SARVA-KATH-SAGRAHA

The Box

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Somakhya and Lootika raced up the metal rungs of the tall ladder which led to the bracket atop which sat the great water tank. There, ensconced from the spying eyes they did not know how much time passed in embraces and caresses as though they were residing in the high realm of sukhvat. Then by golden radiance glancing off her smooth, ivory-like breasts Somakhya realized that the eye of the great pair of gods, the mighty asura-s praised by their ancestors, was slipping beneath the western peg fixed by the triple-striding Viu. They thought to themselves that such indeed is the nature of the great ta upheld by the regal asura-s, the sons of Aditi. As Somakhya was experiencing that state of sayoga, Lootika too felt the same and had a foreboding of the darkness that was to creep, hued like the other great king, the son of Vivasvn. Somakhya remarked: Verily all sukha is bounded and evanescent for we are but mortals, much as Vidrum realized. Let us return to the world of men in the glad glow of the sayoga we have enjoyed for the day may dawn when even that might not be possible. Such is the inescapable force of Kla who drives us along the path at the end of which stands the fierce king wielding the utkrntida. As they descended Lootika said: Lets squeeze out the last moments of mirth when we can like the flash of king Bhoja-deva of the paramra-s even as our civilization faded into the twilight of existence. Lootika: Narrate to me the tale of Vidrum from former times in that universe from which ours has branched off. Somakhya: Since you ask, O tantunbhik, we shall do so

Vidrum wanted a geometry box- the box which contained a divider, a compass, protractor and a rubber. His parents told him that it was too expensive for them to buy him such a box and instead directed him to use one inherited from the long past days. He took that box and on pieces of paper drew the figures he liked to draw. He then closed the box and went away to play with his companion. After he did that he came home and was alone in a silent room with the closed box lying on the floor on blank sheet of paper. All of sudden he heard some noise. An imitation commando badge that he had placed on a table rattled all on its own. Thinking that there was draft of wind from the window he went to close it lest rain water get in at night. The window was indeed open and he caught the sight of a rocket being fired by some revelers outside. He closed thewindow and went out into the patio to watch the fireworks. After a while he returned to the room and saw that a circle had been drawn with a red pen on blank sheet on which his geometry box rested. The compass with a pen screwed in was lying on the floor beside it. He was surprised as he thought he had put all this inside the box. Just then his aunt called him to go with her for an orchestra. He went to comb his hair looking into the mirror, when he saw a demonic figure look over his shoulder and smile. He let out an awful scream and his aunt and parents came running in and asked what had happened. Fearing that they might take him to a psychiatrist or suspect that he as imbibing some prohibited compounds, he said that he had seen a snake on the window. They ran to check the window out when fireworks lit the dark exterior illuminating a grave that was in the yonder yard (They had gotten the plot for their house cheap because it lay on a vast abandoned cemetery, a part of which was still not cleared up for construction). While they went for the concert Vidrum asked his folks as where they had obtained the geometry box. They told him that it was lying in the house from when they occupied it, and that it was probably left behind by the contractor or the civil engineer who built their dwelling.

Now Vidrum had a friend called Meghana whom he had strictly hidden from his parents prying

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eyes because they feared he might fall prey to passion and ruin his academics. Meghana lived in a house in the next parallel street to the one on which his lay and outside the perimeter of the original cemetery which was now encroached upon. An idol of the goddess Sarasvat, which was originally installed in the cemetery, was now housed in a little roadside shrine near Meghanas house. He would go there in the guise of offering his prayers and catch her attention so that the two could sneak away. One day Vidrum left behind his compass box on Meghanas desk at school and they returned home together. Vidrum thought his parents and aunt were away at work that time, and he along with Meghana was walking down his street, when to his horror he saw his parents unexpectedly arriving. He quickly sprung away and ran into the graveyard and hid behind a gravestone. His poor friend realizing what had happened walked ahead as though nothing had happened. When she saw his parents go inside, she went to the graveyard and called Vidrum. Theydecide to exit from the other side of the graveyard and were running at top speed when Meghana tripped on a protruding root of a large, old fig tree. Her head struck a granite grave stone of a certain ligavanta named Udgavkar and she died. Vidrum was terrified by the events and ran home keeping everything to himself and shut himself up in the pretext of studying. His parents told him that they had to attend the funeral of Meghana and he burst into tears. They asked him tobehave like a man and moved ahead. At school he went to his late friends desk and took at look at the box carefully. He saw the faint letters etched on it reading Udgavkar the ligavanta from Hiriyuru. He was terrified beyond words and threw it away on to the parapet of his school building.

Many years later Vidrum was a student in medical school when he examining a skeleton of juvenile specimen of Homo sapiens as a part of his lesson in skeletal development. He saw that the specimen was a female skeleton and had part of the cranium shattered. After that day in the lab, Vidrums life was hardly pleasurable. He failed to study properly for unknown reasons and he usedto be thrown of his bed repeatedly and some one would slap him repeatedly at night. He moved on life, but it seemed he was still relentlessly pursued by something.

He had bought a new car but the next day someone had destroyed the front seat but everything else was intact. A few days later he came home from his clinic. His life was full of the usual realitiesof his profession he was by now inured to peering down the smelly orifices of other humans in various states of disease. While displaying due compassion, deep within he was hardly moved by the news that one patient or another being dragged away by the agents of the great southern lord for their appointments with Citragupta; Nor did the cries of those whose time had not yet come calling upon the buffalo-rider to relieve them of their existence penetrate deep into his armor of mental strength. But that day his mood was particularly low. He washed his hands and sat for sometime in his plush chair in his study. In his mind the day ran like a cinema reel. The reports came in for a young woman he had been treating for a while. It was fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva. He had to break to her the news that it was much worse than even the worst possibility they were considering prior to the tests: she was going to literally turn to stone throughcomplete ossification of muscle, ligament and all. He vaguely recalled his friend Somakhya had mentioned that this was a consequence of the mutation in the TGF-beta-family receptor ACVR1 in course of his monolog on how highly ossified vertebrates might have evolved Vidrum had hardlymade much sense of what he had said then. Later in the day, on the way back home he headed to

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the bank to deposit a set of checks he had gotten from his patients when he thought he saw a woman in the middle of the road. He fell into a ditch trying to avoid her. By the time he got his car and himself out of the mess he found that he had lost his valet with those checks. He wondered how some of his classmates wished to have his life; he would gladly exchange his for theirs.

He then fired up the latest NEJM page and started browsing the morbidly gruesome pictures of the Image challenge pages; a few successful responses made him feel fired up and a bit more upbeat. Then he turned to an article on genomics of myeloid leukemia its contents again starkly reminded him of his friend Somakhyas statement that the physicians should either become real biologists to practice it or leave it to real biologists to do so. He pushed aside the journal and picked up his phone to call his servant. In a little while she arrived and he said that he desired a meal of dry fruits and nuts to be placed on the dinning table for supper. There after he wondered ifhe should call Somakhya to tell him about the case of FOP he had encountered. But before he coulddo so he slipped into a reverie.

It was the first day after the vacation and everyone was back, getting ready to enter the classroom.Vidrum walked in with some trepidation thinking of the difficulties he might encounter in the curriculum, or due to the cruelties of the teachers, or the conflicts with other boys. His classroom was on the 2nd floor, and having arrived rather early he stood outside it in the corridor looking at the quadrangle below. Suddenly, he caught sight of her. Deep within him he experienced a strange feeling something like he had never felt before in his whole life to that point. It was a pleasurable feeling but he still could not understand it as there was nothing he could compare it to. He felt a yearning to reach her and talk to her but then the class began and he was caught up with it. From time to time he would glance at her and only felt that strange feeling increase within him. After the classes ended he tried to reach her but he realized that she was walled off by a formidable circle of other girls for whom he felt nothing (and he found that interesting). Deep within he also sensed the possibility that he might have to physically engage in conflict with other guys to attain his goal. So he let it pass and started walking home quietly. Thus, time passed and she now thickly crowded the dreams of Vidrum. Finally one aami day, as though the wild and uncontrollable Sarasvat he worshiped near his house had smiled upon him, he got his chance. It was a wet day and those youthful gods, the sons of Rudra, the dear friends of Sarasvat , were dancing with their spears in the sky making men tremble. Vidrum set out for his classes. The mathematics teacher had posed a terrible geometric construction. While some of the guys had gotten, all of the girls, except Lootika, had failed to achieve it. The clever Lootika refused to show how it is done to the other girls. So just before the class they were scampering to get it done by copying it from the boyswho had gotten it. Vidrum saw that she stood among girls with her face clouded with some consternation she had forgotten her geometry box and could not copy the construction in the rush to get it done no one was paying her any attention. Vidrum saw his chance and rushed to her side to give her his box and implements to let her achieve the construction.

