Chapter One : Case of the missing man

Far in the lands of coal mines of Chattisgarh, there was a small little town known as Bairang. With abundant of greenery everywhere and surrounded by hills from all sides, the town was contained within itself and it appeared that it hid many mysteries. In a cold winter morning, when the temperature dipped to a low of 5 degree Celsius, the fog of the December month added more intrigue to its mystery. It was a quite place. In this kind of winter, while opening your mouth you could see the smoke coming out of it. Enjoying this very particular behavior of the winter season, Appu was a joyous child. He was studying in the nearby school and was in the 9th grade. He was a shy person who enjoyed the winter days very much. Not that he loved cold, but he loved the way the whole town would envelope and wrap itself in the winter time. He was a happy to go lucky child and loved his walks to his school early in the morning. The Christmas was very nearby and slowly the fog started to increase more and more. The winter holidays finally arrived. It was a good two weeks vacation for everyone.

The day Appu's school vacation started, that evening Appu went to his cousin sister's home to give some food prepared by his mother. His sister lived nearby and it was just a small walk from his place. Walking along the roads at around 3 30 pm, it was wise to go early as in winter days, the sun would set down by 5 30 pm. Appu went to his sisters place and gave his aunt the food given by his mother. The quarters they lived in was built around the British regime. These quarters had places to fire your wood and light up the chimney. Each house had a surrounding garden. When you look outside the house, you just see trees. Even the farthest horizon of your vision can only see this greenery. Just looking outside, Appu sees something and finds it odd. He stares at a building, and sees the rather different structure of the house than all the other houses of the locality.Since all the houses come under a staff locality, all have the same structure. Appu goes closer to the house and starts inspecting it. He sees a very dusty gray colored fiat parked inside the garage premises of the house. The house is a two storeyed building with somewhat a strange architecture which he had never seen before. The house is surrounded by a very big garden as compared to other houses. Upon reaching the entry of the gate, he sees the gate being bolted by two locks and a metal chain wrapped on both components of the gate."What are you searching for?", said someone from behind. It was the security guard who used to patrol that particular street."No. Nothing.Who stays here?Why it is locked?", asked Appu. The guard told,"Someone used to live here long back. They do not live here anymore. Its sealed and taken away by the local company. The keys are with them".Listening to this, Appu started walking towards his home, thinking about the house and then eventually forgetting it.

The winter days were just going by and Appu had a sumptuous Christmas dinner to eat at one of his father's colleague and friend's house. Since the town was a quiet and calm place, with not much activity to get occupied with, Appu's school library use to be open from 12 pm till 4 30 pm. He along with his friends use to flock to the school library to read different types of books, both study related and fun related. All would see books related to Guinness book of world records and various other fun books from Readers Digest also. Appu apart from reading study materials, use to regularly read novels like Around the world in eighty days, 100 influential personalities etc. Since these types of books would be in the other corner of the library, so number of people visiting that area was also less. Appu goes to that part of the area and starts browsing something interesting to read. Now all these books had a dark green cover on it with the title and the author name printed in golden color on them. Suddenly Appu sees a red colored book present at the very last corner of the last row where the library wall ended. Appu picks it up and sees it. "My last breath", read the title of the book. It was a very old book.He opens it up to see the contents of it, and does not find the school's logo or any issue history. Observing it as a bit strange, he takes the book with him and goes to his librarian to inquire."Excuse me sir, this book I found does not have the School's name or seal on it.Can you check?".The librarian checks the contents of the book, shuffling between the pages to find anything. On the second last page of the book, he finds a seal on it. The seal is from the local company's club library and the book number is mentioned on it."Hey this book is not from the school library. I do not know how this book has landed up here.It belongs to the local club library, Your father is a member of the club right?Can you return this book to the library." Appu took the book with him and headed to the club library excitedly as he had never paid a visit to it and did not want to loose such a chance.

After checking in through the club premises, Appu headed for the library. He goes to the reception of the library and tells about the book. The receptionist sees the book and enters the number of the book into the computer system. Nothing comes up. A second try later, no success again. The receptionist takes the book and goes to the head librarian. Both return back and ask Appu where he got the book. They then start checking their old registers where records of books issued and returned back are kept. Assuming that the book was not returned, they open up a master register where records of all the books which were missing is kept. Checking serially they get the number of the book on the register. Baffled and confused, both look at each other in astonishment. The head Librarian comes to Appu and says,"I think you have returned a mystery book here. This book has been missing in the library since 27 years. It was issued on September 6th, 1991 and was never returned back.It was issued to a person named Aditya Ganguly." Hearing this, Appu is amazed. Being part of something like this was overwhelming for him.He felt excited and thrilled at the same moment. But while walking back home, he wondered why the book lay for so long there and why it was there at the school. Unable to find answers to his questions, he walked back to home remembering his school assignments he had to complete.

Later that night, Appu and his family were invited to his sister's place for dinner. After having a hearty meal all were sitting just outside the house in the courtyard. Appu told his sister, "You know I found an old book from the school library which was missing since 27 years.It belonged to someone named as Aditya Ganguly." Appu's uncle was lighting up his usual post dinner cigarette when the sudden mention of the name drew his attention to their conversation."What?What did you just say?Whose name did u tell?", he asked to him. Appu replied by telling the name and telling the whole story. After hearing it, he was pretty baffled and walked a little forward in the courtyard to see something. He pointed towards the building, the very same building which had caught Appu's attention few days earlier and told,"You are seeing this building?This is Aditya Ganguly's house.He has not returned to his house since 27 years and is declared missing." Hearing it, Appu and his sister were horrified, scared and were not able to process what the hell is happening.

                      

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