Episode 1: On the way...

The short-story sees three transitions

1. On the way to alibag

2. What happened at alibag

3. And then!

Beginning from today is the first chapter of the stories on the way to alibag. 

Synopsis: The story is a heady mixture of a Parsi couple (on their trip to Alibag) and a large group of friends who went one day on a trip to Alibag! And suddenly something ominous happened! MURDER! The first chapter gives you some POINTERS so as to why that must have happened! Second chapter investigates what happened and whodunnit and the last and final chapter is the revelation and the CLIMAX! 

CHAPTER 1: On the way to Alibag

Episode 1: 

Just at the stroke of 5am, when the roads in Bombay heaved a sigh of relief after bearing the burden of relentless vehicles throughout the day, they were met with disappointment. As a trickle of vehicle floated over it briskly, only to hint the heavy flood that would later settle in. How envious these roads would feel of the empty tarmacs at the airport living their life in utmost peace?

As at 5 am, the vicious alarm rang from a Chinese phone that Shubhankit Shrivastava owned which not only woke up a hefty boy from his royal and unscathed sleep (not to mention the slurping while sleeping habit, which’s best not described… By the way a research conducted by some of his roommate confirms that the color of the slurp is Orange!) who while sleeping slept as if flaunting in the wealth of his father but also reminded him to wake all his roommates who had agreed to join Shubhankit and his many friends’ birthday celebration trip to Alibag.

But wait a second; this is not a story about Shubhankit and the rest of his friends.  This is a story of a couple torn apart by their torrid marriage (by the way which marriages aren’t torrid?).

Sethnas they were!

The thought of diminishing dynasties arouses when we speak of Parsis. Parsis of this era are as precious to Bombay as any monument or a piece of history preserved at Prince of Wales museum. Parsis hold their cards to their chest till the very last minute. At the time of partition they were sinking in the same boat as an MBA student who can’t figure out which elective to select Finance/Marketing and then tamely end up taking whatever their colleges have to offer. So were the Parsis. They were as British as they were Indians if lived in India, and they were as Pakistanis as they were Indian/British if lived in Pakistan.

Chameleons they were!

But suddenly Bombay feels a little devoid of them as we speak. All those Pistolwalas, Batliwalas, Mazumdars, Iranis, Treasurywalas have somehow vanished in the puff of Bombay’s roadside dust.

But these terrible Sethnas are still there!

As we speak of Marian Sethna- the wife and her humpty-dumpty pumpkin husband Farooq Sethna who lived their constrained life in the palatial places somewhere hidden in the southern corners of Bombay in Valkeshwar, the feeling of morose oozes from every tiny detail. First and foremost the very idea of their marriage…

As we speak of their marriage, Oh… there wakes up Hardik Trivedi!

Hardik Trivedi was not one of the roomies of Shubhankit Shrivastava, but he too was invited at the big birthday celebration of Shubhankit Shrivastava along with his room-mates Nitesh Kumar Sharma- an eerie Bihari who had a strange manner of being absolutely frank and Rewat Singh Fageria- a shy Rajasthani in his demeanor but not in his voice (may be god forgot to put a volume control in his throat!).

Shubhankit Shrivastava and Rewat Fageria had a Tom and Jerry like relationship attributed to their epic-like battles in a previous hostel where all these boys used to stay, over stolen books(Culprit: Shubhankit), broken CDs(Culprit: Rewat) and largely due to their poles apart egos and lifestyle. While Rewat was a meticulous person who didn’t like filth around his bed, Shubhankit slept and lived over a pile of clutter. And in that haze-maze pile structured clutter of his one could find accessories ranging from his laptop, mobile-phone, his undergarments, socks, his clothes everything. It was as if all of those articles had an equal value in the eyes of Shubhankit- the beholder. 

Another difference would be of Shubhankit being rather a quite person relative to Rewat who could never stop talking.

Despite being foes for life, Rewat was coming for the celebration. The reason being the others giving party in collaboration with Shubhankit had invited him.

Hardik Trivedi tries to wake up both the boys out of their rigid sleep only to hear the Bihari swearing on Hardik’s mother and the Rajasthani yawning on his face filling Hardik’s nose and the umpteenth hair inside it with ODOR (One of the many reasons why he doesn’t have a girlfriend).

So, as scoundrel as he could be he left those two sleeping and left the place early in the morning.

But why are we speaking of these idiots? This is a sad story of two sad Parsis. So where were we? Yeah… we were discussing the marriage of the Parsis and other tiny details.