Interference

Virupaksha felt a sigh of relief the moment the train started moving from Howrah station. For next three days there is no domestic fight, no running around in the morning for getting ready for office, no tall talks from Samir that his daughter topped her class like every year, no uncomfortable questions from near-stranger - “Dada, heard about JEE result of your son. Unfortunate! Next year, will he seat for the exam again?” For three days, he can be himself. A new term is coined for this - “me-time”. He could manage this trip after many back channel diplomacy. This trip is to attend a seminar about computer security in Delhi. Even a few years ago, managing such a tour was a piece of cake for a Grade-A officer like him. But now things changed. Nowadays, The government offices have the ambience and professionalism of a private company. Trips are approved after lot of scrutiny. He could manage this trip as there is widespread news of large scale server hack in sensitive government offices. The Top babus are worried about those incidents. Hence the new fad is to train government officers on computer security. However it's almost of no use since the government officers are often in their forties and they have little to no knowledge about computer and its workings. Moreover, they lost the knack of learning new things. Yet the government has serious intent to digitally fortify their servers. And that is exactly why Virupaksha could manage this trip. To be honest, one need not do anything in such seminars. It's a government sponsored paid vacation - often an incentive for a year of hard work. In exchange of a ticket for AC two tier and a room in a three star hotel all you need to do is, taking a nap while listening to security experts at the seminar venue. If you don’t really feel sleepy, you can browse facebook and ogle at your wife’s hot friends. All one has to do is prepare a presentation when he is back at office. But even for that, Virupaksha made an elegant arrangement. Last year Sameer managed a similar trip. He already shared his presentation with Virupaksha. With little changes here and there it will become his “original” presentation. Virupaksha felt a surge of joy seeing the upper berth empty. “If it remains empty till Delhi, it will be a comfortable journey” thought Virupaksha while putting his briefcase in the upper berth. But clearly his fortune has decided differently for him. After the train started relaxing its iron muscles to start its journey to the capital, a young uncouth guy in his twenties boarded the train almost like how King Khan did in the movie “Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge”. The guy started moving slowly through the narrow alleyway of the train looking for his berth and stopped in the coup Virupaksha was seated.

“The lower berth is yours, right, sir?” The guy asked. Few loose locks are tickling over his narrow forehead. Volume and shape of his hair is clearly indicating that no barber has touched it in months. A faded jeans and a t-shirt with myriads of infinity sign gave him modern-day-college-kid kind of look. He is shaking his head slowly in the tune of the song he is listening through his headphone. The volume is so loud that one sitting nearby can comfortably enjoy the song. Clearly a trouble for a peaceful journey to Delhi - Virupaksha thought.

“The lower berth is your right?” The boy repeated.

“Oh yes. I am sorry.”  Virupaksha brought a fake smile to his lips as he tried to drag down the briefcase he has put in the upper berth that belongs to this guy.

“It’s okay. You don’t need to. I don’t get much sleep in train at night.” - The guy said stopping Virupaksha by touching his hand gently. After the guy took his seat, he got immersed in his world of loud music.

After exchanging few glances, Virupaksha broke the ice first.

So are you going till Delhi?

Yes uncle.

A friend’s house may be? Pleasure trip?

Yeah. I will stay at a friend’s place only - The  boy is clearly laconic.

And your name, young man?

Gopal. Gopal Samanta.

Hmm. Gopal. Not-so-modern name. Isn’t it? - Virupaksha made some light comments.

The boy smiled. “Yes sir, I agree. In fact my dad’s name is Nepal. Grandpa is Haripal.”

Hmm interesting. So I guess you study. Am I right?

Yes uncle. Metallurgy, B. E. College.

So why Metallurgy? Nowadays its fad to study computer. Isn’t it?

Actually, uncle, I was weak in studies. Fared poorly in the Joint Entrance Exam. And my dad does not earn enough to pay for private college tuition fees. That was the only choice with whatever rank I got in JEE.

Got it. So what does you father do?

Nothing much.

I mean, what does he do for a living?

Nothing much sir. Self employed. - The boy clearly tried to avoid the question. But Virupaksha was persistent.

Oh I see. Self employed. You mean business. What is it about?

The boy put off the head phone from his ears, came little close to Virupaksha, lowered his voice and whispered “He is not in any business, uncle. Actually he is a pickpocket.”

“Whattt?” Virupaksha cringed visibly.

“Yes sir, he is a pickpocket. My late grandpa was a pickpocket. His dad was a pickpocket. Its our family profession sir.”

Virupaksha was clearly taken aback. Gopal’s face did not show any sign that he is joking. “And what about u?” Virupaksha asked stammering.

If you are asking if I do those kinds of stuff or not, surely yes, I know all those tricks. Learnt from my dad when I was a kid. But you know what, there is no money in that line anymore. The art of pickpocketing is vanishing quickly like jute mills. No one keeps cash in their pocket anymore. Only credit cards. With lot of hard work, even if you can pickpocket one wallet, there will be hardly four to six hundred-rupee note. If by God’s grace you get to steal a cell phone, you have to sell it immediately. If the guy blocks the Mobile Identification Number, it's hard to sell that phone even in the black market. It's a trouble. Isn’t it?

Virupaksha was short of words. He asked “It is, I guess. So did u ever pickpocket all by yourself?”

