Operation Camouflage Read online

  The clothing was of light and white cotton. It included innerwear, trousers and a T shirt. Once ready, the wristband spoke ‘Please have the drink from the dispenser. It is a blend of exotic herbs collected from jungles across four different continents.’

  This time he drank it confidently and without any hesitation. The blend was stored in an earthen pot but it also had a natural cool-ness of its own. While the bath itself was a refreshing one, on having the drink he felt transported to a completely different world. His mind was completely relaxed. He felt connected with his inner self, his spirit.

  He stepped out of the cubicle and found himself in a waiting room. He found few of his friends and acquaintances already waiting there. All were dressed in clothes similar to the one that he had worn. The anxiety before was long forgotten. Everyone had a glow and a relaxed feeling which he had never seen on their face in so many years that he had known them. While they were waiting for others to complete their bath and join them in the waiting room, he thought of exploring around. He saw a few exits and just out of curiosity moved towards one of them.

  The wrist band spoke ‘That’s an out of bound area for you. Kindly stay away.’

  He knew if it was restricted, the doors would be locked and he would just return back.

  The wrist band spoke again and this time in a slightly commanding tone. But Kapil continued moving forward and was hit by a sudden jolt of electricity. It was a mild one but sufficient enough to stop him. The jolt was from the wrist band itself and the band spoke ‘Kindly obey for your own safety, ignoring instructions could prove fatal.’

  He realized that the wrist band was not just a virtual assistant but also a security mechanism to keep visitors under control. He turned back and came and joined his friends, waiting for others to join so that they could precede further to face next surprises that lay in store for them.

  Once all of them had completed their bath and reached the waiting room, Aakash appeared to escort them further. With the wrist bands to guide them, it was not required but for the guests it seemed that he was doing this out of respect as all of them were big shots, heads of some of the largest business organizations or senior correspondents from reputed media companies.

  Few of them even felt that he would have come because of the incident that happened a while ago with Kapil, but later themselves realized it was too small an incident for Aakash to come for. Their views were confirmed when he enquired only about the refreshing feeling and simply smiled when few of them shared their experience. He then requested them to follow him. There was no reference whatsoever about the incident.

  He led them to a large auditorium where they could see a lot of guests already sitting. Looking at the crowd - people of all age groups from children to senior citizens, Kapil and others guessed that these could be family members of Aakash and his colleagues here. They took their seats anxiously waiting to finally get the answers to their questions – Who are Aakash and team? What is GALAXY? What is its purpose? And…… how are the guests themselves unknowingly associated with the hidden mammoth called GALAXY?’

  Chapter 5

  OPERATION REVEAL

  8th May’ 2015, 3:00 pm

  Aadi walked in on the stage with Aakash, Jivika and two other colleagues. One of them six feet tall and slim. The other person was few inches taller than the first one, built very strongly and resembled a wrestler. At the same time, few more people walked in and interspersed in the audience already sitting there and took their seats. With the expressions of the people already sitting, Kapil felt that the new comers were their family members. As soon as they had settled, the ladies, children and elderly people had started asking questions to the respective person joining them. While all the talk was in a low tone not audible to others, Kapil and the other business heads realized that ‘Even the family members of these guys were clueless of what was happening? What was the true identity of these guys?’ It was going to be a revelation for their families as well only now.

  Aadi began addressing the audience, ‘Ladies and Gentlemen, young boys and girls, if any of you are not comfortable with English, you may connect the headphones kept in your arm rest to your wrist bands and you will be able to hear what I am saying, live and in your preferred language. Request the audience to help those sitting next to you in case they need any assistance.’

  There were a few in the audience, particularly some elders who were going to need this. Their family members immediately helped them find the headphones and connect to their respective wrist bands. In less than a minute’s time everybody had settled and looked forward anxiously for revealing of the mystery.

  Aadi began once again, ‘Myself Aaditya, Head of GALAXY, extends you a very warm welcome in your own home. This place is not just GALAXY’s headquarters but also our home- yours, mine, ours… You might be wondering why am I stressing on a trivial point when there are much bigger questions in your minds waiting for an answer? Well, it’s important for you to understand what my colleagues and I have been doing, why our actions were hidden from the world including you, our immediate families and business partners, why we are telling this now and the significance of this place in the whole scheme of things. As part of my message today I will be covering the following points-

  1. Who are we?

  2. What is our purpose?

  3. What is GALAXY?

  4. Why did we maintain a dual identity?

  5. Why are we unmasking our camouflage now?

  6. How did we begin?

  7. Where did the funding come from?

  8. Where are we now with respect to our purpose?

  9. And going forward, what do we aim to do?

  In the end, I will answer any other questions that you may have.’

  After a brief pause, Aadi continued again, ‘Who are we? - We are neither soldiers nor spies, neither terrorists nor bandits. We are just a few ordinary human beings set out on a critical mission…BUT IN AN EXTRA ORDINARY MANNER, a mission to save ‘Mother Earth,’ a mission to save life, a mission to save the varied species from extinction, a mission to save this planet for our future generations, a mission for the flourishment of Mother Nature. Many individuals, NGO’s, corporates are doing a lot to conserve Nature and we whole heartedly salute them for their efforts.’

