Read Online A Cut-Like Wound by Anita Nair - Free Book Online Page A

curiously.
    ‘Bugger off, guys,’ Gowda said with remarkable calm. You couldn’t rile Gowda those days, no matter how hard you tried.
    Later, Gowda would peel himself from the gang and go to the restaurant on the first floor of Nilgiris where Urmila would be waiting for him.
    Gowda, Michael thought, had forsaken both basketball and Urmila but perhaps not…
    ‘You know she’s back in Bangalore, don’t you?’ he murmured.
    Gowda stiffened. Then he affected a casual ease into his flesh and voice. ‘Who?’
    ‘Urmila. Are you telling me you’ve forgotten her?’
    ‘I haven’t. It’s been a long time … But how do you know?’
    ‘Facebook.’ Michael grinned. ‘We discovered each other on it…’
    ‘Oh!’ Gowda said, too ashamed to admit that he had heard about Facebook but didn’t know how it worked. Everyone he knew seemed to treat their computer like a slave, a pet, a companion, a minion that made life easier. Computers and he were on nodding acquaintance at best.
    ‘You are not on Facebook, are you?’ Michael asked suddenly.
    ‘I don’t have the time…’ Gowda put on his official voice, a bite with each syllable, then paused. What the fuck was he doing? This was his friend. Not a subordinate or an accused. ‘I am a bloody dinosaur,’ he said quietly. ‘It’s like the world changed when I wasn’t looking and I don’t know where to begin to comprehend the change. I don’t even know what this thing called Facebook is.’
    Into the silence that followed Gowda’s declaration, Santosh walked in and said, ‘Sir, the station called…’
    Gowda turned to him, eager to escape. ‘You’d better take his statement.’
    At home that night, Gowda sat in the veranda. He had studiously avoided pouring himself a drink. He could hear laughter from above. What did they laugh about so much?
    He rose and went to put on the stereo. Last night’s CD was still in it. As if on cue, the strains of Mukesh singing ‘ Kabhi kabhi ’ floated into the veranda and filled his head. Something lodged in his chest. He tried very hard not to think of her but Michael had brought it all back. He had been nineteen when he first met Urmila … He shook his head, trying to dispel his thoughts, when suddenly another laugh rang through the air.
    The ensuing silence filled Gowda with disquiet. That’s it, Gowda decided. He would get a dog, whether Mamtha agreed or not.
    Gowda laughed aloud, imagining the expression on Michael’s face when he told him, ‘Meet Inspector Roby. He was top dog in the narcotics department.’
    Michael would seize on the pun immediately.
    God, how he missed all of that. The asinine word games that Michael and he had played during their college years.The fools in this life he led now wouldn’t recognize a pun if it stood before them with a tea cosy on its head, waving its arms…
    All these years it hadn’t mattered that he inhabited a different world from the one he had envisioned for himself. But this evening, ever since the meeting with Michael, it was as if everything about him and his life had been held up for scrutiny and found wanting.
    His phone burst into song. Gowda frowned. He glanced at his watch. It was one of his informers from the time he had been in the Crime Branch. What was he calling about so late at night?
    ‘Tell me,’ he murmured into the phone.
    ‘Sir, Gowda sir…’ The voice was hesitant. Unsure.
    ‘What is it, Mohammed? Go on…’

FRIDAY, 5 AUGUST
    By now Gowda had worked out every moment to perfection in his head. The corner was important. It couldn’t be just any corner of any room. The corner had to be flanked by two cupboards. Preferably the olive-green steel Godrejs. Or even a grey metal filing cabinet. The purpose was to create an alcove in which the man would be forced to crouch with no room to escape.
    Then there were the boots with spikes. Sturdy black leather boots polished to a gleam, with dagger points for spikes. When he slipped the boots on, they would