CHAPTER FOUR- SOMETHING CALLED RESPONSIBILITY.

Gauri….she is such a beautiful girl…Oh my….All night I watch her from the top of her terrace and by the window sill of her apartment because I just can’t let my mind of her…Gauri, she is so good, so sweet and every night I keep walking along with her to her apartment and due to this I feel more secure with her, by her mere presence…just the scent of her body or just my hands touching her hair…the wind stays silent, even the night seems to go down for us and the stars…well why…should I look at them so far above, when I have got the most beautiful stars embedded in her eyes, stars just meant for me to look upon and fall in love…Oh Gauri…I hope this is love….
TRINGGG!!!
What the…!!! It was my morning alarm, Oh my…I was dreaming about my yesterday nights trip with Gauri to her place, we talked a lot and above all yesterday she held hands with me…It was so awesome…Oh Gauri…sweet girl…and when she was about to leave, she kissed me goodbye on my cheek…Oh great…I felt so nice….
DING DING DING!!!!
Anne!!!...Oh my Lord…she must have come with the breakfast, and I forgot that it was the seventh of October today and it was her birthday today….Oh my…how did I forget it…and with the door opened, she stormed in and just looked at me with those round staring eyes and asked me, “You forgot na” and with mixed reactions I said, “Well…no…well how could I my dear Anne…how could I…I mean…how did I…Oh well how did I forget it…I am sorry…slept late…Sorry Anne and happy birthday dear”. Hearing this she came to me and kissed me on my cheek and said “Thanks dear”. And embarrassingly I spoke, “Well I got no gifts too, but don’t worry tonight I will indeed bring you the best gift you ever got….I promise…so can we eat…Well…I am getting all late, so let’s eat”, and with a very sweet, soothing smile she said, “Lets eat boy”. And I was all set to eat, when Anne reminded me that before eating, I must at least brush my teeth and I ran off to the bath room…I just forgot about brushing my teeth between all this commotion. So I brushed, had a bath, ate the delicious tomato soup and toast and went to my room to pack my bag. Anne came in with the idea of packing my bag, but I refused for the reason that my Shadow Nova suit was in the bag and I didn’t want her know about it, she complied with me packing my bag myself and before we left she slid a small pack into my hand…To my astonishment, it was a ring, the very same ring that I had once asked Anne to buy me just for fun. And today she placed that ring on my hand and told me, “Thanks Reuben, for being my best friend and always remember, this Anne will always be with you as your best support till the end of her life, Take care boy”. My eyes filled with tears and I hugged her, tears even rolled from her face, but then she asked me not to get much emotional and to run fast to office as I was already too late. She bid me goodbye and I ran off to office with the thought in my mind that how much she cared about me…Dear Anne…indeed, she was my best support…take care Anne…
Even though I reached office late, Pandit was not angry as he had been busy with his secretary Ms. Chandini, so in such beautiful moments, he never lost his cool, because that might push off the pressure…So after the whole days’ work, I decided to go to the Cross-Mark store at corner 9 in Andheri itself for some jeans and t-shirts for Anne, also I had to take my earlier ordered custom made bracelet from there, which I had made for Gauri. The bracelet was designed in delicate platinum with the letters ‘S’ and ‘G’ etched together on it and it was able to display holographic images of both the letters getting animated with each other and for all this it was powered by solar energy . It was so beautiful, I knew Gauri would indeed like it; it was specially made for her only. After I left the shop with all those purchases, I decided to go to Gauris’ place, when, Sarjeet called me on my cell. He called me so as to remind me that tonight dinner was at Anne’s place and that I should not be late, I told him that I won’t be late and told him not to start the party without me and also told him that I would come for the party only after going to Gauris’ place. On hearing this he went all berserk and told me that this was not for any good and that going behind this girl, I must not forget my true motive as I usually do; I asked him to calm down and told him that Gauri is a good girl and that she won’t betray me and Sarjeet cut the line. I know he told me this because he loved me as a son and never wished that any harm come upon me, so he was angry, anyway I had less time and more work to do. So I went as fast as I could to the alley behind my house and kept my routine clothes and office bag along with the purchases, except the bracelet behind the dumpster. It was one place where no one would ever find them as only I knew about it and none, not even Anne and I got myself adorned in the Shadow Nova suit as before going for dinner at Anne’s place, I had to go to Gauris’ place with this surprise and I knew she would really love it. Gauris’ place was just few blocks from the main road entering our colony of buildings. The buildings from the main road area to Gauris’ place were all connected by large water pipes meant to bring water to the buildings in