  ‘Sadly, that alone is not sufficient… JUST NOT SUFFICIENT. Today the deterioration of the planet is growing at three times the conservation efforts and with this speed our species will not remain to see the light of the next century. The powerful and the corrupt are exploiting natural resources for monetary gains. Large scale deforestation is happening on the name of development. Industries are not only churning out tons and tons of non-degradable materials like plastic every hour, but in doing so are also causing irreparable damage to air and water. While there are NGO’s and corporates who are doing plantations, cleaning of water bodies, taking up measures for protection of endangered species, there is a bigger need of stopping the destruction first. Today’s scenario is like trying to fill a half-filled swimming pool with a 1-inch tap when it is being emptied with a 3-inch pump. Efforts are happening to make the 1-inch to 1.5-inch…but what is happening to prevent pumping out water through the 3-inch pump? Absolutely nothing!’

  Tackling this mafia, the one operating the 3-inch pump, is the role we play. This mafia is powerful, is corrupt, has loads of money and to fight it we had to become more powerful, needed to have more money and if need be willing to take the law in our hands. A regular NGO cannot do this. Even if it has the willingness, it lacks on other fronts, it lacks power and it lacks funds. So if we had to fight this battle, we needed our own funds. And that’s the difference between GALAXY and others. GALAXY is a self-funded, self-sustained, powerful NGO. An NGO that makes its own money for all the projects that it runs and the projects it supports. An NGO that fights its enemies all by itself.’

  ‘When we started, we were very small and vulnerable. But we still had to fight against the biggies. Doing it openly
did not make sense. We would have lost the battle even before it begun. Hence we had to use guerrilla warfare. And that explains maintaining a dual identity. We kept growing but without being noticed. Instead of running our business, we established our businesses under different existing corporates. This arrangement was just between the particular corporate and us and completely unknown to the outside world. These corporates would run the business under their name and keeping a share of the profits, transfer the balance amount to us. To the external world, this arrangement was shown as a CSR- Corporate Social Responsibility initiative of the particular corporate. Of course, to maintain confidentiality each corporate was made to transfer funds to a different NGO, which was one of our own subsidiaries and each represented by a different person. This ensured that none of the corporates came to know about the other.’

  On knowing this reality Kapil was not very pleased. Of his chain of more than a hundred luxury hotels, there were thirty of them that he too had been running for an NGO. There was a time when he was looking for funding to expand his chain of Royales luxury hotels. And as luck would have it, he was approached by a person claiming to represent an NGO having a lot of anonymous cash donations which the NGO could not use directly. Hence the NGO was looking for a corporate that could use this amount to expand its business and in return transfer funds on a regular basis to the NGO.

  Kapil had inflated his account books to profit from a higher valuation of his company in the stock market, but there was a risk of getting caught. He found this offer from the NGO to address both his requirements perfectly. He could use the funding for expansion and also fill the gaps in his accounts. While the offer had served his purpose then, he did not have the exact same happiness now. And on second thought he felt his displeasure was not on account of the complete truth being kept hidden from him, but on realizing that the NGO was much bigger, in fact significantly bigger than his company.

  ‘But, wait a minute’ Kapil said to himself ‘If I am not happy on realizing the size of the NGO, so would be the condition of other business partners. It’s human nature to feel jealous. As the NGO was smaller than each of them, they did not have an issue supporting this approach as well as the cause. But the same would not have been the case if they would have known that there are many corporates associated with the NGO, making it bigger than each of them individually.’

  ‘Another brilliant stroke,’ he said to himself keeping his emotions aside.

  Kapil came back to the present by Aadi’s words, ‘At this point, let me take a moment to thank all the corporates’

  Diverting his gaze towards the different business heads, Aadi continued, ‘We have not been completely transparent with you but in no way did we mean any harm, any threat to you. My apologies for the lack of transparency but that were the need of the hour.’

  There was sincerity in his voice. Kapil felt, ‘Not that Aadi needed to apologize and not that any of the business partners could think of causing him or GALAXY any harm, after having witnessed just a glimpse of his strength. But an apology despite that conveyed his ground to earth nature, his quality of committing a wrong knowingly, having a realization and at the same time accepting it.’

  Kapil’s thoughts were broken by Aadi’s words, ‘We whole heartedly value your support and contribution to this cause. While going forward we will manage our businesses that you had been managing for us till now, our relationship does not end here. Anytime, anywhere, any kind of support you need from us and as long as the outcome does not go against Mother Nature, we will help you. And I am sure you understand what this help could mean.’

  Kapil looked around and saw, like him all the business partners had politely acknowledged the support offered by Aadi.

  Aadi continued, ‘All this started eight years ago. I had joined some of the people in our neighbourhood for a peaceful protest against an illegal encroachment attempt on a lake by a builder. Children, senior citizens, women and men had gathered in a reasonable number and stood silently holding placards and protesting to save the lake.’

