Chapter 4 - We caught him

A Chapter by Irshad

Finding the cause of serial murders

“I am very sorry Archana. I have told you several times to withdraw your decision. You were not listening. Its too late. Its all over now. I am really sorry for doing this to you.”

Archana realized something strange was happening. She was trying to detach herself from him, but she could not. Sethu strongly hugged her, wherein she could not move herself.

“Its all over Archana. You can’t do anything now.”, Sethu’s tone was very harsh.

Only that single street lamp post was watching this. Sethu’s eyes was staring at a bundle of rope placed behind the street lamp post.

“Sethu??????” , Archana’s scared tone.

She was fully sweating and heart beat raised until she felt that beat till her head. There was extreme silence for sometime. Sethu slowly detached and held her left hand firmly. Suddenly there heard a big blasting sound and the place became very dark. The transformer blasted because of short-circuit and the entire place immersed in darkness. Two constables hurried there with torch lights in hand. Archana was standing alone under the street lamp post. No one around.

“Madam. What are you doing here? How did you come here?”, One constable asked

Archana was completely sweating and she was not normal.

“Madam???”, the same constable in loud voice.

Archana realized herself and replied.

“Sorry”

“How did you come here? This is not the safe place. Come, lets move first.”, that constable ordered.

“It seems transformer blasted. Its completely dark.Your home has inverter. It is safe to be inside your room.”, another constable told.

She did not understand anything. What happened few minutes ago. Was it a dream. Did Sethu come and try to kill her. Everything confused her. Two constables took her till her bedroom.

“Madam, please don’t come out. Its not safe. Please be inside and close the door. Open the door only if we knock at it.”, Constables left that place.

Archana was in great confusion. She slowly walked and stood in front of her bed. She heard some noise from her behind. When she turned back, a sudden force attacked her and she fell down on the bed. Sethu held her right hand tightly by his left hand and his right hand had covered her mouth to avoid her screaming.

“Archana, please…. Don’t shout, just few minutes. Let me speak.”

She looked into his eyes deeply. She tried to escape, but he was so strong enough to control her.

“Archana, please please. Give me a chance. Let me explain.”

Both of them looked at their eyes each other. Archana’s eyes was very much scared. Sethu’s eyes was really requesting.

“Archana….. please……..”

She looked into his eyes for few seconds. She felt it was very pleasing and wanted to convey which was very important. Sethu also realized that she was not trying to do anything different. He slowly took his hand from her mouth, hoping that she would not scream. He slowly stood up and looked at her.

“Thank you Archana..”, he said

Archana did not respond anything. She was just staring at him. Sethu continued.

“I followed you, proposed you, loved you only because to stop you from ASRC Mars Mission project. I tried a lot to stop you from this. But I couldn’t.”

Archana looked at him very seriously.

“You mean everything was fake????”, her voice was breaking mixed with cry.

“Archana, actually it was fake at the beginning. But once I understand your character, I really started loving you. That’s the reason why I am trying to save you.”, Sethu replied.

“Save me????? What is happening around. Why do you want to save me? Who are trying to kill me? I don’t understand anything.”, Archana told in confused tone.

“Let me explain everything”, Sethu answered.

Archana looked at him in confusion and Sethu spoke again.

“We already knew that you were going to be shortlisted for ASRC Mars Mission project. I followed you first to collect your details. I was trying to stop you from this. But you were very stubborn. So my next step was to kill you. But I couldn’t. I started loving you without my knowledge. We have some norms to be followed. There was sometime for me to convince you. I tried a lot to change your mind. But you were very strong. Even now I came here to kill you. But after seeing your eyes I could not. Archana please run away somewhere. Withdraw from this project. They won’t leave you. Please Archana, listen to me”, Sethu requested.

“We??????? Who is we? Still its so confusing. Why do you want to kill me? Sethu, are you a terrorist? You the one who don’t know the value of mankind?”, Archana asked.

“Mankind?? Do you people know the real value of mankind???”, Sethu shouted.

There was extreme silence for few seconds. Archana was shocked by his behaviour. Sethu started narrating his story.

Some years ago, Sethu was just a normal citizen of India, who followed all the rules and regulations properly. He was perfect in all things and he wanted everything to be perfect. He always used dustbins to dispose the wastes. Even if he ate chocolates, he never threw away the waste papers. He went on searching dustbins to throw away the waste papers. He used to preach this to everyone. But this world never respected him. He used to say ‘Throwing away wastes is just like throwing wastes on your mother’. But no one obeyed, instead he got funny comments from them.

Day by day, the usage of plastics had become more. He tried to explain everyone that it is bad for our planet. It will block the cycle of underground water generation, which will lead to several natural disaster. He used social networking, media and all possible mediums. But no one was ready to listen. The world was moving very fast. No one had time to think about others.

