On the first floor of a three floored house, Kamal Gupta had found a room on rent. The university nearby rarely left any rooms available with students filling up every place available but this one was somehow left out.
A sudden and very attractive vacancy didn’t allow Kamal to have the luxury of time to think much. He shifted from his home town within a month of being informed of being accepted for the position of cloud engineer at a popular telecom service provider in the country.
The owner of the house, Tushar, lived on the ground floor of the house. Kamal had met him once when finalising the room. He was older than Kamal and was wearing a pair of sunglasses which Kamal thought might be the requirement of some condition.
There were five rooms on the first floor and Kamal had got the first room, there was only one other room occupied and the rest three at the end of the corridor were empty.
Kamal didn’t have much time to think about the house as he was busy with his new job trying to create all those initial positive impressions and become adjusted to the system there. Around four months passed in this manner.
One day as Kamal stepped out of his room, he noticed Tushar coming out of the occupied room. Kamal realised he never quite knew or even saw his immediate neighbour. Was Tushar living here?
“Good morning,” said Tushar
“Good morning,” said Kamal, “Is everything fine?”
“Yes,” said Tushar, “Was checking on Mihir. He isn’t well.”
“Mihir? I have never met him,” said Kamal
“He works odd hours, at night,” said Tushar
“Even on weekends?” asked Kamal
“The city is hard on people, some need to work more than others to maintain a decent life,” said Tushar
Kamal did not ask anything further and went on his way to work. Later on his way back home he was stopped by Mr Kumar, who lived in the house next door. Kamal and Mr Kumar occasionally sat down to play chess and they also talked about their day to day life. Mr Kumar’s daughter had recently married and had gone abroad to live with her husband.
“It may sound funny, but do you know anyone else living in the house where I live?” asked Kamal
“There is you and there is Tushar obviously, Sohail the cook and caretaker,” said Mr Kumar
“What about Mihir? The guy who lives on the same floor as me,” asked Kamal
“I don’t know anyone by that name,” said Mr Kumar, “I don’t think many people come to live there on rent. You are the first one with whom I have had a proper conversation.”
“What about Tushar?”
“Well, he came here twelve years back, when he was still a university student. This is his uncle’s house,” said Mr Kumar
When Kamal returned home, he thought of checking on Mihir and walked over to his room and knocked on the closed door but there was no response. Kamal felt he was being watched by someone through a slightly open door of one of the rooms at the end of the corridor and he swiftly turned and walked towards it and suddenly the door opened and Tushar stepped out. Kamal was a bit surprised.
“Hey, you are back,” said Tushar with a smile and noticed Kamal eyeing on the door behind him and he spoke, “I am preparing that room for a possible new tenant”
“Good, maybe it would be someone whom I would be able to meet,” laughed Kamal, “have you checked on Mihir? I knocked and he didn’t answer.”
“He left,” said Tushar
“Left?” asked Kamal
“Yes, he said he would stay with his family till he felt better,” said Tushar and then he added, “I will be leaving tonight as well for some work”
“All right, if you need some help regarding the new tenant then do tell me,” said Kamal
“Sure, I will,” smiled Tushar
Kamal never saw Tushar again, the next day Kamal woke up to knock on his door to find police standing outside. Kamal was shocked.
“Is everything alright? What happened?” asked Kamal almost screaming with fright
“Please calm down, we need to tell you something,” said the policeman
Apparently, Tushar had placed cameras in rooms of both Kamal and Mihir and would keep an eye on them for reasons unknown. The caretaker Sohail was arrested for questioning. Mihir had begun to feel discomfort around Tushar and was even drugged occasionally which he did not understand at first. Mihir had managed to run and report to the police.
Mr Kumar helped Kamal find another room in the area and still nothing is known about what happened to Tushar, though some say Tushar’s rich uncle may have bribed his way through for Tushar’s safety.
Written by Anuran Chatterji
Early Morning Memories 