19
DEVATA
[I, as Avatar, will get every material object I need for my mission. I’ll get help as soon as I need it or even I’ll think of it. I’ll find help even where I wouldn’t have expected. Even some of the enemies will believe in my avatar and follow me. Even in the palace of Kaliyuga, the avatar will find people devoted to him. I’ll be victorious with the strength of virtue. As an avatar, I’ll restore order and peace in the world. I’ll inaugurate a new age of truth, and I’ll be surrounded by spiritual people. The people of the earth will imitate my conduct, and there will be prosperity and peace.]
When a Devata enters the room, I am restlessly waiting for him. He is uglier than the man I have seen on the stage. The same as him, bald patch, no hairs on eyebrows, no mustache, no beard, eyes like a predator, face like a sick person, green veins stuck out over his face, making him uglier.
He wears a blue coat – like the trader’s coat but longer and more shining. And the same colour pants – made of thick cotton.
“Sit in this chair.” He says as he comes near me, his voice like hungry crows crying for food.
My legs ache a little; I look straight at him and wish myself to be brave and force my heart to keep heart rate normal. But I’m tired, I’m scared and I don’t know if I can make it to the second stage.
“Don’t fear,” he says, looking at me afraid, “it doesn’t hurt.”
I realize I haven’t obeyed his first command, a chill runs through my spine and I sit on the chair, hoping nothing terrible will happen.
“My name is Mujan.” He says, observing my face for a while, “and yours?”
His way of telling his name makes me puzzled but I answer in our way, “Samrat is my name.”
“Put your head on rest and be relaxed.”
I can’t understand his words.
He understands I haven’t understood him so he clutches my face and makes it rest on the back part of the chair; it was softer than the mattress of last night.
Devata busies himself with the machine on my left. I try to focus on him from the corners of my eyes, and see the wires in his hands, stranger things aren’t wires but the veins over his hand, his hands have green veins like his face stuck out, making various patterns like ivy on the white stone.
His skin is white and pale, but in the light, I see that it has been covered in purplish bruises, like urticaria, his eyes shining and bloodshot. His whole body is webbed in green veins wherever my eyes scan.
“Close your eyes.” He says, his voice like grinding stones crashing with each other.
I close my eyes.
He presses sticky wires to my forehead, five wires two at my temples, two at the back of my head and one at exactly in the centre of my forehead.
“Now open your eyes.”
I open my eyes and see other ends of the wires are attached with the machine to my left and the Devata’s head has the same number of wires as I have.
Then the door of the room is open and another Devata enters. He is old and his body has fewer numbers of the green veins. His eyes are red but not crisscrossed with red veins.
“What are you doing here?” the Devata who is near me asks, “don’t you know I’m in the test?” he removes the pipes from his head.
“There is something wrong in the test,” the old Devata says, coming near us.
“What?” the first one asks, standing up from the chair.
“I don’t know but I can’t decide the colour when I test the last boy.” He says, “The administrator has called you there.”
“And here?”
“I’ll manage here,” the old Devata says, “case it is complicated and the administrator needs an expert person like you.”
In the last sentence, I see a trickle of pride on that young Devata’s face. He smiles, “finish the test of this one,” he says, “It’ll take time to solve the colour issue.”
“I know.” The old Devata says.
As soon as the young Devata leaves the room, shutting the door behind him, the newcomer Devata gets himself the seat, right across from me near the machine.
I’m looking at him curiously.
“Hello, Samrat,” he says, he takes out a small glass bottle from his coat pocket, it is full of red blood, “how was the physical test?
“Really well,” I say, my voice shaking, “really well.”
“Hum...” he says and leans over the metal table where needles, syringes, injections, paper and many things unknown to me were lying. He picks a small bottle up - The bottle in which the healer has taken my blood as a sample. He unwraps the sticker of my name from it and sticks the sticker on the bottle he has just taken out from his coat pocket.
He puts that bottle with a sticker on the metal desk and hides the original in his coat pocket. “Now, okay.” He smiles.
“What’s going on? I ask.
“This is your blood sample,” he says, “they will mix it with a Devata’s blood and check if that blood kills cells of your blood. But I doubt that blood can kill your blood cells. I changed your blood sample with the one I have taken from a Sunya’s. If they discover what you are, they will kill you.”
