Shopping for pencils

The intelligence war was over because Antara didn't call anyone when she recently visited Kolkata. 

As in, those that were not her spouse's relatives.

Antara didn't like people who talked a lot, it had become a problem after her parents got their landline phone in the late 1990s. 

If a relative called and Antara happened to reply, she'd say, "Yes", "No", "Thank you", 'I don't think so but I'll check etc" and then hang up. She had thought it was the polite way to deal with others. These people, however, complained to her parents that though she had picked up the phone, Antara didn't start a conversation. 

What would Antara talk about? Ajit paid for things, Anjali cooked, Antara studied. Later, she had a difficult relationship which would lead to a marriage. Not one of these were topics which you should discuss with others. Did you watch any movie lately? No, she didn't.

Over the last few years, Antara did write daily emails to one and all. She sent various social media invitations to others, to initiate a gradual move away from Whatsapp, an app Antara didn't use. Not one of these individuals was willing to use another Instant Messaging app or would reply, initiating their own discussions of WWII, and you have to believe these people were expecting a phone call from Antara when she was visiting Kolkata?

The 'minders' were difficult people, why it was called a "torture-surveillance". They had described the Chetla danger to Antara in elaborate terms. "They'd deny you, say Chetla was their relative, show photos of Chetla being present alongside your relatives, whether those photos were real or not. When seriousness, intellect, a thoughtful attitude became known as Treasury attributes, when the opposite of the above was to be embraced and celebrated to insult the Treasury, you wouldn't know the lengths to which people would go".

Antara knew the lengths to which people would go. 

In Class KG2, she was made to sit on the last bench at the back of the classroom, with a girl called Ginni/Guinea. Currency sat at the back, it was not the foremost on people's minds.

In Class 1, Samrat (meaning 'emperor') had poked Antara's eye with a pencil, during Bengali class, then immediately started howling, "Oh, boo-hoo, it hurt so much, my eye, my eye" even before Antara managed to complain to the teacher, who had started laughing anyway. So some Emperor had tried to play using Lenin, ended up hurting the legit lease and had been ridiculed by Bengalis for losing control of the Bolshevik Revolution. (Oh dear, that's the Russian narrative, without any warning!)

In Class 2, another boy had buried his head in his arms on the desk, softly crying, "I have to face my father at court tomorrow" (his parents were going through an acrimonious divorce). That same boy was at Lehman Brothers (NY) when it collapsed in 2008 and how would Antara have known that the Lehman collapse pitted her against her father, that his Communism would throw him to the opposite side?

In Class 3, Antara's birthday was memorable, "Your birthday? I'll make your birthday cry", one of the teachers had said. It was 1987, the year the legit lease was supposedly lost to Japan. Whether lost or nulled or voided, it was always because of the Hebrew Congregation. 

Hardly any reason to pay up or get excited. 

By 1988, ETSI/standardisation had set in, Antara sat on the front bench every day, with a boy whose myopia was worse than hers. That boy stayed in India, had boys of his own, but he was close to S&P Global, the one purportedly with German intelligence, so how was his myopia worse than Antara's? Because he switched to Bausch & Lomb contact lenses in the early 1990s, what Antara could never use because of Ukraine?

Then who'd Antara call in India, if she had nothing to talk about?

It was no longer possible for Indians to return to Antara's life in a triumphant manner. They could be smug because of what they had done to the legit lease. They could be not knowing about how Jewish women had been regarded in the legit lease. However, the possibility of a triumphant return was over. 

Antara was good with history, she witnessed the disruption of historical work over the last decade. That was all there was to it, hardly any reason to feel intimidated around her.

Unless, men and women were unsure of what Antara's life had been like as a freelancer, after she had quit HT. Again, there was nothing to it, "A whole rush of books, Antara, new publications, thought I'd read the names out to you over the phone, tell me which one sounds fun, or you'd want to review". 

Or, "I've fallen short, I could really do with an essay, can't you just whip up a literary discussion?"

Of course, all of that ended around a decade ago, after a trip to Batanagar.

February 23, 2026.

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ii. Antara grew up in Asansol. She didn't know the reason for it. Asansol was Anjali's hometown, where Anjali had grown up. In Indian marriages, hardly any woman was able to prevail such that the husband agreed to always stay in the wife's hometown. 

"Where would anyone stay but in Asansol, with the markets, and NS Road close by (especially Antara's maternal grandmother, who was fond of Anjali)," Anjali had said.

These moves to Asansol destroyed Ajit's career. The officials deciding transfers raised the pertinent questions, "Why do you always want to move to your wife's hometown?"

Ajit had replied that it would be easier to raise his daughters, there was no family support from Ajit's side. (Antara's paternal grandparents had passed away before she was born, she never met them.)

The officials deciding on transfers, back in Kolkata, were not always convinced. It tore the family apart, especially after they shifted from Bagdogra (north Bengal, near the Darjeeling hills), to Bankura.

"You had high fever for 2.5 months straight, you had never lived in the plains of Bengal/India before we moved to Bankura, it took you a while to adjust to the tropical weather," Anjali would tell Antara. 

Antara liked listening to such stories, it made her feel distinct from the plains people, "We're actually from the hills," she had told her classmates at school.

Antara's sibling was sent away to live with NS Road after a year of schooling in Bankura. 

"Was that even a school," Anjali had said. Class 4, the class Antara's sibling was studying at, sat on the verandah of the single-storey school building. 

"During monsoon season, I could barely cook the meals at home," Anjali would say. "Lightning strikes, thunderclaps, and poor ... (Antara's sibling), sitting there on an exposed verandah."

When she returned from school, Antara's sibling would tell stories about how close the lightning had landed, barely a few feet away from where she'd been sitting. Hence the decision to send her to live with NS Road, while the rest of the family stayed in Bankura.

"Why did your daughters have to study in private schools, in the English-medium? What was wrong with a government school? It would have a proper building, no sitting in the verandah business in a storm?"

"I wanted my daughters to be fluent in the English language, to remain competitive," Ajit would reply to the officials.

What were the chances Antara could find some of these officials and ask, "Why must your descendants study at Ivy League or other US universities? What was wrong with the government universities in India, with their large buildings?"

Not a chance of finding them.

When the time came for the move out of Bankura, Ajit requested Asansol yet again, "the family was torn apart, we needed to be together". The request was turned down, he was transferred to Burdwan/Bardhhaman. 

"Not even a real posting, I got LR/Leave Reserve," Ajit had said. (It meant Ajit would be used only if the actual official was on leave, Ajit was on reserve.)

Antara's parents decided to move to Asansol. Since it was LR, Ajit would commute daily between Asansol and Burdwan, a couple of hours train journey either way. There was obviously no government accommodation for someone who was on LR, not in Asansol, not in Burdwan.

The house rented in Asansol was close enough to where NS Road lived, it'd take around ten minutes to walk to their place. Antara's heart sank when her parents took her to where they had rented, once the furniture etc had been moved in. A steep, single flight of stairs rose from the road, green with moss, there was no knowing where the stairs were headed.

"The neighbourhood had two levels, the rented house was on the upper level," Ajit had said.

"See, there was a printing press too," Anjali had pointed out. And there it was, a printing press with heavy machines, typeset et al, right next to the mossy stairs, part of a much larger building filled with tenants.

Antara, back in 1984, didn't know what to say. What would she need a printing press for?

A word of advice. When being convinced by the glories of the Samuelson faction, how it understood the world, do ask yourself a question. Were there only two groups in the world, the giver/Samuelson faction and the receiver/Allahabad, Patna, Batanagar etc?

What if others also knew of great games?

February 24, 2026.

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iii. This was the David KE Bruce blogpost, some company called 'nautilus' had apparently asked for it. Here it went:

"Before the Bureau and Silicon Valley decided to sit down and reorder the global finances (their own finances, whatever little they knew, no harm to Antara), they wanted to know, one last time, what Antara thought of Ukraine. 

Antara's parents changed to a coloured television set quite late in the day, almost in the mid-1990s, they could have done so a decade before. Antara's parents were the only ones who watched a black-and-white television set, no one in the neighbourhood did so, definitely not the classmates at school. 

At school, unfortunately, all television-related discussions were always colour-centric, it seemed they saw nothing on television but the colours of things, clothes, nature, people etc.

Obviously, most of you were thinking of Time magazine, whether it was forcing the Bureau and Silicon Valley to have a stringent stance on Ukraine. Antara was not there yet, how vindictive it might get if Time magazine, back in the day, spoke to both OSS officials returning from India after WWII and American soldiers returning to Italy from Austria, also after WWII.

It was a colonised country, not great infrastructure, what was the OSS thinking? Did it discuss restoration of European monarchies with Time magazine, given half of humanity had perished in WWII?

Back in the 1980s and early 1990s, when Antara and her father went for their walks during the evenings, the ground floor apartments would have their windows thrown wide open, their coloured television sets would be turned on. 

That was television for Antara, coloured in other people's homes, as seen through the perspective of the windows. 

It hasn't changed since then, Antara still didn't own a television.

That should set to rest the Ukraine discussions, leading to those actively working with Time magazine, treating Antara as some kind of "hurdle" that lay in the Treasury's path. These operatives have cleared such "hurdles" for the Treasury in the past, hence their enthusiasm. Apparently, it worked through a network of connected individuals, success was assured as long as the network passed through Yemen, where certain militia had an upper-hand not available to the US Govt.

It was probably that 'guilty pleasure' that influenced the State of the Union address 2026, where the US Govt felt enthused and optimistic without knowing it was feeling enthused and optimistic about Yemen.

Because of the 'nautilus' situation, the blogpost now diverged in two directions. One discussed the years 1998-2002, when the practice of western firms "outsourcing" jobs to India had started. Around the same time, Batanagar (the town) had apparently received exceptional information about a torpedo-making factory in the United Kingdom, which was supposed to have been aware about the safety of Antara and her parents. 

The significance had to be emphasised, by 1999, Anjali had been viciously attacked in Purulia, with a pick-axe, as part of a property dispute. It was thus possible that there had been enough information gleaned by Batanagar from 1998 to 2002 to manage Antara and her relatives for the rest of their lives.

