Black Tiger

if you haven’t read PART 1(TIGER) YET, READ IT HERE

THE REAL SIDE OF A COIN

Pakistan interrogation room

After knowing the name, his head suddenly felt revolving and he felt like the world itself turned upside down. Aadil fell unconscious while his soldier caught when he was getting out of balance. He didn’t believe it. He couldn’t believe it. No author in this world can describe the expression on his face. After a few moments of utter silence, he controlled himself and started beating Inayat and he asked, “you Indian dogs. Are you trying to make us fools by creating a ruckus among us?” Inayat couldn’t control his laughter even in such pain. He laughed, clapped and whistled like a madman. He felt proud and out of excitement in his last breaths he said, “See what he did. Even you couldn’t believe it after saying his name, sabaash, sabaash”. Aadil couldn’t judge this anymore, one part of him is very angry, and on the other side, it is killing him that Inayat might be lying. He tortured him for a couple more hours and asked “how should I believe what you are saying is the truth?” Inayat: “I have one last wish in my life, I just want to go back to my chief and say what happened here today that black tiger is the most successful mission that India ever did in its history.” He again started clapping to himself. Aadil tortured him again and asked, “until you give me proof that Nabi is the black tiger, I am going to torture you like hell”. Inayat thought that this is the greatest feat achieved by any spy or any agent in the world. Even after saying the name, they are asking him to prove it. Inayat said: “okay, okay he is not the spy, Mullan is the spy”. But already Aadil knows that Mullan talked only to his girlfriend and that Mullan is not part of any high-level missions at the same time he couldn’t believe that Nabi is the spy. He tortured him for proof at last Inayat gave the proof aadil needed to believe. He said, “You fool, how did we know the coordinates of your terrorist bases when what you all wrote was fake five cities, with phenolphthalein he wrote all the coordinates of the terrorist bases. Go check all his places for phenolphthalein.” Aadil wasn’t able to pronounce that name. He didn’t understand anything about it, but out of curiosity he called the base and asked to search for that chemical. After two hours of searching, they called back and said that they found that in his water bottles. Aadil felt his own heartbeat. 

Pak military base

Aadil comes running from his jeep. He is running towards nabi. By the time he had come, Nabi was captured and completely undressed. Aadil ordered this to make sure whether he is really a Muslim or not. He is. Aadil is almost bursting out, he slapped himself. He is hitting his own head to the wall. After a meeting with his higher officials, he came back again. Still, no one in the base is able to believe that he is the spy. Nabi on seeing him returned said, “Sir, you know me sir why would I do that, they are lying to you, sir. They want us to fight among ourselves and create an imbalance. Sir give me one chance, I will go there and I will find out the real black sheep”. Aadil couldn’t control his bag of emotions and slapped his left and right. Even a soldier stopped aadil and asked, “sir why would Major Nabi ever do such a thing, what he just said is also a valid question sir. How can we conclude that he is the real spy?” Aadil felt very embarrassed and fooled when even his soldiers were not believing. Aadil said, “you fool, you pig-arse, he is the spy, he is the one who fooled us, who back-stabbed us. Don’t you think I didn’t get the same question? We found phenolph…. Some shit in his room after digging for two hours in a regular water bottle. I even checked for the fingerprints and they matched. He is the real black tiger” He slapped himself and said, “he is the fucking half-assed BLACK SHEEP, BLACK SHEEP.” Nabi didn’t say anything. Aadil has all the proofs. There is nothing left for him to argue. 

India, prime minister’s office

They both sat right back on the chairs. Sarath: “madam I really want to see him. He is literally giving me chills in my spine. I never ever come across such a man. Who is he, madam? How you found him.” Indira Gandhi: “ After independence, we fought three wars, the first one in 1962, India china war, 1965 indo-pak. The intelligence agency of India failed to trace the secrets of the war which lead India to lose major army troops and weapons. Then India came up with a new agency called “RAW”. After the 1971 war, and the liberation of East Pakistan i.e Bangladesh, we also showed our power with the blast of ghazi. Now Pakistan has joined forces with china to retaliate against India. Indian Army majors started searching for people who can go as raw agents to Pakistan to know their plans in advance but they didn’t find the people who are capable as raw agents until the day the RAW Chief Rameshwar Nath went to Lucknow as a chief guest to the national level dramatic competition.” 

