Most Auspicious Time

At the village corner, three men sat away from the rest of the tea-drinking, vada eating crowd.

“The plan is perfect,” said Nandu to the two men who looked upto him in awe. Nandu looked at the two villagers who could easily be mistaken for wrestlers, due to their strong build. “Working out in the fields and being pampered by the women in the family with food and treats does pay off in the body department.” He thought to himself. He wasn’t so lucky in either department. He was a geeky scrawny little fellow with oiled hair and had a moustache a South Indian villain would envy.

He looked around to check that no one was in hearing range and whispered triumphantly “We will rob the bank of the next village at exactly 10 minutes past 11 o’clock this Friday morning. It will be a life-altering event for us. We will be rich and we will be able to do whatever we dreamed of doing.”

The two men’s eyes were wide with even more admiration than before.

“Really?” they asked.

“Yes, Gopu. Yes Bolu. Really.” Nandu whispered.

Bolu’s asked with anticipation, eyes wide, “Did you meet Panditji, Nandu?”

Nandu looked puzzled and a tad bit annoyed. Did Bolu want blessings from above for what they were about to do because he had no faith in him?

“Why do you ask Bolu?”

“To find out the auspicious time Nandu!” Bolu answered impatiently “Did you ask Panditji to read our horoscopes to find out the auspicious time for doing this life changing event?” Bolu asked eagerly.

Nandu looked stupefied for a moment trying to comprehend the workings of Bolu’s superstitious mind. It was obvious that Bolu was all brawn and no brain. It was a pity that he needed his strength for the task he had hatched up. The last thing he wanted was to tell the whole world that they were going to rob a bank. Talking to that chatterbox of a Pandit would ensure that the entire village would know about it.

Gopu joined in with admiration that rivalled Bolu’s. “You are really smart Nandu, to find out the auspicious time.” Nandu would have banged their heads together if he didn’t need them in the best of health for the upcoming task. So he decided to go with the flow. He smiled knowingly and went over his plan with the two of them about who would pull the big bag of gold quickly and who would be ready with the field tractor outside and hide it in a nearby field quickly. Naturally, he would get the money and these two nitwits would be paid labour wages for their dumb effort. He could deal with these two idiots later easily. He smiled thinking about the money. His eyes gleamed with satisfaction at the idea of a field tractor being the stowaway transportation – no one would think that an innocent-looking tractor among all the other farmer's tractors would be loaded with the booty. It was one of his better ideas.

 

It was Thursday evening and the bank manager in the next village thought once again that being transferred to this village 4 months ago was not the best move for his career. But he thought sadly that one has to roll with the punches and make the best of what one gets. He grew up in the city of Pune, and hoped to be transferred in one of the bigger branches in one of the metropolitan cities of India. But he ended up on the wrong side of the one the top bosses’ daughter and he got transferred to this village where drinking water was a sought after treasure and electricity cuts were far too frequent. They called it load shedding, so that more important factories and other bigger enterprises would get the share of electricity. It was mentioned that it goes to the nearby hospitals, but he didn’t think so, as once when he was waiting in line due to a field dust allergy, the electricity in the waiting room went off and didn’t come back for more than 2 hours. He sighed, it was one of the larger mysteries of life, not worth looking too deeply into as to who used the electricity.

But he had enough of feeling sorry for himself. He was not going to let some two bit daughter of a big shot make him sweat in this sweltering heat. He had to get the fans to work somehow. The computers were second on his list, although he would never admit it to anyone. He sighed with contentment. He already had done something about that and smiled as he looked up at the rotating fan and enjoyed the breeze despite the few flies buzzing around. It was a long time since he enjoyed anything in this far out village. He wished that brat of a daughter could see him enjoying himself with the simple luxury of breeze, which she certainly didn’t want him to have.

This bank wasn’t as big as the banks in Pune, although he had to admit the rich zamindars in the village were definitely what is called rich, looking at the manner in which they would use their credit cards. If he could get them to buy a few products from the bank, he might get himself in good graces again with the management. He rubbed his hands together greedily, he planned to visit one zamindar's wife as she was a natural spendthrift. He would be able to convince her to take yet another loan easily. He pulled out his mobile and made a note: Meeting with Chandulal’s wife – tomorrow afternoon. He would ask her to give her gold as security which would make a tidy sum in interest for the bank. He tucked in for the night.

Friday morning was bright, sunny and hot as usual. The bank manager went about his business and saw the guard was awake and alert at 9 am. He nodded and went in and saw that all the bank employees came in. Two hours passed peacefully with everyone working and sorting out customer queries and making payments. The ATM was running well too.

One of the employees teased “A hand fan! What a wonderful idea!”

She replied” The heat is so much and at 11:10 load shedding starts every day and lasts for a minimum to two hours in the afternoon, exactly when it is the hottest time of the day and we need the ceiling fans to work. So I decided to bring this to help myself. It will start 2 minutes from now, just see.”

“That’s a nice idea. But now we have -.” She was stopped midway into her sentence. A scrawny man looking weird in an obviously fake beard came to the two women, brandishing what looked like a gun, he whispered,

“Freeze! This is a holdup. Don't make a sound. Open the security vault when I tell you. When the electricity gone, no alarm will ring.” He knew all alarms were electronic and with the load shedding, no alarm will ring.

Ritu looked up in fear. “But if the electricity goes, I will not be able to open the vault!”

“Do it now, when the electricity is there! Now! Move!”

The other woman tried to speak “But –“ then she thought the better of it and fell silent. 

He followed Ritu to the vault. “The lights should go anytime now! Open the vault” She put in the digital code and pressed the last button when the lights went off. Nandu smiled, his trust in load shedding punctuality had paid off. Now he had 2 hours of no electronic communication...he knew that mobile phones didn't work here either as there was no range here. Bolu was ready at his signal for the heavy lifting and Gopu was ready outside with the tractor among many other tractors of the farmers nearby.

He was just about to grab on into the vault to fill his bag when he heard a whirring noise outside and immediately afterwards the lights came on. The alarms began blaring, and in 3 minutes the police had come before Nandu had a chance to catch his breath. There was no sign of Bolu and Gopu.

The bank manager watched as Nandu was taken away by the police. 

He heard someone yelling outside "He didn't go to Panditji! This would never have happened if he had gone to Panditji!"

Imagine depending on the inconvenience of load shedding to commit a robbery - not too bad an idea. It would have worked too if he hadn't installed electricity generators in the bank and the police station as security measures and for the sake of the pleasure of having air conditioning in his office billed to the bank of course, which was an apt reward of good thinking and stopping an attempted burglary. He also got an award and a promotion in a small ceremony. The idea seemed to float that if he could use his mind in a small village branch to the bank's advantage, how much more could he do for the bigger branches. 

He was asked what would he like for his service to the bank, he said he would like to be given a transfer to Mumbai by the hands of Seema, the top bosses' daughter. Now in Mumbai, he looks back and says fondly "It really was a most auspicious time."