Storieo

Author: Shivam

  • The servant’s son (Part – 2)

    The servant’s son (Part – 2)

    Ram was awake all night thinking about his son’s future, he had experienced such sleepless nights before too. His son’s future was all that mattered to him right now. This was the sole reason that he was sending his son to a good private school in the hope that one day his son would be educated and would have a better life than him, he till date teases his parents who did not force him to study and as a result he remained uneducated and ended up being a domestic servant. But now there was nothing he could do, so he decided to give his son a good life and invested in his future. He had all his expectations from his son.

    His son, on the other hand, showed interest in studies. From the day he saw his father as a servant and obeying the commands of people younger than him, he made a decision that he would study with a full heart and secure a good job which would ensure a good future for him and his father. He did not like his father as a servant.

    But there was some time before he could do that as he was in the eighth standard and there was a long way to cover. Nevertheless, he was determined and was ready for working hard. That was the last day he went to work with his father and it had a big impact on his life.

    Seven years later, the son completed his graduation from a renowned government college and secured a decent job in a reputed firm who is willing to send him abroad for further higher studies. This was all that his father had hoped for him. He was really happy to hear about this and wished him all the best. But Harish, on the other hand, had other plans.

    “What will I do in that country?”

    “I don’t even know proper English”

    “No problem, you will learn, you have to come with me dad”

    “Who else do I have,” Harish said

    Harish was willing to take his dad with him to Canada where they will explore the city together on the weekends and during the weekdays Ram will learn English and Harish will work and study simultaneously. This trip was a year long as the course that Harish was undertaking was a specialized diploma and in a year a lot of things drastically changed.

    Harish got a job upgrade in a company in Canada itself which had a relative salary hike of sixty – five percent as compared to the previous job. He got a green card and was now a citizen of Canada. His father on the other hand too secured a job and was now going to receive a green card too.

    This was not that his father thought. He never expected that one day of his work will motivate his son to achieve so much. But he was really happy as he and his family got out the servant cycle. This was more than what he had wished for.

  • The servant’s son (Part – 1)

    The servant’s son (Part – 1)

    This story is all about the experiences a son of a servant gains and the modes in life he has to go through before becoming an adult. The feelings he gets while seeing his father obeying the orders of people younger than him. The financial crisis they go through and other innumerable problems.

    “Come on baba, today let us go together to work”

    “Really, yeahh”

    This was the reaction of a four-year-old child who was excited as he was accompanying his father to work that day. He had been after his father for days to take him to his work as his summer vacations was just about to get over and he wished to see his father’s workplace and today finally was the day.

    This was literally the happiest day of his life. On the other hand, his father was not that happy. He was a little tense that his son will see the rude behaviour he goes through every single day while serving an affluent family as a domestic worker. Nevertheless, he found himself helpless in front of his son’s innocent eyes and gave in.

    Both of them got ready by six in the morning, packed their lunch in a newspaper and left for work around six thirty. Ram (the father and the servant) was supposed to reach at work by six but today he was a little late as his son was not having breakfast early morning and he had to take him out for a walk. He knew that he will be scolded by the master for reporting late.

    They reached by seven and how the late hour hand struck one meaning he was late by one hour. And as soon as he entered the house with his kid the master was looking at him furiously. He scolded him for a good fifteen minutes in front of his son, he was very embarrassed but there was nothing he could do as he could not risk his job. He listened to the scolding without uttering a single word and then silently continued the work.

    As the time passed the master’s kids were ready to go to school but were delayed because Ram came in late and as a result, their lunchboxes got delayed. They too scolded Ram, he took all the insult with a straight face and then apologized for the delay. During all this work and scolding Ram’s son was just standing in the corner seeing his father with his head down which was a contrast to the lesson he taught to his son that one should always live with head held high.

    After nearly eight hours of work, he finally finished his work and went back home with his son sleeping on his shoulder as it was ten in the night and he had school tomorrow. He put him to bed and sat beside his sleeping son thinking about his future and the lack of opportunities that he might have to go through.

    This really put him in a situation where he was overloaded with questions.

