Cold Love (10 page)

 “OK, Krish. Let me make a
copy of the video evidence first and save it on to the RAW server. Hold on a
minute.” Arjun opens his laptop, connects the camcorder as it uploads the video
to the secure server.  “Let me also send this link to Lt Gen Khanna. There,
done!”

 “We will fly the video
cassettes along with two special agents. Arjun, why don’t you fly back with the
Air Force as well?”

“Good idea Krish.”, Arjun
looks at his watch, “It’s 9:25pm now. If I fly now I can reach there…ummm… by
ten? I will brief Lt Gen Khanna personally and I can visit home for something
important before midnight, and then fly back here immediately, for the morning
de-brief. Let me speak to Lt Gen Khanna.”

 “Cool, buddy… sounds like a
plan!”

“Great! I’ll see you tomorrow
then, Krish!” Arjun offers his hand as they shake hands firmly. Arjun makes a
quick call to speak to Lt Gen Khanna and, upon confirmation he walks out to
board the MIG jet immediately. A couple of special commandoes also accompany
him to escort the video cassette safely to Mumbai. The operation, but for the
failure to capture the ISI commander, has been a huge success. Besides the arms
and ammunition, Indian forces have managed to capture the leaders of all the
five terrorist organizations that were in the meeting. This achievement has
been another feather in Arjun’s cap… one that surely deserves a party!

A Party for Two

Riya’s birthday party is over
by now. She is in her room and looks at the clock on the wall; it’s 11:45pm. A
pool of gifts lies in a corner of the room on her desk. Her elder sister,
Priya, walks into the room.

“Hey, you were looking
gorgeous during the party sis!” 

“Thank you, didi.”

“Oh! You haven’t opened any
gifts yet? Remember when we were kids we used to tear all the gift wrappers in
a flash? Do you want to do it now… A race?”

“No didi. I am very tired,”
Riya responds dryly.  “Should we do it tomorrow? Maybe Rohan can help me tear
the wrappers? Is that OK?”

“OK my baby. We will do it
tomorrow. You get to bed now. Good night!”

“Good night.”

Priya leaves and Riya changes
into her nightdress. She gets into bed and stares blandly at the ceiling and
out of her window at the stars. A gentle knocking on the balcony window
startles her. She looks out and is surprised to see Arjun. She immediately
opens the balcony door.

“Arjun! How did you get here?”

“I climbed onto the pipe,”
Arjun replies, smiling.

“No! I mean you were in Delhi
right? How come you arrived here suddenly?” she continues, extremely excited
and yet confused.

 “Yeah, I went on a business
trip. But you know, a stupid little girl had given me a ‘pinky promise’ to
attend her birthday!” he looks at his watch, “And… we still have twelve minutes
left of your birthday! So here I am…”. He brings a single red rose out of his
rucksack, “Happy birthday Riya! Sorry; since I was in a rush I plucked this
rose from your very own garden!... All yours!” He hands her the flower.

“Oh my God! Thank you so
much!” she gasps in amazement, smiling, “You are kidding me! Did you tell Aunty
that you are here?”

 “Nope. Don’t want to either.
I have to fly back to Delhi in two hours. As I said, I wouldn’t have done this
if had not been for a stupid girl’s silly promise!”

Riya laughs, extremely
excited that Arjun could make it to meet her just to wish her on her special
day.

“What can I say, I had to
uphold the promise; after all I have to stay in this neighborhood isn’t that
so?”

“Ha ha! Of course…
Otherwise!” Riya pretends to throw a punch at Arjun.

“OK, enough talk! Shall we
cut the cake before your birthday is over?” he slowly takes out a small box
from his rucksack and a small chocolate cupcake. Riya is absolutely thrilled,
extremely excited and overwhelmed. Arjun places a single candle on the cupcake
and lights it with a lighter.

“There you are; space for a
one candle only! So let’s pretend you are one today.”

Riya laughs, as she blows out
the candle, cuts the cake and offers a piece to Arjun first who then puts the
rest of the piece into her mouth. It takes a moment for Riya to swallow the
large piece that Arjun had forcefully put into her mouth.

“So what’s in this box?” Riya
looks at the tiny gift box in her hand.

 “Wait, before you open it…
may I have the pleasure of a little dance?”

“A dance? But there’s no
music?”

“Oh OK! You can open the box
then!” Arjun responds nonchalantly.

