OUT OF INDIA
In the search for truth, what can people discover about their love of country?
By
Susie Perez Fernandez
Preface
A young college student from Mumbai and a curious American writer get caught up in political upheaval in New Delhi. The Indian student is against a candidate for the position of Prime Minister and has been pulled into the wrong crowd, starting a series of riots and protests on the university campus that spills over onto the city streets.
Jai Ravi Lodi hails from a family of prominent political lawyers and is begrudgingly studying law. His father, Lodi, Sr is now a widower with an extremely tight rein on him who is bent on his son following the family business. Bibiana Tobey, an American writer for a New York based Travel Magazine, is writing a fictional Adventure novel and is in India doing research for her book about a powerful and influential political figure that has dark secret past that may come to light and ruin his campaign for Prime Minister of India.
On a day of campaigning for the PM on campus, Jai is caught up in the fervor to protest and entices the crowd to follow him. The opposing sides rally against each other and soon police arrive, starting a violent operation against the protesters. In the running masses of students, Jai is injured and left for dead but close by in the street outside the campus, taking pictures and watching everything is Bibi, the American writer. Bibi rescues Jai after he is injured and drags his beaten and lifeless body into safety performing a life saving procedure. When he finally opens his eyes and begins to thank her, Bibi explains who she is and what she is doing in New Delhi. Jai realizes she’s an innocent bystander and asks her to leave at once but at that moment police arrive, take Bibi for questioning and send Jai to the hospital to recover. During the interrogation, police find the research for her book and believe her story resembles the top secret cover-up for the new PM candidate and worse, they believe Bibi to be a spy not realizing she is merely doing research for a fictional book.
Some days later, Jai who has recovered from his wounds and has learned of Bibi’s fate, must now quickly return home to Mumbai and seek his father’s help to save Bibi before it’s too late. It is also time for Jai to confess what he has been up to; something his father will repudiate and will bring him serious repercussions. Will Jai’s father agree to help get Bibi out of prison and back home safely? What will Jai’s father discover about his career as a lawyer and India, a country he has spent little time observing because he has been too busy working? More importantly, what will Jai, Sr, the prominent lawyer, discover about himself if he helps Bibi? The clock is ticking and it’s now a serious matter of honor and duty for Jai and his father. These unforeseen events have forced them together; will father and son join to help the American? The journey Out of India begins now.
Foreword
Bibi was not your average reporter, she told stories because she lived them heart and soul. It never occurred to her when she decided that journalism would be her major that writing would become more of a passion for storytelling; jotting down facts to reverberate the outcome was not her style. This passion grew more and more as she traveled with her University Arts class and landed in Bombay young and eager to write about a country that kept her up at nights. Bibi studied everything she could about India, language, culture, food, regional festivals and politics. She was like this with any subject she was to write about and her style of writing evolved as did her tastes but it was her passion that drove the story.
Years later when Bibi was writing her own novel with a political backdrop set in India, she again immersed herself in the subject and plunged in head first without looking back. For Bibi, her book "Out of India" was going to be the masterpiece, the book to finally launch her as a literary novelist. The time was right at the Publishing House where she worked, she had spent months checking scenarios, characters and laying out a strategy for her book. It was only then she felt it was the right time to travel, it was only then she could write about a country she truly knew very little about. It was her own immersion program in a search for something unknown to become known.
When Bibi finally arrived and set foot on Indian soil, then and only then would the true India be known to her and she could make all the pieces fit. This constant search for knowledge about India created a bond in her with a country she never thought was possible. Suddenly her entire being became one with this new information and it filled her and nourished a mind and spirit that was in search of true meaning. All Bibi knew is that until she made the connection it was just information about a far off county. Could the truth about herself lay thousands of miles away in a distant country with people so different than she? Is it possible that this fictional book perhaps had a true story bouncing out of its pages that Bibi was yet to uncover?
