The Black Magic Bully

Ankit's Call

Aditya saw two useful pieces of info, one was about Raghav's new watch, virtually no one gets large sums of money when in college, and how it perfectly coincided with his taking money from me made him feel like it would surely prove him guilty somehow. The other was Raghav's weak story.

Devesh had called to meet Ankit in an empty room with me, Kirti, Aditya, Devesh, Siddhant, Naman and a couple others present a few days later. It was the middle of the class times, just before lunch break, and we took an effort to find an empty unoccupied room. Ankit too had several of his friends to listen to his interrogation of Raghav with us.

I explained to Ankit what had happened as best I could. The start of the contract with the master, the debit card scandal, the selling of the laptop to pay the exit fee. Ankit listened with rapt attention.

"50 percent interest rate", and "fee to get out!", Ankit responded as he heard the details of my story. I showed him my 2 debit cards, the texts I made to Harshita and others, and the payment I had made to Aditya Shubham. Aditya Shukla told him about the watch that Raghav had recently purchased, which in Raghav's own words cost 16000 rupees. Siddhant then simplified the whole story.

"He came to his room one day and told him he had black magic that could improve his posture and strength, and he payed him, 20 days later he wanted to get out of the magic, so he sold his laptop to pay him the 25000 rupee fee, in between his card went missing, so he made him pay 9000 rupees to give it back", Siddhant voiced in a single breath. We were ready, and Ankit stubbornly called Raghav on the number we had given him.

Raghav soon entered the room in a white uniform with black suit pants and a tie.

"Raghav Saxena", addressed Ankit "you know black magic", "if you do this kind of stuff your gonna have 4 years of bad reputation", he scolded him in a bewildered voice. 

"No!", responded Raghav. "I don't know any black magic", he continued with is made up lie,

" Do you know who he is", said one of Ankit's friends, "he is a master's degree in psychology", he lied, to intimidate Raghav as he was lying.

"These people are telling me that you know black magic", said Ankit straight to his face, like a principle confronting a naughty boy. "And that is how you played a very important role in returning his debit card".

I, Aditya and Ankit all laughed out loud at Raghav right there.

"No, I did not have anything to do with his debit card!", he said. "These people are just saying I returned it!" he insisted.

 "These people say you know some master", he explained, "And this is how you communicate with the master", he explained further, bending down with his hands put together in prayer and eyes closed. 

Aditya reminded Ankit of the watch.

"Did you just buy an expensive watch several days ago", Ankit asked Raghav.

"Yes", replied Raghav

"What type of watch was it, and what was it's price", Ankit continued.

"Bro, it's a diesel watch, and it cost me 16000 rupees". Raghav replied. The whole room stared at him.

"How did you get the money for the watch!", asked Ankit

"It was my dad's money", responded Raghav.

"Your dad gives you that much money?", Ankit asked, locked into his eyes. "What for?". It was really weird.

"It was for my birthday, he gave me 20000, so that I could party with all my friends and stuff", Raghav replied.

"Where are you from?", asked Ankit.

"Bhai, I am from Kota", said Raghav.

"And what profession is your father", asked Ankit.

"He's in the medical profession", answered Raghav.

"You're father must be very happy that you wasted his birthday money on a watch, does he know about this", asked Ankit.

"Yes, my dad knows everything", Raghav answered as confidently as a telecom salesman.

Ankit didn't quite believe this, he asked Raghav to call his dad on his phone. And Raghav obeyed. A minute later Raghav's father was on the line.

Half a minute into the conversation that I didn't hear directly, there was a fuss among Ankit's friends.

"What is it?," Naman asked one of them.

"His father didn't know about the watch", the boy answered. We all looked at him with surprise, and whatever inkling of belief any of them could have about Raghav was shunted away.

Ankit then told his dad about the 36500 rupees he had taken from me, and the whole thing I had told him, it took about 10 minutes. By the end, Raghav's father agreed to meet us in a few days.

That evening I heard Raghav talking to his dad over the phone. He was speaking to him in a clear voice in the hallway between our rooms. Explaining to his dad the same lies he had tried to tell all of us. I didn't try to stop him, or even try that hard to listen to him. I knew his dad would come over here and we would explain everything to him, no explanation Raghav would give would overcome us. And thus, I wasn't stressed out.