Mystery of the missing rucksack

Come Watson the game is afoot at the airport :)

Airports - what a place of chaos & confusion

"You are telling all stories which are more than 10 years old. None in the last 5-6 years?" asked Sheeja. “After all you have been in IT for the last 20 years and had things almost over the first 10 years right? It should still be the same or worse right?”

My wife was not happy that post our marriage nothing seems to have happened to prove my detecting skills. I could see that she felt maybe marriage started a phase in life where I was more conservative and cautious or worse lost my skills and penchant for detection.

"Hey have you forgotten how we solved the purse robbery of Prasanti while we were all together in South Africa?" I asked.

"Oh yes I forgot all about it but then it was not solved fully was it? We knew how it happened we knew the possible thief but we could not prove it or find the purse" Sheeja was looking a bit less upset.

I had met my wife Sheeja while I was on a client consulting project in South Africa Johannesburg. I was helped with my accommodation and later for food and travel by Prasanti a good friend and colleague of mine. Staying with her was Sheeja and another girl.

Prasanti was quite a character, bold, outspoken and her voice reminded me of Dil Chahta Hai girl character called Deepa who goes after Amir Khan in the beginning, with a nasal twang.

"Well there was one more on that trip while returning at Mumbai airport. It was with Raghuram Reddy the robbery happened, you remember him?" I continued. "The worst part about it was, this time very careless on Raghu’s part and mine."

Raghuram Reddy was part of the team lead by Prasanti and he was returning to give training to offshore team. Later Prasanti would be returning and someone else would travel before that to take over from her. Prasanti was later behind initiating the marriage proposal introducing my Amma and Sheeja’s Mother resulting in our marriage.

But returning to the story this was before the proposal and all. I had completed my project and was flying back and at the airport in Johannesburg met Raghuram who was also flying back to Mumbai same flight. We agreed to meet up after landing in Mumbai.

Diamonds are for ever

“It all started at the airport. We were both same flight and transit passengers in Mumbai while returning from South Africa if you remember. Raghu and I both had rucksacks only difference was he had a laptop, camera and worse a diamond set in his rucksack. Remember the Cullinan mine visit and his purchase for his wife as he wanted to compensate for his being away on the wedding anniversary?” I asked Sheeja who nodded.

“Cullinan visit? What was that?” My Amma asked me.

“The only Cullinan I know is supposed to be one of the world’s largest diamonds” Achan added.

“You are right Acha, but the name came from the name of the mine in South Africa. The mine is called Cullinan and the Cullinan diamond is not one but a bout 7-8 cut from a single rough huge piece. The largest one is called Cullinan I” I answered.

“You visited that mine?” asked my Amma.

“Yes Amma and you saw the picture of a huge crater and beside it I was standing with a yellow hard hat like some factory worker and trucks on the other side of the crater on a rough road” I added.

“Oh yes I saw the picture” replied Amma.

“We all visited there and some of the guys and gals like Prasanti and Raghuram purchased diamond earrings or chains or rings” added Sheeja.

“I did not buy anything and so did not Sheeja” I added.

“Hey you did buy some of those rough minerals, right?” asked Sheeja.

“Oh that, yes it was what 10 pieces of rough semi-precious cheap stones, total equal to Rs. 2500 for 10 pieces” I answered.

“Anyway it was not worth much for stealing☺” I replied.

“Now Raghu had made a large purchase and he was very proud of it. I did not know at that time but he made sure not only me but half the airport knew☺. We were sitting on adjacent seats in the waiting transit lounge in Mumbai domestic terminal and were feeling sleepy and tired.” I got up to get myself water.

“We had landed around midnight or so and had to go through the nonsense of immigration and customs and then come from international terminal to domestic. As usual it was a painful process with everyone trying to see if we can be fleeced. It does not matter what role they had, broker, agent, official they were all same. All this had taken till almost 3 -4 AM. And our transit flights to Hyderabad and Kochi were around 6 AM.”

I thought how many times I had made transits via Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai and Hyderabad. But now at least that is lesser as I fly direct from Trivandrum or Kochi to Middle East. Now the transit I have is mostly via Dubai onward to my destination which is now mostly Europe. I had been partial towards Europe for many reasons. Europe I liked for the beauty of the land, the history, the food and except for some areas the friendly and nice people.

Also professionally I felt Europeans were more receptive to have Indians come in pure consulting roles. To me it felt that they were more open and only considered skills more than ethnicity or background. Let us admit that we were not always accepted in UK or US mostly and subtly in other places. The equal treatment was a rarity and seemed subtly not done also by some sharp smart alecs.