We live in a wonderful world that is full of beauty, charm and adventure. There is no end to the adventures we can have if only we seek them with our eyes open.” – Jawaharial Nehru
Main Characters:
Bibiana Tobey (40 years)
Attorney Jai Ravi Lodi, Sr (56 years)
Jai Ravi Lodi, Jr. (20 years)
Police Chief, Raja Singh
Police Detective Salman Mutti
Janette Hudson, Publisher, Geo World Publishing
Pooja Dutt (Bibi’s friend)
Judge Banerjee
CHAPTERS
Chapter 1 Mother India awaits
Chapter 2
CHAPTER 1
Mother India Awaits
A writer should never have to start the first chapter of their book with, "I know you don’t believe me but I am not a spy." Surely something has gone terribly wrong when you’re trying to save yourself from sitting in an old jail cell in India and the civil servant is shaking his head in a way that can only spell trouble. How did this happen? Bibi asks herself and more importantly, how am I going to get myself out of this mess? The robust lieutenant in the connecting office just in front of her is passing the draft pages of her prized novel, the one that was supposed to be Bibi’s ticket to a better life and he doesn’t seem to like what he’s reading. The precinct at the Delhi station where she’s being held is a virtual hornets’ nest of officers trying to get information to the chief, Raja ji who is growing arms like an octopus between documents, cell phones and landlines that need his immediate attention. Is this all about me? Bibi wonders. Looking back, Bibi remembers that she was warned about coming to India by many of her friends and coworkers. None of their advice seemed logical at the time, why is India such a topic of negativity with some people? Bibi was going to prove them all wrong by showing them that everything she had learned about India in all her years of information digging was going to serve her well. The novel she was writing would wrong all the rights and be the Taj Mahal of her love for a country that was an inspiration from the time she was 19 years old. Bibiana Tobey, writer and now author would write such an exemplary masterpiece that people would flock to India like those that travel to New Zealand just to experience, The Lord of the Rings. Suddenly an officer in civilian clothing approaches her with a cup of chai and Bibi cannot refuse, however she can only think of one thing to say, "Sir may I please make a phone call? I promise it will clear everything up."
About two months before this unfortunate incident keeping Bibiana Tobey from exploring the country she so desperately wanted to write about, she recalls being bummed on a hazy Monday morning in her publisher’s office when she heard they were only allowing her to stay 2 weeks in India for her research on her new adventure romance novel. Two weeks? You expect me to do enough research in two weeks? It practically takes two days to get there Janette. How in the world will I gather enough information to make this book legitimate to my readers?" She asked in rapid fire succession. “The novel is a fiction Bibi, it doesn’t have to be a true depiction of everyday life in India. Let’s face it; Geo World Publishing has not made the record sales it has made in the past. We can’t afford to send you off on a world wind tour of India for two months. If you want to spend more time, you may but it will be on your tab. End of story.” With that Janette Hudson walked out of her office and gave Bibi the ultimatum, take it or leave it. What more could she do than to take the two measly weeks and hope that she had stashed enough mad-money away to allow her more time to finish, “Out of India,” her prized novel. It was supposed to be the book that was going to help her live a life with no economic worries. At 40, Bibi had worked so hard that she had dreamed of retiring early and though she looked no older than a 35 year old, thanks to good health, exercise and inherited genes, her body was telling her she needed an extended vacation.
Bibi’s desk was piled high with photographs and stories of India. In every corner of her desk lay articles of everyday life in India, fashion and news clippings on political elections to Bollywood’s latest releases. Bibi was tired but the more she looked at these stories the more her creative juices fired up and she didn’t want to stop writing. India always called to her in an intriguing way and right now it was calling to her more than ever. After losing her last remaining parent, her mother, and as of recently splitting up with her boyfriend of 5 years, she needed to get away and do something totally out of her comfort zone she thought. India would be the perfect place; this trip would be so different, so contrary to any other trip she had ever taken before that this journey would be life changing. The flight from Chicago to Mumbai would be in 2 days and she had to get ready, especially since it was now monsoon season.