Antara had been reminded that Ajit didn't leave her bereft, that he had provided her valuable hints in the phone conversations they had in the last few days of his life, in 2010.
"Lying on the sofa, I was thinking of you."
"Why were you lying on the sofa during daytime?"
"Just like that. That time in New Delhi, in 2004, when we were going past the McDonald's outlet, and you had said it would cost us a month's earnings to eat there."
"I was wrong, it didn't cost as much, and later we ate at McDonald's, in 2008, surely you remember that?"
"Of course, that was Nehru Place, that I remember."
Antara should have remembered that earlier in 2010, in a phone call from Mumbai (the above was from Asansol), Ajit had said, "If I ever manage to go to Delhi again, I'd stay with you for a month, no more than that."
It was not enough. You would have to know Clark McAdams Clifford, born on Christmas Day, in 1906, the same year as BT was born.
Clark McAdams Clifford served four Democrat Presidents, Truman, Kennedy, Johnson and Carter. He lived till 1998.
Those like Clifford could afford the Democrat rout of 1980 and 1984 given the lease upper-hand the US Govt had from the 1950s and 1960s. (Class Act, 'Businessmen of repute?', May 18, 2026.)
There was nothing frightening about it. Antara's allusions had indicated, nay stated, that the suave and sophisticated US officials, as depicted in movies and news coverage, existed only through the Cold War, from the late 1940s to the early 1990s.
Antara had considered US officials as an 'entrapment mechanism' whose failings would have consequences across the world, within countries and societies, not merely her.
However, if Clifford, born in the same year as BT, had been thorough, then countries and societies might survive the crisis, these testing times, only Antara would be severely harmed.
It was good news.
Except Antara, most of you who got isolated, couldn't speak freely, received negligent medical care, ought to be able to demand a better quality of life.
"The US Democrats might have wanted Antara to lead a degenerate existence, why were the rest of us suffering?"
You might say it wouldn't happen because of WWII dilemmas. Some would argue that before 2016, Antara had never encountered ferocity such as that of the US Democrats, why she could mention 'miners' and 'gallants' (Class Act, 'Because of Belarus', May 12, 2026.)
Others might say that Clifford would have been less successful if "the British had prevailed in any part of the world after WWII, including the US."
The British apparently invented the game of cricket.
Clifford was indicted by a grand jury in July 1992, over his involvement in the Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI). A year after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, you might not have to wonder where information against BT and Ajit was headed.
Anjali often said, "In these govt jobs, the wife must know as much as the husband."
Antara was surprised, Anjali knew civil engineering?
Oh no, "unofficial informal advisor", that was the profile being discussed.
What kind of an upper-hand in the lease?
Why did a lawyer identified with the Democrat side receive support from all ideologies and affiliations?
It was a post-Nazi Holocaust world for all of us, not merely the Jews. How would the lease become a "fragile hope" for the Jews but a sturdy possibility for the others? 'Businessmen of repute' from Kolkata had apparently suggested expanding on the details of the Nazi Holocaust. Since it was available to the not-Jewish people, the Jews would get isolated and lose their lease.
Worse for Antara, she would get identified as a Navy person without realising that Clifford had served in the Navy and probably left instructions about dealing with those like Antara.
The following were Reagan's instructions to Peter Grace, in June 1982, about how to reduce inefficiency and waste in the US Govt, compared with what Antara heard through the 1980s.
"Be bold."
("Play only up to the culvert, never cross the culvert, never play beyond, don't even run there by mistake".)
"We want your team to work like tireless bloodhounds."
("Don't have to study all the time, go for a walk, go watch television, why were you always so grim, don't always sit there with your nose buried in the textbook.")
"Don't leave any stone unturned..."
("Never discuss outside what you had heard at home. Not a word. What you have heard at home stopped there.")
...in your search to root out inefficiency."
("So what if something was broken, it could be replaced or repaired, you didn't eat lunch at school, so what, it didn't matter, eat some other day.")
The US Govt grew up since the 1980s under the Grace Commission.
Antara grew up since the 1980s under the Lack of Grace Commission.
That's why it was not working.
Antara would like to sever all her connections with the US Govt.
May 20, 2026.
****