The other direction of the blogpost discussed the advanced version of these torpedoes, used by Netherlands, Australia and New Zealand 2008 onwards. For Antara, that meant JLF and AUKUS, were these meant to be hostile to Antara? Had Wool of the Agency always known that given 1998-2002, the legit lease could be taken to New Zealand? 

Why didn't the DoD take any action given the above, it just sat and watched the legit lease disappear into New Zealand?

It didn't seem likely that the United Kingdom had warned the DoD that it was entering the War on Terror only to hurt the legit lease, that it made little difference whether Conservatives or Labour were in power given the deals that had been struck by Wool all over England, what had so viciously endangered everyone on Antara's side. 

It ought to be obvious that both the 9/11 narrative as well as the War on Terror narrative would change given 1998-2002. The urgency for Antara's employment and independent financial status had never been greater." 

February 25, 2026.

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iv. It said something of the closeness of American males and their counterparts in Kolkata that both awaited to see whether Antara would be able to establish the connection between Axis Sally and William 'Wild Bill' Donovan.

The above implied that it caused international delight if Antara/a woman failed, whereas Trump's anarchy, Putin's inability to vanquish Ukraine in four years or even nautilus-buyer's inability to hold the scales even didn't create as much amusement, theirs were failures as well.

Antara might admit defeat right away merely to continue with her blog. (She wasn't defeated at all, it was quite easy to connect Axis Sally to William 'Wild Bill' Donovan.) But if Antara managed to have an independent blog, it might not become a hostage to the ineptitude of US Govt officials. 

And if American men and Kolkata men were enjoying the joke together, at Antara's expense, then some kind of shoddy global financial arrangements had been made, maybe global think tanks on the Carnegie bankroll had suggested how to manage global finances. (Have you read the essays of these Carnegie think tanks? Even the fonts were big, 'think big' had been taken literally by the Carnegie enthusiasts.)

If Antara accepted defeat and stepped away, we would have a better idea of the global financial arrangements made between the United States (public and private sector), Indian cities and NRIs. It would be possible to launch a devastating critique of such an arrangement, so that everyone's opinions could prevail alongside United States-Kolkata. 

Do think about it, let Antara know. There was no way why the rest of us were meant to be excluded from enjoying the global economy. 

Oh yes, connecting Axis Sally to William 'Wild Bill' Donovan. During her undergraduate days, Antara and a few of her batchmates had become fond of seance sessions. It was hokum, everyone knew it didn't work but the passion had lasted awhile. One of those weekends, on a whim, the Alamo Girl had suddenly asked, "The Monsoon Girl was away for the weekend, could you tell us when she'd return, at what time?"

It was a dare, Antara knew the Monsoon Girl would return on Sunday, which turned out to be the answer as well, the time given was 19.20. 

By the time it was Sunday evening, both Antara and the Alamo Girl had forgotten about it, they were walking up and down the corridors of the top floor of the hostel, merrily chatting. It was dark, the corridor lights were yet to be switched on, when a light came on at the second-floor verandah, the floor below. Antara and the Alamo Girl rushed to check who it was, it was indeed the Monsoon Girl returning from the weekend spent with a relative, they checked the time on their watches, it was 19.20.

"Oh, good heavens, noooo," Antara and the Alamo Girl had shrieked and ran to their rooms, the momentary fear caused by what was coincidence but seemed supernatural. 

Around the year 1920, Axis Sally was modelling for artists and doing vaudeville shows, living at Greenwich Village, New York, we know what 'vaudeville' meant. Donovan, on the other hand, was on a JP Morgan assignment, touring Europe, trying to find ways to tackle international Communism.

As we knew in the present day, Donovan and Morgan were successful in tackling Communism, it was no longer heard of as an ideology. Surely theirs was the definition of success, those who never failed at anything? 

Donovan's wisdom, as gathered from Europe, must have made its way to Axis Sally in New York City. It was information about Communism, mind you, not war chests nor global finances, because the moment you make it about war chests, the 1920 ghost would return, Donovan and Axis Sally would become responsible for funding the Nazi Party.

Those that had expected Antara to collapse from lack of contact-corroboration couldn't have been serious. If Antara was awaiting contact-corroboration, so were her relatives, since they all came from the same family. If they hadn't collapsed, why should Antara?

Those that had expected Antara to collapse because of the legit lease and New Zealand were also being frivolous. Antara had never used the legit lease, others had used it for immigration, it was their worry if they were somehow becoming insecure. What Antara didn't use, its loss couldn't bother her.

When did Antara change to long-term plans like the blogposts? When she noticed the tremendous disrespect the 'minders' had for Antara's batchmates, from school and college, for Antara's relatives, but no disrespect for Bhagalpur's classmates or relatives. 

"This would be an immensely challenging ride for women, except NRI females, I'd have to take on everyone's burden," Antara had thought to herself.

Why did the Soviet KI system not have any arrangements to make sure the Nazi Circles were not taken over by the Mob? "Even that information they were not able to communicate to you from Bengaluru or Mumbai, there were no Nazis in these Circles anymore, they've been appropriated by miscreants and wrong-doers."

Still, Antara considered that the last decade of torment had been somewhat useful. In case the Israelis wanted to probe how and why Ajit was harassed, Antara could say she had not been in touch with anyone familiar with these Circles.

February 26, 2026.

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v. Antara usually wrote well unless there was a space crunch. 

It had happened in 1988 or 1989, when she was in Class 4, during a test of English Language, where one had been asked to compose an essay on 'My Birthday Party'.

Antara had half a page left for the essay, she could have easily asked for an extra sheet of paper but decided not to do so, writing as dense as possible. As we'd find out, 1988-89 or ETSI as it was known, was exceptionally tough for Antara.

Also, Antara never had any birthday parties at home. There were never any birthday celebrations either for her or her sibling, her parents hadn't invested in a baking oven, even pastries were not bought for their birthdays. 

Dessert for birthdays meant a bowl of kheer/payesh/Indian pudding, along with some store-bought Indian sweets. Guests meant only NS Road, no neighbours, no classmates. Not for Antara, not for her sibling. Their birthdays were solemn, sulking affairs, with some acerbic remarks thrown at them by NS Road. That's how they grew up. 

Thus, composing an essay on 'My Birthday Party' was quite the challenge for Antara in 1988-89. What would you write about, what usually happened at birthday parties? Based on what she had seen in movies, Antara somehow put a few paragraphs together, as her classmates wrote page after page of surely flamboyant birthday parties they'd had or attended.

Thus, what you didn't know didn't always cause fear. However, what you didn't know was a challenge, it would seem like a bother and given Antara's ETSI-based life, she wouldn't feel like asking for that extra sheet of paper. 

Was it a great plan? The legit lease went missing from Japan, supposed Special Ops people became 'minders', Antara started discussing whatever she knew of the legit lease under pressure, then she was nabbed by authorities for trying to prevent another Holocaust?

Of course, Antara was likely to decide on a clampdown than a discussion of the legit lease. Just like birthday parties, Antara wasn't sure what the Special Ops people were about.

Antara was a younger sibling. Antara was the 13th of 13 grandchildren on her maternal grandparents' side. Antara was the sixth of six grandchildren on her paternal grandparents' side. Antara was never indulged or spoilt. No one wondered at her, or was delighted on meeting her, there were no doting relatives wherever she went. It was a fatigued family, everyone was slow and thoughtful, the miracle of new life being created had stopped being interesting for Antara's relatives on either side.

Thus, when the lease supposedly went away from Japan, Antara wouldn't have any anecdotes to share about the legit lease.

However, in early 1988, Antara had once been felled by a "gust of air". Antara had been unwell, had fever for several weeks, once she had recovered, she went out to play and fell down within minutes. 

It caused great enjoyment among her relatives, "Antara was felled by a gust of air, how thin and weak was she?" made the rounds, it even reached Gorakhpur (Uttar Pradesh), where her uncle had said, evoking a television show 'Aisa bhi hota hai'/It really happened, "Aisa bhi hota hai...chhoti ladki hawa se gir jati hai..."/It really happened, a small girl was felled by a gust of air.

Thus, it would seem that even the formidable Ukrainian intelligence would have to resort to 'It really happened', ..."It really happened, the war continued, the Treasury was not understood but the legit lease went missing again, and instead of figuring out war, peace, ceasefire, Treasury, the Special Ops purportedly started torturing Antara about what she might spill on the legit lease".

Had Donovan been around, he'd have gone to Europe, trying to find out what Special Ops was about, what kind of political parties needed it.

The Agency might say that Special Ops managed the spy rings from Moscow that infiltrated the United States. That would be a geopolitical puzzle,

why Moscow spies immigrated after the United States came under attack in 2001, how they were managed for the next 25 years as individuals hostile to the United States and why Antara ended up being tortured as part of that bargain, why even the life she led had to be taken away from her. 

February 27, 2026.

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vi. It was apparently a terrible time to be a US Govt official.

When the Global South immigrated, it went with its demands, requests, orders, desires, aspirations, these were communicated the moment it reached the United States and was ushered into a hassle-free capitalist existence. 

It wouldn't tolerate the Russian narrative, it didn't want to hear what Germans thought of Germany, Imperial Russia was intolerable as well, employment or documents for Antara out of the question, contact-corroboration couldn't be considered except as humiliation, otherwise no one should ever mention 'contact-corroboration'. 

Most of the Global South's demands were organised under the overheads mentioned above. From dawn to dusk, US officials tried to meet these objectives. Just because they didn't participate in World Wars didn't mean etc.

One of the biggest challenges facing US officials was keeping BT's persona shrouded in secrecy from Antara. The problem was, Antara didn't meet her paternal grandfather but it was not that she met grandfathers of others. Till the 9/11 attacks, Antara had met two grandfathers, one of these was Mitun's grandfather, who had interrogated Antara at length about her parents and their families. 

