Fiction
In God We Trust
Volume 1 · Issue 1
September 2025 pp. 92–98
“Is it good to be good and is it bad to be bad?” questioned a 10 years old boy named Ansh.
In the summer, the warm sunshine filled many houses with brightness and gentle warmth. With this summer two mothers’ lap were filled by two different souls of different part[s] of country, these boys were named Ravill and Ansh.
Ravill was born in a family of a well respected man named Karan Singh, a tall man at least 6'2" in height, not only tall but also a man of great virtue. This man and his family resided in a small town or city Chodgaan named Ambeti. Karan Singh was a farmer with his wife Ratna Devi and one kid (Ravill). He was most respected man in Ambeti even more respected than ex. Deputy Commissioner Hukum Chand. Karan Singh was a hard working man who worked hard every day in his fields and also with his cattle. His family sold dairy goods, vegetables and goods produced in his land to meet their daily requirement. He truly was a man who had no enemy.
Ravill grew up looking at his father and the deeds Karan Singh did; he knew no better hero than his own father.
Life was going peacefully in Ambeti, the beautiful grassy fields of village produced and people consumed, cattle enjoying sunbath near the pond of village, children playing gilli danda and other games like pebbles.
One day a gang of dacoits, robbers and local gangsters decided to loot Ambeti in the absence of late Hukum Chand, ex-deputy commissioner (retired). A group of 50+ armed men under leadership of Ranaji, a local gangster with a big name and fame, moved slowly towards Ambeti.
It was their first time looting and invading Ambeti after Deputy Commissioner Hukum Chand of the village had passed away, under whose care was the whole village’s security and also all villagers in it. But now Hukum Chand’s shadow is all gone. The dacoits and exploiters after decades have come back. They carried guns, bats, iron rods, knives and many such things and all these troublemakers came to the village from all sides.
Seeing such a large fleet of armed men, everyone in the village went inside their home and the women whom these dacoits captured were getting harassed in the middle of the day, in the middle of the village. Seeing such inhuman behaviour of beasts devouring women, raping them and looting all the village, Karan Singh picked up his farming shovel from store room but before he could march towards Ranaji and his men who were raping women, Karan Singh’s wife stopped him — “Ae ji, this is not our quarrel and you alone cannot defeat such large group of armed men.” Karan Singh smiled as brightly as the sun blazing after the rain and said to his wife while looking at his 8 years old son Ravill —
“Those who just stay bystanders are greater criminals than those who are actually committing the crimes.”
He (Karan Singh) knew that he had to take the first step so he marched alone towards the spot where those women were being harassed and Karan Singh swung his shovel hitting two people, one after another and save one woman from them. Ravill and whole villagers were watching and as Karan Singh was doing his best to keep up with more and more men coming at him, then suddenly he was taken by surprise and one of The dacoit hit Karan Singh on his back with his knife half foot deep into Karan Singh’s body. Realising the situation, he still didn’t hold back and kept fighting with dozens of peoples at once. No one who ever respected Karan Singh dared to come and help him. Whole village was just frightened and still no one came forward to fight beside him and soon enough, 6’2” was on the floor with all teeth broken, all limb bones shattered and bleeding from everywhere.
Ravill, upon seeing his father’s situation, became so furious and tried to run to his father’s aid but he was stopped by his crying mother and she covered his mouth and this was all she could do to save her one more loved one from being taken away from her.
Seeing all the cowardly villagers not coming to his father’s aid and seeing his father getting beaten to death from his own eyes and no one from Ambeti, a village of population above 2000, came to help his father. Ravill remembered the quote his father used to say often:
“When does a man die?
When he’s shot and a bullet is piercing his heart? NO,
when he eats a soup bowl made of poisonous mushroom? NO,
when he catches an incurable disease? NO.
A man dies when peoples forget him.”
Karan Singh’s goodness and his virtue was forgotten by people.
Years went by and that thought of his father dying by those monsters’ hands didn’t leave Ravill’s mind in peace. He wanted to take revenge on those who just watched his father dying and also the one who killed his father, and the one who couldn’t shed their cowardly skin to save the village.
Ravill became taller, broader and stronger. He was so fixated on revenge that he planned perfectly to kill all of those dacoits, one by one.
He knew that he could kill others easily but the big dawgs would only be harmed in their own territory, so he went deep into crime, roots and other things to become one of them, and soon enough he was one of them. In a span of one year he killed all those 50 dacoits and he slowly chopped away things from Ranaji and then finally also killed Ranaji as well.
