The problem

Short Story (Fiction)

A change in constitution is, most of the times, a solution to improve the state of affairs in the country. And as the only constant of nature, solutions are at the root of every problem. In this case, the problem was illegal betting which was resulting in ‘fixing’ in all the major sports in the country and the solution was to make an amendment in the Indian Constitution to legalise gambling.

For Piyush Raichandani, this amendment was an opportunity to have a golden goose which can lay golden goose. An opportunity to fulfil a dream that he couldn’t dare to dream. And Radhika, his girlfriend at that time, was there to fuel this dream. After all, she is the only ‘daughter’ of and heir to Kerala’s real estate tycoon, S. Raj Balachandran and was madly in love with Piyush, whom she met on Connexn, a dating app for people looking for real connection.

While swiping right, Piyush was hesitant as her profile mentioned that she is a transwoman, and Radhika was mesmerised by his life story he had described on the app. They decided to meet on following Sunday evening at their favourite place, coincidentally, a cafe overlooking Ulsoor lake in Bangalore.

Radhika was at the cafe dot on time, as decided, but Piyush was running late. As he entered, their eyes met and it was love at first sight for her. He spotted her and moved towards her rather slowly thinking about how he had never interacted with the third gender in his life and didn’t want to be insensitive.

“Hey, your pictures don’t justify you.” Radhika quipped getting up to hug Piyush.

“Well, I will take that as a compliment,” Piyush said with a wide smile on his face while hugging her.

“You know what, the way you have described your journey, it is very inspiring.” She complimented him.

And his journey from a small-town nobody to the successful businessman, he was then, was worthy of more than a compliment.

Piyush came to Bangalore right after his graduation, seeking a job. It was the year 2009 and the recession had hit every sector. Companies were laying off, rather than recruiting. And the search for a job ended in disappointment. Piyush, not losing hope, started a food delivery business out of the place he was living in, which took off and he now, eight years later, runs ten restaurants and a luxury hotel in the city. But, as it goes, this is just an aerial view of his story, and the finer details are the ones that tell us the real story.

And Radhika, so far, had known about him with the story he had presented, a filtered aerial view, on the app. She wanted to dig deeper, know more about the person she was unable to stop herself to fall for.

“If you don’t mind me asking, what kept you motivated?” she asked him while the smile from the complement was still lingering on his lips.

“Now, this sounds like an interview question, a journalist would ask.” Piyush quipped. And she couldn’t not laugh at his sarcastic yet polite rebuff.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean it like that.”

“I know. But I guess, I also don’t know the exact answer to it, Probably, I never wanted to go back to where I came from. And to keep that from happening, I did whatever I can.” His answer was as honest as honesty could get.

“Ahaan.”

“Now I don’t want to come across as ignorant, that I will probably do.” His hesitation was evident in his tone, but without holding himself back he continued, “You are the prettiest woman, I have ever met, you don’t look like a transgender.”

“Because I am not.” She exclaimed while interrupting him, “I am a trans-woman. I was born a man, but now I am a woman like every other woman out there.”

“Ohh okay. I am sorry for acting dumb.”

“No no. I get it. We all have assumptions and some more which keeps us from interacting with anyone who is not normal according to our standards. And that’s what keeps us from learning.”

“It seems like there is a lot of things we don’t know that we don’t know.”

“Yeah, only if we know.” and both of them burst out laughing.

Though what everyone should know is that the key to learning about what lies beyond our perspective of normal is to keep an open mind about it. The ignorance turns into stupidity and idiocracy if we close our mind for too long. And Piyush believed in accepting things as they come.

“Well, you know a lot of things about me but I don’t know much.” Piyush continued.

“I am helping my dad in his real estate business. I take care of marketing there. His projects are mostly in Kerala, but we have got a couple of upcoming projects in Bangalore.”

“Ohh, interesting! Wait, are you the daughter of S. Raj Balakrishnan?”

“How do you know?”

“It’s not very difficult to connect the dots, and Mr Balakrishnan is a known figure in India.”

“That he is. And that is what makes it difficult for me, everyone expects me to follow his footsteps.”

“Well, I am sure that’s a lot of pressure, trying to step into your father’s shoes.”

This conversation continued for three hours, most of which was around either of them as they wanted to explore each other. But it was interrupted by a phone call from Radhika’s office and they bid adieu but not before Piyush asked her on a date.

“Let’s go on a date.” Piyush said.

“What was this, then?”

“This was not exactly a date, more of a meeting to get to know each other well.”

“Hmm. How about Friday?”

“Friday sounds good.”

“Awesome, see you on Friday.”

“Yup, see you.”

