‘Welcome, Atharv, my pleasure. All the religions that we have in India are noble and great,’ Hussein said. ‘We will meet tomorrow.’

29. THE SACRIFICE

29

THE SACRIFICE

It was 6.30 a.m. and Sawant had returned from his daily three-kilometre run half an hour ago. As always, he had woken up at 4 a.m. for the jog. At that time, Wellesley Mansion and the surrounding area were an enclave of tranquility. The absence of sounds was almost unnerving. Every now and then, however, the calm would be pierced by the call of birds from the nearby forest.

After freshening up, Sawant had a cup of steaming ‘cutting tea’. As he drank it, he thought about all that could go wrong with the training, and finally the mission, in the days ahead.

He was snapped out of his musings by the buzzing of the intercom. It was Shekhar, asking him to come to his room.

‘Come in, Sawant sahib,’ Shekhar welcomed him in the study of his suite. Shekhar was clad in dark blue track pants and a white T-shirt. He too had just returned from his jog.

‘Dr Mohit Garg will be here at noon to conduct the circumcisions of the five recruits,’ Shekhar said. ‘As you know, this is the most delicate part. It is a brief surgical procedure, but it will have a permanent impact on their bodies, and no one likes this fact.’ Shekhar sounded worried. ‘But, for the mission, which will take the recruits deep into the lawless regions of Pakistan, getting circumcised is a must to blend in and not get caught. And shot.’ He took a deep breath before continuing, ‘So, Sawant sahib, what is your assessment? How many of these five will quit?’

‘All five boys have strong personalities, but they are also very focused on the mission. They may not want to get circumcised, but their commitment to the cause for which they are here may drill some better sense into them, and I am counting on that,’ Sawant said.

‘But how many do you think will quit?’ Shekhar asked again.

‘Atharv will not quit. The other four will be sixty-forty in favour of quitting.’

‘Okay, let’s see what happens, Sawant sahib. If any of them quit, it will be a huge setback. We have invested so much time and energy into training them. Let’s meet them in the lecture hall in two hours,’ Shekhar said.

At 9 a.m., the five recruits, clad in their track pants and T-shirts, were seated in the lecture hall waiting for the day’s session to begin.