“So there we were in airport and tired after a long 8-9 hours flight and worse for the delays. On top of it we had to wait almost 3 hours before our flight to our respective cities. In our minds there was just one thought – one more step and we are home with our family. So we started talking about our family and about Raghu’s daughter who was only 2 years old. We also talked about what we purchased for our family.” I smiled at my family.

“Remember I purchased t-shirts with the big 5 (the big 5 animals of Africa – lion, elephant, rhino, leopard and wild buffalo) for me and Kuttu (pet name for my nephew who was at that time 4-5 years old) and the mineral stones which Sheeja was mentioning about☺. All colours and cheap and by the handful rough ones. I mentioned all these as part of our discussion on purchases to Raghu while sitting there” I paused and sipped from my glass of water.

I had another sip and looked at my impatiently waiting family and started again.

“That was when Raghu made the big mistake. Not one but two big ones. I also did not even expect it nor think he would do it. Before I could stop him he did it.” I paused and sipped some water I was feeling a bit dry. The heat was getting to me even at the night. There was no wind and it felt dead still and stuffy.

“He was telling me that he had to be careful as he was having something very valuable in his bag. I laughed and told him forget about our stupid laptops no one will steal it, I did not even think for a moment about anything costlier than that in our bags. After all our Easpro laptop was forced on to us and not even we were great fans of the same. So no need to think of outside people being interested in those” I continued.

““That is when he made his first mistake, he said loudly “No, No, Giri, you remember in Cullinan they had these diamonds which they set on platinum for us on rings or earrings? I took two and set them on platinum for my wife. It cost me close to 4000 dollars, remember?”” I looked at my family as they also looked stunned at that statement I repeated of Raghu.

“He really said that in public and that too loudly for others to hear? Without any sense of the people around and the dangers?” asked Sheeja.

““Not only that he said it loudly, then he compounded the mistake as if that was not enough, he opened the rucksack and took out the jewel box and opened it and showed the diamond ear rings in open and full view of every one who cared to look. Then he continued before I could recover from my shock and said “Converted in Rupees it values almost 200,000.” By then I had recovered from my shock and I told him to lower his voice and put it away before anyone notices and kills him for it. I was angry how could he be so silly to invite danger is a public place and openly showing it?”” I still felt the irritation even now.

“I looked around to see if anyone had noticed his stupid behaviour and was looking interested or keen. I noticed the girl at my left was looking at the box and when she saw me looking at her she immediately lifted the book in her hand and continued reading. I just had one quick look at her and just noticed two things about her out of habit and since I was apprehensive I continued looking around to see if anyone else was looking at us” I paused the story.

Gone with the wind?

“I saw most people were sleeping and it looked like fortunately Raghu’s mad acts and speech were not noticed by many. I told Raghu how stupid his whole action was in a quiet voice. Raghu seemed to think it was ok and sort of was trying to convince me that no one is bothered for a 2 lakh diamond earring. I did not argue as I was not in the mood and partially tired and partially eager to return home” I stopped once more and adjusted myself in the diwan into a better seating position.

“Anyway I thought better to be safe than sorry and I told Raghu to keep half his eyes open and also as a precaution to keep one arm looped on the shoulder band of the rucksack and to keep the rucksack between his legs and tightly squeeze between them. In case if we fell asleep also and someone tried to take it we will immediately wake up. Fortunately this time Raghu agreed without arguing, maybe he might have felt it a bit unsafe after his actions after noticing my seriousness. Anyway he did as I told him to do and kept the bag with one hand tightly around the handle.”

I sat back and remembered how it might have looked for anyone observing us like that and laughed at possibly what others might have thought and then continued “So there we sat with the rucksack between our legs and one arm twined on the straps. We had around 2 hours still left before boarding and the tiredness and uncomfortable flight and lack of sleep was catching up with us a little. I felt myself falling off and dozing in between.” I paused once more and drank deeply from my mug as I felt my throat was still dry. It seemed like it was going to be a long hot summer and I sighed.

“I was a bit more alert to movement around or near me, but whenever I woke if and when someone walked in front of me or within range of vision, it aroused me from sleep and I would raise myself and would look around and I noticed Raghu was totally lost. Because whenever someone moved and the shadow passed in front of my eyes I would automatically feel it and wake up. I would immediately locate the source of shadow and then look around to see who else was nearby and what they were doing. Once satisfied I would look at a quick glance around.”

“Every time I looked, I noticed Raghu had eyes closed and mouth open and sleeping heavily with little snores. His hand was partly loose but still around the straps. I felt uneasy but since I was still alert and not fully under or out I felt not many would steal from two big regular I decided to leave it alone at that” I was feeling a bit cramped sitting so I got up and stretched.