A few years back

Lucknow, In the Auditorium where drama competitions are going on. 

Already a few performances are done. The host on stage took the mic and said, “Now let us welcome one of the best troops, IDC, Indian Drama company. Give them a big round of applause.” The name caught Rameshwar’s attention. They started the drama and it was about to end but Rameshwar was fascinated by the drama, especially by the guy who is performing in the lead role. The guy playing the lead role started telling his dialogue, “because the country is not made with boundaries it is made with people. I love every one of them. I took an oath that at any cost I will protect my country which means I will protect each and every one of them at any cost.” Then a voice-over came from the stage “those Chinese instead of killing him tortured him for months wanting him to beg to kill him. After all the torture, they will say, we will offer peace, we will kill you for once and you don’t need to suffer just say something, at least a few words. All he will say are 2 words, the lead role with blood on his face and pride in his heart said “JAI HIND”. The drama is completed. Everyone in the auditorium was stunned looking at the stage, Rameshwar Nath clapped as hard as he can now everyone in the auditorium started clapping. After that drama, he presented that team with a cup and asked the person who played the lead role to come backstage to talk to him in private. Rameshwar: “young boy you did a wonderful performance. I can see that you just didn’t say those lines just with your brain you said those words with heart. I could literally see tears when you said Jai hind. You love India so much, it’s rare to see such patriots after independence.” He replied, “thank you so much sir, this made my day. Yes, sir, I love my country but sir there are many patriots, this drama is actually inspired after seeing my aunt.” Rameshwar said, “wow, that is great to hear, you said you love your country right? what are you doing for it?” He was confused and replied, “sir, I do this drama, we played it almost in every part of the state few even joined the Indian Army after seeing our drama sir.” Rameshwar got really excited after listening to this, “oh, that is wonderful. What would you say if I tell you, I will provide an opportunity in fact the biggest opportunity which is equal to a freedom fighter who served our country? But before you accept or reject it, I want to say this, if you accept, India will forever be in your debt but you have to leave everything you have here, your name, your family, your troop and even yourself.” Young boy felt as if he got the chance he was waiting for. At the same time he felt overwhelmed, he asked for a couple of days’ time. After two days he returned to Rameshwar Nath and said, “sir I am ready.” Nath felt very happy, he hugged him, he congratulated him and said, “boy after all I forgot to ask your name, what is your name ?” 

Now, 

Pakistan military base, 

Aadil beat Nabi so hard and after some time looking straight into his eyes asked, “is even your name true? No it won’t be, what is your name? Ha? What is your fucking real name?”

Few years back

Lucknow, 

The boy replied, “sir my name is…Ravinder Kaushik” 

Now, 

Pakistan military base. 

Nabi replied, sorry Ravinder Kaushik replied, “ I almost forgot it…” he tried to memorize it and said “My name is.. Ravi…Ravinder.” Aadil opened his eyes wide and couldn’t control his anger, hitting him so hard that his tooth came out.  

India, prime minister’s office.

After the day, the RAW Chief Rameshwar Nath went to Lucknow as a chief guest to the national level dramatic competition, he found the man he was looking for. After that, he was brought to Delhi and went through very rigorous training for 2 years. Rameshwar Nath made him forget himself, he was taught Urdu and every tradition of Muslims, from how to greet to how they sit. After a few months even in his sleep he thought of himself as Nabi not as Ravinder anymore. He was taught how each and every gun works, and how the whole Pakistani army works. The whole geography and demography, its history, its cultures. He constructed a life from his birth in Pakistan. According to what I have heard he repeated that at least a few thousand times in his training, from his schooling to accidents he met, his memories, and his girlfriends. Every small detail he repeated them without even a single error. After two years of such training, he was deployed to Pakistan, we left him on the roads of Karachi on his own. With no help and nothing other than initial money. You know how far he has come now major sarath.” Sarath is stunned after listening to all this. After discussing some other important issues regarding the cooperation between Army and Raw and a few other pressing issues, Sarath saluted his prime minister and left.

Pakistan military base.

