Quick-reads

It was a beautiful morning. The sun shone bright and winter had retreated to make way for the spring flowers to blossom in Delhi. In the midst of the colourful flowers, and butterflies zipping about, stood a solemn group of women in burqas. They were wearing sunglasses and gloves too. Not an inch of them was visible.

Somehow, they couldn’t hide their distress. Clearly, their urgency and worry were weighing them down. No burqa could hide that. They held placards with ‘Azaadi’ written on them.

Shortly after, the women started raising slogans. More burqa clad women joined them. A daunting crowd had now gathered. Some were pouring into the streets and blocking them.

Day 10 – This continued for days. The women gathered every morning and dispersed every evening. The media smelt juicy news and went to the spot. ‘What are your demands? You’ve been here for ten days!’ One of the women spoke – ‘Azaadi!’ Strangely enough she sounded like a man but the media ignored it. It was possible for a woman to have a deep voice.

Day 12 – The only thing the media got from them was ‘Azaadi.’ From what? Why? The issue… everything went unanswered. Eventually, the police came to disperse the crowd using peaceful means and discussion. It was close to evening when they arrived. The SP addressed the crowd and said they had arranged refreshments and would like to understand why they wanted ‘Azaadi’ and from what. Silence.

They refused to touch the refreshments or even water and called for the Commissioner of Police. ‘We are open to discussion. We will convey this message to the Commissioner but ultimately, a representative of the government must hear us out to solve our problem,’ saying this the crowd dispersed.

Day 13 – The Revelation

The grapevine had it that the Commissioner of Police would be there today. The women waited a long time. The SP and backup police were in their positions since morning helping redirect the traffic and maintaining order. It was evening by the time the Commissioner of Police and his guards reached. He took a loudspeaker and addressed the crowd. ‘We have some refreshments for all of you and a portable toilet…’ but before he could finish, one person from the crowd who had been speaking to the media as well, opened his burqa and said ‘Sir, let’s get to the point…’

He was no woman. He was not even human. In the street light’s limited rays, a grotesque face could be seen. His shriveled skin was pale as death itself. He had white eyes – no pupils, and when he spoke, one could see a hint of fangs.

The police force was shaken but stood their ground and spoke out belying their courage. ‘Who are you? Take off your sunglasses and burqas…’

One by one the burqas were lifted and sunglasses taken off. And one by one the guards’ rifles were lifted. From one grotesque face to another, the police were shocked to see them. Hooked noses, no noses, big fangs, hidden fangs, red eyes, no pupils, empty eye sockets, scarred faces, retractable claws… all hissing and snarling at the weapons. Their bare fangs shone with vengeance in the moonlight.

Just then their leader shouted, ‘We want no trouble. We have the answer to your arms but we won’t use them. We want peace.’ The Commissioner gestured to put down the weapons and stop pointing the guns.

‘I am Rakshak – the leader of my team and their representative. We are not women but vampires. We have been living amongst you without disturbing your daily life and balance. But things have come to a head and we need our Azaadi.’

Commissioner of Police – ‘What do you mean Azaadi?’

Rakshak – ‘Centuries ago, we agreed that we will never disrupt the lives of human beings so we drank the blood of fowl and farm animals. We put the blame on leopards and wolves.

But now, we don’t know what medicines the farm animals are getting but it’s affecting our physical body very badly. It seems our food, instead of nourishing us, is disfiguring and draining us.’

The Commissioner – ‘What help do you need?’

Rakshak – ‘We need a source to nourish us. We don’t want anybody to know who we are but without a sustainable source, our kind will die a difficult death.’

The Commissioner asked the crowd for some time to consult his seniors and respond to them. He urged the vampires to not speak to the media to avoid mayhem and asked for some time to come back with a solution. It was mutually agreed that there would be no more protests as the Commissioner would solve the issue and would negotiate only with Rakshak.

The first thing the Commissioner asked the SP to do was hush up the media and bury the issue.

