S For Stockholm
Vineet snapped back to reality when he heard the blast of a horn outside. He was daydreaming again, no matter how hard he tried not to. She had spread into his mind and body like a virus that just wouldn’t leave. He recently had got her name, it was Meghana. Just the thought of knowing her name brought a smile to his lips. He shook his head and tried to concentrate.
Vineet was preparing for GRE for his Masters. After trying very hard to juggle between his studies and job, he decided to quit and fully concentrate on studying. His modest little one-bedroom house that screamed ‘bachelor!’ was perfect for him to cut everything else off and study. His parents never questioned his decision about leaving his job and he was grateful for that. He had enough savings to get him through this phase and then he would take a loan when he got into a university that he wanted. He had pretty much everything planned out. Everything was going great until he saw Meghana.
That evening, after his walk, he felt like drinking tea and went to the small tea shop near his house. While drinking his tea, he noticed that a couple of people from a nearby company had also come for a snack at the outdoor cafe two shops away. A particularly pretty woman caught his attention and he couldn’t stop staring at her. She looked like someone who had just started working after completing college. Her shoulder-length hair, wide eyes and smile were enough to floor Vineet. He realized that he was ogling at her like a creep and dropped his gaze. He stood there for a long time, sipping his tea as slowly as possible, and went home only after the girl left with her office gang. He felt like he was floating on his way home.
Vineet was never in a relationship before. He’d had crushes, lots of them, but none of them ever turned into girlfriends. But he was sure that he had not felt this way for anyone till now. At first, he had dismissed it to be another crush, but it didn’t fade away even after a few weeks. Not that he helped it fade. From the day he saw her, Vineet timed his walk and tea break. After a few hits and misses, he got the hang of the time when the girl would come down with her group for a break. Vineet passed the weekends in pure agony.
Also, the daydreaming started. Vineet could hardly concentrate on what he was supposed to be doing as he spent the whole day waiting for 5 o’clock, his walk time. He kept imagining them falling in love, getting married and moving to the States, and staying happily forever. He would imagine them walking on the streets with a beautiful backdrop, holding hands.
He finally learned her name a few days ago when someone in her group called her. Her group had left the cafe and she had stayed back to pay the bill. Vineet was gathering the courage to go and say something, anything to her when one of her friends called her name to say that they would be waiting for her at the opposite end of the street. She turned her head, saw Vineet for a second, and then walked away. Vineet spent the whole evening replaying the scene in his head and writing ‘Vineet ♥ Meghana’ over and over again.
One Sunday, Vineet sat watching the movie ‘Highway’ after a very short walk as there was no Meghana to look at. The next day, as he sat down to study, a crazy idea flashed across his mind. Yesterday, in the movie, the heroine was kidnapped by a street gangster and she gradually came to terms with that and even started caring for her captor. Could he do the same thing to Meghana? He laughed at it and pushed it away.
But that didn’t work. After a few days, the plan started making sense to him. He read up on Stockholm syndrome, the one where the captive falls in love with the captor, and started making plans in his head. He would kidnap Meghana, spend a few weeks with her and she would start loving him. Once it happened, they could come back and get married and fly to the USA together. A perfect plan. The more he thought about it, the more it made sense to him.
Now, how was he supposed to suddenly kidnap a girl? It’s not as easy as it looks in the movies. He had a car, that could be used for transport, but they had to leave the state before the news reached the police and lay low for a while. He would have to find abandoned buildings in the villages and keep her quiet. The picture of both of them sipping tea while watching the sun go down and learn everything about each other lit up his face every single time. If asked, ‘Would you kidnap someone?’ around three months ago, he would have laughed his head off. Hell, he had laughed at the thought of it just a month ago. But now, he was ready to do anything to get Meghana, and nothing would stop him.
Vineet slowly started to bring his plan to action. First, he had to find a perfect location for him to abduct her. He loitered around outside the tech park where she worked and followed her as she took the city bus with her friend after work and then walked alone for half a kilometer to her house through a pretty deserted route. He followed her every day for the next two weeks and understood that on Tuesdays she left the office later than usual and it would be completely dark when she would start walking to her house.
