Notion Press Media Pvt Ltd

No. 50, Chettiyar Agaram Main Road,Vanagaram, Chennai, Tamil Nadu – 600 095

First Published by Notion Press 2021Copyright © I.V.J. Pradeep, Ravi Sarvepalli, Aparna Gattupalli,

Aditya Karthic Inapurapu, Srijata Ray Inapurapu 2021All Rights Reserved.

ISBN 978-1-63886-603-9

This book has been published with all efforts taken to make the material error-free after the consent of the author’s. However, the author’s and the publisher do not assume and hereby disclaim any liability to any party for any loss, damage, or disruption caused by errors or omissions, whether such errors or omissions result from negligence, accident, or any other cause.

While every effort has been made to avoid any mistake or omission, this publication is being sold on the condition and understanding that neither the author nor the publishers or printers would be liable in any manner to any person by reason of any mistake or omission in this publication or for any action taken or omitted to be taken or advice rendered or accepted on the basis of this work. For any defect in printing or binding the publishers will be liable only to replace the defective copy by another copy of this work then available.

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Contents

Preface .............................................................................................7

About Us .........................................................................................9

Acknowledgments ..........................................................................11

Prologue .........................................................................................13

Strange Happenings .................................................................... 17

Mystery Deepens ........................................................................ 19

Double Trouble ............................................................................ 25

Kamatchi Craze ........................................................................... 32

News on Fire ................................................................................ 34

Mystery, Magic and Miracles ...................................................... 37

The Beginning of the End ........................................................... 42

The Truth is Out There ............................................................... 50

Cat is Still in the Bag ................................................................... 54

Mystico ........................................................................................ 58

Friends for Life ............................................................................ 63

Act of God .................................................................................... 66

Return to the East ....................................................................... 71

Death Knocks .............................................................................. 76

Kamatchi, Kamatchi ................................................................... 80

The Python Propaganda ............................................................. 86

Contents

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Hunt Begins ................................................................................. 93

Digital Djangos – The Beginning ............................................... 98

First Seeds of Trouble ............................................................... 105

European Connection ............................................................... 114

Lights, Camera, Action ............................................................. 119

At Your Service, Mr. pm. ........................................................... 125

Welcome Back Ty ....................................................................... 127

Love, Hope and Faith ................................................................ 131

The Truce ................................................................................... 137

Fear is the Key ........................................................................... 140

Delhi Chalo ................................................................................ 145

Tiger, Tiger ................................................................................ 155

Digital Djangos in Action ......................................................... 163

Chidambara Ragasiyam ............................................................ 177

Of Jammers and More .............................................................. 185

Happenings at Chidambaram ................................................... 189

Finding the Impossible ............................................................. 197

Light at the End of the Tunnel ................................................. 201

Four Needles in a Haystack ...................................................... 204

From the Frying Pan into the Fire ........................................... 209

The Mother of All Heists .......................................................... 214

Agony and Ecstasy .................................................................... 217

Curtain Call ............................................................................... 221

Wait is Over ............................................................................... 230

All is Well, That Ends Well ........................................................ 234

17

1

Strange Happenings

Chennai, with all its glory as a jewel city on the map of southern India, was settling down for the night.

At midnight, Armenian Street was badly lit. Dark shadows fell across the walls otherwise littered with cinema posters. Not a soul on the roads.

Constable Senthil was on his rounds for the second time in Parrys, his designated beat area when he happened to see the unexpected. A big orangutan was walking at a fast pace on the road. “My God, what’s this? Have the wild animals started coming into city roads?” Senthil got scared. He remembered his family sleeping peacefully at home and the face of his beautiful wife Bhagyam. Without being seen by the huge ape, Senthil hid himself behind a parked auto. The orangutan took a right turn into Thambu Chetty Street and vanished into the darkness.

On the other side of Chennai in Madipakkam, milkman Peethambaram woke up at 2:30 a.m. He had to go to his job at Aavin—a government-owned organization that sells milk through its network of booths. His job is to get there by 3:30 a.m. to pick up milk packets on behalf of his regular customers and start deliveries from 4:30 a.m. and complete the task by 5:30 a.m. This is his daily schedule. He looked out

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of the window. Streetlights were on. But something caught his attention. The silhouette of a female donning a white saree appeared outside suddenly. She was wearing jasmine flowers in her hair and the anklets she wore made a scary noise. She was floating and her feet were not clearly visible. He got the scare of his life. He jumped back into his bed and closed his eyes tightly. Quickly he fell into sleep once again forgetting his customers who would be waiting for the milk packets.