that area from the water recycling plant. It was raining heavily and also I didn’t want any kind of attention from civilians to come over me. So for me, that was the best route, as now no one would see me and I could come back in a jiffy too. On reaching the terrace of Gauris’ building, I decided to give her another surprise by entering from the back window of her pad. In order to do that I had to climb down from the terrace to the second floor parapet with the help of pipes and air conditioner units in order to reach Gauris’ window. I had brought along with me two big surprises for her, but she……she had in store the biggest shock of my life……She was sitting on her bed along with her pal, that journalist girl Soumya…and words that came out of her mouth, hit hard on my heart, the bracelet in my hand fell from my hand onto the parapet. She was telling Soumya, ‘that how useful it was to have a foolish superhero for a bodyguard for her and that how much more she can use me, like kind of for bullying people who go against her work at her workplace or for doing any kind of help for her, whenever she wanted at whatever time according to her convenience. Also that what a moron I was too believe that she is such a good, decent, cultured girl and that she will make sure that I will be always behind her just like a dog’……Sarjeet was right…I was always wrong about women…Indeed I was a fool, why did I become Shadow Nova, just for another girl to use me…that used to happen when I was Reuben too, so why the hell did I become a superhero, Why……I climbed off the pipes onto her terrace, probably she heard me climbing up, that’s why she came to the window and called me back, but I am no dog…I am Shadow Nova and superheroes are not meant to be pets….
I sat on the terrace of building near the alley, where behind the dumpster the purchases for Anne were kept. I cried a lot sitting there, even the rain seemed quite less to dissolve my tears in them; I removed my mask and looked at it and threw it off on a water-patch on the terrace floor. I was never fit to be a superhero, I never had the heart for good things, I was never able to recognise the true care that Anne bestowed upon me and rather longed for the shallow love of Gauri…Why….Why am I like this…If I wasn’t so now I would have been at Anne’s place celebrating her birthday with her….I am no superhero…just as my father once said, I am just a born loser who was never meant to be born as a human…I called Sarjeet and asked him to come by the dumpster so that I could send the gifts through him to Anne. He told he would come within ten minutes and that maybe Anne might come that way as she got a call 5 minutes back from Afreed that he will come near the entrance of the colony along with his cop friend Neelima Jha. So she has gone towards the entrance of the colony to guide them towards her house. So he asked me not to come in front of them and that when Sarjeet comes over there, he will come along with me to my place. I sat there besides the dumpster, with the rain still falling hard…hard on my heart more than my body…all because…CRASH!!!!!
It was an accident and when I sneaked from the side of the alley wall, I saw 6-8 thugs all armed with guns drag a woman from a car and to my utter horrors it was Anne!!! Oh my…I wanted to save her…I couldn’t leave her all alone there, to be torn alive by those bloodthirsty wolves, but……I was afraid…afraid because they had guns with them and they all were strongly built too, I was too afraid to even approach them but my dear Anne, Oh poor Anne…What could have I done, I was all helpless….Oh what a crap I was…I was all confused…I could hear voices in my head and suddenly I heard another car pull over besides the accident spot…It was Sarjeet…great God!!! He limped towards those guys with his gun and fired at one of them and when another guy tried to get hold of his gun, he punched him right on to his nose and he was going all berserk over them and when suddenly one of them hit Sarjeet on his head with a lead pipe and he fell down and still afraid to go there, I prayed to God to protect them….and probably God saw that I was such a big coward and that I was of no use to anyone…I heard a siren…It was Afreed along with Neelima…The thugs took for their heels and while they ran, they pushed Anne towards the alleyway wall from where I was peeping, I hid fast behind the dumpster so that she could not see me. And with that hope in my mind, I hid there motionless. Neelima fired on two of the thugs and had them down; she had them hand over to the constables who had actually accompanied her. Afreed helped Anne to get up and Neelima helped Sarjeet. Anne sat along with Afreed and Neelima in their car, while Sarjeet in his own, Before entering his car Sarjeet looked at me and spat on the ground….Sitting there all alone behind the dumpster, I felt real bad and ashamed of myself…I am a coward, not even worth to be called a man…With all these thoughts burning up in my mind, I walked home with the gifts that I had brought for Anne….I was no more Shadow Nova…He exists just in comics…and this was the fact…I was never meant to be a Superhero…I was never meant to even think like one…I was such a big coward that, even a spineless maggot seemed much more brave than me, Well….Dad was right, I indeed am a born loser….