He would park his car at the spot where the streetlight wasn’t working, chokehold Meghana till she lost her consciousness, and escape along with her in the back of the car. Vineet had seen tons of YouTube videos on how to chokehold someone and was confident that he wouldn’t mess it up. Surely, he wouldn’t hurt the love of his life. If anything went wrong, he decided that he would bolt from the scene, change his house and that would be the end of all this.
After another month of planning, (the GRE books lay buried beneath the mountain of sheets of paper containing all the plans. Vineet had burnt all the evidences before leaving the house.) Vineet sat hidden in his car with a monkey cap on his face, exposing only his eyes. It was completely dark and a streetlight far away was the only source of light in that long narrow road. Not a person was in sight. There were no houses around, which was great for Vineet. Even if someone heard the scuffle, by the time they reached this spot, he would be gone.
After what seemed like an eternity, he saw Meghana, but she was not alone. For some reason, her friend had accompanied her. Vineet had to think fast. Should he do this the next Tuesday? But what if the stupid friend comes along then too? Should he abandon the whole thing? They had already reached his car when he was thinking and Vineet ducked lower. Once they crossed him, he thought, ‘Screw this, I’m doing it,’ and slowly got down the car and before they heard him, he gave the friend a hard shove and locked Meghana’s hands with one hand, and started choking her from the other. It took surprisingly less time for her to lose consciousness and she went limp. Without a second glance at her friend, Vineet lifted Meghana, opened the back door of the car, and put her in.
He crossed the state border with relative ease. Nobody checked his car at any of the check posts and he was able to reach a small village in Goa. He thought it would be easier to pose as tourists and people wouldn’t be suspicious of a man who suddenly appeared in their lives. Vineet had made a barely conscious Meghana swallow sleeping pills once he had escaped the alley and reached another deserted place. His mother had the prescription for them, so it was easy for him to get access to them.
He stopped at an extremely shady looking hotel. It was very early in the morning and it took more than a couple of bells for the manager to wake up. He booked a double room and told the manager, “My wife is sleeping in the car. She’s extremely drunk, so I’ll have to carry her to our room. Hope you don’t mind.” The manager, who looked like he didn’t care even if Vineet came in holding a severed head, nodded and retreated into his corner.
After carrying a completely knocked out Meghana to the first floor via the stairs and pretty much dropping her on the bed, a very sweaty Vineet locked the door and finally smiled. Till now, his plan had worked without any hiccups. Now, the major part, make her fall in love with him. He hoped the beaches of Goa should help in this.
He carefully tied her hands and legs and put a soft cloth inside her mouth in case she woke up and started screaming. He had a long chain and a heavy lock, and he tied her already bound hands to one of the legs of the bed.
Vineet returned to the room carrying bags of food and water. As he opened the door, Meghana, who was awake by now, tried to scream with the cloth in her mouth but was only able to get out a “Mmmmmmfff!” Her eyes were wide and streaming and she kept on thrashing on the bed. Vineet quickly closed the door and came near her. She tried to shuffle back but her head hit the back of the bed and she moaned in pain.
“Calm down,” said Vineet. “I’m not going to hurt you. Can you promise me that you won’t scream if I take out the rag in your mouth?” She nodded fervently. “Okay. I’m now going to take it off, and we’ll talk slowly.” He took it off and she coughed a bit. “Where are we? Who are you? Why did you kidnap me? If you want money, my father doesn't have much. He works in a bank and earns modestly. You must have mistaken me for someone else. Let me go, please!”
Vineet sat beside her and she tried to shrink away. “I don’t want your money. I don’t want anything from you.” Meghana looked confused. “Then why did you kidnap me?” Her eyes grew wide as she remembered her friend. “Where’s Sakshi? What did you do to her?”
Vineet smiled. “Your friend will be okay, trust me. Now eat your food.” He fed her, gloating at his luck. Just yesterday, she didn’t even know he existed, but today, she’s eating from his hands. After she was fed, he made her take another sleeping tablet. “It’ll help you sleep,” he said.
Around noon, Vineet switched on his phone after inserting the new sim card he got from the Hotel manager down below. The manager seemed like he could supply anything from drugs to dead bodies. Vineet needed a sim card to keep in touch with his parents so that he could still pretend to be in Bengaluru. He didn’t want a missing person complaint from their parents and what if the Police figured everything out? Vineet sat down on the bed and started watching Bengaluru news to see if there was anything related to Meghana, and of course, there was. But that wasn’t the highlight.
