Jewel-less Crown - Saga of life BS Murthy ISBN 81-901911-6-0 copyright © 2004 BS Murthy This improved E-book edition of 2013 Cover design by GDC creative advertising (p) ltd., Hyderabad –500 080 with the watercolor painting of Mr. Niranajn Self Imprint F-9, Nandini Mansion, 1-10-234, Ashok nagar, Hyderabad – 500 020 Other books by BS Murthy Benign Flame: Saga of Love Crossing the Mirage- Passing through youth Glaring Shadow - A stream of consciousness novel Prey on the Prowl - A Crime Novel Stories Varied – A Book of Short Stories Onto the stage - Slighted Souls ...Read More

Chapter 2 Trauma at Tihar When Suresh Prabhu was produced before the metropolitan magistrate, he appeared disjointed. was the day after his arrest, and as he looked traumatized, Vijay Mehrotra sprang up with alacrity. Seizing the chance to corner the prosecution, he accused the police of having tortured Suresh to extort that incriminating admission. And in the end, he dubbed the confessional statement as but a dubious document. Whatever, as the indicted appeared incoherent, and since Rawal too showed no inclination for his continued detention, the magistrate sent Suresh on remand to Tihar. Though Gautam pulled the strings ...Read More

Chapter 3 Mind of the Maligned While Suresh turned to God in the gaol, Mehrotra answered his in his study. As Gautam gave him a blank cheque, Mehrotra began to lay the path for Suresh’s acquittal. Having tutored Suresh about the nuances in retracting his statement in the court, the learned lawyer had outlined the line of the defense during the impending trial. The accused was made privy to the fact that with befitting bait, the Swaroops were caught in the defense web to become hostile witnesses in the court. That would help the defense to portray the ...Read More

Chapter 4 Twist at Tees Hazari The concerned and the curious alike thronged to the gates of Hazari to witness the trial of the Mehrauli Murder Case. As the doors were thrown open that morning, everyone jostled to reach the designated courtroom for a vantage position. The crowd was seemingly dying to see the accused and his mother. Partly addressing their curiosity, Gautam walked in with a posse of lawyers led by Mehrotra. As they took much of the front row, the gathering, though felt let down by Sneha’s absence, looked forward to Suresh’s arrival with bated breath. ...Read More

Chapter 5 Trial in Camera With Paranjape’s plea for a trial in camera began the post-lunch proceedings the Judge’s chambers. He averred that the witness was entailed to have her identity as well as her deposition kept by the court away from the public. After all, he said, on her own, the witness had come forward to help the cause of justice and thus serve the public interest. Besides, he alerted the court about the delicate nature of her testimony and the likely embarrassment the cross-examination could cause her. Having considered Paranjape’s pleas on merits and as Mehrotra ...Read More

Chapter 6 Dilemma of Qualms On their way back to his place in Gautam’s Rolls Royce, Mehrotra mad with Suresh for undoing his hard work. “Didn’t he handle the ball on 99?” he said with irritation. “How are we to make the umpire look the other way?” said Gautam feeling helpless. “Justice Sumitra is known to err on the side of the accused,” said Mehrotra pondering over the turn of events. “But what can be done when your son wants to hang himself?” “Hide the rope,” said Gautam characteristically. “Oh, how I’ve put my prestige on the line,” ...Read More

Chapter 7 Moment of Reckoning ‘What a life it has been!’ Sneha found herself thinking after Dr. had left. ‘Oh, how it had shadowed my son’s life! Can I ever look into his eyes which witnessed all that? Why was I not dead before I came to know of that? It’s okay that others might smell rat of my peccadilloes but, oh, to be object of my son's voyeurism, why wasn’t I wary when he grew up? How sad my carelessness buggered his psyche and ruined his life as well! Were he to be hanged, won’t I be ...Read More

Chapter 8 End within the End When Gautam woke up to Sneha's death in dismay, impelled by paradoxical togetherness, he felt like following suit. But as the love of life infused hope in him, the pity he felt for her made him guilty, letting him wonder whether he deserved to live at all. And that made him feel remorseful no end. ‘Having pulled her into my life, oh, how did I push her towards her death?’ he cried in pain. ‘Why did I seduce her soul with the lure of the lucre? Didn’t she pay the price for ...Read More

Chapter 9 Vestiges of Prestige Once upon a time, the hollowed stock of the Prabhus was an lot in Amalapuram. While their palatial bungalow seemed unending, their landholding once covered the tehasil itself. It was into that ancient clan with the renowned surname that Gautam was born. At the time of his birth, his great-grandfather happened to be the head of that undivided family of six siblings. As was the wont of the gentry of his generation, he was a man of leisure and his brothers too were equally unoccupied. However, unlike their ancestors, the siblings had to ...Read More

Chapter 10 High on Rebound In his search for someone better than the one who had spurned Gautam rejected match after match. Well, as his eyes were in search of Mallika’s replica in the prospective bride, no match matched the lost one. But as it dawned on him soon enough that it was far easier to boast than to bring it about, he felt doubly shattered. And yet, as he kept nursing the slight he felt, his hurt ego ensured that he sustained his resolve to get even with those who humiliated him. When Sneha brought some schoolchildren ...Read More

