Tomorrow is the big day of my life. How it came about is a story stranger than fiction.
It all started on the fateful night when Rohan and Mithil found me next to Prisha with a gun in my hand and bullet in her head. I took a chance and tried to escape. Within hours, my picture was on news as a fugitive from justice. I threw away everything with electronic in it. I formatted my laptop, stamped on it beyond recognition and dumped it in different places around the city. Ditto my mobile phone, ID card, credit cards, debit cards. I took my car to the chowpatty near the riverside, removed the number-plate and left it there with the keys locked inside. The only thing I carried along was the incriminating weapon.
Only a person in my fateful position can realize what I was going through. Every person looked like an informer. Every face looked like an under-cover cop. I decided to wait out the night in the temple. Even the gods were not kind to me. There was a festival in the temple and there was highest possible security for some unknown reason. That is when I saw her. No. Not a girl. One Maruti 800 with unlocked trunk. I was casting furtive glances in all directions. I had no definite plan when I got inside the trunk. I was so tired that I did not realize when I drifted off to sleep in that small dank place.
What woke me up was a sharp bump on head. I had to take a few seconds to come to senses and realize where I was and why. I did not get that time. My knees suddenly hurt. It would be an understatement to say that I was in a car with a bad driver. The roads in Pune were also not helping. I decided to come out of the hiding and hold her at the gunpoint. I wanted her to see me through the rear-view mirror, get shocked and then obey me. I was hoping that she wont suddenly shout. When I looked up, I felt fear for the first time in the whole evening. The car had NO side mirrors. The wind-shield was cracked. She was looking at herself in the rear-view mirror while jumping a red light and changing a channel on the radio. She – yes it was a female driver - was rash and reckless, which is difficult to achieve at around 25 kmph.
She was oblivious when I jumped into the back seat. I tried to think of how to scare her the most. I almost whispered.
“Keep driving.”
She turned around to look at me. She looked a little confused rather than shocked.
She said, ”Did I get into someone else’s car again?”
Again?? I did not have the answer to that.
“Keep driving!!” I said menacingly.
“I am driving. Can you come in the front seat? My neck hurts when I am talking to you.”
My heart skipped a beat. We were having this conversation while she was driving and she was looking back the whole time and strange part was that her driving felt exactly same as before.
“Look at the road and drive!!” I yelped.
“Sure. Do you want to go somewhere? I have petrol for about 5 km. Its just below the ‘E’ line. I am not sure if ‘E’ on the petrol meter means ‘emergency’ or ‘empty’.”
Getting arrested for murder did not sound like a bad idea any more.
“Do you know who I am?”
“No. Are you in films?”
“No. I am wanted by police for a murder. This gun in my hand is the murder weapon. I am on the run from them. I am on all the TV news channels.”
“Oh ok. Do you like that Sheela Patil on H-news? She looks so artificial. I don’t like her at all”
“I don’t see H-news.”
“Why not?”
She was trying to keep me talking.
“Keep driving straight ahead.” I snapped at her.
“No no…that’s a dead-end. I don’t want to hit that fence again.”
Again?
“Take a left.”
“That’s JM Road. Its one-way. That cop there has told me if he sees me take a left turn there again, he will kill me. I have promised him I won’t. ”
Again, again??
“Take a right then.”
“Where do you want to go?”
