1
Their Story
News reports were full of the missing people’s cases. People of Mumbai were assuming that there was a serial killer roaming the empty streets at night.
“This is all bullshit, no?” Padma asked her mother who was busy feeding her younger, nagging, cranky brother.
“Mind your language Padma,” she scolded her older daughter as Padma rolled her eyes.
A 27-year-old woman has been missing since the past 3 days. Her parents are inconsolable.
Padma changed the channel as her brother threw a fit that he wanted cheese.
A 19-year-old college youth has gone missing. His parents assumed he was at his friend’s place. But apparently, even the friend has not heard from him since the past 3 days.
“Wow! What are the chances that those two ran away together?” she laughed biting the remote and looking at her mother’s fumed face, “Huh mom?”
_______
A month and a few days earlier
She stared at the table, chair, and piles of books on the table. Her heart had stopped beating. She wanted to cry, cry hard but she did not.
“They are agitated with you,” the fat woman went on repeating the same words, “They just don’t want to see you.”
Gasping she looked up at the table, her chair, and the disgusted look on her face.
She was fired!
_______
Present Day
Words. Words are so powerful realized Rhea as she was stuck in the traffic in the cab. Her daughter’s words. Was Padma, right?
Her phone beeped and she read the message, ‘Check Twitter.’
Before she could open Twitter, someone had sent her a video on WhatsApp. It said ‘The Missing Couple.’
Through thumbnail, she could figure out their faces. He was a handsome, young, mischievous smile on his face. She looked like a college student, tired face, hardly smiling, but a pout on her face. They looked opposite of a couple.
Rhea opened the video and saw the top English news channel of the country ‘Liberty’ bringing their story like it was scripted only by them.
The reporter was a young woman with a bob cut as she smiled in front of the camera.
Finally, new information has been revealed in the missing persons’ case.
Graphics of Rayma Jhaveri and Punit Patel
They almost looked of the same age. But their faces spoke a lot about their age difference.
Her eyes were tired and sad, while his eyes were full of hope and determination.
Apparently, these two are related to each other. They have known each other for a few months as Rayma Jhaveri was Punit Patel’s professor.
Oh no, thought Rhea. Now the media will go bonkers over these two and put a forbidden love angle for sure.
Graphics of Steven’s college and then again pictures of the two together.
Now, the interesting part is, did someone kidnap the two together, or is it just a mere coincidence? Or perhaps there is some different and forbidden mystery behind their disappearances?
Forbidden. That’s it! She finally used the word.
Rhea’s phone beeped again and there was another video waiting to be opened. It was from the hit and number one Hindi news channel Bharat TV.
Why did the two run away? What was the reason? Is there really a serial killer around? And why did this killer only catch these two? And how did the killer catch them? What were these two doing at night? Together!
Graphic: Some images of an empty street at night with suspenseful music. Then a picture of a man with a long black jacket and hat (probably Jack the Ripper)
Or is there some hidden mystery? What was going on between these two?
Graphic of Rayma and Punit smiling at each other (pictures are photoshopped to look like they are staring at each other)
“What an asshole!” murmured Rhea gawping at the old reporter as he went on and on.
She threw her phone aside.
Inside the police station, there was chaos as Arun was trying his hand to shoo away the media. Rhea went inside her cabin and called Arun in. Arun was a young cop who originally wanted to be Chandler Bing on stage but ended up in a police station.
“Any development?” she asked opening the laptop as he had a remorseful face.
“What?” she chided fearing the worst. Oh god, they both were dead.
“What is it?” she yelled as a computer genius looking like Harry Potter walked towards her.
“We cracked open their Facebook accounts. He’s got nothing. But her account…”
“What?” she whispered blinking several times.
Ritvik (Harry Potter look-alike) showed her the laptop as he slowly opened her account.
It was a normal account of any 20s woman with pictures, posts, likes, and dislikes. There were more posts about the news than any random crap. Of course, she was a journalism teacher.