Now that he got to her he felt his life had changed. The strange pleasant feeling he used to feel upon seeing her now turned into a raging fire. He hoped that she would similarly burn within as though possessed by the god Kumra. But she seemed to be cold to him. Vidrum went up to his friend Somakhya and discussed the predicament regarding her. Somakhya said that an old poet from Kashmir had stated that the my of ambara or the my of Viu might be penetrated but not that of women. He asked Vidrum to stop fawning over her and to tactically ignore her. A few

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days later the girls had again been stumped by a dreadful trigonometric problem. As they were raking their heads they saw Lootika smugly standing beside Vidrum and Somakhya. A couple of girls came running up to them and asked them help with the problem. Lootika turned to Somakhya and asked him not to help them; so he kept quiet. But Vidrum helped them. Thereafter she who attracted him as a magnet came running to Vidrum and asked for help. He turned to Lootika and asked if he should help her. Lootika said that if she could not solve it by herself why not let her face the teachers music. Vidrum with great self effort turned down his chosen girl. Later that evening as he was returning home she called out to him but he again ignored her. Now she came running across the cemetery to come and intercepted him and asked why he was so crosswith her. With that he had won her and he rejoiced in pleasant glow of satisfaction that exceeded the earlier feelings he had felt.

But the story of Vidrum does not end there nor that of Somakhya or Lootika, but they course on through the branching of the universes.

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The Apocalypse

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Lootika and her sister Varoli, who was visiting her, had cooked up an elaborate meal for the visitors who were to arrive later in the day. Thereafter, as the two were lazing on the couch, Lootika remarked: O Varoli why is it that I have this vague recollection of a question in the exam about why only the 2 position of the pyridine gets aminated. Was it something to do with that strangely named Chichibabins reaction. But as Varoli began explaining it to her, Lootika, like Umdestined become a skull in Rudras necklace, slumped into the hands of Hypnos and was overtaken by the phantasms of Morpheos, Phobetor and Phantasos.

Vidrum was comfortably seated in the outdoor dining area of a plush restaurant. The twilight was giving way to the mild light of the gibbous moon and a cool breeze wafted the foul miasmas from apublic toilet that stood only twenty meters away. But Vidrum seemed oblivious to the ordure announcing its presence and like a practitioner of the Caamhroaa tantra remained focused on his actions unshaken by the vimtrdi. He was fingering his tablet, alternatively glancing at the photos he had taken from his latest rock-climbing forays or at the news panel. From time to time he looked out into the footpath leading to the restaurant anxiously sifting through the maze of faces looking for a particular one. As he flipped through the screen of his tablet various news items flashed on it. There was one saying that the Kangress-M had won the constituencies with overwhelming majority in UP, WB, Assam etc and their famous slogan masjid vahn tamr hog, with which they had contested, was being heard all over. Another said that the president had invited Kangress-M and Kangress-C to form a coalition government in Delhi with Kangress-P. There was an article on how the Indian people had again upheld the values of secularism by resoundingly voting for Kangress-M (i.e. Congress-Moslem), Kangress-C (i.e. Congress-Christian) and Kangress-P (i.e. Congress-progressive). But Vidrum had the least inclination to look at any of that. He quickly scrolled to the sports page to check the scores from IPL final between Karachi Ghazis and Kolkota Muharibs.

Before long the server had placed a tumbler of beverage in front of him. Just as he paused to take asip of the beverage, his eyes suddenly lit up. Meghana had just materialized out of the crowd apologizing to Vidrum for being late. He queried her sharply as to why she was delayed. She confessed that she had run into Sajid Khan on the way to the restaurant. Vidrum was concerned when Meghana let it slip that Khan was really cool with a sparkle in her eye. Vidrum wanted to know more, but Meghana quickly downplayed it saying that Khan just was asking her about the impending exams. So they forgot about it even as they settled for the joys of a spicy three course meal that might have even pleased Mahmud Begarha. They would have lingered on chatting if it had not been for Meghana reminding Vidrum that they better get back to his house to study. She asked him if he had the material ready for the impending exams. He declared that he had lost way somewhere into the SN2 reactions and was really neither making sense of why the Chichibabin

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reaction occurred only at the 2 position nor the reasons for the Saytzeffs Rule. He suggested that they should instead go the the house of Somakhya who might be able to explain the same. He told Meghana that once they got the basics from Somakhya they could go his house to complete the rest.

At Somakhya s house just before getting started on the arcana of alkenes formed in elimination reactions, Vidrum asked him what the score in the IPL match was. Not surprisingly, Somakhya responded: Forget IPL, have you not seen the news of the new government with Kangress-M and Kangress-C in the coalition. Vidrum: arre politics ko coo yr krike me ky ho rah hai? Somakhya : Forget the cricket, just yesterday our classmate bhrat was assaulted at the Sultanpet market. Meghana: Wow what happened? Somakhya : There was a masjid rally going on at the Amir Khan road. Hence, while returning home she took the route via Sultanpet, where a mj was stretched across the street. She collided with that and fell from her bike. Two bearded guys took hold her and had a go at her. But just then there was some noise from the clashes due to the masjid morcha and the beards got distracted. Somehow, bhrat, though hurt and bleeding, managed to get on to her bike and flee. If only we had the rrya svayaaseva dala that used to be there in my fathers youth they would have given these marnmatta-s a fitting answer. That is why I keep saying that we must all train in nlika-s and asi-putrik-s. Meghana: Man you are so bad. I never knew you were one of the rma sene types. Somakhya : Just watch what happens. That is why I say this news of Kangress-M in the government is a disaster. Meghana: You are a real fascist. The democratic elections are the people voice and you want to deny that. I am sure home minister Nabi Rasool is a great choice for keeping the corruption in check. I like his suggestion of flogging for corruption. Surely water minister Mohammed Iqbal will also do something about this water crisis. Vidrum: Alright folks, let us get on with the anti-Saytzeff behavior in eliminations with potassium t-butoxide or we will pull the plug.

A few months later Vidrum and Meghana arrived at Somakhya s house: arre yr, are you not coming for the graduation ceremony. Somakhya : I have opted for receiving the degree by post. Ido not want to shake hands with that jragarbha, Prem Fraser, the chief minister from the Kangress-C party. Meghana: You are really crazy. Somakhya : Whatever, have you not seen thenews that the Kangress-M CM, Afzal Khan, in UP has instituted a ban on Hindus entering the k vivantha temple and all ceremonies on the gag have also been banned. Further, Kangress-M has threatened to withdraw from the coalition unless Arabic and Islamic studies are made compulsory in all schools all over India. Meghana: You will never understand. Because of our ableforeign minister Fakruddin, we now have akhaa bhrata from Afghanistan to Bangladesh in the form of the South Asian union. The Hindutva people previous generation could only dream of that. Vidrum: coo yr, lets be going. If you do not want come, Somakhya, we take it that you do not want to see your friends before we all graduate and go our ways. Somakhya : Soon all this will mean nothing may be we will be like the devlole Kareik of Kalasha. Vidrum and Meghana sped away on their H-cell bikes.

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At the Joshua Graham Evangelical Societys college there was a big rush for the convocation ceremony. The security apparatus had kept the students from entering the college because they wanted the convoy of Prem Fraser to enter the premises first. The students were asked not to formgroups of more than five and they were waiting outside the college gate along the streets. The center had specially sent commandos to keep an eye on possible Hindu terrorists who might want to attack the CM. Just three days ago a Hindu named Kapotarj had distributed pamphlets titled The Day of Direct Action Redux. He was captured on Amir Khan road and lynched like the former Afghan leader Najibullah from a lamppost. Further, the closure of the k temple and access to the ghats on the gag were supposed to incite resistance from the Hindu terrorists. Already a secret report had come that a terrorist Hindu liberation army was being raised in the la country. Vidrum and Meghana arrived at the parking lot. Meghana caught sight of Sajid Khan and Omar Zalim and yelled out to them. They were both carrying large knapsacks and wearing somewhat heavy jackets for a warm day. They ignored her and went towards the gate and waited there with one more bearded guy and a burkha-ed woman in black. Meghana left Vidrum behind to try to catch Sajid and Omars attention and make conversation with them.

