A Quest to Unknown Treasure

It's Monday morning, and Ajay woke up at 7 am just as per his routine. He went for a walk, made breakfast, and got ready to leave for the office, little did he know on that day his life was going to be changed forever. At around 10 am Ajay was receiving a call from an unknown number but he ignored it as he was about to go to a meeting. After 2 hours when he concluded his meeting he checked his phone during the break. He was shocked to see that from that unknown number he received 20 missed calls. Ajay thought that the call might be from a client to discuss some urgent business. He redialled the number and on the other end, a man answered. The man introduced himself as Suresh Rana, a real estate lawyer. Ajay was taken aback thinking why a real estate lawyer was calling him. Suresh informed Ajay of the demise of his distant maternal uncle Rajendra Saha and as his uncle had no immediate family of his own so he was considered as the next of kin. He informed Ajay that he had become the owner of his uncle's mansion which held significant importance in history.

Hearing this Ajay just couldn’t believe it. He was excited to visit the mansion but intrigued too about it. He wanted to know more about this mansion. So point blankly he asked Suresh what was the main significance of that mansion. Suresh told him that as history went by the mansion was considered the main transaction point for all businesses during the British rule as it was situated at the banks of the river Ganga. Starting from spices import or export to jewels import or export the mansion was considered the center point. But this was just a disguise, the main activity which occurred at the mansion was the smuggling of the old and priceless artifacts to other foreign countries. British Colonel Mathew Sing was a very close friend of Rajendra’s great great grandfather, Amoy Saha, with his help they both used to smuggle these artifacts and shared the money. But it was said that when the Sepoy Mutiny occurred a huge consignment of artifacts was about to be smuggled.

Fearing the loss of the artifacts Colonel and Amoy hid the consignment in a secret space and fled the mansion. To date, no one was able to find the missing consignment ever. Listening to this story Ajay was astonished as he couldn’t believe that his relative was a smuggler. But Ajay was interested too he wanted to find this hidden treasure. Suresh asked him to come at his latest convenience and sign the papers so that the mansion could be officially his. He informed Suresh that he would be coming down to the mansion this weekend. Ajay thought of calling his friends on this road trip so he invited Tushar and Gagan his closest friends. Hearing about the history of the mansion got them intrigued as well, they were excited and immediately said yes to the trip. On Saturday early morning the three men left in Ajay’s car to endure the new journey. Tushar by profession was a historian and learn about the smuggling artifacts was really fascinating to him, he couldn’t wait to reach the mansion. Gagan was an IT professional and was just excited by the thrill he got from hearing the story, they all were excited.

Upon reaching the destination they were greeted by Suresh at the gate of the mansion. Suresh took them inside the house and introduced them to the house help Ramu who was taking care of the house since the demise of his uncle. Ajay asked Suresh to complete the rest of the formalities so that he and his friends could take some rest before exploring the mansion. Suresh brought out the transfer papers of the house and asked Ajay to sign, now the mansion was official of Ajay’s. Suresh congratulated him and bided adieu to them. Now, Ajay, Tushar, and Gagan were on the quest to find the hidden treasure. Ajay went to the study room, where he saw a bookshelf filled with various novels and literature books. Ajay was always fascinated with the books as he went to take out one of the books from the shelf, the shelf moved. He was a bit shocked thinking about what was happening. Hearing the croaked noise Tushar and Gagan came running into the room.

Behind the bookshelf, a secret passageway was there. Looking at the dark passageway they were thinking about where this led, was it a way to the hidden treasure or something dangerous. To know what was there at the end the three men decided to go down the path. Ajay started to look for some torches or candles but couldn’t find any. So he called Ramu to help provide them with these things. Ramu brought some candles and 2 torches. Ajay asked Ramu had he ever known about this secret passageway behind the bookshelf, Ramu said that he had never seen this in his whole life. Nevertheless, the gang went on the quest. Tushar was getting scared as he was getting a bit claustrophobic but the excitement to find the treasure helped him to power through. They reached the end of the passageway and saw that some steps were leading to another passageway. Moving forward Ajay saw vault type door in front of him. He wondered if that was it, did he find the treasure but how to be sure of it. Gagan came ahead of Ajay and looked closely at the door. He saw that the door was protected with some kind of traditional seal. They tried to pull it, turn it twist it but the door won’t open. They were trying so hard to open it but all their attempts failed.

Tired and feeling fatigued Gagan took support on one of the statues situated there and somehow the statue was moved by Gagan’s support. A ray of sunlight came through from behind the statue and that light got reflected by glass kept at that angle which pointed directly towards the vault door. The beam of light hit the vault door and the seal on the door broke and the vault started to open. Ajay, Gagan, and Tushar were not able to believe their eyes that they had found the hidden treasure. Immediately after finding the treasure, they informed the department of Ancient Indian Culture, and the department as an appreciation of token offered them 20% of the value of the treasure. Ajay, Tushar, and Gagan were really happy with this appreciation. Tushar and Gagan looked at each other and told Ajay that they couldn’t wait for another adventure together.