Read Online Show Business by Shashi Tharoor - Free Book Online

off his captors. Godambo laughs. “Why have you brought me here, villain?” our hero asks.
    Godambo seems to enjoy this hugely. “Why have we brought him here, he wants to know. But you came here yourself! Uninvited, I might add.”
    â€œWhat do you want with my sister, you castoff from an asylum?”
    â€œSilence!” This is Pranay, accompanying his admonition with a crack of the whip. “No one abuses the mighty Godambo.”
    â€œIt doesn’t matter, Pranay,” interjects the most-wanted man in India. “We will tell him what he wants to know. Or perhaps he would prefer to hear it from more familiar lips.” The ghost of a smile haunts his impassive, hairless face. He claps his hands. “Agent Abha.”
    Abha steps forward reluctantly. She is in her most recent Godambo uniform, complete with springing cheetah. Ashok’s eyes widen in betrayed realization.
    â€œYou know each other, I believe?” Godambo asks.
    Outrage and contempt blaze from Ashok’s eyes. “I even took you home to meet my mother,” he says accusingly, the very thought drenching his voice in self-reproach.
    â€œForgive me, Ashok,” she pleads. “I had no choice.”
    â€œNo choice! Do you still expect me to believe those lies about your miserable parents?”
    â€œThey’re not lies —.” But she is silenced by a minatory wave of Pranay’s whip.
    â€œCan you deny you were working for these thugs all along? Even when we went out together?”
    She is silent; she cannot deny it. Ashok looks away bitterly.
    â€œEnough of this love-shove talk,” Pranay snaps. “Tell him.”
    Abha pulls herself together, but the strain shows on her face. “Ashok, mighty Godambo wants you to give up your pursuit of him. And he invites you to join his organization.”
    â€œNever!”
    â€œAshok, if you don’t do as he says, he will — kill Maya.”
    On the screen the concealed camera zooms in on Maya, hands tightly gripping the bars of her cell, tears streaking her pretty face, pigtail dangling by one wet cheek. Ashok grits his teeth, straining to shake off his shackles. He is restrained by the black-clad commandos and a menacing crack of Pranay s whip.
    â€œWhat kind of man are you, Godambo, to fight your battles through an innocent young girl?” he rails. “Come and face me in hand-to-hand combat, and we will see.”
    Godambo stiffens in his throne. The hairless visage registers offense. “Don’t ever, and I mean ever, speak to me like that again,” he growls, crunching gravel under every syllable. “What makes you think you are worthy of hand-to-hand combat with mighty Godambo? I could crush you like an ant with one hand tied behind my back, Inspector Ashok, but I won’t bother. I have made you an exceedingly generous offer. I can see you need some time to think about it. Very well.” He laughs, but there is no amusement on his face. “I shall accommodate you with your sister. But if you want her to see another sunset, Inspector Ashok, you will give me the answer I want by dawn tomorrow.”
    Ashok’s eyes blaze defiance at this ultimatum, but the dialogue writer’s imagination has failed him, and he remains silent. A snap of Godambo’s fingers, a dismissive gesture, and Ashok is dragged away. But not without casting a bitter parting glance at his erstwhile lady love.
    Abha looks away, and this time there are no dark glasses to conceal the despair in her reddening eyes.
    Interior: Godambo’s dungeons. In the dimly lit cell, Ashok consoles the tearful Maya. She nestles against his chest, and he embraces her as far as the knots on his wrists will allow: elbows and forearms resting on her shoulders, unfree hands clasped behind her head. He looks into her eyes and sings:
    We’re one small happy family,
We live and love together.
We’re one small happy family,
In sunshine and bad