Just then the CMs convoy started passing through the gate. There was a deafening explosion even as a car in the convoy went up in flames. Just then the woman in black threw a couple of grenades at the students screeching A-hu-A. One of them exploded before Meghana killing her. Vidrums instinct was to rush by Meghanas side. But just then, Sajid Khan and Omar Zalim swung out assault rifles from under their coats and began firing. Omar attacked the convoy, while Sajid beganspraying bullets on the students. From inside the college a several more bearded fellows were seenrushing in with RPGs and assault rifles taking the commandos by surprise. They were mowed downand the CM Prem Fraser himself received several shots and slumped lifeless into his seat. After the initial explosions and rattle of automatic fire Vidrum thought that he had died. But realizing he was still alive, he remained lying there amidst the fallen students behind his bike. At least three shots ricocheted off the wall of the parking lot behind him or blasted through his bike and bounced off the ground. Suddenly, the attackers, some crying A-hu-A and others dn-dn rushed into the college leaving the parking lot splattered with gore and body parts. Clearly a great gun battle was raging between the commandos and the attackers. At that point Vidrum was still to shell-shocked to move from his place, when he suddenly heard a huge detonation go off within thecollege premises. And he saw the towering cross-emblazoned church building go up in flames. The explosion sort of woke him up. He realized he was still alive and ran towards the exit. He had proceed as far as the Jawaharlal Nehru Marg when he heard cries of A-hu-A coming from it and saw the bust of JLN lying shattered at the entrance to the street.

He quickly jumped over a wall and crouched behind it. He heard several cries and saw fire brands being tossed into the houses, vehicles and shops lining the street. The rising flames were making him feel as though roasted and the fumes were choking him but he knew he had keep hiding to

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survive. Late that night, he made it out and hiding and taking the cover of walls reached Somakhya s house. He told Vidrum to rush with his party through a secret route to the hillocks of vanadurg. The great climber Vidrum was nimbly clambering over the massif when a bullet whizzed past him and brought a rock crashing down.To his utter surprise he saw that atop the hillock Somakhya and his dt were already drinking soma from a skull-cup when the stobha of the chant with which the deva-s bring home their plunder from the dnava-s was heard.

Lootika: Ah the sweet taste of soma and the delight of mahsukha of the sayoga with the vra in the hilly maca in the midst of the charnel ground. Why is it that the elimination reaction with menthyl chloride always anti-Saytzeff?Varoli: Why dear bhagin? you seemed to have lapsed into the state of a vidydhar even before you relearned your Chichibabin reaction! So why would you want to know of the anti-Saytzeff elimination now?Lootika: Good sleep is union with tripur. But, like the siddhi-s in the path to that unity, a dream rolled forth and we were caught in its jla. Thus, indeed a snare could bring down the horse of Bhrata in its trot!

5

The cairn beyond the crag

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It was the an early Indian summer morning. The type that makes one rise rapidly from bed rather than remain tucked in like the mornings in the cold northern lands. Vidrum had arisen from his bed and briskly jogged up to the small temple on the edge of the cemetery that enshrined a 16 armed kAlI. He mentally recited the incantation kr kr kr s m ptu dev kl bhagavat vijaya dadtu na | He then picked up pinch of vermillion from the old calvaria placed in front of the image and smeared it on his forehead. Thereafter he ran back home and seated himself on the amaru-shaped cane chair and lazily looked out at the road and the field beyond the compound wall after all it was vacation time and free from the cares of life he had all the opportunity to just sit and stare. Sipping the coffee his grandmother had given him, staring at the yonder space, he wondered how wonderful it might have been if Meghana of pretty locks was seated as his side. Just then he saw Lootika passing by holding a net and a bag with pill-boxes in it. He was surprised. What was she doing in this village of his? After all she was not from these parts. She had always been frosty towards him, perhaps because of her distaste for Meghana, whom she considered superficial and dimwitted. Or perhaps it was her belonging to the socio-economic pinnacle that placed a divide between her and the middle class types. He had heard her refer to Meghana as janay several times. But carried by the surprise of her unexpected appearancehe went up to the compound wall and called her, enquiring what she was doing in these parts.

Lootika, it seemed to him, was more relaxed and amenable to conversation in these days of vacation than at school. She said that she was on her way to collect false scorpions and daddy-long-legs in the jungle that lay just beyond the cemetery. She then excitedly showed him a photocopy of a book titled Chelonethi, an account of the Indian false scorpions together with studies on the anatomy and classification of the order. This book published in 1906 was so hard to obtain that there was apparently only one copy of it in India. But her relative had managed to provider her a copy from abroad. She then went on tell Vidrum that the Scandinavian arachnologist Carl Johannes With had made an expedition to India at the beginning of the 1900s to discover and describe false scorpions at length. No one had studied these arachnids in detail after that in the subcontinent. Then, Lootika went on that closer to her time there was a naturalist named Anantakrishnan who had spent a lifetime studying these arachnids and wrote a book on them. But then most of his people looked at him much like Tennysons wife had looked at Charles Darwin andfelt Anantakrishnan must be positively mad to be seeing arthropods where others saw only a heap of desiccating vegetation. Indeed, Somakhya had told her that though there were few men as learned as the old ayya, they would dismissively say of Anantakrishnan in the dramia language: avaruku velaye ille; cumma edo kuppaya noniu irrupar. In any case, ever since Somakhya had shown her these arachnids she found them fascinating and finally decided that summer to launch a new study of them. She excitedly remarked that it was truly uncharted territory with discoveries waiting to be made by the observant and the patient.

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Vidrum found all this utterly bizarre and felt more sympathy with the detractors of Anantakrishnan than Lootika. He was reminded of the lecture he had heard from an advaita-teaching sanysin where the renunciate clarified that sapta-dvpa vasumati was an example of useless knowledge. Vidrum remarked to himself that if such basic geography was useless then the engrossment in the ways of false scorpions must be the epitome of it. Just then there was a blaring noise from a wind instrument and much beating of drums. Lootika was startled and asked what that was. Vidrum asked her to climb up on to the wall since a procession of the kl temple was to pass through the street she was on. It featured the temple elephant and also a buffalo, which was to be eventually be married to a horse at the house of a brhmaa, after it had made a round to the ritual at the shrine of the sister deity mahmr. Lootika was excited by this new distraction and decided to watch it all sitting on Vidrums wall. The procession wended its way and the elephant as well as the buffalo copiously defecated on the street in front of Vidrums ancestral home. Once the procession had gone past something extraordinary happened. A couple of street dogs came running and rolled vigorously for a while on the dung. Vidrum thought of his renunciates lecture and remarked to himself that this must be truly the lower animal birth he wasadmonishing about, for what else would delight in something as undignified as a vi-snna. But his curiosity was also aroused and he asked Lootika as to what that might mean. She said she was as puzzled as him and would think about it.

Then she gathered her stuff and was about to leave when Vidrum turned to her and said: Hey, it is not really safe for a pretty girl like you to be wandering in the yonder forest all by yourself.L: Oh there is no cause of concern. My relatives are the local IAS officials with some powers whoadminister these regions. Anyone would be a fool to do something to me if they want to remain standing.V: Well but you never know some desperate roguesL: I am not as vulnerable as you think. Saying so she drew out an knife with a 7 inch gleaming blade. I got this from the feral brhmaa gardabhmukha. Then she took out something which looked like a bottle of nail polish and said: Moreover if that fails here is a secret weapon. I heard you and Somakhya talking about how the Soviet agents used to assassinate people with the umbrella tip. So some days back I talked to Somakhya about making such a weapon for ourselves. Here is the result and the herbal formulae remain our secret.V: Ah, I never thought you were so much a female version of a cup-rustam! Good luck with yourwanderings.Vidrum spent much of the rest of his day sitting and starring or taking circles around his grandfathers house, much like an ox driving an old oil-press, or reading some mangas. That night he heard some strange howls and went out into the garden to check those out. He saw eyes

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flashing in the dark and eventually as his own adjusted to the dark he made out the shapes of jackals. They ran on to the street in front of his house and, like the dogs earlier in the day, rolled vigorously on the elephant and buffalo dung. He remarked to himself that he should mention this to Lootika in case he saw her the next day.

The next day Vidrum spent the time constructing geometric figures using his old compass box. In one such construction he observed the incenters of the 4 triangles with the diagonals of a cyclic quadrilateral as one of their sides formed a rectangle. He did this construction again and again andfound that irrespective of the cyclic quadrilateral he got a rectangle. He wondered why this was so and roamed out that evening to make circles around his grandfathers house. Just then he caught sight of Lootika who was returning from her false scorpion and opilione hunt. He called out to her and told her of the jackals and his constructions of cyclic quadrilaterals. She was also unable to prove why always a rectangle is obtained but hoped work more on it. She in turn excitedly showedVidrum her drawing of a false scorpion attached to a fly.

