A pristine new lecture hall. A central workbench that stands out, the white smartscreen serving as the background. The smell of freshly installed seats and new equipment. The remnant smell of cardboard boxes after unboxing still aromatised the lecture hall. A clock that is about to tick 9:00 AM. The door swings open and a chattering group of students disperse themselves all over the hall, each with an agenda of their own. Exactly at 9:05 AM, the teacher made her way in, followed by a few more students with an embarrassing look on their face, possibly because they mistook the teacher as a student. She was a pretty one.
As the class settled, the board read ‘PHYSICS 101’. Potatoes and a few straws were showcased on the work bench, the beautiful dusky 22-looking 30-year-old teacher waiting for a good moment to start the class. The ID card pinned to her chest unveiled her name and accolades, but many men never saw past her magnificent chest. If only they had read, they’d know her name was Dr. Tulasi, a Ph.D in aerodynamics and structural physics. Her entry itself captured the attention of the class, and her wait to start the class had half the young lads crushing over her. Again, had they read, they’d know she is older than them.
A man in a sweater made his way in, and just as he closed the door, our teacher made her way to the central working bench. Her routine introduction was also charming, and possibly the only way her entire class can know her name. That hexagonal spectacled face, a skin with adequate melanin was one beauty nobody could take their eyes off of.
[Dr. Tulasi]{stern}: Has anybody been successful in pushing a straw through a potato?
[Class]{in chorus}: No professor.
[Dr. Tulasi]{stern}: Why? Anybody?
[A frontbencher]{eagerly}: The straw is a hollow structure made out of flimsy plastic, it does not possess the rigidity to pierce the potato.
As the student had finished his narration, Dr. Tulasi struck a straw into the potato with one stroke.
[Dr. Tulasi]{smiling}: How did this happen?
The entire class sat silent, as the stroke was too quick for anyone to visualise.
She proceeded to pick up another straw and quickly thrust it into the potato again. This went on until all the straws were exhausted, and with each straw that went in, her expression grew wilder and wilder. Some instinct made her smirk, like a murderer enjoying the stabbing.
The man in the sweater had to intervene with the demonstration before Dr. Tulasi could transform into Tulasi, the throat slitter. A hint of her inner demon surfaced in the way she struck the potato with the straws, and had she not been intervened, the class would have ended in bloodshed.
Seeing the class amazed, the last straw saw a very slow demonstration. It is now when the students saw her thumb closing the top end of the straw, trapping air and creating enough pressure to make the straw rigid. The demonstration saw it’s way into a lecture of pressure system and aerodynamics.
As the class dispersed at the end, Dr. Tulasi left the clean-up to the sweater man, possibly a trait she is used to after her usual killing spree. The man, accustomed to this routine, proceeded to clean the work bench. He stared at the potato for a few seconds, and picked it up before walking out. But almost as immediately as he had picked it up, he dropped it, staring more intensely at the potato, with fear laden eyes. At least 5 straws completely pierced the potato and made it way out on the other side.
[Sweater man]: No wonder she’s called ‘the demon’. Straws piercing the potato wholly? I’m glad it wasn’t my organs.
He quickly set up the classroom for the next class. As he proceeded to discard the potato, he receives a text: Get me the potato. He promptly delivers the potato to Dr. Tulasi and leaves.
[Tulasi]{to herself}: My my, this potato didn’t need to suffer. Well, sometimes, it’s okay to make some sacrifices if it means people can understand. Isn’t it, Inspector?
In the corner of Dr. Tulasi’s room was CI Varadaraj, tied up like a Rotisserie chicken. He was beat in up in such a way that he actually resembled a roasted and marinated rotisserie chicken. It did come off as Dr. Tulasi would be food lover, but all she loved was blood. And physics.
CI Varadaraj was assigned to investigate one of the recent murders committed by Tulasi. A real estate tycoon by the name Property Prabhakar had illegally acquired one of Tulasi’s property. Not as if Tulasi acquired it legally to begin with, but possession of enough properties to keep your cash liquified is an important part of being an underworld leader. This wouldn’t have angered Tulasi unless the land valued at billions, but she targeted him for one other reason: he had molested an underaged girl, who had been brought to work forcefully by her parents. The parents were the overseers of this property that Property Prabhakar stole.
