be disappointed today. Impatient as he was already, he went straight into the hospital, barged into the cabin of Dr Karthik, who was attending another patient.

Karthik: Hello Prashant. Good to see you...

Prashant: Hi....Where is she, can I meet her now?

Karthik: (He turned away from the patient a bit, went closer to Prashant and whispered) She is in the garden and you can meet her. But have you brought that gun that I told you earlier, have you loaded it?

Prashant: I have brought it, but didn’t get time to load it.

Karthik: Go into that nearby room, take out the red packets from the shelf and load the gun, and be careful. I will catch up with you later in the garden.

The patient was not able to hear the total conversation but was able to make out that there is a gun in the room....

==========================================================================

Prashant took a while in the next room. He loaded the gun that he has brought, kept it inside his pocket carefully. Then he went straight to the garden, there he could find Preeti. He stood in front of her and charged her with question.

Prashant: Do you know who I am?

Preeti: vacant and expressionless face

Prashant: (Taking out the loaded gun from his pocket) I hope you have not forgotten this.

BAMM... BAMM.... two shots are fired at her..her white Chudidar is slowly getting turned to Red...

Preeti: Her eyebrows raised, she could feel cold in her heart... She was feeling very week, she was unable to speak, and it took a while to get up from the bench. Somehow she managed to stand up, then suddenly she hold Prashant’s hands. She struggled to take out the gun from him. She looked at the gun closely, then smiled and fired...first on Prashant... and then she smiled and fired again..this time to the kid...All were getting wet with Red...She smiled and laughed out loud in excitement. It is her Gun, with this she used to play her Holi, the festival of Colour...Now she is able to remember it, she is able to identify Prashant, her husband, she is able to speak too. She cried and screeched out loud, she could remember well how she got injured in the CST Station firings of 26/11. She told everything to her husband and told her to go back to Mumbai. She started missing the Mumbai local train, Ganesh Puja, Vada Pao and Bhajji....Karthik along with few other doctors and nurses came out to the garden with a bucket full of red coloured Holi water and sweets and red packets of colour powders, they loaded the gun and sprayed water at each other joyfully, this time Red FM was playing a famous Holi song... Balam Pickaaari Jo Tune Mujhe Maari....It was a long pending celebration of togetherness. The doctor told that the kid here is an orphan and whether they would be interested in adopting him, to which both Preeti and Prashant answered affirmatively.