The most powerful human emotion through the ages has been that of revenge. History is replete with cases where people have gone to any lengths to get their revenge from their targets for some past wrong. The emotion of revenge is so strong in some cultures and people that whole communities are slaughtered because of some past action. This is considered as payback and satisfaction is drawn collectively as a whole. Even Western culture has immortalized the concept of vengeance. In its iconic cult movie’ The Godfather’; when Marlon Brando, who is playing the role of the God Father says ‘Revenge is a dish, it tastes sweet when it is cold’. However, people forget that this revenge ‘psyche’ has a downside as well. Not only the intended victims but also the aggressors are affected by this. At times like this, the famous words of Mahatma Gandhi should be remembered: “An eye for an eye will make the whole world blind”.

I have taken this strongest of the emotions of the human psyche to base my following story on.



It was a time for one of the biggest festivals of Bengalis in India and fact all across the world. Durga Pujas, it comes in around the month of either late September or in October, depending on the calendar. It is time when Bengalis from walks of life start planning on their shopping and start deciding where all to go, which all places to visit etc. People start planning from the very beginning as a matter of fact and this is the time which also brings out the true colors of Bengali culture, tradition, lifestyle, etc. It also gives a wide range of opportunities for a wide range of workers like artisans, painters, musicians, artists of all sorts, etc. Visiting a stall during Durga Puja will take you into a completely another world; as you enter any place, the first thing that you will find is the art & architecture of the pandal (as it is in called in Bengali), then the most amazing thing you will ever see is the innovative and creative method used in creating the statue of Goddess Durga and Mahishasur, the demon king, whom the goddess is slaying. The other unique thing about Durga Puja is the variety of food joints one can find in each of these pandals and the equal number of people thronging each of these food joints. The richness, taste, and quality of some of the foods, especially are made in Bengali tradition are mind-blowing. It so happens that you might not even get a chance to check out a particular delicacy just because of the number of people in a stall.





Retired Head Constable Keshab Sen was an old man who was happily living with his family in Medinipur district of West Bengal. Despite being 65 years old, he still was very active even at this age and regularly went for morning & evening walks. He was an amiable fellow and well-liked by his neighbors and people, in general, whosoever came into contact with him. He liked to play with his grandchildren every morning before going for his walk, and while returning he used to bring sweets and chocolates for them. The same thing he used to do it in the evenings also, much to the dismay and protest from the rest of the family. But he never used to listen to them, and said, that being a child is the purest form of a human being. So he liked to indulge in their small childish demands.

But no one knew that this benign and lovable old grandfather was hiding a dark secret; a secret, which no one except his except maybe his wife Paromita knew. It had been so long that now it was taking a toll on him. In fact for the past few days, just before the pujas, he had been acting a little bit absent-minded. When asked by his family members he just shrugged it off and said that I am growing old now. There was another aspect of his life which not even his wife of 40 years knew, that every Wednesday, he went on long trips to Calcutta and came back laden with gifts for everyone. When his wife and all the rest of the family members used to ask him that where does he go and from where does he buy all these gifts? he just plainly smiled at them and told them not to worry about such things as life is short and beautiful. This particular attitude used to put the family members in surprise and tension, but he never bothered to give a plausible explanation.



This particular day, the beginning of the pujas had also fallen on a Wednesday and Keshab had as usual gone to Calcutta and while on his return he had decided to visit the puja pandal nearest to his house. Here he while in the pandal met and greeted everyone with a smile and pat on the back but something was bothering him. This became more evident when someone asked him

‘What is the matter Keshabda, you look a bit tense?’ He replied ‘nothing at all, just a bit tired, that’s all’.

The reason for his consternation was a small piece of paper that he had found in his letterbox and that was why he had a very long and tense meeting with the people in Calcutta today. Anyways, as he was coming out of the pandal when somebody grabbed him from behind and put a hand on his mouth so that he could not shout and dragged him towards a dark alley nearby. Nobody had seen the situation unfolding right under their noses as everybody was busy in the pandal. Even Keshab before he could react to what was happening, a deep graveling voice came from behind him and said ‘remember 25?’, before he could say anything, the voice from behind took out a sharp serrated knife and stabbed him from behind and kept on stabbing him until Keshab Sen was almost lifeless. Then the killer came in front of him and saw the fear in his eyes from the mentioning of 25. Then the killer said that

‘I wanted to see this fear in your eyes before you die’ and with that, he stabbed him once more viciously in his stomach and watched him fall lifeless onto the ground. Then the killer calmly wiped the bloodstains of his knife on Keshab Sen’s clothes and etched the number ‘25’ onto Keshab’s chest and calmly left the scene.



The whole thing had taken around 10-15 minutes but nobody saw or...