I reached home all drenched, both physically and mentally, and there was Sarjeet waiting for me and as soon as I entered my room, he came up to me and slapped me hard and held me by my collar and said, “Why…you coward, you call yourself Shadow Nova naa…And with this long cross etched over this pathetic suit, what do you think, the Lord will make your path easy, he will anoint your soul to heaven you fool!!! Are Saale, tu toh phir bhi Insaan hain, are jaanwar bhi khudke aur uske saathiyon ki raksha ke liye ladd padtha hain, tu toh unse bhi neechh nikla, kaayar!!! What the fuck…did you think, I didn’t saw you hiding there like a coward, Uhh…and you call yourself a superhero….pathetic son…pathetic…I hate myself for calling you a son…Why…at least you could have tried to save her…That little Anne, no matter what, she is always there for you and you go behind licking that other girls’ feet like a dog and in return what did you get a middle finger and a tag that will always be inscribed over your head that not only you are a born loser but also a born coward”. After all this I asked Sarjeet that whether, I can go and see Anne and he told me to go and never show my face to him ever again, then as soon as I could, I went upstairs to Anne’s pad to check whether she was fine or not. There stood Afreed, Neelima, Sarjeet and Oded along with Anne. Due to the accident she had got a deep cut on her forehead and also some bruises on her wrist and knee. Afreed asked me where was I and told me how this all happened and then walked off with Neelima bidding adieu to everyone. I sat besides Anne and asked Anne how she was and she answered, “You know Reuben, it has been three years since we met and from the very first day, I have felt a special bond develop between us…No matter what you are, I always believed that in you was a heart that very few people have today in this urban jungle…But boy, you know one thing, I have always loved you more than any other thing in my life re, You are just like my soul and you know when your soul betrays you, life seems worthless and the only hope alive seems to be death, I saw you there today, hiding there and that moment I wished that you would come there and save me, giving me my best birthday gift I ever got, the gift of love, but you never came there re, So with all love to you dear, answer me, do you want me to sleep along with you just like everyone else out there or do you want to love me like no one has ever loved me till date from the bottom of your heart? Answer me dear, today I ask you for it because I feel I am losing you and I don’t want to because I love you very much, much more than even myself dear, So tell me Reuben, do you love me? I bowed down on her lap and cried and cursed myself for not recognising her love and for being a coward, such a big coward, who never dared to rescue that girl who always lived for me and even in the midst of a such a down rated act by me, she still loves me…And I cried and hugged her and told her, “If this is what love is, then even I love you Anne, and never will I allow the twinkle in your eyes to fade off, nor the warmth of your heart to ward off and I promise you, never ever in your life will you have to cry again, I won’t allow anyone in this world to hurt you not even God…And dear you can proudly say your love is all immortal and that I am no born loser and that no one will ever say that….No one living nor dead”.
