The Cursed Heaven

By Balakumar Somu

Rishi is thrilled to bag his dream job, that of an embryologist in Salem Genetics, one of the top genetics companies in the world. His dream of heading his own research team had materialised at last!
But Rishi is unaware that he could be a pawn in a sinister corporate war on the social fabric of this great nation.
Vinayak Seshadri is one of India's top Animal Rights Activists, revered as the messiah whose life’s mission is to alleviate the suffering of animals. He has been at the forefront of the struggle to bring to an end the 4,000-year-old human-animal contact sports – Jallikattu and Bailgada.
In the same decade, India's beef and leather exports surge. India becomes the world's largest exporter of beef and the industry becomes one of the most-profitable, raking in billions of rupees.
Are these events just a coincidence? Or are they a mischievous plot by cunning masterminds who will not hesitate to destroy the very backbone of the nation to satisfy their greed?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Notion Press
• Release date: Jul 10, 2015
• ISBN: 9789352061631

Book preview

works.

In Loving Memory

of

my dear Nephew,

Kumar,

the little brother I never had

I dedicate this book

To the people of Tamilnadu

who refuse to be cowed down by

the cacophony of the West

who refuse to give up their fight

to save their language and traditions

who refuse to give up their fight

to save Jallikattu and their Bulls

To the Tamil diaspora

who have kept the Tamil flag flying high

despite being hounded and hunted down in their rightful homelands

To the Eelam Tamils

who refuse to give up the struggle

for their right to equality in their own nation

even when Yamadharman is staring down at them

every second of their lives

To the Tamils

who once ruled most of this world

and will once again rule the world

My heartfelt Thanks

To my Mom and Dad,

for not forcing their aspirations on me

for allowing me to pursue my dreams

for continuing to bless me from their abode in Heaven

To my loving Son, Adityan,

for cherishing everything I do

for showing me that he is proud of me for my achievements,

however small they may be

To my dear Wife, Sakthi,

for dedicating her life to look after me and my son

for giving me the space to pursue my passions

however crazy and worthless they may be

To all of them

for not moulding me into a money-making machine

My Gratitude

To my Godparents,

Dr. P. G. Visvanathan and

Mrs. Muthulakshmi Visvanathan

who took me into their fold and protected me

and stood by me in times of crisis

To my Sister Suganthi, a polished diamond,

who showers her motherly love on me

and

my brother-in-law Mr. V. Parameswaran

who was my father figure after my Dad passed away

To my Sister Santhi, an uncut diamond,

who showers me with love and affection in her own unique style

To my Sister Tamilarasi @ Radha, the spring blossom of our family,

who loves me like a son

To my Sister, Vasuki, our family’s phoenix,

who never ceases to lose faith in me

To my Sister, Mrs. Mallika, my Mom’s favourite angel,

who always stands by me

Earth provides enough to satisfy every man’s needs, but not every man’s greed.

- Mahatma Gandhi

"The greed of gain has no time or limit to its capaciousness.

Its one object is to produce and consume.

It has pity neither for beautiful nature nor for living human beings.

It is ruthlessly ready without a moment’s hesitation to crush beauty and life out of them, molding them into money."

- Rabindranath Tagore

Corporate greed controls political will.

- Aaron B. Powell

PROLOGUE

Dinesh was peering into the inverted microscope. He was in the midst of assessing the quality of embryos developed through in-vitro fertilisation, grading them by carefully scoring and evaluating them by their appearance on day five of fertilisation. Being a perfectionist, he was meticulous in the grading process to ensure that only embryos of the best quality were sent to the clients. He was slowly moving the dish from left to right scanning the embryos, gently ‘rolling’ the embryos on the bottom of the dish to view the embryo and ‘zona pellucida’ in different perspectives. He was isolating ‘low grade’ embryos - those with zona pellucida that were not uniform, that were cracked, collapsed or had debris on its surface. Suddenly darkness engulfed the room. The power had failed again! It was pitch dark in the laboratory for a few seconds and then the emergency lights turned on automatically.

Damn Rains!, cursed Dinesh. Unseasonal rains were wrecking havoc all over Tamilnadu. Thunder showers caused frequent power outages in the state. The southernmost state of India was usually dry most part of the year. It was considered a good year for the state if it received normal seasonal showers. The state that went dry for over three years was lucky to get some seasonal showers that year.