“Yup. Many times when I was in school. But then, I found there is no ROI, no return on investment. Pickpockets needs to update their skill set. So I quit that line when I started college. Would u like to see one of those tricks sir?

“No, No, it's okay.” Virupaksha said reflexively. But then his extreme curiosity took front seat. “Well, if you really want to show, show me one”.

Well, this is your hanky right? Hope it's not very expensive. Hold it and now look at the window. Now, see, how I made a semi circular hole here. Did you experience any pressure whatsoever in your hand?

No. Not a bit.

“You won't. We have perfected the art of pickpocket in our family. Isn’t it? Our art of pickpocket is as perfect as the paintings of Da Vinci.” - said that guy with a shy smile in his face. “So now Let's call it a day. Lets go to bed. Shall we?”

Virupaksha suddenly became very anxious thinking that he has to now share train coach with a pickpocket. “I need to be careful” he thought. He remembered his briefcase is still kept on that berth that belongs to this adept pickpocket. His office laptop is there in that briefcase.

“Well, okay. Let me put down that briefcase so that you can stretch your legs” - Virupaksha said and dragged down the briefcase before the boy utters any word. Holding the briefcase in his lap, he feels a little relieved. “My God, what a person to share coup with..pickpocket by family profession!” Having firm grip of his belongings he felt a bit relaxed. “A little bit of FB browsing is not a bad idea.” - He thought. He recently learnt from his son how to connect laptop to internet via mobile hotspot. He loves to browse from laptop than from his cell phone since the screen is bigger. He turned on mobile hotspot and went online from his laptop, browsed facebook for a while, checked emails and then flapped down the laptop and went to sleep. No one can have a sound sleep knowing that a pickpocket is sharing the same coup. Virupaksha also couldn’t. Next day during the day-long train ride, he intentionally avoided that boy. The boy seemed to have no problem with that. He remained engrossed in a old and discolored laptop for the entire day. At end of the journey, Virupaksha made a formal parting words like “nice to meet u man!” and headed straight toward his hotel. The seminar starts from next day morning.

******

Virupaksha was dozing in the seminar. He could manage to keep himself awake during the morning session. But after heavy lunch, in this afternoon session, it is absolutely impossible to keep eyes open. Moreover most of the lectures in these kind of seminars are beyond Virupaksha’s ability to fathom. After a talk by some speaker comes to end, at sound of applause, he woke up and saw to his utter surprise that the boy he has shared the coach with is moving toward the podium. The emcee announced that Gopal, a talented white-hat hacker, is going to give a talk on security best practices. Virupaksha is fully awake now by the shock of this sheer coincidence. The boy started his talk.

“So friends, I hope you are bored to death with all the security talks today and by now taking an afternoon nap. So I decided to relieve you from another lengthy and boring talk on computer security theory and walk you through a case study that I prepared just yesterday. One of my fellow traveller kept his hotspot open during the night. What all things I could do due to that one mistake….”

Virupaksha did not have the patience to hear the rest of the talk. He rushed toward his hotel room. He needs his laptop to check few things.

Upon entering his room, he immediately logged in to his Bank of Baroda account. Ofcourse the worst has happened. All the money, one lakh thirty four thousand, has been siphoned away. Virupaksha was almost in tears. What would have happened to his SBI account then? He had some ten lakh liquid cash in that account, just matured from a LIC last week. He logged in to SBI, dead scared. Voila! one lakh and twenty nine thousand rupees is debited in this account from an unknown account. This does not make sense. Why will someone hack into bank account to steal from one account and return in another the entire money less five thousand rupees. While trying to comprehend hard the recent string of events, he logged in to his gmail account and the From field of first unread email says “Digital Pickpocket”. He clicked open the email.

Hello Sir,

Thank you for sharing your hotspot with me. It helped me a lot to prepare the case study. Though I study metallurgy, I have great allergy in metal. I am more interested in Silicon - the half metal, the semiconductor. Moreover we are thief by family profession. So I thought I should update my skill set in digital hacking. By now, you might be thinking If I have stolen the money, then why did I return it in the other account? And If I have returned the money in the other account, why didn't I return the full amount? Actually I have given up stealing long ago. I only practice white hat hacking now. I would have returned the entire amount but by sniffing your email a little bit, I get to know that you will submit expenses for AC two tier though you travelled in AC three tier. So I only kept the money you are going to earn by this dishonest mean. I am a student with dire need of pocket money. Hope you don’t mind. But if you really do mind, please do not act since I kept all the proof for myself.

Digitally yours,

The pickpocket (By family profession)

Oh one more thing sir. You might be wondering, you normally get an email and an sms notification when big transactions happen. Right? You can find the email in your junk folder since I deleted it after logging into your gmail. And the sms? Well, I deleted it as well by taking out your cell phone smoothly from your pocket. Oh yes, in your whatsapp I noticed there were few kisses sent to you from someone who is not your wife. Believe me, even though I have taken backup of your phone data, your secrets will be secret with me as long as you don’t try to contact police or try to find me.

Another thing. You might need to prepare a presentation after you go back. I shared my presentation on ethical hacking, digital security and computer best practices with you as attachment to this email. I believe, you didn’t have the patience or mental condition to seat and listen to my entire talk. Please accept it as my return gift in exchange of that paltry five thousand rupees I took from you. And please take your personal and professional digital security a little more seriously from now on.