Mainak Dhar - Heroes R Us

The audio had also been doctored and was devastating. In the video, as had happened the previous night, the man with the suitcase said,

'We will also handsomely reward you for your services. Here is a token of our appreciation for your help in the elections.'

But then someone had inserted a voice over which showed Arnab responding with a 'thank you'. With the hood it was impossible to see his face anyways, so to any viewer it looked like Arnab was accepting the money. The anchor returned on screen,

'Here at Tamasha.com, we always believe in exposing the real face of the scams in our society. And tonight we have got hold of video footage which shows Laxman Yadav, a known fixer for the Opposition, approaching the so called superhero of Delhi, and buying his services to help fix the upcoming elections. Is this the new face of Indian democracy?'

Khan turned the TV off, while Arnab sat in front of it, speechless. He had interpreted Singh's threat to imply that he would probably have more run-ins with Upadhyay's men or other hired goons, and while certainly something to watch out for, he had been confident that he could handle any such threat. Never had he imagined that the Minister's vengeance could take such a form.

He looked up hopefully at Khan, like a drowning man grasping at straws.

'Khan chacha, there's always some nonsense or the other on TV. Maybe people will just ignore it.'

Khan however had little by way of reassurance to offer.

'Arnab, this could be bad. A man can survive physical attacks and broken bones, but if you shatter his reputation, it can be a much more dangerous thing. I pray it turns out to be as you hope.'

Arnab woke up the next morning, a Saturday, to find that his worst fears had been realized. Almost everything that could have gone wrong had gone belly up, and in spectacular fashion. Tamasha.com had kept running the hidden camera footage all night, and most other channels had picked it up. Laxman Yadav had also accumulated significant airtime, telling anyone who would listen that he had offered ten million Rupees to the city's famous superhero to enrol his services in capturing polling booths. Either he was a seasoned actor or just very used to telling white lies, since he seemed utterly convincing, and Arnab wondered if the money in the suitcase had in fact gone to Yadav to get him to malign his own party. The leaders of the opposition party cried themselves hoarse that they were not behind it, but in the battle between laboured denials by old men and a sensational piece of video, the video seemed to win hands down.

As Arnab kept tracking the news through that day, things kept getting worse. Balwant Singh came on TV and while he took the moral high ground and refused to condemn Arnab, he did say that it was unfortunate that in this day and age of corrupt politics that the Opposition practised, nobody was as clean as they seemed. Arnab would have brushed off the accusations and insinuations if they had come from Balwant Singh and hysterical TV presenters alone, but by evening the backlash he faced took a new turn. Forums and message boards on fan websites and communities dedicated to the 'Guardian Angel' started becoming inundated with messages filled with a sense of betrayal and anger. Arnab read through some of them,

'I thought he was at least a clean role model but looks like he's no better than the other scum'.

'I am so hurt. I believed in him and now he's turned out to be no more than a gun for hire.'

And on it went. To have the same people who blindly believed in him and deified him turn against him so quickly came as a shock to him. Even so, he kept telling himself that it was one thing to put comments on a website and quite another to actually turn your back on someone who had done nothing but help you and asked for nothing in return. So that night, against Khan's advice, Arnab set out again on his nightly mission.

That night his area of patrol was in Malviya Nagar, where robbers had been striking almost every night, breaking into houses and robbing the occupants at gunpoint. Arnab spent a good two hours patrolling the area, and then at about midnight, he saw three men walking in one of the alleys. There was no indication that they were the robbers, but he decided to follow them to be sure. He maintained a safe distance, following them as they walked along the narrow alleys. After a few minutes, they came to a stop near a house and sat down on the stairs in front of it, one of them lighting a cigarette and passing it around. Arnab was now quite suspicious, and assuming that they were planning a robbery, stepped out in front of them. He had no wish to provoke a confrontation, but assumed that if they were robbers, the mere sight of him would send them packing. To his surprise, one of them, a young man barely out of his teens, looked up calmly at him and asked him what he was doing there.

'I should be asking you what you're doing out so late sitting in front of this house.'

The man didn't flinch as he replied.

'Ah, so our superhero has found time from rigging elections to fight crime.'

The other two men laughed, and Arnab was tempted to teach the man some manners but held himself back. The man showed no such signs of restraint as he continued.

'Look, asshole, this is my house and I've just come home from a party. Do you want to ring the bell and ask my parents?'

Arnab didn't know if the man was bluffing or not, but he got an answer when the door opened and an older man stepped out.

'Rajiv, what's going on?'

'Nothing dad, our superhero here thought we're robbers.'

The father told him to be quiet and turned to Arnab.

'Don't mind my son. The young nowadays speak before they think. Thank you for what you're doing, but there are no robbers here, just a young man who's going to get into trouble for being so late.'

He smiled as he led his son in, and the two other men walked off, muttering among themselves. Arnab thought he heard one of them say, 'Superhero, my ass.'

It was a small incident, but actually hearing and seeing for himself how people's attitudes towards him were changing so fast came as a real shock to him. The next night only made matters worse when an old woman he had rescued from a mugger shook his hands off, looking at him and saying in a sad voice,

'Son, I thank you for saving me, but you've dashed a lot of hopes with what you have done. Please leave the company of these politicians and their dirty business.'

Arnab tried to say something in his defence, but realized it was futile. Things got only worse when the next day, a prominent businessman issued a statement that he believed the so called Guardian Angel was sabotaging his business interests by attacking his trucks at night, presumably because he had been paid to do so by business rivals. There was no proof offered, and even a cursory background check would have shown that the businessman was a key contributor to Balwant Singh's election campaign, but as often happens, the facts got lost in the hysteria and this provided even more fodder to news channels revelling in Arnab's fall from grace. The new 'Superhero Scandal' became the talk of the town, and in the rush to crucify the one who had till recently been the darling of the masses, everyone conveniently forgot all the things that he had done.

Arnab by now had descended into a full-fledged depression, and realized that no matter how strong he was; he knew little about such machinations and how to respond to them. Balwant Singh had truly extracted a terrible revenge, and Arnab felt alone and helpless. Khan was there to lend a sympathetic ear, but the old man could do little to help. The next night was the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back. Arnab had intervened in an attempted robbery just after sunset, and while the robbers had melted away when they saw him, Arnab found himself confronted by an angry mob consisting of those whom he had thought he was rescuing. They shouted abuses at him, and one of them threw a pair of shoes at him. Arnab was taken aback, and not knowing how to react, ran home, the jeers and insults of the crowd ringing in his ears.