Tulasi’s killing record primarily consists of male victims, mostly due to the fact that she was a victim of sexual abuse during her childhood. A slum born female used for pleasure was the visual she had seen growing up. It was during her teens that she was forced into the act; that was her first murder. She slit the throat of the two men who tried to bring her into the act with just a bread knife. Traumatised and deafened by fear of having killed two men, Tulasi ran for two days straight until she collapsed out of fatigue in front of a private porch. Seeing her unconscious, the couple that resided there cared for her until she was better. The love and care Tulasi felt there made her hope for a better world. The couple also were infertile, and yearned to have kids, adopted Tulasi a month after tending to her wounds. But Tulasi’s hope was short lived.
Property Prabhakar was the dealer of the cottage and the porch to the couple. Early understandings and settlements moved smoothly, but he started to ask them for more and more, threatening them as time progressed. One day, Prabhakar arrived with his gang to extract the money, failing which he proceeded to kill the couple with a chainsaw. The adoption of Tulasi was not made public yet, so he never realised her presence in the house. A Tulasi who woke up to the sounds of people dying and the chainsaw whirring witnessed the brutal killing of her parents. The shrieks and wailings that came out of that bloodshed changed something in her. What a pity that she could not even cry out loud, of the fear that if she’s caught, she would be killed. That night, seven throats were slit, and Prabhakar only managed to escape by the hair. Since that day, she swore to kill all men that were responsible for her parents death.
They say if you do something for a long time, you start to enjoy the task. In pursuit of the
killers and the fear of being caught by police for having killed seven men, Tulasi sought refuge in the underworld. Slowly, she started gaining a reputation for her killing style, working for a bigger crime boss as his minion. Simultaneously, she also graduated with good grades, and earned herself a Ph.D in aerodynamics and structural physics. The normal world respected her for her work and her cause towards women safety, while the underworld simultaneously feared her for her ruthlessness. Slowly, she killed the crime boss who tried to sleep with her, blackmailing her about revealing her identity to the real world, and restructured her system to keep the mafia in check. She became the corrupt that targets other corrupts. For twelve long years, she has managed to keep her identity separate in both worlds.
Recently, Prabhakar acquired one of Tulasi’s property illegally. Old grudges resurfaced and Tulasi began her hunt for him. Quite fortunately, his son was enrolled in the same university she taught students, and happened to be attending her classes. Tulasi happened to spot him once being picked up by Prabhakar and decided to confirm this. She called for Prabhakar on the pretence of his son being tardy, and as if the world was waiting for her to kill him, his son pulled a prank in one of her classes the following day.
[Dr. Tulasi]{annoyed}: This is not what I expected from you. Pulling pranks in my class? I didn’t take you to be this kind of a person.
[Prabhakar]{showing his power}: Madam, I’d like it if you toned down a little. You look young and beautiful, have a lot of life. DOn’t spoil it by threatening my son. I’m a real estate tycoon. I can do anything I want.
Dr. Tulasi was trying so hard to hide her smile. People with power often like to flaunt it, and that’s exactly what Prabhakar did, something that she was counting on. In the attempt to conceal her happiness and excitement to kill him, she dismissed them from her office. Once they left, she made a phone call.
[Dr. Tulasi]{over the phone}: I’ve located him. He’ll be leaving the front gate in five. Keep tracking him.
[Man on phone]: Yes ma’am.
Few nights passed. She waited for the exact date on which he murdered her parents. That night, as he was going to one of his farmhouses in the outskirts, she made a move. There is only one traffic signal on the way, and she used that to her advantage. A sniper waited patiently near the signal. The convoy need not stop, the signal exits to two roads on the sides while continuing straight as a highway. To take either of the service roads, you would have to slow down considerably. At that moment, one shot was taken and convoy’s all skidded to a halt. In quick succession the sniper fired his shots, killing everyone except Prabhakar. That is when she arrived in a bike.
[Prabhakar]{confused}: Aren’t you the physics professor at my son’s university?
[Tulasi]{mockingly}: True, that is how the real world knows me. To you, I am the child of the parents you killed on this very night, twelve years ago.
[One of the dying henchmen]{in his last breath}: Boss, she’s the one they call…… Demon!
[Prabhakar]{frightened}: No! NO! Please spare me. I didn’t mean to kill your parents!