"What happened to ‘Agninatchathiram’? They cut down trees and the seasons have all changed.". Dinesh was talking to himself.

‘Agninatchathiram’ marked the peak period of the summer season according to the Tamil calendar. Usually temperatures can easily cross 40 degree Celsius in most parts of the state, with Chennai being among the hottest. The summer had turned rainy due to the incessant rains.

Dinesh enjoyed his job as an embryologist at Salem Genetics Research Laboratories Ltd. Although a start-up, the Lab Director,

Mr. Praveen Togadia, had obliged to all his requests for sophisticated equipments with advanced technology. It had been five months since he joined. Major part of his job was to lead a team of embryologists and technicians to retrieve eggs, assist in in-vitro fertilization, produce embryos of the specific type of cattle that the company had received orders for. Occasionally, the lab would purchase eggs and semen from external sources too. The company was a leading producer of cattle semen and embryos. In just two years since its inception, Salem Genetics had risen to become one of India’s leaders in genetics research and production. The public limited company had surprised its investors by offering 90% dividend in the second year of its operation. Its shares were rated as one of the highest yielding ones and were naturally among the top traded shares on Bombay Stock Exchange.

The lab was capable of producing around 2000 embryos a week. But that seldom happened. Usually they would get orders for about 1000 embryos a month. The company rarely received orders to produce up to its capacity. So, he was surprised when unusually large numbers of sex-selected ‘Ongole’ and ‘Nellore’ embryos were requested the previous month. ‘Ongole’ and ‘Nellore’ were cattle that were endemic to the region of Andhra Pradesh. It is very rare to find good breeding adults in Tamilnadu. That also meant that the sales would be negligible in the local market. So Dinesh wondered about the suppliers of semen and eggs. Who are the buyers?, he thought. He made discreet inquiries about the suppliers and buyers but could not gather any useful information.

A few days back, when he received instructions to produce about 5000 embryos of ‘Murrah’ buffaloes, he was stumped. ‘Murrah’ was a buffalo breed known for their high yield of milk. They were endemic to the state of Rajasthan in North India. He knew there was a huge international market for these buffaloes. In both these cases eggs and semen were sourced externally. Since export of embryos and semen were banned, he started to wonder who the buyers were. He was curious to know where the embryos were headed to. The sources that he tapped for information the previous time round seemed to be way below the ‘pay level’ of such information. He needed to make inroads into the sales team. He picked up the intercom and dialed sales.

Hello, This is Mr. Velan, barked a rough voice on the other side. It was picked up by Velan Prabhu, the Head of Department, Sales. Dinesh was expecting some sales assistant to answer the phone. Hearing Mr. Velan’s voice, Dinesh hesitated. Hello..., anybody there?, roared Velan, raising his voice a notch higher.

Hi Mr. Velan, this is Dinesh from the IVF lab, said Dinesh.

Is anything wrong, Dinesh? Are you on schedule for delivery this week?, asked Velan, in a softer tone.

"Everything is on track. I was wondering about the ‘Murrah’ order. May I know the source of eggs and semen?", asked Dinesh. He did not want to offend Velan.

Why is that important?, asked Velan. He made it obvious that he did not like the direction of the conversation.

The quality of the eggs and some batches of the semen do not seem to match our high standard requirements. I was worried that we may end up with low quality embryos, Dinesh tried to soften the impact.

Do you think that there would be an unacceptable percentage of defective embryos?, Velan seemed genuinely concerned.

I did not mean that. I thought if I could talk to the embryologists at the sourcing centre, then I could verify their methodology and give instructions to send us only good quality material, Dinesh said, hoping that Velan would take the bait.

I will ask them myself and get back to you. You continue with the material that you have, said Velan. I do not want any defective embryos to be sent out. He slammed the phone not waiting for Dinesh to respond.

Velan was not happy with what he had heard. He had specifically told the supplier that he wanted top quality semen and eggs. He had even paid a premium for this ‘Grade 1’ lot, as this order could reinforce Salem Genetics’ position in the industry as one of the most reliable suppliers. He walked up to the file cabinet in the corner of his room. The files were arranged in alphabetical order. After browsing through, he picked up a file marked ‘E & S Purchase’ in bold and returned to his desk. He retrieved a mobile phone from his pocket and dialed a number. He talked for a few minutes. His face had blackened when he slammed the phone.