They went on a date, the next Friday, as promised and it’s been three years ever since. Now, their ideal dates are to watch the news together. It is today’s headline that Indian govt. has passed a bill on the last day of the budget session of 2020 to legalise Gambling in India and has mandated every state to do so. While announcing the bill, Finance minister said —

“The recession in 2007–09 was an earthquake, which India survived from, but the looming recession is expected to be a tsunami for the Indian economy. And legalising gambling is India’s only resort to stand a chance to survive.”

While reading the news Piyush gets excited about the opportunities this new bill brings for him. He tells Radhika -

“This is the opportunity I have been waiting for. I always wanted to open a chain of Casinos in India and this bill is the key to all my dreams.”

“I bet you must already have a plan in mind.” Radhika shows confidence in him.

“Ohh yes. When I came to know about the bill being debated in the parliament, I had purchased two properties, one in Bangalore and another one in Hyderabad.” He says excitingly but then stops momentarily, zoning out on his thoughts. After a few seconds of silence he continues, “But I need to figure out the finances before getting the licenses.”

“How much of an investment are you looking for?”

“As per the estimates, the total investment will be around 135 crores and if I lease all my assets, I can gather 40 and some change, I have to figure out the rest.”

“You can speak to VCs.”

Piyush pauses again for a couple of minutes before responding, “I am thinking if it will be alright pitch to your dad for it. I am sure he won’t say no to his daughter.”

It comes as a surprise to Radhika. She hasn’t even told her dad about their relationship as they are not in good terms since her sex-change operation. Earlier her dad was not comfortable about the idea but then he gave in to his son’s wishes. But then it was difficult for him to adapt to the fact that his son is now his daughter and thus he maintained a distance from her to make peace with the fact.

“I can’t go to him all of a sudden and ask for the money. It will be really difficult.” She says.

“I am sure you can make something happen. I will share a business plan and pitch deck with you. You go through it and let me know if you think something has to be changed. And then we will forward it to him.”

“Let me see what I can do. We can also talk to Sangvi. She can connect us with a few investors.”

“Sangvi?”

“Ohh, didn’t I tell you? I met her at a startup concave I attended last year in Hyderabad. She and her boyfriend Dapinder has built a lot of Rummy and Poker apps. They raised 25 million dollars for their series B round. She has very good connections in the industry.”

“I would love to meet these guys.”

“Cool, I will call these guys and set up a meeting.”

“Thanks. I will head to the office now and see you later.”

After Piyush left, Radhika calls Sangvi. They met almost a year back and have become good friends. Radhika also helped her and Dapinder to set up various frameworks for their startup ‘Games Brewery’, which now has millions of users playing their poker and rummy games on their mobile devices. Radhika and Sangvi decide to meet the next day over coffee after lunch.

They both meet at the same cafe by the lake in Ulsoor, where Radhika and Piyush met for the first time. It has now become their go-to place for any meetings or even they go there sometimes to sit and work. Piyush is already there finishing up some work. They join him at his table.

“Sangvi, this is Piyush. We are planning to open a couple of Casinos to cash in on the new bill. He runs a group of restaurants and a chain of hotels in town. and Piyush, this is Sangvi I was telling you about yesterday.” Radhika makes the necessary introductions.

“Hi Sangvi, it is a pleasure meeting you.” Piyush gets up to greet Sangvi.

“It is great meeting you as well, Piyush. She has told me a lot about you.” Sangvi shares the same enthusiasm as him.

“I am sure it’s not all positive.” He quips and both of them end up laughing at his comment.

“She was telling me that you are looking for investors for your upcoming projects. How much are you trying to raise?” Sangvi asked Piyush.

“You guys continue this conversation, I will go order coffee for all of us.” Saying that Radhika leaves them to talk and goes to place the order.

“Well, that is there but after knowing about you guys and what you are doing, from Radhika, I was thinking about how we can collaborate. You guys have reached millions of audience online and I have a plan to leverage that.”

“Interesting! What do you have in mind?”

“That depends on how flexible you guys are in terms of your user data and if you are open to utilising your users to create an alternative stream of revenue. And I am talking about millions of dollars in revenue in a couple of months.”

“I know where you are going with this. I think I need to talk to Dappi about it. I can’t take such decisions alone.”

“Aren’t you the major shareholder?”

“That I am, but still.”

“What am I missing guys?” Radhika interrupts their conversation.

“Nothing we were just discussing the investors she knows and looks like she might not be of much help there. But we are looking at other areas to collaborate.” Piyush lied to her and listening to this Sangvi gets a better idea on what Piyush is up to. And by not saying anything to Radhika, she also shows her approval.

Silence is always an approval. You get a chance to say what is right but yet you don’t. By staying silent you approve a bully to torment you, you approve of a cheater to deny you what’s yours, and you allow to be belittled, you allow to be lied to.

