Kai Arrives

Kamna was pregnant and it was Anandmayi’s. Of course it was his, if Sahayendra could have
impregnated Kamna so easily then he wouldn’t have had to beg Devraj Indra for “just one son” in his
close to two centuries of existence and at least a thousand queens. Anandmayi knew it was his, so
he couldn’t leave her. Not now certainly. Not when she is carrying the symbol of our love, he
thought. No matter how much he wanted to, he just couldn’t. There were several reasons for that.
One, that she was pregnant with his child, secondly, it was his Dharma(Duty)as a husband to look
after his wife in thick and thin but mostly because Anandmayi was deeply in love with Kamna from
the day he first saw her sitting next to Devraj Indra in Indra Lok. She was this great Rishi’s only
weakness and that weakness hadn’t run its course yet.

Anandmayi cared for Kamna even more now given she was in the 10 th month of her pregnancy. He
prevented her from doing her daily chores, took responsibility of the entire household and made her
rest as much as possible. She would cook the food, though, as a sweet gesture of her undying love
for her husband but he would collect the wood and find essentials in the jungle. He had forsaken all
his little individual pleasures for his love. He didn’t go to swim, or a long walk into the unknown
territories and he wasn’t meditating at all, relatively. But Anandmayi had found peace in the
pleasure that he felt while caring for his loving wife. He knew she loved him, she made a mistake and
it wasn’t unfounded, she was an Apsara and Indra was her master, he created her to pleasure him
and anandmayi brought her on earth by tricking Indra yet she never complained, instead, she loved
him with all her heart.

Anandmayi was equipped to tender to a child bearing woman, he has done it before, however,
drenched in the emotions of love and responsibility, he took his eyes off the future, that was getting
darker every moment. Staying away from the civilization has its own drawbacks, and one of them is
the incomprehension of the changing times. The times had started manifesting subtle changes that
was being experienced by many, both men and animals, who had gotten restless and were looking
for unusual ways to find some sense in it. The wisest minds were falling short of answers, doubts and
lunacy were taking charge and the winds were suggesting the arrival of a dominant force.

Kamna was resting in her hut and Anandmayi had gone to collect essentials; usually, he comes back
early but this day he decided to spare some leisure time alone, upon Kamna’s request, to play with
his dog, swim, meditate. She heard footsteps approaching towards her hut, “it’s too soon for him to
return” she thought, “who is it?” she shouted. “Mother” said Khambat as he entered the hut; Kamna
got up, as quickly as she could in the given circumstances, “who are you?” She asked in a loud voice
trying to threaten Khambat, a scary looking man, robed in black, who replied “I am a messenger
mother and I’ve brought a message of death for your child” pointing at her belly, “he will die today
and anyone else who tries to prevent it.”

Kamna was shaky, scared stiff and was looking for ways to escape but Khambat was standing at the
one door that the hut had, so she ran towards it, trying to save her life but ended up in the hands of
Khambat, who grabbed her from her neck, “where are you going mother?” he said tightening his
clutch on her neck as Kamna screamed as loud as she could with a blocked throat. Khambat went
close to her ears and said “don’t worry, it’ll be quick, mother”, as he slowly chocked her to death.
Khambat walked out of the hut, with no remorse or regret on his face leaving Kamna on the floor;
the timeless beauty, out of time, pale, dead.

Anandmayi returned late afternoon to the sight of his beloved wife lying dead on the floor. His agony
knew no bounds, he hugged her cold body and sobbed violently to ease the pain in his heart. “What
have you done, God, what have you done?” cried Anandmayi looking up. His dog entered the hut
and started consoling his master, his cow was mooing and crying outside and showed signs of
agitation, and his flying beast, Thumba, had come back, after years of leaving him, sensing the grief
stricken heart of his old master.

Anandmayi closed his eyes to control his grief but the tears didn’t stop, his heart chakra, laden with
agony and agitation, impeded the flow of prana making him breathless and vulnerable. He tried to
concentrate, tried to observe himself crying thus separating himself from the grief itself. He saw his
pain, he noticed himself feeling defeated and regretful. He rue the moment he decided to stay a
little longer in the jungle; he wanted to play with his dog and then decided to meditate for some
time.

Anandmayi opened his eyes after a while seemingly calm and in consonance with life. He had
accepted, almost instantly, the death of his beloved Kamna. He saw the nature of life even when he
was completely submerged in it, such was the prowess of this great rishi who cursed the great
DevRajIndra himself and got him on his knees before him. He accepted the death laden nature of
this world when all his love for Kamna was begging him to stay with her thoughts for a while, love
her a little more, cry over her, grieve, repent.

