SARVA-KATH-SAGRAHA

The Box


Somakhya and Lootika raced up the metal rungs of the tall ladder which led to the bracket atop
which sat the great water tank. There, ensconced from the spying eyes they did not know how
much time passed in embraces and caresses as though they were residing in the high realm of
sukhvat. Then by golden radiance glancing off her smooth, ivory-like breasts Somakhya realized
that the eye of the great pair of gods, the mighty asura-s praised by their ancestors, was slipping
beneath the western peg fixed by the triple-striding Viu. They thought to themselves that such
indeed is the nature of the great ta upheld by the regal asura-s, the sons of Aditi. As Somakhya
was experiencing that state of sayoga, Lootika too felt the same and had a foreboding of the
darkness that was to creep, hued like the other great king, the son of Vivasvn. Somakhya
remarked: Verily all sukha is bounded and evanescent for we are but mortals, much as Vidrum
realized. Let us return to the world of men in the glad glow of the sayoga we have enjoyed for
the day may dawn when even that might not be possible. Such is the inescapable force of Kla who
drives us along the path at the end of which stands the fierce king wielding the utkrntida. As
they descended Lootika said: Lets squeeze out the last moments of mirth when we can like the
flash of king Bhoja-deva of the paramra-s even as our civilization faded into the twilight of
existence. Lootika: Narrate to me the tale of Vidrum from former times in that universe from
which ours has branched off. Somakhya: Since you ask, O tantunbhik, we shall do so

Vidrum wanted a geometry box- the box which contained a divider, a compass, protractor and a
rubber. His parents told him that it was too expensive for them to buy him such a box and instead
directed him to use one inherited from the long past days. He took that box and on pieces of paper
drew the figures he liked to draw. He then closed the box and went away to play with his
companion. After he did that he came home and was alone in a silent room with the closed box
lying on the floor on blank sheet of paper. All of sudden he heard some noise. An imitation
commando badge that he had placed on a table rattled all on its own. Thinking that there was
draft of wind from the window he went to close it lest rain water get in at night. The window was
indeed open and he caught the sight of a rocket being fired by some revelers outside. He closed the
window and went out into the patio to watch the fireworks. After a while he returned to the room
and saw that a circle had been drawn with a red pen on blank sheet on which his geometry box
rested. The compass with a pen screwed in was lying on the floor beside it. He was surprised as he
thought he had put all this inside the box. Just then his aunt called him to go with her for an
orchestra. He went to comb his hair looking into the mirror, when he saw a demonic figure look
over his shoulder and smile. He let out an awful scream and his aunt and parents came running in
and asked what had happened. Fearing that they might take him to a psychiatrist or suspect that
he as imbibing some prohibited compounds, he said that he had seen a snake on the window. They
ran to check the window out when fireworks lit the dark exterior illuminating a grave that was in
the yonder yard (They had gotten the plot for their house cheap because it lay on a vast
abandoned cemetery, a part of which was still not cleared up for construction). While they went
for the concert Vidrum asked his folks as where they had obtained the geometry box. They told
him that it was lying in the house from when they occupied it, and that it was probably left behind
by the contractor or the civil engineer who built their dwelling.
Now Vidrum had a friend called Meghana whom he had strictly hidden from his parents prying
2

eyes because they feared he might fall prey to passion and ruin his academics. Meghana lived in a
house in the next parallel street to the one on which his lay and outside the perimeter of the
original cemetery which was now encroached upon. An idol of the goddess Sarasvat, which was
originally installed in the cemetery, was now housed in a little roadside shrine near Meghanas
house. He would go there in the guise of offering his prayers and catch her attention so that the
two could sneak away. One day Vidrum left behind his compass box on Meghanas desk at school
and they returned home together. Vidrum thought his parents and aunt were away at work that
time, and he along with Meghana was walking down his street, when to his horror he saw his
parents unexpectedly arriving. He quickly sprung away and ran into the graveyard and hid behind
a gravestone. His poor friend realizing what had happened walked ahead as though nothing had
happened. When she saw his parents go inside, she went to the graveyard and called Vidrum. They
decide to exit from the other side of the graveyard and were running at top speed when Meghana
tripped on a protruding root of a large, old fig tree. Her head struck a granite grave stone of a
certain ligavanta named Udgavkar and she died. Vidrum was terrified by the events and ran
home keeping everything to himself and shut himself up in the pretext of studying. His parents
told him that they had to attend the funeral of Meghana and he burst into tears. They asked him to
behave like a man and moved ahead. At school he went to his late friends desk and took at look at
the box carefully. He saw the faint letters etched on it reading Udgavkar the ligavanta from
Hiriyuru. He was terrified beyond words and threw it away on to the parapet of his school
building.

Many years later Vidrum was a student in medical school when he examining a skeleton of
juvenile specimen of Homo sapiens as a part of his lesson in skeletal development. He saw that the
specimen was a female skeleton and had part of the cranium shattered. After that day in the lab,
Vidrums life was hardly pleasurable. He failed to study properly for unknown reasons and he used
to be thrown of his bed repeatedly and some one would slap him repeatedly at night. He moved on
life, but it seemed he was still relentlessly pursued by something.
He had bought a new car but the next day someone had destroyed the front seat but everything
else was intact. A few days later he came home from his clinic. His life was full of the usual realities
of his profession he was by now inured to peering down the smelly orifices of other humans in
various states of disease. While displaying due compassion, deep within he was hardly moved by
the news that one patient or another being dragged away by the agents of the great southern lord
for their appointments with Citragupta; Nor did the cries of those whose time had not yet come
calling upon the buffalo-rider to relieve them of their existence penetrate deep into his armor of
mental strength. But that day his mood was particularly low. He washed his hands and sat for
sometime in his plush chair in his study. In his mind the day ran like a cinema reel. The reports
came in for a young woman he had been treating for a while. It was fibrodysplasia ossificans
progressiva. He had to break to her the news that it was much worse than even the worst
possibility they were considering prior to the tests: she was going to literally turn to stone through
complete ossification of muscle, ligament and all. He vaguely recalled his friend Somakhya had
mentioned that this was a consequence of the mutation in the TGF-beta-family receptor ACVR1 in
course of his monolog on how highly ossified vertebrates might have evolved Vidrum had hardly
made much sense of what he had said then. Later in the day, on the way back home he headed to
3

the bank to deposit a set of checks he had gotten from his patients when he thought he saw a
woman in the middle of the road. He fell into a ditch trying to avoid her. By the time he got his car
and himself out of the mess he found that he had lost his valet with those checks. He wondered
how some of his classmates wished to have his life; he would gladly exchange his for theirs.
He then fired up the latest NEJM page and started browsing the morbidly gruesome pictures of the
Image challenge pages; a few successful responses made him feel fired up and a bit more upbeat.
Then he turned to an article on genomics of myeloid leukemia its contents again starkly
reminded him of his friend Somakhyas statement that the physicians should either become real
biologists to practice it or leave it to real biologists to do so. He pushed aside the journal and
picked up his phone to call his servant. In a little while she arrived and he said that he desired a
meal of dry fruits and nuts to be placed on the dinning table for supper. There after he wondered if
he should call Somakhya to tell him about the case of FOP he had encountered. But before he could
do so he slipped into a reverie.
It was the first day after the vacation and everyone was back, getting ready to enter the classroom.
Vidrum walked in with some trepidation thinking of the difficulties he might encounter in the
curriculum, or due to the cruelties of the teachers, or the conflicts with other boys. His classroom
was on the 2nd floor, and having arrived rather early he stood outside it in the corridor looking at
the quadrangle below. Suddenly, he caught sight of her. Deep within him he experienced a strange
feeling something like he had never felt before in his whole life to that point. It was a pleasurable
feeling but he still could not understand it as there was nothing he could compare it to. He felt a
yearning to reach her and talk to her but then the class began and he was caught up with it. From
time to time he would glance at her and only felt that strange feeling increase within him. After
the classes ended he tried to reach her but he realized that she was walled off by a formidable
circle of other girls for whom he felt nothing (and he found that interesting). Deep within he also
sensed the possibility that he might have to physically engage in conflict with other guys to attain
his goal. So he let it pass and started walking home quietly. Thus, time passed and she now thickly
crowded the dreams of Vidrum. Finally one aami day, as though the wild and uncontrollable
Sarasvat he worshiped near his house had smiled upon him, he got his chance. It was a wet day
and those youthful gods, the sons of Rudra, the dear friends of Sarasvat , were dancing with their
spears in the sky making men tremble. Vidrum set out for his classes. The mathematics teacher
had posed a terrible geometric construction. While some of the guys had gotten, all of the girls,
except Lootika, had failed to achieve it. The clever Lootika refused to show how it is done to the
other girls. So just before the class they were scampering to get it done by copying it from the boys
who had gotten it. Vidrum saw that she stood among girls with her face clouded with some
consternation she had forgotten her geometry box and could not copy the construction in the
rush to get it done no one was paying her any attention. Vidrum saw his chance and rushed to her
side to give her his box and implements to let her achieve the construction.
Now that he got to her he felt his life had changed. The strange pleasant feeling he used to feel
upon seeing her now turned into a raging fire. He hoped that she would similarly burn within as
though possessed by the god Kumra. But she seemed to be cold to him. Vidrum went up to his
friend Somakhya and discussed the predicament regarding her. Somakhya said that an old poet
from Kashmir had stated that the my of ambara or the my of Viu might be penetrated but
not that of women. He asked Vidrum to stop fawning over her and to tactically ignore her. A few
4

days later the girls had again been stumped by a dreadful trigonometric problem. As they were
raking their heads they saw Lootika smugly standing beside Vidrum and Somakhya. A couple of
girls came running up to them and asked them help with the problem. Lootika turned to
Somakhya and asked him not to help them; so he kept quiet. But Vidrum helped them. Thereafter
she who attracted him as a magnet came running to Vidrum and asked for help. He turned to
Lootika and asked if he should help her. Lootika said that if she could not solve it by herself why
not let her face the teachers music. Vidrum with great self effort turned down his chosen girl.
Later that evening as he was returning home she called out to him but he again ignored her. Now
she came running across the cemetery to come and intercepted him and asked why he was so cross
with her. With that he had won her and he rejoiced in pleasant glow of satisfaction that exceeded
the earlier feelings he had felt.
But the story of Vidrum does not end there nor that of Somakhya or Lootika, but they course on
through the branching of the universes.

The Apocalypse


Lootika and her sister Varoli, who was visiting her, had cooked up an elaborate meal for the
visitors who were to arrive later in the day. Thereafter, as the two were lazing on the couch,
Lootika remarked: O Varoli why is it that I have this vague recollection of a question in the exam
about why only the 2 position of the pyridine gets aminated. Was it something to do with that
strangely named Chichibabins reaction. But as Varoli began explaining it to her, Lootika, like Um
destined become a skull in Rudras necklace, slumped into the hands of Hypnos and was overtaken
by the phantasms of Morpheos, Phobetor and Phantasos.

Vidrum was comfortably seated in the outdoor dining area of a plush restaurant. The twilight was
giving way to the mild light of the gibbous moon and a cool breeze wafted the foul miasmas from a
public toilet that stood only twenty meters away. But Vidrum seemed oblivious to the ordure
announcing its presence and like a practitioner of the Caamhroaa tantra remained focused
on his actions unshaken by the vimtrdi. He was fingering his tablet, alternatively glancing at
the photos he had taken from his latest rock-climbing forays or at the news panel. From time to
time he looked out into the footpath leading to the restaurant anxiously sifting through the maze
of faces looking for a particular one. As he flipped through the screen of his tablet various news
items flashed on it. There was one saying that the Kangress-M had won the constituencies with
overwhelming majority in UP, WB, Assam etc and their famous slogan masjid vahn tamr hog,
with which they had contested, was being heard all over. Another said that the president had
invited Kangress-M and Kangress-C to form a coalition government in Delhi with Kangress-P.
There was an article on how the Indian people had again upheld the values of secularism by
resoundingly voting for Kangress-M (i.e. Congress-Moslem), Kangress-C (i.e. Congress-Christian)
and Kangress-P (i.e. Congress-progressive). But Vidrum had the least inclination to look at any of
that. He quickly scrolled to the sports page to check the scores from IPL final between Karachi
Ghazis and Kolkota Muharibs.
Before long the server had placed a tumbler of beverage in front of him. Just as he paused to take a
sip of the beverage, his eyes suddenly lit up. Meghana had just materialized out of the crowd
apologizing to Vidrum for being late. He queried her sharply as to why she was delayed. She
confessed that she had run into Sajid Khan on the way to the restaurant. Vidrum was concerned
when Meghana let it slip that Khan was really cool with a sparkle in her eye. Vidrum wanted to
know more, but Meghana quickly downplayed it saying that Khan just was asking her about the
impending exams. So they forgot about it even as they settled for the joys of a spicy three course
meal that might have even pleased Mahmud Begarha. They would have lingered on chatting if it
had not been for Meghana reminding Vidrum that they better get back to his house to study. She
asked him if he had the material ready for the impending exams. He declared that he had lost way
somewhere into the SN2 reactions and was really neither making sense of why the Chichibabin
2

reaction occurred only at the 2 position nor the reasons for the Saytzeffs Rule. He suggested that
they should instead go the the house of Somakhya who might be able to explain the same. He told
Meghana that once they got the basics from Somakhya they could go his house to complete the
rest.
At Somakhya s house just before getting started on the arcana of alkenes formed in elimination
reactions, Vidrum asked him what the score in the IPL match was. Not surprisingly, Somakhya
responded: Forget IPL, have you not seen the news of the new government with Kangress-M and
Kangress-C in the coalition. Vidrum: arre politics ko coo yr krike me ky ho rah hai?
Somakhya : Forget the cricket, just yesterday our classmate bhrat was assaulted at the
Sultanpet market. Meghana: Wow what happened? Somakhya : There was a masjid rally going
on at the Amir Khan road. Hence, while returning home she took the route via Sultanpet, where a
mj was stretched across the street. She collided with that and fell from her bike. Two bearded
guys took hold her and had a go at her. But just then there was some noise from the clashes due to
the masjid morcha and the beards got distracted. Somehow, bhrat, though hurt and bleeding,
managed to get on to her bike and flee. If only we had the rrya svayaaseva dala that used to
be there in my fathers youth they would have given these marnmatta-s a fitting answer. That
is why I keep saying that we must all train in nlika-s and asi-putrik-s. Meghana: Man you are
so bad. I never knew you were one of the rma sene types. Somakhya : Just watch what happens.
That is why I say this news of Kangress-M in the government is a disaster. Meghana: You are a
real fascist. The democratic elections are the people voice and you want to deny that. I am sure
home minister Nabi Rasool is a great choice for keeping the corruption in check. I like his
suggestion of flogging for corruption. Surely water minister Mohammed Iqbal will also do
something about this water crisis. Vidrum: Alright folks, let us get on with the anti-Saytzeff
behavior in eliminations with potassium t-butoxide or we will pull the plug.
A few months later Vidrum and Meghana arrived at Somakhya s house: arre yr, are you not
coming for the graduation ceremony. Somakhya : I have opted for receiving the degree by post. I
do not want to shake hands with that jragarbha, Prem Fraser, the chief minister from the
Kangress-C party. Meghana: You are really crazy. Somakhya : Whatever, have you not seen the
news that the Kangress-M CM, Afzal Khan, in UP has instituted a ban on Hindus entering the k
vivantha temple and all ceremonies on the gag have also been banned. Further, Kangress-M
has threatened to withdraw from the coalition unless Arabic and Islamic studies are made
compulsory in all schools all over India. Meghana: You will never understand. Because of our able
foreign minister Fakruddin, we now have akhaa bhrata from Afghanistan to Bangladesh in the
form of the South Asian union. The Hindutva people previous generation could only dream of
that. Vidrum: coo yr, lets be going. If you do not want come, Somakhya, we take it that you do
not want to see your friends before we all graduate and go our ways. Somakhya : Soon all this
will mean nothing may be we will be like the devlole Kareik of Kalasha. Vidrum and Meghana
sped away on their H-cell bikes.
3

At the Joshua Graham Evangelical Societys college there was a big rush for the convocation
ceremony. The security apparatus had kept the students from entering the college because they
wanted the convoy of Prem Fraser to enter the premises first. The students were asked not to form
groups of more than five and they were waiting outside the college gate along the streets. The
center had specially sent commandos to keep an eye on possible Hindu terrorists who might want
to attack the CM. Just three days ago a Hindu named Kapotarj had distributed pamphlets titled
The Day of Direct Action Redux. He was captured on Amir Khan road and lynched like the
former Afghan leader Najibullah from a lamppost. Further, the closure of the k temple and
access to the ghats on the gag were supposed to incite resistance from the Hindu terrorists.
Already a secret report had come that a terrorist Hindu liberation army was being raised in the
la country. Vidrum and Meghana arrived at the parking lot. Meghana caught sight of Sajid Khan
and Omar Zalim and yelled out to them. They were both carrying large knapsacks and wearing
somewhat heavy jackets for a warm day. They ignored her and went towards the gate and waited
there with one more bearded guy and a burkha-ed woman in black. Meghana left Vidrum behind
to try to catch Sajid and Omars attention and make conversation with them.
Just then the CMs convoy started passing through the gate. There was a deafening explosion even
as a car in the convoy went up in flames. Just then the woman in black threw a couple of grenades
at the students screeching A-hu-A. One of them exploded before Meghana killing her. Vidrums
instinct was to rush by Meghanas side. But just then, Sajid Khan and Omar Zalim swung out
assault rifles from under their coats and began firing. Omar attacked the convoy, while Sajid began
spraying bullets on the students. From inside the college a several more bearded fellows were seen
rushing in with RPGs and assault rifles taking the commandos by surprise. They were mowed down
and the CM Prem Fraser himself received several shots and slumped lifeless into his seat. After the
initial explosions and rattle of automatic fire Vidrum thought that he had died. But realizing he
was still alive, he remained lying there amidst the fallen students behind his bike. At least three
shots ricocheted off the wall of the parking lot behind him or blasted through his bike and
bounced off the ground. Suddenly, the attackers, some crying A-hu-A and others dn-dn rushed
into the college leaving the parking lot splattered with gore and body parts. Clearly a great gun
battle was raging between the commandos and the attackers. At that point Vidrum was still to
shell-shocked to move from his place, when he suddenly heard a huge detonation go off within the
college premises. And he saw the towering cross-emblazoned church building go up in flames. The
explosion sort of woke him up. He realized he was still alive and ran towards the exit. He had
proceed as far as the Jawaharlal Nehru Marg when he heard cries of A-hu-A coming from it and
saw the bust of JLN lying shattered at the entrance to the street.
He quickly jumped over a wall and crouched behind it. He heard several cries and saw fire brands
being tossed into the houses, vehicles and shops lining the street. The rising flames were making
him feel as though roasted and the fumes were choking him but he knew he had keep hiding to
4

survive. Late that night, he made it out and hiding and taking the cover of walls reached
Somakhya s house. He told Vidrum to rush with his party through a secret route to the hillocks of
vanadurg. The great climber Vidrum was nimbly clambering over the massif when a bullet
whizzed past him and brought a rock crashing down.
To his utter surprise he saw that atop the hillock Somakhya and his dt were already drinking
soma from a skull-cup when the stobha of the chant with which the deva-s bring home their
plunder from the dnava-s was heard.

Lootika: Ah the sweet taste of soma and the delight of mahsukha of the sayoga with the vra in
the hilly maca in the midst of the charnel ground. Why is it that the elimination reaction with
menthyl chloride always anti-Saytzeff?
Varoli: Why dear bhagin? you seemed to have lapsed into the state of a vidydhar even before
you relearned your Chichibabin reaction! So why would you want to know of the anti-Saytzeff
elimination now?
Lootika: Good sleep is union with tripur. But, like the siddhi-s in the path to that unity, a dream
rolled forth and we were caught in its jla. Thus, indeed a snare could bring down the horse of
Bhrata in its trot!

The cairn beyond the crag

It was the an early Indian summer morning. The type that makes one rise rapidly from bed rather
than remain tucked in like the mornings in the cold northern lands. Vidrum had arisen from his
bed and briskly jogged up to the small temple on the edge of the cemetery that enshrined a 16
armed kAlI. He mentally recited the incantation kr kr kr s m ptu dev kl bhagavat
vijaya dadtu na | He then picked up pinch of vermillion from the old calvaria placed in front
of the image and smeared it on his forehead. Thereafter he ran back home and seated himself on
the amaru-shaped cane chair and lazily looked out at the road and the field beyond the
compound wall after all it was vacation time and free from the cares of life he had all the
opportunity to just sit and stare. Sipping the coffee his grandmother had given him, staring at the
yonder space, he wondered how wonderful it might have been if Meghana of pretty locks was
seated as his side. Just then he saw Lootika passing by holding a net and a bag with pill-boxes in it.
He was surprised. What was she doing in this village of his? After all she was not from these parts.
She had always been frosty towards him, perhaps because of her distaste for Meghana, whom she
considered superficial and dimwitted. Or perhaps it was her belonging to the socio-economic
pinnacle that placed a divide between her and the middle class types. He had heard her refer to
Meghana as janay several times. But carried by the surprise of her unexpected appearance
he went up to the compound wall and called her, enquiring what she was doing in these parts.
Lootika, it seemed to him, was more relaxed and amenable to conversation in these days of
vacation than at school. She said that she was on her way to collect false scorpions and daddylong-legs in the jungle that lay just beyond the cemetery. She then excitedly showed him a
photocopy of a book titled Chelonethi, an account of the Indian false scorpions together with studies on
the anatomy and classification of the order. This book published in 1906 was so hard to obtain that
there was apparently only one copy of it in India. But her relative had managed to provider her a
copy from abroad. She then went on tell Vidrum that the Scandinavian arachnologist Carl
Johannes With had made an expedition to India at the beginning of the 1900s to discover and
describe false scorpions at length. No one had studied these arachnids in detail after that in the
subcontinent. Then, Lootika went on that closer to her time there was a naturalist named
Anantakrishnan who had spent a lifetime studying these arachnids and wrote a book on them. But
then most of his people looked at him much like Tennysons wife had looked at Charles Darwin and
felt Anantakrishnan must be positively mad to be seeing arthropods where others saw only a heap
of desiccating vegetation. Indeed, Somakhya had told her that though there were few men as
learned as the old ayya, they would dismissively say of Anantakrishnan in the dramia language:
avaruku velaye ille; cumma edo kuppaya noniu irrupar. In any case, ever since Somakhya
had shown her these arachnids she found them fascinating and finally decided that summer to
launch a new study of them. She excitedly remarked that it was truly uncharted territory with
discoveries waiting to be made by the observant and the patient.
2

Vidrum found all this utterly bizarre and felt more sympathy with the detractors of
Anantakrishnan than Lootika. He was reminded of the lecture he had heard from an advaitateaching sanysin where the renunciate clarified that sapta-dvpa vasumati was an example of
useless knowledge. Vidrum remarked to himself that if such basic geography was useless then the
engrossment in the ways of false scorpions must be the epitome of it. Just then there was a blaring
noise from a wind instrument and much beating of drums. Lootika was startled and asked what
that was. Vidrum asked her to climb up on to the wall since a procession of the kl temple was to
pass through the street she was on. It featured the temple elephant and also a buffalo, which was
to be eventually be married to a horse at the house of a brhmaa, after it had made a round to
the ritual at the shrine of the sister deity mahmr. Lootika was excited by this new distraction
and decided to watch it all sitting on Vidrums wall. The procession wended its way and the
elephant as well as the buffalo copiously defecated on the street in front of Vidrums ancestral
home. Once the procession had gone past something extraordinary happened. A couple of street
dogs came running and rolled vigorously for a while on the dung. Vidrum thought of his
renunciates lecture and remarked to himself that this must be truly the lower animal birth he was
admonishing about, for what else would delight in something as undignified as a vi-snna. But
his curiosity was also aroused and he asked Lootika as to what that might mean. She said she was
as puzzled as him and would think about it.
Then she gathered her stuff and was about to leave when Vidrum turned to her and said: Hey, it
is not really safe for a pretty girl like you to be wandering in the yonder forest all by yourself.
L: Oh there is no cause of concern. My relatives are the local IAS officials with some powers who
administer these regions. Anyone would be a fool to do something to me if they want to remain
standing.
V: Well but you never know some desperate rogues
L: I am not as vulnerable as you think. Saying so she drew out an knife with a 7 inch gleaming
blade. I got this from the feral brhmaa gardabhmukha. Then she took out something which
looked like a bottle of nail polish and said: Moreover if that fails here is a secret weapon. I heard
you and Somakhya talking about how the Soviet agents used to assassinate people with the
umbrella tip. So some days back I talked to Somakhya about making such a weapon for ourselves.
Here is the result and the herbal formulae remain our secret.
V: Ah, I never thought you were so much a female version of a cup-rustam! Good luck with your
wanderings.
Vidrum spent much of the rest of his day sitting and starring or taking circles around his
grandfathers house, much like an ox driving an old oil-press, or reading some mangas. That night
he heard some strange howls and went out into the garden to check those out. He saw eyes
3

flashing in the dark and eventually as his own adjusted to the dark he made out the shapes of
jackals. They ran on to the street in front of his house and, like the dogs earlier in the day, rolled
vigorously on the elephant and buffalo dung. He remarked to himself that he should mention this
to Lootika in case he saw her the next day.

The next day Vidrum spent the time constructing geometric figures using his old compass box. In
one such construction he observed the incenters of the 4 triangles with the diagonals of a cyclic
quadrilateral as one of their sides formed a rectangle. He did this construction again and again and
found that irrespective of the cyclic quadrilateral he got a rectangle. He wondered why this was so
and roamed out that evening to make circles around his grandfathers house. Just then he caught
sight of Lootika who was returning from her false scorpion and opilione hunt. He called out to her
and told her of the jackals and his constructions of cyclic quadrilaterals. She was also unable to
prove why always a rectangle is obtained but hoped work more on it. She in turn excitedly showed
Vidrum her drawing of a false scorpion attached to a fly.

At that point Vidrum proposed that the next day they should probably climb up a crag that lay in
4

the midst of the jungle and explore the environs of a cairn that lay beyond it. Atop the crag lay a
shrine whose deity was called cauryalakm. A legend, which Vidrum had heard, claimed that
thieves after their plundering expeditions used to come to worship this deity. There were rumors
of buried wealth in its vicinity but also one that people who tried to take it would be killed by the
thieves. Lootika was immediately game because she felt it might give her the opportunity to
explore a more diverse array of ecological niches. Accordingly they set off the next day. Vidrum
had picked up a goodly billhook from his grandfathers collection which came in many shapes and
sizes. He was confident that with that muscular billhook he could defend himself sufficiently
against any local rowdy who might take a chance. After scaling the steep crag and reaching its top
Lootika and Vidrum went their own ways. Lootika was carefully turning leaves and stones and
picking up her scorpions interestingly, she found that the version which Somakhya had shown
her prowling in the used-book store was common even in these wooded environs near the cairn.
After digging for a while in the vicinity of the cauryalakm shrine Vidrum went on to explore the
circumference of the cairn. He remembered that Somakhya had described these as remnants of the
megalithic people who probably brought the Prakritic languages to southern India. There, after
some scratching around he found two implements that were somewhat out of place vis-a-vis the
megalithic era an old rusted billhook with an inscription in a West Asian script and the barrel of
a gun. He carefully collected these and that afternoon Vidrum and Lootika returned, both
immensely pleased with their spoils.
Some weeks later Vidrum was back in his town and went to meet Somakhya. They spent a long
time palavering about how their vacations had progressed. Vidrum had much to say, from the
rectangle within the quadrilateral, to the animals wallowing in dung, to the climax of his metallic
finds. He asked Somakhya what the origin of those implements might be. Of course Somakhya had
no answer but only felt a bit envious of that Vidrum had found stuff so interesting. Some days later
Somakhya was engaging in ball-making as he did during most summers those days: He had
gathered a large mass of raintree pods and was de-seeding them. Then he took the fruit walls and
was crushing them with a stone pestle to obtain a paste with which he would make the ball. As he
was hunched pounding the pods, Lootika, who was prone to display of childish activities on
occasions, stole up from behind Somakhya and covered his eyes with her palms. As a result, rather
than take in the pleasure of the sparSha with Lootika he now smashed his own finger with the
stone pestle and was in deep agony. Lootika wanted to help but he shooed her away because he did
not want to be seen in her presence as he ran to the elders for some help. Soon his wound got
infected and he lay in bed with a high fever, perhaps in a delirium induced by the bacterium.

---May be it was during this delirium or perhaps it was under the influence of the opioid he had been
administered after the physician had lanced the wound, Somakhya saw something like a dream. It
was a small nsiha temple in a well known town of the mahras. A mahrr brhmaa from
the clan of the kauinya-s arrived at the temple. He was unlike many of his coethnics of the age,
who were closer to what the old ayy samarapugava had to say about them in his travelogue
through bhratavara a few hundred years ago: neglecting the stra-s they are more like a
mrv of the 3rd vara or a kyastha account-keeper. He took out a text of the gveda and
began his daily pryaa, that day starting with the 9th maala. He still belonged to the world
that was crumbling around him; his clansmen still performed soma rituals and his community still
counted several who knew one of more of all the 4 veda-s in entirety. He too had hoped to be a
tvik who might perform rituals all the way up to the great vjapeya with its long-distance
shooting contest and grand 17 lap chariot races.
At the same time the heavy air of defeat still hung all around he had not yet entered his teens
when he saw with his own eyes the catastrophic defeat of the Indian army in the first war of
independence, many of whose leaders had been his own coethnics. Some of his own relatives from
the extended family had been slain in the great battlefields of North India in the attempt to shake
off the veta-avasdhaka yoke. The news had reached him of the genocide of Indians in the north.
In his own circles he had heard the story of how a coethnic who had protected an Englishman and
his girl from being killed during the Indian attack was skewered like a kebab by the bayonet of the
very same Englishman at the end of the war. He had learned English in school and had read in
person the account of the total genocide conducted by the pretasdhaka warrior Hugh Rose in
Jhansi: No maudlin clemency was to mark the fall of the city. As he ended for the day with the
gyatr: sisat ray vjev arvatm iva | bhareu jigyum asi | his mind wandered towards
the catastrophe of the first war of independence again. He had a conflicting thought run through
him. After all the ruti had just said that the soma was drunk by victorious warriors conquering in
battle like indra and soma with their horses racing with booty. After all the great vjapeya was
performed by the victorious rya, with bow held aloft, whose horses had trampled upon his
vanquished foes and beaten his land flat beneath their hoofs. So what was the point of performing
the vjapeya when bhrat, who is invoked to come to the ritual arena at the beginning of every
rite, was bound by the pretcrin-s.
He noticed that the pavilion beside the temple was unusually filling up with a small crowd. There
was some tension in the air as few brhmaa-s were talking in hushed but angry tones with others.
He went there and enquired as to what was afoot. They told him that a learned brhmaa who as
an official in the court of the white shibs was to give a speech inaugurating a new movement. He
6

knew that brhmaa. He came from a family of learned rkula sdhaka-s belonging to the
bharadvja gotra. In fact his grandfather had written new commentaries on the yogin-jlaabara and the nityoaikrava tantra. But this brhmaa himself had immersed himself in
English education; however, he had not neglected his study of saskta and the history of
bhratavara. The young kauinya decided to attend that bharadvjas speech. The latter briskly
covered the empire of the marhas under ivj, then the pev-s and the defeat of 1857 CE.
Thereafter, he declared that there was no point continuing with the old strategy but a complete
change was needed. He advocated that bhrata had to first industrialize on a massive scale and
move from an entirely agrarian economy to one where heavy industry played a major role on a
national scale. He listed out the kinds of industries and the order in which they should be
developed and emulating the Deutscher Bund on some matters where he felt they were superior to
the English tyrants. He also declared that there was no point for brhmaa-s to spend time writing
moronic avirodhapraka-s defending a geostationary, geocentric, flat-earth universe. Instead,
called them to closely study science irrespective of whether it came from the English, French or
the Deutscher Bund. In particular, he prophetically declared that the works of James Maxwell and
Charles Darwin that had just come out were of great significance and needed to be understood
despite being difficult.
Finally, he came to the most contentious topic of all. He declared that the preta-sdhaka-s were
exploiting the stratification of Hindu society to break away the avara-s and the service jti-s and
making them a front against the savara-s. He described how recently an avara Marathi
gentleman whose clansmen had been bowermen and florists, who faithfully served the erstwhile
brhmaa prime ministers and fought in 1857, had converted to the pretamata under the
influence of a Brahmin-hating padre. Now he was leading an anti-Brahminical crusade among his
avara coethnics to calling upon them to uphold the British Raj. Thus, the bharadvja concluded
by stating that they need comprehensive reforms which included temple entry and Sanskrit
education for the avara-s, as also an educational movement among them that would help them
re-identify with and recover their Hindu roots. For this he proposed his new ideas for religious
discourse within the Hindu fold. As he ended there was a murmur within the sabhA. Clearly, his
lecture had deeply affected the listeners. One paita stood up and asked on what basis could he
claim that the avaraNa-s had any adhikAra to the holy Sanskrit language when even brhmaa
women did not. The bharadvja cited a verse from from the Kashmirian Sanskrit poet bilhaa who
was in the kara court: There is no grma or janapada, no rjadhn or no araya, no garden or
school where learned and ignorant, young and old, male and female alike do not read my poems
and shake with pleasure. Having said this he cited other verses about king bhoja-deva to show
how the shUdra woman was equally versed as a brhmaa one in the deva-bh during his reign.
Hence, he said there is enough evidence that Sanskrit was the national language understood by all.
7

Then he concluded that this is how bhrata used to be, and that the view of the paita is contrary
to the real situation before the Islamic and Christian deluges. The paita thought it was strange
way to answer his objection he was arguing based on historical precedence rather than by citing
authoritative stra-s. He remained unconvinced and declared he would write a virodha
demolishing the bharadvja-s claims.
But a lot of what the bharadvja said seemed to resonate with the kauinya and he was pretty
convinced they should go ahead in some such way. For his part he wrote up a little tract on the
solar system in Sanskrit and read it out to his students in a little school he taught in. He hoped this
might introduce them to the ways of current science. He also drew up plans for founding a larger
educational body that will start colleges and schools for the wide-ranging modern education of all
Hindus. To make this come true he approached many a businessman and sought their aid. In the
mean time his circle was abuzz with a distressing event. A brahmaa padita surnamed Natu had
converted to the preta-mata; calling himself Jeremiah, he was vigorously propagating the pretamata and hurling abuse on the Hindu dharma in English and Sanskrit tracts. The English were
tacitly supporting the publication and distribution of these works. The Hindoos are horsefornicators, incestuous, bestial and immoral wrote Jeremiah with copious citations regarding the
avamedha and gosava rituals. The kauinya was incensed with these tracts and he went to he
bharadvja stating that they should write a vigorous polemic on the preta and the preta-pustakam.
The bharadvja said they should be positive and rather than engaging in polemics they should
compose a tract outlining the sublime teachings of the veda and vednta and distribute them as a
counter to the writings of Jeremiah and his friends. Unconvinced, the kauinya wrote a fiery
polemic condemning the preta and his cult. But strangely he found the bharadvja too scared to
publicize it widely.
Worse was to come. One day the kauiya had to travel urgently to another town to attend a
family funeral. On his way back he was in a carriage where a rich Hindu businessman and his
youthful daughter were seated in the adjacent compartment separated from his by bars. In the
same compartment as the businessman were two uncouth English youth. Even as they neared his
town the kauiya noticed that the Englishmen were harassing the young lady with their
advances. He was furious but could do nothing but watch it play out till finally they disembarked
at the station. He again went to the bharadvja and sought his help saying they should make a
legal complaint or in the least write tract on the incident and distribute it. The bharadvja
rebuffed the kauinya saying it was impossible to do anything with such slim evidence against
the English youth; it was up to the ladys father to do so. A few days latter he heard that a similar
incident of an assault on a Mohammedan woman by English youth had happened near the
cantonment close to the Islamic quarter. His interlocutor was a local Pathan extortionist, going
8

under the colloquial moniker Zabardast Khan, who helped the mrv money-lenders extract
their arrears for a commission. The Pathan swore that the incident would not go unavenged. A few
days latter the Englishmen who had molested the Mohammedan woman were cornered on a lonely
street, even as they were returning home from a late night party, and promptly beheaded by the
billhooks of Zabardast Khan and his aides. Thereafter, they quickly placed the dead Englishmen in
coffins and simulated an Islamic funeral procession the next day to bury them in their graveyard.
When the English police enquiry came after the Moslems, they threatened a mass riot if the Kaffrs
set foot in the graveyard. Not wanting to upset the calm, and given the slim evidence they had, the
English let it pass and the case remained unsolved.
The incident with the marnmatta-s profoundly impressed itself on the kauinya. It brought
forth some inner concern he was unable to clearly articulate. Though both the Islamic Jihad and
the Hindu war of independence had been crushed by the English, it appeared that the
Mohammedans, whom his coethnics had come closely to rolling back from the holy land of
bhratavara, were still abrasively gritty as ever, whereas the Hindus had gone flaccid. In the
mean time he had been seriously working on the education and integration of avara-s. In the
process he had befriended a nyaka of a predatory hill-tribe whose ancestor had been overnight
re-designated from cor to kovl by the Holkar in the yester-years. This nyakas tribe had now
been conferred to the rather disparaging title of criminal caste by the English. The kauinya
was trying to inculcate in them the values of a more benign existence and the nyaka appreciating
the value of the kauinyas teachings was trying to propagate it in the midst of his people. In
return he introduced the kauinya to their physical culture which greatly improved the
kauinyas health and strength. However, the incubus of about 1100 years of predatory existence
vis-a-vis urban populations could not be erased by a mere few years of education and the hilltribes were in still restless for their old ways.
One day the kauinya and the nyaka went to spy an old forest region where they considered
starting an akh. The kauinya believed that the cairn in that old forest marked the spot
where an old advaitin of the datttreya tradition had founded an astradhrin akh about a
millennium ago. They climbed up the crag in the midst of the forest and seated themselves even as
the great eye of the two heavenly katriya-s was sinking. In the grassy clearing that lay beyond
them a trio of gyals (wild cattle) were grazing peacefully. All of a sudden a great pack of dholes
closed in upon the bovids with their ferocious cacophony. Two gyals escaped their dragnet but
the third did not make it in time. Over the next hour despite its size it was overwhelmed and rent
apart by the dholes which settled into a feeding frenzy. Suddenly, the kauinya felt inspired by
the sight even as avatthman had been inspired by the owl on the kuru field. He told the tribal
nyaka: We are a pack like these dholes and the English, while big like the gyal, are just one. If
9

we fall upon them with the unity of this pack they would be destroyed. The nyaka was inspired
too and agreed with the kauinya. He declared his whole marauder tribe will be ready for such
action.