The news reporter kept on blaring on repeat, “Sakshi Mehta, a Software Engineer hailing from Uttar Pradesh was found dead in a dark alley with her head split open in Bengaluru. Primary reports are saying that the cause of death could be due to a severe blow to her head. She was supposedly going for a sleepover at her friend Meghana Das’s house, who is currently missing. Investigations have already started and the search for Meghana is on. Locals are protesting about the never repaired streetlights in the area being accessories for such crimes.”
The whole room swam in front of Vineet. He had to throw up and he ran into the bathroom and his morning breakfast was out in no time. He gasped as he looked into the spotty mirror. In just a day, he had transformed from an innocent, shy guy to a murderer. He held the dirty washbasin to avoid falling.
He looked at the bed and saw Meghana sitting upright, eyes wide. She had woken up when Vineet was watching the news and had heard enough to understand what had happened.
“She said that she missed home-cooked food and I invited her to our house for dinner and told her that we could go to the office together the next day. She said that she would come on Friday but I insisted. I killed her. I killed her.” She looked at Vineet for a long time. “No, you killed her,” she whispered. “I didn’t ask you to kill her. She was such a good friend of mine. No, I didn’t kill her, you did. YOU DID!” she screamed. “Why did you kill her? Why did you bring me here?”
“I… I didn’t mean to…”
“What do you want from me?
“I thought…”
“What?”
“I thought if I could kidnap you then you’d fall in love with me!” screamed Vineet. That shut Meghana up. Vineet slowly came to the bed and sat down. “I saw you with your friends drinking tea in that shop opposite your office a few months ago. I’ve been in love with you ever since. I didn’t know how to talk to you or approach you, so — ”
“You kidnapped me,” finished Meghana. Vineet continued. “Look, what happened to your friend was an accident. You were supposed to be alone and I didn’t know what to do, so I pushed her, that’s all. She must have hit the road pretty hard — ”
“Are you out of your mind?” screamed Meghana. “Who the hell kidnaps a person because they love them? That’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard! And your stupid plan killed my friend!! Let me go!! Heeelp! Help, anybody!!”
Vineet took out the switchblade knife in his bag which he had kept, just in case, and held it against Meghana’s throat while covering her mouth. “If you scream again, I will kill you, you understand? I’ve already killed once, and it won’t matter to me if I do it again. Nobody will find you here and your body will rot. Nod if you understand me.”
Meghana needed no more pressure from the cold metal against her neck. She nodded slowly. “Good,” said Vineet, taking the knife off and putting the cloth back into her mouth. “Now you will listen and do what I say. If not, you know what’ll happen.” Meghana nodded again, fresh tears wetting her face. He put the knife in his pocket and stormed out of the room.
Once he was out, he started taking deep breaths and couldn’t believe what he just did. He hoped she bought his act because Vineet was nowhere near to cutting someone’s finger as he was to cutting someone’s jugular vein. He calmed his beating heart and went out for a walk, wondering how on earth he would get out of this mess.
The next morning, when Meghana was eating (Vineet had now tied her legs to the bed and untied her hands. He somehow didn’t feel safe to be so near her), she looked up at Vineet and said, “Sorry I yelled at you yesterday. You didn’t mean to kill her, it just happened.” Vineet looked at her face and saw genuine apology there. He just nodded and continued eating.
“Where are we? Which city is this?”
“Goa.”
“I’ve never been to Goa before! I always wanted to come here. Never thought like this, though.” Vineet kept his head bent. He didn’t want her to see his face with guilt written all over it.
“Can we go for a walk?” Vineet laughed in disbelief at the question. “And what? Let you run away? No chance.”
“I promise I won’t run away. I just want to see the beach. You can tie my hands and cover it with a shawl and hold my arm if you don’t believe me. Please?”
Vineet shook his head. “No,” he said and Meghana understood from his tone that it was the end of the conversation.
Two days later, to Meghana’s surprise, Vineet said that he was taking her to the beach. He knew the risk involved, but even if she tried to escape, she couldn’t outrun him and the beach would be almost deserted. This was not a touristy place in Goa and very few people came here to explore.