Day 16 – The Solution

After an insufferable test of patience, the Commissioner got an audience with the Home Minister. He explained the criticality of the issue and underscored the urgent need to give a solution to the starving vampires lest they attack the public.

The Home Minister, at first, couldn’t believe a word of what was said and asked for pictures. Some had been snatched from the media but all they showed was black figurines with white fangs… their faces were simply absent. The guttural fear of losing control hit home and the Home Minister took a toilet break.

When he was back, he called for the DGP immediately. Once the DGP reached his office, the three of them – the Home Minister, the DGP and the Commissioner of Police had a meeting where they focused on nipping the issue at the bud. After much thought, it was agreed that the prisoners who were given capital punishment and those who had committed the rarest of rare crimes would be sent to the vampires one by one.

Home Minister: This should keep them satisfied and justice will, now, be swift.

The DGP: But for how long? Is it sustainable.

Home Minister: At least for a bit. We can buy some time this way.

Commissioner: Yes, and I can give you a count of the prisoners after consulting the DG Prisons.

Day 25 – The Prisoners’ Blood

From this day onwards, the prisoners to be hanged were sent to the den of the vampires in the dead of the night. Except the Chief of the prisons and a guard, nobody knew anything. Everything was kept under cover.

This continued for a while and the vampires were satisfied with their meals.

But one night, things went out of hand. The guard was attacked and bitten. Not had for a meal but bitten. He was aghast and asked the vampires why.

Rashak came forward, even more grotesque without his cloak – ‘This is what you send us? Violent criminals? This is what you get.’

The guard – ‘But what becomes of me now? Why did you attack me?’

Rakshak – ‘You will be one of us and you will take our message to the heads. You’ve been giving the blood of violent people to us and there have been violent outbursts in our group. We are attacking each other. This made us attack you too.

This is not a solution. This aggravates us and makes us attack everyone and each other. Go, tell your men and show them.’

That night the guard went back to the prison and attacked the warden. He gave the message of the vampires in no uncertain terms. Their demand was for clean blood, not the blood of hardened criminals for they become what they drink.

Day 26: The Home Minister, the DGP of State and the Commissioner met once again after hearing of the attack on the warden. The warden and the guard had been chained but their words were ringing in their ears.

The three of them were wondering what to do. They can’t possibly offer them the public. After much deliberation, they found a solution after all.

No-one spoke. No-one took notes. No evidence would be found of what they were going to do next but the vampires shall have their meals.

Day 30 – The Meals

The vampires now had regular meals. One by one, the humans reached and surrendered. They even asked them what they should do to make things easier. Polite, submitting and surrendering after prayers. Even the vampires were amazed.

It was clean blood no doubt. No anger, no violence, a sense of calm but also a strong feeling of wanting an end. An end to their existence. That’s the one thing that could not be. Perplexing.

What is this? Who are they? All they want is death – if possible, pain free.

The vampires became melancholic but kind to each other, and quiet. So quiet. Rakshak was puzzled. He decided to get to the source.

One day, the vampires sent back the human that had come to become their meal. Two of them followed him to the source.

Far away in the outskirts of the city was a dilapidated building. The human was entering the building with his head hung – as if in shame.

The board of the building read ‘Ashiana Mental Hospital.’ The two vampires were shocked. They scurried back to their den and told Rakshak what they saw. Rakshak was worried, ‘Are we drinking the blood of mad people? What’s to become of us?’

But another vampire said, ‘We only feel better and cleaner. There are no more attacks and no more violence. This is so much better than animal blood.’

‘But how?’ asked Rakshak.

Day 31 – Azaadi

The next day when a woman came from the hospital, the vampires gathered around her and confronted her.

‘We know where you come from. How can you keep so calm and surrender to us? The others were frightened or fainted. Speak the truth.’

‘We understand that you want Azaadi. And the truth is that we also want Azaadi – from the world.’

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