[Tulasi]{yelling}: THAT IS SUCH A BIG LIE! Also, you’re being killed for a few extra reasons.
You took one of my properties, and, you molested the girl of the parents that were guarding my land!
Without any sound, she used a sharp scalpel and cut his throat. Blood gushed out from the cut as he tried to fight it. Tulasi was not satisfied with that. She proceeded to take an entire set of scalpels and throw them at the vital points of the body. She took out a small knife and proceeded to cut the brachial and femoral arteries. She drained all his blood, as she sat there, fidgeting with the two gold-laden fountain pens Prabhakar carries with him all the time. She killed him more, even after he had already died.
CI Varadaraj was appointed to investigate this murder. At the signal, in the morning, he witnessed a dead Prabhakar with multiple scalpels all over his body, his throat slit open. Two of the pens that Prabhakar carried were struck into his eyes, each of his nostril cut open. She was shaved bald, possibly by her sniper after she finished with her art. A Zastava Black Arrow shell was thrusted into his forehead, the remaining bullet shells stuffed into his nostrils and ears.
CI Varadaraj was one of the best officers the department had. Many mafia underlings feared him, but drug lords and mafia bosses had their way of getting away from him. Based on the pattern of the killing, he immediately had a name in mind: the demon. Because she hid her identity well, and the underworld knew her as only ‘the demon’. He immediately set out for the investigation.
[CI Varada]{annoyed, to his subordinate}: Go meet his son and inform him about his father’s death. Also, ask him if he suspects anyone. Make sure to be specific about enquiring about ‘the demon’. If we get even one clue, it’ll be easier for us to nab her.
[Subordinate]: Yes sir!
Having it not received any useful information from Prabhakar’s son, Varadaraj decided to turn to the underworld for help. Though many people stepped forward to help him initially, the moment they found out they were helping him hunt ‘the demon’, they backed off. Many of these mafia underlings fainted upon hearing the contract, and when they later woke up, acted all paranoid because they said the way Prabhakar was killed still lingered in their views.
[Underling 1]{shivering in fear}: I don’t want to die the way Prabha did. I won’t take this contract, even if you pay me 10 folds of the amount you are quoting.
Because of the fear people harboured towards ‘the demon, it took the CI more time than he had realised to find a helper. After a long search, one man agreed to the deal. A fairly new entrant called ‘Lynx’, who had been ripping apart the mafia by killing small time bosses and taking over their businesses.
[Lynx]{finalising the deal}: So I find her and tell you about her weakness, and you reward me and make sure I’m protected in any of the future mafia gang activities I do?
[CI Varada]{slyly}: Yes. Correct. Here’s the advance.
The CI threw a bag of cash at Lynx. Lynx took the bag and set out on his mission: to find the real identity of ‘the demon’.
Even with help, it took them three months to figure out her identity. But, hiding her identity for so long would not have been possible if Tulasi didn’t know how the underworld worked. She had her man keep a track of the activities of all the people that got involved with Prabhakar’s murder, from the CI, to Lynx. Their every move was notified to her, and she planned ahead of the fate these two will suffer.
As he was about to report to his superior, CI Varadaraj gets kidnapped. The one person who volunteered to help Varada catch ‘the demon’ had his throat slit right in front of Varada, his face sprayed with all the blood that gushed out of the slit neck. The CI now sits in the corner of Dr. Tulasi’s cabin, waiting to be killed. Dr. Tulasi will not harm him, but Tulasi will.
At Dr. Tulasi’s cabin, she is fidgeting with her new toy: the straw laden potato as she keeps glancing over the barely alive CI.
[Dr. Tulasi]{fighting her urge to kill}: Varada… HAHAHAHAHA!!!
[CI Varadaraj]{barely able to speak}: If you don’t let me go, he will come looking for me. We are friends after all.
[Dr. Tulasi]{mockingly}: Who will come for you, kanna?
[CI Varadaraj]{confident and smiling, but barely with any breath}: Sarkaar!
Dr. Tulasi stopped fidgeting for one moment. She then proceeded to take one final straw from her desk. And as she proceeded to stab the potato multiple times with the straw, she laughed hysterically. She proceeded to leave the straw in the potato after one last stab, glanced over at the CI and murmured under her voice, with rage filling her eyes: Sarkaar.
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