She had put a picture of ‘Prison Diaries’ and written below ‘reading this piece. It’s okay …okay, sort of average, but Baal is something.’
Finally, Ritvik opened a group that only had one member and that was Rayma.
“Apparently, she made this group a few months back and started posting poems in it.”
The group’s name was P.R.
“P.R?” mouthed Rhea confused.
“It can be Punit and Rayma,” answered Arun waiting for her to appreciate him but she didn’t.
“Not necessary,” she commented with a snobbish tone.
“Here are the poems,” Ritvik said and Rhea’s mouth went wide open.
There were more than 30 poems in total with initials P.R everywhere.
P. R.
Don’t pretend that you felt nothing,
Don’t pretend that it was all fake,
Don’t pretend that the twinkle in your eyes wasn’t real,
Don’t pretend that you didn’t miss me,
Don’t pretend that your heart went hollow without my presence,
The poem went on for two pages as she debated with herself about her feelings.
There was another poem
P. R.
The fire between us could make the sun jealous,
The fire that burnt in both of us,
The fire that shines us and makes us special,
This poem was much shorter and only lasted until one page. It was clearly speaking about some forbidden love.
So, was it real? They were a couple?
“This P can be anyone, right?” she spoke loudly more to convince herself that it wasn’t Punit.
“Yeah of course,” added Arun hastily, smiling. He knew it was Punit. He had a hunch.
Ritvik adjusted his glasses and cleared his throat. The fan was moving slowly and the whole station heard it.
“Can I add something madam?” he asked scared and intimidated by the woman on the chair.
“Of course,” she encouraged him smiling a little.
“I feel it’s him,” he bit his lip, “because we checked her friend’s list. There is not a single boy with the name P on her list.”
“And her other social media sites?” Rhea asked after a while, “Instagram, and what’s the snapchit?”
“Snapchat?” asked Ritvik and shook his head, “She’s not on Snapchat, and apparently recently deleted her Instagram account.”
Why would she delete her Instagram?
“Why she deleted?” Rhea asked confused and sweating.
“No idea…. we spoke to her friends and her cousins…they also don’t know,” shrugged Arun.
“Maybe they were talking on Instagram,” added Ritvik shutting down the laptop.
No, no, no, Rhea. Focus. Think of something else. If you put this angle, the media will butcher their reputations. God knows where those poor souls might be.
Suddenly, Rhea gasped as she thought of someone useful, “Her best friend?”
“Yes madam,” hurriedly Arun removed a file as Ritvik disappeared, “Her name is Purva Singh. She’s a doctor in Bombay hospital. They had tons of photos on Facebook. We asked her to come but she’s too busy. She said she can talk to you on Skype if it’s possible.”
“Fine. Call her now,” Rhea ordered opening Rayma and Punit’s file.
“Now she might not pick up,” Arun looked down to avoid her glares, “She said to call her at 3.00 pm.”
It was 11.30 a.m. They left many messages on Purva’s phone and finally, Purva came on face time at 2.45 pm eating and talking at the same time.
“I’m so sorry madam,” Purva apologized first. She looked like a model with short hair.
“It’s okay, Purva,” smiled Rhea signaling Arun to write everything she said, “I have a few questions. Did you know if Rayma was dating anyone?”
Purva gobbled some rice and looked up.
“No madam,” she answered confidently, “we hardly meet these days but she never mentioned anything.”
We hardly meet? What kind of a best friend was this woman? How would she know anything then? Rhea was angry.
“When was the last time you two met?” she asked in a sarcastic tone.
“2 months back but we constantly chatted. You can check her phone if you want.”
Rhea looked down and then at her smiling, “Her phone is missing too.”
“Oh,” Purva made a face as if she discovered that Santa wasn’t real.
“What do you know about Punit?” she asked as Purva made a puzzled face, “Punit Patel. Her student. I mean ex-student who is also missing since the last 3 days.”
“Nothing,” she shook her head drinking water, “Ray never mentioned anything about a student. I mean she spoke about all of them. Like…she used to have fun with them and all…. yeah…. some troubled her but then that’s natural, right?”