The other grandfather she had met was at the Kolkata paying guest facility, the proprietor so to say, he always watched television, was named after a celebrity, wore a 'lungi' at home/garment for men, and was a retired high government official. 

Thus, it was possible to deduce that BT was interested in Ukraine, closely resembled Ajit, knew something about Indra Lal, and that was where it got troubling, because Antara had better information than that from Anjali but nothing on individuals called Indra Lal. 

For example, Anjali had said that BT was "taller and fairer" than Ajit, which implied his stature was higher, he was also closer to fairer versions of justice. However, who had he interrogated at length, what Mitun's grandfather had enacted?

Anjali had also indicated that BT trusted German intelligence, often explicit, on Ukraine, else he wouldn't understand the 1930s. Was that what the interrogation was about?

Of all the people in the world, US officials shouldn't have made the mistake of assuming that the way to evade the Global South-created crisis around the Treasury and the currency was to give a free hand to the White House and its proximity to British intelligence. And yet US officials did exactly that, because they had assumed that the US-UK Mutual Defence Agreement was the source of Antara's allusions.

"That's what we intimated to UC at Berkeley, if the problems for the lease family arose from the 1958 Mutual Defence Agreement, if all crises was because of it, then the allusions would adhere to it as well. If one of the parties reneged on the Agreement, Antara's blogs and allusions would stop".

Dear UC at Berkeley, Antara didn't know how to put it, these US officials had got everything wrong. If Antara's blog had been tepid, somewhat tedious at times, it was because of the 1958 Mutual Defence agreement and its compulsions, it was also because of Europe. 

"When would the real allusions start, the life I had led in India, had no official worked on them at all?" Antara would think to herself. 

Finally, with the US Govt somewhat detaching itself from Antara to "immerse in the Global South", the actual blogposts were starting out, it would be enjoyable to read, Antara would be able to discuss politics and defence in a meaningful format, it wouldn't become the Class of 1995's show as the Russia-Ukraine War had turned out to be.

There were some jibes thrown at Antara's college, "tourist attraction" etc. An institution that taught advanced-level subjects only to women would face challenges, as Antara had understood over the last decade. The college's first principal was called Dr Rama Chaudhuri.

In an unrelated context, BT and his family referred to black-eyed peas as 'rama'. 

Maybe the 1990s were well-spent, after all.

February 28, 2026.

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vii. Here's the thing, Harris.

We discussed Brabourne, in terms of BT, because we wanted to understand the Chinese thinking in Global South immigration. Since the Chinese send their own people, what was the purpose of the rest of the Global South immigrating to the United States?

If you were, as usual, feeling stressed out because Brabourne was mentioned, it would suffice for you to know that many nationalities of the Global South stayed in the United States to remain connected to the Peace Corps and other Peace Missions of the Cold War. They were US citizens, but not loyal ones, they sent back the Peace Corps-Peace Mission information to their respective countries of origin.

The Global South's interest in how the Agency had packaged 'nautilus' became so extreme that it could forego Iran, while staying close to the Trumps and to Washington State.

The problem was Delhi media, why had it reported to NASA that Antara was capable of sniffing out Peace Corps-Peace Mission operatives no matter how well the Trumps hid them?

Antara's work involved working on her own, which Peace Corps-Peace Mission individual did she offend? How long did she work for Delhi media that such things about Antara were noticed? These were the years 2008-09 or so, what were the Trumps doing managing Peace Corps-Peace Mission individuals around Antara and why?

It was one thing to be not contacted or corroborated, quite another to have former, serving and future POTUSes constantly devise such complicated assaults for the sake of the Global South in the US.

Harris, when you have answered the above questions to everyone's satisfaction, we'd tell you how the Brabourne narrative would progress. 

In any case, there was only one aspect to Brabourne, why it never alerted Antara what the college was about, why it didn't involve her in the Annual Day celebrations, why she was made to feel so unwanted and unwelcome that she left for home before the Annual Day celebrations, every year except 1996, and then only to make sure that Antara saw Chetla make a cameo appearance at the end of the English language play.

As we all knew, Chetla was not a cameo, she didn't appear at the end, she was not merely about AAP which meant she was indicating Edward Teller and what he might have found out about what was meant for NSDAP and what went wrong.

Everyone knew what you were thinking, Harris. 

You've created a Pakistan-Afghanistan War to remind us of MLK Jr. That you knew how to control the global turn of events, that Chetla would get to hold forth on what NSDAP was meant to be.

Let's wait, Harris, remember General Staff officers have lots of unused plans on their desks, it didn't prove complicity, it didn't implicate Antara.

Antara's torture, however, was real, it didn't remain unused and forgotten. 

March 1, 2026.

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viii. Indra Lal had shown what he was capable of. 

Good for you, Indra Lal.

Antara had caught up too.

It was meant to be two or three men supposedly in RAF. They'd be allowed to deal in German intelligence. That was after WWI had ended. That was the early 1920s.

By the 1940s, all of Gujarat province had become involved.

By the 1990s, you couldn't call it German intelligence anymore.

By 2003, it was with S&P Global.

By 2016, it was with Scott Trust.

By 2026, it was nowhere.

What had started "with a few men dealing in German intelligence". What a performance, Sir-ji!

The following was what Antara found out about the wisdom of Indra Lal.

a. A man with two daughters would have to find spouses for those daughters.

b. The spouses would remain connected to each other through the Parsis.

c. The target would be the 84th Infantry Division of the US Army, why did it dent the Siegfried Line in Europe during WWII? That was not what Kolkata had decided with the OSS in the China-Burma Theatre.

(Yes, it was now only China-Burma, Antara found out when she was travelling back from Kolkata, she had to converse with an individual called 'CB', 'you will always find tea at Tea Junction', CB came up to Antara and said.)

d. The 84th Infantry Division was important because of what the New Market-Park Street area of Kolkata may have found out about the legit lease. What did they know that the rest of Kolkata didn't? It used to be the European part of town, it was possible they were better informed.

e. If the younger girl (of the man with the two daughters) was to be isolated and brutalised, the older had to stay secure. Was it advisable to keep the older with a Third Reich unit, even if it was about Danzig, a Hanseatic town or if the unit had played a nasty role during the invasion of Poland?

f. It was decided that to keep the older girl further secure, she'd be with Danzig but the spouses of the two girls would be in charge. So it would be permanently 3 against 1, against the younger girl. 

Hmm, Indra Lal.

g. It put the spouse of the younger girl in a strange position where his own identity made him a favourite of Washington DC but his Danzig unit responsibilities made him hostile to Washington DC.

"It would keep the instability situation within the United States in the lifelong control of Bhagalpur, he could play with the situation anyway he wanted."

h. Antara would recommend that the spouses of these two girls keep serving the older girl, using Danzig. 

The younger would have to find a way to survive.

Kuwait was one thing, no one wanted CB/OSS to get furious at humanity. 

March 2, 2026.

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Prepping for G7

People worldwide had understood that the constant threat of instability was not according well with the aspirations of the small towns of West Bengal as well as Kolkata.

Bengal towns and Kolkata had needed the instability to impose draconian measures, like withholding Aadhaar etc, but their aspirations were unlikely to be seriously considered till the crisis was solved, the events since 2012 discussed and understood, certain criminal prosecutions undertaken as well.

Through it all, Antara had kept submitting her work. What would the western officials tell her? 

"Those that had thwarted and ruined your life now wanted to move on? We'd need some scapegoats for criminal prosecution because those actually responsible wanted to be rewarded for what was done to you? That could you believe it, given the way you performed in Science, scoring excellently, your ruination was arranged by the Obama administration through nuclear legislations, which sort of evolved proliferation to a new level? That your paternal grandparents were used as an excuse, if they didn't get ALSOS Mission information, why keep her informed of what the US Govt did with nuclear technology?"

Do we always lead the lives of our grandparents? 

Was Barack Obama's grandparent President of the United States? 

We'd have to assume it was so, given north Kolkata, how else could two decades be taken away from someone's life and no US official even suggest, "Was it legal? Has anyone ever been punished for their grandparents, the grandparents' lack of education and resources, the way Anjali described BT and Pratibha?"

It seemed US officials had been compensated in certain ways. In the decade following the 9/11 attacks, probably surprised that Antara was not getting the message that she was inferior to her relatives (and later her spouse), they had considered her slow, "Which woman didn't realise that her family members wanted her to be lowly, defeated, submissive? Going to university, journalism college, where were all these aspirations coming from?"

These US officials had made arrangements for a safe future for themselves, such that Antara's desire to succeed didn't come in the way of their comfortable lives.

If your US Congress had authorised the "US President to pursue bilateral and multilateral international agreements to establish an international framework for determining the source of any confiscated nuclear or radiological material or weapon",

if Americans had repeatedly decided that Donald Trump was the right individual to detect the sources of nuclear or radiological material,

then why should American news personalities throw a tantrum if Donald Trump wrote to Norway, maybe he was trying to detect the source of some confiscated nuclear material, or trying to establish an 'international framework' by annexing Greenland?

Did American news personalities not want the US president to remain loyal to American legislation?

January 19, 2026.

****

ii. The US President's formalised powers to search for the sources of nuclear and radiological material had great uses. 

For example, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) officially concluded its withdrawal from Yemen on January 2, 2026 (also the birthday for the likes of Chetla, Supriya etc).

Yet Antara was not alerted to it, how would Antara know the significance of that event 18 days later? 

And if Antara was not eligible for such alerts, who was 'running' her blog, if it was supposed to contain commentary on military matters?

How would Antara know the 'status' of her blog at present? 

Given the hysteria-driven politics of Washington DC, what if a Trump executive order had 'downgraded' her blog, if it was now merely journalistic assertions on random topics? Antara would never find out if it had been 'downgraded', except in the vicious behaviour of those around her.

Yet, it seemed like just the other day that Antara had been alerted that it was the Port Hodeydah Agreement of 2019 that had come in the way of Antara's employment, "You could have very well taken the job offered by The Hindu newspaper in summer 2019, it was that defence wife/former classmate of yours that had wreaked havoc in your life in her rush to the Treasury".