  • The Silent Observer (Part – 4)

    The Silent Observer (Part – 4)

    In order to put the right criminal in front of the nation and removing the tarnish from his and his community’s name, Prem devised a plan. He was observing both of the culprits for some days now and had figured out a type of pattern in their movements.

    He observed that every day both of them would split their responsibilities and one of them would go out every afternoon around one pm to get lunch and then would stay inside until four pm and a small boy will bring in tea accompanied with some snacks. After the tea, the second person would go out around seven thirty in the evening to buy dinner. So in totality one of them was alone twice a day. He further observed this a day or two before he was absolutely sure. Now was the time that he devised a good plan in order to catch them together.

    So the plan was as follows-

    One day when one of them would exit in the afternoon, Prem would follow the person and in between the transit he would capture him by throwing something heavy on his head which will faint him, once fainted he would tie the person in his house and would go back to capture the second one who would open the door as he would be expecting the first one to return with the food. He will capture both of them and then call the police.

    This seemed to be a good plan to him, maybe this was his overconfidence, only time will tell whether he will be successful or not.

    He decided to execute this plan on a Monday of next week. On the next Monday he was well prepared with all the things to successfully execute his idea and as planned started following the culprit. He knocked him out successfully before the glass window that was in the way and ensured that nobody saw him. Now it was the chance of the second person. As soon as he rang the doorbell and to his surprise, the second person was equipped with a gun which he pointed at Prem. His second half of the plan backfired and now he was in danger. But being courageous he got indulged in a fight with the gunman and a shot was fired, the shot hit the second culprit in the belly and he died on the spot. This was not what he imagined would happen.

    Still, he called the police and handed over both of them. He went back to the family in Delhi and was praised for his work. His family was right and his community was proved wrong.

    The stereotype that a community is wrong because of a few people is not at all the right thing to do. We must not judge a book by its cover. Prem set an example for every person in the society who thinks that North – eastern or Nepali people will undertake a criminal activity for sure.

  • The Silent Observer (Part – 3)

    The Silent Observer (Part – 3)

    The police posted this information with Prem’s photo in the newspaper and this news spread like fire across the country, the people were shocked to hear it at first but later when they read that the suspected criminal was a northeastern their stereotype about them strengthened and many even fired their existing servants who belonged to the same caste and community.

    When Prem’s family found about this they were devastated and their community boycotted them and named them a shame to their society. They somewhere knew that Prem was not the kind of person that would perform a robbery let alone the murder but due to the news they somehow believed it. Till now nobody knew where Prem was, he was not found at his home nor he left the city. Amidst all this confusion one person very smartly cleared his image, it was the driver. The driver called Mr. Khanna and told him that he had to immediately go to his village as his mother was not doing well so he would not be on duty for at least two months, this cleared his image so that the doubt never turned to him.

    Now comes the other side of the story that is the side of Prem. Prem was staying in a rented place in Uttar Pradesh when he came to know that he was the one blamed for all this, he knew that this was the worst time to go back or call the family as no matter what he would say he will be punished for the crime that he did not do. Apparently, he knew who did it. It was the driver. The night when the family was out and their third son were staying at home, the driver and his friend entered the house with the motive of robbery, they were unaware that the son and Prem were at home. When the son came out of the room and caught them in the act he was about to call his parents, this was the moment when the driver’s friend sneaked upon him and stabbed him in the back resulting in his death on – the – spot.

    Prem who was in the other room came out and chased both of them, he even tried to take the son to help but was of no use as he was already dead. So he decided to get him justice and catch the culprits himself, as a result he decided to follow them secretly and ended up in a small village in Uttar Pradesh where both the driver and his friend stayed with the robbed material. That was the reason that all his stuff was still in his quarter as he left in a jiffy. He never expected to be blamed for the crime but there was nothing that he could do at the moment, the only way to get himself out of trouble was to catch the criminals and hand them over to the police. But this was not an easy task.

  • The Photograph (Part – 3)

    The Photograph (Part – 3)

    Harry literally gathered all the courage he had and went to the police station personally after consulting a lot of his friends as well as some legal people who advised him to do so.