“Yes,” gasped Rhea licking her lips, “Thank you so much, Miss Singh.”
“Don’t mention,” she replied and her connection went off.
Thank God, thought Rhea.
“She does not know anything,” muttered Rhea as Arun finished writing. He had a look on his face. A look which said that he knew better than his senior madam.
“Even her parents don’t know?” asked Rhea turning to Arun who offered her some water.
“Nope. Her sister said she was very secretive. In fact, when I told her about the poems, she was shocked that she wrote poems.”
“Who is P?” she closed her eyes and controlled an urge to scream.
“It is ….”
“Don’t say Punit,” she screamed, her eyes shooting nuclear missiles even Kim Jung Un would be terrified of.
“How about we talk to his best friend?” suggested Arun hopefully.
Finally, Rhea smiled contently and felt proud of her decision to keep Arun always close to her. He was smart.
“Call him today itself,” she ordered and got up to eat something.
“Yes, madam,” he went straight away to call Sushrut Joshi.
7.00 pm
“I’m Sushrut, madam,” a young boy of 18, tall, fair, and with questions on his face, stood in front of her.
“Please, sit,” she smiled politely while Arun stood behind Rhea examining every move of Sushrut. He wanted to laugh at the kid. He was so scared that he might have even peed in his pants.
“Look Sushrut,” began Rhea in a friendly tone wrapping her hands together, “I’m gonna be frank with you and I expect the same from you.”
“Hmm…” he nodded trying to smile but it looked like he wanted to cry.
Arun let out a chuckle which only Rhea noticed and raised her eyebrow.
“You are best friends with Punit since?”
“Since school,” he added blinking.
“And you know he’s missing for 3 days,” she said checking his tense expressions, “and your madam, Rayma Jhaveri is also missing for 3 days.”
Sushrut looked down instantly and nodded.
“Are these two connected in any way? Did something happen between them? Were they in love or something?”
“What? No,” Sushrut made a disgusting face, “Punit hated her. Um, I mean,” he looked at both and sighed, “he never liked her that much. Forget loving her.”
“Why didn’t he like her?” Rhea’s interest rose and she knew something was wrong.
“Um, I don’t know,” he shrugged casually, “You know…. some boys don’t like a certain teacher. That’s just the way it is.”
“So, he never loved her?” she asked again and this time he only shook his head.
“And she?” Rhea asked remembering the poems, “she had something for him?”
“I don’t know,” he replied like a robot, “She was weird. Sometimes she used to be too sweet. Sometimes very angry.”
“Well, she’s a human, humans are weird Sushrut,” answered Arun from behind Rhea.
He shot Arun a look and looked down biting his lip. Oh boy, this boy was hiding a mountain.
“And you Sushrut?” Rhea asked in a mesmerizing voice which reminded Sushrut of Rayma and he flinched, “did you like her?”
“I thought she was cool,” he blinked again and looked around, “That’s all.”
“Okay,” Rhea nodded slowly as she knew he was as useless as Purva Singh. Such useless best friends these two have, she pondered.
But Sushrut was hiding something from them. This was for his benefit or for Punit’s, only time would tell. Or maybe Sushrut himself?
“Waste,” she gritted her teeth and Arun offered her water.
“What do we do? Tomorrow it will be the 4th-day madam. Plus, last month’s two murder cases our department could not solve. Now this,” he looked tensed and looked down, “people will think we are waste.”
“No. Arun. No,” she passed him the bottle and asked him to drink some water.
He was definitely lying but what about other classmates. They won’t lie. Rhea checked the file again and saw the report. Rayma was teaching in Steven’s College to Journalism students. She was teaching 70 kids in all.
A smile broke on her face and Arun knew that she had cracked something, “Arun. One boy will lie, two boys will lie, hell even 10 boys will lie. But 70 won’t lie. Call his entire class tomorrow for questioning.”
Arun and Rhea were right. The entire 70 would never lie. There might be at least one fool who would utter something useful.