At that point Vidrum proposed that the next day they should probably climb up a crag that lay in

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the midst of the jungle and explore the environs of a cairn that lay beyond it. Atop the crag lay a shrine whose deity was called cauryalakm. A legend, which Vidrum had heard, claimed that thieves after their plundering expeditions used to come to worship this deity. There were rumors of buried wealth in its vicinity but also one that people who tried to take it would be killed by the thieves. Lootika was immediately game because she felt it might give her the opportunity to explore a more diverse array of ecological niches. Accordingly they set off the next day. Vidrum had picked up a goodly billhook from his grandfathers collection which came in many shapes and sizes. He was confident that with that muscular billhook he could defend himself sufficiently against any local rowdy who might take a chance. After scaling the steep crag and reaching its top Lootika and Vidrum went their own ways. Lootika was carefully turning leaves and stones and picking up her scorpions interestingly, she found that the version which Somakhya had shown her prowling in the used-book store was common even in these wooded environs near the cairn. After digging for a while in the vicinity of the cauryalakm shrine Vidrum went on to explore the circumference of the cairn. He remembered that Somakhya had described these as remnants of themegalithic people who probably brought the Prakritic languages to southern India. There, after some scratching around he found two implements that were somewhat out of place vis-a-vis the megalithic era an old rusted billhook with an inscription in a West Asian script and the barrel of a gun. He carefully collected these and that afternoon Vidrum and Lootika returned, both immensely pleased with their spoils.

Some weeks later Vidrum was back in his town and went to meet Somakhya. They spent a long time palavering about how their vacations had progressed. Vidrum had much to say, from the rectangle within the quadrilateral, to the animals wallowing in dung, to the climax of his metallic finds. He asked Somakhya what the origin of those implements might be. Of course Somakhya had no answer but only felt a bit envious of that Vidrum had found stuff so interesting. Some days laterSomakhya was engaging in ball-making as he did during most summers those days: He had gathered a large mass of raintree pods and was de-seeding them. Then he took the fruit walls and was crushing them with a stone pestle to obtain a paste with which he would make the ball. As he was hunched pounding the pods, Lootika, who was prone to display of childish activities on occasions, stole up from behind Somakhya and covered his eyes with her palms. As a result, rather than take in the pleasure of the sparSha with Lootika he now smashed his own finger with the stone pestle and was in deep agony. Lootika wanted to help but he shooed her away because he didnot want to be seen in her presence as he ran to the elders for some help. Soon his wound got infected and he lay in bed with a high fever, perhaps in a delirium induced by the bacterium.

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----May be it was during this delirium or perhaps it was under the influence of the opioid he had been administered after the physician had lanced the wound, Somakhya saw something like a dream. It was a small nsiha temple in a well known town of the mahras. A mahrr brhmaa from the clan of the kauinya-s arrived at the temple. He was unlike many of his coethnics of the age, who were closer to what the old ayy samarapugava had to say about them in his travelogue through bhratavara a few hundred years ago: neglecting the stra-s they are more like a mrv of the 3rd vara or a kyastha account-keeper. He took out a text of the gveda and began his daily pryaa, that day starting with the 9th maala. He still belonged to the world that was crumbling around him; his clansmen still performed soma rituals and his community still counted several who knew one of more of all the 4 veda-s in entirety. He too had hoped to be a tvik who might perform rituals all the way up to the great vjapeya with its long-distance shooting contest and grand 17 lap chariot races.

At the same time the heavy air of defeat still hung all around he had not yet entered his teens when he saw with his own eyes the catastrophic defeat of the Indian army in the first war of independence, many of whose leaders had been his own coethnics. Some of his own relatives from the extended family had been slain in the great battlefields of North India in the attempt to shake off the veta-avasdhaka yoke. The news had reached him of the genocide of Indians in the north.In his own circles he had heard the story of how a coethnic who had protected an Englishman and his girl from being killed during the Indian attack was skewered like a kebab by the bayonet of the very same Englishman at the end of the war. He had learned English in school and had read in person the account of the total genocide conducted by the pretasdhaka warrior Hugh Rose in Jhansi: No maudlin clemency was to mark the fall of the city. As he ended for the day with the gyatr: sisat ray vjev arvatm iva | bhareu jigyum asi | his mind wandered towards the catastrophe of the first war of independence again. He had a conflicting thought run through him. After all the ruti had just said that the soma was drunk by victorious warriors conquering in battle like indra and soma with their horses racing with booty. After all the great vjapeya was performed by the victorious rya, with bow held aloft, whose horses had trampled upon his vanquished foes and beaten his land flat beneath their hoofs. So what was the point of performing the vjapeya when bhrat, who is invoked to come to the ritual arena at the beginning of every rite, was bound by the pretcrin-s.

He noticed that the pavilion beside the temple was unusually filling up with a small crowd. There was some tension in the air as few brhmaa-s were talking in hushed but angry tones with others.He went there and enquired as to what was afoot. They told him that a learned brhmaa who as an official in the court of the white shibs was to give a speech inaugurating a new movement. He

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knew that brhmaa. He came from a family of learned rkula sdhaka-s belonging to the bharadvja gotra. In fact his grandfather had written new commentaries on the yogin-jla-abara and the nityoaikrava tantra. But this brhmaa himself had immersed himself inEnglish education; however, he had not neglected his study of saskta and the history of bhratavara. The young kauinya decided to attend that bharadvjas speech. The latter briskly covered the empire of the marhas under ivj, then the pev-s and the defeat of 1857 CE. Thereafter, he declared that there was no point continuing with the old strategy but a complete change was needed. He advocated that bhrata had to first industrialize on a massive scale and move from an entirely agrarian economy to one where heavy industry played a major role on a national scale. He listed out the kinds of industries and the order in which they should be developed and emulating the Deutscher Bund on some matters where he felt they were superior tothe English tyrants. He also declared that there was no point for brhmaa-s to spend time writingmoronic avirodhapraka-s defending a geostationary, geocentric, flat-earth universe. Instead, called them to closely study science irrespective of whether it came from the English, French or the Deutscher Bund. In particular, he prophetically declared that the works of James Maxwell and Charles Darwin that had just come out were of great significance and needed to be understood despite being difficult.

Finally, he came to the most contentious topic of all. He declared that the preta-sdhaka-s were exploiting the stratification of Hindu society to break away the avara-s and the service jti-s and making them a front against the savara-s. He described how recently an avara Marathi gentleman whose clansmen had been bowermen and florists, who faithfully served the erstwhile brhmaa prime ministers and fought in 1857, had converted to the pretamata under the influence of a Brahmin-hating padre. Now he was leading an anti-Brahminical crusade among his avara coethnics to calling upon them to uphold the British Raj. Thus, the bharadvja concluded by stating that they need comprehensive reforms which included temple entry and Sanskrit education for the avara-s, as also an educational movement among them that would help them re-identify with and recover their Hindu roots. For this he proposed his new ideas for religious discourse within the Hindu fold. As he ended there was a murmur within the sabhA. Clearly, his lecture had deeply affected the listeners. One paita stood up and asked on what basis could he claim that the avaraNa-s had any adhikAra to the holy Sanskrit language when even brhmaa women did not. The bharadvja cited a verse from from the Kashmirian Sanskrit poet bilhaa who was in the kara court: There is no grma or janapada, no rjadhn or no araya, no garden or school where learned and ignorant, young and old, male and female alike do not read my poems and shake with pleasure. Having said this he cited other verses about king bhoja-deva to show how the shUdra woman was equally versed as a brhmaa one in the deva-bh during his reign. Hence, he said there is enough evidence that Sanskrit was the national language understood by all.

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Then he concluded that this is how bhrata used to be, and that the view of the paita is contraryto the real situation before the Islamic and Christian deluges. The paita thought it was strange way to answer his objection he was arguing based on historical precedence rather than by citing authoritative stra-s. He remained unconvinced and declared he would write a virodha demolishing the bharadvja-s claims.

But a lot of what the bharadvja said seemed to resonate with the kauinya and he was pretty convinced they should go ahead in some such way. For his part he wrote up a little tract on the solar system in Sanskrit and read it out to his students in a little school he taught in. He hoped thismight introduce them to the ways of current science. He also drew up plans for founding a larger educational body that will start colleges and schools for the wide-ranging modern education of all Hindus. To make this come true he approached many a businessman and sought their aid. In the mean time his circle was abuzz with a distressing event. A brahmaa padita surnamed Natu had converted to the preta-mata; calling himself Jeremiah, he was vigorously propagating the preta-mata and hurling abuse on the Hindu dharma in English and Sanskrit tracts. The English were tacitly supporting the publication and distribution of these works. The Hindoos are horse-fornicators, incestuous, bestial and immoral wrote Jeremiah with copious citations regarding the avamedha and gosava rituals. The kauinya was incensed with these tracts and he went to he bharadvja stating that they should write a vigorous polemic on the preta and the preta-pustakam.The bharadvja said they should be positive and rather than engaging in polemics they should compose a tract outlining the sublime teachings of the veda and vednta and distribute them as a counter to the writings of Jeremiah and his friends. Unconvinced, the kauinya wrote a fiery polemic condemning the preta and his cult. But strangely he found the bharadvja too scared to publicize it widely.