    He submitted the photographs to the police officers who were extremely happy on receiving the best lead of the case. They congratulated Harry and told him that due to him now the case was almost solved which was at a standstill due to the lack of proper evidence, they just had to run the photo through their database and the criminal will be caught. They would not release the photograph to the newspaper due to safety concerns. But Harry was concerned about something else.

    He told the police about the phone calls that he had been receiving which had been threatening him for murder and all other kinds of crimes that would be done to him if he did not delete the photograph. He even handed over the phone number to the officer which could be traced. The police listened to his concerns carefully and ensured him that they would not let anything of this sort happen to him, after all, he was the hero of the case. To provide another level of security they arranged a specially trained officer for protection who would be with Harry at all the times be it shootings, going to the market etc. He would be in casual clothing and would act as a friend of Harry who flew in from a different country to meet him. Harry was given the drill about the back data story that was just created for his safety.

    This really gave him a sort of relief as he felt protected under the continuous surveillance of the officer. Moreover, the officer will be with Harry until the time the case was completely solved and the culprits were punished and Harry could request and keep him after the time too until he felt safe again. Activities like this from the police grew the confidence of Harry in them and he was really happy that he undertook such a gutsy step.

    After almost a month and a half, the case was completely solved and both the criminals were punished and were sentenced to serve double life imprisonment time as they committed two crimes.

    On the other hand, Harry was awarded a bravery award from the President himself and his work was published on the front page of the national newspaper with credits. This led to an inflow of phone calls and emails requesting him to cover the event or help the company with the model photographs etc, he was even honored with a call to cover the event for the White House.

    His work and his status grew, he was nominated for the best photographer of the year for a big reputed magazine. All of this was just because of a ballsy step that he took a few months back that made him a responsible citizen.

    All of this literally changed his life and he was very happy.

  • The Silent Observer (Part – 2)

    The Silent Observer (Part – 2)

    Everything was going pretty well before the seed of doubt was planted in the mind of Mr. Khanna by one of his friends that his servant who was a north – eastern can prove to be harmful to the family. This was a stereotype that was being continued in our society for ages that North – eastern or the Nepali people are criminals and undertake many criminal activities like murders, robbery etc. The friend even quoted the example of an event that happened with a close friend of his and the servant who was a Nepali was the culprit. Mr. Khanna is a person of modern thoughts did not listen to his friend with concentration and got engrossed in his work but somewhere the seed was planted in his brain.

    Coming back to the household. Prem was doing well in his new job and was able to impress all the members with his skills. He was a friend to the boys and would prepare them delicious Assamese delicacies and would even keep their secrets, he was good to get along. He worked with full dedication and never ignored any responsibility.

    One day when he was coming back from the market after buying groceries for the household he overheard the driver and the conversation shocked him. He heard about a plan that was being devised by the driver with his friend to rob the house in the near future. He did not hear any date or time for the crime but was aware that it would happen sometime soon. Now it was on his shoulders, should he tell his master about this or should be quiet and observe the unfolding of events? He chose the second part and decided to be quiet until he got a solid proof against the driver. He never really heard anything like that after that day and that is the reason that he never really tried to get solid proof but kept a close eye on the driver.

    He forgot everything and got engrossed in work as usual and one day the unthinkable happened. When the husband and wife were out to a party with their two boys (as the third one wasn’t feeling good so he decided to stay home) the third boy was murdered and the whole house was robbed. The family remembered of Prem being at home with the boy who now was nowhere to be seen or found and this was the time the previously planted seed grew into a tree and Mr. Khanna called the police and blamed their north – eastern servant Prem (without even thinking for a bit) for the robbery as well as the murder and handed over the verification letter which contained his information for further investigation.

    This made the case very simple as the police had to just find the servant and punish him so they did not put much effort into its investigation. What both the police and the family was not able to see was that all the things and luggage of Prem were still in his quarter, if he ran after committing the crime then why did he left his luggage? This case was more complex than it seemed to be.

  • The Photograph (Part – 2)

    The Photograph (Part – 2)

    That day went by normally and both of them forgot the case till the evening.