Riya smiles and opens the
wrapping to find that it’s a small musical box with a dancing girl on a boat in
the backdrop of a beautiful valley. Arjun extends his hand as the music plays
softly upon opening the box. They dance as Arjun swirls Riya around on the
balcony in the light of a beautiful full moon. Riya’s giggles travel far in an
otherwise silent still night. A grandfather clock chimes the stroke of midnight
in the distant background. After the lovely dance, they sit on the swing in the
balcony for a while, gently talking under the beautiful moon and stars.

After a while, Arjun looks at
his watch, “Guess I should get moving now.”

“Yeah of course, selfish! My
birthday is over and you are all ready to go!”

 “I wish I could stay. But
it’s important for me to get back. So Riya, it’s just our little secret that I
came …Mummy will go nuts you know if she knows I came and didn’t meet anyone at
home.”

“Yes, yes, I know. Thanks for
coming Arjun.”

Arjun interrupts her for
using the word “Thanks.” She laughs, amused and happy.

 “No, seriously I am really
glad you came Arjun!”

There’s an awkward pause
because of the tone in which Riya made this last statement. She senses this
immediately as the beautiful romantic setting of the moon and starlit night has
added an amazing air of romanticism. Arjun tries to break the silence, and the
uneasiness, with a rather poor joke.

“Listen, I came just because
of your stupid promise. So don’t get any ideas, right?”

“Not at all!” Riya responds
mockingly, “You are not my type anyway!”

“Ha ha! That’s cool. I’m safe
then! Thank God for that!”

Both laugh uneasily. Arjun
clears his throat, “OK then. Bye.”

“Bye Arjun”.

Arjun walks down the balcony
stairs towards the garden. Riya waves him goodbye, and stands there till he is
out of sight. She has a spring in her steps, as she swirls again to the music
of the box, and then stops momentarily to smell the red rose in her hand,
before letting herself fall like a stone on to her bed. She looks at the red
rose again that she put by her pillow.

How quickly priorities
change… on the other end by the table within those wrapped gifts lay expensive jewellery,
necklaces, perfumes, and the most fashionable branded items that a girl could
dream about. And yet a rose and a simple music box brought her more joy today
than anything else could.

Is this the start of
something beautiful? Riya asks herself as she closes her eyes. She dodged the
awkward situation today, but contrary to what she said to Arjun, she has always
felt a soft spot for him. And over the last few months, this deep-ingrained
friendship has taken a new meaningful turn. However, she suddenly feels
extremely nervous about this as well. What if Arjun considers her just as a
friend? She simply cannot risk sharing her feelings and lose his friendship if
he does not reciprocate her love.

“Let’s wait for destiny to
take its own course,” Riya tells herself as she eventually falls asleep on her
bed.

The Media Release –
Setting the environment

The next morning, Mr. Sinha
was watching the news on the television whilst reading his morning newspaper
and drinking his morning cup of tea. The TV journalist is giving the news of
yesterday’s operation in Jammu.

“In Jammu yesterday, the
Indian army captured the leaders of five terrorist outfits in a special covert
operation. Army officials say this was a multi-terrorist meeting where a big
arms deal was being carried out. What’s more surprising is that the PMO has
released excerpts from a video of the operation where an ISI commander is shown
to be present at this meeting. We have with us retired Colonel and strategic
think tank director Dilip Chauhan. Dilipji, what was an ISI commander doing
there and where does Indian diplomacy go from here?”

“Not just Indian diplomats,
the whole international community is surprised to see the ISI commander at a
meeting where an arms deal and a multi-terrorist plan were on the agenda. The
message is out now in the open. We have been talking of this to the world for
over twenty years now. This is the most blatant evidence of Pakistan’s
involvement in state-sponsored terrorism. Make no mistake; we are in the midst
of a cold war. What it means for Indian diplomats is that they should realize
that the days of passive diplomacy are behind us. We really need to mount
pressure on Pakistan to shun its habit of supporting terrorists.”

“Chauhanji, the real question
is will our government really do anything? We have heard this ‘diplomatic
offensive’ so many times before, but without any results. We are still waiting
for the verdict on the ISI lieutenant general case, and still we do not have
any concrete action plan? Isn’t it time to really say to Pakistan ‘enough is
enough’?”

“You see the world’s stance
against terrorism is changing; with the advent of globalization, terrorism is
not confined to specific parts of the world any more. No one is isolated from
this phenomenon. You are right; we have to take a stance and undertake concrete
action against terrorism. If you look at the US, if it is a victim of terrorism
it is not hindered by any international regulations whatsoever. The operation
against Osama bin Laden is the best example that illustrates how the US entered
Pakistan and got their man.”

