Ashwin was sitting at the table in his room, the table which he purchased when he was in tenth class, unfortunately he had only one good phase of memory related to that study table, and that memory was also from class tenth, he hoped he knew at that time that the table will not be that useful as it was at that time.
In the afternoon before lunch, he sat there playing with his pen while his legs were on the top of the table, and his books were lying on the same table, desperately waiting to get opened but Ashwin never wanted to open them, he was daydreaming his life he will live after class twelfth, it was only two weeks away the exams was, it was only weeks in between his time wasting life to best life if nature allows it, he put his pen’s back under his mouth trying to think the conversation in class, his sir had suggested him to do diploma if he got fail on the boards, but he don’t think he wanted to do that too.
“Ashwin, Ashwin what would you like to eat now?” His mom’s voice came from far away, which alerted him. He instantly put his legs down, opening his closed book which might be happy to be opened, his pen fell from his mouth to the floor, and he stretched his hand to get a pen.
“Ashwin?” His mom called again.
“Yes, mom?” He said a bit loud so the voice could reach the kitchen, but he no longer needed to reach there because his mom reached his room.
“What would you like to eat?” His mom Mira said.
“What can you make?”
“Would you like to eat ladies’ fingers?”
“Aw, never, will you make Maggie?”
“Again?”
“Please Mom, if I will eat my favorite food then maybe I can study well.” He said looking at one of the random pages he opened.
His mom gave him a weird look and then asked,
“How’s your preparation going on?”
“Good.” He said that was completely wrong because he doesn’t even know the periodic table of chemistry.
“Okay, good, I will make it.” His mom said knowing that an argument with him would be a waste of time, she went off his eyes, which gave him a relaxed exhale, he then looked at his chemistry book which was a curse, a total curse, he didn’t remember a simple concept even from chapter one which his classmates told was easiest one, but who knows that Ashwin doesn’t like science, but he took for being cool, he didn’t know that science will freak him out.
He had made a mistake that he hadn’t corrected, and he had a chance to change stream after completing eleventh, he didn’t do well in eleventh but he thought he might do well in twelfth as he did in class tenth, but at that time he forgot the difference between tenth and twelfth which was as wide as the Great Wall of china.
He picked up his mobile phone and then scrolled Instagram for a few minutes. It was not Instagram which ate his time during the year but it was YouTube where he learned a lot of things about mythology, and history too.
He had a great interest in Hindu mythology, he was hungry to know about gods and their stories which was not less than any fiction, but the only difference between those stories and fiction stories was, that the stories of mythology were history and fiction was always fiction.
But one more thing he was interested to know, more than god was about monsters, which in Hindu mythology are known as rakshas, which are demons, they were so fascinating they always grabbed Ashwin’s time, he almost knew many things about Ravana, Kansh, then about Kali, and many more. He also knows about different types of demons in Hindu mythology, like Pisachas, Vetalas, Brahmarakshasa, Yakshinis, and many more.
He had studied things in detail from YouTube and many websites and he could say that he had done PhD on these things, but it was just a dream to study mythology in an Indian school. Ashwin can bet that children can learn many things from these stories.
But he thought that he would be a teacher of a new subject of Hindu mythology, which would keep alive the roots of the stories to hold our history so strong, and he thought that no one would deny him because he was doing the right thing by teaching Hindu mythology, it was great.
He remembered the web series he recently watched. It was the day before yesterday when he completed it. It was about monsters of Hindu mythology. He wanted to see more content like these but no one wants to pay for it, so the audience like him always gets disappointed.
Some books can make you aware of these Stories, but unfortunately, Ashwin hates reading books, but still because he loves it, he read thousands of pages long Mahabharata just in a month which was a great source of knowledge of past time, he considered it as a greatest epic of the world, he was ready to refuse any other epic when it comes to Mahabharata.
So, apart from studying that afternoon, he started watching a video of some witches, the video maker claimed some important locations where there were witches found along with the symbols of witchcraft, witchcraft, the words that enlightened his mind that day which already said goodbye to study, he searched witchcraft on YouTube, there were some informative videos of it from other mythology as well, but he scrolled until he got Indian video.