That night I sat in the shower for almost two hours with water gushing over my head and my mind distinctively alive in some other world, thinking about everything, from Anne to Shadow Nova, Sarjeet to my parents, everything from scratch…It seemed that the rain outside was laughing at me, the wind was booing at me…moreover, on my very coward approach. And I didn’t wish to blame anyone for that because; there was none other than me responsible for it. It was only my fault. The pain was unbearable and the only cure to it was somewhere hidden deep inside me, but still it felt like I was being ripped off from my soul itself and everything felt so deceiving that, I could hear voices in my head, voices from my past, from my school days, sound of my parents yelling at me, sound of Gauri laughing on me with her pal, sound of Anne and Sarjeet crying in pain and in midst of all these, I could hear a different sound, a sound quite familiar, a sound that was full of mischief, a sound full of utter disturbance…It was Shadow Nova, he was laughing at me, howling at me…I screamed in pain, the entire world seemed to break down in front of me, I could see him standing there in one corner of the room and teasing me, shouting at me, calling names… COWARD…COWARD…YOU ARE A LOSER…YOU ARE A LOSER…YOU ARE A LOSER…NA…NA…NANA…NA… “Oh please, God help me”……I yelled. Everything seemed silent…the wind, the rain, the voices in my head…all silent…silent as the night…bloody, dead silent. And suddenly I saw shadows on the wall…and on the bed I felt as though someone was choking me. I got off the bed and slept on the floor, with the blanket over my head; I tried to sleep…and kept on praying to God and I felt a little better…at least for now…
Next day it was Saturday, I called up Pandit and told him that I won’t come to office today as I had to look after Anne and it was all smooth from his part, because he knew how I felt, so there was no question of any kind of error. I prepared breakfast for Anne along with Oded, she loved it very much and also did some cleaning and washing too……All this work, yet, I wasn’t tired by not even an inch, probably because it was that twinkle in her eyes that made me go ahead, that very sweet smile of hers that reminded me that no matter how much pain it was installed upon, it would always be there for me, because, THIS IS LOVE AND LOVE HURTS…Oh dear Anne, I never…never did I consider her, yet she loves me so much…Oh Dear Anne…Before leaving, we both sat on the couch together, with her head on my shoulder and my arms around her and we heard the song, “SORRY SEEMS TO BE THE HARDEST WORD” over and over again, and with every word of the song I caressed her arms and gently touched her face. Weak and bit dull, yet, the grace of her face, her smile and every time she touched my arms and my face, made every word of the song much more meaningful and beautiful…Oh Dear Anne…I wanted to kiss her on her lips, I caressed them gently, she knew why I was doing that and moved up towards my face, her lips touched mine. It was cold, soft and beyond all unexplainable…I went ahead and she, gently kept on touching her lips to mine, I could feel her hand move over the back of my head and even I went ahead and looked in her eyes, that very twinkle for which I would die for and then we kissed, gently first on the upper lip, then on the lower lip and then slowly on both the lips. She was very good, taking care that she helped me in making it look like divine blessing, I held her tight in my arms and could feel her wanting for more and we still kept on kissing, it felt as though the angels came down from the heavens for us, the wind felt like music, the night silent with careless whispers simmered over it. It was as though time had frozen off and it felt like our souls were becoming one and the blend they formed in was pure love, passionate, yet beautiful, sweet and beyond all like what Dear Anne told me, Love-unexplained and untold, yet feels like you are made for it, just for it…Nothing else, Nor above…Nor below…
Later I bid her goodnight and kissed her on her forehead and then came out of her pad at around 10.40p.m. Or so and then at my pad, I sat awake till almost 4.00a.m. I sat on a chair in front of the table, on which, the superhero suit of Shadow Nova was laid on. I was all ready to face him, the moment he comes out of it; I would pounce upon him and throttle him. The sound of the ticking clock and the dripping water drops from the kitchen tap all seemed like echoes to me. The calm of the night, the shiver in the air all spoke about an upcoming storm…Tonight it was either going to be me or him. No longer would I allow him to tease me, no longer will he laugh at me…no longer will he call me names…I am no mad guy…he was mad…there was immense chemical imbalance in his mind and what the hell did he think that he would sneak past me, no way and then…I heard a sound, it was from my room, he escaped through the window which was open and the wind was entering the room through it. The wind chimes sang a song…a song without words and music…well it was music without any meaning. “I am not getting crazy…I am not mad…I know, I am not…” I said to myself and approached the mirror. I could see, myself in it, I was looking fine, my hair was all combed well, my teeth were all clean and sparkling white and even my…eyes…Oh, my eyes, something was wrong with it, It was becoming bloody red, Oh my Lord, what is happening to me and soon I saw, that my skin was all turning black…Aaaaaaa. I could feel it rip off from my body…skin, muscles, veins and arteries all turning black…I could feel something trying to break through my chest, an yellow coloured cross tore apart my chest and abdomen to reveal itself out…I