10

---Both had a premonition that this was going to be their last meeting. While the bharadvja and the
kauinya had drifted apart and even had serious differences of opinion they respected each
other. The kauinya had helped the bharadvja draft a tract based on his study of the
brhaspatya nti which had been composed in the mahra country in the days before the
Mohammedan onslaught. In this text it was stated that all the limbs of Hindu society had to study
the nti and artha texts in order to be politically aware and this was an activity ordained for both
the present and the future as it was done in the enlightened past. The kauinya had argued that
neglect of this injunction coming down from the great law-giver bhaspati was the cause of the
doom of the bhrata-s. But today he had come to say something way more serious The
bharadvja disapprovingly told the kauinya that by looting the English tax-revenue which was
being taken to Bombay he was only taking away the money that belong to his own people rather
than the English. Moreover, he said that the whole idea of forming a truck with the Arab ghzi
Shaikh Idris from Hyderabad was a recipe for the highest disaster. He said: You saw how it failed
in 1857 and now you want to do it again? Remember our ancestors under the great chatrapati
fought hard to drive away the same Mohammedan invaders not for nothing. Then the bharadvja
added that he should return to the path of doing something constructive industries, education,
social reform he declared. But the kauinya was adamant. He said all that could only happen if
the tyrannical vetavara-s, who had nothing but deep hate for our people, were slain in battle or
driven out, even as indra had slaughtered the hundreds of thousands of dsa-s led by varcin
It was around 1.00 PM. The English convoy was led by Capt David Low along with white officers Lt
Richard Hayes and Lt Konrad Bassler, a Swiss missionary who was now working for the English
corps. They were accompanied by a company of sepoys who were sandwiched between the white
officers and grunts. They guarded the collections of revenue which was being borne to Bombay.
Even as they passed through the forest path beneath the crag the kauinya took aim with his rifle
and nailed a perfect hit that brought down David Low in a pool of blood. The company was
startled. Taking advantage of their confusion the bands of Shaikh Idris, Zabardast Khan and the
nyaka fell upon the company. In the melee that ensued Zabardast Khan got close enough to Hayes
and struck his head off with a tremendous blow from his sword. In the meantime the nyaka
scored a shot from among the trees which found the heart of Konrad Bassler sending him right
away to his spot reserved in the raurava realm of yama vaivasvata. This slaughter of the accursed
veta-s, who had all along treated the Indians as vi-mtra, gave great encouragement to their
bands who despite the heavy firing completely overwhelmed the English force and took possession
of the the revenue cases. As per their agreement they quickly divided it among themselves.
However, Shaikh Idris had his own plans not satisfied with the victory over the English, his Arab
band rode on to the village beside the forest with the objective of looting it and also slitting some
11

Kaffrs throats. Zabardast Khan and his Pathans, and the kauinya, the nyaka and their
tribesmen were to go their own way. The nyaka said that they must place a part of their spoils as
an offering for cauryalakm. But just then they were surprised by a whole battalion led by the Lt
Col Stephen Jackson, who had vowed to put the uppity heathen black devils in their place.
Zabardast Khans band had a mole who had already conveyed their plans to the English
authorities. They had sent Jackson to relieve the convoy but he was just a little late in arriving.
The surprise of Jacksons assault quickly ended the lives of the nyaka, all Pathans and many of the
tribesmen. The kauinya and Zabardast Khan kept fighting. The former was shot from behind by
a marksman who had climbed up the cairn to get a good shot. He went down with his rifle beside
him. The Pathan was left with just his billhook and tried an exaggerated swing, but before he
found his mark he too had been mowed down. Jackson declared: let the wild dogs eat these black
devils and rode away in victory to pursue Shaikh Idris.
That night uccratynandantha was going by with his disciples. He saw the corpse of the
kauinya. He said to his students: This is the body of a brhmaa. We should not let it go
uncremated. Lets set up a pyre for him his tman has a couple more janma-s to take. The
students asked: Why did he die? uccaratynandantha: The gods indeed send lessons in the
form of ways of other animals. But not all learn them completely. Indeed, if they learned all those
teachings which the wise jagadguru viuarman had conveyed they would not be in such dire
straits. This brhmaa observed the dholes. How did the dholes get so close to the grazing gayals
without the latter not even noticing the harbingers of their death? What our brhmaa did not
know is that before the assault they had rolled repeatedly in the vi-mtra of the gyals and
elephants. Thus, they smelt not like dogs but other herbivores. Thus, they raised no alarm even as
they closed in on the cattle. This brhmaa did not realize that to pounce upon enemies as evilminded and accomplished as the mleccha-s one needs the same level of concealment and surprise
as the dholes after their vi-snna.
In his haze Somakhya cried: Lootike! Why is the scorpion on your thigh!

12

The engineer, the dead fish and the bag of earth

Chapter 1
mR^ittikA-syUto nAma prathamo.adhyAyaH |
Lootika had wound up her fieldwork. While her group was not much interested, she somehow
convinced them to go with her to the shrine of shAmalAjI. To its north lay some derelict shrines,
which had been vandalized in the days of yore by the marauding Ghazis of Alla-ad-din Khalji.
Their curiosity being piqued a bit they wandered around in the vicinity of the shrines. Lootika
drifted away from her group for a while and went towards a small shrine, under an ashvattha tree,
which was strangling a large amalaka tree, much like the mlechCha alliance strangles a heathen
nation. She shone her torch to see if there was anything within. Too her surprise she saw an
exquisite image of kArttikeya. He had a single head with an exquisite ram-horn crown. To his right
was a peacock and to his left was the graha-mAtR^i sunandA wearing a turban, on whose head he
rested his elbow. In his right hand he held a mAtulu~Nga fruit while in his left hand he held a
large shakti. Lootika was amazed and looked more closely. As she gazed at the image she
remembered that Somakhya had mentioned something about the pashchimAMnAya of the
kaumAra shAsana when he had given her the secret 8-syllabled manu. It struck her that this might
be the temple installed by manvarNavanAtha and his dUtI sarvama~NgalA, the preceptors of the
adhoretas lineage of the mAnavaugha at the time the great emperor harShavardhana ruled over
most of India to the north of the Narmada. She excitedly scooped some earth from the foot of the
shrine and placed it in a bag hoping to gift it to Somakhya. Just then she heard her group calling
out her name, stating that they needed to be going. She hurriedly placed the earth in her backpack
and rushed back to join the rest.
The next day they got on the train and returned to their home city. On getting off the train they
found that the whole station looked deserted. That was rather strange they thought as normally at
that time of the day the station would hardly have any standing space, even as the masses of
bhArata poured out to make their way to far-flung towns and cities. They found that their phones
did not catch any signal and as they got out of the station they could not find a single cab. This got
them worried and they looked around to see if there was someone who could tell them what had
happened. To their surprise the restaurant outside the station was shuttered an unusual sight for a
Friday afternoon. Just then they caught sight of a porter who told them that the prime minister had
been assassinated and it was best they made their way home carefully because there were riots
raging in several parts of the city. The group panicked: Some decided that they were going to board
a train and go elsewhere. Others declared they were going wait in the station itself, while Lootika
remembered a secret route through the hills which Vidrum had once lead them through. She
decided to take that to reach her place. A couple of others with light luggage decided to accompany
her while the rest adopted their own plans. For a moment they all stood tensely looking at each,
with the knowledge that they would be parting from each other into the unknown future. The
porter told them to hurry and get back into the station or get away from the area as the Friday
ShalAt was to be joined soon at the masjid behind the railway station. He warned them that there
was no telling as to what might happen once the beards pour out from the masjid, especially to the
2

young ladies. Hence, like a pack of antelopes in whose midst a leopard had bounded the group
dispersed, each following their own plan.
Lootika and her two comparisons headed swiftly via a deserted play ground into the hills. For some
time they walked at a brisk pace not talking to each other and looking around every few steps to
make sure there was no one else around. After half an hour of strenuous climbing they reached a
plateau. There Lootika directed them to walk behind a ridge so that no one could easily see them
from below. The level contour of the plateau relaxed them a bit and Charusmita spoke: How could
they be so damn stupid and kill prime minister Samabhav Singh? He had such brilliant ideas the
uniform civil code, the death sentence for rapists, and above all a sensible right to education plan.
Lootika: Well, it was almost a given, with the marUnmatta-s backed by mlechCha-s making all
the noises even before he said that the UCC bill would be tabled in the parliament I felt he would
back off like everyone else before him. Their other companion Sharad, a seasoned politics buff,
sharply retorted: It is not correct to blame the marUnmatta-s for the actions of few misguided
individuals. Did we not read in our history books that long ago the Hindu fundamentalists
unleashed by the saffron leader Savarkar kill Mahatma Gandhi who took us to freedom? There are
bad apples in every bushel. If any thing shrI Samabhav Singhs legacy was his true secularism.
Lootika bit her lip and fired back: I just hope we do not have to regret the consequences of this
sort of thinking that has permeated our masses for ages. It is in times like this I really wish your so
called Hindu fundamentalists were around to save our skins even as our alleys reverberate with the
cries of A-O-A. Sharad triumphantly smiled and said: All they would do is to beat you up for
straying out late in the day to hang out with the guys ever so often. Just then they began their
descent and heard the distant bellow of a siren from their city. Something must have happened
they remarked. Lootika leapt on a large rock to get a better view of the city and her heart sank as
she saw the distant red glow of fire coming from her locality. Her face lost color as she told her
companions that it was not a joke anymore. She mentally started reciting a secret mantra to
puShan. Her companions too grew worried and clambered up the rock to get a better look. They
were not sure if they could easily reach their homes as there seemed to be blazes on the paths
leading to them. Finally they made it down from the hills and had to take a long dirt path to reach
Lootikas residence. Lootika peered ahead intently and knew that the fire was not in her house but
in the market area near by. They gingerly walked to her house making as little noise as possible. By
then the twilight had turned to night and her house was dark barring a faint candle light in one of
the rooms. She did not know if her parents and sisters were there and whether she should knock
the door. Just then her cat chitra came by and rubbed its flanks against her shank. She calmed
down a bit and knocked at the door and shouted out her name saying that she was back. Her
mother came running to open the door and showered kisses on her. Very embarrassed, she coyly
told her parents that she had two companions with her and asked if they could stay at their place.
While normally her parents would have forbidden any such thing, they made an exception given
the exceptional situation. They said they had been beseeching every god, goddess, yakSha and
gandharva in the pantheon that she may come back alive (secretly they felt she was smarter than
her three pretty sisters Vrishchika, Varoli, and Jhilleeka, though all four of them might have
3

caused shepha-harShaNa in males who beheld them). She was keen to know the whole story but
they asked her to go have a bath before talking any further.
Later that night having narrated the whole tale in candle light her parents said that they would
seek the help of the young activists of the rAShTrIya svatantratA senAnI organization to convey
her companions to their houses. They added that it was indeed only due to them that Vrishchika,
Varoli, and Jhilleeka were alive for they were almost kidnapped by the marUnmatta-s. The RSS
had also given their father a handgun for self-defense but her family exclaimed that they had not
even sensed that the three of them had crept to the house in the darkness. Ensconced in their room
Lootika excitedly told her sisters about her field trip and declared that she was on the verge of new
discoveries. She felt that at least two of the peacock spiders she had collected might turn out to be
new species. She was also excited about a mite she had collected and wished to show it to
Somakhya. Lootika then inquired with Jhilleeka if she had taken proper care their ant colony and
made observations on them. Jhilleeka surprised her sister by showing a device she had rigged up to
record noises made ants on the computer. Then Vrishchika asked Lootikas help with a problem
regarding fluid flow in tracheoles which was part of her physiology course in medical school before
everything shutdown. After Lootika had laid to rest Vrishchikas problem, Varoli recounted to her
experiments with a compositan plant which was colloquially known as Afzal Khans head to
extract an alkaloid from it. Lootika arranged her specimens late into the night and before falling
asleep from sheer tiredness and tension she asked her sister Varoli if something else of note had
happened in her absence. Varoli told her that she had started a tank of Gambusia to do some
genetics and that she would show it her the next day.
As they lay on their cots to sleep, Jhilleeka remarked that she was in reality was still shell-shocked
by the days events and wondered if the marUnmattas might creep in at night. The three then
narrated the part of the tale their parents had glossed over while recounting the events to Lootika.
They had not checked the news the night before or earlier that morning; hence, they knew
nothing of the UCC bill in the parliament and it took them by surprise. Their father learning what
had happened, shut down his clinic, and rushed to pick them, deposit them at home, then go the
station and collect Lootika, who was to arrive later in the day. After picking up Vrischika and
Varoli he headed to the school of Jhilleeka. He asked them to remain in the car with the door shut
and went into the school to fetch Jhilleeka. Just then Vrischika saw her senior Meghana come by
and call her. She opened the door of the car to talk to her. Even as they were doing so, a bearded
guy with no mustache was speeding by on his bike. Meghana waved out him. Suddenly he made a
turn and came close to the car swirled around raising clouds of dust and exhaust before bringing his
bike to a stop. He leered at the sisters and chatted briefly with Meghana. Then, he shouted out
something in the Urdu. At his call several more of his companions joined him and they rushed
foward to drag out Vrischika and Varoli and hoist them on their bikes. Varoli said she felt
everything go black before her eyes, when she heard Vrischika yell garalaM prayu~Ngdhi before
they covered her mouth. Varoli somehow reached out to her pocket, drew the garala-sha~NkulA
they had made with Lootika and Somakhyas help and stabbed her attacker repeatedly. He recoiled
4

yelling in intense pain. Vrischikas sha~NkulA had jammed in its cover and she was struggling with
it, when Varoli having freed herself briefly jabbed one of Vrishchikas attackers. That gave
Vrischika enough time to free her arm a bit and draw out her sha~NkulA and pierce her attacker.
He too fell back in pain. But two of their companions who were uninjured withdrew backwards to
draw their handguns and take aim at the girls shouting aloud Daro mat yaar; ye Hindu kAyar
hai.n, ik momIn sau Hindua.n. Just then their father was emerging from the school with Jhilleeka
and was shocked to see what had happened. But as though indra had favored them that day some
young men of the rAShTrIya svatantrA senA had also arrived there just then. They fired a couple
of shots in the air which made the attackers turn around and mount their bikes and flee. Then the
senAs men helped their father escort them home. However, they had bad news to give: there was
no way of getting to the railway station as the Quwat-al-Islam masjid had assembled a force of
1500 armed men which was impossible to breach and that there were several instances of arson
taking place on the way, even in the market beside their residence. They tried hard to contact
Lootika but could not do so as all connectivity had been cut off. The sisters finally concluded by
saying that though they knew Lootika was most resourceful and would hence come back, their
parents forgot all else and were particularly distraught, having taken Lootika for dead adding that
they felt after all their parents loved her more than the rest of them. Lootika almost shouted at
Vrishchika: How many times have I told you that one should not even show recognition of that
mongrel girl Meghana?

Chapter 2
mR^ita-matsyo nAma dvitIyo.adhyAyaH |
Sometime later the country abruptly returned to normalcy the Hindus heaved a sigh of relief.
The buzz going around was that the seasoned politician and home minister Vidharam Yadav, who
was reputed to have never been on the losing side, had negotiated a deal by which national peace
was restored instantly. He had appeared on national media and declared that in a week a major
announcement would be made regarding the peace deal and its details. Thus, the last semester of
their degree course resumed and Lootika, Somakhya and others were back in their university.
Somakhya and Lootika, having much to catch up, went to their favorite meadow behind their
university departments and wandered to the shade of the large elephant apple tree that stood in the
midst of it. Somakhya eagerly inquired about the results of the experiments of Varoli on the
Gambusia fish. He excitedly asked: Did you sequence the `acclimatization-negative loci` of the
mutant fish that appeared to prevent them from transmitting the acclimatization capability to their
offspring. Lootika: Yes we got 4 of them and sequenced them though I have not looked at the
sequences yet as you are best qualified to take the first stab at them. She pulled out her tablet and
showed the data to Somakhya. Lootika: Ah the first mutation seems like in no mans land.
Somakhya snatching her tablet and scrolling down the chromosome remarked: Hey, not really!
See it is in the regulatory region of WDR5: part of the MLL1 histone H3K4 methylase complex.
That clinches our hunch that this is an epigenetic phenomenon! Lets look at the next one. Lootika
taking back her tablet said: Here it is, one of the DNMT3 paralogs of the fish-specific expansion.
And look at this! The remaining two are also other DNMT3 paralogs. They did a spontaneous
high-five and said: This is splendid! Somakhya: I have devised in my mind a new sequencing
methodology. I think you should get your little sis Jhilleeka to try to implement it along with my
acquaintance Sandeep, who seems to have conquered the necessary microfluidics technology and
has obtained some money to do such things. It would be a good thing for Jhilleeka to spend her
long vacation on. We can then sequence the methylomes and study the status of the various heat
acclimatization loci. Lootika: Indeed that would be a great thing to do. It could also be leveraged
for our long term plan to understand how the XX-XY and WZ-ZZ sex determination evolved in
the two species of Gambusia.
A week later Vidharam Yadav made his much awaited announcement. In the deal he had cut, the
two opposition leaders Azhar Mehmood and Sajid Mir were to respectively become prime minister
and deputy-prime minister. The UCC bill would never be mentioned on the floor of the parliament
again and Sharia law would be implemented in all places the Momin were in majority. Its
implementation was to be in three phases: In the first it was jail time for most crimes deemed fit for
such by the Qazis. In the second the amputations and lashings were to follow and finally the
beheadings and stonings in the third. They also wanted to ban the rAShTrIya svatantratA senA,
but that did not come through the compromise was they were banned from starting a shAkhA in
any area having more than 40% Momin. Somakhya was walking into the university department.
He ran into Sharad who excitedly remarked: That was a master stroke by the revolutionary and
seasoned politician Vidharam Yadav. Indeed, who else in the ruling coalition would have thought
6

of ceding power in the interest of national peace. Somakhya: Well, I really do not want to hear
any of that crap the consequences of this will be felt for long.
He felt low and deciding not to attend classes walked away towards the meadow and sat under the
large elephant apple tree. He kept looking at the alignment of the DNMT3 genes from Lootika and
Varolis fishes. After some time he sensed Lootika walking towards him. He did not look at her face
but as she neared him he asked: What about the fishes; did you resequence the mutants? Lootika
did not answer but appeared to be quietly standing beside him for sometime. Surprised he looked
up. Her face was drawn and she was almost in tears. Somakhya: I know it is a depressing day but
your face looks funereal. Why what happened? Lootika: Well, the fish are dead and worse things
have happened. All the fish mysteriously died. When I was away at college my mother asked
Varoli and Jhilleeka to dispose them right away as she feared the house being polluted by the
stench of dead fish. They seem to have thrown them out and our cat chitra seems to have eaten
them. Now it is seriously ill and I doubt it would make it past this day despite my father attempting
to treat it. Somakhya: Lootika, if there is even one of these dead fish left ask Vrischika to do a
blood agar culture as soon as possible. Instruct her to be careful wear gloves and work in a hood
and all that. Then get the plates to me. Two days latter Somakhya lifted his eye from the ocular of
the microscope and turning to Lootika and Vrishchika remarked Look at those saffron rods it is
Edwardsiella tarda. Vrischika: trayastriMshAH! Good we took precaution. Our father had
described to me a case: a man had come to him from Mumbai where he had sustained an injury
while sailing. His leg muscles were undergoing rapid necrosis. It turned out to be E. tarda! We may
be able to save chitra after all. Somakhya: We must sequence the genome of this killer there
must be something of interest there.
Lootika isolated DNA from the cells. She had to put it away in the freezer because the exams were
round the corner and they had no time for sequencing. The evening their exams were over,
Lootika, Vrischika and Somakhya walked towards the AvaraNa of the sarasvatI temple that was at
the edge of the cemetery. The sarasvatI was the only deity that remained of the pantheon of the
shiva temple that once stood at that place. Vidrum wanted to join them too. However, he was with
Meghana and feared that a dreadful confrontation might emerge between her and Lootika. So he
merely waved to the three and went his way. As Somakhya, Lootika and Vrischika sat in silence on
a culvert of the temple to take in the quiet and mild evening breeze they heard a couple of talking
mynahs (a common Indian starling). The mynahs fluttering up and down said: pilipichChikA
pilipichChikA || Vrischika: That surely looks like a sign to us. Somakhya: Perhaps. In any case
let us perform the homa. They soon created a sthaNDila in the temple courtyard and having
kindled the fire started making oblations with the mantra: pilipichChike! skanda-dUte! juhuyAma
tvA asmAkam prAkAra samIpe vetAlaM shIgram Anaya Anaya svAhA || After they had finished
about 52 oblations they had a real scare as they saw a being walk towards them holding a broadbladed weapon. They thought we have not even said prakaTi bhava and who is this being that
has so menacingly arrived it looks like a rAkShasa and not the vetAla whom we were expecting.
But their fears were laid to rest as the being came closer it happened to just be Vidrum who had
7

arrived carrying his billhook and took a seat in their vicinity. As they completed the 143rd oblation
they felt a sensation of being overwhelmed. They immediately switched to the incantation:
rudrasya bhR^itya! iha prakaTI bhava hulu hulu hili hili svAhA || After sometime they felt they
were entering a trance. At that point they knew the vetAla had indeed come and they started
calling upon him to start speaking. As a vetAla might respond to the AryavAk or to the dramiDa
vAk or the apabhraMsha they had to call upon him multilingually: bho vetAla shIgraM vada vada!
Dei chollu chollu vetAlaNe shIgrama pechu pechu! arre bhetAla mahNa mahNa! Soon they felt
lapsing into an utter silence. And then they heard the vetAla speak to them in their minds. When
it was over they snapped back to the realm of the real world. They typed in what they had heard
from the vetAla on their tablets and emailed it Vidrum.
They asked him to open and compare the messages. To his surprise he found Somakhya, Lootika
and Vrischika had sent more or less the same thing as the message of the vetAla:

The dead fishs story has just started. It will verily be like the utkrAntida which has come to the
world of men. The bhArata-s will tremble like never before. The pANDu host had faced the
prospect of arjuna kaunteya dying from failing to kill jayadratha. Then kR^iShNa devakIputra led
him to the realm of the young hero who revealed the mighty pAshupataM; thus the feet of the
young hero will show you the way out when the moment of reckoning arrives.
Vidrum remarked: That is really strange. A fitting message from a vetAla. May be you guys are
destined for attaining the status of a vidyAdhara!
Lootika and Vrischika: That is a real one. Somakhya do you make sense of that? Somakhya only
said: Lets go home. Now that our business is over, there is no point lingering here with gaNapatis
agents. Vidrum, Lootika and Vrischika were really curious and kept pestering Somakhya about the
vetAlas revelation but he said nothing. They sauntered back towards their houses at the fork they
parted ways with Vrischika still yelling: You have to figure this out; you seem to know something
but still keep quiet. Truth to be told, it sounds a bit ominous. Somakhya: vetAla-s are always
ominous. Its getting late your parents might get worried. Then Somakhya continued ambling
with Vidrum towards the latters house. Vidrum: Would you like to catch todays match with
some pakoDA-s or samosA-s. Somakhya: Better get home soon, you know the marUnmatta-s or
shavasAdhaka-s could be on the prowl as night grows. So he took his bike from Vidrums home
and sped towards his own which was at some distance from those of the other three, ensconced in
a walled compound. Once there he typed out an email to Lootika:
We should try to sequence that E.tarda DNA you isolated as soon as possible. We will try it out in
Sandeeps machine tomorrow. Get Jhilleeka along so that we could prime her to get started.
Just before he hit the bed he saw Lootikas response:
OK, will get the DNA and meet you after lunch at Sandeeps lab. Jhilleeka has been making good
progress she has already got her code to respond to the mock hardware she rigged up at home. I
also have made the clones of the archaeal reverse gyrase and the plasmid DNA polymerase you
indicated. Lets see how much protein we get.
8

The next day they got the sequencing going and spent some time marveling at Jhilleekas hardware
and code and playing with it much to the encouragement and delight of the youngster. A day latter
whole sequence was ready and the common place genes annotated. Lootika visited Somakhyas
house and showed it to him as he had asked her not to email it to him. Somakhya scrolled through
the genomes and remarked: Well, it seems to have a multi-drug resistance plasmid. That is
interesting but not entirely surprising given your cats demise despite all attempts to save it. But
there is something more. Do you see these three unusual genes which have not been curated in the
midst of this type VI secretory system operon? Lootika: Well those should be the clue as to what
this bug did our fishes and cat. Would you be able to crack them? Somakhya transferred the
sequences to his work station and spent some time analyzing them. After a few minutes he
remarked: They are pretty interesting indeed. The first is a caspase-like peptidase notice that
histidine and cysteine it should be an active enzyme. The second is a deaminase notice those
two cysteines and that aspartate and glutamate should be an active one too. The third is defeating
me I will need to throw all my skills at cracking that one if at all possible. Finding their substrates
is going to be harder. Dear Lootika I leave that to your wizardry. Lootika: Yes I could try to figure
those out but it is going to be some effort and time is short as we will be leaving the country in a
few days. Somakhya: In any case I will continue working on the third one.
While Somakhya and Lootika were already fully formed scientists, ahead of their peers in more
than one way, the conventions of the world required that they acquire a doctoral degree to be
accepted as so. Hence, as was traditional, they decided to go a mlechCha country to pursue the
same. Some days later it was time for them to go. They met for one last time in private before
leaving; they had already bid good bye to their friends Vidrum and others. They spontaneously
embraced each other. Though experiencing high pleasure from the contact with Lootika,
Somakhya was tinged with sorrow and thought: Pleasure and sorrow are two sides of the same
coin. The source of pleasure is also one of sorrow. Alas our paths diverge and the vyomayAna will
place us apart Out of sight is out of mind and a woman like her would not be found even if one
were to go around the world like kumAra in the contest for brahmAs mango. He looked intently
at Lootikas pretty face. He felt it was cold and unemotional. He quickly snapped back reminding
himself that as the shAstra-s had warned such pleasures were ephemeral and are ordained to go
away. He thought: After all she might get a hundred males to mill around her wherever she goes;
so why should I reside in the torment of pining for her. So he abruptly turned to leave. However,
Lootika extended her hand and grasped his palm and placed something in it. He took it but did not
see it until he had mounted his bike and sped away. When he opened his palm he saw a square clay
tablet, much like a Harappan seal with a spider carved on it. He felt the connection was after all
not entirely lost.
The rest of the day he applied himself to the mystery gene and by night he figured it out after a
complex battle with its sequence. The last email he sent that day was addressed to Lootika:
lUtike priyatame: it is an ADP ribosyltransferase. May pUShaN bear you aid!
9

Lootika caught in the bustle of leaving the country the next day never got to respond to his mail or
appreciate the great conquest of Somakhya; nevertheless she quickly recorded it in her files and
left.

