Anirudh- The Story Of A Misread Barrister

Chapter-21 : Catching The Real Thief

"Finally you have shown your true face to me. Excellent! This is going to help me a lot in the near future.", I said to a perplexed Murgesan with a smirk.

He didn't actually understand what I meant. He was actually sad about not getting the expected reaction from me. In spite of taking all the trouble to conspire against me and punishing me for a crime that I never committed, I wasn't giving up.

"Subbu, can you please stop the dispersing crowd? I should speak something important.", I called out to Subbu while Murgesan stood on his legs and faked a smile to him.

Once the entire crowd had gathered, I somehow regained my strength and stood with the help of my friend, leaning against the pillar. For a minute, I observed the entire crowd. It consisted of men and women, who did not have any personal conflicts with me. However, when they found out that the jewellery of their beloved Goddess was missing and mysteriously discovered in my backyard, they had entrusted themselves with the responsibility of protecting the "dharma (the natural justice)" and restore the socio-cultural justice. They were ignorant enough to think that, their responsibility would be fulfilled just by corporally punishing a random person, without any trail or attempt to know the exact truth.

Their anger had been subsided to a certain extent after seeing my blood. Some of their eyes revealed that they are taking pity on me at the moment on seeing my condition. While there was a pair of eyes, that carried guilt in them and were reluctant to look at me. Yes, those were that of the priest. He knew that I am innocent and at that moment his eyes clearly reflected the pain that he had indirectly inflicted on me. I chuckled on observing all of this. My law studies have trained me with this art of assessing people's minds by carefully observing their eyes, which is helping me a lot at the moment.

Then there was this pair of eyes that were the only solace to all my problems, eagerly waiting to embrace me and remove all my pain to whatever extent possible. And they rightfully belonged to my Bondita. I always want to see them gleaming with happiness but end up making them shed innumerable tears. At times I feel that I am her culprit in many ways.

However, being well aware of the fact that it was not the time to accuse myself but to expose the culprit of the mother goddess, I started off saying "Thanks for being kind to me and stopping with fifty blows. I regret for everything that had happened. Well, we cannot revert what is already gone, but can surely prevent it from happening any further. For that, I need you all to cooperate with me.". I joined my hands and continued, "You will have to follow me to my home and answer a few questions; nothing much.".

The crowd murmured among themselves for a moment but later complied with my request. At first, I asked the head priest for the key to the garba griha. He hesitantly handed it over to me after looking at Murgesan for permission. An already confused Murgesan couldn't think much and allowed the priest to give me the key. I brought it close to my nose to smell it and was overwhelmed that my anticipation was becoming true. The bemused crowd stood watching my crazy act but couldn't really make out anything of it.

Without giving them much time to ponder, I asked them, "How many of you use castor oil here?".

The answer came as; almost all of them use castor oil as it has medicinal value.

"That's good. So, how many of you make this at your homes?", I came up with another question.

"Mister Barrister, why are you wasting our time with such stupid questions? Aren't you shameful enough after getting beaten for stealing the God's jewels?", cried a seemingly learned men from the crowd.

"Your answer lies in your question itself. Just now you have called me a barrister. I am exactly doing what a real barrister would do. Coming to wasting your time, as long as I was being beaten, you were watching with much amusement, totally forgetting that your time is precious. So, now let me do what I have to do.", I gave him a befitting reply and continued, "So how many of you make this at your homes?".