Then standing I continued the narration. “We had agreed early that 40 minutes before the boarding time we will go to the individual gates for boarding and whoever wakes first and sees the time once it is nearing boarding must wake the other. My flight was after his by 20 minutes.” I continued.

“As usual at airports I am never able to sleep fully.” I said.

“What airport? You are not able to sleep in car or train also fully” Sheeja said and laughed. My parents also laughed in agreement.

What Sheeja said was true; I had to agree to facts. Every journey or previous night of journey I am too keyed up and at railway station or airport I have always found that I am never able to let go fully and sleep. Even at home or anywhere prior night to travel is bad for me. I never show it out for others to note, but I am not able to sleep fully till journey is over. Once journey is over I will fall asleep and it will be long and heavy. But families being what they are they notice the behaviour change.

“Anyway I woke again when someone moved and once awake I found I felt not at all sleepy anymore. So I checked the time and found we had about 50 minutes only to boarding time. I decided that is more than enough sleep, besides I wanted to stretch and use the rest room. I wanted to wash my face also and decided I had better get up.”

I started walking and stretching around a bit and continued ““So I woke Raghu who was all groggy but he opened his eyes. I told him the time and said “Raghu we have 45 minutes and I want to go to the rest room so wake up and keep alert”. He opened his eyes and then sat straighter and said “Sure Giri, you go ahead I am awake now. I will go get a tea and then go and wash my face. I will return to this seat or nearby.””

““He looked awake and so feeling that it should be ok, I left for the restroom which was off to one side and had to walk between chairs till I reached about 30-40 meters to the toilet. You know the typical set of chairs in rows that you see in hospitals, railway stations etc similar ones are what they have in airport for the cattle class as the famous minister Mr. Kathiroor said☺. Also people were moving around and blocking the area with luggage kept haphazardly and irritatingly so it took me 2-3 minutes to reach the rest room itself.”” I paused.

“I had gone to the rest room and it might have taken maybe 7-8 minutes, definitely less than 10 minutes and on my return found our friend was now sprawled back on the seat and again mouth open and dozing. I was thinking thank God I woke in time, if I trusted or had relied on Raghu we would have missed our flight.” I was walking slowly and my family was following my movement to listen to the story.

I continued with the narration “Just then the display board updated the status and then the boarding announcement for our flights came. It must have been that Hyderabad flight might have been announced earlier but either in sleep we did not notice it or it might have happened just as I was in the restroom. I usually like to clear my system before boarding to avoid moving around on these short flights and that already done I was ready to board☺” I smiled at my family

At that my Mother looked pointedly at Father and back at me, “Hey I am not that bad as Father. I do go to toilet not just before last minute to travel. I do go well in advance not like how Father does seconds from departure. Just as everyone gets into car and about to start the car Father says stop and then rushes back in to the house for you know what” I said making fun of my Father’s penchant to delay things by rushing to toilet as everyone is getting in to the car and we are ready to leave.

“Will you tell the story or waste time finding fault with me” asked my Father sounding cross. We all laughed and even Father joined in.

I said “Ok ok we will not change stories so let me continue.”

““I reached out and shook Raghu and said “Wakey, wakey time to board”. He opened his eyes, smiled at me and got up stepped and stretched and looked to be slowly coming back to wakefulness. He then turned right back and then gaped. His eyes literally protruded and his mouth was working but no sound came and he started sweating.”” I looked at my family, they also looked tensed.

I resumed the story telling ““I was scared for a moment was he having a stroke or something? So I grabbed him and shook him and asked “What is wrong Raghu, what happened?” It took a couple of minutes for him to be able to speak. “My rucksack, my rucksack with laptop, camera and the diamond earrings for wife, it is gone.” He gasped and looked ready to faint our burst into tears.”” I could see that my whole family looked stunned.

“Well we expected something to happen but the entire rucksack?” asked Sheeja.

I smiled and carried on “I looked under the seats and even came to the row behind. The rucksack was missing, vanished GONE WITH THE WIND…”

O Sherlock where for art thou

“Fact is I had also forgotten about it when I came back from the restroom and I noticed its absence just then only when Raghu told me. It had slipped my mind completely. I also noticed two things immediately, the guy and the girl who were sitting on either side of us were also gone. Boarding was happening for 3-4 flights. Ours was calling for boarding. I was for Kochi and Raghu if you remember was for Hyderabad.”

I explained to my family who were eagerly following my words with rapt attention. I could remember the tension and time bound situation we were in. Another 35 minutes we had to be in our aircraft.