For God’s sake, give me a break!, he exclaimed aloud. He got up from his seat and stormed out.

Praveen was reviewing the annual accounts statement of Marianne Exports. He was on cloud nine. He had never imagined that his family’s beef export business would take off so well. He recalled the pathetic state of the company when he had inherited it several years ago. The industry as a whole was in a deplorable state at that time. Profits were negligible and most companies were struggling to stay afloat. Marianne Exports was deep in red and the Board of Directors had been contemplating issue of more promoter’s shares to raise additional funding as the Banks had declined any more money. But he managed to survive till something unexpected happened that turned the fortunes of the industry.

In the years that followed, due to a chain of events which were in a large part influenced by him, India had become the World’s largest exporter of beef. Praveen was elected as the President of the Beef Exporters Association of India, and his company, Marianne Exports, grabbed over one-third of the market-share. Praveen was immersed in these thoughts when a fuming Velan barged into Praveen’s room without even knocking. He did not bother to sit down.

I told you that embryologist Dinesh is a nosy poker, said Velan. On hearing what Velan said, Praveen picked up the phone on his table and dialed a number. He passed on some instruction to the person on the other side and looked up at Velan and smiled.

Don’t worry. Go home and relax, he said. It is already quite late.

"Let me remind you that this is not the first time. Last time we let him off with a warning. Even today morning, I heard from the stable staff that he was inquiring about where we purchased our cattle from. He had specifically asked if we had purchased ‘Murrah’ buffaloes", said Velan.

Let me look into it, said Praveen. Velan walked out feeling assured.

Dinesh was not satisfied with Velan’s reply. Last month he had received a similar response when he had requested for details. When he insisted, Velan told him to mind his own work and not to interfere in the affairs of other departments. He had even warned him of serious consequences. This time Dinesh was not willing to give up. He thought of raising the issue with Praveen just to be on the safer side. He did not want to end up on the wrong side of the law. The fact that these ‘special’ orders were not routed through the usual documentation procedure and were only accompanied by ‘oral’ orders, worried him. He recalled recent newspaper reports that the police had busted a cattle embryo smuggling racket in Andhrapradesh. He suspected that someone might be selling their products on the sly. If someone from Salem Genetics was smuggling the embryos or semen out of the country illegally, then he might end up as an unwitting accomplice.

He picked up the phone and replaced the receiver back after a moment of hesitation. Better to tell him in person, he thought.

He walked out of the lab. The lab technicians had gone home already and the whole institute looked deserted. The motion-sensor controlled automatic lights lit up the corridor as he walked by. Praveen’s room was adjacent to the sales department. He had to pass by Velan’s room to reach Praveen’s. As he was passing by, he noticed that the lights were still on but he could not find Velan at his desk. He peeped inside hoping to talk to him. He wondered if Velan would be more amenable when he talked to him in person.

Hello, he said. Not getting a reply, he entered it to see if Velan was there. He was not sure why he was in Velan’s room or what he was looking for. He did not feel right and turned to leave. That was when he noticed a file lying on the table. E & S Purchase written on it in bold. He opened the file. It had the invoices of all the outsourced eggs and semen. He was shivering all of a sudden. Impulsively, he grabbed the file and rushed back to his lab.

As Velan was walking out of his room, some movement in the security camera monitor concealed below his table caught Praveen’s attention. He saw Dinesh in the corridor. He assumed Dinesh must be going home. Then suddenly, he saw Dinesh hesitate in front of Velan’s room and enter it. He saw him grab a file from his table and rush back to the lab. He then saw Dinesh sitting in the lab and browsing through the file.

Praveen called Velan on his mobile, What file did you leave on your table?. He listened for a moment and said, You don’t have to come in. I will take care of it. He watched Dinesh for a few moments and again picked up the phone.

Dinesh opened the file hoping to find answers to many questions that had popped up in his mind. He had never been good at accounts or any kind of paperwork. He saw several purchase orders raised for eggs and semen of Murrah, Ongole, Nellore, Pulikulam and other cattle. But no price was quoted. There were orders for thousands of eggs and semen vials. He scanned the purchase orders to find the supplier name. But the suppliers were noted only as numbers. He could not make out who the suppliers were. He checked the top of the folder to refer to the appendix. There was none. The bottom of the folder also had no appendix. There was no way of knowing the supplier without the appendix. He wished he had picked up the sales file