Young Guns

Back in 1983, when Sujit Banerjee and his ally Jatin Dasgupta fled Calcutta after a robbery, they carried with them two bonduks (locally made guns) and twenty thousand rupees. Bonduk is called tamancha in Uttar Pradesh and desi- kata (sometimes just katta) in Bihar. A bonduk is a small hand gun which is indigenously made in parts of India. It comes in handy and is cheaper than the foreign made guns, something that the killers and robbers of the country favored before the nineties. These guns were made by gun smiths and were sold only if their identity was kept in the dark. During the British colonialism, when the rebels fought against the British raj, they obviously didn’t import guns from outside. There were special gun smiths that learned the craft of developing a locally made gun and supplied it to the rebels. As India is a country where occupation is heredity, this art is still in practice and is kept under the eye of the government. Some also claim that the police knows about it, but they never say a word, because they are fed, under the table.

Sujit was a school dropout and Jatin dropped out from the famous Hindu college of Calcutta, which is now known as the Presidency University. Both knew each other for a long time, since they lived in the same hostel- the Bakers hostel in Taltala. Not only did they share the room, but also the poverty stricken nights without food. There were nights when they would satisfy their cravings with puffed rice and green chilies. On some nights, neither of those was available. The planning of the robbery was simple, hold a gun to the face of a businessman and take his money from his house. The motivation was obvious- money. The idea of robbing someone is difficult to execute, it is entirely on a different level of danger, but the motive and the most important thing in their mind was not to get caught. The execution was next to perfect and they managed to run away with twenty thousand cash. The police were informed and the search was on. But, both were not found, because they didn’t stay in Calcutta, they were on their way to Siliguri and from there to Nepal.

To dodge the police, they changed their modes of transportation, sometimes they travelled by train and sometimes by bus. Sometimes they walked for many kilometers, just to make sure they didn’t leave any traces behind. Jatin knew someone in Nepal who could help them settle there with the recently acquired cash. They first stopped in Asansol, then Malda, then travelled for 3 days to reach Kishangunj and finally they had to reach Siliguri. Between Kishanganj and Siliguri, they made a stop at Bagdogra- ten kilometers away from Siliguri.

Back in the days, Bagdogra was a notorious place and there was a lot of illegal smuggling that went on via the border of Nepal. Both of them decide to halt for few hours and then continue their journey hence. The border through Panitanki was not heavily guarded and even the police didn’t care about it. But, they did indulge themselves in random searches. If your luck ran out, they could seize the money and you end up in prison, Chances of that happening was one in a hundred. Both Sujit and Jatin were aware of the possible danger, but they were prepared to take the risk.

They made a stop near Bihar more at a local bar called the Mohini bar. Mohini bar was located at a deserted place, where few buildings were constructed. Unaware of the fact that this bar was owned by a rich landlord, it was a haven for thugs and hooligans. There was a sign board that read- “Children are not allowed”.

“Why are children not allowed?” asked Jatin trying to think that there was after all some sanctity in people alive.

“So that they don’t learn drinking and smoking” Sujit replied with some disgust and dragged Jatin in.

Most people who came to the bar were laborers and they didn’t have much cash on them. But, there was an illegal betting room, where some of the well to do people gambled during the day. During the day it is safe, as the police are busy with their activities and once in a blue moon, the raid is performed at night. Betting during the day was highly classified activity and only a few handful of people were allowed to enter the private room. The bets went on for hours without disturbance from people. Only alcohol was permitted inside through a waiter called Subhojit. Subhojit was twelve years old and was absolutely harmless, hence the selection. Nobody actually knew how high were the stakes but legend has it that few thousands were on offer.

Sujit walked in and scanned the place. He didn’t see many people, owing to the time of the day. Jatin followed a second later. There were seven tables with seating for four at each one of them. If the crowd was large, the tables were joined manually. The bartender was a burly man of late thirties, with less hair on his head and more on his face. He had a scar across his forehead, from an earlier confrontation of a physical battle. He wore ragged clothes and gave the impression of running the place smoothly without much money on offer. He gave a ghastly look, at the new customers and assigned them a table from the corner of the eye. A man of few words, Pradeep the bartender summoned Subhojit to service the new guests.

“What do you want sir? Ki lagbe?”

“What do you have?” said Sujit.

“Do you want Indian or foreign?”

“How much for foreign, and what is the pri..?” questioned Sujit to know his options, when he was interrupted by Jatin.

