January 5th, I remember the day because from the day onwards my life was going to change only because of one man.
It was a frosty night , I was travelling from Delhi to Patna. I was watching through the window from my seat when suddenly a woman seating on seat no. 25 stood from her seat, cried for some time before telling the reason.
Officers approached hearing her cry, asked her-"I lost my diamond necklace!", she cried.
And then they searched everywhere inside the coach.
When the police got nothing, the women lost her last hope. And then, the man on seat no.15 spoke-" Culprit was the man sitting on seat no.10 till he deboarded the train at Lucknow, (saw his watch) he should be arrested by now". All eyes went to the man with blue shades and long hairs.
'trrinnng trrinnng'.
An officer gets a phone call, he picked up to be informed that the suspect has been arrested and has been searched only to find a diamond necklace he was trying to hide. The train slowed down, reached the station and the stranger deboarded. Incidentally, it was Patna and I also followed him. After leaving the station he stopped and asked me "What do you want to know?". I was amazed-"How were you so sure about the man?"
"I saw him spraying lidocaine on the lady's neck and he took the necklace when he left",he replied.
"Then why didn't you speak up earlier?",I asked him.
He told me "My friend, I had much more stuff to do. But then, I called the railway police that the culprit is going to deboard 12306 at Lucknow"
"How do you know about that chemical, are you a chemist, or a chemical engineer?",I questioned the stranger and he told-" No, I just do useful stuff during my free time". We both left for our respective destinations, me thinking we'll never meet again.
But it's only later I got to know that the meeting wasn't unplanned.
(The story to be continued in CHAPTER 2...)
Abhishek Kumar Pathak
abhishekkumarp1@gmail.com
BTECH/15024/19