That Week in April (Contd)

Until one evening, when I and Srijan saw a boat again, this time slowing down and being tied near the Riverside Park. “Ssh!”- I gestured to Srijan to remain quiet and wait. 

A lean and thin man appeared in the darkness. He climbed the gate of the Riverside Park and started going towards the left, rather slowly and carefully. Occasionally he looked back and then resumed walking again.

“Follow him. Make no noises, and stay at a safe distance away”- I told my cousin. Srijan nodded, and we followed him down the dark street. The man took a right turn and started walking briskly. We increased our pace too. Then he entered the backside of the Gunpowder House. Our suspicion grew, and our heartbeats multiplied. We crept inside and took cover under a bush just in time before he turned around in doubt.

Phew! That was a close shave for us.

Luckily, the dense foliage gave us a good hiding spot. But the darkness didn’t let us see the man’s face. After a couple of rather mechanical steps, his footsteps started dying out. A few tense minutes passed. Still nothing. Then all of a sudden, a faint sound of scraping began. 

Amidst the darkness, we tried to locate the direction from where the sound came. It was probably coming from the backyard lawn, just behind the Gunpowder House. A few metres away, I thought I saw a weird firefly hovering on the dilapidated extension of the Gunpowder House.

I and Srijan crouched ahead in the direction of the mysterious light. No, once we were close enough we could see it was actually a low intensity torch being used, moving cursorily around the inner portion of the extension.

We kept on waiting…….. The light vanished for some time. Again it reappeared on the outer wall of the extension, very close to where we were waiting. We were very tensed and breathless.

Just then, I could see him coming out of the annex.

The man opened his cellphone and called someone. But he was watching in our direction, and we got stuck there. I could faintly hear the man’s conversation.

“Ha saab, jagah mark kar liye hain. …………koi galti nahi…….. Jaldi ho jayega …… Park wale to ghar mein  …….… diya jalainge…...Ji ha,………”

Then he hanged up, leaving us perplexed as what to do next. Soon, we could hear the trampling of leaves and within a moment or two, we couldn’t see him. We took some time to ascertain if he was hiding somewhere, then we got up and looked around.

Where did he go? Suddenly, it hit my mind about how few days back, the group of four men had vanished. That there was a direct exit just through the extension of the Gunpowder House.

“Quick, follow me!”-  I shouted to Srijan and rushed towards the Riverside from the other exit at the back.  Just before we reached, we saw a boat going away. Srijan insisted on going inside the backyard again, but I refused. 

Who knew if there was someone still lying there in wait, and the darkness would only complicate things. And anyway, we were going to come again for morning walks.

 We start walking, and then jogging. We had to get home fast! Something was fishy for sure!!

Back at home, I tried to recollect the strange events we witnessed within this week. Those men we saw a few days back, they disappeared just like today. Both used boats as the colony was under lockdown and the Riverside was unguarded. Both escaped from the front side. Yes, they must have gone outside right through the back extension of the Gunpowder House.

They seemed to point to the same thing, but it wasn’t very clear. Maybe the fourth man left behind something that messed up their plans, whatever it might be. And this man, if he had to come to recover that “something”, it should have been the immediate next day. But that was not the case. And today, the man we followed called up and I remembered him saying “koi galti nahi” which means he did a mistake before. Perhaps, perhaps he was one of those four men!!  

Srijan had lot of queries, asking so many questions- which was all too natural given what had happened over a single week.

“Phansi Ghar ar back extension ta barely kichu metres dure, to ei duto ghotona ki connected?”

“I guess so.”- I replied.

Srijan had hit the bulls eye by asking-“Kintu kon din ora ashbe abar? Ami to just sunlam oi loker kotha theke ki Park e sobai ra bari te thakbe. But that’s obvious, isn’t it?”

“No idea, bhai.Thik kore kichui sunte parlam na. By the way, tui je photos gulo tulechis, oigulo dekha to.”- I said with a grim look on my face.

I looked at the pictures Srijan had taken throughout this week. One of the pictures brought my attention back to the place where I saw the torch being used.

“Dada, kichu bujhle? Er por amra ki korbo?”- Srijan asked.

“Kichu na… We will go for morning walks with Anuraag and Siddharth as usual. No need to tell them anything about it until I say. We’ll have a look at the backyard again.”

Next morning, we go out again. After reaching the Park Guest House, Srijan makes a dash for the front gate to the Gunpowder House.

“Oi dara”- I shouted, gesturing to Anuraag and Siddharth to follow me inside.

“I don’t wanna meet snakes early morning”- Siddharth said.

“Okay, so you bring Srijan back while we both head off towards the Riverside Park. You guys catch up soon”- Anuraag replied, and all three of us agreed.

Going in through the front gate, I tried to imitate the way the man was walking yesterday. After reaching the front side of the dilapidated extension, I was surprised to see the ground dug up at several spots, and Srijan looking at them.

Srijan asked excitedly-“Dada, do you think eita kalker lok ta koreche?”

“No, I don’t think so. That man couldn’t have dug up so much in such a short time. And, he seemed pretty lean and thin.”- I said.

