VIRUS

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 drug dealer.

Coming to the country as an exchange student from North America he found getting in drugs and then peddling it became a HABIT.

A wiseman once said that

‘’It is very difficult to get rid of HABIT you take out H — ‘A BIT’ remains, you take out A — ‘BIT’ remains and you take out B still ‘IT’ remains’’

This was a classic case with Michael.

He could not get rid of his HABIT.

As his drug peddling increased from few milli grammes it gradually increased to few hundred grammes.

As he traversed the back lanes he had to stay far from Gajanan and his goons who never dealt or tolerated the dealing of drugs.

As Michael cleverly avoided the local goons his other fight was with the police.

His skin colour in a way helped in a lot of situations and uneducated petty drug addicts and small back street dealer looked upon him in awe as a messiah from the western world.

After all he was fair skinned a much superior colour than them.

Unknown to most of them Michael was filled with filth and was a virus to society.

His pan sexuality nature experimented with both sides of the sex.

Enjoying his homosexual escapades he also was a regular visitor to the suburban cheap whore houses with the prostitutes who lived in dirty shambled dwellings.

Unknown to him he had contracted the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV)

It was the early 80’s and India was not educated or open to the study and treatment of HIV/AIDS

It was still a foreign word unknown to the general public so the backstreets would be the last in even hearing about this disease.

Michael over these years had realised that all was not well with him but he continued his dark life of crime.

As Michael’s notoriety grew it came to Gajanan’s attention that drug peddling matters had gone over the limit and apart from hampering the youth who were being affected by the drugs some of his own gang was slowly being influenced by the fast money to be made by drug peddling.

It was against his doctrine.

The police would hardly do anything as corruption had weakened this law protecting arm of society.

He had to act and bring justice.

Knowing that Michael would not be cowed by verbal threats he had to have a physical confrontation.

Michael cleverly moved around from back street to back street unnoticed by his enemies.

He covered his tracks and because he spent money purchasing his loyalties his whereabouts were protected.

One evening Gajanan suddenly managed to get recce and pinpointed the place where Michael could be cornered.

He had to go immediately and alone to avoid being spotted or give Michael a chance to escape

Gajanan was armed with unlimited JIGAR (courage) in his “chhappan inch ki chhati (56-inch chest” implying immense strong willed) and his 12 inch switchblade — the Rampuri.

The single edged blade got its reputation from the place Rampur in Uttar Pradesh where the royal blade-smiths of the local Nawabs of Rampur started making them after the 18th century.

This was the weapon of choice for most thugs and men of crime of the Indian Mafia.

It also got popularised and a formidable reputation by movie villains of India in their Hindi, Bhojpuri and other regional productions of the silver screen.

Michael recognised Gajanan as he emerged from the shadows of the dim lamp lit street.

It was almost empty part of the city and because of its ill repute of being a corner of crime and drugs generally not accessed by the normal public.

Giving each other glares, both being of equal height they started sparring and getting ready for a hand to hand fight.

Blows followed blows and if it was a part of a hindi movies would probably be sound - effected with ‘Dishoom Dishoom’

But as it was a real live scene screams, shouts, gnarls and whacks were a part of the fight.

They hurt each other and wounds were inflicted on both of them with blood flowing from their upper torso and faces.

The three bystanders — actually not bystander (as they were not in a state of standing but doped and drooped by the drugs) — were not even aware of what was happening in their midst.

So high was the state of their addiction.

As both towering men grappled with each other and managed to outwit each other by moves and counter moves the fight was almost a draw when Michael suddenly bent towards the sock of his right shoe trying to arm himself with a small Barretta he carried hidden.

Realising it was endgame if he did not move quickly, Gajanan whipped out and flicking his Rampuri blade managed to knock off the pistol from Michaels hand before he got a grip on the fire arm.

It landed a few feet away near one of the druggies.

Whishing and whashing the Rampuri Gajanan was in a lock with Michael who was desperately in a grip and trying to wade off the attack.

Both were bleeding profusely in the manly close encounter and as Gajanan managed to get an upper hand he thrust the Rampuri straight into Michaels heart. He pulled the blade in a downward motion to spill out his entrails.

Knowing that he had succeeded in managing the kiling stroke he still clasped onto Michaels body and held him in a tight grip for long time as he experienced the life of the screaming evil man slip off leaving behind a very limp body.

In this process as both were injured and heavily bleeding, bodily fluids and blood from each other mixed as they lay clasped in lock with each other on the dirt road.

Blood flowed silently from Michael’s open wounds to ’Gajanan’s split bleeding skin carrying the VIRUS from the infected entity to the other.

Fatigued but pleased with what he had done Gajanan finally got up pulling out the blade from the body, folded his Rampuri and limped out of the crime area.

He was satisfied that he had snuffed out a VIRUS from society.

He did not realise that he was now carrying another VIRUS within him which like a ticking time bomb would take him with it when the time lapsed.

The three druggies who were found the next morning near the dead body of the North American had no clue of what had ensued the night before.

They were still in varying states of high.

Michaels gun was found at the crime scene but a positive identity of the knife attacker could not be ascertained.

In a way police was happy that a cleansing had been done.

They closed the case as a case of a drug exchange gone bad and rivalry between warring dealers.

It was almost over four months since the Michael encounter.

In the basement dingy room Gajanan spilt the bad news.

He had taken care of his tribe with passion as a mother hen takes care of her chicks but now his bad health would force him to retire.

A choice would have to be made and he would have to choose his successor.

He made his choice.

He proclaimed it and got the promise from his successor that drugs would not be tolerated.

He wanted this VIRUS eliminated from his kingdom.

The pact was made with everyone around the table promising their allegiance to their new leader and their drug free way of life.

The VIRUS within Gajanan took its toll.

Initially it was flu like symptoms for two weeks unknowingly followed by deterioration of the immune system.

Within 3 weeks he breathed his last and his death was attributed to flu.

Education, Medication and Treatment for HIV, AIDS had not yet reached this part of the world.

Unfortunately in the process of eliminating one VIRUS another VIRUS had triumphed !!