Musing Reminisce

Ronnie fleetingly glanced towards Peter. He winked at him. It was a very reassuring WINK. Turning 90 degrees he now turned to the seated customer Chiman and pointing to his plate addressed him ‘’Saheb — Aa to kai nahi’’ ‘’Aa to Kali Elaichi che’’ (Sir — This is nothing. This is black cardamom) PETER BRAGANZA was a novice. He was a waiter who had recently started working in this busy standalone restaurant in Colaba, Bombay  His clean crisply ironed sparkling clean white shirt and black trousers highlighted his dedication to his waiting profession. Travelling from Goa and migrating to Bombay he had been shuttling from place to place in this hustle-bustle city in search of a steady job. It was the 1980s and cruise holidays in the USA were booming. His ultimate goal was to work in a cruise liner where he knew he could mint money as a few of his village friends had. He had done his homework. The agents who were organising the jobs were charging a bomb as processing fees and then he had ...

‘’There are SIXTY cups on a table. If one falls down, then how many remain on the table ?’’ Raj with a big smile on his face and using the right emphasis on his phonetics asked this to his student friends who were seated in a group around the tea stall on the station platform. He was sure that all his friends would blurt out the obvious answer. He had a different answer up his sleeve. It was mid Nineteen Sixty !! The group of his ten College students a mix of boys and girls were on this study trip from Bombay to Gujarat. Travelling in the rugged boogie of the Indian Railways they were enjoying the train journey as their trip took off to a great start. The train chugged along as all of them had a laugh of their time sharing anecdotes and spending quality time with each other as a group. Fresh air wafted through the compartments as the train travelled through the ghats and open plains of the terrain. Students along with other passengers took turns to hang out from the rattling open boogi...

Gajanan sat at the head of the table. Though very weak in physique due to his condition his authoritative voiced boomed around the room and all participants stood listening to it with their heads lowered. The cobwebbed room in the Bombay basement was dingy and dimly lit. The wooden table was solid oak and looked weathered Gajanan sat on an intricately carved worn out wooden chair. He was head of the local mafia and this was his domain The mixed characters nodding their heads to his words were his goons and enforcers. They all looked glum. Being of the old school, similar to a Mario Puzo character of Don Corleone in the Godfather, he did his business with pride and a code. It existed as veins carrying bad blood alongside arteries that allowed the good blood flow. They never mixed. For them the crime stopped at gambling and alcohol. Drugs was a ‘NO — NO’ Normal people of the mohalla were never affected in a mega way with the crimes that existed in the back lanes. Michael was a small time...

‘’KING(FISH)ER — kingfisher’s have large heads, long, sharp, pointed bills, short legs, and stubby tails. Most species have bright plumage. Most kingfishers are usually thought to live near rivers and eat fish. They catch their prey usually by swooping down and grabbing the fish with its bill’’ My story is about a KINGFISHER Inderjeet Singh and his FISH Ajay Valiya. Inderjeet worked as a private financial consultant investigating financial frauds. Based in India he had travelled from Mumbai to London on a very special assignment for his employers. They were a consortium for the 13 Indian Banks that were trying to recover a debt which included around Rs 9000 crores by an absconding promoter. The person he was investigating was an airline magnate Ajay Valiya who had fled to London and had to be extradited. Inderjeet had a very busy ten days in London and following up on a transaction lead he had travelled to Liverpool just for a day. Travelling light with a small suitcase and his laptop...