The forest was redolent with sweet , sickly smell of rotting ripe mangoes , and jamuns . An overpowering hum of insects followed , if you tune in your ears , to listen above the roar of the automobiles on the road nearby .
There were gazillions of ants,flies , wasps , bees and beetles at task . Sucking , slurping , licking , and drinking . The noise was overpowering .
"It is like a war ." Tatya, the hornet, declared from inside a mango. The mango in question was a huge , juicy Himsagar . Right opposite the Big Boss's house . It had fallen from the tree of its own accord . The juicy weight made it crack the moment it fell with a loud "Thwack". Overnight the ants had colonised the pulpy interior . They came out , their bellies full , some even passed out right there in the grass , with sugar overload .
"Gluttons " Tatya had remarked loftily , humming at the sight of drunk , bellyup ants .
Tatya came in the morning , when the cracked edges has curled inside , and most of the juice had oozed out , making it easy to wriggle inside and eat from the "heart " of the mango .
"Why war ?" Tatya's sidekick , Pitambar , the wasp asked , alighting soft footed, on a freshly fallen , still green , gigantic Fazli .
"Because it is every insect to themselves ." Tatya had to emerge from the belly of the mango to answer . Like the ants he scoffed at earlier , he too , felt woozy and unsteady on his legs . His tiny tummy had sucked up enough sugar to last him for days .
"Isn't it always ? " Pitambar's truisms always sprung from questioning Tatya's foolish certainties. He didn't have to look far for wisdom . It was always to be found in the foolish utterances of his friend . Like a lotus in the murky pond, or sweet , clean , mango , in a sea of rotting fruit . Pitambar smiled at his metaphor .
With a benign belch Tatya flew unsteadily to Pitambar , and alighted on his terra mango firma. Pitambar , was still rubbing his forelegs together .
"At this rate , this is all you'll do ."
"What ?"
"Rub your hands . In frustration . All the food will be gone . "
"You think so ?" And Pitambar swivelled his enormous compound eyes , all over the green compound , now turned yellow , with large rotting mounds ." Tatya followed his gaze .
"Ok. Ok . I get your point . But you mushht begin sommwhere . You have to...." Tatya trailed off , turning to his side and snoring, mid mutter .
"Hah ! Who is glutton now ? " A red ant passed by , scraping Tatya's wings with its clawed leg . " Being all snobbish and calling others names . Baah !" the ant grumbled away .
"Look out !" Pitambar shouted at the ant . He hated ants . Opportunists .
He sighed . Now , he was stuck . He couldn't leave Tatya's side , lest some harm befall him , and he couldn't fly elsewhere , looking for better mangoes .
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"I am named after the legendary fighter , Tantya Tope ." Tatya was boastful the next morning . "Hence the simile of war . I see strife and attrition everywhere . "
'Nonsense . You are just named after tataya , the hindi name for hornet . And I am just a yellow attired person ." Pitambar sighed . Sounding older than his years .
" No imagination !! What about the weapon I am blessed with at birth ? " Tatya showed off his sting on his butt , like an unsheathed dagger . With a sudden cry , he unfurled his wings and flew away from the plant they were resting on .
"Hey wait ! Why the hurry ?"
" Ok . So I don't want to sound superior , but didn't you see a snake slithering up the tree trunk next to us ? " Tatya was incredulous .
"Of course I did ." Pitambar was cool . He never lied . He actually saw the snake .
"And you didn't move ."
'It came to eat the bird's eggs on the tree nest . Not us . "
"Oh ! I see . How does that make us feel safer ?"
" Because the enemy of one's enemy is a friend . Birds eat us , snakes eat their eggs . "
"Aaah ! But what about the ants ? They wrestle us , grab our homes and eat bird's eggs as well ."
"They eat everything . I hate ants , they're opportunists ." Most of Pitambar's arguments ended in anti-ant tirade . Then he would frown darkly and not speak for hours .
Two of his homes were grabbed by ants . His queen was eaten by them . He never forgave them .
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"Dude , dude I just discovered a crime ?" Tatya was in the warrior mode again . Flying erratically , shouting at the top of his voice . Actually , he was humming loudly , to the rest of the world .
Either way , it was a bad sign . It would attract undue attention and trouble would follow . A fatal throw of a sandal , swipe of a rolled up newspaper , or a sprayed deathly gas . Loud humming was never a good sign .
Pitambar followed him . Trying to calm him down, countering his outburst.
"You mean a "grime"? You must have discovered some rotting thing swarming with ants."
"Don't be silly .A crime is committed in the human world . When a man tries to kill another , may or may not succeed . Then , it is called a crime . " Tatya flew zig zag , dodging branches , clothes line with large sheets flapping dangerously , blotting out sun , some even had huge misleading flowers printed on them .