Munuswamy, the conservation worker, stood at Adyar Bus stand waiting for the bus that would take him to his duty area. The time was 4:30 a.m. and still, pitch dark all around. It was quite scary for him to stand all alone, amidst pin-drop silence. As he looked around, he saw a giant-size crocodile moving stealthily from the Malar Hospital side. It came onto the road and started moving in the direction of the bus stop where Munu was standing. As jitters ran all through his body, he turned around and started running toward the cancer hospital side. He did not stop and continued to run like in a marathon.

Balu, the paperboy, usually had T.Nagar as his territory. He knew this area very well and usually started with Bazullah Road to drop the daily newspapers. He drove an old moped and said to himself “Today I am running late.” It was six in the morning. As he turned into Usman Road bend, he was too stunned to move further. In front of him stood an Anaconda-size python, a huge reptile, very repulsive, and spitting fire from its fangs. As fear gripped Balu, he lost consciousness and fell along with his bike on the road.

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2

Mystery Deepens

Sub-Inspector Thirumurthy was staring steadily into the eyes of Senthil in B1 North Beach Police Station, Chennai. Senthil had just finished his night-beat and was standing in front of his SI trembling. “I don’t believe this,” screamed Thirumurthy referring to the narration of the ‘orangutan’ episode. “Are you drinking on the job?” continued the SI. “If you were a smart policeman, you would have recorded it on your phone. I do not know how some people without common sense get selected into the police force. Do not ever come back with such baseless stories. I do not have time for such teenage pranks.”

As per his normal routine, Senthil arrived home for his morning nap to the welcoming smile of his wife Bhagyam. He was still trembling, and his hands were wobbling holding the roll of jasmine flowers and a small packet of Tirunelveli halwa1 that he typically brought for his wife, every now and then. As he lay down with a disturbed mind, struggling to sleep, he heard a slow whisper of a gruff voice, which could not be identified as male or female, continuously muttering “Kamatchi…Kamatchi.”

He sat up startled and unconsciously screamed “Kamatchi!” in a loud voice. His wife came running and yelled “What is happening

1. Sweet preparation

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to you? Who is this Kamatchi? Another woman in our life already? Oh my God, what wrong did I do…?”

Senthil waved at her and told her to fetch a glass of cold water and had her sit next to him and he narrated the happenings since the previous night. She calmed down and said, “Oh! You poor thing. I know You just got a promotion in your job and all our relatives have evil eyes. People are jealous of you.” She ran and came back with a fistful of rock salt in her left hand, rolled in front of his face three times, applied some Vibhuti2 to his forehead and asked him to go back to sleep, as she made all his favorite items for lunch.

He drifted into a nap briefly and there it was in his dream—a green-black orangutan face with evil blue eyes along with the slow muttering of “Kamatchi… Kamatchi” in the background. The orangutan commanded him to come to the corner of Thambu Chetty Street & Mannady Street the following midnight or die a horrible death. Once again, Senthil woke up startled with a sweaty forehead and shaky hands. He swallowed hard two or three times and quickly downed the glass of water next to him and breathed heavily. “…Something is happening. What to do now? Whom to talk to?” he thought, recollecting the screams of his SI and superstitious utterings of his innocent wife.

As he lifted his head, TV news was on and they were reporting an accident in T Nagar where a paperboy dropped unconscious on the road, got hit by a passing bus and was being rushed to the hospital in an emergency. The reporting news anchor said that the boy was continuously muttering “Kamatchi” all through the ambulance ride and was asking the viewers that anyone with that name related to the boy should immediately come to the Chennai General Hospital. Later it was reported that the boy was

2. Sacred Ash - to ward off evil

Mystery Deepens

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found dead on arrival in the hospital. News continued that there were citywide protests about this paper boy’s death, accusing the government of the slow response that killed the boy, who otherwise could have been saved. Senthil got worried even more. His stomach was churning, and his thoughts were going astray—should he call in sick or rush to his childhood friend Ramadurai and seek solace? The face of his innocent wife Bhagyam repeatedly flashed in front of him along with a deep worry about her safety and future. He closed his eyes secretly praying to all his favorite Gods for protection. As his mind continued to wander aimlessly, he recollected the dialogue of his idol—Rajinikanth as ‘Aditya Arunasalam’ in ‘Durbar’ movie—“Police is not a job. We live to protect. We die to serve.” He also recollected how his ‘thalaivar’ (Tamil word for leader/head) tamed supernatural spirits in the ‘Chandramukhi’ movie. A sudden simmering of hormones and a new wave of inspiration jostled him. He stood up slowly and did an army salute to the wall in front where pictures of the Indian flag and his favorite God Anjaneya were next to each other.