10

Chapter 3
jiva-rajjusarjo nAma tritIyo .adhyAyaH |
Somakhya and Lootika breezed through their doctoral programs in two and a half years after over
coming several obstacles placed by mlechCha-s who stood like vR^itra-s and prahlAda-s in their
path. In the process Somakhya, unlike most of his coethnics, learned not to fall to the empty
enchantments of the sweet tongue of the mlechCha-s. This was just one of their faces in an
enforcement strategy involving both good and bad cops. Lootika who had been informed of the
history of the mlechCha-s by Somakhya in the past was also able to do the same. Having fathomed
the mlechCha, they navigated their systems to use their vast resources to further their scientific
explorations. Now that they were equipped with the requisite educational upAdhis they started
their own labs.
It was then that one day Somakhya was visited by his friend Indrasena. Indrasena: O Somakhya
you are to me like shaunaka kapeya to abhipratAriNa kAkShasenI. I seek that you enlighten me
about the secret mantra of kubera. Somakhya acceded and said: For that we need to head to the
secluded spot in the mountains. Thus, the next day they decided to take some time off. First they
went to the shooting range to practice their rifles and then headed off the mountains. There under
a large cedar tree they set up sthaNDila for the ritual and invoked vaishravaNa and Indrasena was
conferred the mantra. Thereafter they wandered off to a still pond high on the mountain and
collected some water. Upon returning they prepared a hay infusion and inoculated it with the
water they had collected. Few days later they placed a drop under the microscope to take a look.
While Somakhya had done this many times over from the time he was a child it was something
that never ceased to amaze him, even as it had captivated van Leeuwenhoek centuries ago or the
forgotten naturalists like Btschli and Mller. The microscope field was abuzz with all manner of
bacteria: bacilli, cocci, vibrios and spirillums in a chaotic frenzy like marUnmatta-s pouring out of
a Karachi masjid after the Friday ShalAt to rage over the latest bombing of their brethren by a
mlechCha drone. They saw the ciliates Paramecium, Pseudomonilicaryon, and Dileptus making
their way like giants in the world of the bacteria. Paramecium propelled itself elegantly as a
submarine, while Pseudomonilicaryon and Dileptus navigated their way with their waving
trunks amidst the bacteria like elephants clearing a throng of men. Then there was the ciliate
Euplotes, which literally walked on its bundles of cilia truly an animalcule but all in a single cell.
Halteria, yet another ciliate seemed to them like a sputnik which jumped around, leaving the field
as quickly as it entered it. Then there was the beautiful but sessile Stentor, which created eddies
drawing the buzzing bacteria to their doom the wheel of life and death playing out at the level of
single cells. But all of a sudden a new ciliate zoomed into the field and dashed straight for a
Paramecium. It looked like Monodinium. When it made contact with the Paramecium the latter
discharged several missiles in the form of trichocysts and then froze. But even before that the
Monodinium had fired toxocysts right into its flank the contents of which had paralyzed the
Paramecium no time.
Somakhya and Indrasena watched in wonder and remarked to each other that they should get to
11

the bottom of the toxocyst of Monodinium. Somakhya: If the paralysis of the Paramecium is so
rapid then may be the microtubules are being affected in some way. Indrasena: I could test this
with my florescence probes that interact with the microtubule. In the mean time we should get its
genome sequenced so that you can go after the proteins. Indrasena did his experiment the next
day and confirmed that the microtubules were breaking down. He also extracted a small amount of
protein with an apparatus he had newly devised and showed that after the attack tubulins were
being proteolyzed in the Paramecium. In the meantime the genome of this ciliate was also
sequenced and Somakhya was looking at its proteins. Indrasena entered his office even as he was
looking at the sequences to tell Somakhya of his results. Due to his early experience with ciliate
genomes, Somakhya remarked that he had identified 8 MAC-Perforin(MACPF) like proteins that
could form the delivery complex for the toxins by the toxicysts. Indrasena excitedly told him that
he had evidence for the tubulins being proteolyzed. Suddenly, a spark of insight went off in
Somakhyas head: If I now detect the proteases using the genome sequence we should narrow
down the toxins. This MACPF-like complex formed by the toxicyst is likely to deliver these
proteolytic toxins, very much analogous to the cytotoxic T-cells delivering granzymes via the
vertebrate equivalent of the complex. Indrasena: But would there not be numerous peptidase
genes in the genome. Somakhya: Yes indeed, but lets look at them in any case; we might be able
to find some additional clue in the sequences. After some analysis Somakhya found a series of
proteases with a peculiar, common N-terminal domain that was also found combined with some
other enzymatic domains. He reasoned that this domain might allow interaction with the MACPF
proteins to deliver the toxin domain into the target cell. Indrasena tested this hypothesis with a
fluorescent protein construct and showed it to be strongly supported. They soon published this
work in a scientific journal. Varoli read that paper with great interest and was inspired by it do
some further experiments. She reasoned that the pair comprised of the ciliate MACPF proteins and
the protease N-terminal domain might constitute a good system for delivering proteins into cells.
So she constructed a vector system, and as a proof of concept and showed that she could deliver a
new type of bacterial PIWI protein, which Somakhya had recently described, to mutagenize
specific genes in particular tissues. She wrote a draft of a paper and sent it to her sister Lootika to
see if it could be extended further. Lootika was greatly excited by this system and did her own
experiment of delivering a kinase to a group of cells to activate a signaling pathway. Together they
published their results sometime later.
Over the past few years since they had parted ways, Somakhya and Lootika frequently thought of
each other but neither contacted the other. Each felt that the other might be harboring misgivings
about their respective selves. Moreover, Somakhya had trained his mind not be distracted by
women who were beyond reach and generally did not let the thoughts of Lootika linger long.
Thus, he had withdrawn from the world of people like a parivrAjaka. Lootika had been approached
by numerous men with various endowments but felt that when they had strong bodies they lacked
the shAstra-s and when they had some shAstra-j~nAna it was never as complete as hers. So while
socially kept busy she was never really drawn to any of them. Nevertheless, whenever Somakhya
and Lootika read each others scientific works they invariably stopped to wonder how much more
12

they could have achieved had they been working together as in the past. One of those who had
been interested in Lootika was a mlechCha, Dick Shuman, but Lootika kept away from him socially
as his mlechChAnusara was rather contrary to her ways, being one from a high vipra kula.
Nevertheless, she gave him a copy of her recent paper with Varoli and parted ways with him. As
these things were going on, Lootika was joined by a student Temlen. Soon after joining, she was
in Lootikas office expressing her wish to work on something new and different from the work on
the diversity of sex-determination systems of fishes Lootika was working on at that point. Lootika
suddenly remembered the E.tarda toxins that Somakhya had identified before they left the shores
of the holy land of bhArata and thought it might be a good thing for Temlen to work on. She also
thought if it did work out it might be a chance to get back in touch with Somakhya. So she pulled
out that material from her old folders and sent it over to Temlen with the challenge: Identify the
substrates of these three toxin enzymes. Over the coming months Temlen and Lootika worked
out the roles of their toxin enzymes and identified their substrates and the mechanisms of their
action. They then wrote a draft of the manuscript and sent it over to Somakhya. At that time
Somakhya was working out the biosynthetic pathways and evolutionary origins of the ciliate toxins
blepharismin and stentorin, when he was struck by a dart of pashupati. Crippled by it he was
unable to respond to her. So she felt convinced he had truly parted ways with her and sent it off on
her own for review while including Somakhya as an author for his earlier contributions. While
Somakhya eventually recovered from the dart as they say The god is also: rudro jalAShabheShaja, he failed to ever get back to Lootika. When her paper on the action of the E.tarda toxin
enzymes was finally published it caught the eye of the mlechCha scientist Dick Shuman who was a
cunning engineer of genetic constructs and tools. He was reclining on his chair and before him
were both of Lootikas papers one on the MACPF-like protein-based delivery system and now
this new one the toxin enzymes. Suddenly, huge flash went off in Shumans mind, much like the
bolt indra illuminates the horizons in course of the great struggle with shambara. A deadly,
brilliant idea had dawned on him and off he ran to meet certain colleagues whose very existence
was not known to the common man.
Lootika was planning a trip back to bhArata. Being summer she was to stop enroute to bhArata in
Ulaanbaatar and explore the environs with Temlen as her guide. Over the years there had been
away a great change had occurred in bhArata. The government headed by the marUnmatta-s
Azhar Mehmood and Sajid Mir had been overthrown and a pro-Hindu ruler Pratap Simha had
become the prime minister. The uchChATana of the turuShka-s and pretasAdhaka-s by the action
of the rAShTrIya svatantra senA is a story that cannot be told now as its details remain classified.
The day before she was to leave Lootika returned home early from her lab; Temlen had already
left and was to receive her at Ulaanbaatar. After performing the midnight ritual to bagalAmukhI
she lay down to sleep. Somakhya had also been planning to visit the homeland. He had just
received a mail from Vidrum:
I am looking forward to seeing you soon and let me know if you might need a ride home from the
airport. Lots of interesting stuff going on here. I am collaborating with Harry Kornberg on an
interesting trial to use some newly engineered viruses to effectively treat several types of
13

malignancies. This could be the long awaited revolution in medicine. Will tell you more when we
meet.
Somakhya turned to Indrasena and asked him: Would you know who this Harry Kornberg is?
Indrasena: I do not know him well but he is an exponent of molecular medicine who collaborates
with this Dick Shuman, who as you know has made several interesting biotechnological
innovations including some based on our discoveries. There is certainly more than what meets the
eye here. Somakhya: Indeed, the vetAla had not spoken to us in vain. Our people think that the
uchChATana of the enemies is complete but do you think the mlechCha-s are going to take that
lying down? No, they have certainly planned something big for us, the like of which the bhArata-s
have never experienced. Indrasena: I do not fully get what you are saying but have a feeling from
my gut that seems to go with you. Somakhya: We cannot speak much here for when two men
speak the mlechCha hears in as the third. But you will receive the signals from me via the
appropriate channels, even if I am not physically near you. Moreover, if I am killed in the yuddha,
as is quite possible, you need to take over and continue. We somehow need to get in touch and
mobilize the chatur-bhaginyaH, for without them we will be like shiva the shava. Somakhya went
home early. He lit a ritual fire and after the preliminary oblations cast an oblation with the
incantation:
namo rudrAya makhagne namaskR^ityA mA pAhi |
pratUrvan-nehy-avakrAman-nashastIH |
rudrasya gANapatyAN |
pUShNA sayujA saha svAhA ||
Then in the vicinity of the fire he started meditating on the following mantra, performing the act
even as the boy bhArgava vipula, who had entered and taken over the wife of his teacher
devasharman:
mAM dhur indraM nAma devatA divash cha gmash chApAM cha jantavaH |
ahaM shuShNasya shnathitA vadhar yamaM na yo rara AryaM nAma dasyave ||
Lootika awoke from her sleep with some discomfort. She thought she had been accidentally
impacted by her bangles in her sleep and reached out to her tablet to check the time. It was 2.00
AM. She was about put it back when she felt someone pull her hand forcibly. Her bangles came off
and dropped to her bed along with her tablet. She felt she was being raised up by someone who
was making her stand. Then she felt she was being embraced though she saw nobody and someone
was entering inside her body through her face, breasts and navel. She thought for a moment: This
is how it must feel when being possessed by skanda or viShNu or may be the great indra. Then
everything went entirely silent and she thought she was seeing her corpse. Vidrum was to be
visited by a famous mlechCha neurologist, Tom Church who had requested a fresh brain for some
future experiments. Vidrum had accordingly set aside a corpse for harvesting the brain on the
autopsy table. He was performing another in the vicinity for obtaining some samples for this
impending trials with Harry Kornberg. Vidrum was shocked beyond words the corpse he had set
aside for harvesting the brain was now up and moving. While the corpse of a male it spoke in a
14

familiar female voice: How are you Vidrum? I will be in bhArata. May be could meet and talk a
bit if you have some time. After a while the corpse fell back lifeless as before. Vidrum was
convinced he was hallucinating. Lootika started walking up to her shelf and picking up the keys of
her car drove to her lab. She then walked up to a cabinet where she stored some of her old stuff.
She located an old backpack and pulled out a little bag from many years with mud in it. Suddenly
she felt everything going blank. She awoke and found herself clutching that bag of mud sitting
beside the cabinet in her lab. She rubbed her eyes: Is this a dream? I thought I had just woken up
at 2.00 AM. Then I felt certain I was in bhArata talking to Vidrum. Now here I am in my lab. She
was scared and shaken: I thought I went home early today. Is it that I had somehow lost my senses
may be I had a stroke or something. She rubbed her eyes again and checked her tablet. She saw a
mail from Somakhya: Do not worry go home and sleep. Well unite again but do not forget to get
along the bag of mud which you have just taken out.

15

Chapter 4
kalpito viShANur nAma chaturtho .adhyAyaH |
After making oblations of caprine cheese and gruel in the ritual fire to the goat-riding god puShaN,
Lootika prepared to leave. On the flight to Moscow she started reading the yogashAstra of the great
jaina polymath of the third varNa hemachandra sUri. As she flipped through it she reached the
chapter on prANAyAma (chapter 5). Suddenly the verses following 5.264 caught her eye. There
hemachandra described a procedure: evaM parAsu deheShu pravished vAmanAsayA| Glancing
further she found that he stated that one should not enter jIvadeha-s, but in the svopaj~navR^itti
commentary below these verses he did describe such a procedure. She now felt at ease nothing
was wrong with her most likely Somakhya had used a procedure like this to take control of her
briefly. But she wondered about the mud she had collected near shAmalAjI and had a feeling of
foreboding. Something unexpected was perhaps coming their way. The dull drone of the plane
lulled her to sleep and she had a dream where the encounter with the vetAla they had many years
ago replayed itself. She woke up and thought what could all this mean Somakhyas
parakAyapraveshanaM was as dramatic as the coming of the vetAla. These might be linked she
thought. But nothing really made complete sense to her. Finally, the plane landed in Moscow and
she had to wait for her flight to Ulaanbaatar. She decided to send off mail to inform her family of
her whereabouts they had greatly disapproved of this whole Mongolian venture of hers, so she
wanted to update them that she was still alive and fine. Right then she saw a mail from her sister
Vrishchika:
Something strange and interesting here. You may remember your former classmate Vidrum. He
was asked to investigate a strange outbreak that has afflicted a few hundred soldiers who were
posted near the Line of Control in the Kupwara district of Kashmir. The military hospital was
unable to deal with by themselves so we were brought in. Since he was busy with the experimental
treatment program with the visiting mlechCha physicians Harry Kornberg and Tom Church he
deputed me to start the investigation. These soldiers despite having not faced any major combat in
the past few months have suddenly started showing acute neurological symptoms typical of an
unregulated fear pathway in a sense like PTSD, but they seem to be afflicted by deep fear and
anxiety even without apparent triggering stimuli as though a fear pathway is constitutively
switched on. With my team I found that they showed a virus in their CNS associated macrophages
and phagocytic microglia! I am taking help from the little ones Varoli and Jhilleeka to try to
sequence the virus. I know how you have started to feel about our old friend Somakhya but it
would be good if you could get him on board to help us with this down the line.
The message hit Lootika like the sting of a scorpion. She realized that there was more to this than
Vrischika thought. Lootika quickly reasoned that this is unlikely to be an ordinary virus and by
sending the news via email Vrischika could have very well tipped off people who would not want
anyone to know of this for after all the mlechCha sits and reads other peoples mail all the time.
She realized that she could be targeted but felt her going via Moscow and Ulaanbaatar could make
it less effective. Knowing that Temlen was very faithful to her, Lootika also wondered if the
16

former could serve as a distant refugium in her network which was relatively out of reach from the
mlechChas grasp. With all these thoughts crowding her mind she wondered how she could get the
message across to Somakhya without anyone knowing. In their younger days Lootika and
Somakhya had communicated with many ciphers using fractals and the logistic map but it dawned
on them that ultimately someone, like a mlechCha praNidhi, might crack all of these. So they
decided to go in for an idiosyncratic saMdhyA bhAShA that only those who knew it would
understand. Indeed, Vrishchika was the only other one who understood it albeit somewhat
imperfectly. She decided that she would make a post on her blog using the saMdhyA bhAShA
hoping that Somakhya and Vrishchika would read it. After some delays and a 7 hour flight finally
Lootika landed in Ulaanbaatar. She was taken by Temlen to her dwelling and on the way she took
in the invisible presence of one of the greatest men in the history of humans which was all around
the place as the genius of locus. On reaching the residence she checked Somakhyas blog and found
he had similarly responded in saMdhyA bhAShA. She felt somewhat relieved but was still worried
about whether Vrischika might have gotten the message. After sleeping off the jet lag she ventured
with Temlen to get some milk when they were accosted by a mlechCha wearing dark glasses.
Immediately, it struck Lootika that the fellow looked like a mlechCha praNidhi who used to be
lionized as a great hero in movies fabricated by the mlechCha-s, though in reality such were
barbarous harbingers of trouble to other nations. He was built like a pR^iShThabhettR^i and
Lootika realized he meant trouble. He was being very friendly and trying to chat them up but they
deftly brushed him off and quickly walked into a crowded public area. The next day Lootika and
Temlen decided to make a trip to visit the graves of the long gone Hun Khans at Noyan Uul and
then camp out in the steppes in the valley of the Sujekht river enjoying astronomical observations
under the clear skies the next night.
The next day, while Lootika was still asleep, Temlen went out to procure some food of a kind
Lootika could eat fearing that she might otherwise end up dying of starvation. While she was
stepping out, she noticed that the mlechCha who had tried to talk to them the previous evening
was hanging out in the vicinity and keeping an eye on her. She walked as though she had not
noticed the mlechCha and after procuring the necessary items returned to her dwelling. Soon they
were off to board the car they had booked for the journey. At that point they again saw the
mlechCha who tried to make conversation with them claiming he too was taking a car with some
friends to go to a shrine erected by Baron von Ungern-Sternberg. Soon they lost sight of him, but
Temlen told Lootika of her sighting him earlier in the day. Lootika remarked that they needed to
be extremely careful of him and filled her in on what she thought about him. As their car
proceeded on its way, Temlen started asking Lootika about about the doha-s of saroruhavajra and
how they sounded in their original tongue. They started discussing the significance of one of them:
jhANahINa pavvajjeM rahiau
gharahi vasanti bhajjem sahiau |
jai bhiDi visaa ramanata Na mucchai
saraha bhaNai pariANa ki mucchai ||

17

Without doing any dhyAna,

beyond renunciation,
living at home,
together with your woman,
if deeply enjoying these matters
does not provide liberation
saraha says how can consciousness be liberated!
Temlen asked how if the old tathAgata had shown that consciousness was an illusion itself, could
any question of liberating it arise. It struck Lootika that it was a rather Astika way of putting things
and wondered if after all some of these doha-s were lifted from an Astika source and attributed to
or reworked by sharaha or saroruhavajra. Lootika again thought of Somakhya and felt if he was
around he could been more decisive in explaining these matters.
Thus, discussing they eventually reached Noyan Uul. After some wandering they came across an
interesting grave that lay beneath a deep open shaft. They were not sure if it was something which
been looted by the Russians before or an undamaged one so they decided to climb up the mound to
take a better look into the shaft. Lootika was separated from Temlen by about 15 meters as her
shoe got stuck in crevice and she had to carefully extricate herself. By then Temlen was close to
the shaft and was about to take a look, when suddenly from behind a birch tree she saw to her
shock the mlechCha pR^iShThabhettR^i emerge. She panicked for a moment but keeping her calm
asked him how come he was there. Smiling warmly he said: I decided to go to Noyan Uul because
people told me there was more exciting stuff to see there. Temlen realized Lootika was right
this was an off the track place that few people except those with historical interest would visit. So
nobody would have told him to go to Noyan Uul for more exciting stuff. By now he was very close
to Temlen. Smiling he told her: Do you want to go down the shaft. I can let you in and pull you
up. I just went down there myself and saw some amazing stuff inside the grave. Even as Temlen
was refusing his request, he thought: Once I finish of this woman I can at leisure take care of the
one who is climbing up behind me. Thus, with one swift move he placed his leg in front of
Temlens and tried to trip her into the shaft of the grave. Temlen stumbled but did not go
through because the mud was wet and her other leg snagged against the wall holding her from
falling. The mlechCha now tried kick her down the shaft but with one hand Temlen warded the
kick and pulled his leg down. By then Lootika reached the scene and shoved him simultaneously
from behind sending him down the deep grave shaft. As he fell he clawed the air; he had one hand
in his pocket and as his hands flailed an object fell out, which Temlen caught. Now that he was
safely down the shaft, Lootika helped Temlen get back up. With their hearts pounding they stared
long at each other, even as the mlechCha yelled from beneath: Help, Help, get me out of here, call
someone. They looked at the object the mlechCha had in his hand it was a special phone issued by
the mlechCha-praNidhirAlaya. With that in their hand they knew had him under their total
control. The laughed to calm their nerves and said: This pR^iShTabhettR^is career is really
ruined, for what a laughing stock he would become in their praNidhirAlaya! Temlen using her
connections called up the local authorities on their satellite phone and informed them of the event
18

and said that they would deliver the mlechChas phone to them. Since this would make big news
and cause a foreign-relations scandal for the mlechCha-s they knew the mlechCha-s would have to
shut their mouth and keep their hands off them. Then they drove back to an encampment near the
mouth of the Sujekht valley and having rented horses rode to a desolate camp site to enjoy the
night skies. Temlen remarked that truly the god one experienced here was mngke ngri; to
Lootika it echoed back as the presence of the great asura varuNa.
Vidrum, Meghana and Sharvamanyu were seated in a restaurant for dinner. Vidrum remarked
looking at Sharvamanyu: Somakhya is coming, we should get together when he is here.
Meghana: Thank god he left these shores; how many nice evenings in school and college have
been ruined by him and that spidery bitch. How many times they would get you all talking about
crazy things they were real Frankensteins. Sharvamanyu: Calm it, Calm it, the world needs all
sorts of people; Also would you not run to them during the exams. Vidrum merely smiled. After
dinner he told Sharvamanyu that he was going to drive Somakhya home from the airport to their
city the next day. Then Sharvamanyu rode away on his bike towards the bank of the river that
flowed through the middle of their city. There he visited a temple of the aShTa-bhairava-s and
having smeared his forehead with ashes sat in its courtyard for a few minutes to take in the dusk
calm. He saw a Greater Racket-tailed Drongo hop beside him, bob its head, and make human
noises. He wondered if it was a vA~N-nidhana bhR^i~Nga, or the drongo the tathAgata had
declared to be the bodhisattva known as kalavi~Nka. Then the drongo said Somakhya needs you
as a backup, for who can escape sharvas manyu and flew away. He wondered what he needed to
do. That night he had a strange dream in which he saw a scorpion scurrying on the floor. He then
saw a pale figure run towards it with a spatula using which doshakA-s (Indian pancakes) are
flipped on the pan, and sever its metasoma with that instrument. Thereafter heard the faint cry of a
familiar woman. The next day when Vidrum mentioned to Vrishchika that he was going to pick up
Somakhya, she expressed the wish to come along too, saying there was much to talk about
regarding the new virus. In turn, when Vrischika told her folks, Jhilleeka and Varoli also expressed
the wish to tag along for the ride. But Varoli suddenly remembered that she had prepare a few
more things for an upcoming experiment the next day and pulled out of the trip. So Vrischika and
Jhilleeka got into Vidrums car and decided to drive to the airport in the neighboring city.
As they were leaving they ran into Sharvamanyu and bade him good bye saying that if Somakhya
was game they would all meet the next evening for dinner. Suddenly Sharvamanyu remembered
the dream and the vA~N-nidhana bhR^i~Ngas words. He decided that he should quietly follow
them. He quickly took his two handguns, loaded the ammunition and followed them at some
distance on his bike. Late at night they picked up Somakhya and were returning to their city. They
got talking about the new virus. Vrischika: Varoli and her team did a new proteomic analysis and
found that the superfamily-I RNA helicase is ADP-ribosylated in the amygdalar neurons of four of
the patients who sadly died. Also their SHANK3 protein was found to be cleaved releasing the Cterminal SAM domain. Jhilleeka: We have nearly completed the sequencing, should have it to you
in the next day or two. Exciting as all this was, the irresistible force of hypnos hit Somakhya and
19

he lapsed into a nap. They were midway in their journey back home when Vrischika feeling thirst
decided to get out to buy a bottle of water at a road stop. She was just getting back from the shop
when a car sped by and came to screeching halt in front Vidrums car. A man jumped out of the car
and threw a heavy blanket on top of Vrischika and bundling her in it tried to quickly drag her into
the car. He had nearly hauled her in when Jhilleeka leapt out Vidrums car like a gryllacridid on it
prey and stabbed Vrischikas attacker with her garala-sha~NkulA. He winced in pain and slumped
beside the road releasing Vrischika. But two more men menacingly rushed out of the car and
overpowering the girls were about to pull them in. At that instant a man rocketed into the scene
on his bike. Just then Somakhya snapped out his nap with all the commotion in front of him. Upon
opening, his eyes fell on the man who had just entered the scene and he smiled to himself and said
in his mind: Who can escape sharvas manyu. Jumping off his bike Sharvamanyu struck a
thunderous blow on the head of one of the men with a bludgeon. He fell as though he was denizen
of Lanka who had received a blow from the palm of the great ape-king sugrIva. The other one had
just gotten his gun out when he received a bludgeon blow on that arm which felt like a blow from
the dreadful ape hanumAn on a rakSha lord. His gun dropped to the road but he quickly bounded
into the car and drove off in the opposite direction at top speed. By then Vidrum had made a call to
the cops and Somakhya rushed out and along with Sharvamanyu helped calm the girls down and
get them back into the car. They were too shocked to speak but for a couple of hours they had to
go through the rigmarole of filing the police report and being interrogated. It was the next day
before they reached their homes finally. Cooling off Somakhya heard from his parents that they
had heard in the news that a group of young people in a car had been attacked and one of the
attackers eventually evaded the police chase by fleeing into the mlechCha consulate in the
neighboring city. They did not believe Somakhya when he told them the those attacked were his
group as they thought he was pulling their leg. But he smiled to himself mentally repeating
mlechCha consulate that should make things uncomfortable for them

20

trayAyudho nAma pa~nchamo .adhyAyaH |

The next day Somakhya was browsing the news when he came across a curious item:
There are reports of heavy cross-border shelling by Pakistani troops in the Kupwara district. To
take stock of the situation the Chief of Army Staff Vijay Simha had an urgent meeting with Air
Chief Marshal Rudra Nayak. They discussed the possibility of deploying the air force in light of the
possibility of insurgent activity on the Indian side of the LoC. They also held meetings with the
defense minister shrI Narayandev and Prime Minister shrI Pratap Simha with regard to the
increased activity at the LoC. The mlechCha spokeswoman Elizabeth Whiteside issued a statement
asking both sides to deescalate, while Organisation of the Islamic Conference strongly condemned
the plans by India to escalate the conflict. The Inter-Services Public Relations spokesman objected
saying that India has been waging a propaganda war since the aggressive Hindu nationalist
government of shrI Pratap Simha has taken power.
Somakhya wondered why there was talk of escalation if there was cross-border shelling which is
fairly common occurrence. Importantly, the consultations for deployment of the air force
suggested that something was amiss. He was wondered what the link was between this to
Vrischikas account of the epidemic outbreak in the soldiers from that very region.
Shortly, thereafter Vrishchika, Varoli and Jhilleeka visited Somakhyas house to join him for lunch.
Then Vrischika said the situation was more explosive than what it seemed. She mentioned that
there was much pressure from the army on the hospital that they figure this out. A senior army
physician had dropped by and expressed dismay to the senior physician of their hospital that the
investigation had been handed to someone who was just an intern when it was so serious a matter.
At least Vidrum should be directly handling it he pressed. It took some convincing to make him
understand that while Vrischika might be just an intern she and her team was perhaps the best in
the country to deal with unraveling such emerging pathogens. Then she said something even
more serious: We have just got the samples of a couple of patients from Kurukshetra, which is far
away from the border, who seem to show some symptoms as though they have been exposed to
radiation, but there is absolutely no evidence that they were exposed to such. Yet they show
multiple mutations in their cells from several tissues. Somakhya: Ah ADP ribosylation of
Mov10, cleavage of Shank3, now mutagenesis of DNA! Did you detect a virus in these new
patients? Vrischika: Investigation underway, will return to it as soon as we are done. Jhilleeka:
Here is the sequence of the first virus. Somakhya got to analyzing it right away. After sometime
he remarked: This is no natural virus but one designed by a clever engineer. However, I am
puzzled it simply cannot explain any of those biochemical changes you mentioned. Varoli are
you sure you detected them right. Varoli: I know how fraudulent researchers see results that do
not exist; but let me assure you these are as real as you and me. Somakhya: But I see no way
these changes can be catalyzed by anything in this virus. Vrischikas forehead was furrowed with
worry: There is something we are not understanding because the biochemical changes Varoli
detected are entirely in line with the symptoms of the patients. Remember Shank3 is a neuronal
scaffold protein and Mov10 degradation has been implicated in hardening fear memory.
Somakhya: I fully understand, but I just cannot figure out how this virus causing all that? Varoli:
21

Let me get some more data for you may be late tomorrow. Vrischika: As you know, Lootika is
coming tonight and our parents do not want us to go along. They say they will go by themselves
and drive her and her student Temlen back. We are scared for the shAstra says:
Asane shayane yAne pAna-bhojana-vastuShu |
dR^iShTAdR^iShTa-pramatteShu praharanty arayo.ariShu||
While seated, while sleeping, while in a vehicle, via items of drink and food,
due to ignoring of seen and unseen attacks enemies strike their foes.
Somakhya: Do not worry, I doubt the mlechCha-s would resort the means they used for you for
they are facing a potential foreign-relations crisis on multiple ends from these exposures resulting
from their screw-ups. Nevertheless, Sharvamanyu and myself shall provide cover for them even as
the former did for us.
Unlike Somakhya, Lootika arrived without an event with her pupil, who was interested learning
the devabhAShA in bhArata. Even as she was being filled in with all the news by her sisters, new
surprising data was at hand from Jhilleeka. Lootika and Varoli quickly grasped its significance and
decided to go and see Somakhya right away. When she burst through Somakhyas door it was as
though the intervening years and all the ice between them had never existed. She raised her hand
for a high-five saying: You were right. That virus whose sequence you saw yesterday could not
cause these biochemical changes that Varoli had identified. But there is something really strange
here: The samples have a second virus that in large part is identical to what you saw but lacks one
gene while having 3 additional genes. I am sure you need to sit down on the couch before seeing
what those extra genes are you wont believe it! Somakhya calmly replied: I guess two of them
are the caspase-like peptidase and the ADP-ribosyltransferase I had identified in your fish
pathogen; which you and Temlen so beautifully brought to a conclusion. As for the third I am
not sure. Varoli: Well, it is the ciliate MAC-Perforin protein you and Indrasena had published.
Somakhya, now a bit shocked, replied: Varoli that looks like a construct from your hand! Lootika:
Sort of! In my opinion only one man could have been the engineer behind this it is a fellow
named Dick Shuman. I recall sending him the paper with Varoli on those delivery vectors with the
MAC-Perforin proteins. It appears he has combined it with the three toxins. I had already gamed
most of this when I got Vrischikas mail while waiting in Moscow. I felt it was no coincidence that
Dicks friend, Harry Kornberg was making himself comfortable in the desh. I guess you had
reached your own convergent conclusions since you alone understood what came via the vetAlamArga. On top of all this I am sure Vrischika told you of the newest scare of the mutagenizing
agent. Somakhya: Yes, it crossed my mind right away that it must be the third toxin the
deaminase, since Temlen had managed to show that it is potent mutator of DNA in that paper.
But dear Lootika tell me how did you conclude that there was trouble brewing was it just
Vrischikas mail. Lootika: Dear Somakhya, I should tell you that Dick Shuman had an interest in
me beyond my science. His garrulity got better of him once and he dropped a bit of his biography
hes a consultant for the mlechCha terrorist organization Blackwater and earns contracts from
them an odd thing for an engineer of genes to do, except if he is That was sufficient
information for me to get alert. Somakhya: Truth to be told the vetAla alone was not enough; my
22

friend Indrasena gave a vital clue to put things together. As Lootika and Varoli prepared to leave
to pick up Temlen from her class, the former remarked in a heavy voice: I am really scared for
my dear sister Vrischika. She is in close contact with this dangerous stuff and what we see is really
depressing. I wish she could opt out of this right away and may be we should all retreat to
Mongolia. Somakhya: I hear you, we need to find a real way out this it is going to come to our
doorstep. Varoli: In all this we forgot to tell you that you should join us for dinner tonight. Well
talk more then. Saying so they jumped into their car and sped off.
Somakhya noted that the pradoSha hour was closing in on that kR^ittikA Sunday. He decided to
perform the great skanda ritual. Having kindled the ritual fire he started performing the rite of the
mighty six-faced god with incantations, which are known only to those who have mastered the
complete tantra of the ShaNmukha-kalpa with the mayUrachandrikA. He sprinkled sand all
around uttering the incantation:
OM mahAsenAya vidmahe kumArAya dhImahi | tan no guhaH prachodayAt svAhA ||
Thereafter he made the primary kaumAra oblations with the incantation:
OM namaH kumArAdhipataye mAtR^i-graha-jyeShTAyaantarikSha-charAya deva-devAya
ShaNmukhAya mahAsenAya mayUravAhanAya svAhA ||
Then he poured ghee on to the idol of kumAra with the incantation:
OM AyAtu bhagavAn deva-devA~Nkusha-pAshadhara-kanaka-shakte ghaNTA-kolAhala-priya
pratiShTha mArge .arghyaM pratigR^ihANa namo namaH svAhA || huM ||
After several oblations to skanda he then made the oblations to the great goddess ShaShThI:
OM namo bhagavatyai mahAmayUriNyai harINyai ShaShaThyai svAhA ||
Then he made the oblations to the 33 great gods and there after started making offerings to the
hundreds of divinities of the great circle of kumAra including: shAkha, viShAkha, nejameSha,
mukhamaNDikA, nandikeshvara, the gigantic, terrifying elephant duHsaha, revatI, the dolphinheaded shishumAra-mukhI, the buffalo headed mahiShAnanA, chatuShpatha-niketA, lohitAyanI,
mi~njikA, mi~njika, dreadful vinAyaka-s, the rakShasa-graha, the pishAcha-graha, various skandagraspers and skanda-seizers and the circles of goddesses. After having concluded the offerings he
sat beside the idols of skanda and ShaShThI for japa of the secret mantra. After sometime he
perceived with the inner eye the appearance of a goddess wearing a mask around her eyes. He
realized that it was mukhamaNDikA. He heard her divine voice: sarvAn viShayAn chintayitvA
shIgraM bhaiShajya-rasAdi- karmANi sakhIbhiH saha kurvIthAH | saptadashaM manuM
prayu~njIthAH | Thereafter Somakhya performed japa of the dravyaparIkShaNaM kartukAmaH of
the uttara-tantraM of the ShaNmukha kalpa. Finally, after offering tarpaNa to the lineage of
AchArya-s of the tantra starting from laMbaka-bhUShanAda of gandhAra (i.e. the ancient
kaumAra shrine at Laghman in modern Afghanistan), and hoping that someday those lands are
cleansed of the evils of rAkShasonmAda, he ended his ritual.
Somakhya had arrived at Lootikas house for dinner. Having known her for years, he could say that
23