Everything in the human world was either designed , or was , by accident , meant to keep out insects . And here was Tatya , solving human crimes . Pitambar was furious and frustrated . Tatya just didn't see the gigantic scale of the human world , and his insignificant self in it . That made him either a terrible fool or a terrifically great person . Pitambar , at these times , was totally at a loss with himself . He didn't know whether to abandon Tatya to his grandiose schemes or to follow him doggedly like a devoted friend that he was , standing with him , in all his colossal follies .
It is "sheer dumb luck " ( as Professor McGonagal would put it ) that Tatya had survived for so long . He was no Harry Potter either , in the magical world of Hogwarts .
"But isn't it what always keeps happening in the insect world . We are forever trying to kill each other. "
Pitambar was clutching at straws .
"We are different . We do not matter ." Panted Tatya back from above his shoulder .
"What ?" Pitambar was flabbergasted . He stopped mid air . He just had enough .
To be called that he didn't matter . Or that he was a nobody , and that helping humans , whose only aim in existence was to eradicate insects ( pests , they called us ) , simply tipped the balance .
He refused to follow this fool's butt , tail , sting , trail , whatever .
Pitambar took a deep breath and landed on a leaf , and watched Tatya's black butt zoom out of focus of his hundred compound eyes . He blinked back a tear and prayed for Tatya. That is all he could do . Tatya didn't even look back , for a second .
Pitambar felt miserable , and a mild shade of a traitor .
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"No sir , I am not hallucinating ! I am telling the truth ." Constable Parmar was trying to convince his superior at work , S.I. Chauhan . He didn't sound convinced .
"So , according to you , I am supposed to believe , that you found the corpse of the victim , Mr Raju , aged 12 , lying in a ditch , face down , at the far end of the mango orchard , because you followed a hornet ?" Chauhan Saab was reading from his notes on the notepad , and looked incredulously , at the notes he himself had written a few moments ago , after he called Parmar to his office .
Parmar was the first to discover a corpse of a boy , missing for the last three days , lying in a ditch beyond the mango farm . He said in his statement , that he followed an erratically behaving hornet . It zigzagged in front of his bike , hummed incessantly into his ears , sat on his handles and led him to the site of crime , after which he lost track of the hornet .
"It almost seemed as if it wanted me to discover the body ."
Taking a deep breath , and trying to appear calm , Chauhan saab said through his gritted teeth " What did you smoke last night , Parmar ? Or were you drunk ? "
Parmar clicked his tongue and touched his earlobes in repentance " Sir , no one had ever smoked and drunk in my family for the past thirty years . "
"You know how this is going to sound ? You know na ? " Saab's face was getting redder .
" I know Sir . I am just telling you what I saw ." Parmar answered meekly .
" Listen ." Chauhan took a sip of water . " I will write that you perceived a stink , as you left your home , and followed your nose . Is that ok ? "
"Ok , Sir ." Parmar was resigned to these things , long ago . Seniors with no ounce of imagination. In fact , the entire world comprised of a vast majority of people who had no time or patience for imagination . And they lost out on great deal . For sure .
Chauhan tore up the earlier statement . Wrote a fresh one , and showed it to Parmar . Very reluctantly , he put his signature there. Now he knew how Galileo must have felt before being asked to retract his statements . In his head and heart Parmar knew it was the hornet .
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Chauhan Saab's desk was littered . There were photographs of suspects , sheafs of papers , files .
He hated chaos . So he rearranged files into a heap, papers were neatly clipped into a clipboard . and photographs lined up on the table , in two neat rows . Twenty unkempt faces stared back at him , from his glass top , as he thought . Thought hard .
Suddenly there was a commotion outside . Overturning tables , a thrown footwear , screams , thuds . Chauhan must have opened his door a crack , and the source of the mayhem sailed into his cabin . A large yellow black jacketed hornet .
Chauhan was petrified and silenced . He lived in mortal fear of stings and bites from insects . Hardened criminals shivered in his presence , however he shook with fear at the sight of rats , snakes , scorpions , bugs , beetles , flies . It was a long list .
The hornet flew at the table . Hovered over the photographs . Going over them , one by one .
Chauhan watched mesmerised from the door , and putting his finger on lips , shut the door quietly on all the chappal wielders , who had followed the hornet . They smiled wickedly , thinking that the hornet was trapped now and will meet its just end at the hands of Chauhan saab's rolled up Journal of Police Academy .
It was not to be . On the contrary , Chauhaan watched in fascination , as the hornet tried to pick up one of the photos with its legs , failing which , it went and sat on the face .
This was like a tarot card reading in the town square by that fraud astrologer , Nathu and his parrot . Only this was weirder .