To take revenge on those selfish cowardly and greedy bastards who call themselves human, he joined a terrorist organisation named “Ankara”. All members of the organisation were professional killers, thieves, fighters and misfits who didn’t fit in the society. So they soon began ferociously not only the village of Ambeti but also whole state. Ravill became the very own thing he had sworn to destroy.
Ansh on the other hand, a boy of same age as Ravill, was born in an army commander Sushil Bhalla’s home. His father was a well known Army Captain Sushil, well respected by whole society and had been serving in army even before Ansh’s birth. His mother on other hand was a religious woman and a great housewife.
Ansh loved his father very dearly and wanted to be a hero like his father.
Everyday Ansh looked out of the window and their home’s gate and waited for his father’s return, so that he could climb on his father’s back and sit on his father’s shoulder and see the world from the height of a hero.
As years passed by Ansh became taller and bigger and he still saw his father as most important super hero. Soon all that would change.
One day when Captain Sushil Bhalla was enjoying summer time with his son he was called inside his house by his wife and she handed him phone saying it’s from his Headquarter (HQ), when Sushil Bhalla talked with his senior officers he came to know about the war that broke with neighbourhood country and that he had been chosen as operation Commander for his bravery, qualities as a good leader.
Sushil Bhalla had to immediately go and help on the border because enemy troops were already inside their territory and daily trying to go more deep in. Captain knew that Enemy troops first had to be dragged out of their borders and then Captain Sushil himself with his troops had to move in enemy territory and break off the defensive barrier which was helping them to advance into Captain’s own country.
Captain formed a team of special force soldiers skilled in infiltration, counter attack and camouflage. He and his small team of unnoticable troops only not had to drag them from their country but also to infiltrate & destroy their main attacking and defending centres, which was a very very hard thing to do.
Captain’s wife understanding the seriousness and dangerousness of the situation said worryingly to her husband to not accept the proposition at all but the fire Captain had for his Motherland was already burning very brightly inside him. He said while looking into his son’s eyes to his wife that he promises to come back and said it in this manner —
“Either I will comeback hoisting the tricolour flag or I will comeback wrapped in it, but I will comeback for sure” said Captain and Ansh’s chest was filled with courage and pride by seeing his father like this.
Before the next dawn captain had gone away and filled his backpack and left for HQ, to reach there as fast as he could.
Soon Captain’s team was deployed and they were successful in dragging enemies out of their homeland and 25% of enemy troops started retreating but to make the whole mission more successful, they had to successfully infiltrate their territories and with good planning they started destroying many of the enemy’s Base Camps.
But the heaviness of the mission started weighing down on them and for two days they had to survive in freezing cold because a huge thunderstorm with snow blizzard wiped away their tents. When the storm had finally passed away Captain’s team was caught off guard by enemy large troop of around 70 men; Captain’s team only had 15 soldiers who had fatigue of hunger and also of snowy blizzard. Captain as amazing man he was encouraged his team and filled courage in their hearts by his captivating words, and they all engaged to defeat all those 70 soldiers but they were pretty injured themselves and 10 died in the battle, only the remaining 5 with Captain was remaining ones to but they were also seriously wounded.
God really wasn’t on Captain’s side and 20 more enemy soldiers came as backup for existing fight. Captain and three men fought bravely but they couldn’t do much in their dire state. All other 3 remaining soldiers died but Captain was taken as hostage in enemy’s HQ.
On the other hand of enemy’s capturing of Captain, a bad news was spread in the city where Captain resided and that bad news was that “Captain Sushil Bhalla have betrayed and sold away his own country”. But Captain’s corpse couldn’t be found but all other remaining team members deceased body were found, it was speculated that Captain betrayed his team and sided with neighbouring country.
By this incident Ansh and his mother was in utter shock. All the peoples from locality gathered around their house and dragging son and mother out of house.
Ansh and his mother had to suffer a lot. They were first removed from their own home and thrown on streets while being called Gaddar (गद्दार).
Some clothes and other things were tied in a big carpet cloth and thrown out of window for Ansh and his mother.
All the people of kattegat didn't try to second guess the situation and went mad at Ansh and his mother. First losing a father and a husband and now utterly humiliated and removed from their own house, not only that but when they were leaving the place with just some hundred rupees and few pairs of clothes, people of kattegat threw eggs, tomatoes, cabbages and anything they could find at departing mother and son.
Captain Sushil Bhalla who was said to be betrayer was actually being interrogated and tortured in enemy’s HQ.