I stare at him. Is he the man who has sent the help in the physical test?
“Is this all?” I ask, “Just change the blood sample and clear the second stage?”
“No,” he says, “that step was to clear the physical test. We passed it a bit late.” he smiles.
“How many people know about me here?” I say, “About I’m…” I hesitate… I shouldn’t reveal myself here, “what I’m?”
“You are someone who is dangerous for them,” he says, “dangerous for the creator.”
Something happens in my stomach. I feel the weight in my chest. The tension inside me is palpable. I’m unable to speak but I manage a small question, “So, I’m going to die, today?”
“Not,” he says, “not, till I’m here.”
I’m going to die. The thought attacks my mind and I’m desperate to push them aside. I can’t fight the fear back – I can’t distract myself.
Devata takes my hand and presses it between his palms, “Listen, boy,” he stares me in the eyes, “I can see curiosity in your eyes.”
I don’t answer but don’t break eye contact.
“They aren’t finding conversant,” his voice shaking a bit, “they are in search of the Avatar,” he leans his head near my face, “do you understand what I’m saying?”
“No,” I lied, “I ‘can’t.”
“I’m not your enemy,” he says, “don’t lie to me.”
I nod, “I understand.”
“We don’t have the whole day. listen to me carefully,” he lowers his voice, “said is that the human mind was at its highest capability during the Satya Yuga. In that age, people had the ability to know life. But this is Kali Yug. The Yuga in which the Kaliyuga himself rules on the people so human intellect is at its lowest. The human ability to understand and use the electrical magnetic forces in the human system is at the bottom.”
He pauses a while, “they are not testing you all to find the conversant from you. Conversant isn’t dangerous for them. If you have a little divergent thought in your mind it doesn’t mean your mind is working as it should work. They don’t care about it.”
“Then for what they care?” I ask, in a low voice.
“You don’t know but human intelligence essentially depends on how his neurons crackle in the brain. You don’t know about it but there is a machine named computer by which you can see how the brain works, you can see it’s actually crackling with electricity. In Kaliyuga no mind has enough energy to think and understand that they are slaves.”
“Why are you telling me this?” I ask.
“Because you have this energy,” He says, “if you can increase the size of the neurons, the brain would become more capable, but it would take too much energy. But you have this energy.” He said, “Boy, you don’t know but twenty percent of your energy is spent in the brain and the amount of energy spent in your brain is a hundred times more than other people.”
“I can’t understand,” I say.
“I know this is awkward for you,” he says, “in short your mind is the most energy consuming part of your body. Everything depends on your mind. If you have too much energy to spend, your brain becomes bigger.”
“Why I have?”
“The number of neurons in your brain is higher than any common man. Nowadays, humans have fewer numbers of neurons in their brain and that’s why they don’t know how to use it. They use it in a mediocre way but your mind is different. You have too many neurons, as many as the creator has.”
His words surprised me.
“Your mind is working like a person living in Satya Yuga. That’s why people think you are the Avatar and they are right. You are the beginning of the revolution. Day by day people will turn into you. They believe the avatar will come on the white horse but it’s a symbolic prophecy. Here white horse means brightness which can destroy darkness. That clearly means brain power.”
“So what should I do?”
“This test is only to find you. They have been conducting the test for 500 years only to find you and today you are here.” He adds, “They make you think they are finding conversant from you but they are not.”
“Why they want us to think like that?”
“All believe the creator is the god. Now if he reveals he wants to find a boy who has the same power as he has and the boy is an avatar and he is to kill him then the lie about his immortality and godhood would be revealed to the world. That’s why he has set four different blueprints of the mind in the machines, if your brain falls in the blueprints of a Sunya, the machine gives you green colour, if your brain falls in the blueprint of a fearless the machine gives you saffron colour, if your brain falls in traders blueprint it shows blue colour and if your brain is in Devata’s blueprint it declares white colour. Everyone knows only about this part of the machine. Everyone thinks if anyone is conversant he falls in various colours and that’s why the machine shows red colour – the colour of the danger but the fact is that if a person is conversant the machine shows multi-colour.” He takes a deep breath, “the Creator has set his own mind’s blueprint and if any brain resembles this blueprint the machine shows red colour but till today the machine hasn’t shown a red brain.”
