The Mimic

Thraaash! and the door opened, to show a dingy, unlit small room and a ragged man sitting with a malicious smile on his face. The man, named Bahadur, stood up and began to show the true colours of the once Karate champion, he hit the police hard but was caught and brought to jail, was tried and put to lockup for the next twenty years of his life.

The next day, many news channels and many NGOs sent their representatives to collect information about the man who had such a sharp brain and skills to fulfill his objective. The reporters and the others requested the police to come to 'The Moon Hills' homestay for a discussion on the man's wit. The reporter named Shrishti was a little bit more excited than the others. She was new to this profession and thus enjoyed it. She was eagerly waiting to hear about the man from the police. 

Finally the police reached the homestay at 6 o'clock in the evening, when, as they assumed, that the reporters must have returned back home. But, what? still there was the 5 feet 7 inches tall girl standing on the doorsteps of the homestay to collect information. The police was awestruck to see the Passion Shrishti. One of the police officers said to Shrishti," 'Shrishti' means 'to create' and you will create something for the improvement and upliftment of the Nation. I believe that if you work with us passion, a day will come when the Nation would be waiting with this eager to have a single interview of yours. I salute you for this patience and passion, Miss Shrishti", he concluded his admiring speech by saluting the young reporter. Shrishti now requested the officers to open the door of the homestay and allow her to take the desired information.The police started the conversation, they assigned the task to Dhruv Arora, the same man who admired the passion of Shrishti. They sat in a well lit room and Srishti took out her notebook and pencil.

Shrishti: Good evening, Mr. Arora. I believe you know the reason of mine talking to you.So let's begin. First I would like to ask your reason for raiding this homestay.

Dhruv: Good evening miss Shrishti. The explanation of the reason of our raiding this homestay has to be demonstrated by a story.

Shrishti: Start story Mr Dhruv that is the reason why I am here.

Dhruv: This is year 2024. The case on the basis of which we raided this home stay was filed on the year 2021. The case consisted of the missing of a 14 year old, class 8 girl, Mishmi. Her parents informed us that they had come to the beautiful valley of Mussoorie to spend their summer vacations. On the third night of their visit, Mishmi was nowhere to be found. The clock struck 2 o'clock in the midnight when they heard their 5 years old boy screaming. They ran upstairs and saw that the room in which Mishmi and her brother Meghdut were sleeping, there was no trace of Mishmi and the room was filled up with scratches on the walls and the android of Mishmi was lying on the floor, broken. They asked Meghdut about what had happened in the room before he screamed. Meghdut sobbed. After he controlled himself, he told that he heard some horrific noises and thought that he was dreaming, but when he felt that his sister was running here and there; he woke up and with wide open eyes he saw that the door of the almirah was wide open. Mishmi's father and mother got scared and they directly came to our police station. That was the first day of mine to work as a police officer in that police station. I was transferred from my hometown to Mussoorie.

Shrishti: Sorry to interrupt Mr. Dhruv, but why was the almirah door open?

Dhruv: That is from where the mystery started mam.(laughs)

Shrishti: Oh! sounds interesting.

Dhruv: Quite so, but scary too.

Shrishti: Start the story again sir.

Dhruv: Ok let's resume and get back to our main topic. So, then the parents of Mishmi came and talked to us, we were surprised to hear from them that the door of the almirah was open. It seemed to us as a kidnapping case, so we asked them whether they suspected someone or not. They confirmed that they did not suspect anyone. They also gave reason that they did not suspect anyone, as it had been only three days that they came here. Our senior officer asked about the characters present in the scenario. Thay described the characters as follows:-

                           i) The helper- Bahadur, a man who works in the homestay for more than ten years. He is a man of less words and a sweet tempered man too. So there is no way to suspect him.

                           ii) The gardener- He always stays in the garden and returns home before 7 o'clock. As the incident occured at nearly 2 o'clock in the night so there is no way to suspect her.

After they left the police station, we had a lengthy discussion on the matter, as Mishmi's father was a honoured man and as described by our senior officers, the discovery of the criminal would lead us to have much popularity and make us famous. 

The next day we reached the homestay at 7 o'clock in the morning, this is time, we knew that everyone would be awake in the homestay. So, we entered the home stay after the helper opened the door, we found out that the parents of Mishmi were sitting on the sofa in the lounge. probably they were discussing on the matter of Mishmi, but stopped the moment we entered. They asked us for coffee; when we rejected the offer, they let as sit on the brown colour Bhutani sofa. we asked them to get out of the homestay and not to come in until we ordered them to do so. They obeyed our commands and went outside. We set into work. Our forensic department was said to check the room of Mishmi. I was assigned the work of finding suspicious elements in the homestay. So, I set into work. Suddenly I found out that there were special kind of cctv cameras outside the room of Mishmi, I gathered the knowledge about those kind of CCTVs from my incomplete course of information technology. It may sound funny that I left the course of information technology incomplete and prepared myself for IAS exam. Those kinds of CCTVs can only record voices but cannot show any footage. So I ordered my junior officers to start the CCTV recordings. Now, what we heard in those recordings was utterly surprising, we heard the voice of Mishmi's father. The voice said, " Open the door my dear child Mishmi. I know you are awake and surfing the Facebook on your new android, we bought you from England." Then the door opened and Mishmi shouted , it was a dreadful cry that haunted our ears; then everything was silent, after some time, there was a shriek voice of a child, crying. We recognised the voice as Meghdut's. We came out rapidly and ordered...... Oh! Let me have a glass of water please. I am quiet thirsty.