But there were few people, who commented and liked all his statuses in facebook. Later they started a community ‘Save Earth’. Members like Sethu from all over the world joined this community. They started explaining the importance of water, trees and especially the value of human beings to the world. They expected some people would realize and understand the current status of this planet and the importance of preventing it. But maximum they got some likes and thumps up comments.

Later they started a whatsapp group to discuss on the current status of their countries, changes in the climate, future water scarcity problems. No one in this world expect these people realized that the world was slowly being killed by us.

One day Sethu went to a village to attend his friend’s sister’s marriage. That had become the important day in his life. The village was very beautiful and rich in agriculture. But one news shocked him a lot.

“Your village is very beautiful. You are very lucky to live in this place.”, Sethu said.

His friend who was listening to him, just smiled and Sethu continued again.

“Is this entire land your father’s?”, Sethu asked.

“Yes it was…..”, his friend’s tone was very low. Sethu looked at him with confusion. His friend continued again.

“Yes. This entire land belonged to us once. But not now. Indian government has bought this complete land. We have been given enough money to start another business. I am thinking to start a small textile shop in town. Lets see..”

Sethu was very much shocked.

“It’s a agricultural land, heart of this country. What is the reason for the government to buy this?”

“Hey, don’t you know the news? Indian government announced last week. International standard roads which connects South India and North India is coming. This village comes on the way. So they bought this. Our country is developing dude. We should be very much proud about this.”, his friend replied with pride.

But Sethu was not convinced. How can a agricultural land be destroyed for just roads. He was very much disturbed about this news. Generally he was not able to tolerate when people used to spoil the environment. But this was extreme. He thought by means of development, we are destroying our home unknowingly.

He started to collect information regarding this using facebook community. The information which he got, almost skipped his heart beat for a second. Because of this big international standard road project, our Indian government has decided to destroy two and half lakhs acres of agricultural and forest lands. People called it as a development. Agriculture is considered as the backbone of our country. What was the use of strengthening the leg bone using the back bone. As usual they started spreading awareness regarding this in all social networks and as usual no one mind. They decided to convey this to Indian government as the last step. They approached the respective department of Indian government.

“Imagine once a time we had dirty and non-quality roads. We blamed the government about the quality of roads. Now International standard roads are coming which is a drastic development of this country. People also have started to develop along with this country. All young people have started moving towards the technology. It is a positive sign for the country. Most of the students from villages are traveling abroad for research and jobs. There won’t be any illiterates like farmers hereafter. They have got so many opportunities outside. We should be very proud of this development.”

The government authorities tried to convince them. Few of them passed funny comments. Sethu was not convinced. He thought it was not a real development. To this world we are developing, but actually we are moving behind.

Nothing helped him. International standard road project was started. Agricultural and forest lands were slowly destroyed. Animals lost its habitat. Many of the species went to its last generation. Sethu thought this would come to human species one day.

The disappointments were slowly turning into irritation and anger. During this time, one of his African group member Macarthur invited everyone to his place. He wanted to show something instead of explaining this to everyone. Most of them respected his invite and decided to travel. This journey had changed Sethu a lot. Macarthur asked everyone to come to lower Shabelle of Somalia.

Somalia, the name looks beautiful, but not actually the country. The highest famine affected country in this world. Sethu was stunned. He thought he might have stepped into a Allien planet,wherein everyone looked like a Allien. They just looked like skeletons covered with a thin layer of skin except the pot belly. Their eyes went deeply inside and most of them were not able to walk. They were crawling. Everyone was speechless after seeing this. Macarthur came near to them.

“We were speaking so many things in our group. But I thought, it would be better to witness this, instead of reading as a facebook post. This is how my people live their normal life. They don’t have either water or food. They have to travel miles to drink a single drop of water. It would be very rare to have at least a meal per day. You might have witnessed deaths very rarely in your life. But here, it is a daily activity.”

Sethu looked around. All people stared at them. Some of them were crawling towards them. Some of them could not crawl as they lost all their energy. People thought they would get at least something good to eat.

“What is government doing here? They are not taking any measures?”, Sethu asked.

“These people don’t have a government. No one want to take responsibility.”, Macarthur replied.

Sethu was shocked. Everything looked very strange to him. He thought, he was living like a King in India. This was what the real world. They distributed bread and water which Macarthur asked them to bring. One lady with a small baby got some breads and water from Sethu. She tried to smile at Sethu to communicate her thanks. But she could not. Her skin in the face shrunk and her yellow teeth were shown up. Sethu understood that she was trying to smile, which she could not. She did not have energy to express her feeling also. She fed her child first and she had little. Sethu was continoulsy looking at them. That lady was playing with her child. She was trying to make her baby laugh. Whenever the baby laughed, she also enjoyed along with the baby. That incident touched his heart. Having a meal is regular activity for us. But these people felt it like a festival. All the faces looked very happy. Teeth were shown up after a very long time.

That night Sethu and Macarthur were discussing .

“Is this the only place seriously affected?”, Sethu asked.

