Chapter 1

He stood there like a rock. The rites were being performed. It was raining hard. No one could see him there. Forget them seeing the tears in his eyes. Even if observed closely, the droplets in his eyes would have looked like raindrops and not tears.

When the pyre was about to be lit, he sprang out, and said 'Wait', with a small dagger in his hand. There stood an elderly frame, one of a man in probably his forties, and he demanded the fire. He was tall, probably around 6 feet. He wore a pair of thick spectacles, and had some grey hair. He wore a black kurta, and a black trouser, the kurta being covered by a cream coloured shawl. He had facial hair, a feature which made him look elegant, respectable for his age. His eyes were fierce, to an extent that only someone deeply affected at heart, could present such looks. He lit the funeral pyre, and when the smoke which rose from it cleared, he was gone.

It was the funeral pyre of Mrs. Sharadha Krishnamurthy, a school teacher in the St.Michaels school of Mylapore, Chennai. She has been a very strong lady all her life. After her husband died 7 years ago, her son was pushed to a position where he had to repay the debt incurred by his father over the years. It amounted to Rs. 15 lakhs, and that cost Hari Krishnamurthy a fortune. After the repayment, they had to shift to a small apartment in the suburbs of the city, a place where they could manage their day-today expenses.

The last few days had been tough days for the Krishnamurthy family. Mr. Krishnamurthy Iyer had been a man of iron. One who had risen from the ashes, not once, but twice. He had been struggling once at the age of 25, when he started his own shop for the sale of undergarments. Again, at the age of 39, when his business had undergone a grand slump, thanks to the introduction of new style undergarment wear(!!), he had borrowed around 50 lakh rupees, to get the business back on track, and had succeeded. He had been making plans to repay his loan to Hitesh Jhabak, the Marwari seth from whom he had taken the loan. After getting to know that he was going to be repaid, Jhabak had planned to celebrate it with Mr.Iyer. But their first cruise on the Bharathiya Kalanjiyam, a new ship which Jhabak had bought from the big businessman, Dr.Narayan Paranjape, proved to be fatal to them. It sank, and there was no trace of either the seth or Iyer. Then, Seth's sons Rajesh Jhabak and Ramesh Jhabak, came and demanded the return of the 15 lakhs left to be paid in the loan and got it paid from Hari. From then, Hari took over the undergarments company, and being a quick learner, slowly steered it back to its old glory. But seemingly less risky than his father, he did not wish to take too many loans to have his ends met. His father used to often say, 'Buy him or his policy, both work the same way.' He did not wish to buy anybody, as he tried to be a very clean man, atleast on the outside. Now, at a period when he was slowly growing in power and experience, his mom had been brutally murdered. She had been on her way home from the market, when she was shot into by an arrow, which read, according to the police first information reports, DNP.

The old man who lit the pyre, was making a slow walk into a cave, where he found a dog coming towards him,wagging its tail very enthusiastically. He approached it, knelt down beside it, said, "Sharda will be avenged, by he who rightfully needs to avenge her.", and got up to fast for the night. He went to bed, lying, wandered into memories, before he slept off eventually.