"I am just telling what I saw , Sahab . " Parmar had said , unhesitatingly , as he had saluted Chauhan on his way out . Chauhan had known Parmar for last five years , and he knew , he never lied . What was this coincidence ? Chauhan pinched himself as he saw the hornet rub his forelegs buzzing comfortably over that one photograph .
In a trance , Chauhan walked slowly and opened his window . The hornet continued to sit . The he very gingerly picked up the photo with the hornet still on it , and took it to the window . Before shaking it , he nodded at the hornet , ever so slightly . Immediately , as if with its million compound eyes , it had seen Chauhan , it took wing , hovered ever so slightly and flew out of the open window .
It was like an epiphany , a miracle .
Chauhan stood mesmerised , for a long time , staring out into the yellow , gold , shimmering morning . That is how his assistant , Borkar found him . Holding a black and white passport sized photograph , staring into the space .
"Hornet killed sir ? " Borkar had poked his head into the cabin .
"yes , ahhh no . Actually I opened the window to let him out . "
Borkar silently closed the window , and lowered the AC temperature to 18 degrees , to make up for the lost cold air .
"Water, Sir ?" Borkar was all business . Cool , level headed .
"Aah , yes please . Borkar , please send Parmar in ."
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The jeep , old and rusty , roared to a stop . It was a village road . All dust , shimmer and haze . As it was millions of years ago . We haven't changed one bit . Thought Chauhan as he alighted .
He wore aviators to avoid glare and dust going into his eyes . Now he needed to see . So he took it off and tucked it away into his pocket.
Parmar followed him , and rapped on the closed wooden doors of one of the huts with his baton .
The door was opened by an old man . He could be anything between 50-70 years old . Wrinkled and dusty , he wore a dhoti and had a red cotton gamcha thrown over his shoulders .
He appeared spooked to see the police .
"Lachu prasad ?"
"ji saab ."
"You are the guard for the Ramavtar's mango orchard ?"
"ji saab".
It was rumoured about Chauhan Saab that he could see a lie in a person's eye . It was true .
" Why did you kill the boy ?"
"What boy are you talking Saab ? "
" The one who was picking mangoes off the property on Saturday night ."
Then it briefly came back to Lachu . The fleeing dark figure . The unmistakable aim of his lathi thrown from a distance of 50 metres . The thud . The silence . He had not even gone to check . Not even to retrieve his lathi . Couldn't care less . He had a couple of them in his arsenal , stacked up outside his hut .
That the fingerprints had given him away was just the seal the case required . Lachu almost silently got into the jeep , wrists bound by a cheap coconut fibre rope , chafing , a hood over his eyes . He hated drama , but his wife had wept as he was led up , beaten her breasts . A crowd had gathered .
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"You were right about this hornet Parmar. Seems to be someone special . Like a divine intervention . "
" Like Hanuman on the first reconnaissance visit to Lanka ." Parmar folded his hand and bowed , overjoyed at his validation .
"But not a word to anyone , understood ? " Chauhan was very practical . he knew what others would think . That insanity was running amok in the department .
"It can have grave consequences for both our careers."
"I agree sir ."
"It will be our secret ."
"Yes sir . Without doubt sir ." Parmar saluted smartly and marched off the cabin .
Chauhan rang the bell . Borkar poked his head in , torso still out . He hated AC and forced cooling .
"Sir ?"
"Bring me the missing person's file of last month . Need to notify the boy's parents ."
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" That was when the real drama unfolded." Tatya was reclining on a branch . Talking animatedly , relating the entire story , highlighting his hero's role , having made up with Pitambar .
"That boy turned out to be his missing son ."
"Whose son ? "
"Lachu's son had been missing for a week . Last seen in the vicinity of the orchard ."
"Oh My word !! Don't you say ?"
"Yeah . Killed his own son . Doing his damn duty . Protecting bleeding mangoes ."
Tatya got up and zoomed towards the orchard again . Pitambar followed .
"And the father didn't know his own son ?"
Pitambar was incredulous .
"Yes . It was dark . Human senses are limited . Their IQ and brilliance too . Foolish giants ."
Tatya nosedived into yet another mango .
"Wait !! Aren't you scared of flying lathis ?"
"Who me ? Pshaw !! I can hear one whizzing from far way !"
"Really ?"
" Yeah , just as now ." Tatya grabbed Pitambar around the waist and tackled him to the fruity , pulpy floor , humming with flies and ants , even as a huge footwear whistled past . It landed a metre away . Bathroom slipper. Bata. White and blue .
Pitambar looked up at Tatya , wide eyed with amazement and gratitude .
A huge human loomed up and shouted at another receding human back , racing towards the same ditch .
Another mango thief .
"Told ya ! Ha." Tatya winked and dove into a juicy chausa .
