BEYOND THE WALL
[It’s predicted that you will be the leader of your race and the savior of all humanity. You will be the one who will establish Dharma on the earth. This world’s future and humanity are in your hand. Kansa wants to kill you when you leave Gokul. But I know it’s you who is going to kill Kansa when you reach Mathura."]
SAMRAT
For a moment Jagapati seems on the verge of saying something more. But then he just holds out his hand to me across empty air, in the shadow of the dark cloud overhead.
I remain silent for a while waiting for him to say more but he doesn’t, and then I ask, “Why he didn’t come to help us?” why he didn’t….” At the last second my voice falters and I can't say any more, I can't finish the sentence. Maybe I shouldn’t have asked it. It's a question I've never imagined to ask before, never even think. But the truth is there if I’m asking these questions means I’m accepting I’m not the son of my Sunya parents.
Jagapati and others are watching me with an expression I can't read. Like they've hurt me, almost, and then apologizing for it.
"I know it’s hard for you to accept," Jagapati says, holding up both hands as if he knows what I’m thinking, “and your father has helped us. Now your father is in a high position in the government of the creator and he has given us the news when they knew about your training in the wall.”
“How they knew about it?”
“We don’t know how but one or another way they get the news.” He says, “If your father hasn’t warned me I couldn’t have gathered my entire troop, and couldn’t have managed to hide them inside the troop coming to kill people inside the wall.”
“What about my mother?” I ask.
“After she lost you she has gone mad. She thinks your father has killed you so she wants revenge on him. She works with bad people and nowadays she has her own gang of Nirbhayas and some Devatas who don’t believe in the law. Your father has no trust on her so he hasn’t told her the truth, yet.” Jagapati says and again I have the impression of something flickering behind his eyes, even as the rest of his face stays totally neutral, “I’m the one who stole her son.” And I get it – something flickering behind his eye was a suppressed tear.
I go near my mother as I’ve nothing more to question Jagapati.
“Why did you told me all these?” I hug her, “you shouldn’t tell me.” my voice choking.
“I wouldn’t have if it wasn’t necessary.” she says, “You are going to beyond the wall and the enemies are waiting for you. You need to know if someone is there whom you can trust.”
“I don’t know what the truth is,” I say, “You are still my Ma.”
“I’m.” she says, “but this isn’t time to be emotional. We are on verge of the war and lives of all people in the wall depend on you. Go and get the victory.” her voice is firm, “and this time I know you will come back, not for only me but for all of the people trusting on you.”
Her reminding of war draws me out of the emotional choke. I get myself back and say, “I’ll come back and then there will be no wall, no sections. There will be no born labour, there will be no born traders and everyone will have the right to show bravery. All will be equal and there will be no discrimination. The rule will of Dharma and people know the age as Satyayuga.”
I make a promise to my mother – the same promise I make to my people without speaking a word, in their absence.
“You should go now.” Jagpati says, “Take motorcycles from the train. There are ten inside the third car.”
I look at my teacher. His eyes seem watery. He speaks nothing, not even a word.
Then Jagapati divides his troop into two. One stays inside the wall and the other comes with us. Tarun and Teena decide to come beyond the wall. We have lost Daxa and Kirit so we are total eight trainees in that troop.
Fifteen Nirbhaya we get in our troop from Tarun’s father.
Now we are twenty-three people. We head to the station, saying goodbye to all.
*
As we come out of the funeral ground we break into a run.
We run.
We run past the wasteland. Here the running gets harder and obstructed by sand but not impossible.
We run past the semi-desert, and then farms and fields and when we enter the area of huts where the fallen stones of the street make running hard. The people are preparing their tools to dig the lake. We run past them I think I sense a momentary pause in people’s activity, a fraction of a second when all their eyes lift and turn in our direction. In the fraction of that moment, I see hope and great expectation in their eyes. I see trust in their eyes.
After the huts I feel lighter as the land beneath us is smooth and I start running fast, still not as fast as Nirbhayas. They have more training of running, they overrun us, even volunteer service as messenger can’t help to go past them.
In smooth are we pick up the speed and move even faster, when even we feel pain in our legs and lungs burning we don’t stop.
When, after almost an hour, we finally reach the station building, we are all panting and it’s hard to breathe or keep ourselves standing.
*
We take motorcycles from the station. We have eleven motorcycles, ten got from the train and one was with us.
When on motorcycles, we reach funeral ground back my teacher has gathered food and bottles filled with water, and other necessary things in bags. I don’t ask but I know if the work is done so fast, it must have done by the messengers.
Inside bags are everything we need beyond the wall, extra clothes and tools of every kind.
It takes us an hour to reach the wall. I’ve never seen it so closely before. We got off the motorcycles, leaving the machines behind.
I throw my bag over my shoulder as we need our hand free to climb the wall.
‘Impossible.’ I think when I’m near the wall, my hands touching the stone. It’s enormous, made of massive stones, hundreds of feet high, covered with dead and alive creepers.
Climbing the wall is impossible. I feel but next moment I tell myself – nothing is impossible if you have will to do it.