Chapter 11 Bellows of Delhi But, once in Delhi, the Gautams felt like fish out of water. smell of the place, full of airs put on by all and sundry put them off. While the superciliousness of the educated irked them, the arrogant ignorance of the rest puzzled them. The intellectual apathy of the Delhi-wallahs that tended to collage all the South Indians as Madrasees irritated them. The bigotry of the cow belt characters in equating the Indianness with Hindi-speaking hurt their own sense of belonging. They were nonplussed at the naivety of the North Indian milieu that ...Read More

Chapter 12 Dicing with Life It was the fears of the powers that be that gave Gautam idea of manipulating them for furthering his personal growth and to develop the mechanism of success he resorted to the SWOT analysis. Didn’t he have a dashing demeanor with a handsome look and a progressive outlook? His pushy nature and easy manner would come in handy too. Moreover, didn’t he imbibe the drive to succeed? Wouldn’t his capacity for hard work sustain his drive? Why, they were all his unquestionable strengths, which form the core values to make it big in ...Read More

Chapter 13 Spidering Spadework In his quest for success, Gautam had realized that one needs either to a pioneer or propped up by a godfather to make it big in life. And in the democratic India who would be better godfather than a senior minister? Thus, Gautam thought of pioneering means to win over a minister. Realizing that Mohan Kumar Mishra’s relatives were a favored lot at the department, Gautam lost no time in cracking the whip on them. When they tried to bribe their way out, he trumped them with the honesty card. Finding him a hindrance, ...Read More

Chapter 14 Loss to Order Though the Gautams managed to cross the threshold of middle-class meagerness, their lifestyle began to tell upon them. By then, Sneha too had a Fiat of her own to have the thrill of being at the steering. But, as she had to crisscross the city to help Sneha Travels, soon she developed weariness for driving. Insensibly, Gautam too was himself caught in the web of the spidering spadework that he came to build. Thus, he could hardly make it home before midnight. What with Sneha too keeping late hours at her office, their ...Read More

Chapter 15 Daring the Fate Having catered to Sneha’s whims on Ocean Organics, Gautam began to address fancies about Global Facilitators. Losing no time, he looked around for a couple of soon-to-retire bureaucrats likely to retain their post-retirement influence. And in Mahendra Khanna, the dashing Foreign Secretary, and Sundar Manian, a veteran at the PMO, Gautam found the men who could add value to his venture. Hijacking them as they stepped out of the portals of power, Gautam had put in his papers. Leasing a cozy space at the Connaught Place, he got an exotic touch to its ...Read More

Chapter 16 Victims of Deceit Gautam’s gambit sent shock waves across the Atlantic. The US fertilizers major, Chemicals Inc., became jittery over the Dutch breakthrough. They saw in Kassenbouw's entry into the captive Indian market the beginning of the end of their global monopoly. And it seemed ironical to them that an unheard of Global Facilitators should bring about that! So to safeguard their interests, Continental sought to turn the tables on the Dutch. Thus, the US leader abetted their Indian agent to rope in someone from Global to sabotage the Dutch. Meanwhile, Manian’s envious nature ensured that ...Read More

Chapter 17 Baring the Soul When Gautam was done with his painful confession, time seemed to have to a standstill to witness the interactive silence of the tormented father and his penitent son. Soon, as if pushed by a synchronous urge for solitude, they both rose to their feet. And avoiding eye contact, they moved to their own portions in Misty Nest. Lightened by his confession as Gautam reached his room to pray for Sneha’s soul, an insatiate Suresh made a U-turn to her quarter to know more about his mother. As Suresh reached the threshold tentatively, her ...Read More

Chapter 18 Garland of Guilt Soon, under the shadows of Sneha’s death, Suresh’s trial was on course the Tees-Hazari. At the behest of the defense, the hearing recommenced in camera to avoid further damage to the dead woman’s image. Sneha’s suicide note and Dr. Gupta’s testimony insensibly tilted the needle of sympathy in Suresh’s favor. Paranjape too felt it would be heartless to press for the exemplary punishment. Arguments over, Justice Sumitra reserved her judgment and adjourned the court. ‘What was the trial all about?’ Sumitra found herself contemplating that night. ‘Are rapes and murder the only issues ...Read More

Book Two - Dharma ‘n Moksha Episode 1 Bliss of Being Gautam’s search for a guru ended Annavaram. When he reached Vanaprastham there, he was disappointed to learn that Sripada Swami, the seer of the ashram, was in mauna vratam. And the ashramites advised Gautam to make good the time at Satyanarayana Swami’s temple. Thus, climbing up the steps to the hilltop temple of the Lord of Annavaram, he felt he visualized the aura of bhakti before swamiji showed him the light of knowledge. The next day, Gautam got the audience of the swamiji. Baring his troubled soul to the ...Read More

Episode 2 Collage of Crime Lodged at the Tihar as a lifer, Suresh had realized that the he got would come to naught if he were to carry the baggage of guilt well into his life. Thus, he resolved to put the sins of his past and the psyche of the noose behind him. But, he never forgot Sneha’s last wish that he should make a difference to himself and to the society around him. Having owed his life to her death, he felt he owed it to her to fulfill her wish. As he understood the enormity ...Read More