Worse was to come. One day the kauiya had to travel urgently to another town to attend a family funeral. On his way back he was in a carriage where a rich Hindu businessman and his youthful daughter were seated in the adjacent compartment separated from his by bars. In the same compartment as the businessman were two uncouth English youth. Even as they neared his town the kauiya noticed that the Englishmen were harassing the young lady with their advances. He was furious but could do nothing but watch it play out till finally they disembarked at the station. He again went to the bharadvja and sought his help saying they should make a legal complaint or in the least write tract on the incident and distribute it. The bharadvja rebuffed the kauinya saying it was impossible to do anything with such slim evidence against the English youth; it was up to the ladys father to do so. A few days latter he heard that a similar incident of an assault on a Mohammedan woman by English youth had happened near the cantonment close to the Islamic quarter. His interlocutor was a local Pathan extortionist, going

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under the colloquial moniker Zabardast Khan, who helped the mrv money-lenders extract their arrears for a commission. The Pathan swore that the incident would not go unavenged. A fewdays latter the Englishmen who had molested the Mohammedan woman were cornered on a lonelystreet, even as they were returning home from a late night party, and promptly beheaded by the billhooks of Zabardast Khan and his aides. Thereafter, they quickly placed the dead Englishmen in coffins and simulated an Islamic funeral procession the next day to bury them in their graveyard. When the English police enquiry came after the Moslems, they threatened a mass riot if the Kaffrs set foot in the graveyard. Not wanting to upset the calm, and given the slim evidence they had, theEnglish let it pass and the case remained unsolved.

The incident with the marnmatta-s profoundly impressed itself on the kauinya. It brought forth some inner concern he was unable to clearly articulate. Though both the Islamic Jihad and the Hindu war of independence had been crushed by the English, it appeared that the Mohammedans, whom his coethnics had come closely to rolling back from the holy land of bhratavara, were still abrasively gritty as ever, whereas the Hindus had gone flaccid. In the mean time he had been seriously working on the education and integration of avara-s. In the process he had befriended a nyaka of a predatory hill-tribe whose ancestor had been overnight re-designated from cor to kovl by the Holkar in the yester-years. This nyakas tribe had now been conferred to the rather disparaging title of criminal caste by the English. The kauinya was trying to inculcate in them the values of a more benign existence and the nyaka appreciating the value of the kauinyas teachings was trying to propagate it in the midst of his people. In return he introduced the kauinya to their physical culture which greatly improved the kauinyas health and strength. However, the incubus of about 1100 years of predatory existence vis-a-vis urban populations could not be erased by a mere few years of education and the hill-tribes were in still restless for their old ways.

One day the kauinya and the nyaka went to spy an old forest region where they considered starting an akh. The kauinya believed that the cairn in that old forest marked the spot where an old advaitin of the datttreya tradition had founded an astradhrin akh about a millennium ago. They climbed up the crag in the midst of the forest and seated themselves even asthe great eye of the two heavenly katriya-s was sinking. In the grassy clearing that lay beyond them a trio of gyals (wild cattle) were grazing peacefully. All of a sudden a great pack of dholes closed in upon the bovids with their ferocious cacophony. Two gyals escaped their dragnet but the third did not make it in time. Over the next hour despite its size it was overwhelmed and rent apart by the dholes which settled into a feeding frenzy. Suddenly, the kauinya felt inspired by the sight even as avatthman had been inspired by the owl on the kuru field. He told the tribal nyaka: We are a pack like these dholes and the English, while big like the gyal, are just one. If

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we fall upon them with the unity of this pack they would be destroyed. The nyaka was inspired too and agreed with the kauinya. He declared his whole marauder tribe will be ready for such action.

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----Both had a premonition that this was going to be their last meeting. While the bharadvja and the kauinya had drifted apart and even had serious differences of opinion they respected each other. The kauinya had helped the bharadvja draft a tract based on his study of the brhaspatya nti which had been composed in the mahra country in the days before the Mohammedan onslaught. In this text it was stated that all the limbs of Hindu society had to study the nti and artha texts in order to be politically aware and this was an activity ordained for both the present and the future as it was done in the enlightened past. The kauinya had argued that neglect of this injunction coming down from the great law-giver bhaspati was the cause of the doom of the bhrata-s. But today he had come to say something way more serious The bharadvja disapprovingly told the kauinya that by looting the English tax-revenue which was being taken to Bombay he was only taking away the money that belong to his own people rather than the English. Moreover, he said that the whole idea of forming a truck with the Arab ghzi Shaikh Idris from Hyderabad was a recipe for the highest disaster. He said: You saw how it failed in 1857 and now you want to do it again? Remember our ancestors under the great chatrapati fought hard to drive away the same Mohammedan invaders not for nothing. Then the bharadvja added that he should return to the path of doing something constructive industries, education, social reform he declared. But the kauinya was adamant. He said all that could only happen if the tyrannical vetavara-s, who had nothing but deep hate for our people, were slain in battle or driven out, even as indra had slaughtered the hundreds of thousands of dsa-s led by varcin

It was around 1.00 PM. The English convoy was led by Capt David Low along with white officers Lt Richard Hayes and Lt Konrad Bassler, a Swiss missionary who was now working for the English corps. They were accompanied by a company of sepoys who were sandwiched between the white officers and grunts. They guarded the collections of revenue which was being borne to Bombay. Even as they passed through the forest path beneath the crag the kauinya took aim with his rifleand nailed a perfect hit that brought down David Low in a pool of blood. The company was startled. Taking advantage of their confusion the bands of Shaikh Idris, Zabardast Khan and the nyaka fell upon the company. In the melee that ensued Zabardast Khan got close enough to Hayesand struck his head off with a tremendous blow from his sword. In the meantime the nyaka scored a shot from among the trees which found the heart of Konrad Bassler sending him right away to his spot reserved in the raurava realm of yama vaivasvata. This slaughter of the accursed veta-s, who had all along treated the Indians as vi-mtra, gave great encouragement to their bands who despite the heavy firing completely overwhelmed the English force and took possessionof the the revenue cases. As per their agreement they quickly divided it among themselves. However, Shaikh Idris had his own plans not satisfied with the victory over the English, his Arab band rode on to the village beside the forest with the objective of looting it and also slitting some

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Kaffrs throats. Zabardast Khan and his Pathans, and the kauinya, the nyaka and their tribesmen were to go their own way. The nyaka said that they must place a part of their spoils as an offering for cauryalakm. But just then they were surprised by a whole battalion led by the Lt Col Stephen Jackson, who had vowed to put the uppity heathen black devils in their place. Zabardast Khans band had a mole who had already conveyed their plans to the English authorities. They had sent Jackson to relieve the convoy but he was just a little late in arriving. The surprise of Jacksons assault quickly ended the lives of the nyaka, all Pathans and many of thetribesmen. The kauinya and Zabardast Khan kept fighting. The former was shot from behind by a marksman who had climbed up the cairn to get a good shot. He went down with his rifle beside him. The Pathan was left with just his billhook and tried an exaggerated swing, but before he found his mark he too had been mowed down. Jackson declared: let the wild dogs eat these black devils and rode away in victory to pursue Shaikh Idris.

That night uccratynandantha was going by with his disciples. He saw the corpse of the kauinya. He said to his students: This is the body of a brhmaa. We should not let it go uncremated. Lets set up a pyre for him his tman has a couple more janma-s to take. The students asked: Why did he die? uccaratynandantha: The gods indeed send lessons in the form of ways of other animals. But not all learn them completely. Indeed, if they learned all those teachings which the wise jagadguru viuarman had conveyed they would not be in such dire straits. This brhmaa observed the dholes. How did the dholes get so close to the grazing gayals without the latter not even noticing the harbingers of their death? What our brhmaa did not know is that before the assault they had rolled repeatedly in the vi-mtra of the gyals and elephants. Thus, they smelt not like dogs but other herbivores. Thus, they raised no alarm even as they closed in on the cattle. This brhmaa did not realize that to pounce upon enemies as evil-minded and accomplished as the mleccha-s one needs the same level of concealment and surprise as the dholes after their vi-snna.

In his haze Somakhya cried: Lootike! Why is the scorpion on your thigh!