“Yes. I will go tonight and confront that monster,” he asserted to himself. “God is with me and my thalaivar inspires me. I will prove myself to my SI,” he said to himself and set his phone in the charger to prepare for the night ahead.

Nightfall came, Senthil finished his daily chores of showering, performing puja3, speaking the language of love in silence with his dear wife by gazing into her solemn eyes, who in turn, ritualistically reminded him about the meal box in his bag for a midnight snack. With the sinister shadow of the orangutan hanging in his mind and the uncomfortable echo of ‘Kamatchi’ resonating, Senthil stoically stepped out of the house.

3. A Hindu ritual, worshipping God

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Earlier, Senthil requested his longtime friend in the police force Thambidurai to back him up that night, to which he willfully agreed. The two of them had a mutually beneficial relationship and leaned on each other’s shoulders at the time of needs like small loan handouts when there was financial stress or by providing emotional support when life events happened, happy or sad alike.

At midnight, Senthil asked Thambidurai to watch his regular route and cautiously walked toward the intersection of Thambu Chetty Street & Mannady Street ready to capture the monster’s image live on his phone camera. The street was nearly deserted with a couple of shabby guys smoking on the sidewalk and a rag picker sleeping in a corner. Stray dogs were running sniffing everything in their way. Suddenly a jingling noise started which started to grow louder and a beautiful female form dressed in white started walking down the street toward Senthil. He was flabbergasted as he was expecting a gory orangutan and was witnessing this beautiful woman instead. As she got closer and he could see her features better, he took out his camera and started recording. Stray dogs started barking loudly pointing their snoots toward the direction of that white female figure. Other guys present in that street continued to smoke and laugh as if nothing was happening around. The female figure appeared to be waving at Senthil and faded out in a few minutes. Senthil quickly tried to replay the recording and it only showed the barking dogs and smoking guys and the white female figure was not captured. Alas! Disappointed, Senthil waited there for another hour expecting that orangutan might come. He returned and relieved Thambidurai and slumped on a bench on the sidewalk deeply lost in thought about the new happenings.

The last assignment of that night shift on that day was to provide early morning security detail for City Police Commissioner,

Mystery Deepens

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Thillai Pandian who used to come to Marina Beach for his morning exercise. As Senthil was driving in that direction, he heard a blotter on the police radio that a woman’s dead body was washed ashore on Marina Beach and anyone knowing Telugu should come there immediately.

Due to his father’s job, as a young boy, Senthil grew up in a town called Naidupeta in Nellore district, just past the Tamil Nadu-Andhra Pradesh state border and knew some basic Telugu.

Later, the family moved back to their native Chennai. So, Senthil responded to the police call and rushed to the spot where a young woman’s body was lying in the sand.

From the description of the police, she was dressed up like a bride, with a pattu sari, lots of jewelry and a big swirl of jasmine flowers bedecked in her hair. Those flowers had not even withered yet. There was blood from the neck area with the body covered by police cloth up to her head.

The investigating officer gently pulled the covering cloth on her down to her navel and asked Senthil to look at her left forearm tattoo and translate what was written there in Telugu into Tamil. Senthil looked at it and was alarmed to see that it was ‘Kamatchi’ written in Telugu. He knew that it is not common usage in Telugu to write ‘Kamatchi’ as Telugus write it as ‘Kamakshi’. He slowly looked at her face. He was in for another sticker shock as her face resembled the face of the woman he saw on Thambu Chetty Street several hours ago. Her neck had claw marks as if she were attacked by an animal and was still bleeding. Forensic and ambulance workers were briskly going about their duty executing the next steps.

Senthil looked at the Bay of Bengal in front and it appeared to be status quo indifferent of earthly happenings. At that time of the

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morning, beyond the sea, far away, there was the horizon line separating a large dark swatch of darkness in the bottom and a slowly emerging orange glow on the top. As the orange glow got brighter it would vanquish the darkness and truth in its best form would shine soon, thought Senthil as he hurriedly headed home to see his wife.