while outwardly putting a smiling face and introducing her student, something was bothering her.
He saw Vrischika walk up from behind them and noted that her face more plainly betrayed a deep
sense of fear. Somakhya did not remark anything about this then because he knew their parents
were only incompletely informed of the truth. He allowed to dinner to proceed and after that
Lootika drew him aside in private for a moment and after embracing him and holding his hand
said: I am very scared. Somakhya unemotionally looked at her and said: And we need to get
ready to fight; call the rest and let Vrishchika tell us the news.
Now fired by Somakhyas demeanor she called in her sisters and student for a grand council.
Somakhya: Vrischika tell us all that you know. Vrischika, still looking very worried: Things
have gone from bad to worse. We have intelligence that the mutagenizing virus with the
deaminase gene, now confirmed by Lootika and Temlen, has broken out in several places across
bhArata. This is going to have the effects of a dirty bomb going off in multiple cities and towns.
We do not know what to do. While Lootika has figured out that in principle an effective vaccine
can be developed, that is going to take a long time and before that we could all be engulfed. We
have the first case in our own city! Somakhya: No doubt we need to go ahead with the vaccine
development. Hopefully, you can convince the highest powers to get this moving. Vrischika: An
officer on special duty from the health ministry is coming to visit me tomorrow. He said he will
have an additional special official with him I suspect he is an agent from the Intelligence
Bureau. Somakhya: The second point is we need to protect you from this first and foremost for
you are like the ANI (lynchpin) of the akSha (axle) of the rathachakra (chariot wheel) in this
business. With Indrasena we had discovered a novel steroid from a ciliate that can block the
MACPF protein from deploying. We should see if this might be fit for human use and perhaps
provide some prophylaxis. I do know it cannot do much against the neural manifestation of the
caspase-ADP ribosyltransferase-engineered virus. Lootika: We have quick assay for testing
human toxicity, but what about the cell lines for those experiments? Varoli: That should not be a
problem.
Somakhya: I realize neither the steroid nor the vaccine are going to be easy to quickly confirm or
deploy. We need something faster than that but we need to get working on them as the long term
solutions. But now I have something to say that you will find positively weird. Jhilleeka with
Sandeeps help do a metagenome sequencing of bacteria from the bag of mud Lootika intended to
give me many years ago but forgot. Get the sequences to me as soon as they are ready and I will tell
you all how to proceed. They all looked at Somakhya as though he had gone mad. But he merely
smiled and said: Do it as though you are a yakSha who has been ordered into action by skanda.
Lootika you be the coordinator of all of these efforts I will say more on the action once we have
the sequences from the mud. However, before I leave let me tell you something more: Look at this.
The Ghazis from TSP are invading Kashmir despite the outbreak. Harry Kornberg and Tom Church
are enjoying their sojourn as though nothing has happened. I saw a news item that the chIna
advisers have left TSP in wake of the invasion and they are not launching any of their own. Rather,
there seems to a be grave fear in their media of what is happening here. This tells me that the
24

mlechCha-s already have the vaccine and have given it to the TSPians; hence their courage to
attack and the fear of the chIna-s to take advantage of this. Moreover, Sharvamanyu told me that
the church of South India and the Evangelical Society had some major vaccination drives in the
past three months which were funded by the John Doors foundation. I doubt that is coincidental.
One expedient way is to get the vaccine out of the mlechCha-s before we make our own.
Vrischika: Should I tip off the officials about this? Moreover, I heard from Vidrum that we were
going to be visited next week by Faqih ibn al-Ass, the top epidemiologist of the barbarian kingdom
of Saudia Arabia. What could that mean in this context? Somakhya: Ah! Faqih ibn al-Ass sounds
like the capstone of this whole affair seems to be the clinching signal of the mlechChamarUnmattAbhisaMdhi.
Day after day was passing by. The despair and uncertainty in the country was steadily rising. All
kinds of theories were being floated and the side-effects were being felt on commerce, travel and
education. Vidrum had just called Somakhya to vent his frustration that the latest edition of the
Indian Cricket League had been canceled and that his tickets had not been refunded. In the mean
time Somakhya and Lootika had met in their secret lair in the nearby hills one afternoon. For a
while they sat in silence enjoying the mild breeze, the solitude and the flight of the coelurosaurs
ranging in the welkin, and then looking at insects and arachnids through their portable
microscopes. Then Lootika explained the difficulties Varoli faced with making the libraries for the
metagenomic analysis of the mud and how finally she had to intercede and get it done. Then
Somakhya detailed to her a construct of a similar virus with a secret toxin known only to him: If
we make this perhaps we might have a counter-weapon, which could be used as a deterrent or a
retaliatory astra. After all, not for nothing our ancestors praised that which is called pratIchInaM!
Lootika decided to get Temlen to test that toxin and get the said virus constructed. Then they
parted ways and went to their homes.
Finally, after a wait that seemed like ever, Vrischika arrived one day with Jhilleeka to Somakhyas
place. She seemed tired and haggard and said: This thing is sapping me. More than the death and
disease all around, I am wilting under the drama from my parents who want me to give all this up
and just stay at home till it all blows over. Somakhya: Thats tragic for this is not going to blow
over without you bringing it to a stop. Vrischika: But the good news is Temlen has managed to
do all the assays and they suggest that your steroid is fit for human use. But it might have some
side-effects. However, since I now have a very good picture of the disease progression I know I can
head it off by using the steroid within the first 24 hours if I happen to get infected. But things are
getting really hot: You may remember your classmate Meghana. She has been infected by the
deaminase-containing virus. It is not looking good and as you might expect Vidrum is distraught
and nearing a dysfunctional state due to this. Somakhya: I feel bad for Vidrum and all the people
remember the vetAlas message? Jhilleeka Finally I have for you the metagenomic sequences
from the mud. Here they are for what they are worth. Somakhyas eyes light up: Wonderful,
little one. Ill get working on them right away. Jhilleeka protested: I am no little one any more!
Somakhya then called Vrishchika into his room, and pulling out a vial gave it to her: Here is a
25

peptide Indrasena isolated from a toad. Take it with you and spray a little into you nostrils when
you feel like you are feeling now after not having slept for almost three days.
Somakhya threw himself at the sequences he had received. After a few hours he came across a
toxin locus from an actinobacterium which coded three toxins and at the 3 end of each of them
was a gene for an immunity protein. He found that the toxins were very similar to the three toxins
from the fish pathogen. He felt a sense of deep satisfaction and took a deep breath. Then he called
Lootika and told her that they should meet at his place for dinner. After dinner they went up to
the terrace of Somakhyas house. It was a dark new moon night with no clouds. They set up a
telescope, observed M104, and took a few pictures. Thereafter, they spoke for a while about why
spiral galaxies with greater central bulges have more globular clusters. Lootika felt strangely at
ease: Somakhya there must be more to this? Somakhya pointing to the sequences on his tablet:
Here are the three immunity proteins for the respective toxins. Give these to Temlen and have
her test the same against their toxins. Once confirmed, you all should make viruses exactly like
those of Dick Shuman but now having the immunity protein genes in place of those of the toxins.
Let Vrischika then put them on trial as an experimental treatment for those infected.
Of course things are easier said than done. The pressure was mounting on all fronts with kAla
turning on even as the writhing of the serpent beneath viShNu. The mlechCha-s were constantly
offering help to deal with the deadly epidemic and seeking to send in their teams. The air force had
with great difficulty curtailed the TSPian incursion, but without effective action by the ground
forces it could not be entirely cleared. News was reaching Somakhyas ears that with the army
unable to act effectively, the prime minister was about to give in to the suggestion that as a part of
the foreign-direct-investment program for the military the mlechCha-s set up a facility for vaccine
development and distribution. But Vrischika had conveyed enough to the officials she had met that
the intelligence bureau got into action. It was trying hard to prevent the mlechCha-s from being
brought in for vaccine development. Finally, one morning Vrischika arrived at Somakhyas house;
she did not even enter and called him to the gate: Finally the viruses you suggested are ready. It
really took all the skills of Lootika, Varoli, and Temlen to get them made at top speed, with some
improvisation in terms of robotics from Jhilleeka and her colleagues. They have worked perfectly
in our tests and I am off to use them on the patients. Sadly, early this morning Meghana succumbed
to the disease. In the meantime Harry Kornberg and Tom Church were lobbying hard for setting
up the mlechCha vaccine facility. But Vidrum curtly told them that was not possible and they had
devised their own treatment for the epidemics. The mlechCha-s asked that he share information on
that with them, but he refused. They declared that the collaboration with him was over and that
they were leaving right away.
Some months later Somakhya and Lootika briefly checked the news just before setting out on an
expedition to study the infection of toads by the apicomplexan parasite Lankesterella minima. They
saw a curious item: The scientist Dick Shuman and Saudi Arabian epidemiologist Faqih ibn al-Ass
were taken into custody as part of an investigation relating to the outbreak of a deadly viral disease
26

among marines and civilians at Fort Redstone. Possible involvement of a bio-warfare agent is being
suspected. Soon thereafter Somakhya and Lootika were receiving frantic messages from the
mlechCha-s asking them to help out with this situation. They responded to the mlechCha-s that
they would certainly look into it once they were done with their investigation of Lankesterella and
proceeded with their expedition.

27

Chapter 6
kathA-puchChaM
Viruses have been around since the beginning of life and locked in conflict with cells and other
viruses since then. In course of this epic conflict they have given genes to cells and taken genes
from them. These exchanged genes usually code for weaponry used in these battles fought from
times immemorial. The fact is without this weaponry, life as we know it would not exist and we
ourselves owe our very existence to such. So indeed such is the story of life in a nutshell there is
no life for the unarmed. Hence, the vipra who knows this becomes a seer who has seen and recites
the following brahma-vAkya-s of life:
sarvo vai menyA jivati | jivo vai menyAM pratiShThitaH | mener vai jIvasya nAnA rupANi
saMbhavanti ||
Time had passed by and some had become oblations in the great iShTi to the buffalo-riding son of
vivasvAn. Others were waiting for their turn to become samidh-s in that offering from which none
escapes. Vidrum, Sharvamanyu, Somakhya and Indrasena were thankful that they had not yet been
offered. It was late one night they were seated at the table after dinner and reminiscing of the past.
Somakhya: Vidrum, there is something in the story that perhaps only you might be able to throw
light on. Vidrum: It is all very painful but then this is what I believe transpired. It appears
Vrishchika tipped off the IB agent who was active on this matter. He had obtained intelligence that
the mlechCha-s had to passed the viruses on their close Islamic ally Saudi Arabia to use on Iran.
Faqih ibn al-Ass was here to study how it was being deployed so that his agents could do the same
in Iran. He had come under the guise of learning some technical aspects relating to a bat-borne
virus in his country. Thus, he had managed to get biological material into the country. Acting on
this intelligence, the IB agent asked me if I had anything to say about Tom, Harry and Faqih ibn alAss. I told him all that I knew and mentioned that Tom and Harry had fallen out with me and were
to leave shortly. He kept a close watch on them. Just before leaving the agent caught Harry
admonishing ibn al-Ass as to why he had brought units of the vaccine with him into bhArata and
asked him to destroy them immediately. To this he answered that he had merely got them as a
precaution. However, our IB agent had the intelligence that in reality he intended to pass them
over to the Mujahideen al-Hind in course of a meeting he was to have with their leader in the
auspices of the Saudi Arabian embassy. The IB agent saw the opportunity to get hold of the vaccine
in the process. I was seeking revenge for Meghanas murder and suggested to him we not just get
hold of the vaccine but also retaliate. So I obtained the virus you guys designed from Vrishchika
and handed it over to the IB agent. In the mean time the two mlechCha-s wanted some virus
samples from here for their study. But their praNidhi-s had informed them that if they tried to
sneak them out the might be caught. Hence, they decided to use their ally Faqih ibn al-Ass who
had already obtained the paperwork for taking some biological material back. He came to me
asking if he could have some samples. While I was holding him in conversation the IB agent got to
the freezer where he kept stuff and replaced it with our engineered virus and took away his
vaccine samples. In the mean time I too gave him the samples that in reality contained our
28

engineered virus. I believe you may know more of the rest of the story.
Somakhya: Ah! Thats how it played out. I believe Faqih ibn al-Ass was given a royal entrance into
the mlechCha precincts for they believed they knew all about what he was carrying. He gave the
spiked stuff to Dick Shuman with whom he got playing with them in cell-culture and animal
experiments. I believe it was the sloppiness of al-Ass which ultimately proved the game-changer.
Things got out of hand in course of his experimental training and the rest as they say is history.
Little did I know when I first read of Varolis work that it would spark such events. But then lets
not forget that Varoli was not the first to invent these, her namesake (e.g. Cotesia) had stumbled on
this strategy with polydnaviruses and nudiviruses to overpower kaMbala-kITaka-s millions of years
ago!

29

The fourth story


From early that morning on 15th August the battle for the outpost at the Rai Gap was raging
fiercely and both sides had taken several casualties. The Indian prime minister had been blindsided by a move right from the ancient scroll of Sun-Tzu. In response to the incidents in
Arunachal, chairman Ming Ming Zhou, the lord of all Hans, had said that they had already
accepted Sikkim as an integral part of India and that the question of South Tibet could be
negotiated during the further talks in sidelines of a multinational summit that was scheduled to
occur later that year. The next day a serious PLA attack was already underway in Sikkim. By
afternoon, on the Indian side only Lt. Vikram Singh and Naib Subedar Bhairav Prasad Gurkha were
still standing at the forward outpost, while on the Han side at least five seemed to be alive. Just
then a Type-91 was fired at the Indian defensive position from the Han ranks and a shard from the
grenades explosion struck Lt. Vikram Singh near his temple and he collapsed. Bhairav Prasad
survived the strike intact and hid himself behind a damaged shaft. The Han cautiously advanced to
take the post when they heard the delirious blabbering of Vikram Singh. Sighting Singh, a chIna
soldier took aim with his QSW-08 pistol to take him out, when Bhairav Prasad who was hiding
behind him broke the chInas neck with a blow from his kukri. Thereafter, in total silence
maneuvering himself through the ruins of the outpost Bhairav Prasad single-handed killed the
four remaining chIna intruders. He then cut off the heads of three chIna-s and offered them to the
raaca, the wife of the great bhairava, as the highest of offerings, the narabali. Thus, he had
managed to score a slim Indian victory by the margin of just a man. Not just that he managed to
evacuate Lt. Singh back to the nearest Indian outpost and summon further assistance to cork the
Han adventurism. Lt. Singh survived the encounter but was left with a serious deficiency in
neurological functions.

It was a dark rainy evening. Vidrum parked his bike and knocked on the door of the little garage
beside Somakhyas house. That garage doubled for Somakhyas lab. Somakhya put his illegal
revolver into his pocket and carefully looking though the peephole opened the door upon realizing
that it was Vidrum. S: How have things been with you?
V: Really exciting times. By the way you will be delighted to hear about what happened today.
Prof. Samgram Dev, the great physician from that high university in mleccha-land acknowledged
your discovery today.
S: Which one?
V: That metallopeptidase toxin you discovered from the actinobacterium cultivated by the
Madras digger wasp while in secondary school.
S: Ah that is a cash cow it has been giving us some money to continue our research
independently to an extant while completing these useless university degrees. What about
Samgram Dev did his trials work?
V: Yes. The results of the first trial were announced today. The metallopeptidase toxin had great
value in the new experimental treatment that was developed by Prof. Samgram Dev to restore
neural tissue and function in patients with extensive brain damage. This approach is exciting and I
hope to take it up further in my own studies. Prof. Samgram Dev has expressed great interest in
having me over at his group once I finish the degree sadly thats some years in the future just
cant wait.
S: Here the credit goes to Lootika; after all, she was the one who showed that the toxin promotes
2

neurite growth. Something quite unexpected.

V: Yes. I wanted to tell her too, but I felt it was too late and it might be bit awkward if I dropped
in at her place with her parents and family around. Anyhow I am sure her sister will tell her about
all this in detail.
S: By the way we are planning an expedition to the lagoon of rmo bhrgava for a study in natural
history when we have a few days off after the dpotsava. Would you like to accompany us?
V: I would have loved to come, but Meghana would not like it. She has laid out a plan complete
with days full of shopping and movies, dinners and lunches at some really great eateries, a night at
the disco, a visit to saint Nasir-ad-din Ghazis Mazhar, and an evening at the cricket leagues final.
Much as I would have liked to be in the wild with you guys, I am afraid I will have to be with her.

Somakhya and Lootika had spent the day collecting several specimens from the lagoon of rmo
bhrgava. Among other things, they had finally succeeded in collecting live specimens of the algae
Acetabularia and Neomeris. They planned to grow them and elucidate the biosynthetic pathways
for the halogenated organic compounds made by these chlorophytes and understand the diversity
of enzymes involved in biological halogenation. That night they pitched their tent on shore of the
lagoon and after dinner were observing the clear autumnal skies. They were trying to see the Little
Dumbbell Nebula in Perseus when the sky seemed to be rent open with an immense flash. A
gigantic fireball blinded them completely first they heard a hiss, then a roar and finally a boom:
not just their eyes but even their ears seemed all gone. The blaze and the noise played over and
over again for several minutes. They wondered what it was had the cna-s, the mleccha-s or the
marnmatta-s launched a sudden missile attack on bhrata? Then as the deafening silence
returned they realized that it was a gigantic meteorite that had dropped in the hills to their east.
They made a careful note of the position from the still visible meteor track and decided that the
next day they should explore the locality to see if they could get any meteoritic fragments. The
next morning they set out to explore the region they had inferred to be the crash site of the
meteorite and scoured the region till noon. Just before they almost gave up, they found a shallow
excavation with shattered vegetation in an unmistakable pattern. Excitedly they ran to its center
but could not find anything but for some small pieces of meteoric glass. Actually they saw signs
that someone had gotten there before them from a near by village and could have taken away the
big fragments or larger tektites. Since, they had to catch the train back to their city and feared
desiccation of their algal specimens they halted their exploration and headed back.

About couple of years had passed by Meghana and Vidrum wanted to buy hard to get second-hand
tickets for a music concert. Their seller was Roy Russell, who had agreed to meet them outside the
church at St. Vincents circle. As they stopped beside the pretAlaya Vidrum was shocked to see
how big it had become. He rarely visited this part of the city, and the last time he was there it was
a small, nondescript structure. Now it was a peculiar structure with a giant gopura featuring
images from the new testament and an imposing dhvajastabha it looked almost like a Hindu
temple but for the giant pretka on the top of the gopura and the stabha. Written on the
gateway arch in ornate ngar script were the words: kristudeva paramo deva | kristudharma
paramo dharama | rogya-svmine vai namo nama |
3

Vidrum was shocked. He blurted out aloud: What the #%*@! When did they make the pretlya
like this?
Meghana: So what is wrong? See they are using our architecture and even Sanskrit!
V: Nonsense! This is a ploy to entice and entrap foolish Hindus.
M: Dont get worked up. I am sure all those extremist websites Somakhya and Sharvamanyu keep
feeding you with are having their effects. Come on, they were being so conscious of adopting
Indian traditions and you are seeing just the opposite. Are they not being so respectful
Just then they saw Roy Russell who sold them the tickets. Then he offered them a sandwich as
special ravivr prasd from the church. Vidrum was furious but keeping outward politeness
refused it by saying he was observing a fast that day in the honor of Cadik. Meghana expressed
her unhappiness with Vidrum by her facial gestures and took the sandwich. Roy then handed them
a pamphlet saying that they should attend the forthcoming lectures on advaita by r-108vasudhaiva-kuubaka-bb-j at the nay-makkah (the new Mecca). As they left Meghana was
intently reading the pamphlet of S108VKBji over and over, when Vidrum angrily snatched it from
her hand and tore it to pieces. Meghana created a huge spectacle, screaming and abusing Vidrum
in the choicest language from the depths of the pacanada in the middle of the road, with the
passers-by stopping to stare with a tinge of Schadenfreude. She quickly scanned the QR code from
the torn pamphlet into her phone and abruptly split up from Vidrum going her own way.

About a fortnight later Vidrum came to see Somakhya. He was looking crestfallen.
S: Hey, how is it going. On course to join Samgram Devs group upon graduation? Have you sent in
the wretched applications? I have barely started anything and have been getting endless music
from my parents.
Vidrum in a sad voice: Hey man, facing music from your parents must be better than putting up
with public lashings from a bb-addled virago.
S: What happened?
V: You must hear this. Recently Meghana has been magnetically attracted towards this godman
called r-108-vasudhaiva-kuubaka-bb-j, whom she refers to as r-108-vsudev-kuubakbbj.
S: Who #%*@ is that ?
V: Listen. She came to know of him from a pamphlet handed over to her by a pretasAdhaka at
that monstrous pretlaya situated at the St. Vincents circle. I have been trying to get her off this
delusion but it has become the source of terrible strife between us. Finally, I gave in today and
agreed to accompany her to the evening advaita lecture by S108VKBji. He has started this sarvadharmrama at a place he calls the nayA-makkah. Just about a couple of years ago he started
having visions that he was latest prophet sent by God. Shortly thereafter, S108VKBji saw a divine
rock fall from heaven in the mountains close to the rAma beach. He installed that baetyl in a
golden vulval girdle and embedded it in a cubical structure precisely imitating the one worshiped
by the marnmatta-s in the middle of the maru in West Asia. He has been calling that the nayA-alKabah (the new al-Kabah). There was a large gathering at his lecture-hall. He began by chanting
pieces from various religious texts and stated that lineage of prophets has not ended and he is the
latest who would reveal the sole truth, which he termed advaita, which will bring together the
teachings of the upaniat-s, Zoroaster, Moshe, Jesus Christ, and Mohammad. He added that all
4

rituals were futile and only the truth he was going to make known was the basis of ultimate
liberation. His secretary, Daniel Cooper from Australia added that S108VKBjis message was no
different from the sermon of Jesus on the mount. Thus, it went on for more than an hour like a
monstrous teratoma of religion replete with narrations of the world-unifying visions of S108VKBji
and blatantly staged miracles such as regurgitations of metal ellipsoids, which were called ivaliga-s, as also of crucifixes, Bibles and Korans from the maw of S108VKBji.
S: Ghastly!
V: Then he paused saying sherbet and bhog would served followed by sagt. I could take it no
longer and told Meghana that I was not going to suffer such lunacy lightly. She went nuclear, and I
left her and came away to keep my sanity.
S: Well, the last thing we needed was this latest bAbA on the block and this orgy of bbistic
frenzy.
V: I just feel a dark sense of foreboding about all this. May be because this S108VKBji s face
seemed vaguely familiar to me looks like I have seen him or his picture somewhere before.
S: Perhaps then you should try to distract yourself by joining me in this examination of the
wonders of Acetabularia. It is all just one cell while it looks like a little, complete plant. From its
cap-like fronds come out reproductive cysts. These cysts eventually open to release gametes that
look like little Chlamydomonas
. I often wonder if the Chlamydomonas
-like form is the ancestral state
for the greater plant-lineage or is it the plant-like form or both

The next day Somakhya was checking the news as he was having breakfast. The headline read:
Godman among 55 killed in attack on Ashram: Communal tensions high in city
Earlier in the day followers of r-108-vsudev-kuubak-bbj were seen distributing pamphlets outside
the Mohammad Jan Masjid. The member of parliament Dr. Faqr-uz-Zaman took objection to it. Around 7.00
PM his son Jihad al Kabir gathered 300 volunteers of the black t-shirt movement also known as the Jaish alMujahideen. Mr. al Kabir is said to have just returned from a activism tour to Egypt and Lebanon as part of
the aid and volunteering activities of the black t-shirt movement. It is suspected he might have been
radicalized on course of this tour. He and his volunteers were armed with guns, fire-bombs and other
weapons. They led a procession to S108VKBjis Ashram even as he was leading his devotees in an
circumambulation of a disputed structure termed the nayA-al-Kabah with religious music playing in the
background. Mr. al Kabir and his men challenged S108VKBjis religious interpretation and said that he had
insulted the dyunmatta (ntirastu) and the rkasa-mata.
When S108VKBji tried to argue with them, Mr. al Kabir showed them a fatwa by respected jurist
Kazi Omar Abdullah that declared S108VKBji to be an apostate. He had visited the Mohammad Jan
Masjid and is said to have worn a skullcap while praying with the mevlanas before an Iftar dinner
party earlier in the year. Since then he is rumored to have declared himself the prophet of a new
religion. As the argument grew heated Mr. al Kabir and his men are supposed to have attacked
S108VKBji and his followers and committed arson on his rama. The nayA-al-Ka bah structure
was apparently completely demolished by the black t-shirt activists. In the clash that ensued
S108VKBji was beheaded and his headless corpse was hoisted on to a lamp post outside the
rama. In the assault and stampede that followed 55 people are supposed to have been killed
Other headlines included:
5

Communal rioting reported in some parts of the city.

Prime minister calls for peace and amity between the communities.
Center has sent para-military forces to control the violence.
Home minister suspects involvement of cross-border elements.
Somakhya immediately called Vidrum but received no reply. He tried few more times during the
day with the same effect; he decided to go and visit Vidrum at his place. Right then he saw in the
news that there was some rioting reported near Vidrums house and decided to be safe rather than
sorry.

A few days later Somakhya received a message from Lootika:

prya somkhya! sarva saukhya v? indra-trta bhava!
My sister was part of the autopsy team of S108VKBji. His story is an interesting one. He was
apparently an officer in the Indian Army who had sustained a grievous head injury during the Han
attack on Sikkim in the old days. He was one of the recipients of the experimental treatment for
neural regeneration devised by Samgram Dev, which used our metallopeptidase toxin for inducing
neurite regrowth. Vrishchika, who performed the micro-anatomical examination of his temporal
lobe, found that he had a significantly higher procedure-induced neurite outgrowth in parts of his
temporal cortex compared to normal controls. He also showed a small lesion in the claustrum
below the insula that remained from his original injury. So, apparently, something in this is what
transformed a once unimaginative soldier Lt. Vikram Singh into the S108VKBji. Moreover, a
discussion my sis had with a police officer investigating the case suggests that he was the one who
reached the meteorite before us, after that memorable night on the shores of rAmas lagoon. In
any case going back to the records, Vrishchika says that more than half the patients receiving this
experimental treatment report unusual neurological sequelae, raising questions about whether
this approach might be the best thing to go forward with. More when I see you in person
bahu modasva!
ltik |
Somakhya responded:
prye ltike!
avayam asya paasya nigha rahasyam ucchinatsi !
tava ra-jle aryamastrta bhava,
somkhya |

The fifth story


It was the end of the week the social class which had the grace of r could still enjoy a pacific
day or two away from the bustle of daily existence in bhrata or more precisely the residue that
was left of the country. Thus, oblivious of the grim upheavals around them, many still led their
existence in its bustling cities. Somakhya carefully took out a specimen of a ragworm from the
alcohol jar and placed it on the dissection tray. Just then he heard a knock on the door. Peering
through the look-hole he sighted the charming Lootika and Vrishchika, who looked radiant as the
sun glanced off their ornaments. They rushed in even as he opened the door and seated
themselves on the old couch that was stationed on one side of his makeshift home lab. Vrishchika
then walked up to the table and intently gazed at the ragworm on the tray while remarking: A
beautiful annelid.
Somakhya: Good timing girls. Vrishchika you could perhaps help me by dissecting out the central
nervous system you have good hands.
Vrishchika: What do you intend to do with it?
Somakhya: Create a correspondence map of all peptide-amide neurotransmitters and neurons.
We then wish to compare the pattern across different lineages to see how it related to our lineagespecific expansion model for the evolution of such neurotransmitters.
Vrishchika: That sounds pretty ambitious.
Lootika: A good chance to test the specific peptide-recognition reagents we developed with Varoli
using the SuFu scaffolds. If nothing else we would at least know how they work in practice.
Vrishchika: Alright, Ill dissect it for you but the two of you need to guide me appropriately. I
suggest we leave the whole worm in fixing solution for 15 minutes generally that gives better
results and minimizes the chances of the nerve ring snapping.
Even as Somakhaya started fixing the worm he said: Lootika could you please take my tablet from
over there and read out any interesting news that you might see.
Lootika scrolled through and placed it aside saying there was nothing much of interest but picking
it up again said: Wait a minute. This is curious. Professor Angana Nanda stoned to death and
hanged from tree on campus of Shaikh al Haqqani institute.
Vrishchika Ouch, that must have hurt.
Lootika read on: Prof Nanda a noted professor of the history of rationalism and secularism at the
Shaikh al Haqqani institute of Islamic knowledge (formerly Indian Institute of Science, Education
and Research) had decided to stay behind in Saltanat al Khair Allah after the partition agreement.
She had been a strong supporter of the right for self-determination of the Islamic state of Khair
Allah. She had written several articles on how the separation of the Khair Allah state from the
Indian Republic could bring the Mohammedans out of the shadow of obscurantist oppression by
the Hindu nationalist forces. She had hoped that it would usher the dawn of a new era of Islamic
rationalism, even as the brilliant Abbasid Caliphate had forged the great Islamo-Christian
scientific revolution that lay behind all modern science. However, she ran afoul of the Sultan Ghazi
al Mansur when she broke the law by failing to wear the appropriate burkha. Things took a turn
for the worse when she was seen gallivanting at the beach with her colleague Imran Khan without
being appropriately covered up. At that point Fuckih al Abbas issued a legal decree as per the
Sharia that she deserved the death punishment. His sentence was quickly executed by students of
the Shaikh al Haqqani institute last evening.
Somakhya: Well, at least in her case the deserved karmaphala has been attained in full in the
same janma. I wonder if she is now burning in the hellfire reserved for the rationalists or whether
2

she has been transformed into a houri, one in a pack of 72, to serve the latest Shahid. By the way,
talking of all this, how did yesterdays debate go?
Lootika: While Vrishchika and I vehemently argued for the position that we should put all effort
to reconquer Saltanat al Khair Allah and the Islamic state of Greater Bangladesh, we ended up
losing as most were of the opinion that the double partition, shedding the cera and vaga
countries, was a great idea. They argued that the the partition had removed the communal and
fundamentalist elements from India and thus had reduced the chances of future communal
violence that had dragged down national economic progress in the past. Moreover, they were also
shocked when we proposed that at least this double partition should have gone hand-in-hand with
population exchange, with all marnmatta-s being sent out and the pretasdhaka-s from the cera
country not being let into residual bhrata. We argued that the proposed Islamo-Christian era of
enlightenment, as in the Abbasid Caliphate, could happen only if pretasdhaka-s remained behind
with their marnmatta brethren. We were blamed as being neo-Nazis, frivolous idiots, or both and
threatened with summary expulsion from the debate unless we shut our mouths!
Vrishchika taking her tablet out of her bag glanced at it and remarked: Hey, see I just got this
message r Ram-mandir Mishra calls for strong condemnation of Prof. Nandas brutal murder.
Somakhya: Who is that chap?
Lootika: He is the secretary of the Right-Wing debaters union. He was the very guy who called us
neo-Nazis and all that yesterday.
Somakhya: If you ladies are Nazis, what is he then? I thought Nazi was supposed be right wing?
But it was so long time back that may be Nazi was something else.
Vrishchika: Well, he likes to call himself libertarian and fiscal right-wing,or something to that
tune. Whatever those terms are supposed to mean.
Somakhya: astu yath tath
Lootika: dkya mryya kimapi vadmi ?
Vrishchika: By the way next weeks debate topic is should the rma mandira be built at ayodhy?
Somakhya: Great! I did not know that was still a hot topic for debate. I thought it was so much of
our grandparents era.
Lootika: I was just getting the feeling that we have had enough of this and may be we should not
enter next weeks debate.
Somakhya: As you know I have been handed a lifetime entry ban at the weekend debate club the
day they had Religious freedom in the Indian republic as the topic. So I have a valid reason of not
showing up.
Lootika: May be we should be doing something more useful next week end what about an
expedition to collect more rag-worms and may be snag some arrow-worms too.
Somakhya: Was thinking the same.
After the dissections and setting up the staining, Lootika and Vrishchika got ready to leave. While
parting Somakhya asked: What are you doing this evening?
The girls: We are supposed to baby-sit and educate Varoli and Jhilleeka, and you?
Somakhya: Get some target practice with Sharvamanyu. What about your training?
The girls: We have given up. Not one shot of ours found its mark. I dont think Sharvamanyu
would want to see us again at the range.
Somakhya: Awful. Remember, some day we might not just need to find our mark but do so when
under fire ourselves.
3

They finally parted waving at each other their secret hand signs that looked like the chomma-s.