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The engineer, the dead fish and the bag of earth

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Chapter 1mR^ittikA-syUto nAma prathamo.adhyAyaH |

Lootika had wound up her fieldwork. While her group was not much interested, she somehow convinced them to go with her to the shrine of shAmalAjI. To its north lay some derelict shrines, which had been vandalized in the days of yore by the marauding Ghazis of Alla-ad-din Khalji. Their curiosity being piqued a bit they wandered around in the vicinity of the shrines. Lootika drifted away from her group for a while and went towards a small shrine, under an ashvattha tree, which was strangling a large amalaka tree, much like the mlechCha alliance strangles a heathen nation. She shone her torch to see if there was anything within. Too her surprise she saw an exquisite image of kArttikeya. He had a single head with an exquisite ram-horn crown. To his rightwas a peacock and to his left was the graha-mAtR^i sunandA wearing a turban, on whose head he rested his elbow. In his right hand he held a mAtulu~Nga fruit while in his left hand he held a large shakti. Lootika was amazed and looked more closely. As she gazed at the image she remembered that Somakhya had mentioned something about the pashchimAMnAya of the kaumAra shAsana when he had given her the secret 8-syllabled manu. It struck her that this mightbe the temple installed by manvarNavanAtha and his dUtI sarvama~NgalA, the preceptors of the adhoretas lineage of the mAnavaugha at the time the great emperor harShavardhana ruled over most of India to the north of the Narmada. She excitedly scooped some earth from the foot of the shrine and placed it in a bag hoping to gift it to Somakhya. Just then she heard her group calling out her name, stating that they needed to be going. She hurriedly placed the earth in her backpack and rushed back to join the rest.

The next day they got on the train and returned to their home city. On getting off the train they found that the whole station looked deserted. That was rather strange they thought as normally at that time of the day the station would hardly have any standing space, even as the masses of bhArata poured out to make their way to far-flung towns and cities. They found that their phones did not catch any signal and as they got out of the station they could not find a single cab. This got them worried and they looked around to see if there was someone who could tell them what had happened. To their surprise the restaurant outside the station was shuttered an unusual sight for aFriday afternoon. Just then they caught sight of a porter who told them that the prime minister hadbeen assassinated and it was best they made their way home carefully because there were riots raging in several parts of the city. The group panicked: Some decided that they were going to boarda train and go elsewhere. Others declared they were going wait in the station itself, while Lootika remembered a secret route through the hills which Vidrum had once lead them through. She decided to take that to reach her place. A couple of others with light luggage decided to accompanyher while the rest adopted their own plans. For a moment they all stood tensely looking at each, with the knowledge that they would be parting from each other into the unknown future. The porter told them to hurry and get back into the station or get away from the area as the Friday ShalAt was to be joined soon at the masjid behind the railway station. He warned them that there was no telling as to what might happen once the beards pour out from the masjid, especially to the

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young ladies. Hence, like a pack of antelopes in whose midst a leopard had bounded the group dispersed, each following their own plan.

Lootika and her two comparisons headed swiftly via a deserted play ground into the hills. For sometime they walked at a brisk pace not talking to each other and looking around every few steps to make sure there was no one else around. After half an hour of strenuous climbing they reached a plateau. There Lootika directed them to walk behind a ridge so that no one could easily see them from below. The level contour of the plateau relaxed them a bit and Charusmita spoke: How couldthey be so damn stupid and kill prime minister Samabhav Singh? He had such brilliant ideas the uniform civil code, the death sentence for rapists, and above all a sensible right to education plan. Lootika: Well, it was almost a given, with the marUnmatta-s backed by mlechCha-s making all the noises even before he said that the UCC bill would be tabled in the parliament I felt he wouldback off like everyone else before him. Their other companion Sharad, a seasoned politics buff, sharply retorted: It is not correct to blame the marUnmatta-s for the actions of few misguided individuals. Did we not read in our history books that long ago the Hindu fundamentalists unleashed by the saffron leader Savarkar kill Mahatma Gandhi who took us to freedom? There are bad apples in every bushel. If any thing shrI Samabhav Singhs legacy was his true secularism. Lootika bit her lip and fired back: I just hope we do not have to regret the consequences of this sort of thinking that has permeated our masses for ages. It is in times like this I really wish your so called Hindu fundamentalists were around to save our skins even as our alleys reverberate with thecries of A-O-A. Sharad triumphantly smiled and said: All they would do is to beat you up for straying out late in the day to hang out with the guys ever so often. Just then they began their descent and heard the distant bellow of a siren from their city. Something must have happened they remarked. Lootika leapt on a large rock to get a better view of the city and her heart sank as she saw the distant red glow of fire coming from her locality. Her face lost color as she told her companions that it was not a joke anymore. She mentally started reciting a secret mantra to puShan. Her companions too grew worried and clambered up the rock to get a better look. They were not sure if they could easily reach their homes as there seemed to be blazes on the paths leading to them. Finally they made it down from the hills and had to take a long dirt path to reach Lootikas residence. Lootika peered ahead intently and knew that the fire was not in her house but in the market area near by. They gingerly walked to her house making as little noise as possible. Bythen the twilight had turned to night and her house was dark barring a faint candle light in one of the rooms. She did not know if her parents and sisters were there and whether she should knock the door. Just then her cat chitra came by and rubbed its flanks against her shank. She calmed down a bit and knocked at the door and shouted out her name saying that she was back. Her mother came running to open the door and showered kisses on her. Very embarrassed, she coyly told her parents that she had two companions with her and asked if they could stay at their place. While normally her parents would have forbidden any such thing, they made an exception given the exceptional situation. They said they had been beseeching every god, goddess, yakSha and gandharva in the pantheon that she may come back alive (secretly they felt she was smarter than her three pretty sisters Vrishchika, Varoli, and Jhilleeka, though all four of them might have

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caused shepha-harShaNa in males who beheld them). She was keen to know the whole story but they asked her to go have a bath before talking any further.

Later that night having narrated the whole tale in candle light her parents said that they would seek the help of the young activists of the rAShTrIya svatantratA senAnI organization to convey her companions to their houses. They added that it was indeed only due to them that Vrishchika, Varoli, and Jhilleeka were alive for they were almost kidnapped by the marUnmatta-s. The RSS had also given their father a handgun for self-defense but her family exclaimed that they had not even sensed that the three of them had crept to the house in the darkness. Ensconced in their roomLootika excitedly told her sisters about her field trip and declared that she was on the verge of new discoveries. She felt that at least two of the peacock spiders she had collected might turn out to be new species. She was also excited about a mite she had collected and wished to show it to Somakhya. Lootika then inquired with Jhilleeka if she had taken proper care their ant colony and made observations on them. Jhilleeka surprised her sister by showing a device she had rigged up to record noises made ants on the computer. Then Vrishchika asked Lootikas help with a problem regarding fluid flow in tracheoles which was part of her physiology course in medical school beforeeverything shutdown. After Lootika had laid to rest Vrishchikas problem, Varoli recounted to her experiments with a compositan plant which was colloquially known as Afzal Khans head to extract an alkaloid from it. Lootika arranged her specimens late into the night and before falling asleep from sheer tiredness and tension she asked her sister Varoli if something else of note had happened in her absence. Varoli told her that she had started a tank of Gambusia to do some genetics and that she would show it her the next day.

As they lay on their cots to sleep, Jhilleeka remarked that she was in reality was still shell-shocked by the days events and wondered if the marUnmattas might creep in at night. The three then narrated the part of the tale their parents had glossed over while recounting the events to Lootika. They had not checked the news the night before or earlier that morning; hence, they knew nothing of the UCC bill in the parliament and it took them by surprise. Their father learning what had happened, shut down his clinic, and rushed to pick them, deposit them at home, then go the station and collect Lootika, who was to arrive later in the day. After picking up Vrischika and Varoli he headed to the school of Jhilleeka. He asked them to remain in the car with the door shut and went into the school to fetch Jhilleeka. Just then Vrischika saw her senior Meghana come by and call her. She opened the door of the car to talk to her. Even as they were doing so, a bearded guy with no mustache was speeding by on his bike. Meghana waved out him. Suddenly he made a turn and came close to the car swirled around raising clouds of dust and exhaust before bringing hisbike to a stop. He leered at the sisters and chatted briefly with Meghana. Then, he shouted out something in the Urdu. At his call several more of his companions joined him and they rushed foward to drag out Vrischika and Varoli and hoist them on their bikes. Varoli said she felt everything go black before her eyes, when she heard Vrischika yell garalaM prayu~Ngdhi before they covered her mouth. Varoli somehow reached out to her pocket, drew the garala-sha~NkulA they had made with Lootika and Somakhyas help and stabbed her attacker repeatedly. He recoiled