“Like you?”- He asked, giggling.

“Oi dekh, ekta snake”- I said, and he ran away, scared like anything. Sweet revenge!!

I looked around the extension. It consisted of five arches on both the sides. I enter through the front side of the last arch, where the man was using his torch. Beautiful… British architecture was amazing and sturdy enough. More than two centuries have passed, yet these buildings manage to hold on and fight against the ravages of time.

I reached the backside of the extension. It was just the same, perfect symmetry of the arches, starting from the annex of the Gunpowder House and ending at the backyard lawn.

I looked on the pathway, casually moved towards the front side gate and then came back. I took multiple photographs especially where the man and his torch moved around yesterday.

“Hey Tuhin, let’s get going on!”- Anuraag shouted.

“Yeah”- I sighed.

I spent so much time here that I completely forgot about Anuraag and Siddharth. It was good that they came here directly. If only we were a little close to the extension, perhaps we would know something more- I thought.

Sensing nothing would budge, I gave up and joined them along with Srijan.

Back at home, I started thinking but there was no head way. Everything was in a mess.  So I decided to divert my mind for some time. I played some intense Counter Strike matches with Srijan, who got me covered very well with his AWP sniper rifle.

Finally, I got freshened up. I sat on my study table after having breakfast. I opened my drawer to find the chit, neatly folded in half. Still no progress…I casually started scrolling the pictures I took this morning. As I moved my eyes from one photo to another, my eyes got stuck in one of the photographs of the annex, almost immediately. 

I looked at one photograph after other and then again back to this picture. The last arch’s design striked my attention.

Strange! Of all the arches I saw, this one seemed pretty offset. In fact, the arch’s beauty had been ruined by adding a rectangular group of bricks. Why would there be such a drastic change to one of them? What was the man looking here yesterday?

His torch was pointing upwards, when it should have been used to check the ground for snakes. And what was he scraping at?

I looked again the chit. Yes now I could see some meaning of it.

But what next? That man said-”Parkwale to ghar mein..”

What did it mean? It definitely indicated some day and something to happen that day/night. Everything is getting mixed up again…

The evening passed by rather quickly and quietly, while I kept trying to figure out the most crucial element of all doubts- the date when the men would arrive.  

At 9 P.M., I and Srijan headed downstairs for dinner. Dad was watching news on the T.V. and we joined him.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi was highlighting the grave and precarious situation of our country due to the COVID-19 pandemic and requested everyone to switch off all lights and light up diyas, candles from 9 P.M. to 9:09 P.M. on 5^th April as an act of solidarity. I stopped chewing food on hearing this, and paid my attention to the news.

All lights would be off, and naturally everyone would be at home. This could be it! Perhaps that man was referring to this event. It had to! Of all these days during lockdown, this could be their best shot. I nudged Srijan and told him to finish his dinner fast and join me in my room upstairs.

Instinct told me that the 5^th would be our chance. Our last chance to find out what those men were up to.

Just two days left… I and Srijan did a thorough study of the history of the Gunpowder House and the Phansi Ghar… Dad even gave me a report that was carried out by the Construction Engg. Department of Jadavpur University dating back to 2009 regarding the restoration of the Gunpowder House and some other old documents.

The Dutch probably laid the foundations of the Gunpowder House and the Ostend Tower that lies just opposite to the backyard of the Gunpowder House, as well as the Dutch Tower that served as a magazine for gunpowder.

After the Dutch were defeated by the British in 1759 and after Lord Cornwallis became the Governor General of India, production of Gunpowder started in Bengal on a new scale. They were all symbols of the colonial era and the change the power from one hand to the other played a vital role in reconstructing the building that we now know as the Gunpowder House.

I asked Dad for Uncle Roy’s phone number, who’s a historian and had done a lot of research on the Gunpowder House.

I called Uncle Roy straightaway and after some basic conversations, I asked-“Uncle, it’s me- Tuhin, from Ishapore. I was studying a bit about the Gunpowder House and I wanted to know if there’s something interesting about it. Is there something still mysterious or are there unanswered questions about the Gunpowder House?”

Uncle Roy replied-“Listen Tuhin, history always has unanswered questions about the past. But yes, talking about that- yes many people kept asking me about what and why I was researching on. Even Mr. Subhash Kapoor, a famous businessman dealing in antiques had contacted me. Seems like quite some people were interested about the Gunpowder House, but they just couldn’t get the permission to work there. 

Since it’s such an old building, and Lord Cornwallis’ office (currently the Games Room of K.V. No.1, Ishapore) was so close to it, they are chances that you might just come across something related to him. Might not be valuable, but nevertheless that’s also a piece of history…”

“Thank you Uncle, thanks a lot”-I thanked him for sharing this information and then hung up.

Meanwhile, I also informed Anuraag and Siddharth that we could have another likely meeting with that group of four men we met last week. They seemed pretty excited that finally, they had something interesting to do. Anuraag had a firm conviction that some mystery would be unraveled for sure. I told him to keep his hopes low, but he still stuck to his belief.

The two days passed by quickly enough, and 5^th April arrived….