It was a pauramsya morning. Somakhya had just finished his fire-offerings to the deva-s and
went out of the ritual room to empty the prata vessel. As he looked up towards the sun, he saw a
kite flying towards his right holding a snake in its claws. He thought to himself: It seems deva
indra who unites the vajra with vtra has sent a sign.
Later that day Sharvamanyu, Somakhya, Lootika and Vrishchika headed on a long journey by road
to the sea-side cove. Their time enroute on the bus was marked by a minor incident:
A flashily dressed fellow with a beard but no mustache approached the two girls even as they were
getting into the bus and said: Hey, I am Sanjay. How are youll doing? Would you like to join me
for a quick tea when we reach our destination.
Lootika and Vrishchika turned to Somakhya and Sharvamanyu and said: Is this someone you
know; we do not seem to know him? The latter two stared at him and asked: Do you just walk
into random strangers and ask them out for tea? The guy got a bit nervous and said: Calm it
guys. I am just being friendly you may not want be so confrontational for that. The two sensed a
undercurrent of a threat in his concluding statement and continued to look at him sharply. He
simply walked ahead and found a seat behind the girls. The rest of the journey went off with any
further interaction. However, when they got off the stranger seemed to intently keep looking at
the direction in which the four departed.
Sharvamanyu: Girls, do you really not know that guy.
Vrishchika: Have we not seen him hanging out outside the school compound?
Lootika: He is no Sanjay. His actual name is Iqbal Rizvi. He became friendly with our classmate
Meghana and as consequence she has dumped Vidrum and has been seen going around with him. I
thought that ploy would be the best way to deflect him
Somakhya: Ah that explains why Vidrum has been so depressed these days.
Sharvamanyu: Let as take that road. That guy seems to be eying us from the distance this should
throw him off scent. Girls do you have your garala-akula-s ready?
The girls: Yes we do.
Sharvamanyu drew out two gleaming knives from his bag and gave it to them: Girls, keep one
each. Somakhya, I believe you have your gun? Better we load them in that secluded corner before
heading forward.
Lootika: That feels better. I have seen that guy in the vicinity of school with a couple of other
marnmatta-s.
Sharvamanyu: I think it is better we stick together. Initially, I thought I would wander around
towards the hills to do some trigonometric surveying, while you all looked at the sparrows. But I
think it I would rather stick around with you all do some other work I had till it gets dark.
The sparrow (Passer domesticus race indicus), which was once common allow over bhrata, had
become extinct in large swaths of the land for reasons which were still unclear. But in this village
setting on the West Coast, not far from the sea they were still present and could be observed. To
Somakhya and Lootika the sparrow was one of the most interesting dinosaurs. At the other end of
the size spectrum with respect to many of its Mesozoic relations, it displayed a remarkable array
of behaviors that still remained poorly understood. Somakhya, Lootika and Vrishchika
4

strategically positioned themselves to videograph the sparrows. They first made observations on
dust-bathing and noticed how it was an important social activity of the sparrows: they made
shallow saucers in the mud by crouching, lifting their wings and rotating their bodies. Then they
bathed themselves in the excavated mud. After some patient observation they got to record the
behavior they were most interested in, anting: They noticed that the sparrows picked up ants and
squished them and applied the ant paste on their feathers and skin. Thereafter, the sparrows
retired to the bushes to engage in another mysterious behavior social singing. At that point
Lootika crept to the dust saucers and collected specimens of the ants that were used for anting by
the sparrows. She identified the ants as being the Blood-red Slave-makers. She also collected a few
feathers shed by the birds hoping that eventually they might be able get some handle of why the
birds anted.
By then the sun had set and the four of them headed to the cove. The rag worms they were
studying show an interesting behavior. The posterior part of the rag worm with gonads breaks off
from the main body of the worm (the atoke) and swims to the surface as an autonomous agent (the
epitoke). This swarming of the epitokes is coordinated to peak on the full moon nights where they
mate in the surface waters. After the fertilization, the female epitokes bear their embryos through
development in uterine sacs in their stomach till they hatch forth. In the mean time the rest of the
worm (the atoke) buds off more epitokes that will go forth to do the same for the next full moon
cycle. Somakhya and Lootika set up traps so that they could use the high tide to get some worms
into them. Lootika had even more ambitious plans of trying to grow them in her aquarium.
Sharvamanyu was doing his own investigation of the tides some distance away, when he suddenly
sighted a distant light approaching the coast. He came up to Somakhya and pointed that to him.
They looked through their binoculars and realized that a boat was approaching the coast.
Somakhya and Sharvamanyu quickly realized that this was unusual. On this evening the local
fishermen never went out; moreover, they never returned via this cove beside the shrine of the
awful vinyaka. This was some strange boat that was coming towards them.
Sharvamanyu: Somakhya did you notice the news item a few days back of a Turkish ship breaking
through the navys cordon and supplying arms to an obscure marnmatta organization in Bhatkal
called the Hadim Sleyman alliance. I suggest we quickly seek cover and observe closely what this
boat does.
The girls panicked and said: Let us pack and leave right away. We should head straight back to
the bus stop and wait there till we can get on the first bus in the morning to return home.
Sharvamanyu: That is not the best idea. Walking through the town at night and hanging out at
the bus stop could make us more vulnerable than out in the wild which offers us cover.
Somakhya: Let us pack up and head to that elevated point with a large rock shielded by bushes.
We can hide there and watch. It is also not far from road joining the highway. We could run across
it and use the short cut to the town in case we need to.
They did as suggested by Somakhya even as the boat came closer and closer to land. They felt their
weapons for a sense of assurance. Shortly after they had ensconced themselves in their hideout
they heard a car screech to a halt on the road joining the highway. The full moon on a relatively
clear night afforded them a good view of the two fellows who jumped out of the car. They passed
by the four of them and headed to the cove. At that point they clearly caught sight of their faces.
They realized that one of them was none other than Iqbal Rizvi whom they had seen on the bus
earlier. As the fellows moved away from them, Somakhya whispered: Sharvamanyu this Turkish
ship at Bhatkal affair may not be unrelated after all. They soon realized that the Iqbal Rizvi and
5

the other man were awaiting the boat. After it made landfall they saw seven men disembark from
the boat. They offloaded what appeared to be several heavy sacks. Two of them could be made out
as having assault rifles. Seeing that the girls almost screamed; Somakhya and Sharvamanyu had to
literally place their hands on Lootika and Vrishchikas mouths to indicate to them to stay
absolutely quiet. Somakhya and Sharvamanyu themselves were nervous for they knew their
handguns were not really the sort of thing which could help much against nine fellows including
those with assault rifles and probably more. Just then they heard another car come to a halt on the
road above them beside the first one but did not see anyone get out. Soon they saw the nine men
trudge up with the baggage to the two cars and having loaded them, got in and sped off towards
the highway.
Sharvamanyu: Looks like some major operation of the marnmatta-s is underway. Should we go
to the town and alert the daika-s or wait till day break?
Somakhya: This is a really difficult call. At this hour, in an alien town, the daika-s could end up
getting suspicious of us. Plus, we are armed ourselves, which we are not supposed to be according
to the daika-s. Worst of all, we are with the girls, which also we should not be doing according
to them. So I suggest we lie quiet here and slip out at day break to catch the first bus back home.
Sharvamanyu: Before that may be we should cut their boat free.
Hearing this Lootika and Vrishchika panicked: Let us just let lie quiet. What if they have an
unseen sentry posted somewhere watching over their boat who might open fire at us, while doing
something like that. If we get out of this place alive we should consider the deva-s as having been
kind to us.

They awoke to the screeching noise of a car coming to a stop near them. Then there was another.
Suddenly, the terror of the fact that they had fallen as sleep right in the hideout dawned on them.
But before they could think of anything, they saw four men jump out of the cars holding a man
with his head covered in a hood, who looked like their hostage. They marched him down to the
beach beside their boat. One of them pulled out a tablet and started videographing the whole
thing. They removed his hood and placed him in the center. Two pointed their rifles at him and
said something to him. One of them moved behind him and placed a knife on his neck. They said
something to him again. Then the man with the knife turned to the camera and said aloud: This is
how the enemies of Islam are dispatched to the hell-fire by the proselytizing sword of the Jaish al
Islam. O Kaffrs watch your defense minister Mr. Ajay Uniyal being sent to Jahannam right in your
mulk itself. We shall soon be the lords of all of al Hind!
That man loudly shouted: hara-hara-mahdeva!; Your janaka was an unmatta, your object of
worship a rkasa and your gharaa-a the yoni of a pucal. This outburst from the man
who was silent all this while distracted them. In a flash he tripped the man behind him with a deft
move and seizing his rifle shot the cameraman and the other two. The felled man behind then
stabbed him with the knife. But as he fell he struck his assailant with the butt of the rifle. There
was a deathly silence for a moment. The man who had felled his captors despite a deep stab wound
stood up and started dragging his assailant towards the cars. As they passed close to the four in
hiding, the assailant suddenly sprang to consciousness and producing a knife from his clothing
tried to stab the man dragging him. A hand-to-hand scuffle ensued and the assailant appeared to
be gaining the upper hand. At this time Sharvamanyu and Somakhya as though spurred some
unseen force sprang out of their hideout and stabbed assailant with their own knives felling him.
6

The other man was alive but badly wounded. With his ebbing strength he remarked:
Sharvamanyu, Somakhya how in the world did you land up here? I may not make it, but give me
your phone so that I can make a call. Have these papers conveyed to the defense minister Ajay
Uniyal or at least widely publicized. Nothing else matters now I shall attain the realm of the great
indra!

Years later Vrishchika and Indrasena arrived at Somakhya and Lootikas house to drop off the
latters children. They had left them with the former so that they might enjoy the company of
their cousins, while the two had gone to collect ragworms. Leaving their children at play,
Somakhya, Indrasena, Vrishchika and Lootika went to their large room that also doubled as a
home lab.
Vrishchika: Was it a success?
Lootika: Finally we have got the ragworms with the betaproteobacterial endosymbiont which in
turn contains an alphaproteobacterial endo-endosymbiont. We expect to uncover some interesting
biology.
Indrasena: Exciting, I wonder if the deal with the sharing of aminoacyl tRNA synthetases and the
composite ribosome would hold.
Lootika: I would leave that part to Somakhya and you. Moreover, Varoli has already found a
bacteriophage which might make things even more exciting.
Vrishchika: Ragworms always bring to mind that frightful night by the cove of vinyaka? You
guys never told us the whole story and it was lost in the fog all the upheavals that followed.
In course of the narrative Somakhya said: That brave agent, Anantnag, who died fighting the
Ghazi-s that day was our senior at school. He taught me and Sharvamanyu to use firearms. He had
a sharp mind but was a committed secularist to start with. But the day he saw us being banned at
the debate club by the secretary of the India Right Wing debaters union, when Religious freedom
in the Indian republic was the topic, something bothered him. He came up to us and asked if it
could indeed be that Hindus are idiots? We filled him in with some information. Later he joined
the special forces due to his talents in marksmanship and martial arts. They had reliable
intelligence that the Hadim Sleyman alliance and the Jaish al Islam were going to take the then
defense minister Ajay Uniyal as a hostage and then behead him on the residual Indian soil to send
a message of terror among the complacent Hindu masses, who were still debating issues such as,
secularism, the un-Islamic acts of the Sultanate of Khair Allah or Greater Bangladesh and whether
we should take Hindus from those regions as refugees into residual India. Ajay Uniyal had some
tactical background himself having served earlier as an intelligence officer. He and Anantnag came
up with the idea that the latter would impersonate him as a double as they did not have enough
information of when or where the strike would be launched. The Ghazis fell for the impersonation
and the rest as they say is history.
Vrishchika: What about the message he gave you all and asked to convey to Uniyal?
Somakhya: Sadly, Uniyal chose not to publicize it at that point claiming security concerns. Hindus
as idiots yet again! Here is a copy of the queer document. May be you could read it out aloud for
your husbands benefit and also to refresh our memories.
Below is a paraphrase of what Vrishchika read out:
7

During a paratrooping exercise my parachute failed to open and I was barely saved as it got
snagged by a tree in the forests around the great kauinya parvata. I some how hauled myself
down from the tree and had to spend a night in a cave on the slopes of kauinya parvata close to
the spot where nganyaka had died fighting Alla-ad-din Khalji. That night shortly after I fell
asleep I was woken up by someone tapping on my shoulder. When I awoke I saw a gray hazy figure
standing in front of me. It introduced itself as the ghost of rjrma. It then said to me the
following words. Note the Hindus have become not just sybarites but also idiots! My father, the
great rjan, had struggled to restore Hindu dignity but today you people squander this away. You
think you will be on the right side of history by believing the words of the mleccha-s. But you get
to be on the right side of history only by winning, else you stand to be erased from history by the
barbarous, genocidal mleccha-s who will use the marnmatta-s and the ptavara vapaca-s to
exterminate the Hindus. Remember that the mleccha-s are our most dreadful enemies, the power
behind the marnmatta-s. This is known as the mleccha-marnmattbhisadhi. No nation
survives by gifting away land. By feeding marnmatta demon the havi of our own land you are
only strengthening them to come back and whack you harder. Hence, we need to be able to strike
like our great god indra who mercilessly struck down the three heads of triiras tvra. Hence,
the veda says:
bhrd indra udinakantam ojo
avbhinat satpatir manyamnam
tvrasya cid vivarpasya gonm
cakras tri r par vark
May that glorious deed of maghavan inspire us! Thus, we need to be able to strike down the
mleccha who is the triiras behind the marnmatta who is the dnava. So let me emphatically
repeat If you gift away territory, which was yours, claiming it has been poisoned by the enemy or
other such excuses you will certainly find yourself cast aside in the midden of history. The best
you can hope is that an archaeologist caressingly dusts the mud off your calavaria and then
consigns it to a display in the museum with a neat label beneath it. If the marnmatta-s triumph
you may not even afford that luxury.
Remember we were in direr straits than this when I was confined in Jinji with the turuka-s
pressing down on us. But we did not give up our hope of liberating the whole of bhrata right up to
the smnta-pradea of bhlika. I died in course of that struggle, but my people continued because
that was the objective of the great rjan. Exhausted in that struggle eventually they stumbled and
collapsed before the mleccha foe. Today, they have been joined by the cna-s, and are now like the
three heads of the tvra. Hence, unless one attains oneness with vtrahan, like the great king
pratardana daivodsi one cannot prevail. When infused with the nature of the vajrin he embodies
the word of the veda which says:
akarm dasyur abhi no amantur anya-vrato amnua
tva tasya+amitrahan vadhar dsasya dambhaya
Confronting us is the dasyu, without rituals, bereft of sense, observing laws different from ours,
inhuman; you O killer of enemies, baffle the deadly weapon of the dsa!
It was by fighting as though inspired by the deva-s described in the veda within the skta known
as apratiratha aindra that we rolled back the marnmatta-s and mleccha-s. Now you all have to
put in even greater efforts as the enemy is really stronger than you in the military sphere. The
8

lessons learned by other nations show what lies ahead. You have the rudhira-vara-s of
mahkraucadvpa whose numerous tribes were overpowered and exterminated by the mleccha-s.
Then there are the ka-s of sthladvpa whom they along with the marnmatta-s reduced to
being slaves. They have been excluded from civilization and left with merely the preta/rkasapustaka in their hand. Among the ptavara-s, the cna-s and the ati-prcya-s fought the mleccha-s
but were defeated. Yet, by paying an enormous price they either expanded their territorial
integrity (the cna-s) or at least kept the ava-mata limited in their lands (the bindudhvaja-s).
These illustrate to you the options that are available for bhrata-s either you make an exit
without even realizing you are out, or you prepare for a conflict where your costs will be
enormous. Else a puerile existence will indeed be the nations lot like that of the cna-bhtya-s at
the edge of the mahdvpa. Of the dasyu-s, the mleccha-s do not even need to attack directly
anymore by using the marnmatta-s and their plants, the avrdhaka-s, they can sink the
Hindus if they continue the way they are. The cna-s will joyfully grab up the rest even as the
Hindus are claiming that they had civilizationally subjugated them from the time of Taizong.
While in principle it would difficult for these dasyu-s reach their goals, it is accentuated by our
own people who seek to relinquish the rya-vrata for the anya-vrata of the dasyu-s thinking that
to be the satya-vrata. If the government of the Hindu people cannot stop that then their nation
will cease to be. Because they have forsaken their own rya-vrata they accept as fact the barbarous
vrata-s of the dasyu-s. Thus, they think rra and dharma must be separated because the duavrata of the mleccha calls for such. But how can the rya-rara exist if the dharma is removed? It
is verily to the rra like the leg of the great viu, by which the dnava-s were conquered, is the
skabha of the world. On account of this they are unable to defend themselves when attacked by
the dasyu-s for the rya-s said: dharma eva hato hanti dharmo rakati rakita |. Moreover, they
think the vkatt of the dsa-s can be solved by the principles of sma and dna. Nay, even bheda
might not really work in the long run for the gulf between the dasyu and us is bigger than the
biggest chasm in their midst. Do not think the battles within them are going to favor you in any
big way, for in reality the battles within them have the effect of self-renewal via the selective
process that characterizes all evolution. Thus, Tipu Sultan and the Nizam might have fought each
other but let us not forget both were killers of Hindus. Hence, marnmda being bloody within is
an elegant feature and not a bug in the script that emanated from the diseased brain of the
dyunmatta of rkasa-vda. In light of this, the vkatt of the dasyu can be ultimately conquered
only via power of daa even as the blazing cakra dispatched by the marut-s rushing like lions, or
the fierce garua falling upon the dasyu-s; verily the i vaikhnasa said in the veda:
upa yat sdad indu arrai yeno yopir hanti dasyn
When swooping down on the soma with his body, the eagle with claws [strong as] metal slays the
dasyu-s.
It should also be remembered that following the anya-vrata of the dasyu-s has caused the Hindus
to lose touch with their history. Thus, the average Hindu cannot learn the details of the history of
his people, their genius, their failings, or, more proximately, their struggle with the unmda-s at
school or outside of it. Instead, he might be deluded by a false history peddled by the secular
variant of the unmda-s. Given this situation, he is cut off from one of the most important lessons
for leading life, namely the lesson of history. I am sure your student in arms Somakhya has told
you that you cannot understand biology without understanding evolutionary history. Likewise,
9

how can a Hindu hope to understand and do local or global politics without knowing his own
history or his place in the history of the world. He vainly tries to balance Awrangzeb with Akbar or
come to believe that unmda-s were part of his culture, or accept unmatta tyrants as his own
rulers, or regard the bastard language called Urdu to be part of his culture. This has led to the
perverse understanding that his culture is not history-centric; thus, he does not even make an
attempt to acquire correct knowledge of history. In contrast, the unmatta-s have their own
channels of acquiring a historical narrative that excites their ardor. These channels operate
irrespective of secular forces of delusion, giving them a clear picture of who their heroes and
villains are they choose unerringly when confronted by an Awrangzeb or an Akbar. Thus, we
have the unmatta-s turgid with the confidence in their narrative pitted against Hindus limp with
ignorance of their history. Hence, it should be made incumbent for the government of the Hindu
people to stop them from falling to the anya-vrata-s else their nation will cease to be.
Finally, let me say this: I take pleasure in wandering as a ghost as the only way out is to spread this
message widely among the Hindus and make them realize that only by acting as per the teaching
of the vajra-hasta to the rjari pratardana daivodsi can they hope to reach anything that might
have the flavor of victory. Many proud in their strength like ua, vtra, namuci, vivarpa,
auravbha and ilbia of strong defenses contended against him but they all lie slain by the
puradara with their fortresses demolished. In this context, I must also add that in the book
known as the fifth veda, the muni ka-dvaipyana has provided an important teaching: The
lesson of the killing of vikara by vkodara on the fourteenth day of the great war. Our people
should not forget it else they will fail when that great test comes. I shall now reveal to you some
operational details now that shall only be passed from teacher to tested student as the dasyu is
always waiting to listen in as the third.
Indrasena: That is indeed the pitmahas death-bed lecture for your little bhrata!

10

Battle of the agents


It was the last day of school and the exams were to begin at the start of the next week. Following
their parents stern instructions, Jhilleeka and Varoli decided not hangout after school and were
returning home on their bikes. However, they decided to take a small detour they first crossed a
shrine of a 19th century paa and reached the shrine of ptla-rudra. They had plucked some
Datura flowers and turkey berries from a fallow plot of land adjacent to their school. On reaching
the shrine they placed these on the ancient liga, which had been installed by the mahvratin
candrabhaa-padita in the days of yore. Then they worshiped rudra by mentally reciting the
secret mantra-s known as vma-vardhana-tryabaka and pratihpana-tryabaka. Thereafter,
they hopped back onto their bikes and took the homeward path after crossing a strange, large, flat
boss of Deccan basalt that grotesquely jutted out off the ground. Then they rode past the
government building of the water-works department with a well-maintained garden around it.
They noticed an old gardener with an unkindly mien, wearing a white cap similar to that worn by
a past prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru, with the insignia of an open palm printed upon it. Just as
they passed the gardener he darted at them and started chasing them snapping his large pair of
scissors. The girls were terrified and pressed hard on their pedals but strength seemed to desert
their legs. Soon they almost felt the scissors snapping at their pony tails. Screaming aloud, with
one last effort they leaned forward on their handle bars and stood on their pedals. All of a sudden
there was a calm. Their legs seemed to regain strength and they gained some distance. They
cautiously looked back and they saw no gardener. Instead they saw a few pedestrians on the
footpath beside the opposite side of the road look at them strangely. They put their hands on their
head and felt their hair and heaved a sigh of relief when they found it to be intact. They looked at
each other, and each could tell from the others face that it was a profoundly shocking and bizarre
experience. On reaching home they were in two-minds whether to inform their mother about the
incident or not. They let it pass and soon found themselves busy with their books as they needed
to cram for the impending tests.
The recklessness of youth combined with the self-realization of their considerably above-average
IQs had made Vrishchika and Lootika uncaring of their parents instructions. Despite the fact that
their exams were of much greater significance, respectively in terms of their getting a seat in the
college and the university, they hung out near school knowing fully well they could catch up with
their cramming over the weekend. After fooling around for sometime with her friends Vrishchika
realized that, despite her IQ edge, the hard-disk in her upper story was insufficiently stocked up.
From the discussions of her friends, she learned to her horror that she had not even opened the
pages pertaining to South America in her geography textbook. She realized that she was unsure of
the very location of Brazil on the continent, leave alone the climatic zones it harbored or its
exports. It hit her rather hard when one of her friends noted that, contrary to her perception,
2

Brazil was bigger than India. Her friend rubbed in the salt by quipping: Even the akhaa bhrata
you keep talking about is not going to get you there. Vrishchika realizing the Brazil-sized
enormity of the lacunae in her learning quickly returned home to apply herself to the books.
Lootika and Somakhya were having a whale of a time beside a fast-food joint talking about and
planning all the fun things they were to do after the exams. It seemed to them as though the
exams were already over, when Somakhya glanced at his watch and realized how late it was. It
struck them they could not get any meaningful study done that day this was no trifling matter
given that neither of them had opened their organic chemistry textbook or even attended a single
lecture of conics and vectors. All this they had boldly planned to finish over the weekend,which
included the several hours of the Friday which they had just whiled away. On top of that Somakhya
was supposed to instruct Vidrum on certain matters, who insistently reminded him about that.
Vidrum made matters worse by telling him: Bro, remember there have been times we have lost to
Bangladesh, Zimbabwe and Kenya! And even a good batsman can snick the ball to the slips.
They decided to head straight home and fall asleep and make up for the hours by rising early the
next morning. Somakhya knew that his parents would not wake him up given that they were
major critics of his tradition of discovering and cramming stuff on the day before the exam. Hence,
he asked Lootika to give him a call as soon as she woke up so that he could hit books early. When
Lootika went home she was confronted by Jhilleeka who was cross that she did not come in time to
help her with the Sanskrit verbs. Lootika having her own ship to salvage callously remarked:
Jhilleeka, Shrinivasa Ramanujan knew all the possible forms verbs could take across the
dhtupha when he was four. I know you are no Ramanujan but you are not that young any more
and could get at least fraction of that into your head by yourself. Thus, brushing her sister aside
she hit the bed. Hours later Lootika was savoring the climax of a sweet dream, when it was rudely
interrupted by the sound of a rattling drum. Startled she woke up, looked out of her window, and
saw a tall wandering ascetic pass by her home holding a trident and beating his amaru. He
started saying something in a loud voice. She paid attention to that closely as such ascetics were
said to have prognostic abilities after their rituals at the cremation ground. She heard him say:
sua sua khaa khaa khii khii khuu khuu | druhiasya patnyo has jalpanti | nadati nadati
kumrasya kukkua | vetlasya protshena vadiyami |
Then he uttered some gibberish twice. After the first repeat Lootika became alert and wrote it
down on a piece of paper: ti-ya-drak-ma-gr-sa-vra-t-se-ma-min-as-yam-ca-ni-ti-sa-vamin-as-he-g-s-k-tri-pu-a-jye |
She then quickly called Somakhya to wake him up and proceeded to have her bath. Before getting
started with the books, she spent a several minutes meditating on various deities with their
3

respective mantra-s and upon conclusion smeared a tilaka on her forehead. At that moment it hit
her that the ascetic had conveyed a viparta sadea. She went back to the slip of paper and
checked it out and to her horror realized that it was a rather ominous prognosis for her, especially
given the impending exams. She was scared; nearly in tears and walked out to the terrace of her
home wanting to call Somakhya and tell him about this. Looking out on to the road she saw
Meghana racing along with Vidrum to make it in time for the pre-exam tutorials. She also saw the
young sun lighting up the horizon and felt charged by that sight and felt that the power of the
great katriya and the wise asura was with her. Now she felt less intimidated by the message and
decided in light of it she would be better of cutting her way through her books without further
delay.


The exams finally got over. Lootika felt relieved they had gone much better than she had
expected, despite her last minute preparations. She could concur with some of the guys in the
group with whom she was hanging out that it felt like sending the ball to and over the fence,
though she cared little for cricket. Silently, she told herself that after all the ascetic might have
gotten it all wrong. The guys said that they were going to be playing a trio of twenty-twenty
matches in the coming days and asked Lootika and the other girls to be spectators cheering their
exploits on the field. She laughed them off saying she had better things to do than waste her time
at a game of cricket played by amateurs. Thus, she returned home leaving the guys to their game.
There she spent some time pacifying Jhilleeka who was still cross with her for her brusqueness and
tried to regale her by teaching her how to write some code for generating interesting graphics.
Most of the next day was spent cleaning up their room. Later that evening all four sisters decided
to go biking to get some fresh air. After racing away on a long ride at top speed they went to the
flat basaltic boss. Sitting down upon it to get some rest, they gazed towards the western sky in the
competition of who would see Venus and Mercury first, even as the sun went down. Just then,
Lootika noticed that her classmate Vidrum had appeared with Maurvi, a girl from a different
college whom she knew in passing. They waved at Lootika and went and seated themselves at a
bench beside the basaltic upheaval. Shortly thereafter she saw another classmate Meghana
suddenly emerge from behind the crag rush at Vidrum and Maurvi uttering profanities in the
language of the extant pcanada-s. Vidrum swiftly slipped away leaving the two girls behind and
the two began fighting loudly, such that the others could hear them. Lootika and her sisters
realized that it was an ugly situation and hopped on to their bikes to make an exit.
As they had sat on the basaltic escarpment the two younger sisters had narrated to the older ones
their strange experience beside the water-works department building. So Lootika and Vrishchika
decided to lead them home via an alternate route, a road on which lay a small masjid, which had
been built atop an ancient shrine of the goddess padmvat during the invasion of Mohammed bin
Tughlaq. As they were cycling past the masjid they heard the crier announce the evening call.
Hearing it, Jhilleeka wondered what language it was in. Her sisters explained to her that it was a
language spoken in the arid deserts of West Asia. In course of that conversation Vrishchika wryly
remarked: Normally when we have diseases of pandemic proportions caused by pathogens with
genes people go to great lengths to eradicate it. That was the case with variola and polio. But when
it comes to diseases caused by pathogens with memes, like marnmda and pretonmda we have
whole sections of the nation celebrate them and invite their infection, even though these memetic
pathogens will exterminate our people in the long run! The two younger sisters were fascinated
by the idea of the meme that they had just learned about from the elder ones. They had many
5

questions and spent the rest of their waking hours that evening talking about both genetics and
memetics, till they lay on their cots and fell asleep.
Over the next few days the girls had a lot to do. Jhilleeka was fascinated by magnets and played
with the circuits which Somakhya had made as a young kid and had gifted her via Lootika. Thus,
she was taught herself more about electromagnetism. For her most recent birthday her parents
had gifted her a powerful horseshoe magnet which she took along wherever she went. While they
were sitting on the escarpment she had run the magnet on its surface and picked up several
globules of iron embedded in the basaltic rock. This piqued Varolis attention who wondered how
those iron globules got there. She first decided to do some comparative qualitative analysis; so
they collected a large number of the globules and also broke some pieces of basalt. This kept Varoli
busy in their home-lab doing chemical analysis to determine the elemental composition of the
globules and the basalt. Vrishchika had found a dead rhinoceros beetle in the garden and was
dissecting it carefully to learn more of its anatomy. Lootika spent her time studying a Sanskrit text
termed the bhmasena-vinoda in which Somakhya had noted the therapeutic use of the insectkilling fungi of the Ophiocordyceps complex. Hence, she alternated her time between the text and
investigating the proteinaceous toxins produced by Ophiocordyceps and also the predatory
mushroom Laccaria. In addition to checking on each other periodically, at lunch and dinner the
sisters would discuss each others progress. In the evenings they usually went bike racing on long
rounds. But on that day Lootika decided not to go biking by rather took their family scooter and
decided to rendezvous with Somakhya.


On meeting Somakhya, Lootika showed the chomma of the snake; he responded with the chomma
of the sparrow. She asked: So how did the cricket go? Somakhya: Not bad I scored a 42 in one of
the matches albeit with some streaky shots through slips but it was all in vain! L: Why? you
lost? S: No, a physical fight broke out when the opposing team saw us gain the upper hand. As it
grew more violent and the weapons came out I fled the ground knowing that discretion is the
better part of valor.
Lootika then presented the sequences of the genes that corresponded to the protein toxins and
introduced the strange problem, which confronted her with respect to the lack of a signal peptide
in the protein coded by the second gene. Somakhya stared at those sequences for some time and
then did some analysis of them on his computer with Lootika seated beside him. The result
indicated what kind of toxin they were dealing and suddenly he realized what was going in
Lootikas experiments. He proposed to her a way of zeroing in on the toxins catalytic activity.
Lootika high-fived Somakhya and was almost wanting to go back and initiate the requisite
experiments. But the proteins were not the only reason she wanted to meet Somakhya. Other than
endless talking about mysterious protein and nucleic acid molecules, they shared other
fascinations, which hardly any others in the country cared for, namely reptiles and stem
mammals. Hence, they spent some time in silence drawing fossil reptiles and there after talking
about them. That day they drew Euchambersia, Aelurosaurus, Njalila, and Inostrancevia. They felt a
strange sense awe after drawing, a sense of coming face-to-face with their long-lost ancestors.
They saw themselves in those long-gone synapsids, they marveled at their canines, and the
dentary bone expanding to take over the lower jaw. Thus, they would have gone on endlessly, but
Lootika suddenly realized it was getting dark and it was better she got back home. However, before
parting she had something else to say.
Lootika: Could you O son of a vipra finally initiate me into the akara-kaumra-manu that
secret manu of the ancient bhrgava-s.
Somakhya: O daughter of a vipra, Lootika, there are some mantra-s I have taught you without
much ado. But this should be given by a teacher who has no special feeling towards the student
beyond an accurate evaluation of his competence. If you were a guy I would have strictly gone only
by your competence. But I must confess that your charms have a hold on me and I might be
inclined to impart you this mantra without bothering to objectively evaluate you. But tradition has
to be transmitted without any attachments of special feelings even as brahm conferred powers on
hirayka or hirayakaipu despite their being diti-jana-s.
L: However, a true mantra should be reproducible by a competent sdhak even as the activity of
7

an enzyme by a good biochemist, and that should be test enough of whether I am fit or not.
Moreover, I have seen enough of a yogin in you that you will not merely give something due to
your feelings to me. I also do believe I make the basic cut; hence, this should not badly backfire as
you will not be conferring the mantra on a imbhik.
S: I know you are no imbhik but in your own interests I suggest that you take a different route
for I do not see enough perfection in my yoga to be above your womanly charms. This mantra
could sink both you and me in a seizure, much like what the old drvia-s would call the murukanveri.
L: But I doubt an alternative teacher exists.
S: Not so fast! There is the brhmaas daughter Shilpika who had taught us the devabh when
we were kids. She now teaches at the college beyond the hill of iva and the cremation ground. She
belongs to the same larger lineage of tharvaa-s as I, descending from the very muni who first
received the conglomerated lore of the bhgu-s. Her clan had lost the kumra-sana but she has
re-obtained it from a teacher among the kaliga-s. I shall inform her that you desire to receive the
manu. She will then evaluate your situation.
Lootika always game for challenge declared that she was eager to face the test from the
brhmaas daughter. Then they rode their vehicles to a corner near the road that Lootika had to
take to get back home They stopped to chat briefly at that place regarding certain mysteries of the
transmission of the kaumra-sana that were known only to a few brhmaa-s. They then
exchanged chomma-s of the sun and the demilune and went their ways.


It was a Friday and the four sisters went to the museum near their house, which characteristic of
such establishments in bhrata, was open only for 4 hours from 11.00 AM to 3.00 PM. The sisters
visited the museum every month on the last Friday, never tiring of the many activities they had
there. Some days they sketched the fossils, skeletons, preserved and stuffed animals, plants, and
organs, as photography was strictly prohibited. Other days Lootika, and sometimes Vrishchika,
accessed the paleontological, microbiological and zoological journals in the museums library.
Outside the museum was a garden with a few benches. Lootika used to collect pulmonate snails
that were found in a perpetually wet part of the garden as part of their snail project. Somakhya
had narrated to Lootika the tale of William Benson. After the last of the marh resistance had
been pulverized by the English, they sent Mr. Benson as an administrator to lord over the newly
conquered possessions. Benson trained a band of grkh-s to help in collecting molluscs and had
generated the first comprehensive survey of the land snails of bhratavara. Somakhya pointed
out that the Hindus had failed to do something like that in their own land, following on the
footsteps of their own naturalists like the great tharvaa ldyyana, lay at the root of their
demise at the hands of the mleccha-s. There was much biology left to be discovered despite the
Zoological Survey of India re-doing much of what Benson and his English successors had done.
Somakhya, even before reaching the age of 10, had already made some progress in his studies on
the biology of Cecilioides bensoni with his parents help. When he made acquaintance with Lootika,
he realized he could take advantage of her virtuoso molecular biology and biochemistry skills to
take it to the next level. Thus emerged their snail project, but it never got to where they wanted it
to go. Finally, that summer they found a sufficiently long stretch of free time to take it up. They
had planned to study the most remarkable snail Indrella ampulla. Since Lootikas hands were
already tied with her fungal explorations, she had deputed Vrishchika to take the lead in helping
Somakhya with the snail project. In the museum they checked out the Mesozoic fossils of land
snails to test the hypothesis Somakhya had developed that a large group of snails in Western
Indian descended from a single Mesozoic snail related to Corilla. Jhilleeka was also getting
interested in the snail project as she had written a program to model the morphogenesis of
unusual shells like Tortulosa and Ophisthostoma. As a result she discovered a relationship between
the scale factor and the shape of the helical spiral, and was consequently able to combine them
into a single equation. She was gathering material in the museum library to write a paper on this
with Lootika and Somakhya.

