The gangster's lost honour

Written by Nanda Nair

Manoj is an Indian gangster. Not the one that you find in movies, someone worse than that. His body count is 15 but no one has ever been able to catch him. Because he knows to hide in places that won’t cross anyone’s wildest brains. That’s how smart he is.

But Manoj is not a name that a gangster possesses. So he decided to change. No, he didn’t do any of the formal proceedings. He just changed it. Like how you change an infant’s diapers. It was that easy for him. Now he is Gangdedar Bhajpai. Sounds cool, doesn’t it? Well, he is aware of that, else why would he change his former name to this cool name that no one, absolutely no one possesses.

The town feared his footsteps. They weren’t even steps, they were thuds. The country had look-out notice pasted on all walls that had, “stick no bills” caution. His family loathed the sight of him. His kid who wasn’t born in wedlock ran away with a puny gangster named Bhaldeep. To safeguard his honor, Manoj, oh sorry, Gangdedar shot right in between his eyebrows. And then he smirked at the sight of his daughter’s wails. That’s how bad Gangdedar is. No one can stand him. Absolutely no one!

Nevertheless, gangdedar dwelled in constant fear of having his biggest secret revealed. In spite of being the don of dons, he loved teddy bears!!! Imagine a ferocious gangster like Gangdedar having a soft corner for teddy bears. Of course, he couldn’t go to the supermarket and buy one. So when the world slept, he would go dig the garbage, hoping to find at least a rugged teddy bear. And he did find a lot for his credit. Now finding wasn’t the difficult part, hiding it was. Hiding it in such a way that he could still play with it when no one was around. That was hard, but he still managed to do it.

On a Monday in the year 1984, when the craze for teddy bears was kind of high, he went down the 24th lane, where there were piles of garbage, that if you are really determined, you can even find an intact laptop, used only for a day- but determination and consistency is the key.

So at 2 am, when everyone was asleep, he decided to collect his 100th teddy bear, all of which he hides in the secret chamber, under his bed in the 22nd lane. He was excited! Frisky as a squirrel and convinced that absolutely no one will catch him searching for teddy bears, he proceeded his search. And to his surprise, he could find one easily with a quarter of the time he would have used earlier.

Once during his rummaging, he had to wrestle a dog, because the poor thing was the first to pick it up. And during the fight, he yeeted the tiny thing, only to be caught at the right time by another stranger. Unable to withstand his own anger, he launched himself towards the man and hit up hard, until the man kicked Gangdedar’s gonads, out of self-defense. Fortunately, the man ran away to the wilderness, forever, afraid the gangster would catch him one day. It’s said that the man is living happily with the rescued dog.

Happy, that he was able to find a teddy bear, so quickly, he shoved it into his large, thick parka.

“That’s mine”

A squeaky voice called out.

With a tough glare, Gangdedar stared at the little girl, who was the sole possessor of the voice.

His look instilled fear in her and she knew immediately that it was the long-sought-after villain: Gangdedar Bajpai.

“Buahahahaha…. This *was* yours!!! Now it isn’t!” Gangdedar roared.

Churning the embarrassment about the fact that a little girl is aware of his soft corner, he flicked a stone right at the girl’s temple.

She started sobbing.

“Get away you tiny thing!!!”

“Please uncle, please, it’s from my dad’s savings…. If I don’t get it, he is going to bash me. I lost it on the way to school. Had been searching for it, ever since evening. Please return it!”

“If you wish to die immediately….. KEEP ON WHINING!”

“My dad is abusive. He will hit me hard for wasting his money”, the 8-year-old went on sobbing.

Suddenly the bushes moved, a flashlight!

“Who is it? Who is there?!” Gangdedar yelled.

The bush stopped moving. Gangdedar walked towards the creepers. The thorns drawing bloody lines on his legs were not a matter of concern for him.

“I wonder who it was,” he thought out loud.

“Uncle…..” the girl was still crying.

“Move away!” pushing the girl so hard that she fell down, he found his way back home.

Slowly tip-toeing into his room, he opened up the secret chamber and hid the 100th teddy bear. Then he took out a blue one from the lot and proceeded to move outside the house. Amongst the thick green bushes, he had made a small bed for himself. Hugging the bear tight, he slept there soundly. He would wake up early in the morning and would go back home to replace the bear back into its original position.

“Gangdedar saheb!!!! Gangdedar saheb!!!! Where are you???” it was the newspaperman. He was early that day because it was a holiday the day before. So the print was quick.

Gangdedar was asleep. The search for the teddy bear wasn’t the one that tired him, it was the walk of 6 kilometers.

Hearing the yell, he woke up with a shook. Immediately he realized that the teddy was beside him. He needs to hide it as soon as possible.

“For now, I will just hide it among the bushes.”

Emerging out of the thick bushes, like a devil in a huge coat, gangdedar appeared before the mailman.

“WHAT’S THE YELL ABOUT?!” he *yelled* at the mailman.

With quivering hands, he handed over the newspaper to gangdedar.

In spite of living in a remote village, a brat managed to take a photo of him.

But it wasn’t a picture of him curling his mustache or him kicking someone’s testicles.

Gangdedar sweated.

This couldn’t be true!!!!

This cannot be true!!!!

Is there any point in living anymore?!

Body counts don’t matter anymore.

No matter how many men he kicks or kills or stabs to death,

He will always be remembered as the “Gangster with the teddy bear”!