And Sarit Dev Chakroborty never misses a chance to reveal the truth.

That is what his job demands, the truth, something not everyone is comfortable with. Not even other journalists. But Sarit wants to reveal what is going on behind the curtains, the real reason for legalising gambling. He is working on a report linking, Latika Rao, MP form Bangalore, who played a major role in the passing of the bill in Parliament, and a bunch of gaming apps which have evolved into shops for selling coke, meth and LSD.

He had reached out to authorities in the police department to track down the drug racket, but they were not ready to move ahead without any proof and all Sarit had to offer was a theory. A theory of how a startup, Games Brewery, is using its mobile games to sell drugs to their users. They had set up a private chat system within their apps that is only accessible with a key, which is allotted to verified sellers. These sellers, in turn, create their own private chat rooms to sell drugs to the users. But as the Sarit’s research suggests, the sellers are not independent, but the ones appointed by the Games Brewery itself.

To build credibility on his research, Sarit wants to get hold of someone from the company who can help him. Add he has assigned this task to his assistant Apurva, who is trying to get details from Dapinder Jeet Singh, co-founder of Games Brewery. When Sarit calls to take updates about it, she informs him that she is meeting Dapinder at a cafe in Indiranagar in the evening and will try to turn him.

In the evening, Apurva heads to a cafe on CMH road, which was once a hotspot for startup enthusiasts in town and now it is almost always empty, to meet Dapinder. He is already waiting for her. When she enters, he spots her and gets up to greet her. After formal greetings, they settle down and Apurva brings up the topic.

“So, Dapinder, I am sure you know that we are looking into the drug deals happening on your apps.”

“We are aware of it and we are banning all the accounts who are involved in illicit activities.”

“I am sure you are doing more than just banning them.”

“What are you trying to imply?”

“Well, what I mean is that we know that you and/or your team is involved in your so-called illicit activities.”

“I don’t know where you are getting your information from but this is a serious allegation.”

“It won’t take us long to gather the proof and since you are the CEO, you are going to take the blame for it. Unless…”

“Unless?”

“At least you have stopped denying now.”

“I am not confirming anything as well.”

“I know but what if I give you a chance to absolve yourself by helping us to find the real culprit.”

“So now you are sure that I am not involved.”

“I have done my research. I know that you are just the face but the show is run by somebody else.”

“Who do you think runs the show?”

“You tell me, is it Sangvi or your investor Radhika Balachandran?”

Dapinder gets surprised hearing Radhika’s name. He didn’t expect her name to come up and fears that Apurva might also be aware of what is going behind the curtains.

“You have done your homework, it seems. But let’s say, hypothetically, I give you the info, what is in it for me?” Apurva asks sensing that she has hit a nerve.

“Sooner or later, the bubble will burst and this is your opportunity to get out of it before it bursts.” Dapinder can’t stop but laugh loudly at her comment.

“You want me to burst the bubble.” He replies.

“Yes, and that is better when done from outside rather than being inside it when it bursts.”

Dapinder takes a couple of minutes to weigh the pros and cons of how he wants to move ahead. He has been voicing his opinions to Sangvi and the investors and has tried to shut down the drug sales through the app. He had offered his resignation in the last board meeting but Sangvi blackmailed him to stay back and he feels that this can be his way out.

“Okay, Let me think about it, but to start I will tell you this, you are in the right direction, you just need to look more closely.”

“At least point me in a direction.”

“There are similar arenas offline as well, which are deeply in the hole than we are and it goes deeper than you can imagine”

“You mean the chain of casinos run by S. Raj Balachandran and his daughter.”

“I can’t take names here, but you should look closely into the involvement of his daughter more than him. He might not have an idea of what’s going on.”

“Thanks, I will call you if I need anything else.”

“I will text you from another number, call me on that.”

Both of them get up and greet each other before exiting the cafe. Once outside the cafe, Apurva calls Sarit to update about her findings.

“Hey Sarit, I got good news for you.”

“Well, I have got one for you too. But you go first.”

“Dapinder is ready to co-operate with us and he mentioned that some recently opened casinos are also used for the drug sales. It should be worth to look into.”

“Well, what I got is also on similar lines. There is a group of transgenders involved in the distribution of drugs. They park outside the Balachandran’s casinos in Bangalore and Hyderabad. They get details on the phones and supply the drugs in the car of the customers who frequent these casinos.”

“Interesting, Dapinder was pointing me towards Radhika, indirectly. Isn’t she a trans woman, herself?”

“Yes, it was a scandal a few years ago when she came out in the public.”

“I think we are headed in the right direction. Let me look into this. I will see you at the office at 9, tomorrow.” saying that she disconnected the call.