What happened in the course of these years that the UAE withdrew from Yemen but the supposed instability within India didn't cease? Antara's sources of information came under attack, she no longer received relevant news alerts or notifications, she had to unsubscribe from DoD newsletters given how insulting they had become, how would Antara write to others in India?

Antara's word of advice to the defence wife/former classmate: everyone in India was aware that the instability should have been over, Chetla lived abroad, you have been identified as one of the main instigators of trouble (with some political backing), everyone knew whose support you were flaunting, what dreaded name you were trying to involve.

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) had made one mistake. When the Governor of Hadramawt alleged about weapons cache and secret detention facility at Riyan airport (even after the UAE had withdrawn), about underground operations rooms and fortified shelters that were allegedly used as prisons, UAE didn't realise that it was being reminded of the Qala Jangi prison riot at Mazar-e-Sharif in Afghanistan, Nov 2001, what was purportedly not against the Agency, the Agency being a 'front'.

Was the prison riot at Mazar-e-Sharif in Nov 2001 against the UAE?

That could only imply a WWII reference, nothing from recent times.

It was an attack on Antara of stupendous proportions. Antara had few UAE references from her school days, except the cricket matches played at Sharjah in the 1980s, the Indian cricket team didn't always perform well, there'd be notorious gangsters in the galleries, watching the matches. 

UAE's involvement in WWII seemed to have been about providing a crucial "logistics hub and staging post", thousands of Allied aircrafts refuelling at the Sharjah Airfield/Al-Mahatta, as they flew towards India and the Eastern Theatre.

If the defence wife/former classmate was conflating WWI and WWII, it was possible she was accusing Austria of making sure the RAF expanded the Imperial Airways strip at Sharjah into something viable for a World War.

It was not possible to continue the blog without identifying the Goering-Luftwaffe interest that was dictating how some of the former classmates behaved. It was not a crime for Austria to be friendly towards RAF, Austria had been annexed, it didn't have to be loyal to the Nazis. 

Why was Luftwaffe using instability in India to further Goering's agenda?

January 20, 2026. 

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iii. Did Antara ever think of impacting legislations as exalted as those in the European Parliament?

No, if you remember, Antara had written the Civil Services Exam in India, she was interested in impacting legislation within India, which ended up going to random legislative research centres set up by Gupta and friends. 

The point was missed in hiring lawyers from south India for India's legislations. We've had bureaucratese, India had excessive legal jargon, we needed less lawyers in drafting bills for the Lok Sabha, not more legal teams. 

Who had the intent to listen to such arguments?  Some worthies had visited New York, where there was a plethora of law firms with surnames hanging on to each other, never consider if New York needed law firms like that, then bring the concept to India, shove it on an unprepared country. 

Had Antara's relatives or in-laws' ever visited her, she'd have enacted how this country, our India, was broken in 2008, how no one said, "How will we live here?" Antara had tried writing about it to others, they sent abusive replies.

--Oh, okay, wow, did Antara ever think of visiting Europe, forget impacting its legislations or trade deals?

Antara wanted to scour every inch of India, she already knew her favourite would be Hampi, then Golconda Fort, travel all over the northeastern states, then take the train along the scenic Konkan Railways. She had memorised every map showing India, that was her hobby till the torture started, from railway networks of India to agricultural production to rainfall patterns to what crops and vegetation grew in semi-arid regions. 

What a turn of events, Antara who loved India so much, to be so disliked by Indians. 

Antara didn't know how to get Paytm and UPI else she would have got the friendship of Indians. She was thinking of buying Dale Carnegie's 'How to Win Friends and Influence People', prepare for the next embassy event, could it be Kazakhstan? 

--Okay, so how was Europe present in Antara's life when she was at school?

Oh, that. The lunch-box was compartmented, the sweet or the slice of cake was at the narrow compartment on the side, the rest of the lunch-box was puri-aloo sabzi. That's how Antara understood Europe, excessive Indian influence of a certain sort, hardly any European involvement in decision-making.

--Were the likes and dislikes of Antara because of the neighbourhood she grew up in, which abjured the Tagores? Surely designating a few families to 'manage the Tagore agenda' meant its rejection?

Antara never knew that people had agendas. On summer evenings, when her mother and sibling joined other females from their building, all hanging out and conversing loudly, she'd stay back with her father in their flat and complain, "Could you believe them, how loudly they were chattering?"

"They were like that," Ajit would say, "why don't you sit with me at the verandah?" and they'd sit and swap stories, how Antara wrote the blog.

Hence, Antara wouldn't know if the women were discussing a Tagore agenda or something against it or if they were aware that their information came from German soldiers who fought on the Eastern Front during WWII. So many Germans were taken POWs, paraded in Moscow, what was the credibility of their information? Yet, Bonn seemed to have made much of it, and back then, India's economic prowess was considerably less.

--So Europeans didn't have any say in how Europe was managed, Antara avoided where women and girls gathered in her neighbourhood, she feared they had Moscow information. Why did Antara think she was being interrogated and harassed after a decade of unceasing torture?

Antara was always left to herself, allowed to read and think, write and wonder. No girl bothered her in her neighbourhood, no boy came after her either, she could keep to herself and read even at relatives' houses. As she was reminded in later years, "That was the best education, learning and enjoying, keeping the child free of forced routine (except attending school)". 

Antara never went to a dance school or any sporting academy, no art school or music lessons, hence she learnt to appreciate what was around her.

January 21, 2026.

****

iv. Antara ended up in a newsroom, she had never wanted to be a journalist. Her decision to become a journalist was taken over a few days. 

Antara's Civil Services exam results had been declared, she was hoping for an interview call, her mother accompanied her to a cyber cafe at the other end of Purulia town (where they lived in those years), the cycle-rickshaw fare for either way was Rs 20, she logged into one of the computers, found that her roll number was not listed among those who got called for the interview, came back home in what seemed like the longest cycle-rickshaw ride in human history, sat down by the side of the bed and loudly cried over the years lost in prepping for the Civil Services, her parents sat on either side on the floor, "now don't you weep like that etc".

In later years, the rock band 'Kiss' was sometimes blamed for Antara's Civil Services debacle, it had been active in New York City for half a century, from 1973 to 2023, it apparently managed the politics of BT's House, it was supposed to take care of all of Antara's relatives except her parents. The rock band allegedly had the support of a Brazilian aerospace manufacturer, Antara didn't know how to verify that information.

However, through her life, Anjali had frequently recounted an anecdote about a Bengali woman who had got married in Sao Paolo, Brazil (to a Bengali man living there), the aerospace manufacturer also happened to be based in Sao Paolo. The woman was disconsolate every time she left for Brazil, "It was not the flight to New York, on which there were enough Indians, but the connecting flight to Sao Paolo, she knew no one on it and it tore her apart." 

Everyone could sympathise with the plight of the young woman, dreading the change in New York for a longer haul.

Thus, it was possible that neither Anjali nor the Israelis had suffered any intelligence setback, they were fully aware that Antara was to be deceived with support from the American media, they had known what kind of Indian support was provided to the 1960s counter-culture movement in the United States, that it was impossible to live in India and also solve those problems.

Antara was a fiction writer, so Anjali had assumed it would be easier for her to discuss these matters.

Antara could finally state that

--the 1960s counter-culture and how NRIs took advantage of it was the basis of the torture against her,

--there was considerable American media support for it,

--Antara's connection to Batanagar (the town) made it worse, where the 1960s counter-culture and its resultant immigration had been expertly managed,

--Antara didn't need metaphors, mentioning Chicago would be enough to get the US honchos excited,

--if we understood what damage the Chicago Trials did, how it might have led to the Kiss rock band, we would realise that despite all that loyalty to NS Road, Ajit-Anjali were never considered as 'one of their own'.

Antara's allusions had stated that NS Road and AT's family united through the 1990s, because of the Rockefellers. It now seemed that the Carnegies and the Rockefellers might have merely provided the cover, that the actual understanding between NS Road and AT, why they were devoted to each other, lay further back than the 1990s.

January 22, 2026.

****

v. As most of us knew, families that had been provided currency information by the British in the aftermath of WWI were trying to prevail in the financial/currency scenario.

It was about being ahead of others, even if the currency information was outdated, irrelevant, incorrect. The fact that the British had wanted to harm Austria, that the British wanted to destabilise the global financial system, that the British were neither 'propah' nor showed adequate caution or responsibility, it enlivened people worldwide.

"Such a source of support for the Tagores, the Communists, that the British had a vitriolic hatred for Austria" was how it had been interpreted.

Thus, what the British had done was to initiate the military (in any part of the world) to currency information, and militaries came armed with cannons, gun carriages, artillery, rifles etc while politicians were civilians, they didn't have a huge arsenal of weaponry at their disposal. 

Currency was the domain of unarmed civilians, it was the British who allowed armed men to enter that domain. 

The Schutzstaffel/SS of Nazi Germany was an inevitable consequence of the above British behaviour. European Jewry was not attacked because it had currency information, it was attacked because the SS had got currency information as well. Thereby it became a competition, a rivalry between two groups with currency information and those that were armed obviously defeated those that weren't.

What did the above argument achieve? Those in the Class of 1995 had been taught that the way to be known worldwide, to leave a lasting legacy was to use financial instruments, create situations and then become a player in that situation. 

If Unit Trust failed, then small savings were bad. What was preferable? Transfer of direct cash in small amounts, for consumption and other expenditure. Thus, everyone lived well and were happy, no one had to reduce immediate gratification or show fiscal discipline, salaries/earnings were saved, national savings didn't drop either.

The only challenge: you were not supposed to ask what SOFR was about, why should there be direct cash transfer at all, who was rewarding you and why, and why were you unwilling to spend your salary?

What Antara had known since her schooldays was thus holding true in 2026 as well. 

Between Delhi honchos, Lawrence Sidney Eagleburger and the Treasury, there was possibly a Numbers agreement regarding Auschwitz, that's why SOFR proceeded without hindrance, what the 'boardgame' calculated every single day. When Bessant said the United States was 'back', he probably meant it was back in the late 1930s, or so it seemed to Antara.

