The Gold Syndicate

By

Ravi Ranjan Goswami

Disclaimer

This novella is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters, organizations, and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author's imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, events or localities, is entirely coincidental.

CHAPTER 1

Rahul's train reached Delhi at about 8 AM. He went there for a job interview. To save time and money, he finished his morning ablutions in the washroom of his train compartment and got ready for the interview. The interview was for the position of an officer trainee in a petroleum company. Its office was located in Connaught Place. He did well in the interview, but he understood that his chances of selection were few as he was just a graduate. There were many candidates, who were having a postgraduate degree plus an MBA. Above all that, he was not fluent in speaking English as he had studied in the vernacular medium. This proved an Achilles heel of him. He had this impression that to get a good job either you ought to be exceptionally talented or you had to be fluent in English. He passed many written examinations for higher jobs but failed in interviews for this weakness or, at least, he believed so.

After the interview, he came to a nearby bus stand and stood there waiting for a bus to go to R. K. Puram, a place in New Delhi to see one, of his cousins, who lived there.

After visiting his cousin in R. K. Puram in New Delhi, Rahul reached the New Delhi railway station in the evening just a few minutes before the scheduled departure time of the train, in which he was supposed to travel to Jhansi. He went straight to the cloakroom, where he had deposited his briefcase in the morning. He took back his briefcase and rushed to platform number one. It was being announced, "Attention please, the train number… Traveling from New Delhi to Bhopal via Jhansi is standing at plate form number 1" He rushed to his compartment and as soon as boarding the train, it started.

This time, his reserved berth had been a side upper berth just next to the AC coach's corridor entry. He anticipated a disturbing journey by the frequent movements of passengers in the corridor and by the frequent opening and closing of the door next to his berth. Whenever he traveled by train on a side berth, particularly in an AC compartment, he always had this feeling that the Railway department should charge a lesser fare for these side berths as they are shorter in length and passengers have a less comfortable journey because of the movements of the people in the gallery.

After some time, a train ticket examiner came wearing a black coat and a tie over a white shirt and pants. He checked his ticket and moved ahead to check other persons' tickets.

Rahul felt like resting so, he climbed the berth and lay there folding his legs and using his briefcase as a pillow. He was very tired. So soon he fell asleep. A few times his sleep was disturbed by the noise of the entering and leaving of passengers on the stations, where the train stopped.

He wakened up a few minutes earlier the train reached Jhansi, his home. The train reached there at about 12 midnight. He got down from the train and came out of the railway station.

Had it been during the daytime he would have been surrounded by tens of auto and tempo drivers asking me where he had to go and some of them would have been virtually dragging him to their vehicles. At that hour of the night, their number was less comparatively.

He hired an auto from the railway station to Manik Chowk for rupees 50 and reached his home near this main market of the city in about twenty minutes.

He did not want to disturb all members of his family so instead of ringing the doorbell he softly knocked at the door. He knew that the mother would be waiting for him. As he had anticipated it was t mother only, who opened the door. All the others were sleeping. He went straight to the bathroom and washed his face, hands, and feet. He also changed his dress and put on pajamas and Kurta for comfort.

Amma served him food. After having food, he went to bed.

CHAPTER 2

Saleem was six feet tall, well built, and of dark complexion. He was a graduate and belonged to a respectable, but poor family. After passing out in Bachelor of Art in sociology, he tried to find some jobs but could not get a stable job. He thought of doing some business but finances were the big constraints.

His father had retired from the post of a senior clerk of the city corporation. His mother was a homemaker. He had a younger sister and a younger brother.

He became well to do after joining Seth Gopichand. So a good deal that he could aid his brother in education. His brother did a diploma course in automobile engineering in a polytechnic institute. After that, Saleem helped in opening a small automobile repair shop in the town. Also, he helped his father on the marriage of his younger sister.

A few years ago, when Saleem was unemployed and in financial difficulties, he happened to meet Jimmy, a friend of his college days. Jimmy told him that he was working in Mumbai and if he wanted he could arrange a job for him also there. Saleem agreed.

Saleem's family members were not wanting him to go, but he had decided to go to Mumbai with Jimmy.

When Saleem got down from the train at CST Mumbai along with his friend Jimmy, he was awestruck seeing the crowd there. He carried his suitcase in his left hand and with the right hand, he grabbed the arm of Jimmy. He felt like a child afraid of getting lost in that crowd. This was his first visit to a big city.

Making the way through the crowd, they came out of the railway station. Jimmy took Saleem to the roadside and stopped in one place. He made a phone call on his mobile phone. In a few seconds, one black Maruti Van pulled along and stopped in front of them. Jimmy went ahead and opened the side sliding door of the van. He made Jimmy sit inside the car first, then he sat inside and closed the door. Their suitcases were not really large. They kept them in the leg space. The

Impressum

Verlag: BookRix GmbH & Co. KG

Texte: RAVI RANJAN GOSWAMI
Bildmaterialien: author
Lektorat: author
Übersetzung: author
Tag der Veröffentlichung: 19.10.2014
ISBN: 978-3-7368-4892-4

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Widmung:
A thrilling story about gold-smuggling into India.A fiction close to reality.