The Honeybee Conspiracy

Part 4

CHAPTER 2

Anwar Razak woke up at 5 am, his usual time, without the aid of an alarm. He was single or rather chose to be single after his parents broke up when he was 15. Educated at Delhi Public School, Anwar was the first in his class, a very bright student, went on to the U.S, did his Masters in International Business, came back and passed out of the Indian Foreign Service with a gold medal and the top of his batch. At 42, he was the youngest and brightest Assistant Joint Secretary with the Ministry of External Affairs.

He changed into his tracksuit and went for his routine two-hour jog. After which, he had his strong chai, picked up the Times of India and scanned the headlines. He was beginning to wonder why he ever got into the Foreign Service. The new government headed by Surender Yogi of the United National Party, a coalition of various regional parties had won a landslide victory of 420 of the 572 seats.

After the initial euphoria, Anwar knew that the country was heading for a total collapse. The new government had no experience in governance and no clear policy added to this was a high inflation rate that was steadily climbing. The new incumbent babus were making a mockery of themselves in Parliament and absurd comments to the media who were quick to sensationalize the matter. The headlines which screamed out from the front page was ' Maharashtra Member of Parliament force-feeds a Muslim during Ramzan '

He drank his remaining tea, chatted up with the local boys and made his way back to his apartment. He had to be in his office at 8.30 am for a meeting regarding the Prime Minister's visit to Iran scheduled in a few weeks.