What a day of tumult, May 16. One was bound to wonder, who'd take credit for all that happened? Would it be the Batanagar relatives, Antara's relatives, would it be Kolkata or the Obamas?
For those not in the know: a siege had been laid to Washington DC, apparently a nuclear blackmail because of some conflict in some part of the world.
However, it was actually an episode of 'instability' within the Pentagon, probably over Donald Trump in Syria and the Gazelle helicopters from the 1982 Syrian war.
The demand: there could never be a legit lease, the phrase "legit lease" would never be uttered again. Only fraudulent leases could be filed as long as humanity existed.
Contrary to what everyone thought, it was Germany that was taking full responsibility for laying DC to waste. Maybe Germany didn't consider the Gazelle helicopter narrative from Syria would be out.
It was true that the Germans and French were collaborating, why French-German restaurants were becoming popular in India. You had to try these out, these restaurants distributed booklets on easy recipes like stews and roasts for the Indian housewives, to startle the US intelligence community.
ii. However, there was one thing the French didn't want either DC or the Japanese to know: in their frenzy to follow the Prussian lease and make a success of it, the French often infiltrated sensitive installations in other countries.
"France wanted to be the first country in the world to solve the disappearance of the USS Thresher and thereby take over the US Navy on behalf of a female Indian newspaper proprietor. In the process, France could care little for official or sensitive national secrets. If everyone found out, there wouldn't be a French nation left, where would the Tejpals and other Batanagar Pals go?"
iii. Please be careful: there was no such thing as a Prussian lease as far as the Treasury was concerned. It had promised as much to Pulitzer Lahari (Lahari meant 'wave') and she guarded the Prussian lease secret with all her might. Apparently, it was her duty to protect Ajit-Anjali.
Obviously, this was a different, affectionate Ajit-Anjali that Pultizer Lahari was protecting, not anyone Antara was familiar with.
(From 2002-2005, Antara taught school students at home, bought UPSC books with that money she earned, had to forego Durga Pujo clothes shopping because of expenditure on books.
Antara got new clothes for Durga Pujo in 2001, next 2007, then it stopped once she quit HT in 2012.
Of late, she could afford clothes but she was debarred from Amazon and Flipkart, "buy where slum people buy clothes", she was often told.)
iv. The way to discuss the Prussian lease but also protect oneself from the wrath of Pulitzer Lahari was to blame it on the Greek-origin employees of the OSS during WWII. Somewhat like 'Charlie Wilson's War', for those that have seen the movie.
Greek-origin employees have a deal with the Palace, they could take the pressure of the Prussian lease.
v. Those with British intelligence proper, not CPUSA: You'd suffer for a while, the British had found out the reason for the Prussian lease. Antara was almost there as well.
vi. German notoriety was about to increase by leaps and bounds. The Germans thought that Antara's choice of careers, foreign journalist or diplomat, was a hankering for immigration, like the Indian students who jostle at the US consulates in Indian cities despite not being interested in academics.
Germans omitted crucial details. Had Antara been a global journalist, she would have researched the Inuit and Sami people, hardly an enticing destination. Had Antara become a diplomat, she would have chosen India's neighbourhood, at most north Africa.
And that was how the French and the Germans ruined Washington DC.
May 16, 2025.
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