“Are you ready friends?” Tarun asks, taking a thick vine in his hand.
“Yes.” All shout, ready to go beyond the wall.
I snatch a vine with both hands and start to climb. I look skyward and feel I’m not looking up but looking down. The wall is so high.
We continue climbing the wall till hours. The vine in my hand is rough. My palms burning, but I keep climbing. At some distance, I have to change the vine if the wine has a thick coil in the way.
The wall is higher than we have imagined.
We took rest for fifteen minutes halfway, wrapping ourselves in the vain and giving rest to our hands.
After rest it takes us another hour then we feel the upper rim of the wall. Still, it’s far but we can feel the light and end of the wall.
Another fifteen minutes and we are almost at the rim then I lost grip from the vain. It slips from my palms.
I manage to keep the grip but I’m slipping down on the vine rope. When it’s unbearable to keep my grip on the rope vain I release the vine. The same moment Tarun comes near me, swinging with a long creeper rope. He clutches my hand, barely from my palms as if we are shaking hands but my palms are covered in blood. The palm in his hand is slippery with blood and he can’t manage my weight, clutching a slippery surface.
My palm slips from his hand and my body starts to fall with great velocity. I close my eyes as I don’t want to see down.
I’ve fallen just some feet and then my legs traps in a coil of the vine and my body stops falling. It almost rips out my legs from their sockets. The sudden stop gives my body a halt more terrible than the halt I’ve got when I’ve mistakenly press break lever hard while learning the motorcycle.
I give my body swings. At the third attempt, I get vine in my hand and I free my legs from the coil.
I start to climb again.
*
After fifteen minutes we are on the wall. The rim of the wall is thicker than thirty feet. When we are on the wall rim, we feel as if we are on the ground.
*
The climbing down isn’t as hard as the climbing up. We used motorcycle gloves while climbing down so it didn’t give us much pain and burning in palms. Still, it takes more than an hour to climb down, we have taken a rest while climbing down too.
*
The world beyond the wall is nothing but desert, there are some broken buildings and road with piles of the sand.
There is no life. No movement. The only moving thing there is the wind and of course the sand inside the air.
“We need to walk along the channel walls,” Tarun says, “It will give us shade and water.”
We have climbed the wall exactly where the channel enters inside but passing through there is impossible. The water flow is high and the gap through which the water comes is secured with iron bars as thick as my waist.
Everyone nods and our journey starts through the desert.
We are beyond the wall to take our freedom.
I don’t know I’m Avatar or not. I don’t know I am someone special or I’m no one special but I can say one thing about me.
I have something to say.
And the words are not only for the Creator but to all they want to make someone slave, to all who wants to rule on people with power:
You can build walls all the way to the sky and I will find a way how to break it. You can ban every book to us but the knowledge will find a way to reach us as knowledge has no limits. You can try to make us coward but the bravery finds its way to reach our heart as courage has no limits. You are not god and you won’t be the owner of the natural things.
You can make me suffer but I’ll stand from those sufferings. You can try to pin me down with your giant arms to throw me in ignorance, but I will find a way to resist them because I’m conversant. And I’m not alone. There are many of us out there, more than you can imagine or think. People like me who refuse to stop believing equality, people who refuse to believing in false god, people who refuse to accept slavery, People who refuse to stop loving, people who loves to have knowledge, and People who wants to live and love in a world without walls, people who love into hate, people who refuse to accept dependence, people who know themselves, people who hope against hope, and people who live without fear.
And all these things make us human, not Sunyas. Remember. You cannot take our humanity from us, you can’t take our benevolence from us, no matter how biggest enemy you are of the humanity, no matter you are the Kaliyuga himself, we believe in Satya Yuga and you can never stop us believing.
I wish neither to be God like you nor to achieve power like Devatas. I think these aren’t needed to survive. I’m not asking for heaven as you have as PATANAGAR where you have all that you want for yourself. I don’t believe in your system. I don’t think being born as Devata, Nirbhaya, Folk, and Traders decide how we would live.
I even refuse to fear you.
I’m happy I’m capable to think, and this is because of the knowledge so I’ll bow only to the knowledge. I’ll live like a man and die as one. I’m never going to be a God like you. I’ll live exactly as my heart tells me to live.
I’ve always wanted a comfortable life as a common man. Anyone from my people has never wanted powers and position. We never wanted a war. We just wished we would have ensured that our family got at least one meal a day and wouldn’t need to do work beyond the wall and wouldn’t need to live in danger of Pralaya in the wall.
I don’t want to be an avatar like people think I’m. My life begins with my people and ends with my people. I don’t think I’m an avatar but if my people wanted me to be an avatar I’m the avatar.
I will live my life as an avatar and die as an avatar should. So I’m coming to get my people secure place beyond the wall.
Open your eyes and see what is coming – Satya Yuga is coming, it’s coming to overthrow the reign of Kali Yuga, it’s coming to end the age of the darkness. And with it we are coming – coming not to revenge for what you have done till today, but coming for what you are doing now, coming to stop what you want to do with us in future. We are coming for the PATANAGAR.
*
The End