Aadil: “how did I believe you, I am an asshole.” Ravinder replied, “the last part is true though”. Aadil: “you pathetic fuck until yesterday you literally licked my arse and now…” Ravinder: “yes I did because it is my job, I hate you from the beginning, in fact since I got to know that you are the one who co-ordinates between army and terrorists. Don’t you have the nerve to fight face-to-face with India, you use them to win over India and your terrorists kill innocent civilians. You and your Pakistan always backed them up. Such assholes.” Aadil: “I will retrieve every bit of information from you regarding India, I will break you into pieces but before sending you to jail, I wanted to know how my plan failed.” Ravinder laughed, “ from the very first moment I decided to become a raw agent. I have been prepared for this moment, to the moment when I would get caught. Until now I just proved my efficiency but now I should show you how much I love my country as a matter of fact even though I don’t know how much I love my country but again coming to the last part let’s all sit. Your plan? yours? Finally, I feel revealed and freed.” He started singing his favorite Indian song and later he said, “but I am missing Nabi, how did he salute you, is it like this sir,” he stood up and saluted. “I miss him, he is such a little dog. Abey O Aadil, sit down. Even I am thrilled to say how I fooled you and your entire army, where to start hmm… let’s start with my marriage, it was me who asked my wife to invite you, I wrote that fake letter just as butter on the bread. Next, the very first mission, when Afghanistan leaked information about Al-sayed, it was me in the first place who leaked the information to them and when you little cunt explained my plan as your plan, the plan of making afghans as our allies, you fought with them and lost considerable soldiers and I also wrote a letter to my country asking to stay out of this so that I could gain your trust. I enjoyed the part when you said as if it is your plan. I wasn’t able to stop laughing but I controlled so much. I informed many attacks prior, now coming to the main one the one that got your ass busted, the funny part is I investigated for my own case. I investigated for the black sheep. It’s me who kept that half-burned morse code paper there. I said every detail as I wanted but I didn’t except that you will use this to bomb five cities in India, then I got the paper and wrote all the terrorist bases coordinates and the real cities you wanted to blast with an invisible ink, acidic solutions of phenolphthalein, a chemical compound extracted from pills for constipation. It is colorless but turns pink when exposed to alkali such as ammonia and bicarbonate soda and I bought that paper to you and you fell in my pit hole and wrote information you wanted to in morse code. Do you think we still communicate in morse code you brainless arse. I should see your face when bombs blasted right under your ass. At that time I felt all this was worth it and along with you I was also counting down the numbers, 10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1 boom” Aadil suddenly shivered. Ravinder laughed and said “but I counted for blasts that are going to happen under your chair” and he laughed heart-fully. Aadil: “you cheater, I believed you so much, do you even have a heart you scoundrel, you lier” Ravinder: “What you said might be true but again coming to that last one, I never even lied to you. Every time when I said I will serve my country, I never lied. I said that I’m waiting for the time to prove love towards my country when the time came, I proved it. I never told you that my country is Pakistan nor you asked.” And he laughed. Aadil trashed him and sent him to the interrogation center in Sialkot. 