If the above agreement between Delhi honchos, Treasury and Eagleburger was correct, it showed in the workings of the OTT/Over The Top channels with direct internet usage, given it avoided traditional cable, just like SOFR avoided the scrutiny of the traditional economy. As the OTT channels rose and fell, as the content they generated changed, you'd know the Numbers agreement was changing accordingly, thereby affecting SOFR.

Antara had been allowed to declare that OTT internet usage was directly connected to the vulnerability of Jews worldwide, yes, it was 'breaking news', at least for the blog.

In her childhood, Antara had loved aquariums, they were popular in the small towns of West Bengal, most families kept one in the living room. The number of vibrantly coloured fishes declined through the 1980s, till most aquariums had one big fat fish, with the fish feed resting on top of the aquarium in a small bag.

We knew what the big fat fish symbolised, but then, in a particular family's aquarium, Antara came across an underwater commando/soldier, kitted in his special diving gear, bubbles rising from the oxygen tank on his back, crouching behind a rock and underwater vegetation. 

That aquarium had no fishes at all, not even the big fat one. Antara has never been to Norway.

January 23, 2026.

****

vi. Mildred Gillars was one of the American broadcasters employed by Nazi Germany for Axis propaganda, she was one of the 'Axis Sallys'. 

Apparently, Gillars had volunteered for the Nazi job knowing that she wouldn't be acknowledged but was captured and convicted of treason. Her trial took place at a US Federal court in Washington DC, in early 1949, presided over by a district court judge. Gillars was sentenced to 10-30 years of imprisonment, she was paroled in 1961. 

It was regarded as some kind of weakness within the American judicial system, the inability to resist the capture of the so-called Axis Sally. 

One of Gillars' Berlin nicknames was 'Midge at the Mike', it followed Antara through her schooldays. At debating competitions, the microphone would be removed before Antara spoke, because Antara was soft-spoken, it would make her seem weak. One didn't know how Gillars felt but for Antara, 'Midge at the Mike' was an insult, 'midge' meant flies that swarmed marshy areas, it was not a healthy way to regard a batchmate.

As far as Antara could understand, Mildred Gillars had left the United States in 1933 (first for Algiers, then to Dresden, Germany in 1934), with adequate financial information on the US Govt, to be provided to Nazi Germany. 

Ajit often recounted anecdotes about ghosts and hauntings but before we went there, we ought to describe the Rashmela house in Purulia that AT-BT inhabited. It was probably a one-storey building in the 1940s, given the second storey was built in the 1960s, by Ajit himself, just before Antara's parents got married. 

Further along in the neighbourhood, they had another property, a house they called 'Baithak-khana', the Bengali term for a formal living room. It was there that they received their visitors, away from where they lived. Since there were several boys between AT and BT, the boys went to sleep at the 'Baithak-khana' at night.

Whenever Ajit mentioned the 'Baithak-khana' as haunted, Anjali would reject any such notion. "Sure it was not a female ghost?" she'd say, indicating Antonin Novotny of the Czech Communist Party, Novotny had probably given them a scare during the Cold War.

Separately, Ajit would recount, "Your mother was correct, it was a female ghost. As soon as we boys fell asleep at the 'Baithak-khana', she'd make her presence felt. She sat on the chest, it was so heavy, one started gasping for breath/air, one couldn't even shout out, sweating profusely, till the other boys woke up. She attacked all of us, one by one (including Ajit)."

What did you do to free yourself, Antara would ask.

"Oh, she had to be forcefully removed, and then you should have seen us, all AT's sons and Ajit, we'd run out into the neighbouring Rashmela field and we all started running around in circles. 'Let us go, you ghost, let go of our chest', we'd keep shouting. We simply didn't stop, we kept running in circles through the rest of the night."

January 24, 2026.

****

vii. If the American elite (mostly Communists) wanted to know what kind of upbringing Antara had, what she understood of German-ness, what was the most significant German personality for her, it would have to be Hyderabad.

For the birthdays of her male cousins (of Asansol, usually two decades older than Antara) were not celebrated, at least Antara's parents were not considered for the celebrations. Antara's maternal uncle would visit Ajit-Anjali's household, riding his scooter, on their respective birthdays, carrying a steel tiffin box with payesh/kheer inside it, an Indian dessert. It had either been prepared by Antara's maternal grandmother or her aunt, the cousins' mother.

However, on the female cousin's birthday, Ajit-Anjali and their daughters were invited to dine. 

As we knew, it was not about the female cousin, it was about CIEFL Hyderabad (now known as EFLU), an institution that was supposed to challenge the legit lease, which would be a gathering place for foreigners that wanted to oppose the legit lease, where INC would display its hold on the global elite and contrast it with Antara's scrappy and financially unsupported efforts to defend the legit lease.

CIEFL Hyderabad had apparently been established on November 17, 1958. The biggest draw was supposed to be the military top brass from across the world, how many detested and opposed the legit lease, Poland and Austria?

Thus, if Hyderabad was the biggest German event of Antara's childhood, the biggest German for her would be Aino Maria Kuusinen (1886-1970), a Finnish Communist who worked for the Comintern through the 1930s.

Aino Maria Kuusinen was not some wild guess, she had worked at the Ophthalmology Hospital in Helsinki in the first decade of the 20th century. Most of Antara's relatives (on her side) and acquaintances got their ophthalmological treatment from Hyderabad. 

Aino Maria Kuusinen's husband had been a railway engineer and there it began to get complicated, for Antara had a relative on her father's side, a female who was a railway engineer, her name was supposed to indicate Champa/the Hindu-Buddhist past of Vietnam, her family followed the intrigues of Mount Lebanon, Delhi media honchos had used railway nurses around Antara from her childhood to indicate Washington DC's desire to annex eastern Europe and the Balkans, then contact Antara, which brought us to the question,

was it enough to gather Communist trivia in hedonistic Washington DC in order to have the right to annex eastern Europe?

What had been the Obamas' contribution to the Communist cause apart from their knowledge of trivia?

January 25, 2026.

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viii. As far as Antara remembered, her parents spent three years in Bankura, from early 1981 to early 1984. Initially, they lived at a rented house, later they shifted to govt accommodations.

Had Antara wanted to solve her problems in a hurried manner, she could have written about Bankura on a daily basis, staving off both the attacks on organised religion and those against the nation-State/democracy that have arisen since 2012.

But no one had been able to figure out what Chetla wanted, what agenda women's colleges in Kolkata pursued, were they contented and hence aggressive or did they have grievances and thereby indulged in ceaseless intrigues?

Antara had been interrogated for a decade, it was obvious she hadn't understood her batchmates at all, if they loathed western education, what traditional kinds of education systems did they wanted to revive?

One of the interesting anecdotes in Bankura involved Ajit being invited to a game of dice or 'pasha' as it was called. Ajit had been taken by surprise, he probably didn't like being threatened with Turkey or the Ottoman Empire. 

Anjali's favourite Bengali adage was 'Pasha/kormonasha', or the game of dice (what was also called 'pasha' in Bengali) destroyed work atmosphere or work ethics. What did it imply, Turkish intelligence on the Nazi Holocaust? The Turkish awareness that the Calvinist ethos was under attack during the genocide against the Jews? 

The women (including Anjali) had sat separately while Antara watched the game unfold among the men, it was probably 1983. The die looked polished, of expensive material, the game played on a spotless white linen cloth.

Antara recently read about the raids during the Normandy beach landings in 1944. One particular battery outpost, managed by Polish prisoners of war on behalf of the Germans, had surrendered, waving white flags. It had not been a successful day for the British, setbacks elsewhere, thus by the time Ajit was casting his die in that game in 1983, the British had withdrawn, as had the Polish groups, nor was it that his wife Anjali was supportive of such a maneuver.

Who had organised such a game?

Antara understood the above situation in the following way. 

A situation had arisen by the early 1980s that "satisfied no one", lessons were derived from WWII, especially from Manstein Plan/Case Yellow/Fall Gelb. 

It fit most of the 'game of dice' situation, being dissatisfied and constantly improvising, attack the weakest part (as the Allied line was in the Ardennes), except, unlike the German victory in 1940, the outcome of the game of dice was not quite certain. Antara didn't remember that her father lost yet by September 1984, when Antara had taken admission at Asansol AG Church and was yellow with jaundice, her parents had carried her to the school in an auto-rickshaw.

"This was a proper high school, it was her first birthday after taking admission there, why would she be at home with jaundice?" Of course, Antara's parents timed it wrong, Antara reached school during Hindi-Bengali class, distributed lozenges to half her classmates and went home with her parents.

Two and a half decades later, sometime in 2008, Ajit suffered a fall, he was on the terrace, taking his evening walk, and fell on his back without any impetus. Anjali had called up both their daughters, "Toughen up, Ajit wasn't with us for long". 

As it happened, Anjali passed away in 2009, Ajit briefly outlived her.

Thus a 1983 game of dice involving Manstein Plan (without the British or even Poland) had continued in 1984 as Case Yellow and revived in 2008 as Fall Gelb. 

Wasn't it different names for the same German military offensive against France, variously called Manstein Plan, Case Yellow or Fall Gelb? 

If the British had been thrown out, who were we fighting?

January 26, 2026.

****

ix. Jewish men in western countries often chose destructive ways to pivot their careers because the lease family wouldn't share its intelligence with them. 

Somehow, they concluded it was their identity that was the problem, "Had we been in the military, they'd (lease family) have been more forthcoming." 

Their grouse should have provided them the answer they were seeking. 

If Europe was constantly ridiculed over IG Farben, Krupp and other war crimes-tainted corporations, if Europe's private sector could still survive (they didn't have knowledge of Ukraine either), why American Jewish life was such a strain, why they couldn't manage without full explanation of what happened in Ukraine, was surprising.

Any discussion of the Ukraine years was a discussion of political instability, including a surfeit of fraudulent leases, would you rather discuss it with the military or with random American men and women?

