Chapter 2: Red against White - a Mukt & Jia scoop

The Delhi weather was uncharacteristically hot in the October of 2006 and Jia’s evening coffee sessions with her friends this month had been all about the ozone layer getting depleted and how this newly founded company called Tesla was deservedly the talk of the town with the upcoming design reveal of its first all-electric vehicle product called the Roadster.

Ever since Jia had graduated from the reputed Institute of Technology at the University in Varanasi four years ago in the discipline of Materials Sciences and Engineering, she had been fascinated with innovations in technology and more particularly, in nanotechnology, which had started driving a lot of computing hardware progress globally. Added to that, her views on climate change and the need for balance between growth and sustainability had hijacked many meetups of her classmates while she was a resident on campus.

The setup had changed since then but Jia’s enthusiasm for environment-friendly technological innovation remained undiminished, as her friends and colleagues at NanoIdeas often ended up figuring out, especially whenever they took a coffee break with her. NanoIdeas was the nanotechnology research and innovation startup that Jia had joined as a young co-founder and research head last year. Jia loved working at and staying close to the brand new NanoIdeas office, located in the emerging metropolis of Gurgaon, part of India’s National Capital Region and sister to the globally better-known city of New Delhi. The studio apartment that she shared with her brother, Mukt, was cosy and comfortable and more than anything else, a stone's throw distance from both her and Mukt's places of work.

Unlike her brother, who was more of a dreamer, Jia had always been more practical and action-oriented. Despite four years in Varanasi or Banaras, as the locals call the oldest living city in the world, Jia’s idea of a night out still remained being focused on creating a new composite in the “nano lab” and testing its properties, as compared to many of her friends or even her brother who would be happy gazing endlessly at the dwindling lights of boats in the distance, sitting at the steps of one of the ghats by the Ganges, and almost compulsively smoking/ingesting something illegal.

Today, Jia was a little lost though and not really enjoying the conversation with her friends as much as she should have, especially considering the topic being discussed. Her thoughts were with Mukt who had left for Paris last night for one of his stage demonstrations of Hypnotherapy. She was immensely proud of her brother and of how he had built a reputation as one of the leading voices in hypnotherapy not just in India but globally, and that too in an extremely short span of time. More than that, she was thankful to him beyond measure for giving her a new lease of life after she had almost given up on it five years ago following the death of their parents in a plane crash.

At the time, Jia was preparing to start her final year of college. It was actually in the middle of her first lecture of the session when she was called upon by the Dean’s assistant to receive an emergency phone call from a distraught and nearly incomprehensible Mukt who broke the news to her. It was only due to Mukt’s consistent and often, annoyingly persistent efforts subsequently that Jia could survive the year and finish her course. Even after her graduation and the convocation ceremony she had intentionally missed, Jia had continued to live a listless life till Mukt ended up rediscovering himself through his interest in hypnotism and more particularly, hypnotherapy.

Jia often chided Mukt when he credited her for changing his life just because she was reading a book that introduced him to hypnotherapy when it was actually Mukt, who had brought Jia back from the brink of her decision to end her very existence, by making her the first subject of his hypnotherapy practice.

As Jia looked at her expensive watch that Mukt had gifted to her on her birthday this year, she realised that it was really late and nearly half a day had gone by since Mukt was supposed to have landed in Paris. He hadn’t called yet to tell her that he had safely reached India House where he was staying, and this was troubling her a bit, knowing how particular Mukt normally was about these things. While he was only a couple of years older, Mukt had completely taken on the role of a responsible parent when it came to Jia. She knew that Mukt was not carrying the new mobile phone he had bought recently because it was with her. Despite her protests, Mukt had argued that the international roaming charges on his India number and the hassle of getting an international sim card for a temporary Paris number made it illogical for him to carry the mobile phone. Jia knew that her ever-sacrificing brother just wanted her to have the phone despite any inconvenience that he may have to face.

Regardless, no mobile phone meant that Mukt might just be struggling to find a public phone to call, given the extraordinarily bad weather Paris was having recently, yet another example of where the world climate was headed. While Mukt clearly enjoyed parenting her, Jia didn’t give up any chances of mothering her brother either. She had spent hours on the internet preparing for this two-month trip of Mukt’s, and this preparation included a list of all nearby public phone booths near the place Mukt was going to reside at. In fact, she knew that there was one right at the corner close to where India House was located and the only reason that she wasn’t panicking by now was the real possibility of a disruption in telephone services due to the incessant snow that Paris had been seeing for the last few days.

Just as Jia was losing her patience and had decided to call the India House reception to figure out if Mukt had checked in, her mobile phone rang. It was a call from Paris but as she connected, not the voice she was expecting to hear.

A stranger responded to her excited ‘hello’ in heavily accented English, “Mademoiselle, may I know who is this?”
“You have called me; shouldn’t you know who you have called?” Jia couldn’t resist it, especially now that all her panic buttons were well and truly activated.

“Oui Mademoiselle, you are right! I was just trying to confirm if you are the sister of Monsieur Mukt.” The stranger was getting on Jia’s nerves now and his casual mention of Mukt’s name only made it worse.

“Yes, I am Jia, Mukt’s sister. Please tell me who you are and what this is about. Where is Mukt? Is he ok? I want to speak to him,” exclaimed Jia in what was perhaps a shriller tone than what she would normally use with someone she was speaking to for the first time.

“Mademoiselle Jia, please don’t worry. Monsieur Mukt is fine, just a little shaken after the recent events. I am…,” Jia didn’t let the stranger complete whatever he was about to say as she jumped in. “What recent events? Why is he shaken up and why are YOU calling me? Why don’t you let me speak to him?” Jia had a lot of questions and her head was already spinning with numerous possibilities, each worse than the other.

“Mademoiselle, please hear me out,” pleaded the voice on the phone. “My name is Sebastian Dubois and I am a captain with the National Police of France. I have just been called by the Campus Police at the Cité Universitaire to a crime scene and Monsieur Mukt was the first witness and the caller who first reported it. He is not hurt and is absolutely not under any threat but for obvious reasons, we are not allowing him to speak to anyone before he can complete his statement for us. I am calling you on his request to just let you know that he is fine and will call you as soon as he is done here.” Captain Dubois had probably just managed to improve his personal best when it came to speaking in English at a stretch, given the increasing heaviness of accent with every word towards the end of his explanation.