BLOCKBUSTER BABA

100 km Away

Tony’s train would reach Banaras around 7 in the evening, Ramsi had less than two hours to reach back, before something unwanted happens. It was literally impossible to reach on time, Ramsi tried to search a phone booth to call Kukku and inform but couldn’t find one near the highway he was on. There was no time to spare; he started off in his car, at the maximum speed he could drive. He was almost 100km away from the city. He constantly drove at 80kmph or more. Suddenly he realized one of the wheel might have got punctured. He tried to continue with the same by within couple of kilometers the wheel gave away completely. He did not have a spare to replace.  He got stranded in middle of nowhere, when he suddenly saw a truck passing by. He stood in the middle of the road to stop the truck and got in without requesting much, doing all the explaining later.

Though politely he firmly requested the Truck driver to give him a drop till Banaras chowki, as it is a matter of life and death.  He tried to hand out couple of hundred rupee notes to the driver as they reached the chowki, but the driver refused and wished him luck as he drove off. Ramsi hailed an auto rickshaw who immediately recognized him by face and directed him to take to the factory. On the way Ramsi tried to call Kukku from a pay-phone but no one picked. He was getting more anxious. It was already 7:30. Tony must have reached the factory to pick his package. In the next 10 min, Ramsi reached the factory, only to find something definitely must have gone wrong looking at the broken doors of the gate. The rickshaw was still near the factory waiting for another passenger, as Ramsi stepped in and asked to take him immediately to Kukku’s house.

Ramsi heard screams from inside the house, as he rushed through the stairs to the first floor. Kukku was bleeding profusely as he was standing in front of Radha, guarding him from Tony, who was pointing gun towards them.  Ramsi stepped in asking Tony to take the gun down. Tony got furious seeing Ramsi and started abusing him for giving shelter to Kukku and Radha. The heat of the argument was reaching its peak as Tony tried to push Kukku and grab Radha. Kukku jumped in front of Tony’s gun when Tony was almost about to shoot Ramsi for intervening. Shots get fired, as Kukku drops dead along with Tony , while Ramsi stands flustered holding his gun, which he never used earlier. Tony’s men who were waiting outside rushed through the stairs. Ramsi didn’t know what to do, but somehow held Radha’s hand and ran off from the other side of the corridor. He knew there were too many people and Radha’s life would be in risk if he stops to confront them. They flee by jumping from the balcony to the roof the adjacent shop and rolling down from there. The rickshaw-wala who knew Ramsi, was nearby and heard the gun shots, immediately asked them to sit inside and drove off. Ramsi asked the rickshaw-wala to take to Assi Ghat. Assi ghat was away from the town and was one of the places where Ramsi used to come to find peace. No one knew, Ramsi used to meet a sage called Baba Digambarnath over there, who used to help Ramsi find answers to his questions , find peace in the chaos and happiness in the loss of everything.  Baba used to treat Ramsi like his kid. He quickly hid them in his room and closed the doors. Ramsi was fear stricken , he never killed anyone before, death of Kukku in front of him as a big shock while his bullets took life of Tony. It was too much even for the most daring upcoming Gangster of Banaras.