    The next day Harry received a call from an unknown number, this was not at all strange as he would often receive calls from different numbers and the people would ask him for his services to their models or products. But this call was a bit different, a man from the other side angrily ordered Harry to ‘delete all the photos he clicked on the day of the crime or consider himself dead’, and then he hung up. Harry on the other side was extremely confused, he did not understand why would a man call him and order to delete all the photographs, what was wrong with them. He gave it a really nice thought but was unable to recall anything questionable that he clicked which could harm anybody in any way, they were just photographs of his friend.

    After consulting Anna about the same, she said it may be one of her friends who would be jealous of her outstanding photos that she just uploaded and was pranking him.

    “That could be possible” was the reply she got from Harry.

    But the doubt still lingered in his mind. He received at least four calls saying the same thing that day and it really scared him a lot, there was definitely something that they had missed to see in the photograph. As a result, he told Anna to come over immediately with the photographs which he gave her in the pen drive.

    After a careful examination of the photographs, he found one shot which was the reason he was receiving all these threats. Truly, he was quite happy with his skills of photography that he possessed. He ha caught the face of one of the criminals crystal clear.

    In one of the concept shots Anna was told to hold a reflective glass and try to hide some part of her upper body behind the mirror, this would give a really cool shot and Anna did the same. Little did they knew that the mirror was facing the street where the robbery had occurred and while running the face of one of the criminal was caught in the frame.

    Now this was a real game played by luck that he caught the shot at the right time but it also put Harry in a lot of danger. He was really confused on what to do. Should he delete the photo and never tell anybody that he caught something like this or should he take up the respnsiblity and hand it over to the police. This was a really tough time for him. His work quality decreased as he was not at all concentrated, all the time the same thought moved in his brain.

    After nearly two days on thinking and nit to mention receing humdreds of such calls he made a decision that changed his life forever.

    Would he live to tell the tale or was this his last decision of life?

  • The Kidnapped Boy (Part – 2)

    The Kidnapped Boy (Part – 2)

    After almost two days of waiting and contemplating the reports were finally in. A few fingerprints were found on the bicycle as well as the backpack but those were not present in the records of the police, this meant that the kidnappers were inexperienced and probably it was their first kidnapping, this gave a little relief to the parents as now they were assured that inexperienced kidnappers undertake such kind of activity with the motive of ransom only. They will not harm the child.

    And the police was right, after a day they received a call on the home landline and as expected it was for a ransom. The kidnappers were asking fifty lakh rupees in order to return their child. Little did they knew that the police was smarter than them and already traced the location of the phone call which turned out to be a public phone booth in a rural area. Till the police reached the kidnappers already flung the location and were now on the move. This made them think that they are every smart and they fooled the police, the child, on the other hand, was quicker than them and left a crumpled piece of paper on the floor of the PCO which had the description of the looks of the kidnappers written on it.

    This information really helped the police draw a sketch from the given description, this also provided a lead to the investigators and now they were engrossed in asking various people around the PCO location by showing them the sketches. One smart thing that they did was not to publish their sketches in the newspaper as this could have catastrophic reactions. The kidnappers may harm the child.

    Their investigation continued and they found the address of one of the kidnappers from a neighbor. It turned out that the kidnapper lived in the exact same location from where they had called for ransom. When the police reached the address nobody answered the knock and they had to break and enter. They did not find much other than a photograph which resembled the sketch.

    Soon the father received a parcel with his name on it and as soon as he opened it there were tears in his eyes. The kidnappers had sent the tie of Pulkkit with a letter warning them not to act smart and withdraw the case from the police if they wanted to see their child alive. But the industrialist did the opposite, he even hired more detectives and doubled the people investigating the case. They would trace the calls of the kidnapper as and when they came and had marked an area from which the calls came. This was the biggest breakthrough of the case till date. The next step was to search the location on a large scale. But this time the police had a plan, they deployed a lot of people in the expected location and started to trace the call immediately, and as soon as the call was y=traced they broke into the house from which the signals were transmitting and surprised the kidnappers leaving them no time to run away.

    They were able to retrieve the child and get hold of the kidnappers who were sent to the prison to serve a lifetime sentence.