A bottle of beer was shattered in his rectum and then chilli powder was shoved up his rectum. One by one all his fingernails were removed forcefully and his eyes were destroyed by putting red hot iron rod in them and food he was given just to keep him alive was chapattis made dry of broken glass pieces and chilli powder as vegetable.
All his limbs were cut off but even after such torture Captain Sushil Bhalla didn’t even utter a single word about his country. After such inhumane torture and one day after consuming some type of roti, his stomach was cut from inside and he died next day because of internal bleeding.
All this had severe effect on Ansh but he consolidated himself and his mother and he started living in a different state and his mother whole day worked as street hawker to provide for her son’s school fees. Even Ansh many times used to spend all days selling vegetables and fruits while studying at the same spot simultaneously.
The courage that was given to him by his father never withered away and Ansh kept doing hardwork every single day. Soon enough he completed his 12th graduation with scholarship and also started preparing for civil services exam.
While still being a vegetable vendor, with his education and work ethics he cracked the exam and became an IPS officer.
Little boy Ansh who lost his father at tender age of 9 years and the society which took everything away from him wasn’t bad in his eyes. What happened to him was something he didn’t want to happen to others, that’s why he never blamed society for anything but just thought that they were naïve. As he became IPS officer, his mother rejoiced and for once she saw Captain’s charisma and goodness in her boy.
Years passed by and Ansh continued to do his honest work and he got one fame after another. One day a case came in front of him about a Mafia and terrorist of some other state called Ravill, fate had decided to bring these two together.
As soon as Ansh headed Ambeti, he saw a tall man on a small tea shop, he sat next to this man and ordered something to him. They both started talking about dreams, little did Ansh know that this was the same national criminal Ravill. Ansh mobilised his team accordingly and began planning with his team about how to catch this masterminded guy.
Ansh said “I know that we are in lion’s den, but we need to drag this lion out of his den if we want to succeed.”
Their plan was successful and Ravill was out of his home city but he wasn’t alone, he had group of his men with him. Ansh knew that to get Ravill away if they wanted success there, both sides mobilised their troops with bombs and guns and many artilleries and the war began. Ansh realised that this all firing and fighting is a distraction and Ravill is running away from there. Ansh followed Ravill with 5 people guarding him.
Upon reaching as close as 5 meters to National Criminal, Ansh sneaked up on them and shot two of his men down. Ravill knew that it was guy from tea shop with whom he talked about dreams. Ansh tried to sneak up on them again but this time even after taking all remaining 3 guards of Ravill out, Ansh got shot in hand in the struggle.
Now it was just Ansh with a bullet in his hand against behemoth 6’4’’ Ravill. They both knew their match now, only thing apparent and no one else could interfere in it.
The two clashed head on and it was as Sun and Moon were fighting. While Ansh was fighting Ravill, he asked “Why did you become a villain?”, and to that Ravill replied “Villains are not born, they are made by the society.”
And Ansh said to Ravill “I know about your story, your father was a great man and he died for good of others.”
Ravill being well informed about his enemy said “I also know that your father was an army officer who said to have betrayed his country but he was not a betrayer, he died a heroic death. I know because I talked with some officers of neighbourhood country’s army.”
Both of them knew that they were so alike, what happened to them was also similar and what they had become was only result of their different mindset towards the same problem and same situation.
Soon enough Ansh lost much of his blood and started feeling dizzy. He said to Ravill “You and I are the same, two opposite sides of same coin.” Ravill replied by saying that “Great minds are capable of great vices and as well as great virtues.”
Ravill finally tried to end their battle and he knew that this guy was his first real friend and also his first real enemy. Ravill went straight attack on Ansh by surprise, Ansh took full blow of Iron rod on his back, he knew that several bones in his body are shattered into pieces but he didn’t stop fighting and the courage his father gave him kept Ansh on his feet and as Ravill was about to deliver the killing blow to head to Ansh, the bleeding man dodged it and delivered his own killing blow towards Ravill’s throat.
Ravill fell to the ground and Ansh went up on him and began punching him in the face several times with same hand which had been shot before.
Finally, before going unconscious Ravill said to Ansh: “Either you die a hero early, or you live long enough to become a villain.” With a satisfying smile on Ravill’s face he accepted his defeat because it was Ansh who defeated him and not the society who defeated his father. What more is that Ravill saw his father’s image in Ansh while fighting him.
Ansh, while being so injured, picked up the unconscious Ravill and took him to hospital and then finally taking him into police custody.
Ravill was sentenced to 20 years in prison and upon reaching the prison where he had to spend 20 years, Ansh came to drop him off and before finally going inside Ravill’s final statement to Ansh was: “See you again, friend.”