Snails studied by Somakhya and the caturbhagin

Vrishchika had gone out to the wet garden patch to collect some snails. As Vrishchika went out,
she saw her senior Vidrum sitting on one of the benches beside Maurvi in the museum garden and
chatting. Some time later, Jhilleeka who was writing the draft of her paper in the library got stuck
and decided to wander outside to open up her mind. So she headed to the garden to join
Vrishchika. Just then she saw a slick looking guy sidle up towards the benches. He held a couple of
bottles his hand and was headed towards Vidrum and Maurvi, when he intersected Jhilleeka on
her way to the garden. He raised his clenched fist and struck out at her, but Jhilleeka being small
evaded his blow by ducking swiftly. All four sisters were natural siddh-s of five mantra-s, one of
which was that of terrible bear-yogin kakar, and the four others they shared with the long
gone Khmer king and his purohita. Realizing the guys hostile intention, Jhilleeka instantaneously
brought to mind the kakar manu as a whole with the abhicrika sakalpa. The attacker saw a
great black bear rush at him and in great fear ran away at top speed dropping the two bottles. The
manu was not to be used casually, and if one of the sisters deployed it the others knew of its
deployment nearly instantaneously. So they all sought each other and were soon in a huddle
outside the museum. Jhilleeka narrated to the rest what had happened. Varoli in the mean time
placed a marble pebble on the contents of one of the bottles that she had carefully tipped over. It
fizzed vigorously. What could the bottles of acid mean? Lootika quickly understood what was
happening and realized that it was probably an agent sent by Meghana to throw acid on Maurvi
and/or Vidrum. She went up to them and informed them of the potential danger. They quickly got
up and ran away. Lootika then herded her sisters and they all biked back home.

10


Lootika woke up early that amvsya and performed some purificatory rituals. She then invoked
the deva bhaspati and concluded his ritual by placing an oblation of ghee in the center of the
ritual fire. She then hopped on to her bike and headed to her former teacher Shilpikas house.
There Shilpika was also thinking of this matter and said to her husband: Somakhya asks me to
evaluate this girl Lootika for a powerful and secret mantra. Young men are often caught by the
charms of women and are over-eager to share such things that should not be shared. After all the
great raikva of the mahva-s parted with the secret vidy of the great deva vyu swindled by the
face of jnarutis daughter.
Shilpikas husband: After all the kaliga conferred to you that mantra, which even your father
the tharvaa did not know. So may be she is genuine but we must rigorously check her.
Shilpika:Could you please join me in testing her; I do not want to give this mantra for the
undeserving.
Soon Lootika reached their place. After some exchange of pleasantries Shilpikas husband spoke to
her: Should we not suspect your mantra credentials. After all it seems you have learned much of
your stuff from that young brhmaa Somakhya. But he is certainly of suspect standing himself.
Shilpika and I have seen him singing a Vedic song while lying down in the pitvana. Which
respectable brhmaa would do that?
Lootika: I have learned much from my parents when young but indeed most rahasya-s I have
learned from Somakhya. Sir, why would you call him suspect? In fact only one versed in the high
rahasya-s would known what Vedic practice he might be carrying out in the cremation ground.
Shilpikas husband: Whoever does a Vedic practice in the cremation ground?
Lootika: Why sir? That is the practice of the mysterious videha-sman by which the ancient
bhrgava-s achieved parakya-pravea and the one which was practiced in the pitvana by the
great ritualist prtda bhlla in the realm of the kuru and the pacla.
Shilpikas husband: Alright. But you are yourself rather impure to receive high mantra-s
Lootika: Sir, why is that so?
Shilpikas husband: My dear wife tells me that in the saskta class you used sit drawing kapla-s
of various animals. Rather than using the term bhagala you would say kapla. We also know from
our friends that you spend you time with kykuja-s, kaka-s, and even worse gulapada-s and
jalauka-s. You grow such impure animals and fungi in your house. How could a pure brhmaa girl
do such things?
Lootika: I am the daughter of an agira and my ancestor the great vmadeva had said in the
chant that is deployed in manifold ways in the ritual action known as the drohaam or the great
11

ascent of the yajamna. It is by that action the somayjin attains perfection; it is by that action the
temples of Hindus attain completion:
hasa uciad vasur antarikasad dhot vediad atithir duroasat |
nad varasad tasad vyomasad abj goj taj adrij tam | indro vivasya rjato3m ||
The goose seated in rays, the vasu seated in the sky;
the hot seated at the altar, the guest seated in the house;
seated in men, seated in the wide earth,
seated in the natural law, seated in space;
born from water, born from cows,
born from the natural law, born from rocks,
such is the great natural law.
That is indra the ruler of the universe OM!
Now, what indeed is ajb?
The great god bhagavn kumra, whose mantra I seek, taught the agiras known as nrada thus:
pa evem mrt yeya pthiv yad antarika yad dyaur yat parvat yad deva manuy yat
paava ca vaysi ca ta-vanaspataya vpadny ka-pataga-piplakam |
pa evem mrt | apa upsva |
All these are particular forms of water: earth, atmosphere, sky, rocks, deva-s, humans, mammals,
birds, herbs, trees, and all animals down to the worms, moths and ants. They are all particular
forms of water. So worship water.
Thus, one knows the supreme ta only if one completely understands the abj and those I study
are indeed in the domain of water and the domains of all the other fundamentals elucidated by the
great bhagavn skanda in his great teaching.
Shilpikas husband: Young lady, you are firm in your siddhnta, fit to receive the mantra. But now
we shall see what your practical abilities are.
He continued: Three blocks from our home is a house which a gentleman has bought and is trying
to occupy. However, he is unable to do so because of a valaga which has been placed in it.
Whenever the gentleman enters the house his fresh clothes are dumped in the latrine the next
morning. Would you be able to locate the valaga and figure out the prayoga by which it has been
activated? We know this is something very dangerous for a young lady; we will come along with
you if you wish to look at the house.
Lootika: Let us go and check out the house. But keep a fistful of barley grains ready for me.
They soon stood before the house. Lootika adjusted her spectacles and took a careful look at it and
12

went around a few times looking at it, peering through all the windows and taking some notes of
the dimensions on her tablet. Then she told Shilpika and her husband that she was ready to return
and solve the matter. They returned home and Shilpika handed over the fistful of barley to Lootika
along with a bronze plate. Shilpika and her husband watched wide-eyed what Lootika did next. She
performed an camana and sprinkled water on herself after touching various parts of her body.
She then threw a few grains in certain directions muttering certain incantations. Thereafter, she
heaped the barley on the plate and muttered the incantation known as aindrvaiav. Then she
spread those grains into the outline of the targeted house and sat in meditation of a secret vetlabhairava mantra for some time. She seemed to be in a trance for a while, as though she was the
daughter of patajala kpya possessed by kabandha tharvaa. Thereafter, she dropped a barley
seed in one of the outlines of the rooms and pointing to it said: In that room, in that position lies
the valaga. It was installed by a prayoga known as the turukarja-bhairava. That suggests that
the abhicrin is perhaps one who has or whose ancestors had contracted the vile memetic disease
known as marnmda. If you wish, I could come back tomorrow and break the valaga, once I have
suitably protected myself with appropriate prayoga-s.
Shilpikas and her husbands jaws almost dropped. They could hardly believe what they were
seeing. After some time Shilpika spoke: You are entirely fit for the akar vidy and more. I
suggest that you get it from Somakhya directly because he knows its siddhnta more perfectly and
when mantra-s are transmitted it is best the siddhnta-s are suitably transmitted too. I will convey
this to him. As for the valaga we do not want you to incur harm in anyway; so do not worry about
extracting it. After all it is not your business nor were you called to intercede.

13


Lootika had phoned Somakhya to set up the appropriate aaka day for him to give her the due
dka in the mantra. While her mother had sent her on an errand to by a few spices, she ran into
Maurvi and Vidrum eating greasy samos-s by the grocers shop. They offered to get her a samos,
perhaps as a gesture in return for her sister blocking the intended attack on them. Lootika refused
saying that she was observing a vrata and was avoiding abhojya and abhakya food. Then Maurvi
asked: Hey spider-girl, do you know of someone called kui Shareef? Meghana threatened that
she would take his help to punish us.
Lootika: His name sounds like a South Indian marnmatta but I have never heard of one such.
Maurvi: Anyhow, I have found out a peddler who sells some great fabrics, garments and footwear
for really inexpensive prices. Would you like to accompany me later today to check them out?
Lootika: That sounds great. I will certainly come along. Then remembering that she had
promised to help her mother with cooking that day she hurried back with the spices.
Normally, Lootikas mother never let her daughters to step into the kitchen. This was despite
having long watched the skills of at least the older three at their home lab with even a sense of
some pride at her childrens experimental abilities. However, when it came to the kitchen she
feared that they might contaminate the food with their contact with all manner of biological
samples. She also hated Lootikas approach to cooking which involved using pipettes, burettes,
centrifuges and measuring cylinders. She always chided Lootika saying that such precise
measurements were not the real secret of good cooking; rather it needed a natural feel even as
Lootika had in molecular biology. Her mother remarked: When you do your cloning or protein
purification how often do you go strictly by the published protocol? Do you not do things based on
the intuition you have? Then why do you want to have so many measurements for something so
much less precise. Lootika had been pestering her to try out a new recipe she had divined for a
turkey-berry curry. So finally her mother had acceded. As they were in the kitchen mother and
daughter were chatting about various things, when Lootika told her about the prognosis of the
ascetic who passed by their house. Her mother looked into her eyes and said: Really dear Lootika?
I did not hear the guy that day but few days ago I heard him say something which I decoded as:
tava snu dahiyati. I panicked at first. But since I really have no son I felt it was for someone
else. When the cooking was over Lootika refrigerated some of her curry to take to Somakhya.
After lunch she heard Maurvi call from outside: Hey cobweb-girl! come! lets be going! Lootika
jumped onto her family scooter and left with Maurvi.
Soon they were at the prominent road in the city whose footpaths were lined with an array of
carts and mobile stalls of peddlers twice every month. After parking their vehicles in ground
14

beside the road they walked up to one of the footpaths and Maurvi craned her neck to locate the
peddler she wanted. However, he did not fall in her sight. Just then another peddler boy accosted
them and asked them check out the wares he had in his stall. Lootika noted from his accent, which
blended the a-s into e-s, that he came from elsewhere in bhrata, perhaps the cerapada. He asked
them to follow him. Maurvi was irresistibly drawn to follow him. Lootika too felt some unusual
force drawing her to go with him almost as if she was being hypnotized. One part of her brain
said to he that it was not right. She put her hand on Maurvis shoulder and said: do you really
want to go with him? Maurvi: Why? I see he has great stuff. Lets go check them out. Lootika
now looked at the peddler-boy closely and found nothing particularly untoward. Moreover, there
was throng of people milling around the various peddlers. But when she looked at him she again
felt as though being pulled to follow him. Then again, something within was telling her that it was
not right. She dropped her hand into the pocket of her lower garment and felt the knife she
carried in it. The touch of the handle made her feel more reassured and she went with Maurvi to
the peddlers stall. There Maurvi bought her self some garments and a cast iron kaaha. Lootika
did not find any of the garments appealing to her despite the peddler pushing hard to sell one to
her. He then showed her a pair of slippers that caught her fancy right away and she purchased it.
He next offered her a jacket. She realized it was more suitable for males, but liked it, and decided
to buy it for Somakhya. Maurvi wanted to browse more of the peddlers but Lootika wanted to meet
Somakhya so she left Maurvi to herself and returned.

15


Lootika met Somakhya at his home lab in the garage. She offered him the dish she had cooked
earlier in the day and also the jacket. Somakhya felt rather coy seeing her offer these to him and
wondered why she was being so effusive in her expression that day. Lootika quickly read
Somakhyas reaction and deflected the matter by claiming that her mother had asked her to take
some of the dish for him. She also added that as she was to receive the mantra from him, she
should at least offer him a token dakia the jacket was supposed to be that.
After handing the dish over to his mother, he joined Lootika to drive out to a large false rudrka
(Guazuma ulmifolia) tree at a secluded spot in their university campus. Beneath it after placing
darbha-mui on Lootikas head Somakhya imparted the akar-vidy whose i is the great
tharvaa, itao bhrgava. He first told her the coded form of the mantra and then unpacked it
for her. Thereafter, he told Lootika the lineage of the great mantra starting from the amaraugha
down to the mnavaugha [Appendix 1]. He then said that he who knows this mantra knows the
kaumra-sana in the form known as the amaraugha-sana. Next, he then told her the
puracaraa that had to be done, demonstrated the homavidhi, and provided other secret
instructions pertaining to the mantra. He also told her not to give the manu to anyone, who had
not attained the appropriate understanding of the mantra-stra, lest the wrath of amukha fall
upon them. By then it was the evening hour and they returned to Somakhyas house. Somakhya
told her that a comet was visible in the constellation of Perseus. Hence, they went to the terrace of
his house and set up the telescope to catch sight of it. Soon after seeing it, Lootika realized it was
getting late and took leave to return home. As Somakhya continued watching the sky, he felt an
unseasonal cool breeze blow. He hence donned the new jacket Lootika had given him and
continued his observations.
On her way back home Lootika was riding past the water-works department building when her
scooter suddenly seemed to splutter and run out power, finally coming to a halt just beside the
garden-hedge that ran around it. She was startled she had gone that way countless times in her
life and never given a second thought. Now, just where her sisters had mentioned something
strange happening to them she was also struck on a dark night all by herself. Just then she saw the
street lamps mysteriously go off and in the darkness she felt as though blinded for a moment.
From the other side of the garden-hedge she heard a low moan of a wounded man. The she heard a
voice repeated yell: If I get out of here I will kill you. Then the voice rang out loudly: But for
today this girl will be my victim. Lootika initially felt paralyzed with fright. But then her
adrenalin kicked in even as the voice kept repeating those words. She wondered if it might be a
16

brahma-rkasa or a bhta of some kind and mentally deployed the kakla bhairava manu. The
voice went utterly silent. Sensing victory, she started pushing the scooter with all her strength
and tried to get home as fast as possible. She might have pushed it a few yards when a man sped
past her on his motorcycle and threw the b he was smoking towards her feet. The new slippers
she was wearing, instantaneously and explosively ignited into a fire ball. Lootika was badly burnt,
and in the intense pain felt everything turn black before her. But before passing out she managed
to place a call to her father: Dying near the water-works dep.

17


Lootika felt the haze clearing a bit before her eyes. She felt reassured as her eyes fell upon her
mother and she felt her father touching her forehead. She saw her sisters with anxious faces
peering at her. She soon realized that her father had taken charge of issue to ensure that she was
getting the best possible treatment. Her mother felt particularly relieved for apparently in the
haze of the pain shortly after the event Lootika had told her that it was good she had many kids,
for even if she died the rest will be there for her. Just then an intern darted into the room and
called her father away. He went out into the hallway and began speaking with the intern and
another physician. Her mother told her sisters to keep a watch of Lootika and said that she would
go home to get some food since they had not eaten anything since the previous evening. As their
mother went out, Vrishchika accompanied her to ask her father something. He told them
something, and her mother asked Vrishchika not to tell Lootika about what her father had just
told them. But it seemed Lootika overheard them; so, when Vrishchika came back to her bedside
she asked: What did our father tell you? Vrishchika making sure that her parents had left said:
Bad news. That girl, Maurvi, with whom you went out yesterday, has just passed away from burns
she sustained this morning. Our father was called by the other specialist to look into the matter.
Jhilleeka: That is such a terrible coincidence. So glad that you made it alive! Vrishchika: That
does not seem like coincidence: Lootika do you suspect bahnmati? Lootika in a weak voice:
Vrishchika you are brilliant! That is what it is. This was indeed the sagrma the ascetic was
talking about. I am sure our mother heard it wrong; it was supposed to be sn not snu. Varoli:
We could test the hypothesis if we could get hold of a bit of your slippers. Lootika was feeling the
sedative pull her back into somnolence. She muttered: Check if Somakhya is still alive. If yes,
please tell him about it right away. She mumbled some more words that they could not catch
and closed her eyes.
~oOo~
The next day Vidrum arrived at Somakhyas house. Somakhya had never seen him so crestfallen
his eyes were bloodshot, his face haggard and his vesture in disarray. Somakhya: Why Vidrum?
You look as though struck by the mudgara of kumbhakara. Vidrum: Maurvi died of burns
yesterday. Life has never been this bad. By some strange coincidence I hear your friend Lootika
has also suffered from burns and is in the hospital now. At least she is alive. Somehow the gods
always seem kinder to you. Despite the latter claim of Vidrum, his words agitated Somakhya. But
he kept a calm face and expressed his condolences to Vidrum but he had to leave Vidrum to his
grief because he had to known more of what had happened to Lootika. Finally he said: Vidrum,
now that you tell me about this incident with Lootika, I better get in touch her. I hope the deva-s
18

are kind to you. He decided to contact Lootikas family right away and seek their permission to
see her. Just then it struck Somakhya that he was not feeling too well he sensed a vague fever
overcoming him. He thought it was psychological and disregarding it he made contact with
Lootikas mother and sought her permission to see her daughter in the hospital. It was decided
that he would accompany Vrishchika and Varoli the next day to see Lootika.
Somakhya arrived at Lootikas home. Vrishchika: Hey where were you? I was trying to call you
yesterday and day before.
Somakhya: I never knew this had happened. Was away at the abandoned quarry with Vidrum the
day before. He was climbing rocks and I was collecting stones
Vrishchika interjected: Glad to see you are alive. Lootika has been asking repeatedly if you are
alive. Let me go get Varoli and we will leave.
Somakhya: Vrishchika, I need to tell you something. I am actually not feeling too well some
fever and some tight sensation below my throat. Hence, I wonder if I have caught something and if
I should be seeing Lootika at this juncture with a possible infection.
Vrishchika backed away from him and yelled: What! That is bad. We must get you tested for
anthrax right away! Let me call my father! What did you do with the jacket Lootika gave you?
Somakhya was utterly confused by the outburst: What are you saying!
Vrishchika: You have know idea about this. We know this is a case of bahnmati and we should
test you right away. I will call my father to have you checked right away it could be a matter of
life and death. There is not much hope with pulmonary anthrax unless we start now. I will take
care of informing your parents and dealing with that jacket.
~oOo~
Somakhya could not still believe that he had tested positive for anthrax. He was speaking to
Lootika on his computer and they rued the side effects of antibiotic therapy. But they repeatedly
congratulated themselves for being alive. After all, even this would pass, they said to each other.
Lootika longed for revenge. Her father had been trying legal means to track down and punish the
attackers but to no avail. Somakhya told her: They are merely the agents. The stradhra will
have his day of reckoning in the future.

19


Vrishchika had finally completed her medical fellowship and was taking a couple of weeks off
before her marriage. During that time she decided to hang out at Somakhya and Lootikas house
and wanted to complete an unfinished paper on patients with mutations in the gene HMGBX3. The
three of them were seated after dinner in their home lab when Vrishchika asked: Where is that
robot which you mentioned, which Jhilleeka made? Lootika pointed to it and said: It is a pretty
sophisticated one: give it your tablet and it will read the news out for you. Vrishchika handed the
table over to the robot and it started reading out the headlines. Finally, it read out: Police nab
killers of Dr. Dvijendra Assolkar.
Somakhya: Ah that sounds interesting. Was he not the rationalist who sought to expunge the
santana dharma from the Indian consciousness?
Lootika: Yes indeed! the founder of the deva-unmlana-samiti
Vrishchika: Do you remember that incident with our father?
Lootika: Of course. In a sense as the old Hindus would believe perhaps his karma came to visit him
after all!
Somakhya: What was that?
Vrishchika: When we were kids, this man, Dr. Assolkar, came home one day. He told our father
that he was running a free medical camp for poor villagers. When our father asked details he said
it was being funded by the NGO known as the Unity Foundation run by the mleccha Randall
Nesbitt. Our father realized that this was the front-end of the Church of Chicago. So he asked Dr.
Assolkar how come with all his drive for deva-unmlana the church was alright for him. Dr.
Assolkar said there was nothing wrong for the foundation was doing a great job of funding health
and education. Who cared if they had broken shrines and tried to prevent Hindu religious
activities. After all that would make things easier for the deva-unmlana-samiti. That was what
inspired our father to counter attack by providing free medical services to repulse the pretendra
dua-s from those villages.
Somakhya: Very interesting! The line between the Dr. Assolkars and the Dr. Abu Bakrs can
sometimes be a thin one.
Lootika: And then there was that incident, I believe, at the time of Jhilleekas birth. The Assolkars
had come to visit our family among other guests. They had suggested that to maintain the spirit of
secularism we choose a good Arabic name for little Jhilli! It was followed by a little rant against
theophorous names though we never kept such.
Somakhya: Yes, I was aware he was good secular. Had he not ranted against the scientists who
offered a coconut for rya atop a hillock in cerapada after the successful testing of the mtyu
missile? Then Somakhya bade the robot to read that article further.
The robot read on in its artificial voice: Dr. Dvijendra Assolkar, a noted activist for social justice
20

and eradication of superstitions, was assassinated two years ago during a demonstration intended
to show that bahnmati was mere superstition. Initially, it was suspected to be the handiwork of
the followers of r r r kha da bbj, who was reputed to have performed many miracles
according to his devotees. He had been debunked and exposed as a fraud by Dr. Assolkar. However,
the police found no involvement of the organization of the godman despite a thorough
investigation. In course of another investigation concerning the mysterious death of a city doctors
female sexual partner they chanced upon two suspects Kochchuni and Kutti Shareef in whose lair
they found evidence for a fire-blanket similar to that used in the killing of Dr. Assolkar. They are
believed to have confessed their crimes during the interrogation by the police.
Somakhya stopped the robot from reading further and smiling at Lootika remarked: Well, there is
always some doubt regarding whether the daaka-s have got it right but, I guess irrespective of
that, they have given us the needed revenge.
Vrishchika: Oh these were the guys behind the dreadful bahnmati episode? It still zaps me in
my dreams.
Somakhya: I realized that Shareef was striking at you all for twice thwarting their plans, and I
was caught in the crossfire. But, Vrishchika, in the haze of all that we never fully learned how you
and Varoli got to the bottom of it. The nitrocellulose does not surprise me one bit, though I would
never trivialize Varolis confirmatory analysis with a small amount of material. Most importantly
how did you figure out my anthrax? That seemed like a long shot of Qasars son!
Vrishchika: It is a strange story. Lootika had procured a book by the title turukarja-bhairavea
prokta bahnmati-sarvasva. The day she went to obtain those fateful objects and meet you for
that secret mantra, which I would like to obtain too, I was reading that book. It had a variety of
interesting chemical preparations that seemed to fascinate Varoli. But an appendix by the editor,
who interestingly went by the name Kochchuni, caught my eye. It spoke of peculiar preparations,
which had been made by a bahnmati expert in the Panjab for the Mogol tyrant Awrangzeb. One
of those was made from dead cattle. Intending to annex the Hindu kingdom of Marwar, around
1677-78 CE Awrangzeb deployed these weapons to destroy the rulers of Marwar. At first he
commanded Jasvant Singh Rathod to accompany the Mogol army to fight the Pathans in
Afghanistan. There, he bumped him off with one of those bahnmati poisons. Then he invited his
son Prithivi Singh Rathod to come to his darbr in Delhi. During the meeting with Prithivi Singh,
Awrangzeb seized his hands and said he would kill him if he did not convert to marnmda. But
Prithivi Singh flung Awrangzebs hands away and said the Rathods were willing to fight to death
but will not accept the Arabs disease. Awrangzeb decided to give him another disease instead. He
suddenly changed his line and said that Prithivi Singh was his valued friend and asked him to take
a seat in the royal pavilion. Then he had delivered to Prithivi Singh an ornate Khilat robe, which
he insisted he wear right away and sit for some time while he was served Sherbet and sweets.
Prithivi Singh is said to have died 10 days later with difficulty breathing and black lesions on his
21

skin. So, that might be one of the earliest attacks with anthrax, though most attribute it to the
German Karl von Rosen in the Finnish war against the Rus during the World War I. While others
have thought it was small pox or plague, the symptoms of Prithivi Singh, particularly the
blackening of his skin suggest anthrax. How they managed to do it without killing themselves is
still not clear to me.
Somakhya: Indeed, the issues regarding playing with anthrax make it a difficult prospect for use
in the Mogol era. Whatever the case, the Prithivi Singh incident might have inspired a modern
marnmatta-s with access to the Mohammedan bioterrorists from the terrorist state to the north
to make it a good bahnmati agent.
Lootika: As Maurvi and I had been hit by the fire trick, and you were still alive but showing
symptoms, I guess I was not that hard for Vrishchika to take a shot. After all urgency was a key in
not going the way of the lamented Prithivi Singh.
Somakhya: Vrishchika, now for that mantra you will get it from Indrasena after your marriage
I have already imparted it to him. But remember kumra is a roguish deva and his mantra-s do not
necessarily come easy as Lootika would probably agree. And Lootika this morning when I made the
oblation with:
idam aham dvianta bhrtvya bhrtvyambhyo digbhyosyai divosmd antarikd asyai
pthivy asmdan ndyn nirbhajmi nirbhakta sa ya dvima | you asked why I did not use a
specific bhrtvyas name. Sometimes it is good to be inclusive for you never know which
bhrtvya might strike from where. You wanted instant revenge after the attack. That is like
antibiotic therapy. But sometimes it is good to let the Bifidobacterium kill the Clostridium
They all smiled at each other. Vrishchika: But what about that agent in the water-works
department?
Lootika chuckled and said: Well, the unmlana-vdin would have clapped us as unmadita-s into a
mental hospital for that! So in his memory and in the interest of pleasant dreams tonight lets
keep it for another day!
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Appendix 1: The secret teaching of the mantra goes thus: nlakaha : lakm : ikhain : khaa :
amaru : vk : hari : nalakbara : puligam | The mantra was first seen by the divine eagle garua
when skanda was installed as the commander of the deva-sen. He transmitted it to vrabhadra, he
then transmitted it to vrabhu. This is the amaraugha. Among the i-s it was first seen by aitao
bhrgava that great tharvaa. From him it was eventually transmitted to his descendant
vjaratna. From him it was transmitted to somauman vjaratnyana who was the prefect at the
avamedha of the bhrata emperor atnka strjita. This the vipraugha. Eventually, it was
transmitted to the yugantha ahantha and his dt vikha-magal. From them to
22

mayrantha and his dt nakatra-mekhal. From them to manvaravantha and his dt

sarvamagal.

23

The caves


The exam to qualify for pre-university college was just over and a long vacation lay ahead. Vidrum
was drained by the huge mental effort he had put into the exams to earn a seat at a respectable
college. It was the year Meghana had died. The tense competition, which characterized these
exams, had kept Vidrum's thoughts away from that event. Now that the exams were over, he
wanted a clean break from all academic issues but two days into his vacation he felt his social life
to be rather empty without his female companion. Sorely afflicted by this vacuum he paid a visit to
his friend Somakhya. For a few minutes Somakhya patiently heard out Vidrum's woes. Somakhya
then said: As the Tathgata had said in the past, life is full of sorrow. What might bring pleasure
or sorrow are almost as if two sides of the same coin be it that which comes from women, oadhis or food. We have little control over what might come our way and how long they may stay with
us. Indeed, all we can say is that the great Indra keeps all good things apart from each other. I
sometimes feel there is indeed something like a genius of locus. You can either counter it with
mantra-s or else you may try to throw off its grip by going elsewhere. May be you should go to
some place away from our city to do something interesting.
But Vidrum was worried about the next hurdle that lay on his educational track. He said:
Somakhya, I wish to enter a good university to study medicine, so would it not be prudent that I
enroll in preparatory classes over the long vacations. Somakhya: Well if that is what you want to
do, so be it. But there is ample time for such preparation, and any quest for knowledge merely for
an updi without a real interest in it will only result in you forgetting it pretty soon. So what is the
use starting right now it may not even stay in your mind till when college actually starts. So take
a break, reflect about life in silence, and you might re-discover your lost touch. It struck Vidrum
that after all Somakhya's suggestion might not be a bad one and he went away to stay with his
maternal grandparents for a month. He journeyed by train and bus to their village which lay
beyond the southern border of the province in which he stayed. He spent two to three days
chatting with his kinsfolk and wandering around the lanes of the village chatting with other locals
and drinking freshly tapped palm sap. His grandfather had told him of the existence of three huge
caves that lay just beyond a gentle slope of fields that stretched out to the south of the village. His
grandfather had warned him that the caves were a place of great danger and mystery and that it
was better not to stray into them.
That hot afternoon under the shade of a huge tamarind tree Vidrum sat sipping palm sap along
with a villager. The two soon got chatting. Vidrum asked him about the caves and the villager
narrated a peculiar tale:
Almost a millennium ago there lived a brave warlord by name the of r Bhetala Nayadu, who was
the master of all the villages in this region. He had built a shrine to the 1000-eyed vajra-wielding
goddess (KHAAL DEV), who was widely worshiped by these warrior nyaka-s, their men, and
the rakaka-s of the villages. At that time it is said that one of the caves was occupied by a
powerful ghost going by the name DAALMA. This ghost is said to have terrorized the sheep of
shepherds who grazed their flock near the caves. Many mantravdins are said to have tried to
capture Daalma but failed to do so. Hence, r Bhetala Nayadu, to pacify the ghost, instituted
an annual bali and installed a balipha for that purpose. In any case, I believe nobody grazes in the
cool shadow of the outcrops beside the caves since then.
Now, some years ago there was a phase of bad south-west monsoons [which Vidrum realized was
2

due to the El Nio oscillation] and that village which lies to the south, beyond the yonder caves,
having poorer irrigation than ours, found itself in dire straits. It had a strongman, Chevi Reddi,
who was then visited by a white man from America. Under his ministrations the strongman
converted to the avamata, who in turn ensured that many in the village became klitaavopsakas. He also seems to have given Chevi Reddi a new idea for livelihood quarrying the
rocky outcrops around the caves for limestone. After his conversion, now going by the name Chevi
Jefferson Reddi, the strongman demolished the temple of the 1000-eyed goddess and the balipha
of Daalma. We were enraged because we believed that the goddess had kept us safe from all
manner of calamities for a nearly a 1000 years. Moreover, if the wrath of the ghost Daalma was
unleashed then there was no telling as to what might happen. This resulted in an armed
confrontation between our village and that of CJR. But CJR's men were better armed and they
dynamited the pacyata hall of our village and that more or less forced us into submission.
However, praise be to the deva-s, as they came to our aid! One day we heard an enormous noise, as
though the mighty 1000-eyed goddess had hurled a great stone from the height of heaven. We
learned that that even as CJRs men were laying the fuse cord their explosive went off suddenly and
resulted in that thunderous clap that killed twenty of the quarrymen and busted two of their
trucks. A fortnight later, CJR and his American missionary backer were out examining the site of
the debacle, when a giant rock loosening itself from an elevation in the quarry came rolling down
smashing into them. Thus, CJR and the American were taken away for their appointment with the
stern-faced Citragupta and now indeed are doing time in raurava. Everyone in both this and that
village saw this as a divine sign and decided to stay away from the both the avamata and those
caves, where they feared Daalma was on the prowl.
Vidrum felt rather excited hearing this tale. He thought to himself: If men are scared away by the
good old ghost Daalma then the caves must really be safe for exploration, for after all man is
the most wicked and dangerous of all animals. So the next day he decided to explore the caves;
being a great rock climber he, feared not falling boulders and treacherous outcrops. However,
knowing that harm could always come ones way, he armed himself with a knife and a billhook, and
set out for the caves on his grandfather's bike after an early lunch. Having reached as far as he
could by bike, he stopped noting a rocky path ahead beset with talus from the erstwhile mining
operations of CJR, which the villager had talked about. He tethered his bike to a neem tree, locked
it, and proceeded to the climb up the slope leading to the cave mouths. He noticed three large cave
mouths, two situated at a higher elevation and one opening at a downward slope from the
eminence where he stood. The latter cave seemed better lit and spacious so Vidrum decided to
march into it. Before doing so he looked around surveying the lay of the land. The afternoon air
was utterly still and there was hardly any noise beyond the background buzz of various insects
broken by the occasional call of a bird. Indeed it looked as though Daalma had succeeded in
thoroughly eliminating any human presence from that place. Vidrum then surveyed the
overhangs for any dangerous looking rocks that might come crashing down and having
ascertained that the path to the cave he had chosen was safe he boldly strode in.
His initial impression was one of an anticlimax he saw a few low-rising stalagmites forming some
kind of obstacle to the inner chamber. He quickly got past them and saw a path that stank of bat
dung which formed a visible layer on all surfaces. But soon the the narrow path hit a raised altarlike surface, which it at its far end dipped into a dimly lit chamber that seemed to go on endlessly
into the utter blackness. He switched on the the torch he had got along and found that it shone as
3

if illuminating the never-ending maw of the great dragon Suras, with stalagmites and stalactites
sporadically lining the floor and roof, as though they were her teeth. This is exciting he
remarked to himself and with a perceptible quiver running through his body he pressed on. He got
on to the altar-like eminence and crossed it to reach the great chamber that seemed to go on and
on into a lightless realm. A few steps into the chamber he saw a white object jutting out from near
the foot of a stalagmite in the dim light. Shining his torch for a better look he found that it was a
strange jaw with several sharp curved teeth. Vidrum remarked to himself: This must be a
dinosaur's jaw. What a find! May be I could sell it and make some money. So used his billhook to
dig up and carefully extract the jaw. Having placed it in his backpack, he shone his torch again and
noticed that the sand around the jaw contained some minute white oddly shaped bone-like
particles. He scooped a few of those and placed them in a container in his bag.
Then Vidrum arose, and wondering whether to explore the chamber further or retrace his steps,
he shone his torch on a large stalagmitic eminence to the side of the chamber. So utterly
unexpected a sight gleamed in the circle of light that for moment he was convinced that it was an
apparition. But after standing rooted and gazing at it for few seconds he realized that it was
indeed the real thing a human skeleton with its neck arched backwards lay propped up against
the stalagmitic eminence as though it was frozen in the position assumed at death. Suddenly, the
sense of being close to Vaivasvata seized him: a vague sense of dread of being led to the desk of
Citragupta at the end of the great tunnel came upon Vidrum. Just then, an old family tale suddenly
flashed in his mind further amplifying this feeling into positive fear. But Vidrum was not one who
lost his presence of mind easily; briefly regaining his composure he took a couple of photos of the
spectacle that confronted him and then hurriedly retraced his steps and returned to his bike to
ride back home.