They tortured him and beat him with rods and belts but they were not able to retrieve any information from him. He was prisoned in a cell which is less than 4 feet wide. He was only offered a meal once a day, that too with just two handfuls of rice with spices which a man can’t eat. Today Aadil came again, Aadil: “Ravinder, it’s been two years. You still have the chance, tell us any information about India and about its secret service, and I will set you free.” Ravinder: “I am already free, if I go out from this jail, then I will be truly prisoned.” They tortured him for 6 hours straight even the people who tortured him got fed up. He didn’t utter a word except “from tomorrow increase the spice in the food, you don’t know that we Indians want extra spice.” They tortured him day by day trying many new methods, but Ravinder is as still as a tree. After two years of straight torture, he was moved to Kot Lakhpat and to Mianwali jail. Now Aadil sent a word to his wife and his mother to meet him, hoping that after talking to them, he might change his mind. They both finally came to see him. He was informed that his mother came to see him. He went to the meeting place with a lot of excitement. It has been many years since he saw his mother and now when he looked into her eyes, he couldn’t stop crying. He cried like a baby, reminiscing about his mother and how he used to cry when he was an infant. His mother touched his face from the bars. He groaned with pain, her mother couldn’t control seeing him like that. She cried so much for a long time, she broke her bangles and cursed Pakistanis. She couldn’t identify her own son, he looked as if he was on the verge of starvation. She gathered herself and asked, “how are you, Ravi?” Ravinder laughed and said “I am fine ma ji”. Ma Ji: “Beta, have you seen the news today in the United Nations when Pakistan asked, is it fair for India to deploy a spy in Pakistan’s army? our ambassador denied and they said that they don’t even know anyone named Nabi or Ravinder.” Ravinder with a little smirk and disappointment said, “how could they accept? We should not expect them to, accepting that, would have damaged the integrity of the nation but had I been an American, I would have been out of this jail in three days. I’m not sad that they didn’t rescue me but I will never ever even be named as a servant of the Indian Army.” His mother felt so helpless and cried. She bought a sweet which he likes so much. She secretly fed it to him with her hands and said “beta, who said that you are not recognized, You are a servant but only you and Bharatamata knows it, isn’t that enough and I know it, beta look into my eyes, I am so proud of you!” She gave him sweets as a token of her reward, she saluted him. It just made him so proud and happy. His eyes literally filled with happy tears. Ma Ji: “beta, when I got the letter saying that I should meet you, in that letter they asked me to insist you to surrender and reveal secrets. I was thinking to convince you so that you can come back home. Do you remember the aunty in our street who lost her husband and her two sons? When she came to know this, she came to our house and put a hand on my shoulder and said, “don’t worry at all, he won’t even utter a single word that will harm his country.” That made me still. I thought she barely knew you but she talked with such hubris. How proud should I be, my son has served my country like no other man ever did. Beta I am saying now, don’t say a single word.” she touched his head and cheeks and kissed and removed the Najar. His mother left him but cried with a heavy heart outside the jail. After a few minutes, she left, and when he was about to turn back, from the corner of his eyes he saw a girl in Gurkha. His heart started skipping its beat, his heart beats every time when he see her exactly with the same prevalence when he saw her for the very first time. She removed her Gurkha, looking into her eyes made him forget all of this for a second. He felt like he was standing on the streets of his colony on Eid. Amid all the sounds and lightings of Eid, his world narrowed down, at that moment he could hear his own heartbeat but he came back to reality very soon. Now he couldn’t even face her. Fadila on seeing him felt the same emotion when she came running towards him. Even for her it doesn’t take more than a few seconds to come back to reality. He took Fadila’s hand and kept it on his heart and said “ Jaan do you remember when I said I won’t become a lawyer you asked, will you become a criminal? It seems I am really a criminal now.” Fadial cried out so loud and through the bars she slapped him a few times with a lot of pain that was hidden in her heart all these years. The very next second, her anger obscured and she started crying for hitting him, he already has many wounds all around his face. Ravinder: “Jaan, don’t cry, don’t cry, every hit of yours reminded me of every day when we were together. In fact your hands are so smooth.” fadial: “why? Why? You didn’t at least say to..” Ravinder:“Once I tried to…I almost was about to say but something inside me stopped. Even before I was in love with you, I fell in love with my country and do you know why my heart always beats so fast when I see you? Because every time I see you, it reminds me that I’m lying to you. Except when I am close to you, I forget myself everywhere. When it comes to you, I will always get reminded who I really am. I can’t say sorry because I didn’t do anything wrong but I am sorry because I didn’t tell you this and I can understand that you hate me.” Fadial: “you fool, how can I ever hate you but I do hate you, why you came to my life in the first place. I hate you. I hate you for coming into my life. I really hate you for that but how could I ever hate you my Jaan” listening to that word made his heart melt. She continued, “how could I ever hate you. I love you, I love you Jaan,” he replied, “ I love you too” both laughed and cried at the same time. The bars between them disturbed them so much when they both tried to kiss each other. Fadila: “they asked me to insist you to surrender, but that is entirely up to you. More than anyone else, I know how much you love your country. You always used to say that you wanted to serve your country, at least once I should have asked you the name of the country. Jaan, I missed you and I will miss you my whole life. Do you know how many times I cried remembering you” These words hurt him more than anything he’s seen in all these years in jail? He said, “There is no reason for me to remember you as you never left my thoughts.” They both kissed each other as if it was the last time, but this time both of them know that this will truly be the last time. She left with a heavy heart. His mother gave him an award that is ten times greater than any award he could ever receive. His wife understood him like no one else would in this world. This gave him hope and strength. The next day Aadil came to jail and said, “So what have you decided, you can live with them freely. Why are you bearing all this pain for the government who all together denied your existence?” He showed a newspaper about the Indian denial at the United Nations Conference. After seeing that he said, “Will you really let me go and let me live with my mother and wife?” That one sentence felt like a million dollars for Aadil, he has never been this happy in his entire life. It felt for him like Pakistan winning the world cup and he said, “allah kasam, I will let you go, now say”. Ravinder said, “There is a base where I used to do my groundwork when I am undercover, there are a few files there which might have information that you want to know about Raw and Army.” Aadil felt very happy, he screamed and he left to that base the very next second. They searched every inch but all they found are photographs of Pakistani officials crossed. Aadil saw his own photograph crossed multiple times and it is in the middle of that board. He became very grumpy, he rushed back to the prison and came to Ravinder and asked, “If you didn’t want to say, you should have kept your fucking mouth shut. Why the fuck you did this?” Ravinder replied, “Because I just wanted to see you becoming a fool for one more time you blunt dick. Even amidst all this mess, it’s nice to see that little tail on your back to move as I said”. He moved his fingers left and right as if he was pointing to his tail.

