Chapter 10
Further adventures
After the fiasco at Taj Mahal, Vidhya and I badly needed something to relax our nerves. So we opted to open the wine bottle first and have a couple of pegs each.
It was the first time that either of us were drinking any liquor. The wine tasted very sour at first. But gradually as we continued to sip, the
taste became much more palatable. Soon
we were feeling very pleasant all round.
Vidhya
had taken off her jeans complaining that they were too tight. I had taken off only my saree. The shirt that Vidhya had worn to our dinner
at Taj Mahal was somewhat long. I
thought the peek-a-boo glimpses of Vidhya’s pink panties was quite a turn on.
I
lifted my saree petticoat and pulled down my pantyhose first and then my
panties and finally the loin cloth.
Completely free of all restrictions, my penis, already excited, a big
stick seemed to be pointing parallel to the ground out of my saree
petticoat Vidhya could not help laughing
at my predicament!
Soon,
we were up to the one thing that all honeymooning couples do ……. After an hour of love making, I lay
exhausted on the bed. Vidhya was
exhausted too and soon both fell asleep.
The
next morning we were scheduled to do some sight seeing and proceed in the
evening by train to Zurich in Switzerland.
As has always been with us Indians,
Switzerland
is a very popular destination for honeymooning couples.
We
went to a small park near Amsterdam where one of the features was a
miniaturized version of the city of Amsterdam – complete with moving cars,
trains and the like.
Later in the evening we checked out of the hotel and boarded the overnight train to Zurich. We reached Zurich early in the morning. After checking into our hotel, I set out all by myself to visit the local branch of Union Bank of Switzerland.
This
bank is one of the better known amongst the Swiss Banks. It has a highly secure system and the Branch
Manager Mr Kohl is the very personification of discretion. After he had dealt with another customer, he
ushered me into his private office – the sanctum sanctorum so to speak.
Mr
Kohl had already been informed about the nature of my business with him, so
with all the obsequiousness that is shown towards the ultra rich, proceeded to
brief me about the bank’s rules, regulations and procedures. My father had already briefed me about all
this so I asked Mr Kohl to drop all that and get down straight to business.
I
emerged from the room a few minutes later, poorer by some 20,000 dollars with
Mr Kohl’s bank richer by the same amount.
Later in the evening, I had an envelope waiting for me at the
hotel. The receipt for the money I had
given Mr Kohl was in the envelope.
Intriguingly, included was also a handwritten note from Mr Kohl asking
me to meet with him on a different matter.
Normally,
all transactions with Swiss Banks are all discussed well in advance only those
matters are dealt with which are previously agreed to. This note from Mr Kohl was certainly not something we had discussed and was completely out of place and character. I decided to call up my father and ask him
what it could be.
My
father was also puzzled like me and did not know what could be done. I suggested that I could meet with Mr Kohl
and find out what the matter was and then discuss it with my father the next
night.
The
next morning I called up Mr Kohl and learnt that the work he had with me was
something which had to be done only in his office. This was getting curiouser and
curiouser! I agreed to meet with him at
1 in the afternoon.
At
the appointed hour, I was waiting in the waiting area outside Mr Kohl’s office,
distinctly puzzled about everything.
Almost immediately after his secretary had informed him about my
arrival, the door opened and Mr Kohl greeted me – rather effusively, I thought
at the time.
Inside
there was one other man sitting. As I
entered, Mr Kohl closed the door and the man turned around. To my shock, I discovered that it was the
then topmost hero in the Hindi film industry.
I was unaware that he was in Switzerland, least of all that he also
dealt with Union Bank.
In
his baritone which almost every Indian would have heard, he greeted me, “Hello
Mr Baliga”.
“Hello
Mr B.” I greeted him in response. “But how do you know my name?” I asked him.
It turned out that Mr B was an old time customer of
Union Bank and he had been looking for another Indian account holder. He was in search of an Indian who was
married and visiting Switzerland with his wife so that he could carry some of Mrs B’s jewellery back to India for him.
Secure in the knowledge that we were both having accounts in Union Bank
of Switzerland – presumably and rightly so, without the permission of the
Reserve Bank of India – we were both partners in crime.
