Innocent Contrivance 2 : The Case Of The Missing Letter.

It wasn’t a high priority bullet point in my list of Things-To-Do. And hence, it doesn’t surprise me that am writing a supposed-to-be sequel for ‘Innocent Contrivance’ this late.

‘Life goes on and gets busy’ isn’t a reason am going to pose for this. In fact, it has not been that busy lately. Well, if am going to murder somebody [ref: Innocent contrivance], I am not going to do it after publicizing about it. Turn of events - such as they are, made me stand on the opposite side of the moral road and ponder over things..

It wasn’t until I reached Milton Keynes that I came to know things have taken a really bad turn. I was visiting Sachin, though my real intention was to play a few good hours of cricket before he joins his new company, a British one. He was not there at the station [not that I expected him to receive me with a bouquet or something, but he always had been kind enough to come and receive me at the station]. He asked me to take a cab and reach his place.
As soon as I got inside the house, he started blabbering that what a lousy and absent minded person he is [as usual, I shall add] but this time with a real sad face. I would not consider him as lousy or absent minded, even though there are times I feel like puncturing his nose for what he does. Now, his face told me that there is something grave about it….

I was about to hug him and convey my best wishes in securing a nice job at the British company as soon as I entered the house. Now, he is so tense that I forgot how nice a meeting it could have been. His house was almost all packed. Can’t say fully packed because the house looked ransacked. There were several cardboard boxes and suitcases in the living room, all of them open and several things dragged out of them. My first impression was that his place was burglarised after he forgot to close the front door. What else would explain THIS?

It took sometime for what he told me to sink in. It was simple, yet confusing. He has misplaced his letter to join the new company. The hiring letter was supposed to be produced when he joins the new branch. He was sure he kept it on the upper column of his new suitcase, but now, was missing. As the one who he confided in, it was my responsibility to play down the importance of the event, though I knew how grave it was. The British are quite conservative. The company he joined is one of the oldest and all management is old- in all terms; to say the least. They would not like a person to walk in to their office, not even with a hiring letter they have sent him. THAT would be inappropriate and immediately inviting displeasure. He can’t afford to loose the hiring letter.

What could I do now, console him saying that everything would be okay when he walks in to his new office? Well, the sadist I am, I still didn’t have such persecution on him running in my mind. I asked him if he checked the suitcase in and out. In fact, I need not have asked him – the way the suitcase now presented itself on the floor of living room told me that he has ripped off every piece of it that could be taken off. Still, the truth remained – letter was missing.
As I said earlier, though there are times when I would have loved to change the shape of his skull by hitting him, I do trust him when he says he had kept the letter on the top portion of the suitcase – he was and is sharp.

I sat on the sofa after taking another look at the heap of mess in the living room.
He realized suddenly that I had just come over and wasn’t offered a place a sit.. not that I was looking out for niceties from him; he is a nice chap and takes care of these things usually.. He went to prepare a cup of tea to the kitchen – right next to the living room – in full view [ don’t ask me about the building sense of the British]. His face told that he was perturbed. And so was I. L
We talked over the tea and he somehow forced himself aloof from the saddening thoughts of the missing letter and started enquiring about my family. I was talking, but my mind was wandering.. I asked him about his friends in MK whom I had met the last time I had been to MK- Nivedya and Ananya. He told me they were fine and had visited him in the afternoon, the day before. I teased him asking how the romance between him and Ananya is progressingJ. He smiled as always and said they are just friends. It was noticeable for anyone that Ananya had a crush on him; but he always had denied that vehemently. He seemed to have eased off a little bit with the little pep talk we had..

I wanted to have a bath and the only thing I could think about while bathing, unpacking, changing dress and coming downstairs was the missing letter. Stupid as I am, I can’t take surprises and mysteries in my life – and that had been my minus and plus point several times in different junctures of life till now.
Mystery as this one is, and directly related to me through Sachin, I was also disquieted. It aggravated when I saw the mood Sachin was in when I came downstairs! L

The only thing he could tell me was that he clearly remembers placing the letter where he said he had placed it. I asked him to retrace what all he did in a vain effort to understand he remembers everything he did and that doesn’t, unfortunately, include taking the letter away from suitcase.
I asked him if someone had come to the house. He looked at me – can’t exactly describe the expression he had J – as if asking me which planet do you come from. That was an expression I used to get from almost all I have talked to. He couldn’t get himself to believe that someone would think about taking the letter away intentionally.
I had other thoughts, be it intentionally or not, the letter was – er.. MISSING. All I did was asking him if somebody had come to the house.
Of course Ananya and Nivedya had; but he didn’t consider their visit a point in answering my question. They were his friends, Ananya, his close friend. There was no question they had –intentionally or unintentionally- taken away a joining letter from his suitcase. I had only a slight acquaintance with both of them and didn’t care lesser!


He was shocked at my suggestion that they would have taken the letter and explained categorically, in an effort to clear them that they had no chance even to go upstairs and take anything and go out as he was talking to them both as long as they were in the house. His expressions and body language suggested something I had been through may times in my life – disbelief. That queer little face muscle contraction exuding: ‘How could you even….?’

HuH!! Like I care!