Out of 70 only 60 appeared happily bunking their lectures. Most of the girls and boys were busy taking selfies.
Arun asked one tall guy to take his picture and then told him it’s illegal to take a cop’s photo. The boy started crying, but Arun consoled him saying that if he spoke the truth, they might leave him without charges.
“Call the first girl,” Rhea announced as most of the junior cops were sitting to write down everything.
There was only one question, “What do you know about Punit and Rayma?”
Rhea thought a lot and then framed the question. She did not jump on the lover’s angle at first. She wanted to see how these dumb heads answered.
“Yes, we know they are missing, it’s so tragic.”
“I hope Punit is safe. I miss him. He was my bro.”
“This is so strange no they are missing together. I mean we all knew she had something for him…”
“He too had something for her. Always hovering around her.”
“He never let me talk to her. Always meddling in between. Are we coming on TV?”
“It was obvious something was happening between them, I mean those eye contacts, that smiling a lot…”
“They only looked at each other and….”
“I can’t believe Punit ran away with Rayma mam…. score man.”
“He used to whisper something in her ears all the time…she used to push him away….”
“Push? No…that was just a reason to touch him yaaarr…By the way, mam, you look like Shraddha Kapoor.”
Rhea’s head was on the table and she was exhausted. Out of 60, at least 40 had confessed that they were a couple, or at least secretly loved each other.
“One more girl madam,” Arun shouted from the door, “Here she is,” he brought a small girl who looked like her daughter Padma, “She is Riya, madam.”
“Riya,” smiled Rhea, “Your friends whoever came in before said that your classmate Punit and Rayma madam were in love, you think so too?”
“I don’t know madam,” she spoke confidently, “Punit was my friend and he told me everything. But he never mentioned this to me. But he used to talk to her about anything.”
“Anything?” shaking her head Rhea asked.
“Yes, it was just us in the class. Everyone had left. Once she hit him and he yelled that please don’t hit me, madam…I’m still a virgin,” Riya looked down embarrassed but they wanted her to speak, “so she said that…how come you are still a virgin and then he looked at her…you know like boys do when they want to charm you….and said because I didn’t get a chance.”
Arun let out a sigh.
“Once they were also talking about porn,” she fumbled and made an awkward face, “I don’t know much about it as I didn’t hear all of it. Sushrut might know. Punit told him everything.”
Sushrut. That bitch thought, Arun.
“Sushrut, huh?”
_________
As Rhea reached home, she was happy. There was no news of the two on TV. Politicians had caused much chaos in parliament to give juice to news channels.
Rhea slept peacefully with her children, no Punit, no Rayma, and no Sushrut.
Padma woke her mother shaking her furiously like the earthquake had cracked open their city.
“Mom, get up,” Rhea opened her eyes and found her daughter shaking her.
“What?” she got up slowly.
“Watch this,” she threw her phone in her lap and vanished down as her younger brother had caused chaos in the living room.
“Parth, you devil,” she ran out screaming her brother.
Rhea rubbed her eyes and saw her WhatsApp flooded with news clips.
Lovers. That’s what they were.
Graphic: Punit and Rayma smiling in the camera with suspenseful music.
One of the classmates of Punit who was called for questioning posted on his Instagram page late at night about this love angle. The cops questioned them for hours and grilled them, and all the students said only one thing: they were forbidden lovers.
The post is deleted by this student, but another student released this picture on Facebook.
It was a picture of Rayma wearing a red kurta and speaking to the girls in the classroom. Punit was standing beside her like a guard and looking at her like she was his favorite actress.
So, it is obvious that the student and teacher were in love with each other. So, can we say that they ran away or…something tragic has happened?
Oh no, this was English media.
She opened another link and it was full of Hindi media. The file size was bigger.
It opened with the song Ishq wallah love and pictures of Punit and Rayma in heart shapes.
Rhea clicked on another link.
It played a romantic song.
Oh fuck! Rhea threw her phone aside.