The video said many things about witchcraft including some information on it, then the story behind it, some cases like these which made him more engaged to go on deep into the topic which he always does, like when he came to know about Pisachas, he did a lot of research to know them very well.
“Ashwin, lunch is ready.” Called his mom from the kitchen, but he was too busy in the video and ignored the voice the voice was never going to stop because it was the voice of his mother, she called this time, and he heard footsteps which urged him to keep his phone on the table.
“Why are you not listening?” His mom asked, her one hand was in support of the wall.
“When did you call me?” He asked.
“Right now, are you deaf or what?”
“Sorry Mom, I was a bit busy with my reading, you go I will come.” He said, then his eyes waited for her disappearance, then again he lifted his phone and tapped on the play button which helped him to complete that video.
That was fascinating, he thought, then closed his book without looking at a single word from it, he stood up stretching his arms above his head which lifted his red t-shirt a bit up, he yawned thinking how busy the day was.
After lunch he went upstairs for a nap, which was always necessary for him, he knew that peace for a nap could be achieved upstairs, he was living in a BHK House which was more than enough for Ashwin’s family which contained five members including him, his father, his mother, his younger brother and his elder sister, whose room he was using to have a nap.
He shared his room with his little brother, which was just like living in prison with your enemy, but sometimes he doesn’t act like an enemy but sometimes he becomes a devil which haunts people like him, who are interested in him, but yeah that’s always a beauty of siblings.
Before nap, he called his best friend, Sanjay who was an average student in his class but still managed to score at least seventy per cent which was much better than him. He has been Ashwin’s friend since he joined the school. A friend like him was the best gift he received from god.
After five rings he lost hope that Sanjay would pick up his call but on sixth ring, he did pick up,
“Thank god you picked up or else you were going to listen to some words from me,” Ashwin said.
“Is that so?” Sanjay said.
“Are you preparing?”
“Of course, I have to score well.” He said.
“Why is everyone on earth behind the scoring?”
“That is because you chose the wrong stream, not everyone.”
“Laugh, you only can laugh, can’t you help your friend?”
“How can I help you?”
“Well, teach me.”
“What do you need to learn?”
“Everything.”
“Are you Insane?”
“Why?”
“You don’t know anything?”
“Yeah, I don’t know any stuff about these books. That part is different from what I know of biology, but chemistry and physics are out of my mind.”
“What about English?”
“That I will see, that’s not a big deal, are you coming home to teach me?”
“Let me see if my mom permits me.”
“Okay, if not then let me talk to her.”
“No, if you talk then she will never give me permission.”
“Why?”
“Because she knows you very well, that you are not good in studies.”
“Oh come on man, it’s only been two years and my image is ruined in front of your mother?”
“That I don’t know but she thinks that I will waste my time with you.”
“You think we ever wasted our time?”
“No, I don’t think so.”
“Then you are coming tonight, alright, so I will tell my mom to prepare dinner for you.”
“I will see if I can.”
“No, you are coming, I won’t listen to anything.” Ashwin pressed their fingers at that red symbol for hanging up the call.
Then he discovered a video having a thumbnail of an ancient building, the video titled Forbidden libraries of India.
He clicked on that video which showed him two ads in the beginning, which passed thought in Ashwin’s mind to throw that phone away but he knew he couldn’t.
Then he found that there were a total of seven forbidden libraries all over his country which were banned by the government. The video was published recently, not more than an hour ago, no views were visible in the video, no likes were visible, and the comment section was also off.
But when he heard the name clearwater in that video, he got fascinated, he got excited knowing that there was one forbidden library just behind his town in the forest. He got excited, the video said that there was no specific reason why libraries were forbidden but there was something precious over there.
That passed thought on his mind to go there to know what precious things it contained, a wide smile of escape arrived at his mind, but then he thought that his mother would not let him go because he had to prepare, but then another thought snapped on his mind saying that he can go at night after they sleep, that was a great idea of going, in the night it can be more fascinating.
(To be continued)
