145;What were Manju146;s words when he saw the revolver being pulled out?146;

Manju8217;s parents stand with me, their sorrow merging with the silence. I feel an indescribable pang. Manju8217;s mother Pramila asks the police escort, 8216;8216;What were Manju8217;s words when he saw Monu Mittal pull out the revolver?8217;8217; She explains, 8216;8216;Monu Mittal always behaved like a friendly dealer. He8217;d come home once, when I was with Manju. I had even served him coffee.8217;8217;

Neighbouring petrol pump owner Agarwal speaks up, 8216;8216;Manju used to smoke occasionally. When my workers got him a cigarette, he would insist on paying. He used to address the workers on each visit and urge them to sell quality fuel, quality lubricants. He used to say, maalik nahi, customer paise deta hai8212;our first duty is to our customer. There has never been, nor will be, an officer so honest.8217;8217;

I TRANSLATE all this to Manju8217;s parents. They speak passable English and no Hindi and are most comfortable in Tamizh. I have been their interpreter all day. I had taken them to the Mahauli police station first to meet the constables. The constables who8217;d spotted a vehicle in the dead of the night, given chase and nabbed Monu8217;s henchmen red-handed. Without them, the case would never have come to light. In fact, the adulteration mafia had planned to dump Manju8217;s body and weave a story around it8212;portraying Manju as an unstable, wayward drunkard who got into a brawl and died.

I failed as interpreter, though. It was beyond me to translate into Hindi those outpourings of gratitude. Manju8217;s parents8217; expressions, their tears said it all8212;the debt we owed the constables. The head constable said, 8216;8216;We were on patrol but we went to have tea and saw the car. They immediately offered us a bribe of Rs 2 lakh8212;to let them go and dump the body at a spot nobody would locate. But their crime was so heinous I wouldn8217;t let them off for Rs 2 crore!8217;8217;

This overpaid IIM graduate doesn8217;t think of a lakh or two as a big amount. But even this MBA begins respecting the value of Rs 2,000 when the head constable says, 8216;8216;Sir, can you help my son find a job? He8217;s just completing his B.Sc, even a job for Rs 2,000 a month will help a lot. You will help an honest boy.8217;8217; As we leave, he says, 8216;8216;Chaliye, aapko Guruji ka darshan karata hun,8217;8217; and takes out a photo of Asaram Bapu.

I RECALL Manju8217;s spiritual side. He had a photo of Ramana Maharshi in his hostel room. Every now and then, he would look at it, chuckle and say, 8216;8216;Look at him. He looks so joyful8217;8217;.

For me he had another recommendation. 8216;8216;Ramana is a great saint and all that but he speaks of 8216;God8217;. You must read J Krishnamurty. He speak of realising one8217;s possibilities; he doesn8217;t even mention God. That is strength! If you read JK, you feel strong.8217;8217; Maybe he knew that I was never going to be as strong as him.

As we return from the petrol bunk, the SP of Lakhimpur Kheri asks us for dinner. 8216;8216;My wife and children want to meet Manjunath8217;s parents8212;the ones who inculcated his values in him8217;8217;.

His whole family knows Manjunath8217;s story. And he confesses to us, 8216;8216;In my career, I have seen so many heinous crimes and horrible criminals. Yet, two cases have moved me no end. This was one. A bright and honest young man. Killed like this? Unimaginable.8217;8217;

The SP is the one who investigated the case in depth. The men on getting caught had said8212;8216;8216;we killed Manjunath8217;8217;. The case would have been closed convicting these two, and Monu Mittal would have lived on to kill more Manjunaths. And then, this 8216;Godsend8217;, as Manju8217;s mother puts it. The investigation passes to this upright IPS officer. He takes up the case, investigates in depth, and digs out a revolver, cartridge, blood-stained shirt, phone conversation transcripts.

The SP shows me a mail he received from an IIM-Bangalore student. This young man has chided the SP8212; 8216;8216;You can8217;t you maintain law and order in your district? Work is worship, not a pastime!8217;8217; The SP shows it to me saying, 8216;8216;My first instinct was to react sharply. But then our work is service so we must be reconciled to do a thankless job. We must prepare to hear many such things.8217;8217;

We take leave of the SP. 8216;8216;Sir, all that I can say is, may God bless you and your family.8217;8217; He smiles and shakes my hand.

WE never thought UP would be dangerous,8217;8217; says Manju8217;s father. 8216;8216;People in UP are simple and god-fearing, many of them are vegetarians. We never imagined any dangers here.8217;8217; I think of mentioning to him that Hitler was a vegetarian, and a teetotaler. But I skip it. Because I agree with him that the common man of UP is simple and honest. And that8217;s why he8217;s being taken for a ride by the netas and the gun-toting criminals.

The feelings pour out in the silence of the car, driving down the bumpy highway in UP. I glance at the rows of gun shops by the side of the road. The 8216;Have 20,000? Have licence. Have licence? Have gun8217; types. Manju8217;s father continues, 8216;8216;We come from a very modest background. Manjunath was the first boy, not only in the family, but in the whole community, to have done engineering. And he topped it with an MBA from an IIM. All the children of our locality looked up to him. We had great dreams for him.8217;8217;

My mind drifts away. What a sacrifice! And from my own friend. My batchmate, who did a research assistantship on 8216;8216;values8217;8217;, counted 8216;8216;leadership8217;8217; as his favourite course8212;and became the truest of leaders, guided by the highest of values. The one I studied with, sang with, and yes8212;discussed values with.

My mind goes back to the Business World case study written on Manjunath, soon after his death. There were many comments posted in response to the case. Most people debated on whether or not it was worth it. I had posted my comments too. I8217;d said:

8216;8216;When I first heard of Manju8217;s death I used to wonder if it was worth it. If Manju lived, he could have served his parents in their old age, gotten his sister married and so on8212;all the things every well-bred Indian takes pride in doing. So I wondered, couldn8217;t Manju have done the slight paap of going a bit easy on his values8212;with the long-term punya in view? Was this death worth it really?8217;8217;

In response, a reader had written something that made me hang my head in shame.

8216;8216;I don8217;t understand why for everything in life we ask ourselves8212; was it worth it? There are some beliefs, actions and motions that are above this 8216;8216;deal evaluation8217;8217; exercise that we apply on everything. Like in love. It doesn8217;t matter if you can or cannot justify the effort and time spent in chasing a dream. What is important is that you believed in the dream and the need to take the journey. Let8217;s not trivialise what Manju did by even pontifying on whether it was worth it or not. Let8217;s not demean a believer! If you need to do anything, try dreaming the dream that he probably had.8217;8217;

On reading this, I realised that I had never really understood my friend. This anonymous reader had. Honesty is like love. Inexplicable. Unjustifiable. Just do it. Like Manjunath.