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yelling in intense pain. Vrischikas sha~NkulA had jammed in its cover and she was struggling withit, when Varoli having freed herself briefly jabbed one of Vrishchikas attackers. That gave Vrischika enough time to free her arm a bit and draw out her sha~NkulA and pierce her attacker. He too fell back in pain. But two of their companions who were uninjured withdrew backwards to draw their handguns and take aim at the girls shouting aloud Daro mat yaar; ye Hindu kAyar hai.n, ik momIn sau Hindua.n. Just then their father was emerging from the school with Jhilleeka and was shocked to see what had happened. But as though indra had favored them that day some young men of the rAShTrIya svatantrA senA had also arrived there just then. They fired a couple of shots in the air which made the attackers turn around and mount their bikes and flee. Then the senAs men helped their father escort them home. However, they had bad news to give: there was no way of getting to the railway station as the Quwat-al-Islam masjid had assembled a force of 1500 armed men which was impossible to breach and that there were several instances of arson taking place on the way, even in the market beside their residence. They tried hard to contact Lootika but could not do so as all connectivity had been cut off. The sisters finally concluded by saying that though they knew Lootika was most resourceful and would hence come back, their parents forgot all else and were particularly distraught, having taken Lootika for dead adding thatthey felt after all their parents loved her more than the rest of them. Lootika almost shouted at Vrishchika: How many times have I told you that one should not even show recognition of that mongrel girl Meghana?

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Chapter 2mR^ita-matsyo nAma dvitIyo.adhyAyaH |

Sometime later the country abruptly returned to normalcy the Hindus heaved a sigh of relief. The buzz going around was that the seasoned politician and home minister Vidharam Yadav, who was reputed to have never been on the losing side, had negotiated a deal by which national peace was restored instantly. He had appeared on national media and declared that in a week a major announcement would be made regarding the peace deal and its details. Thus, the last semester of their degree course resumed and Lootika, Somakhya and others were back in their university. Somakhya and Lootika, having much to catch up, went to their favorite meadow behind their university departments and wandered to the shade of the large elephant apple tree that stood in themidst of it. Somakhya eagerly inquired about the results of the experiments of Varoli on the Gambusia fish. He excitedly asked: Did you sequence the `acclimatization-negative loci` of the mutant fish that appeared to prevent them from transmitting the acclimatization capability to theiroffspring. Lootika: Yes we got 4 of them and sequenced them though I have not looked at the sequences yet as you are best qualified to take the first stab at them. She pulled out her tablet and showed the data to Somakhya. Lootika: Ah the first mutation seems like in no mans land. Somakhya snatching her tablet and scrolling down the chromosome remarked: Hey, not really! See it is in the regulatory region of WDR5: part of the MLL1 histone H3K4 methylase complex. That clinches our hunch that this is an epigenetic phenomenon! Lets look at the next one. Lootikataking back her tablet said: Here it is, one of the DNMT3 paralogs of the fish-specific expansion. And look at this! The remaining two are also other DNMT3 paralogs. They did a spontaneous high-five and said: This is splendid! Somakhya: I have devised in my mind a new sequencing methodology. I think you should get your little sis Jhilleeka to try to implement it along with my acquaintance Sandeep, who seems to have conquered the necessary microfluidics technology and has obtained some money to do such things. It would be a good thing for Jhilleeka to spend her long vacation on. We can then sequence the methylomes and study the status of the various heat acclimatization loci. Lootika: Indeed that would be a great thing to do. It could also be leveraged for our long term plan to understand how the XX-XY and WZ-ZZ sex determination evolved in the two species of Gambusia.

A week later Vidharam Yadav made his much awaited announcement. In the deal he had cut, the two opposition leaders Azhar Mehmood and Sajid Mir were to respectively become prime minister and deputy-prime minister. The UCC bill would never be mentioned on the floor of the parliamentagain and Sharia law would be implemented in all places the Momin were in majority. Its implementation was to be in three phases: In the first it was jail time for most crimes deemed fit forsuch by the Qazis. In the second the amputations and lashings were to follow and finally the beheadings and stonings in the third. They also wanted to ban the rAShTrIya svatantratA senA, but that did not come through the compromise was they were banned from starting a shAkhA in any area having more than 40% Momin. Somakhya was walking into the university department. He ran into Sharad who excitedly remarked: That was a master stroke by the revolutionary and seasoned politician Vidharam Yadav. Indeed, who else in the ruling coalition would have thought

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of ceding power in the interest of national peace. Somakhya: Well, I really do not want to hear any of that crap the consequences of this will be felt for long.

He felt low and deciding not to attend classes walked away towards the meadow and sat under the large elephant apple tree. He kept looking at the alignment of the DNMT3 genes from Lootika and Varolis fishes. After some time he sensed Lootika walking towards him. He did not look at her facebut as she neared him he asked: What about the fishes; did you resequence the mutants? Lootika did not answer but appeared to be quietly standing beside him for sometime. Surprised he looked up. Her face was drawn and she was almost in tears. Somakhya: I know it is a depressing day but your face looks funereal. Why what happened? Lootika: Well, the fish are dead and worse things have happened. All the fish mysteriously died. When I was away at college my mother asked Varoli and Jhilleeka to dispose them right away as she feared the house being polluted by the stench of dead fish. They seem to have thrown them out and our cat chitra seems to have eaten them. Now it is seriously ill and I doubt it would make it past this day despite my father attemptingto treat it. Somakhya: Lootika, if there is even one of these dead fish left ask Vrischika to do a blood agar culture as soon as possible. Instruct her to be careful wear gloves and work in a hood and all that. Then get the plates to me. Two days latter Somakhya lifted his eye from the ocular of the microscope and turning to Lootika and Vrishchika remarked Look at those saffron rods it is Edwardsiella tarda. Vrischika: trayastriMshAH! Good we took precaution. Our father had described to me a case: a man had come to him from Mumbai where he had sustained an injury while sailing. His leg muscles were undergoing rapid necrosis. It turned out to be E. tarda! We maybe able to save chitra after all. Somakhya: We must sequence the genome of this killer there must be something of interest there.

Lootika isolated DNA from the cells. She had to put it away in the freezer because the exams were round the corner and they had no time for sequencing. The evening their exams were over, Lootika, Vrischika and Somakhya walked towards the AvaraNa of the sarasvatI temple that was at the edge of the cemetery. The sarasvatI was the only deity that remained of the pantheon of the shiva temple that once stood at that place. Vidrum wanted to join them too. However, he was with Meghana and feared that a dreadful confrontation might emerge between her and Lootika. So he merely waved to the three and went his way. As Somakhya, Lootika and Vrischika sat in silence ona culvert of the temple to take in the quiet and mild evening breeze they heard a couple of talking mynahs (a common Indian starling). The mynahs fluttering up and down said: pilipichChikA pilipichChikA || Vrischika: That surely looks like a sign to us. Somakhya: Perhaps. In any case let us perform the homa. They soon created a sthaNDila in the temple courtyard and having kindled the fire started making oblations with the mantra: pilipichChike! skanda-dUte! juhuyAmatvA asmAkam prAkAra samIpe vetAlaM shIgram Anaya Anaya svAhA || After they had finished about 52 oblations they had a real scare as they saw a being walk towards them holding a broad-bladed weapon. They thought we have not even said prakaTi bhava and who is this being that has so menacingly arrived it looks like a rAkShasa and not the vetAla whom we were expecting. But their fears were laid to rest as the being came closer it happened to just be Vidrum who had

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arrived carrying his billhook and took a seat in their vicinity. As they completed the 143rd oblationthey felt a sensation of being overwhelmed. They immediately switched to the incantation: rudrasya bhR^itya! iha prakaTI bhava hulu hulu hili hili svAhA || After sometime they felt they were entering a trance. At that point they knew the vetAla had indeed come and they started calling upon him to start speaking. As a vetAla might respond to the AryavAk or to the dramiDa vAk or the apabhraMsha they had to call upon him multilingually: bho vetAla shIgraM vada vada!Dei chollu chollu vetAlaNe shIgrama pechu pechu! arre bhetAla mahNa mahNa! Soon they felt lapsing into an utter silence. And then they heard the vetAla speak to them in their minds. When it was over they snapped back to the realm of the real world. They typed in what they had heard from the vetAla on their tablets and emailed it Vidrum.

They asked him to open and compare the messages. To his surprise he found Somakhya, Lootika and Vrischika had sent more or less the same thing as the message of the vetAla:

The dead fishs story has just started. It will verily be like the utkrAntida which has come to the world of men. The bhArata-s will tremble like never before. The pANDu host had faced the prospect of arjuna kaunteya dying from failing to kill jayadratha. Then kR^iShNa devakIputra led him to the realm of the young hero who revealed the mighty pAshupataM; thus the feet of the young hero will show you the way out when the moment of reckoning arrives.Vidrum remarked: That is really strange. A fitting message from a vetAla. May be you guys are destined for attaining the status of a vidyAdhara!

