Samsaara : Devadoot

Point Blank

A FEW HOURS AGO

I woke up at 4am while sweating bullets. Today was the day I had to meet Arshad and his boss. On any other day there would have been a remote possibility for me to fold under pressure to avoid trouble, but now I was not an ordinary person anymore. I had the ability to spontaneously ignite anything that I desired and I planned to use it to my vantage. While freshening up, I was planning for my next steps. As of now I had deduced two things.

Firstly, Arshad's muddy tires had some dried seaweed stuck on it. This means he was driving that car to some place close to my work place, and that place was near some salt water body where the mud was soft. Secondly, the man who was on the other end of the phone was close to hundreds of ducks quacking and grunting which could be heard in the background. There was only one place in the entire city where such sounds can be heard during this season.

I got dressed and left early in the morning as I didn't think of gangsters to be the early bird kind. I wore my hoodie and covered up well, went towards the back of my building and jumped the wall into the neighbouring compound. Then I got out from the far end of that compound to avoid being seen. I was just paranoid about them having me on watch, since I had their money and contraband.

Walking briskly for about 15 minutes, I reached close to Dadar station. I took a platform ticket and went inside. On one of the benches on the platform, I sat down and waited patiently while doodling randomly on my cell phone. At about 8am, I left from the station and went outside. The street side vendors were just beginning to set up shop.

On spotting what I was looking for in one of the shops, I went up to him and bought it. It was a binocular, not the military grade ones but the cheaper touristy kind with the red non-reflective lens. It was not powerful, but enough to suffice my plans. Then I walked towards the post office at Dadar.

Outside the post office there were many stalls which sold stationary, took photocopies, sent couriers etc., but that was not what I went there for. There were numerous shops which made rubber stamps. I went to one of them and asked the shopkeeper to make a stamp of the symbols on the pin. All but the last symbol. Then to another shop and asked him to make a stamp of the last character.

With that taken care of, I took a bus for Sewri and got down at the last stop. I went across the station to the east side. Again I put my hoodie on to be inconspicuous and walked for a long time till I reached the Sewri fort. In the past it must have been a majestic sight to behold but as of now it was pretty much dilapidated. It overlooked the Sewri creek and was the tallest structure near the brook.

When I reached to the top of the fort I heard the sounds that I was expecting to hear. My deduction of the background sound on the phone call was right. On looking at the creek from the fort I could see a carpet of pink; moving, hopping, hunting, dancing. The queen of the winter skies, the flamingo. There must have been at least a few thousands of them, all in a constant frenzy.