However, misdemeanour and crimes did cause serious damage and became a setback to the lease family. It was especially harsh on Antara, who had been solving the problems of adults since the 1980s, when she was quite young, so that someday, she'd be able to tell her father's story and then join him on the journey to discover their identity.

The war crimes-tainted European corporations could never be part of the legit lease but they'd join the Agency and create the worldwide narrative of the Nazi Holocaust. OSS intelligence had been saved for a reason. Thus, the legit lease, European corporations, and the Agency managed to survive January 27, 2026, they might live again.

Of course, Antara travelling with her father in search of their identity was easier said than done. The introduction of Harrow and its politics into the Indian scene was meant to hinder such a scenario. Harrow had felt challenged when Antara navigated both private and govt educational institutions in India with an ease that negated the need for British support. "So one could pick up manners, become educated and stay fond of one's parents" within an Indian format?

It had seemed that Antara's experience of school and college life was diametrically opposed to an influential person, who had neither absorbed the foreign manners nor liked his country of origin.

It was not surprising that German intelligence would bend over to accommodate Harrow and its intentions, all that Harrow apparently wanted was those born in 1985 or after, such that their lives began with the 1985 Plaza Accord and Trump, not even the 1983 Ronald Reagan-Bruno Kriesky meeting. 

(These Indians, born in 1985 or after, formed the bulk of those that tortured Antara, using the surveillance.)

What was surprising was that Harrow would wait for the 9/11 attacks, actually till December 2001, then start attacking Antara and her parents, using children living in the slums in Purulia. 

What was surprising was that these slum children would have nicknames for Ajit and Anjali, 'Englis Bura'/elderly English gent and 'Englis Buri'/elderly English woman, Antara was 'bilati murgi'/foreign chicken.

That was Harrow's grievance? Was it believable, they were accusing Ajit and Anjali of being pro-British? Who went to Harrow then, who were they loyal to, if not the British?

And Antara? If you had studied and stayed in India and preferred simple Indian meals, how could you be a 'foreign chicken'?

Of course, WWII families were supposed to stand apart from such verbal assaults and other kinds of mischief, even if it included jibes about the Nazi Holocaust. But then something strange happened, as the harassment of Antara and her parents kept increasing in Purulia, around 2004-05, the police in the US started taking formal interest in the complaints in the Epstein case (though abuses had been reported from the mid-1990s.)

"This was not a mere old British establishment network, these were Britishers who had utilised the RMS Titanic sinking, going straight back to the American Revolution to establish closeness with the United States's founding fathers. They've denigrated the nation-building of the 19th century and gone back to the 18th century."

Thus, a double-pronged Treasury grab had been in place since 2001, based out of Britain, one harassing the lease family in India, the other pursuing the Treasury in the US. 

"They've got the concept of the legit lease heir wrong, it was not a fresh approach, it was not about feeling good about oneself." Why had they listened to Dhaka, what would it know of the legit lease?

January 27, 2026.

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x. Antara chose to discuss what was interesting and topical, but they were not always a realistic depiction of the life she had led.

There was no way to put an advisory on the blog, there were few readers as of now but Antara would advise that later discussions might get tough to endure.

For example, the 1985 Plaza Accord, no matter how essential for the Agency and the US State Department in managing their daily activities, keeping in mind the interests of those aged 40 and under, did have a disastrous impact on Antara.

As stated earlier, in the early 1980s, Antara and her parents stayed in Bankura. The govt accommodation was a fairly large two-storied house, they occupied the ground floor, spacious rooms with two baths and a verandah. Antara's parents bought some furniture there, to fill up the rooms. 

The first floor was also theirs to use but there weren't that many family members (or furniture) to fill it, it remained locked and not in use. 

Through those years, Antara's sibling stayed at NS Road with the relatives.

Antara would come back from school in the afternoon, kindergarten (or Nursery as it was called) was 10 am to 2.30 pm. On returning from school, Anjali settled down for a nap, Antara played in that large house by herself, there was no one to watch her. 

The housemaid was a girl in her late teens. Once she was done doing the dishes, she'd ask Antara, "Come, I'll show you the 'au-wa/au-wa' dance steps so that you could do it well." (This was a reference to the popular Hindi tune 'Koi yahan/nache nache', influenced by 'Video Killed the Radio Star'.)

Antara and the housemaid would go into the stairwell of the house, "I've seen the movie so the steps were accurate", the maid would say, and they practiced it together. At such a point, Anjali would get up and the maid would go home.

On certain weekends, Ajit would go to Asansol to visit the sibling, so that she didn't feel neglected, to check on how she was doing. Anjali had a strict ritual for those days, if Ajit was away, Antara would have her dinner on the dining table, she wouldn't sit on the chair.

So the four-year-old Antara would sit atop the dining table, at its centre, Anjali would serve her fragrant rice, knobs of butter, posto/poppy seed paste, mashed potatoes. Antara was too young to understand why it was a treat if her father was away.

Every time he went away, however, Antara would ask, "We'd have the same treat?" "Obviously," Anjali would reply, "your father's not there".

By late 1985-early 1986, they were no longer living in the spacious house in Bankura, they had moved to a rented house in a squalid neighbourhood of Asansol, the dining table remained packaged, there was no room to set it up, everyone had to sit on the floor and eat, rice-dal-sabzi, most days Antara couldn't even finish her dinner, Ajit no longer went away anywhere.

That was the Plaza Accord year, by the way.

By 1988 and ETSI year, everyone else at home had shifted to roti-sabzi for dinner, Antara had to accept it as well. The worst happened on an evening when Anjali was not at home, she returned late, there was no time to make dinner, she took the day's cold leftover rice from the fridge and a fritter (called 'chop' in Bengali), bought from some roadside kiosk, and gave it to Antara.

"How could I eat rice and a fritter?" Antara had asked. That night, Antara had protested and skipped dinner. 

So those American defence firms and railroad information from Ukraine you're after? Antara rejected them in 1988, so why don't you get a life, instead of bothering Antara or trying to give her a scare?

January 28, 2026.

****

xi. Why would anyone be afraid of the US Navy? Wasn't it existence itself? Else, why would life be so disordered since 2012, there were no jobs, it was "too scary" to work, people scanned a puzzle and paid, what was being transferred, between a puzzle and a mobile phone?

Antara was reminded earlier in the week, "Remember how the girls at Brabourne Hostel would secure the small change, the metal coins, to pay for fares or small purchases?" It was correct, back in the day, everyone was always making sure they were carrying enough change/coins on themselves.

It now seemed that if Kolkata always managed to have the last word on the US Govt, including its currency matters, it was because certain groups had noticed the tendency among Brabourne girls to preserve small change in metal coins, alerted Finnish defence firms like Patria, the latter had apparently consulted the Denel Land Systems of South Africa. 

Once the Qala Jangi prison riots at Mazar-e-Sharif (Nov 2001) had reduced UAE's clout within Afghanistan, its ability to look out for currency matters, the above-named defence firms had apparently advised the US military (operatives, private contractors?) about introducing the concept of digital, cashless transactions, what we knew as UPI in the present-day.

"That would take care of Bengali women and their craze for paper currency, for preserving metal coins, it would solve their small change problems." It was quite true, people in Bengal had never seemed happier than Antara found them in the last couple of years.

Thus, what was a forbidding introduction to the US Navy, as if it was only for the distinguished and the successful, as if it gave out severe punishments for the less successful and often without any reason, had turned out to have an informative banking aspect to it. 

"If you came to terms with the grief felt on seeing visuals of the Normandy landings, then the narrative of Caen had interesting banking insights as well," Ajit might have said. 

"So what if you didn't have a first-person involvement with the War on Terror, unlike your esteemed former batchmates? WWII was quite a serious war as well, with endless anecdotes, though it didn't last for two decades."

January 29, 2026.

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xii. As some of you might know, BT had asked for dowry when his son got married, what created a lifelong hostility in the marriage of Antara's parents. 

(Clarification: Antara had always been firmly opposed to bridal dowry. As far as she knew, dowry was also prohibited by India's legislations.)

Anjali's displeasure owed to the fact that she was the youngest daughter in a family (of one son, followed by four daughters) where the father (Antara's maternal grandfather) had passed away several years before Anjali's marriage. 

"Surely he (BT) noticed that it was a widow and her son trying to arrange the marriage (of Anjali), he could have shown some consideration. Bronze utensils were expensive, were you such a household that nothing less would do?"

As all of us could figure out by now, the allegations were about contact-corroboration, it was about the Bidens who had enough leisure to create two devastating wars in Ukraine and Israel but not enough inclination to arrange a researcher's job for Antara. 

You couldn't wrap up your life's work with a Board Exam, all of us have written our Board Exams as do millions every year, neither was it an excuse nor would it allow you to escape the allegations of war-mongering and war crimes. 

The Bidens thought Antara was not part of the successful elite within the Indian State. The Bidens thought Austria was weak within the European Union. The Bidens knew that Hotel Lux blackmails defined the United States under the Obamas.

Why did Communists go after Communists at Hotel Lux? Why do Americans go after Americans? 

That logic that the world was not as peacable as the Obamas had wanted it to be was missed by US officials, who didn't bother to pick up their cudgels against the Hotel Lux blackmails. Who did they support, the one doing the purging or the purged?

One couldn't afford to forget bronze was the third place in the Olympics, therefore 'expensive bronze utensils for dowry' meant averting the Cold War and straight to the War on Terror. Antara was not certain why it was so, the allusions indicated that it was because of China that the Korean War and the Vietnam War were not considered. Elaborate 'coalitions of troops' was allowed only after the Cold War had ended and yet even the First Gulf War (1991) was not meeting the criteria. 

BT had specified the bronze utensils to be provided as dowry, how many plates, bowls, tumblers for drinking water. These utensils were kept locked at the Rashmela house, they didn't travel around with Antara's parents, except occasionally used for dinner when they were visiting Purulia. 

"And not that it came of any use, such an expensive dowry," Anjali would say. (Antara remembered struggling to lift the tumbler, it was so heavy.) 