“Foreign kano? (Why foreign liquor) Manush aamader shondeho korbe! (People would suspect us)”, with the hinge of discomfort Jatin tried to stop Sujit.

“Chaap nis na bada! Kichu hobe na, accha foreign nibo na”, Sujit in turn consoled Jatin to relax and that nothing would happen and that he wouldn’t order foreign liquor.

Jatin relaxed for a while. Sujit in the meantime placed the order for a bottle of Indian liquor. To complement the alcohol, he also ordered for some snacks in the form of ‘bhuja’, which is referred to as Bombay mix in Great Britain.

The order was served in a few minutes and both of them indulged themselves into a private conversation regarding future plans.

“Listen, we will leave this place here and go to Panitanki, from there we go to Kakarbitta and from there to Kathmandu. Three days to do so, after that we need to plan together and stay focused.” Sujit reiterated the plan just to keep the conversation going for Pradeep not to be skeptical.

“Accha ekta kotha, tell me a thing, is ten thousand enough for one person? What if we need more money to send home? What if we run out of options?” Jatin tightened his brows with a worried look on his face.

“Tor mane ki? (What are you implying?)”

 “What if this money is not enough? What do we do then? Should we steal again, but we can’t take this gun to Nepal.”

“Thik bolchis, you are right, but do you have a plan?”

“We need extra money, just in case we need to bribe the police or for dire circumstances.” There was a silence and Jatin spoke again “What if we loot this place? It’s kind of deserted here, few people, no police nearby and these people hold in a lot of cash within their drawers, my gut feeling is kicking in. If we show them the gun we can get the money without bloodshed.” Before Jatin could finish Sujit interrupted.

“Bahire dhore nibe, they would catch us outside. We can’t run till Nepal like this, you are crazy.”

“No I am not, I saw a motorcycle outside and I saw the waiter deliver the keys to the bartender, we can run away on the motorcycle and ditch it somewhere after 10-15 kilometers. We will go to Panitanki after that. Nobody knows us and they wouldn’t even suspect us.”

“This sounds too good to be easy, let’s be satisfied with what we have. If you need money you can take some from me.” Sujit tried to shun the devilish idea that Jatin was having.

“Okay, let me observe for few more minutes and then I will tell you to abandon or to execute. There are currently two people here. One waiter and one bartender, which makes it four, excluding us. 

These are laborers and they will comply when a gun is at their face. The waiter is a child he will not do anything. This leaves us with the bartender, we are two and he is single. He is outnumbered and he will be unarmed, at least I hope so. He will not take a chance with his life. There is nobody outside. It’s hot and except the petrol pump there is nothing that could house people. I say let us do it.” Jatin thought about this in haste, but he was confident that he was not wrong.

A robbery here would be much easier than the one they had pulled out five days back. The bartender would naturally fear for his life and he is surely not the owner, so he would give the money.

“Oh sob thik aache, kintu taka kato pabo?” Sujit counter questioned Jatin about the quantity of cash they could loot. He continued “Maximum, he will have five hundred nothing more than that. Let’s not risk everything for such a petty amount.”

“True. Let me find out if he has more cash. If he doesn’t we pay the bill and go out. Else we wait.”

“Ja khushi kor (do as it pleases)” replied Sujit and finished his drink.

After eight focused minutes on the bartender and the waiter and some more drinks Jatin was sure that he wanted to rob this place. There was an instance when the waiter came up to the bartender and asked him something. The bartender gave him something wrapped in a cloth. Jatin was sure that it was the earnings of a few days and it could be more than five thousand. The bar was a single floor building so there had to be a safe somewhere inside. Possibly there could be more than that meets the eye. Jatin was absolutely sure that he wanted to execute the plan.

“Let us do it. I have done all my research and my plan is full proof.”

“Pagla na ki? Are you crazy?”

Sujit received a stern look “No I am not crazy, I am sure about the cash this place has and we are going to rob it in the next minutes.”

Sujit looked at Jatin to read his face, he was at the peak of his concentration and he was not at all joking. Sujit had no option, he had to carry out the task.

“Thik aache bada, but if I die, you will pay my share to my family in Bankura.”

“Sure” replied Jatin, he stood up and walked to the bartender.

“Dada, kato hoyeche bill? (How much is the bill).”

The bartender ran a quick check of his notepad and replied “eighteen” only to look at a gun that was pointing at his nose.