They walked together on the beach, wetting their feet. Meghana was visibly happy to see the deep blue sea. After their walk, they sat down to watch the sunset. After a long silence, Vineet said, “You know, I also have lost a special person in my life.” Meghana turned to him questioningly. “I had a little brother, Suneet. We played together all the time, every game. He was just two years younger than me. When he was five, there was a huge storm in our city and the whole place was almost flooded, perfect to play with paper boats. I was very sick and I couldn’t go out with Suneet to play, so I made a nice little paper boat for him. Suneet went out, so happy, holding the boat in his little hands wearing his raincoat and shoes, and that was the last time we saw him alive.”
“What happened?” whispered Meghana. She was lightly leaning on him and she turned her face towards him. Vineet sighed and continued. “Nobody knows what exactly happened. He went missing that day and after two days of searching, we found him dead with an arm torn off in the outskirts of the city,” he sighed again. “I blame myself every day that I was responsible for his death. Had I not made that boat, or had I gone with him, Suneet would be with me today. It’s a regret that I live with, every waking hour.”
Meghana placed her bound hands on his. “Oh Vineet, I’m so sorry. I really am.” Vineet smiled as she placed her head on his shoulders and they watched the sun go down together.
Over the next few days, they developed a routine: hang out in the hotel room till the evening, talking and watching TV, then take a long walk on the beach and watch the sunset. They even had dinner together at a local restaurant. Meghana wanted to go to some of the touristy places in Goa but Vineet said no. They hadn’t heard about any developments on their case in the news but he was still very cautious about everything.
After a week and a half, one evening as they sat watching the sunset in their favorite spot, Meghana turned to Vineet and said, “You know what? I think it worked.”
“Huh? What worked?”
“Your plan.” She laughed at the bewildered expression on Vineet’s face. “I can’t believe it, but I think I’ve fallen in love with you. Your plan worked. I can’t wait to introduce you to my parents. Let’s go home.”
That was the happiest sunset Vineet had ever witnessed.
They started planning for their return. It was dangerous to travel through highways, what if the check posts had Meghana’s photos? They decided to travel in daylight so that they wouldn’t arouse suspicion, mostly avoiding highways. After completing their long journey, they finally reached Meghana’s home late at night.
They made sure that there were no police around the house and then Meghana rang the doorbell. Her mother opened the door and almost fainted. Her father came to see what happened and he couldn’t believe his eyes. “Meghana! You’re here!”
Meghana and Vineet entered their home and as rehearsed, she told them that Vineet had rescued her from the kidnapper and helped her escape. She didn’t tell them that they loved each other because they thought it could be too much information in one go. Her parents thanked him profusely and they couldn’t stop. Vineet looked at Meghana and he saw reassurance that everything was going to be alright.
The next morning, Vineet came down to the living room after having a great sleep after almost two weeks to be greeted by the Police. Meghana and her parents were standing beside them and she said, “He’s the one who killed my friend Sakshi Mehta and kidnapped me.”
After making sure that Vineet was asleep the previous night, Meghana had explained to her parents what really had happened and they had called the Police first thing in the morning. Vineet felt like he had been slapped back to earth.
“He said that he had kidnapped me so that I’ll fall in love with him,” Meghana scoffed and the Police Inspector let out a hearty guffaw. Vineet was still confused. “But, you said — ”
“Everything I said was to help me escape. I never fell in love with you,” she said, looking at Vineet. “And your stupid notion that every captive will fall prey to the Stockholm Syndrome is not true. It doesn’t happen to everyone, especially when your kidnapper kills your friend.”
As the Inspector handcuffed Vineet, Meghana went near him and said, “By the way, I’ve both read and watched ‘It’. Next time you want to tell a lie about how your brother died, make sure that it’s original. For future reference.”
I recently watched ‘Highway’ and I didn’t like it that much, to be honest. Yes, the movie is a treat for the eyes and ears with the picturesque locations and beautiful music, but the story didn’t fit right. How can someone accept a situation so messed up, so quickly? The heroine’s behaviour is like a switch. One day she’s crying about her fate and very scared, the next day, she’s all chatty and friendly. Sorry, I don’t buy that.
This story doesn’t have a big reveal. You might have already guessed that Meghana was playing Vineet so she could get out unhurt. If the ending came as a shock to you, I request you to snap your head out of the false reality that movies provide us. Surpirse, surprise, it’s not real!
The title is a nod to the movie ‘V for Vendetta’, another Stockholm syndrome movie.
