The Fortune Teller

8

On The Train to Jalandhar

“What are you here for?” The lady asked Deborah abruptly. Her sobs and sobriety had drowned down in a wink. She returned as her usual irritating self, as if, from a fit of normalcy.

Deborah and Thomas were yet to recover from their brief moment of shock, and were quite unprepared for this question. The woman, however, didn’t wait for an answer, but barked out in her hoarse stupid, and shrill voice, “Oh, you haven’t come here all the way for a honeymoon?” She stared at Deborah from top to bottom, as if trying to examine something on her body, then she looked at Thomas, and said in a tone that resembled a mad woman. “ Nooo.. You don’t look like that.” She giggled like a little girl, and said, “ I am sorry. I was just wondering.” Thomas just rolled her eyes in disgust as she continued with her interrogation. “What are you here for, young lady?”

Deborah answered in a quick outburst as she had revealed her origins earlier. Only, this time, for Thomas’ relief, she didn’t reveal everything out. “Work.”, was all she said, and then, she got silent.

“What do you do?” The lady asked a quick question.

Deborah had started gathering her wits by now. She had already thought of the reply before the lady completed her question. “What do you do? Why don’t you tell us first?”

The lady smiled. “In this foreign land, I met people who adopted me. They left me with a skill that would never part from me. I have made a fortune from it.” She answered.

“What skill is it?” Thomas jumped in. He wouldn’t let Deborah speak anymore lest she gave up any other crucial information to the lady.

“I read fortunes and tell people about their future,” The lady answered.

“The crystal ball or something?” Deborah seemed interested.

“More accurate than that.” The lady answered. “Here, show me your hand.”

Deborah stretched her hand in front of her.

The lady read the hand for a moment, and then looked at her with strange eyes, as though reading from her face.

“A life full of agony and struggle, is it not? You lost your parents young, and went out for studies.” She said. “You have lost four of your loved ones, one of them pretty recently.”  She continued. ”You are running from someone.” Deborah kept quiet, however, the lady continued unabated. “Times are good now. You are blessed. Long journeys await you. You don’t have any idea, lady, what you will do will change the world.”

The lady contemplated for a moment, and then spoke again. “What are you here for, lady?”

“Well I am a historian, just came here on a sabbatical.” Deborah concealed the truth cunningly.

“Stay with me, both of you. We have long journeys to make together. I can see it clearly now. the mountain by the Emerald Lake. This was the time that all of us were waiting for.” Her voice seemed deep and genuine by now.

“You aren’t here on a sabbatical, girl. You and this priest are here because you were touched by the God!” She grew silent and closed her eyes.

ego Deus gratias ago tibi, et laudamus te

Thomas could briefly hear her say in her lips as she sat with closed eyes.

The Secret

6

Patiala, India

“I can’t believe my eyes, and my ears, Rajat!” Rajat said to Jai. He was so used to calling him Rajat, that calling him by his new name seemed unnatural to him.

“I can’t believe that I am talking to you! Over that, when you tell me about immortal sages and hermitages on this earth, it seems that I am visiting an epic.” Rajat continued.

“Yes!” Jai remarked. “Rajat, we are the epic!” He looked deep into Rajat’s eyes, as if he would pierce through them and enter into his soul. Rajat imbibed the intense communication, by closing his eyes, and feeling Jai’s presence through his soul. He know deep inside, that Jai wasn’t lying. A soul cannot lie! It may change forms and perceptions, but it cannot lie. This was Rajat’s soul.

“We can’t be here for long.” Jai interrupted Rajat’s train of thoughts. ”There are too many people around, and a significant amount of them are presently watching you talk to thin air!”

Rajat turned around, and realized that he was on the high platform in the middle of a park in a place where all others were, perhaps, silent and meditating! He saw a couple of people staring at him in a pretty unforgivable manner. He immediately blushed, and looked at Jai, who sat in front of him.

Jai asked him to get up, and just listen to him. Both of them came out of the crematorium and crossed the narrow street to reach a weird wall full of lifts marked “Shahi Samadhaan”. Rajat saw people getting into the lift hastily. He looked up and saw cable cars running in self-drawn cable paths that materialized and vanished into nothing! The sky level was full of cable cars going and coming from different directions. It was an enigma for Rajat since he arrived in the city. He wondered that who controlled the traffic. Rajat and Jai went to the ‘board’ level, where they were presented with a drop down option to choose their destination.

“Take the northern line to Thapar.” Jai remarked. Rajat looked at him.

“Dude, I can’t touch!” Jai said irritatingly. “I am not a human. I’m not taking the car anyways! I would reach much before it. Meet me at the Rajbaha Woodland”  In an instant, Jai was gone!

Rajat took the cable car to Thapar.

Rajbaha Woodlands

In twenty first century, the forest authorities had developed this two kilometer narrow strip of woods besides the shallow Rajbaha canal into a jogging track amidst the untamed nature. Bound by roads on both the sides, it was an unexpected piece of wilderness in the heart of a city. With time, they had introduced small animals, with the monkeys being the first colonizers, however, today, the black bucks often roamed around the roads and neighborhood.  In absence of a predator, their number had once increased a lot. That was the time that they were shifted to nearby deer park and only fifteen black bucks were allowed to be in the woodlands at any time, with only four females.