(Mr.Arora drank water and started again) 

So we commanded our officers to order the family to get in along with the gardener and the helper. As per our orders the family came in along with the gardener and the helper. Our constables caught hold of Mishmi's father, Avnish's collar and dragged him to the jeep.Avnish shouted to know about the reason why he was dragged in that way by the officers. The police officer held the caller of Avinash and was going to slap him when Mrs. Dutta Roychowdhury came in between and asked the reason of their behaviour of this kind. I asked the lady officers to take Mrs. Sourindhri away from the spot. They did the way I told them. Mrs. Sourindhri waited in the lounge calmly. The moment I entered the room she asked me in a eager voice the reason of dragging her husband in such a way like a criminal. I said her to calm down.and then narrated the whole incident that we experienced, when we were hearing The voices in the CCTV. She did not agree with us and wanted to hear the same voice we heard in the CCTV. We to took her to the room and played the same recording we had heard and arrested Mr Avnish Dutta Roychowdhury. She was utterly surprised.

We commanded the force to be present in the homestay until and unless we solve out the mystery of why a father would kidnap his own daughter. Mrs. Dutta Roychowdhury was asked to stay in the home stay with Meghdut until we ordered them further. Then we started on our mission to find out where was Mishmi. We were clueless, where to find Mishmi, and why was the door of the almirah open at that night on which Mishmi went missing.

 2 years of Mr. Avinash Dutta Roychowdhury were been locked up in the prison of Mussoorie and Mrs. Dutta Roychowdhury and Meghdut's in the homestay. They were supplied with food and clothes by the help of us and the NGOs. After 2 years, in the year 2023, on the same day, when Mishmi went missing,there was a knock on the door of the room where Mrs Dutta Roychowdhury and Meghdut where sleeping.we had asked them not to open the door at night even if there is knock on the door. We also, told them to call us immediately if they feel there is a problem, and also, if there is a knock on the door at night. So Mrs. Sourindhri started dialing our number but stopped when she heard the voice of her husband. He said," Come Sourindhri, we will return back home. They have freed me from jail. I am free now, come." But Mrs. Dutta Roychowdhury was quiet witty. She reply that she would not open the door, and then immediately called us. We were, as though waiting for the call; were ready with our forces.we were ready as we had planned to rescue Mrs. Dutta Roychowdhury and her son and sent them back home. The call of Mrs. Dutta Roychowdhury lead to the spark that lit up the canon. We started off with our jeep the moment we got the call. When we reached the spot we thrashed open the door and saw Bahadur sitting infront of the room of Mrs. Sourindhri. The lounge is small as you have noticed and as it was night then, it was unlit too. Bahadur wore ragged clothes. We didn't knew that he was a Karate champion. He showed his own colours and started fighting with us. But he couldn't win from the ten of us and was arrested. After a continuous questionnaire of 3 hours, we came to know that Bahadur was a scientist, and the name of this person was not Bahadur but Dr. P.C Sanyal.

Please let me have another glass of water, its a long time I had water.

(Mr.Dhruv drinks three glasses of water and starts again)

Now, as you can see, that it is still quite suspicious why Bahadur changed his name from Dr. P.C Sanyal to Bahadur. There is another story about this, let me start.

Bahadur was a scientist but was accused of frauding a formula of someone else and he was suspended. He was a good mimic too. He suggested the owner of this homestay to install CCTVs which would record voices but no footage. So he mimicked the voice of Mr Avnish, and kidnapped Mishmi, sold her organs, and was now planning to leave the homestay and go back to his hometown and start a business of supplying organs to the hospitals and colleges. But it was Mrs. Dutta Roychowdhury's wit that saved the life of many innocent people.

So this is the story you are waiting for and you have it so you can go home now. It's already 11 o'clock and your parents must be waiting.

Shrishti: Yes, obviously. Thanks, but for your kind information, I don't have parents and stay near the orphanage where I was left by my parents as I was a girl child.

Suddenly the man of 6 feet 2 inches stood up and asked in a eager voice whether her birthday was on 24th of December. Shrishti replied that yes it was. Dhruv shouted in joy and said to Shrishti, that she was his own sister. Shrishti was surprised to hear that. She asked Mr. Arora,"Is it so?" Dhruv said that, in the year 1999, on 24th December, his parents went out and left his sister in an orphanage; and that he wanted to be a police so as to find his sister.

After all the work in the court and police station, Dhruv took Shrishti to his home and told his parents about Shrishti and made them remember, the day when they left Shrishti in the orphanage, as she was a girl child. They felt sorry and begged forgiveness from Shrishti and asked Shrishti to stay with them. Shrishti was quiet happy but sad too. She decided to not to live with people, who hated her and now seeing her prosperity (as it seemed to her), wanted her to stay with them.

Shrishti left the house with a deep feeling of both happiness and sadness, along with her report upon 'The Mimic'.