no man's land || kgf (slow updates)

one

2018
BENGALURU

"Deepa madam, there's a woman outside waiting to meet you." The man said, opening the door and peeping through the gap. 

The stern woman sat with a bunch of newspapers surrounding her. A plaque in gold with her name written in black bold letters sat proudly on her table, glinting in the sunlight. 

DEEPA HEGDE
chief secretary 

"Not now. Tell her to come back later." She dismissed him with a wave of her hand and continued to sift through the old crumbling newspapers. She found it impossible that a whole empire's story was so very well buried that people only regarded it as a myth. 

Like as though it was the Atlantis of India. 

And at first, this whole story of KGF, seemed to her like the work of a person with an extensive imagination. But now that she felt like there was some truth in the story, she went to the local library and got all the newspapers from to 1950s to the end of the 90s and was trying to match it up with Anand Ingalgi's lost legend of El Dorado. 

"I told her, but she isn't ready to listen." he said, voice trembling, afraid of the woman's wrath. A wisp of air escaped her lips as she closed her eyes, annoyed at the disturbance. 

"Listen here- " she paused, looked at his badge and continued, "Aadheshwar. I'm busy. Whatever the matter is, tell her to book an appointment and come later." 

"But ma'am she keeps mumbling about wanting to speak with you about dora." he insisted. 

Her face scrunched up like she'd sucked on a lemon. "Dora? What nonsense is this? This is not a kid's channel. If she wants to talk about cartoons tell her to go to Kids TV. This is a serious workplace and we all are busy with our own work. We don't have time to deal with such people." 

And then as though something struck him, he shook his head and said, "Aiyo madam. Chee chee, she didn't say dora. She said some, dorado.. darado.. doda- " 

"El Dorado" Deepa whispered, the newspaper clippings dropping from her loosened grip. 

"Yes! That!" He snapped his finger. 

There was a beat of silence. 

"Clear everyone on this floor. No one should know that she's come to meet me. Send her into my office right now." She said seriously, her hands already fumbling around to clear her desk and pull out a book and pen. 

Now, she knows that she can't just trust a random person and let them in. But she also knows that nobody had ever described KGF as El Dorado other than Anand Ingalgi and the interview hadn't been aired yet, so clearly the woman outside knew something. 

"Madam?" Aadheshwar came back and opened the door, looking at Deepa for confirmation. 

She nodded. the door opened wider and a woman walked in. 

She looked around her 40s, her hands trembled, flashes of Deepa Hegde in her past debates and interviews zoomed through her mind. 

She still felt like this was a bad decision, but what has to be done has to be done. 

"Take a seat." Deepa said as the door shut softly behind them. The woman sat down like a fragile doll and adjusted her saree. 

"Tell me, what is your name? What do you know about El Dorado? About Rocky's story? Why did you decide to come now?" she fired questions. 

The woman in front of her took in shaky breaths and fiddled with the end of her long, black braid which had streaks of grey hidden in its folds. 

Sensing her nervousness, Deepa slowed down, and started, "What is your name?"