The Man and His Time Capsule

The Man and His Time Capsule

Abhishek was deep in thought as he sat in a public park. What had he achieved in life, he asked himself? He was 25 years old, decent looking and had a good income. He was engaged to a nice girl in the neighborhood. In spite of all this his soul was not satisfied. He yearned to achieve something unique in life. 

His thoughts led him to his childhood days. He was told that he was a cute boy in his childhood. He was quick to walk and talk and was the cynosure of all eyes. Abhishek could hazily recollect some of the events in his early life when he was five. He was placed in a nearby kindergarten school where he liked playing games only. As he progressed through the classes, his favorite pass-time was playing innocent pranks on the girls and boys for which he had become quite renowned.

Then life-changing events took place at home which had an adverse impact on his thinking and behavior. His father lost his job and his mother started to do household jobs of neighbors to make both ends meet. In frustration his father started drinking and there were frequent fights between his parents, which impacted his young mind adversely.

His pranks on his classmates turned nasty and then, as days passed by, they turned violent. He got regular scolding in the class and got some painful punishments too. All these events, at home and school, were very painful for him in his formative years. He could not complete his schooling, and when he was fourteen, was forced to stay at home. He mingled with the spoiled brats in the neighborhood and learned bad habits. He was involved in small thefts from neighborhood and community shops. He did get caught and spent some days in police custody for his misadventures. 

Despite this background, he was smart and had the knack of convincing people to accept his viewpoint. He consciously wanted to improve his life and so got involved in small businesses and soon earned quite a decent amount. He collected scrap materials from home and sold it at a good premium. This made him self-reliant and his self-esteem got a boost. He could even take care of his parents from what he earned. His father sobered down and settled down in his retired life. Abhishek also vowed to keep away from the bottle at any cost.

All this made Abhishek a happy man. However, he desperately wanted to achieve something which most people could not during their lifetimes. He desired to be remembered long after he had left this world. So whatever work he did for his livelihood, somewhere deep inside him, he was developing this passion to achieve something extraordinary, even if it meant going against the law. Abhishek had these two traits in him - on one hand he was turning out to be a good, clean businessman and on the other he had a tendency to lean towards the illegal activities which would lead to violence. He could not help being like that. Perhaps his troubled childhood was responsible for this trait. He was living a double life.

The nature of his business was such that he sometimes got involved in arguments with the shopkeepers or his competitors. Once he had a terrible dispute with a guy named Ashok who was also involved in the second hand goods business. It so happened that Abhishek had made a deal with a contractor to buy all the items inside a house which he was contracted to demolish. But this guy Ashok bullied the man and forcibly took away the material, giving threats and using vulgar language. When Abhishek came to know about this misdemeanor by Ashok, he was terribly angry and had a big fight with him. They almost came to blows. Since that day, they were at loggerheads with one another. 

Days passed by and Abhishek's standard of living improved. He joined night classes to acquire proficiency in the languages. He was now good at reading and writing the local languages and started buying books. He could understand and say a few words in English too. He liked the detective novels by famous authors which were translated into local languages. He remained engrossed in reading such books and started day-dreaming about his own detective plots which would have twists and turns. He thought one day he would write a book and become famous. But then he realized that without formal education it was only a pipe dream!

One day while reading a book, he came across this idea of preparing a time capsule. It seemed to be a cool idea. How could he use the time capsule to get famous, if not during his lifetime, at least after he had passed away? He kept thinking on those lines. Then during his bout of daydreaming, he came up with, what he thought, was a brilliant idea, a Eureka thing! If he could implement this newfound idea of his, he would be killing two birds with one stone! From that day on wards, his spare time and energy were all directed towards that effort. It required minute planning and then an exquisite implementation. It took him almost a year to finalize his master plan.

Ashok's neighborhood was one day thrown into turmoil because of a murder. People collected in the street making inquiries.

"What happened, my dear fellow," one man asked another.

"You know Ashok, the trader, who lives alone yonder. He was murdered last night in his home"

"Oh my! That's bad! How did it happen?"