His tears were beginning to dry and he was starting to see the larger picture again, the cause of it all
and the outcome of it as well. Anandmayi looked at Kamna’s face, he smiled remembering her
bonny expressions and kissed her on the forehead to say a final good bye. She was warm now,
Anandmayi was surprised. He looked at her belly, and he could see the life within, alive and kicking,
denying to leave just yet, pulsating with the tremendous energy stored within that could make a
dead body seem alive, wishing to come out into the world, to play it’s part.

OOOO

There was a pool of blood on the ground, flowing from Kamna’s dead body’s sliced belly. Anandmayi
was holding an infant in his hands, soaked in blood, eyes closed, and no movement whatsoever.
Anandmayi cut the cord of life, got up and took the child outside of the hut to bath him. He poured
water on him and a miracle happened; the still born started crying, “what? You don’t like water?”
asked Anandmayi to the crying infant, upon which the infant stopped crying and tried to figure out
the question posed at it. “Hmm.?” Hummed the infant, as if asking Anandmayi to repeat the
question again. Anandmayi sniggered, “What hmm? You understand me already?” He asked jovially.
The kid hummed again, asking Anandmayi to repeat what he said.

“Shut up!” Exclaimed Anandmayi, seemingly surprised, and the kid hummed again. Anandmayi
smiled looking at his face. “Curious.” He said to himself. The kid hummed again. Anandmayi laughed
uncontrollably. “Nothing!” he threatened the kid. The kid waited for a second and then hummed
again with a frown on his tiny forhead, requesting Anandmayi to repeat again. Anandmayi smiled,
overwhelmed by the uniqueness of his kid. “God bless you son. God bless you.” said Anandmayi with
all the leftover emotions of love he had in him and in that moment, God did bless that kid, because
the sounds that came out of Anandmayi’s heart were filled with pure emotions and divine
reverberations.

The kid didn’t hum this time, instead, he closed his eyes and went into a deep blissful slumber.
Anandmayi wrapped the infant in a cloth and put him in a basket and then went into the hut to tend
to the body of his beloved Kamna. He burnt it and performed the last rites formally; he fed his cow
and dog and pet his flying beast. His name was Thumba, and he was huge beast, which looked like a
hawk but ginormous in its size. Thumba was an intelligent beast possessed a whole lot of secret
skills. Thumba could sense his masters state of dilemma, so it caressed him to ease him down.
Anandmayi, then, took out the kid from the basket and disappeared in the elements.

OOOO

Indra was sitting in his chamber when a messenger asked for his permission to enter. “What is it?”
Indra asked him. “My liege, a rishi is standing at the gates of the palace with a kid in his hands and is
asking you to “come out and face your fate”. He says his name is Anandmayi and he asked me to tell
you that the kid survived.” Informed the messenger. “WHAT?” Indra yelped as he jumped up from
his regal couch. Fear, death, curse, doom, these were the emotions that had gripped Indra’s heart
chakra. He went into a horrid state of trepidation, instantaneously, at the thought of facing the child.

“My liege?” The messenger prodded Indra noticing his king losing grip on himself. Indra’s
expressions couldn’t hide the fear within and he dazed off into a jittery state. “Where are they?”
asked Indra in a breaking voice. “At the palace gates my liege.” replied the messenger pointing
towards the window that faced the gates. Indra moved towards the window and saw Anandmayi
sitting peacefully with an unmoving infant in his lap.

A ray of hope teared through the darkness that had consumed Indra, “is the kid dead? He asked
expectantly, “my liege?” Said the confused messenger. Indra charged towards him, topped up with
anger, and started slapping him, “are you fucking deaf?” shouted Indra while slapping him, ”is the
fucking kid dead or not?” He caught the messenger by the scruff, “is the kid, dead or alive?”
threatened Indra. “I don’t know sir! I don’t know!” replied the intimidated messenger, “It was silent
and unmoving. He could be dead, sire.” The messenger tried to loosen Indra’s grip to catch a breath
or two. Indra pushed him back. “Fuck it!” he blurted, inspiriting himself to face his fate.

Indra walked towards the palace gates with a few guards following him, the path had gotten shorter
and never had Indra walked at such crawling pace. Even the guards were finding it hard to keep
down with Indra’s deliberate steps. They had never seen Indra this hesitant and uncertain in his
walk. Anandmayi got up and stared at Indra with disgust as Indra came out of the huge entrance of
the royal palace. Anandmayi started moving towards the stairs that led to the entrance, Indra froze,
he could see the Rishi climbing the stairs leisurely which froze him with gripping fear.