Episode 3 Domain of the Devil When at length, Suresh was finding his moorings at Tihar; Subba was brought in to a near stampede there. Why not, the whole nation knew him by then as the man who had pricked at the Premier’s face. When Suresh enquired what the fuss was all about, Rau said it was but a ‘literary coup’. Probed by Suresh for an account, Rau unfolded the story of his life and times as an unpublished writer. In his mid-forties, Rau was seized with an urge to bring himself onto the fictional stage. So to ...Read More

Episode 4 Renaissance of Life Stirred by Subba Rau’s intellectualism, Suresh pondered over his right to live having snuffed out Shanti's life. ‘What does my killing her really mean?’ he thought. ‘By ending her life what I deprived her were the possibilities of life. Oh, the poor thing, what dreams she might have had and what life would have offered her! How happy she would have made her man and their children! Who knows what difference she would have made to the people around her? Why wouldn’t she have enriched the society at large and contributed to the ...Read More

Episode 5 Sprouts of Love Following Suresh with her eyes, Vidya thought about swamiji’s benign gesture to that she had heard about. She felt that swamiji’s regard for guruji’s prodigal son vindicated her own position. She recalled that day when swamiji briefed her about the life and times of Suresh. How even before she could recover from the shock of what she had heard, swamiji placed Suresh’s photograph before her! And didn’t he ask her to make Suresh’s story privy to every inmate of the Shanti Sadan! How impressed she was with what she saw of him in ...Read More

Episode 6 Despair of Hope Pushed by the import of his own photograph, Suresh landed in right bed in seven years. But, before his body could grasp the creature comforts, his mind was gripped by despair. So sleep deserted him for the first time in many years. It didn’t take long for him to realize that the fondness he felt for Vidya was the sign of his love for her. Notwithstanding the concern she showed for him, he couldn’t bring himself to think she could be in love with him. The thought that she knew about his past ...Read More

Episode 7 Turn at the Bend Rama Rao came from a respected family that lived by imagery of its past glory. By the time he got his Fellowship of Arts, his father had thrown in the towel over his ambitions for a degree in the same. Courtesy his surname, which was still a currency then, he became a clerk in the Registrar’s Office at the Andhra University. The parental pressure to marry his maternal cousin was mounted soon enough to push in Rama Devi into his disappointed life. Much before he could reconcile to his fate that robbed ...Read More

Episode 8 Amity of Empathy Next morning, when the creeping hot rays woke up Suresh, he the door to thank the sun for the wake-up call. But, finding Vidya loitering in the lawn, he felt embarrassed. When he apologized profusely, she smiled her pardon in all sweetness. Ascertaining his preference for tea over coffee, she went to fetch him some steaming Laoji carrying the picture of him in his kurta and pajamas. And he couldn’t but help glue his eyes on her leggy frame accentuated by its shapely bottom. When she went out of his view, supplanting his ...Read More

Episode 9 A Day to Remember The wedding that the whole of Annavaram talked about for took place at sunrise that day in the precincts of the hilltop temple. In their numbers, the ashramites of Vanaprastham and the inmates of Shanti Sadan gathered there to grace the occasion. The beauty of the pair at the mandap ensured that the devotees present watched the proceedings from the sidelines. Above all, the rare presence of the seer Sripada Swami at the wedding caused a near stampede. Under the guruji’s benevolent gaze and amidst the Vedic chants of the temple priests ...Read More

Episode 10 Spirituality of Materialism As if in appreciation of Suresh's anticipation, the Captain soon released landing gear over Palam. Once out, they got into the waiting Ambassador. On the way to Defense Colony, Vidya was dazzled by the glitter of New Delhi in the neon lighting. In time, they reached their Misty Nest with their dreams of making it their sweet home. And as the guard on duty threw the gates wide open in warm welcome, she readily stepped out into the portico, only to be mystified by the sight of her home in the making. “Isn’t ...Read More

Episode 11 Sense of Reincarnation Letting Vidya have a view of the classrooms of love, Suresh her round Misty Nest. “How I wish guruji joins us,” she said as they entered Gautam’s room. “I did talk to him about it, but he wants to be left alone,” he said, and added mysteriously, “but I see a way to entice him back into our midst.” “How?” she asked playing the innocent. “I know you’re no babe,” he said smiling, “at least after that.” “Why lose time?” she pushed him towards his room. “Who would like to,” he pulled her ...Read More

Epilogue Over time, with the assorted pursuits of the Prabhu clan, as they came to be known time, Misty Nest became a beehive of activity. Gautam, in his new avatar in New Delhi, came to be revered as Gautam guru for his erudition and piety. And to attune the old to the new world, he conceived a home for the aged. And to obliterate its past stigma, he chose their Mehrauli House, renamed Gautam Home, for its premises. While conducting dharmic discourse at Misty Nest, he tended the aged at ‘Gautam Home’ with equal felicity. Feeling equally at ...Read More