Due to this, he was brutally tortured by cutting his eyelids and private parts so that he could not sleep. They also melted his ears drums with a hot iron rod. They tortured him for years. He hadn’t said a word. Once a guard in his prison told him, “if we have two or three persons like you in our army, we would have destroyed India long back.” After a few years, once Aadil asked, “Why are you suffering this? when your Indian government is doing nothing for you. Why are you doing this?” with a very little voice what he was left with, he said, “I am not abided to the Indian government, I am abided to India.” Aadil: “why you are not saying anything for one stupid name you bounded with, country, what’s so special?” Ravinder felt like he heard this question for the hundredth time, it felt very surprising and at the same time exciting to him to hear this question. He replied, “Aadil I had been asked the exact same question at least a few hundred times in the drama I played and my answer never changed because the country is not made with boundaries it is made with people. I love every one of them. I took an oath that at any cost I will protect my country, that means I will protect each and every one of them at any cost.” Aadil left as usual. Pakistanis instead of killing him, tortured him for months wanting him to beg to kill him. After all this, they said that they will offer peace. They said, “we will kill you for once and you don’t need to suffer just say something, at least a few words,” he replied, ‘JAI HIND’.

This felt very strange and yet fascinating to him, his life is exactly going to end how it has ended in his drama. It is not new to him to die, he died at least a few hundred times. No man in history was ever tortured like that, he doesn’t have his eyelids, it’s been four years since he slept, his nails are always plucked out the next minute they grow, he only has half hair, he is barely a Skeleton with life but his heart is still vibrant and lively as ever. He has suffered from T.B. and asthma for years, and that night water leaked into his cell. It’s a full moon. He could see his face in the reflection of the water. He could barely identify him, he looked at himself in that reflection deep and sharp without blinking and he thought “I know you, you are Ravinder Kaushik, Major of the Indian Army.” And he left his last breath in his cell. 

After knowing this news, sarath Singh pawer cried that whole night but restrained himself and went out to where he can see the Indian flag and said, “Sir, I might have not seen you directly but whenever I see an Indian flag I feel like I am watching straight into your eyes.” He said Jai hind and saluted to the flag. Aadil Khan retired from the service a few months before Ravinder died. When he heard this news, he felt something different, something he never felt before, he felt like he lost a small part of himself, in the dark, on his terrace looking at the moon he said, “Nabi, sorry Ravinder I hate you to my gut I want to kill you with my own hands but I never saw and never will see a soldier like you, regardless which nation you are as a fellow soldier, I salute to you.” He saluted and left from his terrace. 

The only thing the government did after he died was to send his parents some money every month as a pension. The family first got Rs. 500 a month, and after a few years, they began receiving Rs. 2,000 a month — until 2006, when his mother died.

P.S: This is inspired based on the real story of our black tiger, he was really a drama artist. Raw recruited him and he served as a Major in the Pakistan army. Due to him many times our Indian army won many operations and strike-outs. He saved many lives of Indians by sacrificing his life. He is the most-selfless soldier Indian has ever seen. He expected nothing in return. The only thing the government did after he died was to send his parents some money every month as a pension until they died. He was tortured brutally for 16 years but failed to get any information about Indian Intelligence. His name is RAVINDER KAUSHIK, the greatest agent RAW has ever produced. 

Let us salute him and many other unsung real heroes like him on this independence day.