could see my nails getting longer, long enough to be claws…I yelled, “Lord help me please”, the excruciating pain grew much more, when over the newly formed black skin, grew yellow coloured streaks and to my utter horrors…when I saw in the mirror…I was no more Reuben…Oh no, once again I was him, Oh no I had become Shadow Nova and once again, I could hear them all…All those voices and now I could even see them…I saw Anne standing in one corner, her clothes all tattered and she covered in blood, crying. I could also see Sarjeet…but Oh Lord please no….his head had been ripped off from his body and he was holding it and still he was shouting at me…God no…please someone help me…Oh, no…They started approaching me, I could see something emerge from the shadows…It was some kind of beast, with red eyes and irregular body shapes and it was growling at me…I could see many of them emerge out of the shadows…They all were coming towards me and then…with a flash, they leapt at me and there was total darkness…SHIT!!! I woke up shouting, all wet and all petrified…It was a nightmare, I was just dreaming…the window was open and it was raining outside, I was perspiring heavily, oh God, it was just a nightmare…just a fucking nightmare…And why did it happen, just because of my own foolishness. Thinking about different factors that brought Anne and me together, different factors that pulled me down in different walks of life, different factors responsible for my success, different factors responsible for my failure…Still awake, I sat on the bed with the Bible in my hand. The wind brought in echoes of Anne and Sarjeet from the day of the incident. They felt like a thousand sirens going wild in my ears and I could see images of pain and utter grief all in front of me, charging towards me with immense speed and made me feel the pain that they felt…Once again I sat in the shower for…well…I don’t remember for how much fucking time or so…and I sat there, so that the pain, the disturbance, the echoes…everything would drain off with the water…but they never left and were probably forcing me to accept the fact…the fact that no matter where I was or what I became…the one thing that always pulled me down was the lack of responsibility. Indeed, that was the flaw in me, more than anything else…and if it had to be rectified, then…there was only one way…to accept this pain…to make those visuals get submerged in the depths of my soul and to make sure, they always reminded me of what I was and what I was destined for……
Next day, Sunday, I read from the Bible, a few chapters from, The Proverbs and Psalms section for Anne and then I prepared some of her favourite chicken soup, dashed upon which, was some mushroom and black pepper…“Bon Appetite!”, exclaimed Anne. We had fun over the soup being bit salty and then Anne and I played on her bed with some of her soft toys, she tried wearing the jeans I brought her, but the bruise on her knee made it hard for her to wear it upon. She had smiled whole heartedly for the first time in two days. It made me feel much better. Till almost eight in the evening, we played, joked, read some books and even tried to play some games on her gaming console. And whenever she failed she would jump over me and bite my lips and ears in fun…Then, the door bell rang. I opened it to find Teepu along with Oded. The perplexed look on their face told me that something real bad had happened, Teepu told me that, Sarjeet had gone to pick the teenage daughter, Khushnaaz, of his widow sister, Amann, from her tuition classes at around 5.00p.m. They usually came back by 5.30p.m. Or at the maximum they would come home by 6.00p.m. But today they didn’t come home till seven and then Sarjeets sister, Amann got a call from, the local rogue gang, The Wolfhound, that they had Sarjeet and Khushnaaz with them and that they would only release them if the cops release the other two members of their gang whom Neelima had arrested and if that’s not possible then, they asked Amann to pay them with money instead for the safe release of both Sarjeet and little Khushnaaz. Amann informed about this to Oded via Teepu and it was Odeds’ idea to come over here and tell me about it before the cops, because he knew this was the right time for me to revive Shadow Nova and to prove Sarjeet that I was no coward…It was time to be hero again…Anne looked at me and kissed me on my cheek and told me to that even if death comes in front of me, never to fear and just follow the path for which I am destined for…The twinkle in her eyes and her words both strengthened my belief and I asked Teepu to go back to Amanns’ place and tell her that both Sarjeet and Khushnaaz will return home soon. After that I asked Oded to wait for me and I went to my pad and took the Shadow Nova suit from my wardrobe and wore it…No one could stop me now…Not even my own fucking destiny…because it was time I became Legend…
The Wolfhound gang were holed up in their base, the dilapidated Andheri sports complex, as usual. The floodlights surrounding the stadium were all broken down, except a couple of them and they where howling like blood thirsty wolves out there, indeed that’s why they call themselves The Wolfhound gang…pathetic…I sympathize them as after tonight, they won’t be even fit to be called dogs…The entrance was guarded by two of the thugs; they both were indulged in their own talking stuff, and I…well was indulged in aiming my custom made cross shuriken on the back of their neck, and then with a flash, the shuriken went zoooom and they fell down, boom…The darkness was my playground and there was plenty of it now and the night well it was all set for me, for my ultimate debut show, simply I nicknamed it, The Freak Night Show…LIVE and EXCLUSIVE!!!
