It was a Sunday evening just like another. I was with my roommate sitting in our room. We were living in a 3BHK flat and the society was within radius of 1.5KM from one of the tech parks in Bangalore. In our floor there were total 6 flats. In the flat next to ours, girls used to live there. There were around 4-5 or 3 girls. We don’t know how many because we haven’t seen them together. We never had conversation with other people living in other flats.
But that day was not just like another. Around 11pm we heard some noises like somebody was trying to open the gate forcibly. It continued for 3-4 minutes. Then I asked my roommate what’s going on. He said somebody might have forgot key or something but I couldn’t resist myself and stood up to check it. The moment I opened my door I was shocked. It was coming from the flat next to us and girls were there. I just checked the gate and came inside again. I didn’t try to intervene because it was looking so awkward. In India we have tharki people more than helpful. So I came back to my room. Noise was still there. I asked my roommate to come with me and checked the problem. We both went to their door. I asked “Is it not opening?” A voice came from inside, ‘No. It is jammed. Could you help?’ Then we pushed the gate from outside. It was jammed very tightly. The moment we closed door it got jammed and nobody could open from inside. Somebody needed to push it from outside. After checking the problem we fixed the gate. We Indian are very smart in JUGAD. I put tap there and fixed it temporary and asked her to call the carpenter the next morning. We talked for some time, introduced ourselves, company talks and then wished Good Night and came back. I just knew her name. She was in the same company of mine but senior to me.
Next day I woke at 7am and went to office on time. Everything was normal till 7.25 PM when I got a call from our residential tower manager. He asked me to rush to flat as the main gate was opened. I called my flat mate and abused a lot who came last. I told that whatever we had lost due to his negligence would be paid by him only. I rushed to the spot and found it very strange. There were 20-22 people in and around our (mine and her) flats. The picture was getting clearer as I was approaching to my flat. It was just like a dream when one person came to me and asked to check my flat because there was some thievery in her flat. She also rushed to me and asked what was stolen from my flat. I kept my 7 pounds bag on ground and rushed to each room. The door was shamed and the lock was broken so badly that it was lying on ground. I checked friend’s cupboard and found it broken. Then I checked mine and it was also broken. My heart was not beating that much so I knew that nothing happened wrong. But for more assurance I checked my money, laptop, HD. Everything was there where I left them. Called my friends and asked them to come soon. It was really shocking they broke our gate, took lot of efforts to break our cupboards but didn’t take a single penny. I don’t what was their intention or why they ignored/overlooked us. But why she was so panic, what was stolen from their flat, why police was there? Read Part II here.

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Deepesh Singh