I told him am going to exclude Ananya and Nivedya from this discussion and he seemed to be happy. Then, I sheepishly suggested that we are going to do so by eliminating all chances [*conditions apply??]. I asked him to tell me exactly what happened since that morning. He explained that they came in. Nivedya and Ananya sat in the living room and then Ananya suggested making tea and went to the kitchen [ as previously mentioned right in front of living room] and came with tea for all. They had tea and they both left as Sachin still had to do chores.
Simple enough!
I cant explain the moment when the light bulb lit beside my head as in some calvin cartoon. Am not that good in explaining anything as you might have already gathered reading this long. All I needed now was a simple answer to my question.. But I could gather myself the courage to ask that directly. He would jump at the slightest suggestion of the question directly.
I asked him whether he would like a tea. Yes was the answer and so I went to make the tea. Am an ardent fan of hot beverages like tea and coffee and one of my marvels is a tea.[*earl grey??]Well, there it was, I boiled the water and added milk directly from the bottle – the English drink milk directly from the bottles and we have quite taken to that kind of habits..- making of a tea in England could be quite different from making of tea in India. I poured milk into the kettle along with the water and then when it boiled well, added tea and switched off the gas burner. DONE! Sachin was enjoying the tea when I asked whether he liked my tea or Ananya’s better! He answered with a smirk that mine was better. Returning the smirk I asked how much time did she take in making a tea? “WHY? The same as you do. Why are you dragging her again and again in to this?”

I chuckled and asked him to chuck all my questions from his head and told him that probably a walk in the fresh air would do some good.
Off we went to the Oldbrook ground. After taking two rounds where the silence prevailed most of the time, I suggested that we visit Nivedya and Ananya. He, though a little suspicious, finally agreed to the idea walked along with me towards 340 Grace Avenue.

We were warmly greeted at Ananya’s place. The first thing we were asked was whether Sachin got his letter back. Well, Sachin is of a touchy character and Ananya knew how much this would have disturbed him. Sadly the answer was still NO, even when the collective brainpool of mine and him still couldn’t explain the mystery.

We were offered tea and though Sachin was dismissive of that idea, I encouraged him to have another round to which he finally agreed. Ananya readily went to the kitchen and started making the tea. Though Nivedya was talking to me and Sachin, my concentration was on Ananya making the tea. I almost had an answer.

We had the tea and finally parted with them and walked out. I again asked him how wthe tea was. He was astonished and expressed dutifully that I didn’t change a bit and stayed the same obnoxious idiot. J He couldn’t believe my asking about the tea again. He understood it as my effort to tease him with Ananya’s name and didn’t answer first. Then he said he found it fine though not as good as mine. As if on a second thought, he added that he thought the tea which Ananya just made was better than that morning’s. He couldn’t explain why but on my probing admitted that may be – may be- the one in the morning was colder..

No sooner did we reach the Oldbrook ground, I realised that I had not taken my mobile from Ananya’s place. I asked Sachin to stay at the ground and went back.
As soon as she opened the door, I dragged her out to the patio and told her – I now know that the letter was taken by her and I know it was done out of Love. You didn’t want Sachin to leave Milton Keynes and hence you played this cruel joke on him. She turned white. She was weakly shaking her head when I added that I am not going to reveal this to Sachin if she tells me where the letter is.


I returned with my mobile back to Sachin and went home. At night, I went to the cooking range, moved it a little and found the letter thrust behind it. Carefully placing it under the carpet of the first floor room where he had originally kept the suitcase, it was easy for me to order a second thorough search of the room the second day. While he stood and watched in disbelief, I picked the carpet up and took the letter from underneath. Shoving the letter in hands of Sachin whose mouth was agape, I smirked at what things love could do when even hate become the second most fatal weapon!!

It was simple, as they say in Holmes stories. I believed Sachin. He couldn’t have misplaced it else where. If he told the letter was in the upper part of suitcase, it WAS there. The only people, considering his account, who visited the place before it went missing were Nivedya and Ananya. Logical conclusions – expect the unexpected. Blah blah blah,..
When he said Nivedya and he were chatting while Ananya made tea made me realise that Ananya had the remote chance of going upstairs, though the kitchen was in full view of living room. The stairs… the stairs were covered by the pillar and hence someone in the kitchen can quickly go up and come back.

She really loved him. She didn’t want him to leave Milton Keynes and leave for another place, away from her..

I had to leave my mobile at her place so as to get a reason to go back..
The main hit was the clue of the colder tea. The tea wasn’t that hot when Ananya gave Sachin the tea that morning so much so that Sachin noticed it as a difference. One who makes a tea in one style doesn’t change the style. Either the tea is made by boiling the water, tea and then only adding cold milk into it or the water and milk are boiled together. If it was the second case, the tea would have been as hot as it was when Ananya made us the tea at her place. I was watching her make tea and then I knew. She skipped from the kitchen, got the letter and came back, and she had only the time to add cold milk before the concentration of Sachin or Nivedya turned to her in the kitchen.

Sachin joined his new company a week later and never knew what actually happened to his letter. I left Milton Keynes for London and was thinking about crimes those are made for love than crimes that are made for hate!

This world is a strange place to live, indeed!