Indra joined his hands in respect, basic etiquettes never abandon a well-trained royalty and Rishis
commanded immense respect in the society, especially in the powerful corridors of the palaces that
relied on the sages to guide them in the quest for inner peace. Indra was powerful, but he was
struggling with peace ever since he massacred thousands in the battle for Aryavrat’s soul. Soon after;
Suki, taking advantage of his numb senses, entered his being and dirtied it with his impure thoughts
and actions that had made Indra vulnerable to worldly emotions. Whatever integrity he was left with
was blazed by his decision to attempt a murder of an unborn and in the process killing an innocent
woman. Knowingly or unknowingly, Indra had created Karmas that will haunt him for many lifetimes.
His guilt laden heart will infect his being and cripple it with the double edged sword of regret and
repent .

Anandmayi handed over the infant to Indra, Indra hesitated but Anandmayi almost dropped the
infant forcing Indra to accept it unwillingly. “I need you to promise me something king?” Anandmayi
said while staring Indra in the eyes. Indra nodded, ashamed of himself, “Do it yourself, it’s just a kid.
You’ve murdered thousands in the battle for Aryavrat’s soul. What’s one life?” A mortified Indra
looked downwards. “Do it yourself king, and do it without any feelings of mercy or regret in your
heart or else it’ll haunt you forever. You can do it. You don’t need any help. Face your fate, oh
mighty king. FACE YOUR FATE WITH GRACE AND COURAGE.” Said the Rishi bobbing his head, as if
assuring Indra of the honourable consequences. Tears started rolling out of Indra’s eyes, he had
become vulnerable to emotions, controlling them was getting harder every day and they would
often come up on his face. Anandmayi turned back, stepped down a few steps and dematerialised in
the elements.

Indra looked at the infant timidly who was sleeping in his hands comfortably. “How did it survive?”
He thought. “This is what has got all of us so scared?” Indra felt a tinge of courage as those words
reverberated in his mind, “I can choke the life out of him in a moment and end all of it.” His courage
fortified, “Should I? Why does it look so easy?” Indra couldn’t believe that the seed of the grave
future was lying in his hands in a fragile condition. “Is that all that I have to do?” he thought, “just
choke the life out of this thing and the world will be saved? What about all the dark prophesies and
this being the seed of all of it. Was the all father wrong? Because if he was right then I should not be
able to kill it. But if I’m able to kill it then..” a current of excitement crawled up Indra’s spine, the
thought that he might be able to change the destiny of this world excited him.

Indra lit up with the high intensity Prana flowing in his body which covered him in blue lightning,
jumped high up in the sky and flew towards the holy river of Ganga with the infant in his hands who
was in deep slumber, ignorant of everything. Indra stopped over the river. He went higher up so as
to prevent any chance of the kid surviving this fall. The full moon was shining it’s light on the bright
face of that beautiful infant. Indra looked at the elegant visage of the snoozing neonate and closed
his eyes to look through his countenance to sense a little bit about his nature before he ends it. Dark
dense smoke made of death and fear kept everything about its reality hidden within an impregnable
blanket.

“You’re evil! Do you know that?” Said Indra in disgust. Hummed the kid, waking up from his sleep
and staring at Indra. “You’re going to die.” said Indra to the curious kid. He hummed again, frowning
at Indra. Indra kept looking at his face, trying to delay the deed. The kid hummed again, as if daring
Indra to do it and Indra dropped him instantly. The child fell from the sky and paced towards the
river , covered in white robes, frowning at Indra who in turn was looking at the kid, following him till
he meets his destiny but this was not his destiny and neither was it Indra’s. Destiny doesn’t work like
that. It’s a curious enigma and Indra was about to get a glimpse of it. The kid burst into a dark smoke
on its way down and disappeared in it.

“WHAT?” Indra tasted fear in his mouth, he tasted fate. He flew down fast before the smoke
dispersed but Kai was not there. “WHERE THE FUCK DID IT GO?” he flew from one place to another
looking for Kai. Indra yawped in rage and pique as dense clouds and thunderstorm covered the sky
to give effects. He was regretting not chocking the damn thing with his own hands, but it was too
late now. In that moment, Indra knew something inevitable was upon this world which made him
angry and helpless at the same time and in that same moment Indra decided to try everything in his
capacity to prevent this force from rolling over this world. If there was any such thing as a cosmic will
then he intended to change it at all cost

Thus began the story of Kai, who was almost murdered twice before he could say his first words, his
mother had died putting him in her womb and his father had abandoned him to his fate. His enemy
was supposedly the most powerful warrior on earth and his Guru, will be God himself.