Tarun was lying in his bed and bouncing his rubber ball to the ceiling of the room. But he wasn’t paying attention to it, because he was lost in his own thoughts. Overall, he was pleased with himself about how the day had unfolded today and the letter he had dropped inside Richa’s bag today. But he was still restless about things to come. He was thinking of several scenarios that might play out tomorrow in response to his letter. One by one he was thinking about them and deciding how will he proceed following such a scenario. The letter he had written wasn’t very complicated.
I KNOW WHAT YOU ARE MAKING PRITI DO! THERE ARE THINGS THAT YOU DON’T WANT PEOPLE TO KNOW EITHER. IF YOU DON'T WANT YOUR OWN LIFE TO BE A MOCKERY, TELL PRITI THAT SHE IS OFF THE HOOK.
INDICATE THAT YOU WILL STOP BOTHERING PRITI BE THE LAST ONE TO ENTER THE CLASSROOM AFTER PRAYER TOMORROW.
The first scenario that Tarun thought was the optimistic one. Or at least he thought so in the beginning. In this scenario, Richa will do exactly what she was told. Richa could simply comply by entering the classroom at the end, but there was no way for Tarun to know that Priti was indeed off the hook. One way would be to just notice Priti if her demeanor changes. That was not good enough though. Certainly, Priti journals everything and therefore once relieved, will write something indicating that in her diary. Should he do something which he already regretted doing, once again? Was there any other way? He was too deep in this to back down. What if upon snooping again, he finds out that Priti is still in trouble? or in more trouble? What will he do in that situation? Only was he could do really stop Richa was to have something very concrete and real against her. More snooping then? He will have to go through Richa's belongings first. If that doesn’t give him good enough ammunition against her, then he might have to blackmail her by stealing something important to her.
It was a very frightening thought, he decided to move on to other possible scenarios. What if Richa doesn’t do what was asked of her? This is where things would get really really complicated. Because there were many possibilities that surrounded this scenario stemming from two base case situations: 1) she didn’t read the letter,and 2) she deliberately decides to defy him. Now, the first situation was unlikely as Richa would certainly not miss doing her homework. However, if for unforeseen reason, this happened. Tarun had just one choice, wait another day before trying anything else. So, what exactly would make her deliberately make her defy him. He wondered.
By now, Tarun’s initial optimism was clouded by doubts and uncertainties and once again he was bewildered. He wished he could talk to someone about it. He had found several loopholes in what he had done today ranging from the content of the letter to the decision of writing the letter in the first place. Perhaps he was too impatient and acted injudiciously. He could now think of several other ways he could have written the letter to make it more effective. But that was not the worse thing. He realized that every possible scenario he deliberated on involved either snooping or stealing and blackmailing Richa as the next logical step. He was scared by the irony of the situation. The whole thing started with him snooping in Priti’s diary, where he found out that Priti is being blackmailed into stealing something.
That night he never really stopped thinking, and so he did not realize when eventually he dozed off. Next morning, he became alert the moment he woke up. Patience was not a virtue he possessed. He wanted the next thing to happen as soon as possible. And it did, but not in any way Tarun had expected. As planned, Tarun decided to excuse himself from attending the morning prayers and headed towards the classroom. He wanted to be the first one in the class, so that he can monitor everyone when they enter the class after the prayers. What he did not notice when he finally sat on his desk was that he was not alone in the room. He recognized the voice coming from behind at once:
I know it was you who wrote the letter to me. Let’s have a chat. I can only decide then, what to do with you.
Out of all the scenarios Tarun had considered last night, he never for once entertained the possibility of Richa figuring it out that he had written the letter. While this realization began to dawn upon Tarun, Richa came and sat next to him. She looked at Tarun’s stupefied face and said: We don’t have a lot of time. Speak!
I KNOW WHAT YOU ARE MAKING PRITI DO! THERE ARE THINGS THAT YOU DON’T WANT PEOPLE TO KNOW EITHER. IF YOU DON'T WANT YOUR OWN LIFE TO BE A MOCKERY, TELL PRITI THAT SHE IS OFF THE HOOK.
INDICATE THAT YOU WILL STOP BOTHERING PRITI BE THE LAST ONE TO ENTER THE CLASSROOM AFTER PRAYER TOMORROW.
The first scenario that Tarun thought was the optimistic one. Or at least he thought so in the beginning. In this scenario, Richa will do exactly what she was told. Richa could simply comply by entering the classroom at the end, but there was no way for Tarun to know that Priti was indeed off the hook. One way would be to just notice Priti if her demeanor changes. That was not good enough though. Certainly, Priti journals everything and therefore once relieved, will write something indicating that in her diary. Should he do something which he already regretted doing, once again? Was there any other way? He was too deep in this to back down. What if upon snooping again, he finds out that Priti is still in trouble? or in more trouble? What will he do in that situation? Only was he could do really stop Richa was to have something very concrete and real against her. More snooping then? He will have to go through Richa's belongings first. If that doesn’t give him good enough ammunition against her, then he might have to blackmail her by stealing something important to her.
It was a very frightening thought, he decided to move on to other possible scenarios. What if Richa doesn’t do what was asked of her? This is where things would get really really complicated. Because there were many possibilities that surrounded this scenario stemming from two base case situations: 1) she didn’t read the letter,and 2) she deliberately decides to defy him. Now, the first situation was unlikely as Richa would certainly not miss doing her homework. However, if for unforeseen reason, this happened. Tarun had just one choice, wait another day before trying anything else. So, what exactly would make her deliberately make her defy him. He wondered.
By now, Tarun’s initial optimism was clouded by doubts and uncertainties and once again he was bewildered. He wished he could talk to someone about it. He had found several loopholes in what he had done today ranging from the content of the letter to the decision of writing the letter in the first place. Perhaps he was too impatient and acted injudiciously. He could now think of several other ways he could have written the letter to make it more effective. But that was not the worse thing. He realized that every possible scenario he deliberated on involved either snooping or stealing and blackmailing Richa as the next logical step. He was scared by the irony of the situation. The whole thing started with him snooping in Priti’s diary, where he found out that Priti is being blackmailed into stealing something.
That night he never really stopped thinking, and so he did not realize when eventually he dozed off. Next morning, he became alert the moment he woke up. Patience was not a virtue he possessed. He wanted the next thing to happen as soon as possible. And it did, but not in any way Tarun had expected. As planned, Tarun decided to excuse himself from attending the morning prayers and headed towards the classroom. He wanted to be the first one in the class, so that he can monitor everyone when they enter the class after the prayers. What he did not notice when he finally sat on his desk was that he was not alone in the room. He recognized the voice coming from behind at once:
I know it was you who wrote the letter to me. Let’s have a chat. I can only decide then, what to do with you.
Out of all the scenarios Tarun had considered last night, he never for once entertained the possibility of Richa figuring it out that he had written the letter. While this realization began to dawn upon Tarun, Richa came and sat next to him. She looked at Tarun’s stupefied face and said: We don’t have a lot of time. Speak!
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