“What will happen if it shows red colour today?”
“Nothing will happen if you know what to do and that’s why I’m here.” He says, “They think their machine is perfect and it’s perfect to know the human brain but of a common man not a man like you. They don’t know but you can manipulate this machine. You can manipulate the test.”
“How can I when I don’t know anything?” I say, “I don't even know what this machine is?”
“This is a supercomputer but you don’t need to know about it now.”
“Just remember don’t kill anyone, don’t help anyone, don’t show bravery if Nirbhaya or Devata are killing someone, don’t act beyond human limits, if they put you in bad weather or any hard situation just give up without many tries and act as a Sunya,” he says, “now I’m starting the test, don’t fall into the red.”
“Wait…” I say, “how do you know what is inside?”
“I’m the oldest one working in this aptitude building.” he smiles, “they have not many variables.” he turns a handle on the machine and something happens.
I am somewhere else. I stand in front of the wall, made of mammoth stones, five times bigger than my hut. I haven’t seen the wall from so close. We live far from the wall more than fifty kilometers away and no one dares to go near it, fearing something terrible will happen.
But… now… I am near the wall, unaware that I am on which side – in the wall or beyond the wall. And I see something unusual, something that can only happen in dreams, never in reality.
The mammoth stones of the whole move, releasing clouds of dust, making ear-piercing noise, they continue moving till a huge gap is formed in the wall.
A massive gap.
Twenty feet broad and a hundred feet high.
Unimaginable.
I see both sides of the wall – in the wall and beyond the wall but still, confused about my poison in which.
I stand there observing the gap, my heart thudding in my chest, my blood freezing in veins, my head hurting me.
Again the sounds like the storm of the lightning, fighting with each other, and stones move, slowly… so slowly that if I wish to go beyond the gap, I can.
But why should I? I think.
And the next moment I am in the chair. Devta is near me.
“Why didn’t you try to escape?” he asks, his voice is like that mammoth stone moving.
“I don’t know,” I say, and add, “Why should I?”
He writes something in the paper and makes a line over what he has written.
Devbhasha – before the phrase can pass through my mind I force it to be a Sunya as I have done in front of that open gap.
“Close your eyes.” He says.
When I close my eyes Devata again moves the handle.
Now I am standing in front of a dove-white mountain, soaring into the sky, taller than the mammoth wall.
All around me is nothing but the snow. I hear a clapping sound and a huge rock of the snow crashed down twenty meters away from me. And I see two shiny eyes observing their surroundings from their thin sockets. A round nose resting below, but it's the ordinary mouth below that takes all my attention.
It’s human but not in many ways, a creepy smile slithers on that face, revealing two dull canines and a flat tongue.
Thin round ears sit on each side of its long, thin head, which itself is covered in thick hair.
“Kill the beast.” I hear the voice and turn to see a troop of the Nirbhayas, more than ten, all in armors not in their dress code. The set of armors with a coif and a face guard shaped like a giant face. Attached to its side are layers of crafted leather leaves.
All are standing in war position. Their shoulders are looking pointy, narrow and small in size due to the armors.
Their upper arms are protected by rounded, fully covering rerebraces which sit loosely under the shoulder plates. The lower arms are covered by vambraces which have rows upon rows of small leather pieces, mimicking reptile scales.
The breastplates are made from many horizontal layers of leather and fur with squared edges, covering everything from their necks down and ending at the groins, but the shoulder areas are fairly exposed to allow for more movement space.
They all took out their bows and placed arrows on the string, waiting to get momentum to release them.
My eyes turn back to the creature. Its low bulky body is hunched over. Two thin arms hang at its sides and end in hands with stubby fingers, each with sharp nails.
It advances towards the troop of armed Nirbhaya, its legs are long and are bent, each ending in flat feet.
Its body is dual of size a man and is covered in thick hairy skin and its shoulders are broader than any human.
Nirbhayas fire arrows. Up to ten arrows are flying at the creature and still it advancing.
When three of the arrows with lethal power pierce in its body, and blood paints its white fur in red, only it turns its direction and jumps at another, in which I am standing.