The biggest item was the bronze 'kalas', a large round pot with a narrowed neck for holding water. That pot was used when they visited Purulia, only Anjali could lift it once it was filled with water. "That's what we would be drinking out from, the dowry items were being put to use," she'd say.

Thus, in understanding the career of Joe Biden, the Ukraine War and the Israel War would have to be understood as the conclusion of what has been a warring political career, with uncertainty over how Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait (1990) would be categorised.

Biden had thus managed to keep the world at war through much of the last 35 years.

The futility of Antara's existence, how costly the War on Terror proved for her, if she could tackle the DoD honchos would never be discussed again.

We would discuss the military intelligence from Biden's Wars, we would all drink out of that bronze 'kalas' and find what bothered him, then we'd find out the beneficiaries of those wars, what they had in mind for themselves. 

(Anjali sold the bronze utensils when they moved to Asansol, around 2005. "Sold every last item," she had told Antara.)

January 30, 2026.

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xiii. How was your day after the previous blogpost, from Jan 30, 2026, on 'bronze utensils for dowry' as part of Antara's parents' wedding?

We had to remember that NRIs supposedly had the support of second-gen weapons systems, NRIs found employment within the DoD, they engaged as private contractors as well. Thus, the NRIs were in a position to impose strict penalties or order punitive measures if they read something that they didn't like.

However, if the DoD employee status or the private defence firms they were part of survived on blackmails connected to the Katyn massacre, then they'd obviously dislike discussions of wars and their carnages after 1940-41.

Given the above, Antara had quite a regular day, she managed to get a Bengali lunch through an online delivery system/app, even as the 'minders' kept discussing the options, how would the NRIs wield their defence firm support if the firm itself was a beneficiary of a WWII massacre?

Antara was always questioned about her popularity, how did people regard her through various stages of her life? This was how it went,

--at Pologround Housing, Antara's playmate Mitun had said that they'd be friends at least till "Class 9 or 10" if not later, this was in 1987, Mitun and her parents left for Kolkata in 1988, Antara never heard of her again. Mitun's family was close to the Birlas.

--At school, D**na and Antara walked hand in hand during the lunch hour, they also made sure their steps matched, as if it was a parade, "Friendship between two girls always got complicated", D**na had said in 1987, before leaving for another school in 1988. By 1990, they had left India. 

--At Brabourne's English Honours class, no one in the class (of 22-23 students) spoke to Antara, except two or three girls, two of whom lived at Brabourne hostel, the third was from the collieries around Asansol.

--At Jadavpur University, Antara had only one friend, she was still married to him.

--At ACJ, the students gathered in the auditorium on Convocation Day had loudly cheered when Antara was declared one of the toppers, but it was apparently 'fake cheering', it was impossible they'd like someone like Antara, ACJ merely wanted to lead her on, so that Antara would assume she was any other Indian. 

The above was useful information, quite instructive, so that no one ended up mistakenly associating with Antara, given the DoD employee-private contractor status of the NRIs.

As ought to be mentioned by now, Antara's father Ajit had no stint with the defence forces, as far as Antara knew. However, Ajit had been part of the National Cadet Corps/NCC, the exact years were not known to Antara but obviously after Antara's paternal grandmother had passed away, "it was imposed upon by the school, I had no choice," Ajit had said. 

Ajit's NCC stories were usual, the bugle sounding off at 4 am, followed by drills and parades, setting up tents, lighting a fire, learning the sailor's knot, using the penknife. By that time, the raging Antara would ask, "Why didn't you join the Boy Scouts as well?" To which Ajit would shake his head sideways and say, "Never".

Antara spent her growing up years considering conscription was right ahead but the years passed, no such initiative was introduced in India. She didn't know they wanted to join the American DoD, not our own.

Of course, things vastly changed under the torture-surveillance, the jokes and abusive satire at the expense of Antara's parents, "Oh, he (Ajit) served in the Korean War, he went as a teenager, didn't you know?"

Antara had thought hard, there was a lake called 'Shaheb Bandh' in Purulia, a wide freshwater body, 'shaheb' meant foreigners/Caucasians. 

"That's where we went swimming, it was cleaner than the other ponds and tanks, we could do seven or eight laps (either way) and still didn't feel tired, we were so young," Ajit would say.

Antara couldn't believe it, the lake was the size of several Olympics-sized swimming pools, you'd have to be better than swimming champions to do seven or eight laps in it. "We were a different sort, the things we'd do, you'd never believe it," Ajit had said.

The 'minders' had concluded that 'Shaheb Bandh' in Purulia was the Korean War (1950-1953). 

Where was the opportunity at organisations like HT to discuss such anecdotes? There was a daily deadline, meetings sometimes digressed to other topics but Antara didn't have her narrative, and she'd have to stand up and hold forth, "Now let's discuss the dowry of my parents' marriage".

In the early 1980s, Antara had been provided jewelleries made of sea-shells, white with red gemstones on it, they wore these for a while, then they languished in a part of the dresser. 

One of the HT colleagues had developed an allergic reaction to shellfish while on a vacation, her face had swollen up, that was 2011.

By 2014, Antara's mother-in-law, vacationing in Pondicherry, was buying sea-shell jewellery for her, she had accepted them as gifts but never worn them, who knows if those accompanying Supriya had forced her to buy them, what if they worked for Denel Group? 

"Wear them at all times, always on you," Supriya had told Antara. "Was Antara wearing the sea-shells," she'd ask her son.

Sometimes, these defence firms showed up and indicated their priorities even if you stayed in India, you didn't have to become an NRI for it.

January 31, 2026.

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xiv. Antara's resource base from Brabourne was quite different from what Bengalis worldwide had perceived.

When Antara was in Class 11 of Brabourne Junior College, she was familiar with BA/BSc 2nd year students (undergraduates), living in the same hostel. 

When Antara was in Class 12, these students had gone up to BA/BSc 3rd year.

When Antara returned to Brabourne as BA 1st year, these senior students had graduated and left. Hence the Alamo Girl didn't know any of them, they were mostly from India, a few were from Bangladesh.

One of them had given private lessons to Antara while the latter was an undergraduate. 

It had happened quite by chance, one of these older students had put up a hand-written note on the Brabourne hostel bulletin board, that she was willing to teach those studying English Honours. Antara didn't mind extra reading or reference material, she also wanted to stay connected to those that had been senior to her at Brabourne hostel. 

Antara had called up the landline number provided and they agreed on an arrangement. The Alamo Girl had resented the connection, "She was studying MA and was capable of teaching BA students?" 

To Antara, it had seemed that it was bothersome if Antara knew people within Kolkata city, if those people lived in posh areas (as the tutor did), were willing to come down to Brabourne hostel twice every week, sit at the visitors' hall and engage with Antara on topical matters. 

There was no way to muddy those waters.

Several months into the private lessons, the tutor had discussed Antara's postgraduation prospects with her. "If you do your postgrad at Calcutta University, as I was doing, and given your grades, if you were among the top 25 students, your postgrad certificate would be from Presidency College, not from Calcutta University. It was a privilege, I've got it too."

Antara had later mentioned it at home, her parents were startled, for them 1925 meant 'Pink's War', they didn't know that 'Pink's War' enabled you to live in the Presidency towns of India, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai and later New Delhi. Maybe Ajit-Anjali could have lived in these cities too.

"Just go for it," Anjali had excitedly said. Antara was self-assured, she had a good idea where she was ranked within the university.

It was the same tutor/Brabourne senior who had advised Antara to enroll for a film appreciation course at Nandan, a movie theatre complex in Kolkata.

"The film appreciation course was run occasionally, it was rigorous, six to seven avant-garde movies a day with short breaks in between, along with discussions etc. Most people dropped out of the course, though it lasted only a week, but you'd be comfortable with it, you'd enjoy the rigour, I could say that for you."

February 1, 2026.

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xv. To clarify the intent of the blog, the elaborate attention being given to Antara's parents and Antara's life would always remain the focus.

It had nothing to do with how Indians regarded the Epstein case but that Antara joined Jadavpur University in July 2000, the al-Aqsa intifada started soon after, in September 2000. 

By October 2000, Antara became friends with the Jadavpur University classmate she'd eventually marry. Antara never lived again, the life that she had known was lost to her forever.

It didn't imply that Antara disliked her spouse. But he came with a tremendous amount of previous friendships, and these people were unlike anyone Antara had known in her life. She didn't know how to understand such individuals. Thus, it was best not to discuss the spouse, nothing from his life was worth the risk.

Antara didn't consider the anecdotes she shared to be information that was difficult to get. That had been her life, "you father could solve complex Mathematics while shaving", Anjali would say. 

For some, it might imply that trying to solve the Srinivasa Ramanujan aspect of the lease would obviously involve a reappraisal of the DoD's performance.

It was true as well, Antara would get up weekend mornings, this was around 1987-88 and find her sibling and a female cousin at the dining table, furiously solving their Mathematics as Ajit shaved at a washbasin adjacent to it, explaining the way to solve the equations without any book or notebook close at hand. It was information, it was also reality. "How did he remember so much, all of it," the female cousin would say.

Nor did Antara's parents' flat at Pologround Housing have a sophisticated appearance. 

Antara and her sibling studied hard, they were notorious among relatives and neighbours for that reason, "the girls studied all the time and the parents were proud of it," they'd say.  

If you saw the sofa at the Pologround Housing living room, its upholstery was frayed, the drawstrings that kept it in place had come apart such that the fabric stretched to the floor, both Antara and her sibling's textbooks were all over it, nor did they ever clear up when they were done studying.

"At least any visitor who came to the house would know what exactly went on there," Anjali would say, ruefully looking at the disorderly sofa.

"Very studious girls, he he," most visitors would say, as they found the single sofa that was empty enough to sit down.

The journalism school that Antara attended discouraged sentences like "experience was lived reality". All reality was lived, it would say, else why would it be called reality? Did we know of a reality that was not lived? Thus, Antara didn't live the 'lease' reality, she lived the 'nation-State' reality and knowing her parents, no matter which country they stayed in, it would always be the same. 