"He was shot in the head. Police says he was killed last night at 9 pm"

Following this foul event, police were all over the place, taking photographs, cordoning off the flat, making inquiries, taking fingerprints and hauling suspects to the police station for interrogation. No one had heard a gunshot during that evening. Abhishek was also interrogated many times as police came to know about his enmity with the deceased man. But at the time of the murder, Abhishek was attending the night classes in another area of the town. He had proof of attendance as well as witnesses who vouched for his alibi. The murder weapon was also not found. The CCTV around the neighborhood was defunct at the time of the murder and so police remained clueless. At last after racking their brains for three years, police could not make any headway and, with the permission of the seniors, the file was closed. Police thought it was a Perfect Murder, which is a rarity. In actual fact a murderer always leaves some traces which ultimately lead to his downfall. Secretly, the police were in awe of the murderer!

When Abhishek came to know that the police had closed the file of the murder, he heaved a sigh of relief. One part of his long-term objective was achieved an d now he had to complete the second part. So he now concentrated his attention on preparing a time capsule. He bought a stainless-steel pipe, welded it on one end and prepared a clamp on the other so that his time capsule could be sealed. He intended to dig a hole in the garden adjoining the trunk of a large Peepal tree which was unlikely to be disturbed for the next hundred years. He bought the finest paper and a good quality pen whose ink would remain intact over the next decades. He intended to write a note. 

He sat down and started writing his memoirs. He gave all the details of his childhood days, how he progressed through his youth, the difficulties he faced, his bouts of illegal activities, his businesses and his enmity with Ashok. He intended to place a few family and business photographs inside the capsule too.

Then he wrote about the 'Perfect Murder' he had committed on that fateful night. He knew very well the locality and the flat in which Ashok was living. He used to frequently visit his house prior to that brawl they had over the disputed deal. Abhishek knew that there was a camera at the entrance of the building and so he came a day before the murder and disabled the CCTV system. He came using a disguise and chose a time when the place was deserted. 

On the fateful day he phoned Ashok and said he wanted to end the feud between them and so had to see him to discuss a business deal which would be beneficial to both of them. Abhishek used a public telephone booth for the purpose. Ashok was elated and waited for him eagerly. Abhishek did not want to give Ashok any time, as he might phone someone and casually tell him about their conversation. So within 15 minutes, at around 6 pm, Abhishek entered the building, again using a disguise which he removed just outside Ashok's flat. He had a contraband pistol with silencer hidden inside the folds of his overcoat. He wore his hand gloves so as not to leave any traces of his fingerprints anywhere. Ashok welcomed him with open arms and they exchanged pleasantries. Ashok then got up to prepare some tea. As he moved towards the kitchen, Abhishek took out his loaded gun in a quick motion and shot Ashok in the head from behind. Ashok died instantly and fell in a heap. 

Now Abhishek came to the interesting part in his narrative. He removed the low-hanging wall clock from the wall just above the spot where Ashok had fallen. The clock showed 6.05 pm. To get himself a fool-proof alibi, he changed the time to 9. 05 pm and put it back on the wall. Then he took careful aim and shot another bullet on the clock such that its machine was destroyed without much damage to the hour and minute hands. To the police it would appear as if the murderer had missed one shot which had hit the clock (freezing the time shown) and then took his man down immediately by a second shot before the poor man could react.

Abhishek knew that the next visitor to the flat would be Ashok's maid servant who had the keys to the flat and she would discover the murder at about 6 am next day when she entered the flat. Since so much time would have elapsed, the postmortem report would also accept the time shown on the clock as the time of the murder. 

Abhishek left the flat, again donned his disguise and went out of the building, walked to his car, parked some distance away, and took the main road towards the other end of town. On the way he stopped at the bridge over the river which was very deep at that point. There were no cameras at that place. He threw away the gun and the disguise material (beard, mustache, wig and padding used around his waist to make him look fat). After half an hour's drive he was at the night school at 7.30 pm. The classes commenced around 8 pm and he was free by 10 pm.

Abhishek finished his narrative and sat back, a satisfied man! He placed his note and photographs inside a waterproof bag and put everything inside the capsule before sealing it. He would wait for an opportune time to place the time capsule inside its resting place in the garden.

Once he got married and had kids, he intended to write a note for his wife and kids in a sealed envelope, which was only to be opened after he had passed away. They would then hand over that note to the police. The police would reopen the murder file and realize how they were hoodwinked by a clever murderer. The news would appear in all newspapers and magazines. His name would be on every one's lips. The modusoperandi he had used would be taught at police academic institutions world-wide. He would become famous!

---- A story by Rashid Hamza