Speculative news reports were flashing that the woman’s death on Marina Beach was not a murder for robbery as her jewelry remained intact and there were no signs of sexual assault. Clues were emerging with strange happenings in the city, some related and some not.

However, truth continued to be evasive posing an active challenge to human intelligence in its best form.

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3

Double Trouble

Munuswamy was running as fast as his feet could carry him. His heart was pounding so hard as if it would come into his mouth. He was too scared to turn his head around and look at the crocodile, but he could hear its massive footsteps. Just then his phone rang continuously. He answered the call while running.

“What Munsamee, where are you?” “Why didn’t you come in the bus today?”

“What happened? Seems like you are running. Are you Ok?” It was his colleague Moorthy. Both traveled together in their department staff bus that operated on a fixed schedule.

Munu replied, “No, I’m not ok.” He panted for a second, “Moorthy, seems like they have come to know everything. My game is finished. They will not spare me, and after me, it would be you. So, run. Run away to save your life.” He paused for a second. Then in a low tone, he said, “Moorthy, it is the crocodile. The crocodile is after me.”

Saying so, he cut the phone and thought, “I’ll climb on to the compound wall of this building. It has sharp spikes fixed. So, the crocodile cannot climb.” He turned back to see how far away the crocodile was. But it was just only an inch away! He was startled

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and fainted on the road and the mobile in his hand fell beside him. It was 5 in the morning. Early hours of dawn.

Radhika just woke up and was flipping through her cell with a cup of strong frothy hot filter coffee. She could smell the wonderful aroma of filter coffee brewing in the kitchen. Besides, a mild smell of incense came floating through the air. “Patti4 is so regular with her puja5,” she thought. She leaned over the balcony, sipping her coffee. Precisely at that moment, she saw a man running as if something was chasing him, he tried to climb their compound wall, turned back and fell. She could not see whatever was after him.

“Appa6, Appa,” she screamed, “Someone is trying to break into our compound. But he fell down and fainted.”

“Must be some thief,” Grandmother replied. “Yesterday one fellow was eyeing our building. Call the police.”

The police spotted that a guy was lying on the road. They looked around and found his phone. Immediately they picked up the phone and saw the last dialed number. It was to Moorthy. They called Moorthy, but no reply. The call was not answered. Munuswamy’s ID card showed that he was a government worker. Munuswamy was shifted to the hospital.

Moorthy’s face turned pale. He asked the driver to stop the bus. “My head is swirling. Someone is whispering ‘Kamatchi, Kamatchi’ in a gruff tone in my ears.” Saying so, he got down and started running. He saw a massive crocodile approaching him fast. His heart stopped beating. He passed away.

4. Grandmother5. Hindu ritual for worshipping God6. Father

Double Trouble

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Adyar Police Station SI called the Crocodile Bank. “Hello, Mr. Rajan. This is Adyar Police Station J2, SI calling. Has any of your inmates escaped from the conservation park?” he asked.

“No Sir, all our animals are in their habitat.”

“Anyway, send your officers for combing operations. Right now, we do not know whether two crocodiles are roaming or only one.” The SI was seriously contemplating,

“While one person mumbled semi-consciously that a crocodile tried to catch him, another person passed away while trying to run away from the reptile. Why didn’t it get at them?” These questions need to be answered.

“Mr. Rajan, I have given you the details of both the cases. Can a crocodile cover that distance in such a short duration, or are there two crocodiles out? “

“Sir, the time difference between the call from Mr. Munuswamy to Moorthy and Moorthy’s death is seven minutes. So, it is possible that the same crocodile could have attacked both. They take giant leaps.”

“Anyway, please send your officers quickly. The public is at risk”

By evening Munu regained consciousness but felt weak. Slowly the happenings of the wee hours were being recollected by him. He turned his head toward TV news.

The news anchor was reading “Good evening. This evening’s headlines. Strange things are happening on the royal roads of Chennai. Today a person named Moorthy, a government employee died running on the road. While he was shouting “Help! Help! The crocodile is after me,” he ran frantically as if a giant crocodile was behind him and stood petrified and died. As there are no marks of a crocodile’s jaw or any animal attack,

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doctors say that it could be a cardiac arrest. This is a matter of serious concern as the reptile may be hiding and attacking any other civilian too. Residents of Adyar are requested not to step out of their houses until forest authorities complete their combing operation.”

“Oh my God! Moorthy is no more! What an unfortunate thing!” Munuswamy thought sadly.

