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Back Bombay Monsoon Save as PDF
Chapters (62)
  1. Cover
  2. Dedication
  3. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
  4. PART ONE
  5. CHAPTER ONE
  6. CHAPTER TWO
  7. CHAPTER THREE
  8. CHAPTER FOUR
  9. CHAPTER FIVE
  10. CHAPTER SIX
  11. CHAPTER SEVEN
  12. CHAPTER EIGHT
  13. CHAPTER NINE
  14. CHAPTER TEN
  15. CHAPTER ELEVEN
  16. CHAPTER TWELVE
  17. CHAPTER THIRTEEN
  18. CHAPTER FOURTEEN
  19. CHAPTER FIFTEEN
  20. PART TWO
  21. CHAPTER SIXTEEN
  22. CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
  23. CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
  24. CHAPTER NINETEEN
  25. CHAPTER TWENTY
  26. CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
  27. CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
  28. CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
  29. CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
  30. CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
  31. CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
  32. CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
  33. CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
  34. CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
  35. CHAPTER THIRTY
  36. CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
  37. CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
  38. CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
  39. PART THREE
  40. CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
  41. CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
  42. CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
  43. CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
  44. CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
  45. CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
  46. CHAPTER FORTY
  47. CHAPTER FORTY-ONE
  48. CHAPTER FORTY-TWO
  49. CHAPTER FORTY-THREE
  50. CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR
  51. CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE
  52. CHAPTER FORTY-SIX
  53. CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN
  54. CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT
  55. CHAPTER FORTY-NINE
  56. CHAPTER FIFTY
  57. CHAPTER FIFTY-ONE
  58. CHAPTER FIFTY-TWO
  59. CHAPTER FIFTY-THREE
  60. EPILOGUE
  61. AUTHOR’S NOTE
  62. BOOK CLUB DISCUSSION GUIDE

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

SATURDAY, JULY 19, 1975, 3:11 P.M.

I stopped at my flat to drop off my bag. Ramu/Ranjit had cleaned up the mess left by my burglar, and everything looked normal again. I worried Bikas might try a second time, though I didn’t believe he’d actually kill me. At least not yet. He’d never get the film if he did. Still, I wasn’t resting easy. I decided to contact Lokhande for advice.

I headed to the office. Truth be told, I half-expected to find a pink slip waiting for me on my desk. Instead there were several messages from New York, requesting information and updates for a feature they were working on there. Details on the suppression of civil liberties and democratic franchises. They wouldn’t be able to list me as a contributor, due to the censorship in country, but I would eventually get credit for my part in the story once the Emergency was lifted.

There were notes from Frank, too. He didn’t seem to care that I’d been gone a full week, and he was eager to read my piece on the cinema business. That was going to be tricky since I hadn’t written one.

“Where’s Frank?” I asked Janice, who’d joined me for afternoon tea.

“In Goa. He won’t be back until a week from Monday. I think he’s met someone.”

“A biped?” I asked.

“Some woman with UNESCO. She’s stationed here for a few months. Working on health care issues or hunger. I couldn’t quite hear properly when he was telling his friend on the phone the other day. But what about you? You fell off the face of the earth for a while there.”

“I got some bad food somewhere,” I lied. “Then I was traveling out to Juhu every day on the train for my film story.”

I asked her if Bikas had called again. She said no. Strange, I thought. I would have expected him to be hopping mad after I’d stood him up at Sassoon Docks. Why hadn’t he tried to reach me?

We chatted a while more over Vikky’s sweet tea. Janice wanted to know about Ramu.

“Did he really climb up the side of the building?” she asked.

I recalled Ranjit/Ramu’s cool demeanor when explaining the incident to me at the Blue Diamond Hotel. It had been a dry run, he said. A chance to see if he could make the climb and break in when Willy and Sushmita were out of town. I shuddered, imagining the heights. It was quite inconvenient that he got caught, but he managed to keep his identity from the police. They were always on the take from gangsters and criminals—possibly even Willy Smets—so he couldn’t risk word getting out that he was CBI and not a servant.