Given certain men in the United States would constantly demand Ukraine information, their lives wouldn't have been that different either.

However, Antara didn't know any of the above, she thought her parents devoted excessive attention to the older sibling, she understood the household would collapse if the older sibling didn't become an engineer. Antara resented being neglected, she withdrew into her own world of reading and thinking and understanding, a world in which her parents and sibling were not allowed entry.

Antara didn't understand how the Trumps felt about women engineers till she went to Brabourne in the mid-1990s.  By that time, it was clear the older sibling wouldn't be an engineer, at which point, Antara found out that 

JE had opined that Antara was lagging with respect to Ukraine compared to her relations,

JE knew that the DoD could suddenly create situations such that the US Congress was unable to help Antara when it was needed,

that all women engineers would always be supported by the Trumps as well as the Prussians, even if JE didn't allow the Prussian females to become engineers.

And all of the above was achieved by JE without any information on Ukraine. Then who needed the Russia-Ukraine war?

February 2, 2026.

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xvi. The mention or discussion of the spouse had been debated among NRIs because of his Israel trip in early 2012. He had taken photos of the Mediterranean Sea, through the glass facade of the dining room at his hotel. It was a blistering cold day, a deserted seashore with waves lashing.

The NRIs got excited because the controversy about the US Navy's Mykolaiv House would start soon after that visit, we must remember that if there was an actual House by that name, Antara had never seen it mentioned in news reports or elsewhere.

The nature of Antara's work was, "What would you do if there was a Mykolaiv House within the US Navy, if someone had gained illicit entry to it?" Antara would have to gather information and evidence (at least close enough to evidence), then come up with arguments why it was dangerous, how it could be prevented, what were the implications felt within Indian socioeconomics had such an illicit entry taken place.

Once Antara was done with the above, she was provided the next assignments, "What if someone had planned..." or "What if the DoJ suddenly released millions of Epstein documents, how would we understand the DoJ's motives?"

The spouse's trip to Israel in 2012 had not yet been assigned, hence there was no need to discuss it.

It was not very different from the way journalism had worked for Antara, when she was a reporter at a one-reporter news bureau in Kolkata. It was not a huge newsroom, there were no large reporting teams, there were no designated beats/sectors like reporters tended to have.

Antara was supposed to report for work at 1 pm. Once she reached her workplace, she went to meet her departmental head, his desk would be strewn with press releases and news alerts and invitations to events and press conferences. 

He'd start throwing them at Antara, who'd be seated across his desk, "There's one, there's another, take a look at this, see if you can sense any meaning from that, oh, this one's just down your line (usually sarcasm), this one's close by so why don't you just walk down and see if it was real or what they were saying, hmm this might be a possibility, you think you can use your superior sniffing skills and find a story that met our needs?"

And it ended with, "So what do you think, I've got to send the story list to Chennai, what were we doing today?"

Antara sat under the deluge of paper, choosing one or the other, arguing with the departmental head. It was not that different from what she did in the present day.

How would the above discussion connect to the debate over the First Gulf War and how it should be categorised? (FACSIMILE, January 30, 2026)

One way would be to use the 'Yeh hai...' as a tactic, 'Yeh hai Dilip' in the given situation, for Ajit had bought insurance from a guy named Dilip during the First Gulf War (1990-91).

"It was part of the War Effort," the females of Antara's family had told her. "You were not going to battle Saddam in Iraq, at least you should get to knit a muffler." Antara felt too intimidated by those females, she didn't ask which American soldier would wear a woolen muffler in the Iraqi desert.

Back at the reporting office in Kolkata, as Antara was having assignments thrown at her, an employee called Dilip would enter, carrying rolls of news agency reports. "There's Dilip," Antara's departmental head would exclaim, "with his chicken roll and his mutton roll."

For that's what they looked like, rolled up news feed from the machine, which one had to read like a scroll. The electronic version was available but apparently, it was "great fun" to read the printed version.

Thus, a reason was beginning to emerge why Ajit never visited Kolkata after 2005, not even to visit Antara and her spouse once they married and set up home.

Brabourne had a myth about an older student, in the hostel, who'd turn off the lights in her room and the shine the torch/flashlight on herself. No one knew who she was, it was always someone older, from the past. 

Why did she do that, someone had asked. (Operation Torch etc, from WWII.)

There were apparently two observers in the neighbourhood, they were nicknamed 'chicken roll' and 'mutton roll'. 

February 3, 2026.

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xvii. They were asking you, Antara, why Russia had not exited BRICS as yet.

How would you know?

Russians had to remain loyal to their monarchic-aristocratic past, that's what Washington DC demanded of them. Since former Russian aristocrats were unavailable, they remained loyal to Golden Fleece, and you saw what that turned out to be, seeking a toehold in the Gaza Board of Peace in order to maintain secrecy around how it felt about the Class of 1995.

Sometimes, Antara, you saw Russians flitting past in your allusions work, they were always moved away using some pretext or the other. Actually, even the pretext was known, "You were getting too close to Wall Street corporations". 

Antara, have you ever felt like a Wall Street corporation? No? That's the world we lived in, they wouldn't even say that Golden Fleece wanted the Russians to maintain their distance from Antara, or there was pressure from the Class of 1995. 

No, Putin wanted the Russians to keep their distance, the same Putin that knew that DoD had used the War on Terror to sort out the upper-strata of the US Navy's Mykolaiv House.

They were also somewhat excited over the 'Yeh hai Dilip' tactic that was used in the previous blogpost (Feb 3, 2026). British intelligence had created elaborate lies about Ajit-Anjali's friendship with that particular family, would Antara be able to solve what these friendships were about?

These were friendships imposed upon by the Ray family of Kolkata, it was about the French Grand Sanhedrin and how it influenced the formation and functioning of the Federal Reserve. The Fed's banking operations info were generously provided to your parents, the entire universe of relatives knew that Ajit-Anjali had beaten the odds that befell BT after WWII, that they had found their way to Washington DC.  

The relatives didn't know the Fed was a Tagore House, they didn't want to know. However, Ajit-Anjali didn't enjoy the privileges, the rest of the relatives immigrated to the United States around 2017-18, as the Britishers informed you, they no longer lived in Jharkhand, West Bengal etc. 

However, it was not clear if the Ray family had stipulated that the French Grand Sanhedrin gossip implied that Antara had to be excluded from everything and abandoned in India as the relatives ran away. But you do remember the procession of shaved heads from the Dilip family, you were playing outside with Mitun, so you were supposed to conclude that you were excluded because of the Nazi Holocaust. 

That put considerable doubt about what would have been done to Ajit if he had survived and immigrated to the US.

The way to Washington DC didn't require a House. It was about extensive questioning/interrogation about what one had witnessed regarding the Soviet Kommittee of Information (KI), what had been its impact on immigration and hawala worldwide, what were the topics of your work. Certain people bribed to go as well, we'd discuss them later.

Immigration and hawala had been the bane of every financier, what considerably increased the capital (since no investment was possible) and made intelligence/allusions crucial to the financial world. 

How would you invest, Antara? One invested in people, in employees, and they were here one moment and Americans the next day. 

Worse, if they went to Europe, the latter was called Schengen, where was my former employee with considerable information on my company and knowhow on R&D? Was he in the Nordic countries? Was he in Greece or Italy?

You'd set up companies and create a loyal customer base, a sudden trade deal might kick you out of business. It was not debated upon, not opposed, no one's opinion was sought, except that Antara was not paid her salary, her marriage was fragile, her relatives were disloyal to her.

Therefore, a possibility was beginning to emerge that with his ability to solve the Srinivasa Ramanujan aspect of the legit lease, with his extensive knowledge of how WWII and the Cold War had reshaped the world, had Ajit managed to reach Washington DC, he would have taken his knowledge base with him, it would have become a globalised commodity, the intelligence would no longer be connected to any specific locale, situation, nation, historical reality.

At some point, mortality would put an end to him, and the reality that his parents BT-Pratibha had faced in Purulia, would be altogether replaced by a concocted narrative. 

It was hatred for BT-Pratibha that had surrounded Ajit from all sides.

You'd notice, Antara, despite the above discussion, no one would be perturbed in the least, they'd proceed as planned with the Bosco crowd. It implied that there were arrangements in place within Washington DC to change the BT-Pratibha narrative, even if Ajit and Antara didn't cooperate.

February 4, 2026.

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xviii. Gosh, sometimes Antara remembered those relatives of AT's family.

Have you had eight uncles?

And if you had Gorakhpur and Bankura visiting, as they sometimes did during Durga Pujo and weddings, there were 10 uncles.

"The problem with Brother 1's wife was her insistent invitations to everyone, as soon as Durga Pujo was nearing, she started sending out the post to one and all, 'visit Purulia for Durga Pujo', she was not even the financier of the gathering," Anjali would say. 

(Brother 1's wife apparently had info on Eva and Gretl.)

They were Antara's uncles, obviously not Class of 1995's, but certain obvious things needed to be stated, given what the legislative assemblies in India's provinces tended to do, "all political parties were together when it came to opposing the legit lease".

You should have seen the size of the 'samosa' at one of these legislative assemblies. 

Later, when Antara learnt her narrative, she wanted to go back and say, "Hmm, they were my relatives, Khoka-Khonra-Madan, they may have gone to waste but even that was under instructions, you should have seen Ajit briefly stopping to exchange a quick word with any of them. Even the Smileys would have stopped smiling, it was such a terrifying moment to be British intelligence."

Anyway, when these 10 uncles stood and talked to each other at the ground-floor verandah of the Purulia house, in front of what were once AT's and BT's rooms, even their wives fled and huddled in the kitchen. Antara was always asked which class she was in, how she was doing in her studies, if she had topped her exams. 

Anjali got the occasional word in, then quickly moved away and joined the wives.

Oh, if the DoJ had known everything about the RMS Titanic and said-it-all to the British, why would it allow H1B?

Silicon Valley would have to work with Americans. 

February 6, 2026.

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