Meanwhile, in Adyar J2 Police Station, the two police officers were talking. “Sir, we checked the records. These two fellows Moorthy and Munuswamy are not simple people. They are type-one thieves, Sir. They steal animal products from the Crocodile Bank and trade them off for extremely high prices. Maybe they know something about these huge animals attacking our city.”

The station SI got a call from the hospital. He had already instructed them that as soon as Munuswamy regained consciousness, he must be informed. This was a call regarding that. That Munuswamy has regained consciousness. So, he immediately left for the hospital.

“Munuswamy, tell us, what is all this? What is happening in this city? You seem to be knowing something.”

“Sir I don’t know anything. One day early morning one crocodile tried to attack me. That’s all, Sir”

“Come on, Munuswamy, don’t lie. Do not pretend as if you do not know anything. We have found out about all your unscrupulous activities. If you tell us we will leave you with some penalty. If you do not, then we will arrest you. I’ve come with a non-bailable warrant.”

Munuswamy thought for a while and began to talk.

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“Sir, crocodile skin leather is used for handbags, furniture upholstery, etc. because it is an extraordinarily strong material. It is also used for making bulletproof jackets. It is in high demand in several foreign countries, like Australia, Thailand and more. They also make jewelry with crocodile teeth, Sir. It is a status statement. So, these things fetch a lot of money from foreign countries. In Australia, America and Thailand there are a lot of crocodile farms, Sir. So, those people come here for eggs of some of the rare species of crocodiles. And I secretly steal them and trade them off before they are recorded by the Crocodile Bank officials. Besides crocodile products, they often trade the snakeskin also. Indian black cobra. But nowadays it is becoming exceedingly difficult to steal them. But the pressure from those smugglers is increasing. We are also fed up. So, we made some fake skin with our own innovative formula and traded it. We hit on a new plan, and we decided that this will be the last deal of all. When I give them the eggs, Moorthy will dress up as police and catch us red-handed and later he will blackmail them and take some money. This way both of us can loot them. Either they will run away as it will not work out for them, or they will give us more money. It is a win-win situation. But I think our plan backfired or maybe the mother crocodile came to know and came after us. I don’t know, Sir.”

The police officer and Rajan exchanged glances.

“This fellow doesn’t know anything, Sir. He is blabbering something about some other crime, not related to these happenings.”

The police officer said to his subordinates, “Take his statement and his biometrics and leave him.” He turned toward Munuswamy and said, “Why do you want to harm animals? See, if they revolt you will run out of your life. Do not do such things. You may go now, but you will be on our radar”

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Saying so, the police left.

Milkman Peethambaram woke up by 3:30 a.m. as usual. He told his wife that he was going for work.

“Lock the door from outside and go,” she said half-asleep.

Peethambaram sat and looked out of the window. It had grills, and they normally kept it open at night for fresh air. He saw two red lights. “Who put the red lights there?” he wondered “Normally they are not there,” he thought. He looked at his wife and nonchalantly looked up again.

For a moment he felt that the red lights moved closer. “Maybe I’m imagining. I’m half-asleep,” he thought.

He got up to get ready for work. He casually glanced and now for sure, they had come awfully close. They were the eyes of a huge orangutan. It was holding the grills and looking through the window into his house. The black color of its body merged with the darkness of the night. It was whispering something. In the chilling silence of the night, he could hear it saying ‘Kamatchi, Kamatchi’”

Peethambaram was petrified at what he saw. His wife got up and saw him trembling and shrieked loudly that all the residents woke up and switched on the lights, and there was commotion everywhere.

Some smart selfish people quickly bolted their doors and windows while some good Samaritans ran out and asked about what had happened. Peethambaram and his wife said that they saw a humongous orangutan that was murmuring ‘Kamatchi, Kamatchi’ but it quickly vanished.

The residents decided to put a meeting on why animals were attacking their housing complex.

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Everyone looked suspiciously at Kamatchi Mami. Mami “Why are monkeys coming and looking for you?”

Her husband who had a spontaneous sense of humor that always sprouted out at wrong times nonchalantly joked, “Must be her maternal uncle, who came to visit her.”

She glared at him angrily. In the meantime, Peethambaram covered himself tightly and slept off again, failing to deliver milk on the second day too.

As terror continued to proliferate in the capital of Tamil Nadu, the country started getting jolted by these weird happenings as covered by the news media outlets and social media.

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