There was silence and Sujit, locked the doors of the bar, told all the customers to remain seated and called the waiter.

“Chotu, ja taka niye aai. Get the cash in this bag.” The waiter stopped and looked at the bartender for instructions. The bartender didn’t move. Nobody else did.

Jatin holding the gun even firm asked the bartender to give him the cash “give me the cash and you can live, do something silly and I will shoot you. Do not speak a word, just do what I say. Send the waiter to get the cash you sent inside and put the rest in this bag.”

The bartender didn’t blink an eye, he stood firm and said “No, I will not give you what is sent inside, we hardly have a hundred rupees here in the counter, you can take that and leave the boy.”

Jatin was unabashed “Give me what you have here and tell the boy to get the rest of the cash from inside.”

Bartender was stern again and replied “the child will not go inside, I can give you the money that I have here.”

Jatin asked him to fill the bag “Thik aache.” After receiving a thrifty amount, Jatin was not satisfied, he couldn’t agree that his planning was wrong and he was sure that there was more money. He told Sujit to take a look inside with the boy while he grabbed the motorcycle keys.

Two seconds later, there was gun fire in the inner room. There was a series of bullets that were fired and Sujit didn’t move. He fixed a gaze at the door and was sure that anybody walking outside that door would be shot. There were few more shots within the next seconds and then the sound subsided.

Nobody walked out from the door. Baffled about the recent events, Jatin asked for explanation to the bartender “What happened?”

The bartender tried to pull out his gun and point at Jatin. But, Jatin was quick and shot him dead with the first bullet. That was the first bullet he had ever fired. He saw the blood spill on the wall behind and his face was also covered in spots of red. One of the laborers tried to run, but he was shot was Sujit. There remained only one laborer, the waiter and unknown amount of people inside the room.

Sujit was scared so he ordered the last laborer to take a look inside the room. He was told at gunpoint so he couldn’t refuse. The laborer took slow measured steps. Turning around after each step and almost asking to let him go. He reached the door after a total of ten steps. He opened the door and almost in the next second he too was shot dead.

Jatin was sure that there was cash in there and he didn’t want to give up on his plan, but he had less time. So he decided to go in and shoot anybody who was in sight. He started to walk towards the room. Sujit wouldn’t approve “are you crazy, there is no way you are going in there.”

They had to know if there was an imminent danger in that room. Both of them looked at chotu Subhojit and asked him about the shooting. He was scared and he didn’t reply for a minute.

“Inside, there are four gamblers, I don’t know how many are alive or dead. They have a lot of money, please don’t kill me, let me go” said Subhojit and pleaded for mercy.

Sujit worried for his life said “Let’s get out of here, this doesn’t seem to be a good idea. There is money there, but risking our lives would be nonsensical.”

 Jatin was unabashed “No, I am not leaving without the cash that is inside. Chotu, go in and check if there is anyone alive?”

Scared for his life, Subhojit, took baby steps and said “Maalik, aami aaschi (master, I am coming in).” While following him closely were Jatin and Sujit. Both of them clasped the gun in front of their eye and were ready like a sniper. Slow measured steps brought them close to the door. They ordered Subhojit to open the door.

Subhojit, opened the door, which creaked giving shrill noise. Inside, the room was a bloodbath, there lay four men, with bodies punctured by bullets. There was approximately fifteen thousand cash on the table. After observing that all the people were dead, both Jatin and Sujit collected the cash and headed out. They had to dart for the bus to Panitanki, when they heard the sobbing of the waiter.

He had seen such a horrific incident and he was the only witness that was left behind. Jatin wanted to run away, but Sujit felt for the child. He grabbed a couple thousand rupees and told the child to run away and lead another life. He was twelve and he could start anew. The money meant nothing for the time being, as the trauma was more painful. But, they had to leave. Subhojit’s family would take care of him and time would heal everything. They told him not to cry and to take the money to his family and run away from here. Time was less and they had to move on. Sujit said a soulful bye to the waiter, but he didn’t respond.

Both of them knew something was wrong, Sujit showed his emotions while Jatin hid it. When they opened the door for a new start with more than thirty thousand rupees. They saw a young girl standing outside.

“Tui ke? Who are you?” asked Jatin.

“Aami Debo. (I am Debo).”

“Why are you standing here?” asked Jatin again.

“My dad is drinking inside!” Silence, and then Jatin fell to his knees, clutching his gun and teary eyes.