There were many of them inside the stadium grounds and far away I could see a vehicle of some sort near a bonfire and in the light of the bonfire I saw both Sarjeet and Kushnaaz sitting near that fire, with many of those rogues keeping guard over them. I sneaked to the upper parts of the stadium hiding behind the old concrete seats and saw another of those thugs, smoking and unpacking a bag or something. In a flash I came over him and literally he never knew what hit him. One hit on the side of his neck, had him go unconscious and when I looked into the bag, to my utter surprise, it contained explosives, possibly they were trying to blow up the stadium or something because I also found a detonator in that bag, Why no idea, but man this was turning out to be more exciting…Let’s go wicked, Baby!!! And slowly one by one, I took out all those guys planting bombs on the upper quarters of the stadium. They were never competition, as they all were drive-shots, no guts, just butts in the middle, acting like petty obstacles. Soon I was on the ground level of the stadium, there was enough darkness for me to play around, but unfortunately for them, darkness meant…OOPS and then, there was ACTIONNNN!!!….They tried to catch hold of me, but after all who had to win…indeed the superhero, so things went real good, as it must go actually and one by one they fell. During the fight, even I got hurt, but pain was something that had its epicentre in my heart, so this was nothing new and beyond all, negligible in this case. Slowly and cautiously, I went towards the bonfire where Sarjeet and little Kushnaaz were tied up. Seeing me, Kushnaaz started crying and asked me not harm her and that not to drug Sarjeet again. I tried to console her, but in vain, she started screaming and then suddenly she became quiet and starred at something behind me and in a flash I realised that something was not right, I moved, and in the very next second, someone hit the ground where I was standing with a machete; that hit actually meant for me, was so powerful, that an entire patch of grass and mud got ripped off real bad from the ground…It was Chandra; Chandra Rao Patil, the leader of The Wolfhound Gang, a product of the gutters of Mumbai……A 6 footer and a physique of a bear all pumped up with enhancers and alcohol…a menace for everyone in this colony, since the day he and his cronies made the stadium their base, since the last seven years…a nightmare for women…but, it was all going to end today, because today he got competition…a competition for power that will send him all the way back to those same gutters from where he came. He grinned at me, with saliva dripping from his tobacco chewed mouth, My eyes all clad in red looked back at him with anger and much more with hatred for touching my loved ones…He spoke, “You are fucking good with your hands, so lets play a fair game, no weapons, nor from my side, nor from your side, so let’s fight…Tujha Aaichha…” saying this he leapt towards me like a rabid wolf…But I was all prepared for this and dodged his move and caught hold of his neck with my left hand and had it chocked by my ribs and kicked his groin and said, “Nahi re, Aaj Maajha nahi, Tujha Aaichha Gho…”
And I whacked him on his jaw with a punch……saliva, teeth and blood, all flew from his mouth. It was too hard; even I felt a jolt on my fist. He got up, he was slow, but had some real good stamina. He tried to kick me, but I sidelined his move and hit him on his ribs with a right hand and then on the left chest with a left hand punch, but before the left hand punch could do any damage, he gave me something more, that made my left hand punch seem like a pinch. He hit my head with both his hands…Oh my…it was too powerful, I could hear bells ringing in my ear and for a second my vision blurred, but it became clear when he punched me once more on my nose to open the gates, for the blood to flow from my nose…It hurt pretty bad. But I had to stand up, for every one of them now, because I could see crowds emerging from the entrance and exit points of the stadium. They came here due to this commotion and now, I had to keep their hopes alive, because for the first time they saw someone fight against Patil and his gang in full fledged action mode. “Yo, baby”, this excited me to my core and I kicked him on his abdomen and before he could think about what hit him, I proceeded on him with a clothesline move, which I learned from watching freestyle wrestling on the sports channel. He was down and now even he started bleeding, blood started flowing out his mouth…I could hear people shout…COME ON…, “KHATTHAM KARDE SAALE KO, TOD DE USKO…, FINISH HIM OFF, GO MAN GO…!!!” The sounds grew louder with every punch, with every kick, I could hear the