Now it’s coming to me, jumping and lurking, saliva dripping from its mouth, instead two legs it’s using all for both legs and both hands to gain speed.
Fear freezes me, making me unable to move or think or counter.
The creature roars before reaching me, and I can almost feel the sound vibrating in my skull.
I see some arrows piercing at the back of the beast but it doesn’t take notice or only slight as if flies are harassing it.
I can’t run. I can’t fight. Instead, I breathe in the smell of the creature’s foul smell and see its eyes. There are no whites in its eyes, just a red gleam.
When it leaps over me, I close my eyes in fear and the next moment I feel my skull splitting into two.
Creatures sharp teeth piercing in my bare neck, making dull noise and splattering fountain of the blood.
I fall to the ground. My eyes open for the last time and I see many arrows piercing in the beast thick skin, making him unsteady and unconscious.
The beast also falls to the ground.
My eyes turn to the troop of the Nirbhayas, hoping they will save me but they don’t. They glance at me and disappear behind snow rocks.
I feel blood seeping from my head and neck and sweat dripping down my forehead.
Still, the pain is dull, not so intense to make me cry but it’s surely numbed by the adrenaline pumping through my veins. Every part of my being aching for an answer to this feeling of misery and any answer that can bring relief is one worth considering.
For a moment I focus on the pain, honing in on every sensation. Where it came from, how badly it hurt and how badly I want it to stop.
My throat is drying, feeling thirsty and tired. Maybe giving up is the right choice, "always listen to your body" I think and my body wants to give up, unable to endure the increasing pain. Perhaps the adrenaline isn’t capable to numb it anymore.
I am dying.
It's warm, it's warm and it tickles as it makes its way down my body in small rivers of crimson red. What an odd sensation, I'm dying, but it feels warm and ticklish.
The only thing holding me up is this stupid chair beneath me.
I wonder where I am. - In the chair or in the snow land?
I can feel both, the snow around me and a chair beneath me, but the room isn’t around me.
Perhaps I am losing my mind before the death.
Maybe I can use the chair to stand up, walk away and find help, find my father.
No, it's no use. I'm too weak.
There must be something I can do.
Anything.
I want to live, I need to live.
Come on, come on, I can't die like this.
I have promised Padhma to come back alive.
How can I get out of this mess?
There must be a way out, there has to be.
I can't think straight anymore, everything's becoming a blur. I should lie down; let the blood flow back to my brain.
Yes, I will lie down. This'll help me figure out how to make it out or at the very least it'll save my energy until somebody finds me.
Surely somebody will find me soon.
Oh god, I'm going to die. I'm going to die! I know I am, look at me, there's no coming back from this.
Oh god, oh god, I'm going to die.
I don't want to. What do I do? What can I do? I'm going to die.
I'm cold. I wish there was somebody to hold me or something to warm me.
I feel my mother’s hand covering my blood covered head, taking me in her lap.
I feel no pain, not any longer, but my body keeps shivering to warm itself up.
But I'm still cold.
Devata pulls out wire from my head and I come back in the room, still feeling death around me, intense pain in my skull. My head hurts.
I clench my teeth to keep from screaming
“Why didn’t you try to protect yourself?” when I get out of the nightmare, he asks, in a slow voice, observing my face, “why?”
“I was feared.”
“Okay, I believe you,” he says, “but why didn’t you try to raise yourself after the creature was dead?”
“I couldn’t.”
“Why?”
“Because I am a Sunya and we are weak,” I say, “only Nirbhayas can survive such fatal wounds, no Sunya can.”
He nods and slaps on a small object made of shining metal. It makes a ringing noise like a cry of a hungry bird.
“You play well.” He smiles before the door opens and my administrator Nirbhaya enters inside.
The old Devata leads me out the room to my chair, my steps unsteady, my mind is spinning like a top we make from wood and play when we are children.
“Don’t say, anyone, what happened in the test?” he says in low voice.
“I won’t.” I nod, “who are you?” I whisper in his ears in the way back to the chair.
“You will know when the time comes?” he whispers back.
How strange! I think. I don’t know about myself – I don’t know who really I am. And now I don’t know my helper. I don’t know why someone beyond the wall is helping me.
I keep my eyes on the stage and think about the test I have cleared.
***
to be continue..