“This is just the 1 % of the affected parts.”, Macarthur replied.

Sethu widened his eyes. Macarthur continued again.

“Lower Shabelle, Mogadishu, the Bay area and Bakool are the mostly affected area. People in these places are slowly dying without food, proper nutrition and water. One survey states that almost 2.5 million people died of starving till now and 60% of them are children. One recent shocking survey states that for every 10 seconds, a child is dying without food and water.”

“What??????”, Sethu exclaimed.

“Yes. Its true. And no one bothered about this people. Because all other countries think this would not help them in any ways.”, Macarthur said.

“Aren’t they receiving any help from outside?”, Sethu asked.

“Sometimes. But it is very rare. Some helping organizations are doing regular visits and help. But unless rich countries participate, there won’t be a permanent solution. If this situation persist, then by soon, Somalia will be removed from the world map.”

Sethu was stunned and he did not know how to react and Macarthur asked a question.

“Have you ever heard about Fewsnet?”

“No. What is this?”, Sethu replied.

“Fewsnet is a network, stands for Famine Early Warning Systems Network. It is a international network. It is responsible for detecting famine and drought all over the world, so that the country could take preventive measures. This Fewsnet had detected famines in Somalia long back. But no other countries were eager to help. Because they do not have any profits. Even the helping organizations responded very slow. This country cannot be saved by anyone. This is these people fate.”

Both of them looked around. Still the mother was playing with the baby.

That midnight, Sethu was sleeping. He was very tired. But his sleep was disturbed by the noises around. He slowly opened his eyes. Macarthur stood beside him.

“That child passed away.”

Sethu stood up.

“What??????”

“Lack of nutrition.”

People did the funeral rituals. Again all faces went into the dull mode, especially the mother’s face. Whenever Sethu looked at the mother’s face, he remembered her smiling face when she played with her child.

The entire team left that place the next day. Sethu was not normal. He was completely thinking about the incidents in Somalia and the last words from Macarthur.

“This is my country. This is how we live daily. This is our fate. At least you people do respect mankind, natural resources and protect them.”

The complete team was not not normal especially Sethu. During this time, the news from ASRC upset their minds a lot. The Human Colony Mars Mission project, which cost around some 6000 million dollars was announced by ASRC. The entire 6000 million dollar would be spent to research on the presence of water in other planet, which is far away from us, wherein people here are dying out without water. If they spent at least 10% of that money, they could have saved 60% of Somalian people. Again they started to create awareness through social network and then they realized it was waste of time. They decided to act. They tried a lot to make people understand, but in vain. They lost hope in people. They wanted at least to save resources from earth. They wanted to save the 6000 million dollars of resources. If it could not help people who are really suffering, then there is no actual use of that money.

They finally decided to stop this ASRC Mars Mission project. They planned to kill everyone who were shortlisted. First they tried to change their decision and the last option was to kill. Sethu was responsible to change Archana’s decision, but he failed. So the last option, he had to kill her, which he could not because of his love on her.

Sethu completed his story and Archana was listening with her broad eyes.

“This is called terrorism.”, Archana said.

“This is not terrorism. What you people are doing is called terrorism. You are destroying this planet. This is called terrorism. Human species are considered as the most dangerous VIRUS to this planet.”, Sethu replied.

“You were talking about mankind. This ASRC Mars Mission project is mainly to safeguard this mankind. Don’t you understand that? This is to save human species when something would happen to this planet.”, Archana said.

“Ok. Let us consider this situation. One of your body parts is getting affected. Would you try treating that or search an another body to live? If your organs are not functioning well, then that will affect your entire body. But if any part of this world is suffering, we don’t bother about that. Actually we are not realizing that this would affect us one day. Do you know the most painful death is dying without food and water. Have you ever witnessed a small child is died out of hunger and thirst?”, Sethu replied.

“Ok. We agree. We don’t care about this environment. We are spoiling it. But why do you want to kill innocent people like us. What did they do wrong. They are just normal innocent people. Don’t you people think about his?”, Archana asked.

Sethu looked at her for a second and said a Tamil proverb.

“Thani manidhan oruvanuku unavu illaiyenil, intha jagathinai erithiduvom”

(Meaning : Even if a single man is starving without food, then there is nothing wrong to destroy this world)

Archana looked at him in surprise and she suddenly took the flower pot, which is somewhat bigger in size. She threw that towards him, which hit his head badly. Sethu lost his balance and fell down on the ground. By hearing these sounds, Irshad and his team broke the door and stepped in. Sethu was lying on the ground, blood was running from his head, but he was conscious. Irshad and team surrounded him with the guns. Sethu slowly stood up. Two cops went and held him tightly, so that he could not escape. Irshad was pointing gun towards his head for safety. Archana was breathing heavily. Till all this happened, Sethu was just looking at her eyes with extreme disappointment and pain. Blood kept on flowing from his head. Irshad took his mobile phone and said,

“We caught him”

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