“Chauhanji, what’s the
difference between US and India? Why do we not respond to terrorism in the same
way?”

“The difference is power. USA
has the freedom to do what they want. India does not have this flexibility
because of Pakistan’s nuclear deterrence. Pakistan is a nuclear power and it
has brazenly used this shield to secretly support terrorism in India. But what
we can definitely aim to change is our mind-set. We have to be aggressive and
need to proactively take things in our hands. We are plagued by our ‘Everything
goes’ mind-set. In a country of billions, the government and the people only
pay lip service to the lives lost in terrorist attacks. But if a single US
citizen is killed in a terrorist attack, they deploy marines first and think
about consequences later. But after the recent turn of events, I think the
government realizes that lip service will not be sufficient anymore.”

“Thank you Chauhanji. You
heard it, the time is ripe when simple diplomacy and lip service is not good
enough. The country wants results! Will the Indian government do something this
time or will they stick to the usual excuse of resolving things through
‘diplomatic channels’? Please keep watching Aaj Tak!”

Oblivious to the complex
political game unfolding between the two border nations, Riya is still lying on
her bed in her room. She has a diary open next to her pillow and there’s an old
picture of Arjun between the pages. Riya is lost in her thoughts when Puja
creeps into the room unnoticed and manages to see the picture partially before
Riya hastily closes her diary.

“Puja!! You scared me!”

 “What was that? Was that …
Arjun’s picture?”

“No… not at all!” Riya gets
up quickly and puts her diary into one of the drawers of her bedside table and
locks it.

 “C’mon don’t lie to me!”

“Why will I lie?” Riya
responds nervously, “That was …Shahrukh Khan… You know I am such a big fan of
SRK. Do you know he has a concert next month in Worli?”

“Hmmm… really?” Puja senses
something fishy, “Anyway! Listen…” she turns to say something when she spots
the red rose by her pillow, “Oh! what’s this red rose? What’s going on, my
love?”

“Nothing… nothing at all!”
Riya walks away towards the window to avoid Puja’s gaze, “I helped myself to a
rose from my own garden! Is there anything wrong with that?”

“No! Anyway… Listen! I wanted
to share something really special about me and Rakesh!”

Rakesh and Puja have been
going out for over six years now. Both families have approved of their
relationship and have been eagerly awaiting the time when the couple would
formally notify their families about their desire to tie the knot.

“Puja!” Riya turns around
immediately to face Puja, “Please tell me! Let me guess… has he finally…?”

Puja nods, shows her finger
with a large diamond ring on it.

“Oh my God! What?”

“Yes!”, they both shriek
together loudly, hug and jump. “You know he proposed to me… finally!”

“When? Where?”

“Last night immediately after
your birthday party. We went to the garden for a while, sat down on the chair
under the moon. It was such a beautiful romantic moon last night, isn’t it?”

Riya nods yes, smiling to
herself as she recollects her night with Arjun. So she was not the only one
feeling the love in the air!

Puja continues, “And all of a
sudden you know, he proposed to me. And I’ve agreed, Papa and mummy are very
happy too. But where were you? At night, I first came to your room to tell you;
knocked on your door three or four times so loudly, but you, you lazy bum, had
been asleep even before midnight!”

“Me…”, Riya mutters
nervously, realizing Puja might have knocked at the same time that she was out
with Arjun on the balcony, “I was so tired you know…”

“That’s OK, my darling! That
looks good, doesn’t it?” Puja admires her beautiful large rock, “And you know
what, papa and mummy spoke to Rakesh’s parents this morning and they want a
quick engagement in two days’ time.”

“Wow! That’s great! I am so
happy for you.” Both the girls hug again. 

“All right I am off dear… I
have to meet Rakesh in an hour…”

“Great! But hey listen! We
are playing tennis in the afternoon, right?” Riya reminds Puja. 

“Oh yes of course! I almost
forgot! …Sure I will see you later then.”

Puja leaves and Riya hastily
starts getting ready for her school. She glances again to the far end of the
room, at the desk with the large pile of gifts still lying unopened. Until her
last birthday she used to rip them all open the very same night, almost the
very moment after her birthday party. Today, they have to wait—this time, last
year, she would scarcely believe she would feel this way. She hastily picks up
her book and bag for her class, eager to catch up with her best friend again
later in the afternoon for a game of tennis together, and more importantly… to
hear all of her story.