  • The Silent Observer (Part – 1)

    The Silent Observer (Part – 1)

    This story is about a newly hired servant who is from the north east part of India (Assam) and has come to Delhi in search of work. He was hired by a family of five which includes the husband and wife and their three sons. The events take a rather interesting turn in the middle and end in a positive mode.

    First a little history about the servant (Mr. Prem) and the family.

    Prem used to live in a small village of Assam with his family of four which included two children and his wife, he used to work as a domestic helper in a nearby restaurant to help his family survive but due to certain misunderstandings with the owner and the other staff members he was thrown out of his job. This time was really tough for him as all his money has dried up and he was in debt for the loans that he took from his friends. Someone from his community suggested him to go to Delhi to find work, apparently, he knew that there is an availability of work in the big city as some of his friends were already working there and were earning good sums. After gathering some courage, Prem left for Delhi in hope of finding a good paying job.

    He got himself enrolled in a government employment agency and even received his police verification letter making him the perfect legal candidate to get a job.

    Coming to the other party of the story that is the family in Delhi (Khanna’s). Mr. Khanna was an affluent businessman in the town and was doing well in his life. He had a family of five which consisted of his three sons Arjun, Mohit and Ronak and his wife Meera. They had been married for the last twenty – two years and were living happily. Recently they caught their domestic servant stealing from their fridge so they fired him right away and started looking for a new servant for their mansion. They contacted many agencies and even informed the government agency about their requirement, as a result Prem was sent for the job interview as he was a perfect candidate for this job. There were many others who were present there for the interview.

    The interviews took about two and a half hours and out of all of them, Prem was selected as he had an advantage of the police letter with him, signifying that he is a trustable person. He was introduced to the driver (which was the other servant of the Khanna family), the family members and a detailed description about the job were provided to him by Meera. Though it was a lot of work, however, he agreed to take up the responsibility as the pay was very nice and he was happy for his family. Plus he was provided with the servant’s quarter to live and all his meal were to be provided by the family. It was a win – win situation for him.

  • The Photograph (Part – 1)

    The Photograph (Part – 1)

    This a strange story to be very honest. How can a photograph lead to murder threats to a person who is not at all concerned with it? What is there is the photograph that the photographer is missing? Is it of value that the blackmailer wants or were they just prank calls?

    It all traces back to 12th November 2016 when Harry (Photographer) who is the friend of Anna is taking her out for a quick photo session on the streets. Anna was demanding this session from a very long time but due to immense workload Harry was unable to fulfill her wish, but today he took an off and decided to fulfill it.

    It was a very normal day on the streets of New York, the people were bustling to their works, the coffee shops were full of people, the subway station had a big waiting line, the taxis and Uber cabs were honking non – stop etc. it was an everyday chore for the city, nothing new was happening. This was the perfect time for the photograph, the blurry background filter with the yellow color from the taxi contrasting the black overcoat that Anna was wearing was just the perfect shot. They took many photos in all kinds of places be it the street, the café, the red bricked wall etc. and each and every one came out near perfect, Anna was very happy as she just got her display photos for the whole year, Harry, on the other hand, felt satisfied by seeing the happy face of his friend, it was a win – win situation for both.

    Neither of them noticed anything else in the photographs except how beautiful Anna looked and other specifications like colors etc. But there was one thing that was left un – noticed which could prove to be harmful to both of them. Nevertheless, they departed their ways after a quick coffee and went back home.

    The next day’s newspaper read a heading which shocked both of them. It read that a robbery followed by a murder took place on the streets of the city. The street was the dame on which both of them were shooting yesterday morning, they were surprised that they did not see anything happen. It further stated that the police was investigating the case and will soon come up with a lead. The CCTV photographs of the two criminals were blurry and unclear but it also contained Harry and Anna’s picture in the background. If they were so close to the criminals then why did they not see anything etc. were the thoughts that were going through their heads. The both contacted each other and discussed the matter over the phone, neither of them was too free to go back to the street to examine the situation and as a result, they both gave up on the idea and got engrossed in their works leaving it to the states police department.

    Neither of them knew what was in store for them in the near future.