The Unventured Passions

The Flip side of Love

"Is this my last night on earth?"

Raimoti hadn't looked up. In the yellowish light of the table lamp, she was still looking at the evening bulletin spread on her bed.
"Atleast, you haven't stopped my access to news... not yet!"
She let out a loud sigh and folded the papers.
"Tell me, RayBahadur Neelmoni Mukherjee, what do I owe you the pleasure?"
She had finally looked up at her father, standing at the door, in silence.

"May I enter?"
His voice was grave.

"You didn't order to break the lock to ask for permissions, did you?"
She set the papers aside and looked away disinterestedly.

"These... These words of yours have become a nuisance, Raimoti!!" Neelmoni had walked a little inside and paced uncomfortably, unable to face his daughter directly.
"I wish you understood why I did what I had to."

Raimoti opened the newspaper once again, and focused on reading.
"Enlighten me, Father."

Her sharp sarcasm sounded like a piercing spear in Neelmoni's ears.
"The English isn't our own... I stole from them so that when time comes I have the required backup to fight them!"

"To fight them?" Raimoti had looked up at him.
"To fight whom? The British?" She let out another chuckle.
"So you kidnapped people, a twelve years old as well and had kept her locked in your baganbari, while you extorted her parents, because you were fighting the British? You murdered, killed, extorted... all because you were fighting the British this entire time? Really? Tell me more Baba, I'm suddenly intrigued."

"Raimoti!!"
Neelmoni growled, suddenly unable to conjure any immediate excuse to counter her direct accounts.

How did she even know all these? It's impossible!! She's a threat now!!
Had it been someone else, they would have been removed from the face of the earth already!!

Raimoti chortled suddenly, her eyes still on the pages of the newspaper.
"You talk about fighting the British. You know what it really looks like? It looks like this!" She held the paper up and showed him a column, but the darkness only allowed Neelmoni to skim through the small greyscale picture of a face, a pixelated face of a slim-jawed boy with a head full of curly hair.
Neelmoni frowned.

"Who is this?" His words were full of disdain.

"This one is called Satyakirth Sen. Sacrosanct Satyakirth, hope you have had the pleasure of knowing his name atleast!" She smiled fondly, running her fingers on the picture.
"This grumpy looking little boy had looted an entire British armoury last night. And the fun part is, not a single British officer is harmed." She folded the paper and kept it on her lap.
"Somehow, he and his people had drugged the entire platoon with simple opium pills, and sneaked inside." She paused to let out another sigh, a sigh of pride.
"That particular English platoon had become a terror for the locals, extorting, raping women, all because of their weaponry and arm power. And, Sacrosanct Satyakirth had ripped them off this very pride." She smiled once again.
"This is Deshbhakti Baba... This is fighting the British in the true sense... And, what you do is called Crime!"

"Raimoti!!" Neelmoni barked angrily.
"You're crossing boundaries now."

"Really? And who defines my boundary? You?"

Neelmoni growled and gritted his teeth in anger.
"Tomorrow... Tomorrow you'll realise what your boundaries are... And how I still define it."

Raimoti smiled at his words. Her expression of amusement has the old man mad with rage.

"RayBahadur Shashi Chandra Chakkotti is coming to see you tomorrow."

"Shashi Kaka? Why?" Raimoti's eyes had narrowed, a cold sweep of fear had washed her spine all of a sudden, the name flooding memories back in her head, dark indelible memories!