Despite the unforeseen encounter in the cave, on the whole Vidrum felt enlivened by his break
and returned to his city carrying his specimens from the cave thinking them to be precious
dinosaur bones. He checked the local news and saw that fair on the grounds of the CAIK
temple had started the previous day. He decided to visit the fair that evening, hoping that he
might be able to buy something interesting. As he wandered around he saw the stall, which had
been introduced to him by Sharvamanyu that had clandestinely sold knives in the previous years.
He inquired if they might have gravity knives and soon found himself buying a wonderful 9-incher
with a good solid wood-fronted handle. Vidrum was beside himself with joy over his purchase but
knew that he should not handle it in the open as it was a potentially illegal object in public places;
so he carefully slipped it into his bag and wandered a little more among the stalls. Then a curious
stall caught his eye, which was manned by an Iranian Asura-worshiper, and sold magic tricks. Just
outside the shop he saw a couple of activists from the deva-unmlana-samiti staging a protest and
distributing pamphlets. Vidrum collected a pamphlet from the enthusiastic female activist and
proceeded right to the stall. There a curious planchette with pictures of Iranian deities and
demons caught his eye and he purchased the same. As he headed out, the activists angrily asked if
he had not read their pamphlet. Vidrum merely smiled at them and went his way. Later that
evening he called Somakhya and said: I am finally back and have a lot of interesting things to talk
about things that will make your eyes pop out.
Somakhya: Sounds like your trip has done you good.
4

V: By the way, you are the only one who might not consider me crazy: I have bought this really
nice-looking Iranian planchette and we should try it out as soon as possible.
S: Why not tomorrow evening; may be should do so in the courtyard of the Sarasvat temple in
the cemetery.
V: May be you should call pretty Lootika too. She may also be interested in seeing what I have
got.
S: She has also just returned from her vacation travel and has been wanting to talk to me. So let's
all try to meet tomorrow evening.

Early that evening Lootika and her sister Vrishchika came to Somakhya's house racing on their
bikes. Lootika was holding her spectacles in one had and holding something tight in the other with
tears streaming down one of her eyes. Panting, she handed what was in her closed fist to
Somakhya and said: O vipra what is this insect? It almost blinded me by getting between my
spectacles and eye. Somakhya took a close look and remarked: O jlayuvat, hope your eye is
alright? This beast is a fly, a species of Dacus. Vrishchika peering closely at it remarked: How
remarkable! It so closely resembles a wasp: much like a follower of the pretonmda might try to
wear the appearances of a devayjin! Lootika smiled at her sister and said: Indeed, although in
this case the insect has evolved to appear more threatening than it really is. It looks like the wasp
Ropalidia which can give a nasty sting. The modern avamata in contrast tries to conceal its real
evil by camouflage.
Vrischika: Ah! that is an interesting inversion! Do you know of a biological analog of the modern
avamata?
Somakhya: The blue butterfly Maculinea is a particularly interesting example! It lays its eggs on
certain plants, and the caterpillars feed on it for three instars. After molting into the fourth instar
it drops down and ant species of the Myrmica genus might encounter it. The ants then take the
caterpillars into their nest as they smell just like the ant larvae. Once inside they may feed on the
ant's own larvae. Or they may make sounds similar to that of the ant queen and the workers would
come up to them and feed them. Thus, they might live for an year or two inside the ant nest,
growing almost double in size and finally pupate. The pupa too makes sounds like the queen and
might have their smell; so the ants leave it alone, only to for it to finally eclose and fly away as a
butterfly.
Lootika: Those butterflies are fascinating: a true genetic analog of the pretamata! Then there are
also the Microdon flies which use a similar strategy to invade Formica ant nests and feed of them.
However, they seem to spread very little and are rather localized...
Somakhya: Indeed, because they have high specificity for the species and even local family groups
which they can invade; thus unlike the butterfly they do not spread widely: the later is thus closer
to the invasive success of the avamata.
Lootika: Perhaps, the butterfly evolved out of a similar strategy as the coming of the avamata to
our parts of the world. Maculinea belongs to a larger family of butterflies known as the Lycaenids.
Many of these form mutualistic associations, with the caterpillars providing nutrition to the ants
and the ants in return providing protection. From this ancestral condition some butterflies
evolved to become invasive parasites of the ants.
Vrishchika: That makes a good analog to the pretamata. After all it came to Bhrata with mleccha
traders who would engage in a mutualistic relationship with the local trading communities. They
5

might offer protection to these local traders with their gunships and artillery against the earlier
predator, the rkasamata. From such a base position we now see them morphed into the deadly
parasites that they are.
Somakhya: So what about your family vacation? You said you had some interesting things to say.
Lootika: Not bad at all. We successfully performed the astra-vrata by climbing the Trila-parvata
with a 10 kg trident with all our names inscribed on it and planted it atop the massif. Hope The
god does not shoot his darts at us.
Vrishchika: We then did a little trekking around the mountain of the Five Caves. There Jhilleeka
found this peculiar microlith. Pulling out her phone Vrishchika showed an image of it to
Somakhya.
Lootika: Varoli, who was with her when she found it, quickly recognized it to be made from
porcelain, perhaps like what they use for power lines. We were mystified who ever made this
microlith from an insulator: a rather incongruous combination of stone age and electrical age
technology!
Somakhya: Well, that is interesting. However, in the region of the Five Caves there were nida-s
who had apparently not gone past the stone age until recently. Hence, when they would have
encountered such insulators from the power lines from near the railway tracks they might have
simply seen it as excellent raw material for their microlithic technology.

Even as they were chatting thus, Vidrum arrived and he had a load of things to show and tell. After
quickly summarizing his visit he excitedly got into his dinosaur jaw and with much drama he
pulled out the mandible from the bag in which he had placed it. But to his annoyance, his precious
jaw was met with much laughter from Somakhya and Lootika. Making his irritation apparent
Vidrum asked: Why the hell should that be so funny to you guys! Somakhya and Lootika smiling
at each said: That jaw which you have is indeed beautiful and even perhaps significant but it is
not a dinosaur. Rather, it is that of a decent-sized varanid lizard a godha like the one the
Tathgata claimed to have incarnated as. Vidrum felt a deep disappointment and dejectedly
asked it they really meant it. They informed him that they were well-conversant with
archosaurian anatomy and explained how it simply could not be one and was doubtless from a
long dead lizard. However, they consoled him: If you let us study this more closely we might have
a much needed record of a fossil varanid from India. Vidrum then said that he had also found
some strange white, oddly shaped minute objects in the vicinity of the jaw and showed those to his
friends. Somakhya quickly recognized them to be the vermiform dermal bones of a varanid and
remarked: Those indeed confirm you animal to varanid!
By now Vidrum was feeling the whole cave adventure to be a bit deflating and without proceeding
further with his narration decided to show them his gravity knife. Somakhya and the girls tried it
out a few times even as Vidrum told them that it certainly did not feel Chinese. They agreed and
remarked that this was one example showcasing the ability of bhrata-s to make good stuff. Then
he pulled out his Parsi planchette and said they should get moving to ply it. Having examined it
closely and praised its workmanship, the four of them left for the environs of the Sarasvat temple.
As they were on the way to the temple Vidrum showed his friends the pamphlet he had been given
by the activist of the deva-unmlana-samiti. Some fine print on it caught Somakhya's eye: Hey!
6

Look down here it says: Brought to you by the James Lawrence Skeptic Foundation. I am sure these
activists are no volunteers but getting paid subversionists for this mleccha organization. Vidrum:
Ah! that explains how they could afford such good paper. Now look here is a QR code; let's check
it out. Vidrum showed the webpage he had pulled up to the three. There was a display with
images of GAEA and KUMRA with the legend: Do you really think it is biologically possible for
a man to get an elephant's head via plastic surgery or have six heads and twelve hands? We call
these things teratological monsters.
Lootika: It almost seems these skeptics are in league with the pretaghoaka-s, much like the
mleccha-marnmattbhisagati that our Hindus are generally ignorant about.
In the meantime they reached the premises of the temple. Having worshiped the deity enshrined
therein, and having smeared the tilaka on their foreheads, they set up the planchette. The
remaining three told Vidrum that since it was his board he should have the honor of being the
first to think of the dead individual whose bhta they were going to summon. Having uttered the
suitable incantations to summon the bhta, the four placed their fingers on the brass disc and let
it wander around among the letters. First, they asked it its name. The disc indicated the answer as
Kuryma. Then they asked how he had died? The answer came back as: kiyaga sulavyama.
Then Vidrum asked where he had lived when alive. The answer was: a da doka. Then
Vidrum put off by the apparently crazy answers tested it by asking the bhta to state what
Vidrum's favorite dish was. It replied kustubi cuu ceu. Exasperated by these
undecipherable words. Vidrum angrily asked if he might ever meet Meghana's bhta. The answer
came back as: 3mu. He hastily shouted: suprasanno bhava suprasanno bhava priya-prete
gaccha gaccha | A cool evening breeze wafted through and the four were quiet for a moment.
Vidrum finally broke the silence and with a tinge of indignation: I am sure you guys were pushing
the disc to make fun of me. What nonsensical stuff was that? Lootika: Hey, as you may have seen
I kept my eyes closed during the entire process to be objective about this whole thing.
Vidrum: So it was either of you: Somakhya or Vrishchika!
Somakhya: See, if I was pushing it I would have made it look like Subhas Chandra Bose-j's bhta.
I would have thought he was your hero and that you might want to hear from him.
Vidrum: You think you are being funny?
Somakhya: Serious. Or was it supposed to be Tatya Tope-j?
Vrishchika: Before you blame me, let me tell you this was a success. He was speaking in an extinct
language and that is why it sounded like gibberish to us. He might have been a prehistoric fellow.
Vidrum's face turned ghastly pale: Vrishchika, you know what, you are probably bang on target
even if that was meant as a joke!
Vrishchika: Now see, I could make out that the gibberish still sounded linguistically syntactical.
So should I conclude that it was you who was pushing the disc to make make up this prehistoric
language?
Vidrum: No no! You guys never let me complete the story of my adventure at the caves by poking
fun at me for my beautiful Varanus bones. If you had let me do so you will see how all this fits.
The three asked him to continue saying that they were most eager to listen to his tale. Vidrum
continued his narration by reiterating the tale of Daalma, and then showing them pictures he
had taken of the environs of the cave and the descent into the one he had chosen. Finally, Vidrum
capped his tale by dramatically revealing the picture of the human skeleton he had encountered.
Even as his friends were taking in the image, he slowly remarked: You see it? That was the person
7

whose bhta I thought of to be summoned here. His friends stared at it wide-eyed and then
magnified the picture to take a closer look. Vrishchika almost breathlessly yelled: See the
supraorbital torus that seems like a pretty archaic Homo. So he was a prehistoric fellow after
all... Lootika taking a hard look at the image remarked: But then look at the mandible it has a
prominent mental projection unlike any archaic Homo. Moreover the surface finish of the bone
looks sub-fossil rather than genuinely fossilized suggesting a more recent age for this skeleton.
Somakhya: That seems right. This fellow is likely to have been from very old times but he is not a
fossil man. He is probably anatomically modern Homo sapiens with some definitive archaic
admixture as they have observed in Africa and supposedly seen to a degree in early Australian
cranial specimens. Remember one of the few archaic crania we have from Bhrata shows that
supraorbital torus, which might have persisted upon admixture with anatomical modern H.sapiens
streaming in from Africa.
Vidrum then wondered what the cause of his death might have been. Somakhya looked closely at
the skeleton and then at some of the other pictures and turned to Lootika and asked: Imagine you
were a detective; what would you think to be the cause of death? Lootika and Vrishchika looked
at the skeleton again and again kept raking their heads. Finally, Lootika remarked: His death
seems to have occurred in situ and his corpse was not transported by the action of water or by a
cat, a bear or hyaenas.
Somakhya: That's right. But look more closely; what is so peculiar about the posture of death?
Lootika: He seems to have died with his neck arched backwards and that posture has been
captured by the support of the stalagmite against which he was leaning. Could that some kind of
neurological effect? The rest of his anatomy suggests a fairly robust adult man. Why would he
suddenly die like this?
Vrishchika pointing to a few peculiar protuberances on the hand and shoulder bones said: Do you
think that those strange outgrowths on the bone are exostoses? I remember our father describing
something like that to us sometime back.
Somakhya: Excellent, I think both of you have made great observations, now look at Vidrum's
other pictures and see if you could arrive at the cause?
Lootika stared at them for sometime and remarked that she was still not able to decipher the
cause. Somakhya with a grin pointed in the pictures to a plant, which was abundantly growing in
the environs of the caves.
Lootika: Its violet bilaterally symmetric flowers suggest a legume seems like a little chickpea to
me.
Somakhya: So what would that mean?
Lootika felt a sudden connection fire in her brain: Why? That must be the viacaaka. I recall
reading in the Bhmasena-vinoda: mhavia pittaghno vtavardhako ga-viktin pey
kepaka | So he somehow ended up consuming a lot of those viacaaka-s and dying from the
effects of its toxin.
Vrishchika: That sounds rather remarkable: what is the toxin in that innocuous-looking
chickpea?
Somakhya: The exostoses and the cervical and the indicate that one of the toxins of this legume is
3-Aminopropanenitrile. I am also aware that it contains -glutamyl- -cyanoalanine, which
contributes to part of the toxicity. I believe there are one or more toxic amino acids/dipeptides in
those beans, which together have contributed to the end of r Kuryma. Perhaps he was cut off
8

from his tribe for some reason and found shelter in that cave but failed to realized that the
chickpea-lookalikes he was eating would do him in!
Vidrum: That's really amazing. I must tell you a story that might corroborate your hypothesis!
The reason I left that cave was not the fear of the skeleton but the vague dread that came to me
from the recollection of that story.
Somakhya: Pray tell us more; we are all ears.
Vidrum: This is a family story I heard from my maternal grandfather. Long, long ago, when the
English tyrants lorded over our lands they caused and aggravated famines throughout the
countryside. My lineal ancestor and his brother lived in the same village near the caves, which was
at that time afflicted by famine. The English claimed to give relief by giving the flour made from a
certain bean. But then many people died from subsisting off that flour. There was a special way of
cooking it by thoroughly mixing it with the powder of a sarasaparilla's tuber. By that means my
folks apparently survived, and I can vouch that it is even quite delectable to the tongue. However,
this secret was only known to my ancestress, who had became pregnant with my next-in-line
ancestor. Hence, her husband went to deposit her at her parental home for the pregnancy.
Thereafter, he was away, may be for a few months, doing a round of various holy ketra-s At that
time his brother's wife used the flour without the stated treatment with the sarasaparilla. When
my ancestor returned to his home he found, to his horror, that the rest of his family were afflicted
by a strange disease some were paralyzed and some of had their necks arched backwards and
most of them are said to have eventually died. He is said to have dreamed that the great ghost
Daalma was seizing them. In fear he fled the village to live with a cousin when my ancestress
told him that rather than Daalma they had probably not dealt with the bean appropriately.
Armed with this knowledge they survived but I believe the fear of the genius of that locus still
persisted and that is what I experienced in the cave.

Some legume toxins studied by Somakhya and the bhaginya

9

Years later, there was a family reunion at the house of Vrishchika and Indrasena. Having set the
kids up to play with their youngest aunt Jhilleeka, the rest engaged in what for them was a most
absorbing discussion: the biology, chemistry and pharmacology of some non-ribosomally
synthesized peptides. Varoli describing a side-study of hers remarked that she had looked into an
interesting dipeptide biosynthesis pathway, which used a papain-like peptidase to catalyze the
formation of dipeptides using the glutamate of glutathione and certain unusual non-proteinic
amino acids via a transpeptidase reaction. As she was describing the amino acids in her glutamyl-dipeptides she remarked that she found the secondary amino acid, azetidine 2-carboxylic
acid to be particularly interesting in terms of its biosynthesis. Varoli then turned to Lootika and
said: In addition to -cyanoalanine, it is pretty abundant in the viacaaka bean that you had
asked me to look at. I even sent some to Vrishchika to have its toxicity tested. Vrishchika: Yes, I
forgot to tell you that my toxicologist did do some tests on it and found it to have devastating
effects on connective tissue by disrupting collagen production.
Somakhya high-fiving with Lootika remarked: That is likely to be the other toxin I was suspecting
in those beans. It must be taking the place of proline being sort of a square version of it. That
probably explains its effect on collagen and certainly contributed to the end of the archaic-looking
fellow in the cave and the havoc in our old friend Vidrum's village.

10

The doctor and the speech at the right-wing think-tank


It was a late Friday afternoon and Vidrum had returned home early from the hospital. He spent
some time in his garden making a ball from the paste of rain-tree pods, a messy but immensely
meditative activity, which his friend Somakhya had introduced him to. Having completed the ball
he glanced at its rotundity with an inner feeling of accomplishment and pride. Then placing it to
dry in the path of the rays of the setting sun, he went back into his home to clean his hands.
Thereafter he sat in his study, browsing the journals he checked every week. He downloaded a few
articles for later reading and went on to check the scores of a one-day match that was going on.
Ensnared by the interestingly poised game, he kept watching for some time, till he suddenly
realized that the time of arrival of his visitors was drawing close. He got up hurriedly, tidied his
study and hall, and checked with his caterer to ensure that dinner will arrive on time. Keeping an
eye on the match, he basked in the pleasant warmth of the excitement and expectation he felt
regarding these relatively rare social occasions that punctuated his otherwise monotonous
existence. As he waited he wondered if he might ever experience the state his friend Somakhya
had talked about: True pleasurable experience does not always need an external, palpable object.
It can arise from reflection, manipulation and realization of objects that purely lie in the mind or a
computing device. After all even with Lootika of pretty smiles, the ullsa of maithuna lasts for only
a small fraction for our total existence. But our more continuous pleasures are not from externals
but from the resonance we feel from the contemplation on inner objects.
Soon he heard his bell ring and he went to the door to let in his visitors, Vrishchika and Indrasena.
Even as they came in, Vidrum asked Vrishchika: Where you able to figure out what was the deal
with that patient #49? Vrishchika: Bad news, he died couple of hours ago. The autopsy has been
arranged and we will know more soon but the preliminary indications are that it was Nocardia.
Vidrum: What? Nocardia! Vrishchika: Indeed! We should have called that out earlier: It was a
pretty gruesome end for the guy. Indrasena was by now accustomed to his wifes propensity for
lapsing into talking morbidity whenever she was with her father or ran into others of her ilk. He
had gone through it all in course of dinners at his in-laws place, where the forbidding descriptions
of human taphonomy and pathologies ranging from those caused by Actinomadura to Malassezia
had often ruined his bowl of hintla psaya. He would say to himself that it was perhaps training
to be a mahvratin but today he did not hold back and said: Hopefully you guys wont continue
this over dinner. Vrishchika putting her hand around Indrasenas shoulder: No, then we will talk
of something interesting to you, that gargantuan wonder of a protein from Nocardia! Indrasena
chuckled Ah that one and realizing that all this talk probably had a cathartic effect on his
wife left her to it and silently picked up a magazine that lay on Vidrums coffee table.
The magazine went by the name Svatantrat and was produced by the federation of right-wing
think-tanks. As he leafed through it an article by Dr. Ahmed al-Zaman and Prof. Adityo Sen caught
his eye. It was titled: trila-dka to nlka-dka: down the slippery path. Therein he read:
We stand with the right-wing in their call for making economic progress and womens rights a
priority. They certainly need to sternly objurgate their obscurantist fellow travelers from the
Deva-dharma-dala with regard to the push for making fire-arms more widely available. While their
earlier trila-dka was a condemnable move, the chances of large-scale, serious injury to life and
property from the short-handled tridents was limited. However, this new nlka-dka movement
has the potential to unleash immense danger to human life in India. We would soon see our homes,
schools and work-places turn red with every petty squabble being settled via the business-end of a
2

smoking barrel. Moreover, these obscurantist elements of the D-cubed would threaten the very
lives of minorities in India if the nlka-dka is not nipped in the bud
Moreover, D-cubed spokesman Ravi Madhav Pandits call for Hindu-only housing and turning
women into mindless baby-popping machines reeks of unspeakable retrogression. It not only
threatens to shred the secular fabric of our nation but also endangers the lives of our women.
Hence, going forward, we call upon our friends from the right-wing to come out explicitly in
condemning the regressive attitudes and activities of the Hindutva Brigade. Let the peace-loving
Hindus make it clear that they are Hindu and not Hindutvdin, thereby sending a strong message
to both the D-cubed and the minorities that they reject the atmosphere of fear and violence.
By the time Indrasena snapped out of the magazine Vrishchika and Vidrum had exhausted their
share of morbidity for the day. The conversation moved to brighter matters and eventually segued
into dinner.

As they were chatting after dinner, Vidrum remarked: I have been sitting in on the advanced
course you two put together with the forensics experts. It is really great Indrasena, your former
student Devarshabha is doing a great job in explaining the genes to phenotypes stuff.
Indrasena: Glad to hear that. Which reminds me that I should try to finish up one of the papers on
the work with him and Lootika.
Vidrum: I found an old skeleton in the storage of the trauma lab and brought it for the course.
The guys have now completed a reconstruction of the deceased individual. It was just stupendous
to see how from the skeleton we went all the way to piecing together the individual in life: his eye
color, his hair-type, if his skin was prone to dryness or not and many other things all of it came
out so clearly. Vidrum then sauntered to the drawer beneath his desk and brought a 3D printout
of the individuals skull and his reconstructed face. Vidrum: They found a SNP in his Pax6 gene
that was deemed informative.
Indrasena: Yes, this is a dominant one, likely he had one eye smaller than the other one.
Vidrum: Indeed, see that is how they have reconstructed it.
Glancing at the report Indrasena further added: Seems like he had potential to have had an IQ of
around 140 and look at this. These alleles associated with his olfactory receptors suggest he would
have been of a conservative type in his political leanings.
Vrishchika: Look at his skull he seems to have suffered a massive trauma to his parietal lobe!
Vidrum: Yes, it appears his head was struck by a sword. We also noted the sectioning of one of his
cervicals by the same instrument. Aint that sort of odd this skeleton is of relatively recent
provenance how come we are seeing a fatal sword injury?
Vrishchika: Well, we would possibly never know for that skeleton was lying in the closet with not
a smidgen of documentation to go with it. Did anyone check if there were any police records?
Vidrum: I do not know. But hey you guys are real vipra-s, somayjin-s or whatever you all are
supposed to be. Are you all not the kind who are supposed to know all kinds of secret magic. May
be you could find out? May be you all have some trick up your sleeve like that skull-tapping
brhmaa Vaga one of you guys told me about.
Indrasena: All that is stuff from legend. Why not be happy with how much we have been able to
glean using our knowledge of genetics.
3

Vidrum persisted: That is alright, we know how he lived but we would also want to know how he
died. Indrasena I am sure you know more than what you show.
Vrishchika: Would you be willing to bear the force of r Kuberas agent?
Indrasena: Let us not even go there.
Vidrum: I am ready for it. Vrishchika, do you think I have forgotten about your gang trying out
your prayoga-s in the cemetery? Indrasena, I am pretty sure if Vrishchika has married you must be
quite bit of wizard in these issues yourself.
Indrasena: Since you so blithely persist I think we must give you a taste of Vairavaas agents.
Sit down, relax, and close you eyes.
Indrasena thought of the words of Somakhya when he had revealed to him the Kauber-pradvidy [Footnote 1] and deployed it. Vidrum instantaneously dropped as though dead on his carpet
and lay sprawled like a copper-hoard anthropomorph. He started saying: I am vala. I am vala.

The triangle of the Swan, the Eagle and the bright-eyed vulture had mounted the inky heavens.
Seeing that it was late valsha decided to lay himself to rest on his litter. His body was racked with
all manner of aches. The day that followed was not one to worry much about, so he unhurriedly
lapsed into the hypnogogic state. Most unexpectedly a beautiful woman appeared before him. She
was not anyone whom he had ever seen in wakeful life. Nor had anyone like her every manifested
in a dream nor in hypnagogia before. She had long flowing black tresses in dense masses like the
great bee-hive on the vast ashvattha tree near the paa-gha. Her eyes had a sparkle to them
like heads of the asterism of the Twins. Her body was slim and shapely and wonderfully sculpted
with breasts like the vessels that lustrate viupatn. But she had upward pointed ears like that of
a shepherd dog. vala was even more surprised when he heard her speak it was in the grva
bh. valsha realized that in this tongue even the mundane sounded poetic. She introduced
herself: aham asmi pupatn ptla-rudrasya gahvare vs kukkuravati | asau gahvarasya
sampe eka uddhata kedro sti | asmin kedre vilo vaa-vkosti | tasydhosti mama phik |
Hearing her he wondered if she was a yaki or a pic or perhaps a shape-shifting rkas.
Neither her name nor her form was like any yaki or apsaras he had encountered before. Finally
she directed him: ayy uttiha, etasmin caake sanihita rasa piba, mama aguly
manda cumba, mama upnahau gha gha! tvay saha ake uayiyamy aha h h!
paya paya! praktes sarvn niyamn ati-laghana kariymi | mama patham na jtu
aknoi |
She flew carrying valsha at a dizzying pace. Finally they landed in a place that looked strangely
familiar to vala; yet he was unable to precisely identify it. It was a school building with an
adjacent ground that looked like a rat-nibbled roik. In the mid-1930s the Vatican had financed a
bunch of German missionaries to go forth to the holy land of bhratavara and convert the
heathens. Uwe Christian led the operation with his fellows brothers and fathers. He was also a
double agent, working for Das dritte Reich. He tried hard to entice some brhmaa-s to the fold of
the preta, hoping that if he converted the brhmaa-s then he would gain easy control over the
superstitious lay. With this intention he started a school named after one of the many dead
pretcarin-s, who had been proclaimed to be a saint by the Vatican rulers due to performance of
an even lamer miracle than those that the unwashed Hindus were supposed to believe in. In this
4

school he offered a proper western education that brhmaa parents were supposed to seek like a
good bride for their dear sons. In 1958 Christian was assassinated by an Israeli letter bomb. Shortly
thereafter his school was bought by a Portuguese missionary group from Goa, who continued their
operations in the service of the long decomposed corpse of Nazareth. But not long after that Goa
was finally reconquered by the Hindus restoring the continuity of peninsular Bhratavara, whose
coastline their old poet klidsa had likened to a drawn bowstring. With that the school and the
associated church declined into disuse. A few years later in a great monsoon storm the spire of the
church was knocked down reminding the Hindus of might of the devaheti that strikes from above.
The people in that part of the city were growing prosperous again after the dismal years that
followed independence and felt the need for more schools for their children. So they decided to
use the old schools infrastructure for a new one. Having renovated it, they reinitiated education
in those premises in the form of a secular institution.
There, in the 9th class were studying students who went by the names sapad durnmik, satyo
daridrasadha, harir babhru and mahmada aghomado marusabhava. At that point
kukkuravati briefly possessed their teacher. Their teacher then addressed the class indicating the
topic for a small essay: rrya dhvajasya pradhana arthavattva ki?
Then vala and kukkuravati unseen by the rest went to look at what those four students wrote.
sapad durnmik wrote: The national flag is symbol of Indias freedom. The length of the flag is
1.5 times that of its width. It is to be respected by all and never hoisted in peoples homes. No one
should trod on it, burn it or defile it in any other way. It should be made by hand using cloth spun
by the Gandhian wheel. If it is made using any other material then the person is liable to be
interred in a jail for 3 years [Pointing to this sentence kukkuravati laughed and tapped vala on his
shoulder. vala wondered if that was the real fate that awaited him for having flown a paper flag
on some national day! sapad saw no one but heard the laugh of a woman. She wondered who
that could be? May be it is my mind saying all this is so funny]. A real Indian flag is only to be
made in the state of Karaka. People have to stand erect and sing the national anthem composed
by r ravndrantha when the flag is being hoisted.
satyo daridrasadha wrote: The flag was made by some Telugu guy [He had forgotten the guys
name. So he made it up: If there could be a Gandhi of the frontier in Afghanistan, why could we not
have yet another Gandhi in Andhra. So let us call him the Andhra Gandhi]. At first B.G. Tilak had
suggested a saffron flag with the picture of gaNesha. Aurobindo and Vankimchandra wanted the
image to be that of a fierce Kl with an upraised scimitar. Some other Hindu leaders wanted a cow
on it. But the secularists wanted none of this. Eventually a flag was made to incorporate Gandhis
wheel, a sign that the technology invented in the Indus valley civilization was still in unmodified
use, the saffron color of the Hindus, the green color of the Mohammedans and the white for
whatever other religions existed in the land.
mahmada aghomado marusabhava wrote: [Hearing the topic of the essay he had an angry
flash back: A while back along with the rest of his male classmates he had enrolled in the National
Cadet Corps, hoping to have some fun in the wild. On a certain national day he assembled with the
rest of the cadets for a parade after which they were to have an excursion into the wild. Their
leader regaled them with a tale from the past to boost their national sense. He spoke of the great
invasion launched by the marnmatta-s from the neighboring country into the fertile lands of the
5

pacanada. Facing fierce resistance from the Hindu forces they decided to deploy an elite force of
airborne commandos behind the Hindu lines. In this great sagrma even the NCCs had been
meagerly armed and called up to do their duty for the defense of bhratavara. Their leader who
was giving the speech was one of the cadets called for this action. He was armed with a mere WW2
era rifle and a knife but was brimming with courage to face the krnta-s. The famed marnmatta
paratroopers were finally dropped by their aircraft and they floated down from the realm of the
great, pitiless vyu who was praised in the days of yore by abhipratria kkasen in the same
lands. In their minds they were thinking that each one of them, supposedly tall, fair, ram-gulping
central Asian warriors, were capable for slaughtering at least ten short, dark, taulmbu sipping
hndka-s in one go. But they were in for a rude surprise. Upon landing, the mere NCCs aided by
local farmers armed with just daa-s and curik-s made short work of the vaunted warriors of
the old mahmado marusabhava and sent to them to meet their legendary 72 girls and 28 boys.
Then the NCC leader said they were going to hoist the national flag and in a ritual imitating the
ways of the English during the occupation of the country shouted: Raising pole! By order of
height! Eee-rect! Then the tricolored dhvaja went up even as the cadets stood taut and serenaded
it with the anthem composed by the vaga poet ravndra. But the mahmada was already blazing
with anger of the tale of the rout of his coreligionists that the leader had narrated and instead
muttered the cry asserting ekarkasatva and AoA. The bewitching kukkuravati made his mind
readable as print on paper and saying paya vala! vastuto rrya dhvajasyocchrayea asya
marnmattasya dhvajabhaga st |, she gave a canine bark. mahmada wondered; what is that
noise of a dirty cur; may all of them be killed. Truly, those infidels praising their flag sounded like
one. With that he came out of his reverie and realized he had to write something about the flag.]
The primary significance of the national flag is it being a visible symbol of the oppression of
minorities. At one point our just rulers like Alla-ad-din and Awrangzeb had brought this whole
land under our rule. Hence, it belongs to us rightfully. But these infidels overthrew our great
Silsila-e-Khandan-Timuriya and now trod over us building gold-decked idol-houses, with all their
inequality towards the poor, in places where the muezzins cry rang out asserting that all are
equal before God. That flag has their orange right on top and our green right at the bottom. With
them riding roughshod with the wheel on it symbolizing them crushing us beneath it into
undignified poverty. Truly one day as prophesied by the brilliant Karl Marx the class struggle will
take place and we the oppressed will overthrow these infidel oppressors.
harir babhru wrote: The wheel was what made the Indo-Europeans. It was by the wheel the Aryas attained sovereignty. Hence, they celebrated it in their ritual known as the vjapeya by which
the king announced his sovereignty. It was the symbol of power that lasts through the cycles of
time. Hence, it is held in the hand of the great god of time, the triple-striding viu; likewise it
adorns the king whose might earns him a place in history the cakravartin. It was indeed seen as
the symbol of the great cakravartin-s of history who unified bhrata, like Candragupta Maurya or
Candragupta Vikramditya. Hence, it is indeed fitting that it sits in the middle of the flag,
representing the ancient roots and latent power of the nation, which becomes manifest when
unified and led by a cakravartin. The saffron band is the traditional color of the Hindu flag, which
fluttered when clashing with the armies of Islam and Isa. The green represents the pasture on
which the ratha-cakra first rolled forth and cultivated field where the plow was first plied. Thus, it
represents our deep roots in pastoralism and agriculture. Truly our flag is deep with meaning and
connected to our ancient roots like none other.
6

kukkuravati howled like a bitch and said: sa dho rra-uttambh ki tu tasya pau umi
astra nsti | etata krat sa vaga-deyn hindkn samha iva mtyum psyati | vala
wondered what that meant but he did not have to wait long to find out.
School was over; hari and satya walked towards their home via a forested patch that covered a
basaltic elevation. In front of them at some distance walked aghomada. Unexpectedly, a pangolin
scurried across their path as they were in the midst of the thick forest path. Seeing it aghomada
excitedly ran after it to kill it with his upraised hockey-stick. However, before he could strike hari
and satya raced up to him with their own hockey-sticks and prevented him from killing it. Then
they caught him and dragged him to the forest officers quarters and delivered him to the rangers.
The forest officer on noting his name feared that it might blow up into a communal issue and let
him go with a lecture. The next day when hari and satya were walking back the same way, they
were suddenly ambushed in the forest by aghomada and his friends who were armed with swords.
Their hockey-sticks were not sufficient to hold out against this marnmatta gang whose members
belonged to an organization known as the Peoples-Progressive-Assembly. Before they could
escape, the PPA men cornered hari and struck him two blows. One on his head and another slicing
through his neck. Then satya fell to another blow and they left him there taking him to be dead.
Luckily for him, he was soon sighted and rescued by a forest ranger. The aghomada and his friends
quickly ran to the tank of the vinyaka temple that lay just beyond the forest patch, washed their
swords, and made away. vala was shaken by what he saw. kukkuravati said to him: trilasakhy-mnua-yugnantara ka-il-nma-nagare soghomadas tava jvane luhanya
ve |
With a violent jolt Vidrum snapped out of his possession yelling: I am Vidrum not vala.