In a way, I was another Mr B too – although not as
well known as the Mr Big B. After discussing the modus operandi of how we were
going to accomplish what we wanted to, it was time to exchange other
pleasantries. It turned out that he was
apprehensive about the future of his ventures in India and being the gentleman
that he is, Mr B wanted to pay back all his creditors by selling some of his
wife’s emergency jewellery which he had stored in Union Bank for safe keeping.
I told Mr B that since my father advised me in all
matters pertaining to our dealings with Union Bank, I could not agree
immediately but needed to consult with him before I could concur. He agreed and wanted me to call him up at
his hotel which turned out to be just a stone’s throw away from ours.
I talked to my father the same afternoon. My father was as much a fan of Mr B as I
was. He was aware about the financial
troubles Mr B was finding himself in and was very happy that we were able to
help out Mr B. By evening, I had informed
Mr B about his work getting done. We
were to leave for London the next afternoon so we decided to meet at the bank
the next morning. As I changed into my
nightie that night, I wondered if I was getting involved in something big.
The next morning as agreed, we met in the bank foyer
and walked to Mr Kohl’s office. At
precisely 10, we were ushered in.
Mr Kohl was aware about my role in the mission to
help out Mr B. Asking me to wait in his
office, Mr Kohl, accompanied by Mr B left it for a few minutes.
They returned together with a small attaché which Mr
B placed on Mr Kohl’s desk and opened.
Inside were some 10 to 15 diamond necklaces, gold chains, bangles,
rubies and the like. Assisted by Mr
Kohl, Mr B made a list of the items in the brief case with distinguishing marks
or number for each item. The list ran
into 3 pages. Mr Kohl photocopied the
list and handed one copy of the list to me.
Whatever the relationship with me, I acknowledged having received the
jewellery and left the office with the bag.
When I explained the matter to Vidhya in the hotel,
she was worried if we would get into trouble with Customs in Bombay on
return. I assured her that all that was
being taken care of by my father.
We continued on our honeymoon to Paris, London, New
York and Orlando’s Disneyland and returned after three weeks. As expected, Appa had taken care of the
Customs through one of his contacts in Bombay.
By the time that we were recovering from the Jet Lag and the exhaustion,
Vidhya announced that she was pregnant.
I was simultaneously ecstatic and a little sad. On the one hand, I was happy that I was
going to be a father, while on the other, I realized that for the mental well
being of our child, I could not become Radha in the child’s presence.
On the day after our arrival in Mangalore, I told
Appa that I needed to go to Bombay to deliver the jewellery which Mr B had
handed to us in Zurich. Appa arranged
it that I would go to Bombay on “official” work. I was a little wary of carrying all the jewellery with me – in
cabin baggage, it could be detected by the X-Ray machines, while in checked in
baggage it could be lost in transit.
And considering that Mr B’s entire future was tied up in all that
jewellery, it was imperative that I carried it very safely to Bombay. At least if I was dressed up as Radha, I
could have worn some of the jewellery as my personal property and carried the
rest in my bag which could explain everything.
Unfortunately, I was too well known in Mangalore to become and fly down
to Bombay as Radha.
Vidhya suggested that I traveled by road to
Bangalore took a flight from there to Bombay as Radha. That way I could board the flight in
Bangalore in relative anonymity and without any fear of recognition. I could wear some of the jewellery and carry
some of the jewellery in my cabin baggage and if asked, I could always explain
that it was my own jewellery. With Mr
B, I could claim I was Radhakrishnan’s sister, she concluded.
I liked the idea.
As such I was chafing at the collar about not being able to dress up as
Radha at home for very long. This
seemed like a God-sent opportunity to dress up and maybe make a few purchases
in Bombay also.
It was decided that I would travel to Bangalore on a
Friday morning and take the evening flight to Bombay. I would stay for three days in Bombay and fly down as
Radhakrishnan directly to Mangalore on Tuesday morning. For the record, I would have a meeting at
our Bombay branch office on Monday morning.
On the Sunday preceding the trip, I telephoned Mr B
in Bombay. He insisted that I should
have lunch on Saturday with his family. I
told Mr B that I had a surprise for him and that it was not really me but my
sister who would be coming to their home to deliver the jewellery. “Well she can have lunch with us”, responded
Mr B.
I explained to Mr B that my sister was a big fan of
his and that she was very eager to go and meet him in person.
“Does she know what she is going to give us?” he
asked.
“She does and realizes that it is a privilege to be
of help to her idol” I replied.