Drinking is injurious to health
As Ved opened his eyes, he could feel the world spinning around him. Lying on the sofa, he stared at the running fan on the ceiling. He felt as if his head would split open. As he sat up, he started to remember the previous night. He had broken up with his girlfriend. This called for his coping mechanism of choice – a night of getting wasted with his best friend Bhaskar.
Ved and Bhaskar were sitting in the corner of a pub away from loud music and the crowd, tanking down drink after drink. Ved was trying to dial down his emotions, but for Bhaskar, it was just another reason to drink.
“She said she's bored with me.” Ved, now completely drunk, started to open up to his equally drunk friend. “Am I that boring?” He asked. “You took two years to ask your girlfriend out. All you talk about is work. Even a kid has attended more parties than you, “said Bhaskar, pouring another drink. “I think you need to loosen up.
“Why don't you ask a girl out here?” Pointing towards a girl standing at the bar, he nudged Ved.
Acting out of character, Ved decided to go talk with her. The girl introduced herself as Nisha. She was an outspoken girl quite opposite to Ved, who was very reserved.
After talking for a while, they decided to hit home. Ved's home.
Dropping Bhaskar at his home, Ved and Nisha headed home. As they both entered the flat Nisha asked “Can we eat something?” breaking the silence. “Sure,” Ved said. He cooked a bowl of noodles and laid it out on the table. As they both sat down to eat, the bell rang and Ved went to open the door.
It was Mrs. Sharma, her neighbour. She looked very anxious. “Ved, I think my father-in-law has had a stroke. Can you please drive us to the hospital? “Ved immediately agreed. “I am sorry, can you please wait here? I'll be back in an hour, “he asked Nisha, as he grabbed the car keys. She nodded in agreement.
Ved snapped back to the present. He had completely forgotten about her! After coming back from the hospital, he had crashed on the couch. He headed towards the kitchen where he saw Nisha sleeping at the table itself. He felt bad for leaving her alone for the entire night. He gently tapped on her shoulder to wake her up. She didn't budge. He gave her a little push and she fell off the chair.
Nisha's face had turned pale. Ved checked her pulse at once. Nothing. She wasn't even breathing. She was dead! A thousand questions were running in his mind. “How is she dead?”, “Was it me who murdered her?” “Did someone enter my home without me knowing? If so, who?” His phone rang. Ved nearly jumped out of his skin. It was Bhaskar. He picked up the phone. “Hello?” Ved immediately blurted “Nisha is dead.” Bhaskar gasped. “Did you...did you kill her?” “No! Just come over here fast,” Ved said.
Bhaskar reached Ved's flat at lightning speed. As he got there, Ved explained the entire situation to him.
They knew better than to involve the police as the blame would directly fall on Ved. They searched Nisha's bag and found her cell phone and a receipt from the pub. Ved decided to go there and find out more about her. “I'm going to check out the pub, you stay here and take care of her” Ved said to Bhaskar looking at Nisha's Body. “Why should I stay? And what's there to take care of? It's a dead body. It's going to stay dead” Terrified at the idea of being alone with a corpse, Bhaskar questioned Ved only to find gone already.
Reaching the pub, Ved inquired about Nisha, but didn't get any information. Ved got back in his car and started to look for more information on Nisha's phone. He found only a single name in her contact list ‘Mohan’. He also found her address and decided to go there. It wasn't very far from the pub. As he pulled over in front of Nisha's house, his phone rang. It was his neighbour, Mrs. Sharma.
Meanwhile Bhaskar was struggling in Ved's home, trying not to look at Nisha's corpse.
He could feel a mild stench fill the house. As he was pacing nervously, his phone vibrated in his pocket. Startled, he bumped into the table and fell with a jug full of water all over him. He picked up the phone and saw Ved's message: 'Hide yourself and the body. Neighbours are coming over to use the kitchen'.
Mrs. Sharma’s father-in- law had passed away this morning. While she was busy serving the crowd of relatives, she had completely forgotten that she had made no arrangements and so, no gas to run the stove. She called her neighbour Ved asking if she could use his kitchen. .
Ved immediately agreed and asked her to look under the doormat for spare keys to his flat.
