SECRET

A thriller with a secret, silent killer.

THE THRILLER

The scene of this story is the Indo Chinese ORIENTAL WOK INN. The year 1986.

This newly opened Bombay restaurant boasting of chic interiors with luxurious seating was located in a street having row of restaurants serving multi cuisine Indian influenced restaurants

It was neighboured by ’LA JAVAAB PIZZA HOUSE’ the Indo Italian Pizza joint on one side and ’SAAZ AUR SIZZ’ the Indo American sizzler restaurant.

Oriental Wok Inn was frequented by local clientele as well as backpack poor foreign tourists from China the Far East and Europe.

The hippies from Europe and trekkers from Japan and China came here to dine as it was affordable.

Apart from the normal open 60 seating area,they had 3 small booths each with varying seating capacities of 2-4

These booths were quite popular with local ‘lovey dovey’ couples looking for private space in this buzzing metropole.

Small business men lacking office cubicles in sky high priced office space also used these booths to initiate and complete business deals.

This evening there was going to be drama here.

BOOTH A

Raj and Mohini nicknamed ‘Vasu and Sapna’ (after EK DUJHE KE LIYE) were the college teenagers madly in love with one another.

However they had resistance from their families.

Their Family differences was not the North - South type of divide but a ‘AMIR GARIB’ issue.

Raj was rich — stinking rich and Mohini came from a modest but very poor background.

Just this evening Raj had got a call from Mohini with the ‘gissa pitta’ bollywood dialogue.

(This had first appeared in the 1943 Ashok Kumar starrer Kismet and had lived to stay for decades. The dialogue makes an appearence when the heroine’s sister says the same fact to her lover when she's pregnant.)

He heard Mohini in cry bursting spurts say I have a secret to tell you - "main tumhare bachhe ki maa banne wali hun"

As he wanted to personally meet and console her they had decided to meet in the booth of Oriental Wok Inn.

They had ordered a soup to share as they had to order something and as the waiter walked away springing back the double flappy half doors ot the booth to their privacy he heard her say -- "main tumhare bachhe ki maa banne wali hun"

You will ask where is the crime, where is the silent killer ??

Patience !! — he is working secretly.

BOOTH B

Amit was the son of Kashibai.

She was a single mother who had brought up her son undergoing a lot of hardships.

She worked in theatre and was the super heroine of the Sangeet Marathi Nataks and created a sensation with her performances.

Years back she had fallen in love with Bajirao the Sugar Barons only son.

He however was only interested in carnal pleasures.

Amit was born out of wedlock out of Lust and was a ‘bas**rd’

Bajirao had refused to marry her and not wanting to abort she had concocted a story and brought up Amit single handedly painting a false scenario of his fathers death.

Amit was always under the impression that his father had died years back when he was just one year old.

This morning rummaging through some old letters stored in the almost rusted aluminum box he had seen exchanges of letters between his mother and the now sugar baron Bajirao.

Getting the secret and truth out from his mother who was now week and poorly, Amit had called Bajirao for this meeting.

Bajirao initially refuting had finally agreed to this meeting in the booth of Oriental Wok

After the waiter left after taking an order of Chicken Manchurian and Egg Fried Rice Amit had accosted Bajirao with a (Amitabh’s Lawaaris) dialogue

Sethji —

‘Hum toh un logon mein se hai joh is duniya mein sirf shareer lekar pehda huye hai ... hamari na toh taqdeer likhi jaati hai ... na hi aasman mein hamare muqaddar ke sitare hote hai

(I am one of those people who are born in this world only with a body ... no fate is written for us ... and neither are there any stars in the sky for our destiny)

Again You will ask - Where is the crime, where is the silent killer ??

Patience !! — he is working secretly.

BOOTH C

Morarji and Jayalalithaa were a couple made in heaven.

Very devoted to each other they had spent their lifetime in God’s service.

They were in the routine of visiting shrines over the years.

Sad Memory flashed back to their trip to Prayagraj about 15 years back

This was the famous Kumbh Mela.

(It was a Celebration in a cycle of approximately 12 years marked by the chilli dip in the waters and it’s also a celebration of community,’s and numerous fairs.

The festival been considered one of the largest peaceful gatherings in the world and the largest congregation of religious pilgrims.

It was also the classic place for kids in the bollywood film stories to be lost)

They had lost both their 10 year old twin sons.

Both sons Rahul and Narender had landed up in different household being separated from each other as well and had been adopted by two different households.

15 years later due to some providence all were in Bombay.

Matching data the separation secret had been identified and the parties informed.

All were ecstatic and were looking to meeting each other.

Meeting place for the ‘Kumbh ka mela bichda family’ was The Oriental Wok Inn booth.

As the order was placed and the waiter was leaving one of the two carbon copy men addressed him and exclaimed “Hum bachpan main kumbh ke mele main bichad gaye thee”

Are you asking me - where is the crime, where is the silent killer ??

Patience !! — he is working in the kitchen.

THE KITCHEN

Bahadur was the Nepali chef working on the range.

He was skilled in chinese cooking and the advantage of having high cheek bones and resembling a Chinese immigrant made him a suitable candidate for Indo-Chinese restauranteurs.

He read out aloud the orders as the Manchow soup for Booth A, the Chicken Manchurian and fried rice for Booth B and the family of four meal selection for Booth C.

As the KOT’s flooded in —chopping cutting gathering - he started working on the high pressure burner flames to cook out the orders.

In a visual drama of expertly tossing his wok over the stream of blue and yellow burst of fire the food flew up to land swaying back into his wok.

Dishing out and portioning out the prepared dishes they were ready now on the heat lamp illuminated kitchen counter under the hot glare.

The waiter loaded the ceramic dishes onto the wooden service trays and marched carrying the prepared food orders to the respective booths.

THE SILENT KILLER

Earlier in the afternoon during his break a passing Japanese sailor guest who had just arrived into the country had gifted Bahadur a fish.

This marine creature was odd looking and he had never seen it before in all his culinary years.

Bringing it into the kitchen Bahadur had tried cutting it and was not satisfied. He had then refrigerated the cut fish planning to cook it for his secret personal dinner after normal guest service.

Forgetting about it he now carried out rest of his days work.

The knife and chopping board he used for the odd looking fish had been contaminated and used for rest of the days mise-en-place.

Unknown to both of them it was ‘FUGU’

This Japanese fish swells up in defense and is said to contain enough poison to kill 30 people. Its ovaries, liver and intestines contain tetrodotoxin, a poison so potent that it can produce rapid and violent death.

There is no known antidote to its poison.

Unknown to him all food cooked and served that evening was poisoned.

THE HEADLINES

Next morning newspaper headlines shouted out in bold print

Food poisoning in ‘The Oriental Wok Inn’ in Bombay leaves at least 20 dead.

THE SECRET

Ssssssssshhhhhhhhh!!!!

Don’t tell anybody and even if you tell -- please tell them not to tell anybody.

---- This incident never happened and is just a fragment of my imagination.

Note — Credit for details, images and dialogues - Internet.