It was precisely 5 O’ clock in the evening. Someone knocked at my door. I threw it open. There stood a stranger at the entrance. Out of my intuition, I asked him, ‘Are you Mr Dihingia?’ The man replied in the affirmative, ‘That’s right’.

‘You must be obsessed with my e-mail; but never mind, I have personally come to ease your tension’, he said.

He held out his hand after removing his glove for a handshake. I also held out mine and both of us shook hands. It was chillingly cold outside and so I could feel the coldness of his hand.

‘Please be seated, Mr Dihingia’, I said.

‘Thank you’, he said and took his seat.

The man took a look around the room with his probing eyes and said– ‘Well, Mr Tamuly, I am in desperate need of your help. I know you are a very busy man. But I am really short of time.’

‘That’s Ok. You just tell me how I can help you,’ I said.

‘But before anything else, I think I should give you a little bit of introduction about me, so that you can feel free to talk to me. I am basically a researcher in a defence laboratory and because of that, I may not be frank enough in my talk. We have somehow gathered information on the topic on which you are currently pursuing your research, and on the basis of that, we are approaching you to seek your cooperation. You can say we now know you very well.’

‘What you mean you know me?’

‘We mean to say that we are well aware about the geological expedition to Nandadevi, which you led in 1980 as a geologist’.

‘Oh, I see. I submitted the report of that expedition to the Home Ministry. Have you now come to discuss that?’

‘Yes, you are right, precisely for that,’ he said.

‘But you see, these are extremely delicate.....’

‘Oh, c’mon’, snatching my words he said, ‘you don’t really need to worry. I can only assure you that people will never know of my coming to you. I am extremely short of time and I’ve got to accomplish my task within this short span, you know.’

‘I am thoroughly confused as to what you are up to. Who are you really?’

‘Just tell me about the things which you did not mention in that Nandadevi report’, he demanded.

I was very alarmed. I raised my head and looked intently at his face. I tried to read him in order to make out who he could be.

My expression was such that even without my saying something, he could get me perfectly and hence, he said: ‘Look, I am really running short of time. You have got to trust me. I have to keep my identity extremely secret.’ Saying this, he took out a shiny device, the size of a mobile phone. He switched it on by pressing the button. Soon, there appeared photographs and descriptions of the Nandadevi expedition of the ’80s on a transparent sheet of paper. There also appeared the report which I had submitted to the then Home Ministry. After that, the picture of the screen was zoomed on to my palm top. Gradually, the zoomed pictures began to get clear on my palm and I could see the picture of me holding the mini Geiger Counter in the grip of my gloved hand.

‘Tamuly, you did not mention about the data which you recorded in the Geiger Counter. Am I right?’

I looked up at him. I had no other option but to nod in agreement with what he said.

‘Yes, in the greater interest of the security of the nation, I had to hide some of the facts in the report. I had to deposit the report of the Geiger Counter in the vault of the Defence Ministry.’

‘Yes, you are absolutely right. But you may not be aware that afterwards, those data simply vanished from the vault and in later days, those were forgotten altogether. I have come to hear about the same in your own words.’

He looked at my eyes questioningly.

I stood up from my seat unmindfully and began to walk to and fro inside the room. I became a little panicky. I wondered – is this man trustworthy?

The man repeated – ‘Look, I am in hurry and I have got to assign you a few more tasks about which I must brief you. You will tell me some things a little later. Before anything else, please see a few more things (busily projecting on the screen) – and on the screen there appeared a map of Assam and the man continued – ‘Mr Tamuly, this is the map of Assam at the time of the great earthquake of 1950. Next, you will see how the earthquake devastated the districts of Lakhimpur and Sivasagar.’

On the screen appeared one after another the devastating scenes of Assam.

‘Do you know, Mr Tamuly, there is some relationship between the hidden facts of your report and this earthquake?’

‘Relationship? – I don’t know, I never really thought in that direction. You see, soon after I submitted my report, I was relieved of my duties. Reason - not known to me - may be, in all probability, political.’

I began to think that there was some truth in what he said. I was fully convinced of that by the way he was narrating. I kept on listening to him. I was pondering – this was quite an old incident. What value would the secrets of those days bear today? Everything has been thrown into oblivion. The issues which once bore so much of strategic importance for the country, have now become absolutely worthless. The Government since then has not recalled me even once.

‘Look, once you wrote a play and titled it – Who can prevent the River Brahmaputra? Do you remember?’

Hearing him, I burst into laughter. But at the next moment I began to ponder, what could the play be all about?

‘You wrote the play after the years of your Nandadevi expedition. Can you remember the story?’

‘I find it hard to recollect the story, Mr Dihingia. I even almost forgot that I ever wrote a play like that, which only you have made me remember.’

‘Not only had you written it, you even staged it once.’ Saying so, Dihingia gave a peculiar smile.

‘Would you like to see the script of the drama?’ he inquired.

He did not wait for my consent and I was completely taken aback to see the script in my handwriting appearing on the screen. At this, my curiosity knew no bounds and I was compelled to ask him, ‘Mr Dihingia, tell me, who are you really? Are you one of my old colleagues or friends or.......?’

‘I was not even your contemporary’, he said.’

‘My sphere of activity was also quite different from that of yours. After the discovery of that Geiger Counter which you saw on the screen a few minutes ago, which you were carrying secretly underneath your hand glove, every detail of your past life has been collected. By now, you must have recollected everything. The backdrop of your story was the Chinese aggression of India.’

‘Yes, now I can remember, but Mr Dihingia, in the script no secret of the Geiger Counter was divulged.’

‘Yes, of course, nothing of the sort was mentioned in the script and it is because of that I am coming to you. Look, I am short of time. I may have to leave this place at any moment. Now, just tell me what you recorded in that Geiger Counter machine.’

‘Why are you so curious to know about that, Mr Dihingia?’

‘Ok, Ok, did you listen to the speech which Mr Nehru gave?’

‘Which speech are you referring to? Is it the one in which he bade farewell to Assam?’

‘No, No, the speech which he gave before that. Soon after the earthquake which occurred on August 15, 1950, Mr Nehru was on a tour to Assam. After that Assam tour, he broadcast a speech through Delhi All India Radio – did you listen to that?’

‘I was only a six year old boy then. In the place where I was born, the radio was completely unheard of and listening to a radio was even beyond the imagination.’

‘You were a six old boy ?’

‘Yes, precisely of that age.’

‘Do you have some reminiscence of that great earthquake?’

‘Yes, a little bit. It was after sunset. We were sitting in front of my house. Suddenly, the ground started shaking. I stood up but lost my balance. Unable to stand, I fell back on the ground.’

‘Tell me, tell me some more.’

‘I heard a thunderous roaring sound. But afterwards, I came to know that the sound was due to a big landslide in the Himalayan mountains.’

‘I presume that thunderous sound of your childhood probably continued to have its reactions in your sub-conscious mind in later years. That is why you opted to take the Geiger Counter machine with you on your expedition to Nandadevi.’

(To be continued)
– Original story in Assamese
translated by Bimal C Saikia

Santanoo Tamuly