“I knew two things the bag would be found soon and I knew where. There were 3-4 sets of toilets and I remembered just a couple of minutes back when I had gone in also it was not at all crowded. Ideal place to go to open a lavatory get in close the door pass whatever needed from one bag to other and then come out. Wait for attention of others to shift and act like just keeping rucksack to go to toilet and then place it on the floor near the door and walk out.” I looked at my family as they were getting an understanding of how easily it can be done and leave a key evidence out of sight.

“No one will notice until the cleaners come and notice it and they will notify the police for fear of it being dangerous. Then the police will ask passengers and whoever left it will be never traced. I raced to the toilets and checked the large waste bin outside and looked in every door and the lavatories. Fortunately all were unoccupied. Raghu was also with me but we found nothing in the one I had gone which was nearer to us.” I remembered how Raghu was sort of just following me almost like a zombie.

“Then I had to get Raghu to act. We needed to look at another 3 more. I turned to Raghu and told him my logic and deduction. He was in no position to argue and he looked ready to collapse. I gave him the idea to split up and meet back here after searching. The action seemed to give him some semblance of positive thought and he agreed and went to the other toilets” I looked at the clock and then looked at my wife and mother pointedly.

“Normally by now everyone will be asking for tea” I said and so my Amma and Sheeja reluctantly got up. So 20 minutes later we were sitting around the dining table sipping tea and having some snacks. It had been a long day of storytelling for me.

“Now that you have your tea please continue. Like some cheap painkili magazine (the name given for the masala magazines of local language in Kerala) do not leave the mystery halfway and make people wait almost a week before coming up with the next piece.” Sheeja was looking a bit cross.

I smiled and sipped my tea and took a rice murukku and re-started “We met back in 10 minutes. We both had turned up blank. The rucksack had vanished. It not in any gent’s room waste bin or in the room itself or floor any one would leave it after removing the content. I knew then and there who the culprit was.” I looked at my family who was sitting with the tea forgot and latching on to my every word keenly.

Come Watson the game is afoot

“Chetta, why should anyone go to so much trouble? They can just carry that bag and board naa?” Asked Sheeja a question which logically should have come to Raghu but at that stage he was more or less paralyzed and just following what ever I told him to do.

I smiled and explained “This was if you remember immediately after some blasts so every airport had increased security. In fact one bag with laptop and no liquid etc were the norm. Also in all airports the laptop is taken out separately for scanning. I also knew one more thing where the rucksack will be. Another thing I was sure of was that it was not going to be easy to solve this.”

Sheeja interrupted me a bit angrily “You have avoided the question. Why cannot one carry two rucksacks?”

“One the new security procedures said only one bag, reason two most airways when full will not allow two cabin baggage on peak flights. As you know, from Mumbai all flights are full to any destination so no one will dare to carry more than one cabin bag for fear of it being taken and put in cargo hold.” I clarified to my family.

“So that is safer right? Even if you chase and catch up the rucksack will not be there for you to recognize and catch the thief as it will be with the airlines staff.” Sheeja was determined to prove me wrong☺.

I sipped tea and continued “Well reason three, no airlines takes one bag at a time after they haul off every bags they will have it moved at one shot into cargo. Till then it will in public view near the air corridor and we could also see it if we reach there. So continuing what happened, I had to decide the best course of action because even now searching every one of the passengers sitting with in our area itself is going to be difficult and what with flights boarding already we may miss her”

“Her?” asked Sheeja, “How could you be so decidedly biased that it is a girl who stole the rucksack?” She was furious.

“Because you are not analysing fully even though you are in possession of same facts. Let me explain two things. First most men will not know diamonds at first glance and second when we were dozing a girl was sitting to my left. Raghu was at my right side and another guy to Raghu’s right. And the guy was dozing and never once opened his eyes or showed interest. But if you remember I mentioned I had noticed the girl looking at the diamonds with interest. Second we had checked the gent’s rest room and the rucksack was not there that meant it has to be at ladies rest room or at the flight gates. I had to decide the best course of action and I came out with what I felt was the most practical course of action” I looked at Sheeja who was still not convinced but was looking mutinous.

“I went to our flight boarding gate. Thankfully we were both on same airlines and nearby gates. An official looking lady was standing there at Raghu’s gate and I went up to her told her the whole story. Fortunately among the other flights boarding 4 were our same airlines. And since it was hardly 15-20 minutes to boarding she said her priority is flight and she said she can’t go ahead and check the entire luggage.” I looked at my family and said “We were lost and not sure what to do”

“Here it was the crucial thing we had hardly 30-45 minutes to locate a girl who we could not recognize with a diamond earring which she might have hidden anywhere. Now if this is not worthy of Sherlock Holmes what is?” I smiled at my family

Next Chapter: Mystery of the vanished lady softwrae engineer