Bhaskar was terrified of touching the body. But he gathered his courage and decided to move Nisha's body to the bedroom. As soon as he had placed her in a cupboard, Mrs. Sharma and her husband came over. Quickly he hid too.
Ved reached Nisha's home and knocked on the door. A large, intimidating figure came out and stood in front of him. Ved softly asked him “Is this Nisha's home?” As soon as he had uttered those words the man pulled him inside and shut the door.
Mrs. Sharma was making coffee in the kitchen. Her husband was looking around reminiscing about his days of bachelorhood. He was amused by Ved’s plush air conditioned bedroom. “Youngsters nowadays live such a luxurious life, we never had an AC”. “We can at least use the AC for a while”. Mrs. Sharma followed him into the bedroom and turned on the AC. Hiding in the cupboard, Bhaskar who was already terror-stricken was now shivering like a little dog out of his wits.
“How do you know Nisha?” the large man asked Ved. However, he was not the only one. Ved was surrounded by five-six burly men.
“I just met her yesterday. I have never seen her before in my life. I swear, I...I just came to return her phone.” Ved blurted out terrified. “Her phone?” the large man looked at Ved's empty hands. Ved Immediately took out Nisha's phone and gave it to him. “That con-woman and her boyfriend are buying such expensive things from our boss's money. If you ever see them again, you tell them they are dead people walking” saying this the large man let Ved go.
Nisha was a con woman! As Ved was coming out of Nisha's house, he caught a glimpse of a man across the road staring at him. Could it be Mohan? As soon as they made eye contact, the man fled. Ved ran after him. It was him. It had to be Mohan!
Bhaskar was shivering in the low temperature of the room. Cramped in the small space with a dead body, he was waiting for the neighbours to leave, but they were sitting on the bed enjoying the cool air of the AC.
Crossing street after street, Ved was chasing the only person who could answer his questions- Mohan.
Mohan was also running as hard as he could. He could not get caught. Certainly not after everything he had done. While thinking all this, he suddenly tripped and fell.
Ved finally managed to catch up to him.
He easily overpowered Mohan and demanded he tell the truth. “Nisha and I were con-artists,” Mohan said, catching his breath. “We would bait people, trick them into giving us their money, and run away. The last man we conned turned out to be a very influential businessman. He sent his henchmen behind us. Nisha wanted to return the money, fearing for her life”. “So you killed her?” Ved asked angrily. “I poisoned her drink at the pub. I couldn't part with the money. However, Nisha meeting you was never part of the plan. You were not supposed to get involved” Mohan said remorsefully.
As Ved stood there absorbing all that he just found out, Mohan pushed him and ran away again.
What's that smell? Mrs. Sharma asked her husband. Bhaskar panicked. “Is it coming from this flat?” Mrs. Sharma got up and decided to look around the flat. Her husband said maybe it is coming from our flat! Mrs. Sharma then remembered she had left all the guests waiting in her home. She headed towards the kitchen, took the coffee she had made, and hurried out and her husband followed.
Bhaskar came out of the cupboard, heaving a sigh of relief.
He turned off the AC and came out of the bedroom when suddenly Mrs. Sharma's husband came back. He rushed back into the bedroom and peeked through the door only to find Mrs. Sharma's Husband sneaking out a bottle of beer from the fridge.
Disappointed at his failed venture, Ved returned home. He and Bhaskar decided to dispose of the body, running out of options. Carefully they picked up Nisha's body and took the fire exit to reach the parking area. They had reached halfway towards Ved's car when they heard someone coming towards them. Scared, they placed Nisha's body near a dumpster and left.
Away from the noise and heat in his home, Mrs. Sharma's husband was enjoying his arduously procured beer standing on the balcony. “What are you doing there? Come inside and help me” as soon as he heard his wife, Mrs. Sharma's husband threw the beer bottle off the balcony. “We have also run out of milk. Go and get it,” said Mrs. Sharma handing him a bag.
As he was walking to the shop, Mrs. Sharma's husband became curious as to what had happened to his beer bottle. He reached the spot where he had thrown the bottle and he was horrified at the sight!
A girl was lying there covered in blood. The beer bottle he had thrown had hit the head of the girl. He could feel his lungs running out of air. As a soft breeze blew his eyes followed the sound of the flapping label stuck to a piece of the shattered bottle which read 'Drinking is injurious to health'.