Taken at the Flood

Vishal Patel is young, enthusiastic, committed to delivering what he promises and engaged to be married on July 12 to his childhoood sweetheart, Shilpa. Vishal works as a delivery boy for a small courier company at Baroda. In his spare time, Vishal is a physical fitness instructor at a local gym and also fills in when he can for Kunal, a friend who runs a small mobile phone services shop.

A week ago, to celebrate his engagement, Kunal threw a bachelor party for Vishal. Vishal drinks rarely, but all the boys were in a rare mood since he was the first 'bakra' to the altar. The revelry went on until late in the night. Piss--drunk and happy as hippies on a holiday, Kunal and another friend mooted the idea of a dare to dig up soil and make a pit beaneath a nearby railway line. The gang of eight went about this task with enthusiasm within a few metres of a level crossing until the cabin attendant spotted them and they fled the scene.

The next day, Thursday the 30th of June, Vishal had to deliver a packet in one of the industrial estates just beyond Baroda. It was raining heavily but he was undeterred as per his personal motto that he never slips on the job; finding his motorcycle unable to negotiate a heavily flooded stretch, he dismounted with his packet and elected to walk the last few hundred metres to his destination.

Ahead of him, several vehicles were stuck in a jam caused by a stalled Maruti 800 right on the train tracks. Vishal skirted around the jam and eyewitnesses aver that he sank without warning. His body could be fished out only yesterday when the waters receded; his identity was established from the ownership records of the bike.

Kunal has left home abruptly and cannot be traced. Shilpa is in a state of shock. Vishal Patel was young, enthusiastic and is now very dead.