Free Second Lives by Anish Sarkar

thank you very much!’ Omar would then make an obscene gesture behind his back. Much to our amusement.
    But Roy did eventually find a girl to go around with. And all the trouble began soon after that.

    20
    Omar
    I was discharged from the hospital in the morning, and it was an immense relief to get out of that awful Emergency ward.
    The pain wasn’t too bad after all the painkillers but I hadn’t slept a wink. During the night, an accident victim had been brought in, screaming. His right leg was cut off at the knee and the severed limb was next to him on the stretcher, sticking out of a dirty plastic bag. The doctor on duty and the nurses attended to him while a microsurgery specialist was being traced but he had apparently lost too much blood and died right there next to me.
    Neel had come to pick me up and we drove back to the villa in silence. Sara greeted me with a big hug and said brightly, ‘Welcome home, wounded warrior!’ I went straight to my room and fell asleep almost immediately.
    That evening, I got a call from them .
    It was not pleasant. I was informed that the final deadline had been advanced, and instead of a month, I now had only a week left. My protests went unheeded. The call ended with a graphic threat of one of my body parts being removed non-surgically and placed inside another, if I didn’t comply. I knew they meant every word.
    Fact is, I’m over my head in debt.
    It all started with this fantastic idea I had for an Internet venture. Unfortunately, the banks and venture capitalists didn’t share my view—the pompous suits told me that the dotcom era was over. My business plan was too risky, and I had no relevant experience to execute it. The financial projections had too many assumptions and dependencies.
    As it turned out, they were right, but at that time, I was determined to let nothing stop me from going ahead. I managed to secure some seed capital from an angel investor whom I knew well. It wasn’t enough, though.
    That’s when I heard about a man, a very rich and secretive man, who was interested in business ideas like mine and prepared to invest in them. I was only given a phone number. It sounded fishy but I was desperate and made the call.
    The money came in quickly—all in cash. There was no paperwork, no hassle; and a friendly voice conveyed the terms and conditions to me over phone. By then, I had a fair notion of whom I was dealing with and it unnerved me but it was too late to back out.
    Besides, I had got what I wanted. My new company was launched, and I was over the moon.
    Just nine months later, everything came crashing down. The revenue streams I had anticipated were not even on the horizon, and the working capital was almost gone. Two more tranches had arrived in-between but I needed still more funds to pay rent, utilities, salaries, advertisers.
    I didn’t bother asking for it. It was time to pull the plug. I was standing in a hole, and there was no point digging it deeper. I folded up the venture, and prepared to face the music.
    That was a year ago.
    I have kept up the façade of a normal life, even a happy and prosperous one, but the fear has never been far away. The calls would come with sickening regularity and I somehow managed to keep them at bay with small repayments but mostly with pleas and promises.
    Time’s run out for me, I guess.

    21
    Neel
    Nothing’s ever come easy for me in life.
    I remember being the shortest boy in my class for the longest time. There had been no problem until I was nine years old. After that, my growth hormones decided to take a sabbatical. For the next few years, my height increased at the annual rate of a millimetre or so. Even as all my friends seemed to grow like the fabled beanstalk.
    School can be a cruel and unforgiving place. Especially for anyone who is short or fat or dark or stupid. It was no different with me. I was subjected to a lot of physical harassment. Apart from the jokes and nicknames. There were these two older