Episode 15
But here, he had no option but to wake up at 5 AM. A very rhythmic, not-so-loud alarm bell started at 4-50 AM on its own. There was no alarm clock in the entire room, but there was a multipurpose meter on the western wall of the room. Rajan had never seen that kind of an electronic device in his entire life. The meter read the temperature, humidity, time, date, voltage, current, altitude and pressure. But, that was not all. It had many buttons embedded on its body. Rajan was sure it could measure some other parameters as well. It was planted on the higher side of the western wall so that no human being can reach it even by jumping. But, Rajan was sure the rhythmic sound didn't come from that.
Rajan could clearly understand that the sound was coming from top of the adjacent northern wall. But he could detect nothing from his naked eyes. Anyway, the sound lasted for only 5 minutes. That sound was not good enough to wake Rajan from his deep slumber. On his first day in this room, he had pretended not to hear it at all. But, he couldn't enjoy the coziness of his warm blanket anymore. Suddenly, the blanket seemed to have thickened. Rajan never tolerated anything coming between him and his love, sleep. So, he had immediately thrown out the blanket.
But that didn't help. The warmness of the room increased in every ten seconds. Rajan never opened his eyes to check the temperature of the room. But, when he started sweating heavily, and suffered from shortness of breathing, he could not ignore it any more. He immediately woke up, and saw that the time was 4-58 AM, and the temperature was as high as 40° C. Then appeared the frigging face of the Joker on the television monitor.
"Good morning Rajan! This is my house, and you are nothing more than a captive here. The value of your life is nothing more than a cockroach's life in my view. You have to obey everything I tell you. Take me seriously, otherwise you may even lose your life."
At that moment, Rajan understood one thing that here he had to divorce his love, sleep. Then onwards, he always woke up hearing the sound of the alarm bell without fail.
Today was no exception. Rajan woke up even 10 minutes before the alarm bell rang. He quickly went into the attached toilet and freshened himself. The automatic door opened sharp at 5 AM, and Rajan followed a masked man, who seemed to be holding an important position in this mansion.
"What's in store for me today? How can I escape from here?" These two questions were reverberating in his mind.
Rajan contemplated thousands of time a plan to flee from here. In the last fortnight, he was taken to the garden in the morning. There was a beautiful garden, measuring not less than 1 acre of area, Rajan estimated, in front of the golf field. There were at least 100 types of flowers, and 200 types of other trees, ranging from small to big, in that garden. Naturally, maintaining this huge garden was a big task. Rajan was assigned the job of a gardener.
It was not as if he hated this job, as he himself had had a small garden outside his house. But, initially he was in a shock to assume that he alone had to take the huge load of 5 men's job. However, he was pleasantly surprised to see 2 other men, and they were not masked, in the garden doing the same job. However, the masked man, who guided him to this place told him in heavily Bengali-accented English that he was not allowed to mingle with them during the working hours.
However, they were given a break after 3 hours of continuous and rigourous works of watering and feeding plants, trimming trees and shrubs, fertilizing and mowing, weeding and keeping green spaces and walkways clear of debris and litter. In the first day of this tedious work, the masked man was continuously present with him, guiding and rebuking him from time to time. Rajan was panting like a steam engine, his back was on the brink of breaking, and his tongue was lolling like a dog. He never knew that gardening 33 decimals of land would almost take his life. But, at 8 AM, when Rajan's arms felt like they were made of tons of stone, and his head was spinning like a teetotum, and he was sure he would fall like a felled tree, the masked man said, "Stop. Time for 15 minute of break."
He pointed to a place 50 meter north from here with his stretched right hand and said, "That is a small refreshment centre. Go there and take rest. You can drink and eat there, too. Come back here after 15 minutes." He went somewhere else, and Rajan went to the place he showed.
The refreshment centre was a temporary structure made of bamboo and wood. Big trees, such as banyan, peepal, mango and jamun, surrounded the place. The roof of the temporary structure was covered with jute and hay to protect it from the sun and rain. There was a small wooden table where there were few glasses, a jug, and a wooden bucket full of fruits. Rajan was pleased to see the two men, whom he had previously seen from distance, were also present at that place pouring water from a wooden water keg to the jug. But, Rajan was a bit disappointed to note that none of them were Indian: one was a muscled, tall, black guy, while the other was a short, thin, effeminate South Asian man. When they saw him for the first time, there eyes became wide open in amazement or whatever that Rajan could not assess, and they accosted him stopping the work they were doing.
The African guy grabbed his shoulder in a way that Rajan didn't like at all. The Asian guy took his hand in his hand in a way as if his hand was a flour which needed to be kneaded. Their behaviour was queer, but they were unmasked like him. That gave Rajan some hope, and ignoring their odd behaviour, Rajan asked,
"Hi! I am Rajan. I an an Indian. They have captivated me. Who are you? How did you arrive here?"
"I am Roger. I am an African American. I was a bouncer in a pub. One day, I was coming back to my home at late hour. Suddenly, someone clubbed me on my head with an iron rod, and I don't remember what happened next. But, when I woke up, I found myself here. I have been in solitary confinement since my arrival here." Roger spoke in English.
The next episode will be published on Wednesday night 9 PM IST
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