Jai stood on the gate of the woodlands as Rajat descended the lift at the station.

“This is my home, Rajat.” He said.

“How do you even manage?” Rajat asked as he entered the green and calm woodlands.

“ Rajat, I know now that the accident in which you died wasn’t an accident at all!” Jai suddenly changed the topic.

(To continue tomorrow….)

Deborah & Kali

London (continued from previous)

  John was her best known relative since childhood. He   always loved her like a daughter. After the sudden death of her parents in car crash when she studied in London, John had been her guardian and father figure. She always made a point to meet him every fortnight when she visited Coventry. Lately, on her insistence John had started dating Jennifer Brown, an upcoming pop singer. She wanted him to marry and have a life. Even though John was a bit reluctant in the beginning, but both of them had turned to have a good understanding. The relationship had clicked. Deborah was really happy!

“She is a bitch,” Deborah thought in her mind. “I never thought she could ever do this.”

Just as she entered the fast tube station at Paddington, she could clearly see that this had become big news. There were small groups of people standing by the TVs watching the news. She saw the news flash on the TV.

Dawson Case: Girlfriend Jennifer Brown found dead at her home.

Everything seemed so stunning. She couldn’t understand how the things were moving.

“Did she commit suicide? Stupid girl!  She never had her head right.” Deborah thought as she boarded the zero gravity tube.

In next ten minutes she would be at Coventry at the helm of affairs.

 

3
Bangalore

At the crematorium, as Rajat’s head lay by the sacrificial pit; his body was hung by the hook and his skin was removed. Vikas used the skin as his seat as his team members cut off the rest of body into pieces and chopped the bones off further so that they could be cooked. They gathered the blood in the cooking bowl in which they started cooking him. As the meat was ready, Vikas took a bowlful of cooked meat and with chants introduced it in the fire. As fire engulfed the meat, smoke appeared. The smoke increased till nothing, but a white blanket of smoke was visible. And then she appeared –

Around her neck was a garland of chopped heads, all drenched in blood. She looked fearful – completely black in color, with a shining skin. Her sharp teeth projected externally and invoked fear. She was the one who, thus, lived in cremation grounds, wandering with untied hair.

She carried heads of decapitated men and also, a sharp sickle-sword in her hands. She was smiling with blood drenched lips. On the whole she inspired fear, but at the same time she looked pretty in an unusual way.  

She wore ornaments, ear rings, armlets and girdles made up of dismembered parts of corpses. Her hair was long and beautiful. Sitting on a corpse, she shone like a sun and made fearful sound that rocked all the directions with fear.

Trembling with fear, Vikas and his team prostrated in front of her. She was looking all around in extreme anger, ready to devour the earth. Her shrieks deafened the ears of the sinners. In a single stroke, she decapitated Vijay, a member of the team standing to the left and drenched his blood in her pot. As she drank, blood drenched her hair as it flew from the corners of her mouth. Vikas and all others were trembling. It was the first time that they had invoked Kali. They never knew what would happen. Demigoddesses were comparatively more benevolent, but Kali was the ultimate power. No one could stand in front of her. As she finished the meal, she threw Vijay’s head on the ground and crushed into pieces .His decapitated body lay, still trembling on ground some distance ahead. She gave it a single blow of foot and it was gone. It lay there – still and dead. She roared like a lioness and then said – “The sinner could not control his senses. He was already dead when he tasted the meat before it could be given to the fire!”  

“Goddess, please forgive us.” Vikas prayed. His hands folded and his lips shivring in fear. “You know about everything in the minds of the people.”

“This isn’t a business Vikas.” Kali roared. “There are things that you don’t know. Everything happens for a reason. I don’t appear on the earth without a deeper cause. Never in this age have I stepped on the alter to taste flesh – but when I come, it’s an indication of great changes. Tell me why you killed this man?” She stopped abruptly.

“Goddess, I want to restore him with Pankaj’s soul.” Vikas answered meekly.

“Did you get paid for it?” Kali said in a loud serious tone.

Vikas knew that these are going to be the last words from his throat. He knew that this was not a business. How did he even think that he would escape the goddess with this? He had been a fool.

“Yes Goddess” He answered, just ready to be slain.

“Let this be a lesson for you. I told you that this is not a business. Your Guru took a word from you for this before teaching you this science. Tantra is to be used only for a greater benefit of humankind. Not for greed. Though there is a reason behind everything, but you won’t know that. You would get what you want, but there would be a price that you would have to pay. You will lose two people who are closest to your heart in return of this so that you never repeat this again.”

Kali immediately took Rajat’s fallen head and blew a whiff of air, and there he was, complete with all his limbs – just as he was before. The only difference was that of soul. He now had Pankaj’s soul in his body.

Kali Turned to Vibhu. “Give me your hand.”

Vibhu moved forward. Kali took his hand and immediately dug a black iron nail in his palm. Vibhu cried in pain.

“Don’t worry. You won’t die. I have tied Rajat’s soul with you. He will be with you forever. He was a good man. His soul would be free from all the sufferings. You would be the one who would suffer for him. As for this pain in your palm it would never go away.” Kali roared, rocking the directions and into the smoke from which she had materialized, she vanished.

Vikas looked at the horizon. The night had ended. It was the dawn.