chants get powerful…louder and louder…Finally people were becoming alive; they were coming out of their shells. They tied up the other gang members of Patil and untied Sarjeet and Khushnaaz. And I…well…giving Patil divine lessons of social harmony…He could take no more…he was all down, bloody, broken and out of shape. Sarjeet got up on his feet and when he saw me, he came towards me and said, “Maybe I was wrong” and looked up at Khushnaaz and called her to come here and meet me. She felt bit weird approaching me and then in a very sweet, petrified tone she said, “Thank You Mister…” I smiled at her and said, “Take care, little one”. One of the guys from the public approached me and asked me that who am I and that, why am I helping them, on which I answered, “I am just a common man, who knows, how it feels to be disowned, how it feels to be tread like maggots and that how it hurts when your loved ones, your dreams are crushed down in front of you and you can’t do nothing, but just stand and look helplessly, I am no God, I am no saint, I am just someone who wants to do his part for the people here, for every class, for this city itself and this is just for starters, there is more to come and more to go and I will be here forever…and ever, Amen”, saying this I put on my custom made metal knuckles on the fingers of my hand. The left hand fingers comprised of the text, “AMEN” and the first half part of the number four, in a vertically bisected type, in numerical form, both in an inverted text fashion; while the right hand fingers comprised of the other half of the number four in numerical form and the text, “ALL”, even they too in an inverted manner. And I took a look at Patil, who was trying to get up and then……………
THUMP… THUMP…
I had them, tattooed, literally, on his face with the help of the metal knuckles….It read, ‘AMEN 4 ALL’ which in pure form meant, ‘SO BE IT 4 ALL’…and this was what I had in store for every anti-social element walking the streets of Mumbai…the same punishment…a rollercoaster ride to hell and below…and I looked at the people starring at me and I said, “You can call me SHADOW NOVA and from today no one has any kind of nightmare and I will be here to guard this city from all evil…tonight, I proclaim my birth…and from tonight people, no one will ever harm you because this is where I live, this is where I guard and this is where I serve justice….” My reign had begun…I could see it, everything changing, a new dawn and there far away I saw Anne, despite all her problems, she had come here for me and she smiled at me and I gave her a flying kiss, a tear rolled down Sarjeets’ cheeks…he was right…it was only responsibility that I lacked and when I adopted it…my entire outlook about life changed…a new birth…a new vision had occurred…And from this day, Reuben will just be a part of Shadow Nova and this city will be my playground and well…in the case of all those bad guys out there…it’s time for you all to bump off.
Two months since, my new avatar, the media are now in the lookout of Shadow Nova…rumours about me spread like wild fire that, who am I…Am I a Ghost…An Angel…A Beast or Something else…they sneak in for a picture of mine, they catch glimpses of me in action…stories about me in different papers, about my origin…about my motive…all get mixed up in the media front and as far as crime was concerned, this…well is just the beginning…this in fact is just a teaser of the whole story…there is lot more action to come…and I was all set…So were many others, from different parts of the city, from different backgrounds, from different sections of the food pyramid…never did we knew, that soon our paths would cross each other and with this even fate had plans…plans that erupted in three different minds…three different bodies but, all set to end up in the same way…My name had its echoes ringing up in Krishna Vermas’ ears…the pain that he carried in him, possibly found a cure in me…not only a cure, but something more…technically speaking a shortcut for his plans…a better option actually…
So did someone, sitting quite high above the lives of many like us…there was something brewing up in his mind…something that made him to think…something that made him smile once again…or should I say someone more than well…this something…The newspaper on the table and the half-filled vodka glass in his hand, he smiled…he smiled upon the city and it’s hidden secrets and said, “Dear friend, Shadow Nova…maybe it’s time we met…and friend, maybe it’s time we shook hands with each other… or say…maybe it’s time we had a deal……” The glass in his hand, the grin on his face and the city below him…all set for him…all set for the deal…all set for the man himself…Raghavan……Raghavan Romanov……It was time...Indeed it was...