  ‘But who were we protesting against? The Builder? He did not give a damn about this protest. In fact he went to the extent of saying that tomorrow some of the protesters will go to him to buy an apartment there. The municipal authorities? They were already in the Builder’s pocket, with the construction plan being sanctioned by them. The Police? There was a case registered against the builder in the local police station. But that was it. No action taken. In fact the policemen who had come to ensure the safety of the protestors were laughing while looking at us. While most of the protesters felt ashamed and some felt angry, I had a different thought running in my mind.’

  ‘The police, the authorities, the builder feel that we common men are helpless. A peaceful protest for a day is all that we can do. Next day again we have our responsibilities to take care of. And very soon all of this will be forgotten. And isn’t it true to a certain extent? Isn’t that what normally happens? If this has to change, the solution also needs to be different. Forcing the police to arrest the builder would not ensure safety of the lake. Even if arrested, the builder would be out on bail very soon. Same would be the fate of action against the municipal officer. Simple solution to the problem lied with the Builder. If he could be convinced or eliminated, the lake stayed. Convincing was out of the question. We had seen his response to the protest. So the simple solution Eliminate the builder. Was it right? Legally speaking, maybe not. But ethically, absolutely yes. The lake was any day more important than the life of an anti-environment builder.’

  ‘It was after the protest that Samir came to me’ continued Aadi looking towards one of his colleagues, the six feet tall and slim person, on the stage.

  Aadi continued, ‘Samir said, you are right. The builder should be eliminated. For a moment, I was shocked. But Samir calmed me down.’

  ‘He said, Relax. I am a mind reader. Looking into the eyes of the person I can tell what he is thinking. I am blessed by Mother Nature. Till now nobody knew about my super natural power. I wanted to utilize this blessing for the benefit of Mather Nature. I think like you. Problems are simple but we humans tend to complicate the solution. I too believe there is no right or wrong approach when the intent is right. I have seen the angst and the spark in you. Together we can bring about a difference.’

  ‘And that was the start of our journey. We got to know each other. Samir is not just a mind reader but an innovator. A young scientist. A technologist. He heads our R&D and is also the Second in Command at GALAXY. All the technological advancements that you see have been developed under his leadership. I threw up an idea to him.’

  ‘Samir, can you identify a food additive that can rapidly speeden up the process of causing blockages in the arteries? And he smiled.’

  ‘Within a week’s time there was news. The builder suffered a cardiac arrest and died enroute to the hospital. Nothing unnatural came out of the post mortem. We floated a story around it, of course being hidden. A story about a cursed soul that stayed at the lake. The lake being its home and as the builder tried to finish the lake, he suffered this fate. It was sufficient enough to keep other builders vying for the lake, at bay. And you would be happy to know that the lake stays even today, eight years later. In fact it has now been developed with a walking track, greenery and children’s park, by the civil authorities.’

  ‘The builder was a very small person. We had to fight much bigger powers. Saving the lake was our first victory. And it was achieved by being completely hidden. That way we could easily fight enemies relatively more powerful than us. We knew that was the way for us. We decided to continue maintaining a low profile, to first grow stronger before coming out in the open. Secret agents use a new identity to conceal their existing one. We played the game other way round. We used our existing identities to camouflage our new one. And that was the foundation of OPERATION CAMOUFLAGE.’

  Ritu’s mind went back to the newspaper cutting about the builder’s death. She always felt the
re was something more behind the story than what was mentioned in the news article but Aadi had always denied it. Now she knew the complete story and the reason behind Aadi’s denial.

  Aadi continued, ‘Starting with the two of us, we became a ninety six people strong team within a span of a year. We needed funds to grow. Initially we contributed from our earnings. And hence, for our family members the significant difference between our CTC and in hand salary always remained a mystery. But in the long run contributions only from our earnings were not going to be sustainable. Then began next part of our journey. OPERATION CAMOUFLAGE could not be restricted only to activities directly related to Nature conservation but had to be extended even to the generation of funds’

  ‘We needed steady sources of income. Like other NGO’s we could not rely on donations. That would have exposed our cover. Other problems with that approach were, donations were not guaranteed to come on a regular basis nor would all donors have approved of our methods of operation. Steady flow could come only when we baked our own bread i.e when we started our own businesses, profits of which could keep funding our operations. Challenge with business was ONE - Initial funding and TWO – Time commitment.’

  Looking towards the woman on the stage Aadi continued ‘Jivika, the first woman in our team, came up with a simple solution to the second challenge - outsourcing running of business to established corporates. And when she thought about this she came up with a solution to the first challenge – if somebody else could run our business why couldn’t somebody else fund our business?’

  ‘The business and its operations had to be discreet, and hence loans or publicly available sources were not an option. Even the funds needed to be discreet. And the answer for that problem lay in black money. There is a lot of corruption, lot of black money around us. It’s not uncommon to see a politician who was once a labourer now sitting on a mountain of money and in most cases this definitely is not legitimate income. It was time that this black money, lying unused in foreign bank accounts, be utilized for a good cause.’