The piece of information which she received looks like it can get her on track. But it can be misleading as well and has the potential to throw them off their track. But that is what a journalist dilemma is, to take this as a lead and follow it up or understand that it is not what it is supposed to be and look above it. And that’s at the core of every dilemma, which is most of the times appear to be about one thing but when you dig deeper, search in the right direction, you get to know that it is about the thing you were too afraid to imagine.

At the office, the next day, Apurva walks in to find Sarit running around helter-skelter, trying to search for the truth among his research material which has piled up on all the four desks and a few chairs as well. From the first look, it appears like a dumping ground, but it is, in Sarit’s weird way, very well arranged. He takes out a pair from a pile lying near his table and excitingly jumps and shouts “Finally” without realising that she is also there.

“Looks like you found a treasure.” She quips.

“Not yet. But, yeah, I found the map.” He replies not losing his excitement.

“I am in for the hunt.”

“In that case, I know the full picture now. Radhika is the main kingpin. She owns the casinos which we already know by now is a front for selling drugs. The buyers place the order to the concierges there and then receive the supply by the group of transgenders who stop these buyers outside the casinos for begging but they, in reality, deliver their orders. And as per your mail last night, we also know how they do it.”

“What about Game Brewery? How do they fit in the schema?”

“So, Radhika invested in their startup last year and pushed Sangvi to sell drugs to their users. They identify the buyers by showing them different ads and then analysing the data. They create chatrooms for the buyers where they place the orders and these orders are delivered along with food and grocery by their delivery partners.”

“This is not the map, it is the treasure we have been looking for.”

“I still feel we are leaving out something. I know for sure that MP Latika Rao is involved somehow, but I have nothing to link her.”

“She is the one who legalised gambling and provided early licenses for Casinos to Balachandran’s company.”

“But that is not enough to link her.”

“What do we have on her?”

“Quite frankly, not much. The only link we have is that huge drug consignment which came in last week. It has moved to a property which was owned by her. But we don’t have any hard proof.”

“But we do have enough to publish the article and take down other people.”

He zones out contemplating on whether he should go ahead with it. It can change a lot of things, bring down the drug ring and also this will shake a lot of trees and something helpful can fall off for him to connect Latika Rao.

“Sarit, where are you lost.” She shouts out loudly to break him out of his trance.

“Let’s publish what we have found till now. We have enough on Radhika and Sangvi.”

“I will get to it. I hope you are not afraid.”

“Not at all.”

Fear holds everyone back, but it is Sarit’s strength. He takes on the challenges which scare him. He publishes the article on his blog and within a few hours, it goes viral. He gets a lot of threats to take it down but yet he doesn’t. Fear drives him.

The article insinuated Radhika as the kingpin behind the drug ring and her father doesn’t take it well. After reading the report, he calls up Sarit and asks him for the proof based on which he printed that article and makes Sarit share all his research. After going through all of it personally, he gets to know what is going on. He calls Sarit to his office for a meeting the same evening.

At his office, Sarit has to wait for sometime before being escorted to S. Raj Balachandran’s cabin. He gets up to greet Sarit.

“Mr Sarit, Please have a seat.” Raj points Sarit towards the couch opposite him.

“Thank you.”

“Do you even have the slightest idea of how blind you are?” he shouts at him.

Taken aback, Sarit remains silent for a bit.

“All of this research of yours does not carry an ounce of proof against my daughter. These are all prima facie conjectures at best. I can sue you for this.”

“Sir, with all due respect, if you have called me to threaten you then I will like to take your leave.” saying that Sarit gets up from his seat.

“Sit down Mr Sarit. I don’t need to threaten you, I can get things done and nobody will get to know.” The anger in Raj’s voice makes Sarit uneasy.

“I always respected your work, but this article proves how unprofessional you are. You may be a good writer but you are one of the worst journalists. But I didn’t call you here to tell you this, I called you here to let you know you got the wrong person.” He continues.

“What do you mean by the wrong person?”

“Radhika has nothing to do with all of this. It is Piyush, her boyfriend who is the main culprit. He forced her to open casinos and it was he who invested in ‘Games Brewery’.”

“What about the group of transgenders who are working with Radhika?”

“Don’t you understand. He is the one using Radhika throughout. She is madly in love with him and is blind. This will be an eyeopener for her and I thank you for this. But you need to take down this article right now and issue an apology. I will help you with all the proof you need against Piyush.”

Sarit stays silent thinking how he was completely deceived by Piyush and he knew about his friendship with Latika Rao but he failed to connect the dots. After sitting there for a few minutes, he gets up and leaves without saying anything.

The article, the revelation of truth that he thought of as a solution for the drug was, became a problem, not just for S. Raj Balachandran and Radhika Balachandran, but for his credibility as well.