Vidrum: That aghomada looked familiar. Who was he?

Indrasena: Did you not read that Svatantr magazine on your table?
Vidrum: Why? It just came in today and am yet to look at it in detail.
Indrasena: Certainly do so!
Vrishchika: Vidrum, thank you for the wonderful dinner and we are sorry you were hit by much
more than you asked for. But this might help you bring some things to a closure.
Indrasena: Yes, it may be rough but dont worry we will be there for you. Thank you indeed for
the great evening. I think we better be going though our kid wont mind spending all night with
his cousins, I am sure they are causing Somakhya and Lootika a lot a of trouble!

Vrishchika and Indrasena were at Somakhya and Lootikas place to finish up the paper on the
gargantuan Nocardia protein and its relatives from other actinobacteria. They were taking a break
in the writing when Lootika checking the news remarked: Vrishchika, It appears like you will be
seeing your colleague Dr. Ahmed al-Zaman again.
Vrishchika: What? How could that be I thought he was all set to play out a long innings behind
the bars!
7

Indrasena: I am sure Vidrum would be disappointed to hear that.

Somakhya: Not just that; Vidrums life itself is in danger if the senior surgeon were to return to
our city, which he well might.
Lootika: What is deal with him and Vidrum? The news article says he was arrested on espionage
charges.
Vrishchika: There is probably much more than just espionage charges. He was the one who killed
your classmate Meghana.
Lootika: Really?
Somakhya: As you may remember our friend Vidrum was emotionally entangled with Meghana.
But she had was subsequently seduced by the much older al-Zaman when Vidrum was still a
student at med-school and was drawn away from him. Some time later she was mysteriously found
dead with her throat slit at the Madanamajuka-udyna . The cops had questioned Vidrum and alZaman then. Vidrum had a good alibi and the DNA evidence was in his favor. Though the DNA
evidence clearly implicated Dr. al-Zaman, he was almost immediately released and the cops made
an about-turn on the matter. Dr. al-Zaman is member of the PPA, which as you are aware passes
off as an organization of progressives, while in reality it is a well-trained ghzi force. He is
probably a double agent at the hub of the mleccha-marnmattbhisadhi.
Indrasena: I believe we clued Vidrum on al-Zamans case with our kauber prayoga. Vrishchika
the aghomada whom he encountered in the vea was none other than the surgeon in his earlier
days.
Vrishchika: Indeed Vidrum had not believed that al-Zaman was behind the murder of his friend.
But piqued by his experience, he went back to the records and found that the police commissioner
at that time was r Kurmure, whom you might might vaguely remember as being big on Hindu
terror. Lootika: Ha! He was the guy who called the PPA a character-building organization, which
will be the beacon of secularism in the nation.
Vrishchika: Yes, r Kurmure was the one who absolved al-Zaman. However, now we have a
patriotic commissioner who had been picked by none other than the national security adviser r
Uniyal, who himself has some intelligence background. As the commissioners son is Vidrums
patient, he was able use that connection to put the cops back on al-Zamans scent. While they
could not conclusively close the Meghana case as r Kurmure had destroyed all the evidence,
some new stuff came up. One day al-Zaman walked into my office and asked help with a project he
was doing that was funded by the Trtha Foundation. I politely refused citing my genuinely packed
schedule. I slipped this information to Vidrum, as Indrasena had informed me that the Trtha
Foundation is a front end of a mleccha funding agency, which funds anti-national individuals and
organizations to cause subversion in Bhrata. The cops latching on to it were able figure out that
using hardware and software from the foundation al-Zaman had opened a very sophisticated
backdoor on all our hospital computers. Incidentally, our little sis Jhilleeka gave me the means of
stymieing it and protecting myself. They finally arrested al-Zaman on the charges of trying to
relay health information of the governor to the mleccha-s. They were also able to obtain some data
on his links to the Khalifa to whom he was poised to send a bottle of dimethylmercury.
Somakhya: We need to be absolutely beware of that dimethylmercury when Dr. al-Zaman
resurfaces.

Vrishchika: Shortly after his arrest there were aggressive protests by the Mrjanidhvaja-dala
along with the PPA volunteers outside our hospital. I recall moving my stambhaka-aku from my
backpack to my mekhal that day.
Indrasena: Remember the regular articles in the newspapers and that Svatantrat journal
decrying Dr. al-Zamans arrest as an appalling failure of justice and deliberate targeting of
minorities?
Vrishchika: Not only that, while in jail, he was awarded the Edmond Glympton Global Initiative
prize and the mleccha physicians council prize for his selfless service.
Lootika: Listen to this. She then read from the news item: In passing his judgment overturning
the high court conviction the Chief Justice Mashanand Kukroo said that by arresting a blameless
surgeon with a brilliant record on the slimmest evidence the government was sending an
unacceptable message to the minorities. Such actions threatened to create an atmosphere of fear,
which might then be exploited for political gains. By this judgment he hoped to stall the
downward slide of the Indian polity towards the divisive Hindu nationalist agenda. She
continued: Now in other news we have: Ramesh Pandeya and svmin Kalananda to remain in jail
for Islampur riots. Then there is this one: Pictures in temple vandalized
Indrasena: All this with what people call a Hindu government in power and both the
rkasonmatta-s and pretonmatta-s clearly stating their intentions.
Somakhya: Lootika, do you have a transcript of Varolis infamous speech at the right-wing thinktank
Lootika: Yes; Varoli was asked by one of her right-wing colleagues to speak at one of those
Svatantrat think-tanks known as India-Future. It resulted in her being unceremoniously
shunted off the stage and the question-answer session being called off. Ill send the transcription
of her speech around to you all.

The transcript of Varolis talk:

Hindus should realize they stand at a critical fork in the road of their history. Their linguistic and
cultural cousins the Greeks, the Romans and the Iranians have all been consigned to perdition and
their intellectual treasures and achievements are now being enjoyed by their Abrahamistic
destroyers. We survived only because they lay ahead of us in the path of the hurricanes of
Abrahamism. Now that they are gone the storm has begun blowing into our lands. Imagine the fate
of the Gangetic Doab without the Himalayas to stanch the howl of Boreas from the Altaic
heartland.
Let us face it, our situation is not good. Why is this the case? I am trained as both a chemist and a
molecular biologist. Hence, I can tell you with some certainty that the biochemist who has done
things the hard way achieves greater success when the real challenges hit her than one who has
merely learned to do things as per the protocol accompanying a commercial kit. You might also
agree with me that you would prefer to have a physician who has high tally in terms of the
number of humans he has closely observed, dead or alive, than one who merely reads the
diagnosis from the results of the tests. Likewise, only when you have real hands-on experience
with your tradition and its significance, you are better equipped to adapt allo-cultural elements
for your own effective use. In the old days at the height of Hindu power we were good at it. But
9

when Hindu power was blasted away by the unmadita-s we lost not only the link to our own
culture but with it the ability of our ancestors at allo-cultural adaptation. Thus, when by some luck
the mleccha tyrants left our land due their hammering at the hands of the Germans and the
Japanese, we adopted democracy without the proper wherewithal to handle this allo-cultural
construct it had no connection to our endogenous democracy enshrined in the ruti of the
Bhgu-s and Agirasa-s. Our ignorant peoples prided themselves over their success with this
construct without realizing that it would bring their ruin unless they outlawed the preta-rkasamrgau. This negative externality was seen only be few of the Hindu leaders of the independence
movement and was completely masked from public sight by the action of the men planted by the
vengeful mleccha-s as they left our nation.
Since we had no hands-on experience with creating systems-robustness for the negative
externalities of democracy, it has become a potent tool for the mleccha-s, aided by the
marnmatta-s, to get us to join the earlier-named civilizations. This will be felt even more as the
Hindus decline in numbers and the Abrahamist occupy that space. I know many of you all, unlike
me, like to call yourselves cultural Hindus, and the like distancing yourselves from the practice of
the religion. By this you are only endangering the existence of your posterity even more. Hence, I
posit that rather than patting ourselves on our backs and serenading our democracy, we resort to
some really radical questioning. How many here would like to ask questions such as: Is democracy
as it is practiced really doing us good? Are there religions that need to be outlawed in order to
make it work? Is power of the people a good thing when the people are zombies? I know each of
you all here are great analysts of politics and the media in the nation but have you asked if that
nuanced dissection is of any avail when the whole structure has a foundation in quick-sand
If you think all this was radical, have you given thought to the actions of the judiciary? You know
well that the judiciary plays a key role in this type of democratic set up. But is there not a logical
paradox in a judiciary that places itself above the law itself? Especially so when there is really no
one to check the integrity and patriotism of the judiciary. When you think more closely of this you
will realize why I insist that no one other than a practicing Hindu well-versed in mmsa and
nyya should occupy a judicial position. The rra is taken one step closer to the cremation
ground when you appoint an Abrahamist as a judge at any level in the nation.
Since I would rather not relive Hypatias experience, I would like to suggest to you all that instead
of delicately measuring our position on the left-right spectrum we start preparations to strike first
and strike hard against our foes. This is what our tradition says when the tatyin has come
before us it is incumbent on us to dispatch him for an appointment with Citragupta.
indro vivasya rjato |
::::::::::::::::::::::::
Footnote 1: The Bhgu-s of yore had invoked Agni who dwells within water. That mighty deva who
bears the oblations appeared at their ritual, and he transmogrified into a dreadful archer. This god
was the terrible sharva with many death-dealing shafts; hence, the called out to him: ivo bhava
tuburo rudra jala-bheaja. Then sa deva emitted a mighty being known as the yaka-pati
Kubera who appeared before them holding an axe and a mongoose. The Bhgu-s extolled him and
offered him a caru. Then the mighty yaka revealed to them the secret vidy-s which generations
of Bhgu-s had built upon. It was those vidy-s that Somakhya and transmitted to Indrasena in the
10

mysterious shrine housing Mahdeva, Kubera, Skanda and Vikha. Now he was a siddha in them
like the legendary Naravhanadatta.

11

The dream motif


Vidrum was nearing the road to his house. Instinctively, he felt his backpack and found it to be
unzipped. Then to his utter disappointment he found that his box containing geometric
instruments was missing. Anxious to get it back he started retracing his path to the school. He
finally reached the road where his intuition told him that it might have fallen off. So he got off his
bike, parked it, and started slowly walking along the footpath scanning the side of the street. Just
as his hopes were fading he heard a girl call out to him in a vaguely familiar voice: Are you
looking for something? He looked up and saw two charming girls riding their bikes towards him.
One of them he recognized as the new girl in his class who had just joined the school. The other
one was a bit shorter but resembled the first one in her features. Looking at them:he said: Yes, I
have lost my geometry box. It seems to have fallen out of my bag, may be somewhere on this
road. They gave him the box saying: Here it is. We found it further up the street even as we were
riding along. Then the elder one said: I am sorry I don't know your name but I believe that you
are in my class. Vidrum knew her name as she was clearly well-endowed in her appearance and
had also made herself rather prominent in class by being the only girl who would solve rather
difficult problems in mathematics and physics, which even challenged most of the guys. Vidrum:
My name is Vidrum; indeed I am your classmate and feeling a certain excitement in their
presence tinged with coyness and relief over getting back his box did not know what more to say.
The elder girl assuming that he might similarly not know her name introduced herself: I am
Lootika and this is my sister Vrishchika who is also in our school but two standards our junior.
Before Vidrum could respond they bade him good bye and darted away at top speed on their bikes
down the road. Vidrum, still feeling the pleasantness, ambled back to where he parked his bike. To
his stomach-churning horror it was missing. He realized just then that he had forgotten to lock it
and someone had stolen it as he was looking for his box. The relief at getting back his box turned
into even a far greater despair of losing his bike.
From then on with no bike to ride Vidrum had a long walk to and fro from school. It was a real
drudgery he arrived just in time for school and had to leave early to reach home in time no
longer could he enjoy the hangouts with his friends before and after school. Every now and then in
the days following the theft of his bike, as Vidrum was on the long trek back home, he would see
Lootika and Vrishchika whiz past him on the road, weaving their way through the traffic at top
speed. He would wave out to them and Lootika would often wave back but the girls would never
stop to talk to him let alone even acknowledge his presence beyond that split second. He remarked
to himself: These girls seem very prone to speeding; hopefully they don't hurt themselves or
someone. One of those days as Vidrum walked back he saw that the girls had parked their bikes
just beside an open plot of land not far from their school and had wandered into it. He saw that
Vrishchika was collecting Datura pods while Lootika was collecting some small insects. He
remarked to himself: It appears that these girls are not exactly the innocent and studious type I
thought them to be. They seem to be into drugs. Why else would she be putting those weed pods
into her backpack. Then feeling a sense of duty Vidrum called out to them and said: Hey that
plant is poisonous don't try it out. Vrishchika shot back: Of course I know that; that is why I am
collecting it. Vidrum persisted saying: You could harm yourself by eating those.
Vrishchika: Why do you think we don't know about this? We know exactly what we are doing. Do
you know anything about tropanes?
Vidrum thought to himself: This girl is in the class where they have chemistry as a subject for the
first time. You are introduced to elements for the first time and she is already talking about
2

substances that I have never heard of. She seems much like her sister. May be I should just let
them be.
Shutting the pillbox with the insects in Lootika came back to her bike with Vrishchika following
her. Lootika looked at Vidrum and asked: Why are you walking these days. Did you not have a
bike?
Vidrum: To my great misfortune, that day when I was searching for my geometry box, which you
recovered, I had forgotten to lock my bike and it was stolen by the time I returned to it.
Lootika: That is very sad indeed! Did you register a case with the cops?
Vidrum: My father took me to the cops but they laughed at us and said everyday cycles are stolen
by the dozen and they had bigger crimes to deal with.
Lootika: That is indeed very apathetic. We sincerely hope you find your bike.
Vidrum: Why are you picking the Datura pods and those insects?
Lootika: We wish to do some analysis of the tropane diversity in Indian Daturas. We believe there
might be some interesting things going on there. As for the insects they are staphylinid beetles. I
am trying to find which of them have interesting symbiotic bacteria. On some evenings and
weekends I work along with some researchers at the university to extract these bacteria and try
identify any interesting compounds they might produce. Later in the year I hope to extract DNA
from them and identify proteins that might be of interest or involved in the synthesis of the
interesting compounds.
That was a lot for Vidrum. He did not exactly understand the meaning of what Lootika had just
told him. But some of the key words reminded him of his friend Somakhya. He said: Do you know
our classmate Somakhya?
Lootika: Not really, but I believe he was the guy who was showing those interesting protozoa in
the biology lab last week?
Vidrum: I was really not paying attention to what he was showing but he does a lot of such things
and has a little lab in his house. He says things that sound like what you just said, though I must
confess I did not fully understand what you are trying to do. You must talk to him.
Lootika: Very well, may be you should introduce him to me.
Before Vidrum could say anything the sisters bade him good bye got on their bikes and sped away.

The next day at school Vidrum found himself alone with Somakhya for a moment. Vidrum:
Somakhya, you must talk to that new girl Lootika
Somakhya: Why would you want me to do that?
Somakhya: I am sure you would like her and it would bring you some relief from the boredom you
experience with us.
Somakhya: Her eagerness in class suggests that she is one who perhaps wants to show off how
much she knows. She might indeed be smart and given that she is pretty too, I suspect she might
be quite the type who never gets of her high-horse. Why would you want me to fall into that
Lootika's jla?
Vidrum: Yes, it does seem like she might not be get along well with many, but I feel she is a nice
girl. Listen to me, I have this intuition that you will really have a great conversation with her. She
is all into insects, DNA, proteins and all that stuff you like.
3

Somakhya: I am not sure about your intuition but what you say about her is very interesting... If
true may be I should talk to her after all when the chance presents itself.
Vidrum noticing that Somakhya was not exactly rushing for an introduction, he thought it better
to let the matter remain at that.
It was a weekend within a fortnight of that conversation. Somakhya headed out from his home on
his bike towards pair of basaltic hills that lay several kilometers away from his house. Normally
Vidrum would have accompanied him on such journeys. Since, Vidrum's bike was stolen,
Somakhya had to head out alone. Some distance into the lonely ride Somakhya's mind was filled
with frustration. He thought to himself: If only those rocks were not drab black basalts but
Mesozoic sedimentary outcrops how much more interesting life would have been. Just then his
eyes caught sight of a large ball-bearing on the side of the street. He stopped his bike and pocketed
it with much joy. That sort of lifted up his mood. Just then he arrived at a desolate spot where an
ancient icon of Padmvat, damaged by the Mohammedans, was housed in a little shrine. He
thought it was an opportune moment to propitiate Padmvat as had been ordained by the vipra
Gobhila in the days of yore. Having mentally uttered a stuti to the snake-decked Padmvat, he
decided to do a pradakia of the shrine. While doing so, and as he was about to turn a corner he
was startled by someone jumping at him with a with a cloth as though to cover his face. He reacted
instinctively putting his leg forward in a defensive pose to trip the accoster and with his right
hand drew out his knife half way. Just then, to his horror he realized that his assailant was none
other than his new classmate Lootika. Utterly, embarrassed he helped her regain herself and
introducing himself as her classmate worriedly asked if he had hurt her. Nervously giggling,
Lootika, adjusted her uttara-vastra, which she had used to startle Somakhya, and brushed aside his
concerns: Since you were not quick enough to knife me I believe I am fine. I was amused by the
strange coincidence of meeting you here and thought I should give you a bit of surprise...
Somakhya: What brings you here of all places?
Lootika: This patch of fallow land around the shrine has multiple interesting species of
staphylinid beetles...
Somakhya: Ah staphylinids; so you interest yourself in beetles.
Lootika: The crazed old German, Nietzsche, had remarked I followed after the living thing, I
went upon the broadest and narrowest paths that I might know its nature. So too all branches of
the tree of life interest me.
Somakhya: Wonderful; could you show me your catch of staphylinids?
Lootika taking out her pillboxes showed them remarking: Look at this one with a green
iridescence and this one with blue-purple iridescence these are beauties you only find in this
patch of vegetation near the temple!
Somakhya looking at them closely: Wonder if they have toxins of note.
Lootika: It is interesting you say so; that is what I am seeking to find out more about. More
precisely, if they have any symbiotic bacteria what might be the genetic determinants they carry
for producing such toxins.
Somakhya with a pleased chuckle said: Good to know you are getting right to the bottom of it.
What kinds of toxins are you expecting?
Lootika: Both low molecular weight ones and perhaps toxic proteins made by the bacterial
symbionts.
Somakhya: That is good thinking. How do you intend to detect them? In response Lootika gave
4

an account of her work at the university and her clever plan to clone the genes and identify
determinants using assay systems that two graduate students at the university were developing
for the toxins.
Somakhya: Your expression strategy with different vectors spread across the bacterial tree based
on rRNA analysis of the symbiont bacteria is interesting. However, I think I have a way of cleanly
getting to many if not all of them even more quickly using a computational approach. So before
you do any cloning just sequence the genomes of the bacteria and get them to me. Then I can do
some sequence analysis to get to the candidates.
Lootika was excited to hear of Somakhya's plan wanted to know more of it, but she paused for
moment and looked at the object in Somakhya's hand while conversing with her he had been
rolling the ball-bearing he had found between his fingers. Lootika's eyes widened and she asked if
she could hold the ball-bearing. She admiringly rolled it around on her palm and somewhat coyly
said: Somakhya this is a nice ball-bearing; could I take the liberty of asking you if you might be
willing to give it to me? Somakhya: So you too like ball-bearings?
Lootika: I have a collection of them ranging from those extracted from fine-tip pens to a fairly
large one from a truck. I can bring them to school next week and show them to you when nobody
is looking.
Somakhya smiling said: It is nice to hear that someone else shares this fascination for ballbearings.
Lootika suddenly realizing the brazenness of her request said: I am really sorry. I thought you
guys used these for playing marbles. That is why I so carelessly asked you for it.
Somakhya: In the rare joy of meeting a fellow enthusiast I will let you keep it, though I would
certainly like to see your collection. Lootika's face lit up as she put into a box in her backpack and
she said: Sure, I'll see if I can trade something for this one from my collection. By the way, it
seems it might have an familial pattern in my case because my youngest sister Jhilleeka has the
same love for them and competitively keeps her own collection. Now coming back to the bacteria
genomes could you please tell me more of your plans of analyzing them.
Somakhya: Sure we can talk about them; but why don't you come along with me to where I was
headed and I will show you some staphylinids which have established a cohabitation relationship
with ants. I suggest you add them to your survey for there is lot of interesting biology there!
Lootika: Old Darwin had said Whenever I hear of the capture of rare beetles, I feel like an old
warhorse at the sound of a trumpet I feel the same hearing your words.
Somakhya: Then hop on to your horse and let's be going.

While on the way to the hills Somakhya and Lootika had been excitedly talking, on their way back
that evening both went silent. Each was absorbed in their own thoughts about the delightful time
they had spent at the hills each was thinking about the Formica ants and the staphylinid beetle
that was making them its hosts each wondering about the experiments they wished to do. As
they neared Lootikas house, she remarked: Somakhya I had never given much thought to these
drabber staphylinids. I believe one could spend a lifetime studying them. Somakhya: Certainly
you can. But there are many other interesting problems; so we should get to the bottom of the
things we find most interesting and then move on to other organisms. May be some day we will
find students who can make this their lifes pursuit. Just then they reached the road on which
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Vidrums house was situated. Somakhya: Lootika, I am thinking of giving our classmate Vidrum a
shout. If you dont wish to stop to see him you may go ahead to your house. Lootika: I dont mind
hanging along for a brief while.
Vidrum on being called ran down to the corner of the street to meet Somakhya. He was surprised
to see Lootika with him.
Vidrum: That is a surprise. Didnt expect to see you both. So what were you guys up to?
Somakhya: Had an interesting day studying insects in the woods between the two hills.
Vidrum: Did I not tell you all that you two will find much of common interest. Somakhya and
Lootika merely smiled.
Somakhya: It is really sorry to see you in the ranks of the aratha-s.
Vidrum wistfully said: I wonder when I will own a bike again. Luckily, there was a match on TV to
occupy me for the day.
Lootika: The crazed old German Nietzsche had said Alles geht, Alles kommt zurck; ewig rollt
das Rad des Seins. [Everything goes, everything comes back; eternally rolls the wheel of being.]
Likewise, may be the day will come when you will get your Rad back.
Vidrum: I suppose das Rad also means a bike in German?
Somakhya: Indeed, it is a cognate of ratha, which similarly underwent an earlier semantic shift in
the Indo-Iranian branch of Indo-European to mean a wheeled vehicle. I believe that it was my use
of aratha that triggered the response from Lootika.
Vidrum: May be she is just reading too much of that crazed old German guy she mentioned.
Lootika coyly smiled but did not say anything. Then they bade Vidrum good bye and went their
way to their respective houses.

Lootika joined her sisters and showed them her beetles and placed the box with the ball-bearing
she had been gifted by Somakhya on table beside which her sister Varoli was doing her first
experiments. Later that night Lootika and her sister Vrishchika spread out their mats to sleep.
Lying on their mats the two always talked a bit before falling asleep. Lootika told Vrishchika of the
rove beetles and ants. Vrishchika in turn asked Lootika to clarify to her the mechanism of action of
different acetylcholine receptors which she had just read about. Thus, conversing they lapsed into
the realm of Hypnos.
In her hypnagogic state Lootika saw a woman dressed in vestures from a bygone era. As her image
became clearer it struck Lootika that she would probably look exactly like that woman when she
grew up. Seamlessly, Lootikas own sense of identity merged into that woman. She knew her actual
name was Devasom. She was in the kitchen compartment of her makeshift dwelling finishing up
the cooking and packing the food into containers for the next days journey. Once she was done
with that she laid herself beside her husband Skandaakti Somayjin who had already fallen
asleep. The next day they were to move from Kapihala to Sthanivarara, where once the ancient
river Sarasvati had flowed. As Devasom waited for sleep to overtake her, she saw a spider by the
moons light which was streaming in. The concentric circles with the radial threads of the web it
put forth reminded Devasom of the words of the ruti: the substratum of existence was the ltik
from which the universe was emitted and expanded forth like the concentric circles of the web the
arachnid puts forth. Finally onces its job is done it is reabsorbed by the ltik. The orb of the web
6

in its full glory, glimmering in the moonlight, reminded Devasom of the wheel on which the
brahman stands while singing the song of the victorious horses of the rya-s even as the adhvaryu
turns it thrice in the great Vjapeya ritual. As she fell asleep she remarked to herself indeed this is
the wheel of the cakravartin, which is verily as ephemeral as the ltiks web.
A couple of days later they arrived at Sthanivarara and Skandaakti Somayjin performed a ritual
at the trtha of the god Kumra, which in the long past days lay on the banks of the Sarasvati, as
narrated by the Bhrgava Mrkaeya. After that he and Devasom set up their makeshift
dwelling at a convenient spot near the trtha. Over the day Skandaakti was busy with visitors
from Kngr with whom he was discussing his commentary on the rasavaieika-stra-s of
Bhadanta Ngrjuna and with another local visitor his new work on the dhmaketu-s. Later that
evening he was visited by the vaij Kuberadatta and after he left, Skandaakti went back inside his
house for dinner.
Devasom: rya, you seemed rather agitated at dinner. Is anything amiss?
Skandaakti: Our journey ends here. We must head to Kshi to see our sons and then back to
Dakipatha.
Devasom: What? How could we end our journey without reaching the holy Kaumraketra of
Lambakapura and glorious Oiyna high in Uttarpatha?
Skandaakti: priye, the horrors of the downward turn of the kali are upon us. The well-spring of
the tantra-s has been defiled. The head of Bhrata has been pierced and the wheel of the
cakravartin has been stolen!
Devasom: That sounds awful! could you please tell me more?
Skandaakti: I wonder if you really want to hear more it is a tale of great horror and savagery,
which is probably just the beginning for the kali age is supposed to be long and dark.
Devasom: I would certainly wish to know since it sounds like the vartana of the yugacakra is
under way.

Thus was Skandaakti's narrative of the events he had heard from the vaij Kuberadatta to
Devasom: We were to join the caravan of the wealthy Kuberadatta to journey across the
Pacanada to first reach Lavapura and then advance to Pupapura and from there to
Lambakapura. There we were to join the caravan of Kuberadatta's friend Vasumn to advance to
Oiyna but all this was not to be as he received terrible news.
Vasumn was headed with his usual caravan towards Bhlika when his agent brought him the
news that it was better if he called off the journey to city and instead went to the fortified city of
Amakla. He had obtained intelligence that a tribe of dreadful barbarians known as the followers
of Mahmada who were no different from rkasa-s had taken the city, slain most of its
inhabitants and destroyed all its shrines. Vasumn was shocked to hear the news. He had issued
several credit cards to the sthavira-s of Navavihra at Bhlika. He knew that all that money was
gone. He had also already committed to the journey at the receipt of a monetary assurance with
goods to be sold to the Iranian merchants of Bhlika. He knew that it would all be lost. At that
moment he quickly decided that the best course for him was to go to Amakla. He reasoned that
Amakla was heavily fortified and given that the Khan Suluk had issued him a trading permit to
7

set shop in its market place, it would be his best option to sell off the goods to possibly recover his
costs. He also thought that he could sell off the precious stones he was carrying for Navavihra to
the Iranic chief Krzng who governed the city, given that he had previously been fair in his
dealings.
That evening as they were about to pitch their camps they saw a band of about 50 armed men on
horseback approach his caravan. He ordered his personal army to move into a defensive position
and prepare to fire arrows at the signal. But the approaching horsemen halted at some distance
and put up white flags. One of them rode forth then to meet with Vasumn. He showed a letter and
seal of Turk Buri-Tegin, the governor of Bhaggra, whom Vasumn had known well as one his
customers. He had also helped Vasumn with the renovation of the Rudra temple at Surkh Kotal
complex, which had been built by the emperor Kanika. The letter stated that there was great
danger in the environs due to the irruption of the men of Mahmada; hence, Buri-Tegin decided to
send a force to ensure that all merchant caravans passing through his regions would be safeguarded. Convinced by the seal of Buri-Tegin, and realizing that his personal army might not be
enough to defend himself against the enemies who were said to be rkasa-s not men, Vasumn
accepted the offer of the horsemen to join his ranks. However, as a precaution he had them ride in
front of him rather than behind him. Thus, he reached Amakla and his retinue as was let in by
Krzng's guards once he produced the necessary documents. However, they objected to the other
horsemen entering for they were not part of the documentation of Vasumn. They were quick to
produce documents certified by Buri-Tegin and they too were let in as Buri-Tegin was recognized
as major protege of Khan Suluk. Vasumn quickly headed to his favorite guesthouse and sent for
his Turkic paramour to visit him right away.
Vasumn's local woman informed him that the carya of the vihra she patronized was interested
in purchasing some gemstones for the icon of majur. Vasumn accordingly agreed to
accompany her to the vihra along with his assistant. When they reached there the famous
Pramukhcarya was giving a lecture. Vasumn heard him say: There are many cakravartin's who
believed that they have conquered this world. But the true conqueror and chakravartin is the
arihant. For him this who world is just like a mere bead. Saying so Pramukhcarya held up a
spherical metal bead and continued: It is a small thing for him like this little bead he is the
master of the universe. Just then a wave of agitation passed through the hall and three
karmachrin-s ran in and told Pramukhcarya something. He looked alarmed and announced
abruptly that the congregation was dismissed. Surprised, Vasumn asked one of the karmachrin-s
what the issue was. He told Vasumn that the city was under attack and the nearby temple of iva
was being ransacked. Vasumn righteous wrath was inflamed and he immediately asked his
assistant to mobilize his private army. In short while, fully armed, they advanced towards the
famous aivamaha of Paromjavant, which to their shock was set ablaze. They saw bearded men
leading the attack who by then were also ravaging Pramukhcarya's vihra and the famous Iranic
Atash-kadag. Vasumn just then received the news from one of his agents that Krzng had been
slain in the fierce fighting near the city center. He asked that agent to try to escape the city right
away and inform Khan Suluk. Even as he was doing so he saw his Turkic woman being captured
and taken away as booty by the attackers.
He realized he was outnumbered by the attackers but decided he would not let the assault on the
great aivamaha go unavenged. So with his men he proceeded to the maha and decided drive off
8

the attackers. There he was joined by Vmaabhu deika in the great battle against the attackers.
Taking cover behind an arch the brave vaij showered arrows and deftly jumping down when a
beaded attacker passed by he striking him with his sword. After an hour or so they felt they had
repulsed the beards, when to their horror more of them poured in with their black flags waving in
the afternoon sun. However, he decided to keep fighting till the end. Through an interpreter the
attacker announced that they would stop their assault if the Hindis converted to the religion of
Mahmada. Vmaabhu sent the reply that they may die but not convert to the religion of
madmen, bhasad-cumba-s and ligachedi-s. On receiving that reply the Mahmada-s resumed a
fierce assault. Soon, Vmaabhu was struck by an arrow. The attackers horribly mutilated him
limb-by-limb and slashed him all over until he expired. Then they placed his disfigured head on a
pole and waved it around. Vasumn and his assistant swooned after being wounded in the the
close hand-to-hand combat that ensued. Thus, they were captured by the Mahmada-s and taken
to be sold as slaves. After a long and arduous march they reached Merv with many of them dying
on the way. In course of their journey they noticed that Pramukhcarya accepted the evil religion
of the Mahmada-s and started dressing and behaving like an Arab. At the market they witnessed
sellers shouting out their prices. The Turkic paramour of Vasumn was sold out first in an auction
for 15 dirhams. Then they said that Vasumn's assistant was a black Hindi and hence his minimum
price was 2 dirhams, whereas Vasumn being a fair Hindi was worth 10 dirhams. Vasumn was
soon purchased and led away, while his assistant fainted in the sun. He was taken for dead and
dumped in the near by midden. He eventually regained consciousness, when Pramukhcarya, now
going by the name al Baramak, gave him some food and water, and revived him. Al Baramak then
knowingly let him escape and after an almost miraculous journey he made it back to the
Pacanada to tell this tale of horror. The horror did not end there and is indeed coming our way
on the way back, the assistant of Vasumn saw that Bhaggra was being sacked by roving bands
of Mahmada. There the great king Trivikramasena, after repulsing the ha-s had erected the
cakra of the cakravartin a golden cakra mounted on a rustless iron pillar. The cakra had been
venerated as that of Viu by the stika-s, as that of the dharma by the tthgata-s, and the
symbol of Zurvan by the Iranians. That was taken away as the booty of conquest by the
marnmatta-s when the city fell.

It was a Saturday morning. Lootika was dejected with the way the day had started. Varoli had put
the ball-bearing Somakhya had gifted Lootika into a tube with HCl and she was delightedly
watching it effervescing away. To lift her mood she went to the museum near her house which
would be open till noon. She intended look up the papers, which Somakhya had recommended, on
staphylinids and ants from the early 1900s by a certain Ramakrishnan of Tanjavur. In those old
papers she read that the staphylinids they had observed lay their eggs in the vicinity of the the
Formica nest. Apparently guided by an olfactory cue the worker ants bring those eggs into the
nest. Once inside, the ants attend to them like their own and the beetle larvae eventually hatch
out. They are then fed by the ants until they reach a certain size when they start eating the ant
larvae and as well as their own kin. Eventually, those that successfully make it come out and fly
away as adults. Apparently, given that the staphylinids practice cannibalism their numbers never
run away so as to cause a collapse of the ant colony. At the same time Lootika wondered if the
cannibalism actually helped the fittest among them make it to the next generation. Lootika then
thought of her vivid dream and of a subhitam Somakhya had quoted from the wise Viuarman:
9

ivarm ida tantra pryeautsukyam vahet |

yatas tirac caritair ntimrga pradaryate ||
This text of the gods might appear puzzling due to its teachings;
However it intends illustrating by actions of animals the path of right politics.

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