Lootika and Vrischika: That is a real one. Somakhya do you make sense of that? Somakhya only said: Lets go home. Now that our business is over, there is no point lingering here with gaNapatisagents. Vidrum, Lootika and Vrischika were really curious and kept pestering Somakhya about thevetAlas revelation but he said nothing. They sauntered back towards their houses at the fork they parted ways with Vrischika still yelling: You have to figure this out; you seem to know something but still keep quiet. Truth to be told, it sounds a bit ominous. Somakhya: vetAla-s are always ominous. Its getting late your parents might get worried. Then Somakhya continued ambling with Vidrum towards the latters house. Vidrum: Would you like to catch todays match with some pakoDA-s or samosA-s. Somakhya: Better get home soon, you know the marUnmatta-s or shavasAdhaka-s could be on the prowl as night grows. So he took his bike from Vidrums home and sped towards his own which was at some distance from those of the other three, ensconced in a walled compound. Once there he typed out an email to Lootika:We should try to sequence that E.tarda DNA you isolated as soon as possible. We will try it out in Sandeeps machine tomorrow. Get Jhilleeka along so that we could prime her to get started.Just before he hit the bed he saw Lootikas response:OK, will get the DNA and meet you after lunch at Sandeeps lab. Jhilleeka has been making good progress she has already got her code to respond to the mock hardware she rigged up at home. I also have made the clones of the archaeal reverse gyrase and the plasmid DNA polymerase you indicated. Lets see how much protein we get.

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The next day they got the sequencing going and spent some time marveling at Jhilleekas hardware and code and playing with it much to the encouragement and delight of the youngster. A day latterwhole sequence was ready and the common place genes annotated. Lootika visited Somakhyas house and showed it to him as he had asked her not to email it to him. Somakhya scrolled through the genomes and remarked: Well, it seems to have a multi-drug resistance plasmid. That is interesting but not entirely surprising given your cats demise despite all attempts to save it. But there is something more. Do you see these three unusual genes which have not been curated in themidst of this type VI secretory system operon? Lootika: Well those should be the clue as to what this bug did our fishes and cat. Would you be able to crack them? Somakhya transferred the sequences to his work station and spent some time analyzing them. After a few minutes he remarked: They are pretty interesting indeed. The first is a caspase-like peptidase notice that histidine and cysteine it should be an active enzyme. The second is a deaminase notice those two cysteines and that aspartate and glutamate should be an active one too. The third is defeatingme I will need to throw all my skills at cracking that one if at all possible. Finding their substratesis going to be harder. Dear Lootika I leave that to your wizardry. Lootika: Yes I could try to figurethose out but it is going to be some effort and time is short as we will be leaving the country in a few days. Somakhya: In any case I will continue working on the third one.

While Somakhya and Lootika were already fully formed scientists, ahead of their peers in more than one way, the conventions of the world required that they acquire a doctoral degree to be accepted as so. Hence, as was traditional, they decided to go a mlechCha country to pursue the same. Some days later it was time for them to go. They met for one last time in private before leaving; they had already bid good bye to their friends Vidrum and others. They spontaneously embraced each other. Though experiencing high pleasure from the contact with Lootika, Somakhya was tinged with sorrow and thought: Pleasure and sorrow are two sides of the same coin. The source of pleasure is also one of sorrow. Alas our paths diverge and the vyomayAna will place us apart Out of sight is out of mind and a woman like her would not be found even if one were to go around the world like kumAra in the contest for brahmAs mango. He looked intently at Lootikas pretty face. He felt it was cold and unemotional. He quickly snapped back reminding himself that as the shAstra-s had warned such pleasures were ephemeral and are ordained to go away. He thought: After all she might get a hundred males to mill around her wherever she goes; so why should I reside in the torment of pining for her. So he abruptly turned to leave. However, Lootika extended her hand and grasped his palm and placed something in it. He took it but did not see it until he had mounted his bike and sped away. When he opened his palm he saw a square claytablet, much like a Harappan seal with a spider carved on it. He felt the connection was after all not entirely lost.

The rest of the day he applied himself to the mystery gene and by night he figured it out after a complex battle with its sequence. The last email he sent that day was addressed to Lootika:lUtike priyatame: it is an ADP ribosyltransferase. May pUShaN bear you aid!

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Lootika caught in the bustle of leaving the country the next day never got to respond to his mail or appreciate the great conquest of Somakhya; nevertheless she quickly recorded it in her files and left.

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Chapter 3jiva-rajjusarjo nAma tritIyo .adhyAyaH |

Somakhya and Lootika breezed through their doctoral programs in two and a half years after over coming several obstacles placed by mlechCha-s who stood like vR^itra-s and prahlAda-s in their path. In the process Somakhya, unlike most of his coethnics, learned not to fall to the empty enchantments of the sweet tongue of the mlechCha-s. This was just one of their faces in an enforcement strategy involving both good and bad cops. Lootika who had been informed of the history of the mlechCha-s by Somakhya in the past was also able to do the same. Having fathomed the mlechCha, they navigated their systems to use their vast resources to further their scientific explorations. Now that they were equipped with the requisite educational upAdhis they started their own labs.

It was then that one day Somakhya was visited by his friend Indrasena. Indrasena: O Somakhya you are to me like shaunaka kapeya to abhipratAriNa kAkShasenI. I seek that you enlighten me about the secret mantra of kubera. Somakhya acceded and said: For that we need to head to the secluded spot in the mountains. Thus, the next day they decided to take some time off. First they went to the shooting range to practice their rifles and then headed off the mountains. There under a large cedar tree they set up sthaNDila for the ritual and invoked vaishravaNa and Indrasena was conferred the mantra. Thereafter they wandered off to a still pond high on the mountain and collected some water. Upon returning they prepared a hay infusion and inoculated it with the water they had collected. Few days later they placed a drop under the microscope to take a look. While Somakhya had done this many times over from the time he was a child it was something that never ceased to amaze him, even as it had captivated van Leeuwenhoek centuries ago or the forgotten naturalists like Btschli and Mller. The microscope field was abuzz with all manner of bacteria: bacilli, cocci, vibrios and spirillums in a chaotic frenzy like marUnmatta-s pouring out of a Karachi masjid after the Friday ShalAt to rage over the latest bombing of their brethren by a mlechCha drone. They saw the ciliates Paramecium, Pseudomonilicaryon, and Dileptus making their way like giants in the world of the bacteria. Paramecium propelled itself elegantly as a submarine, while Pseudomonilicaryon and Dileptus navigated their way with their waving trunks amidst the bacteria like elephants clearing a throng of men. Then there was the ciliate Euplotes, which literally walked on its bundles of cilia truly an animalcule but all in a single cell. Halteria, yet another ciliate seemed to them like a sputnik which jumped around, leaving the field as quickly as it entered it. Then there was the beautiful but sessile Stentor, which created eddies drawing the buzzing bacteria to their doom the wheel of life and death playing out at the level of single cells. But all of a sudden a new ciliate zoomed into the field and dashed straight for a Paramecium. It looked like Monodinium. When it made contact with the Paramecium the latter discharged several missiles in the form of trichocysts and then froze. But even before that the Monodinium had fired toxocysts right into its flank the contents of which had paralyzed the Paramecium no time.

Somakhya and Indrasena watched in wonder and remarked to each other that they should get to

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the bottom of the toxocyst of Monodinium. Somakhya: If the paralysis of the Paramecium is so rapid then may be the microtubules are being affected in some way. Indrasena: I could test this with my florescence probes that interact with the microtubule. In the mean time we should get its genome sequenced so that you can go after the proteins. Indrasena did his experiment the next day and confirmed that the microtubules were breaking down. He also extracted a small amount ofprotein with an apparatus he had newly devised and showed that after the attack tubulins were being proteolyzed in the Paramecium. In the meantime the genome of this ciliate was also sequenced and Somakhya was looking at its proteins. Indrasena entered his office even as he was looking at the sequences to tell Somakhya of his results. Due to his early experience with ciliate genomes, Somakhya remarked that he had identified 8 MAC-Perforin(MACPF) like proteins that could form the delivery complex for the toxins by the toxicysts. Indrasena excitedly told him that he had evidence for the tubulins being proteolyzed. Suddenly, a spark of insight went off in Somakhyas head: If I now detect the proteases using the genome sequence we should narrow down the toxins. This MACPF-like complex formed by the toxicyst is likely to deliver these proteolytic toxins, very much analogous to the cytotoxic T-cells delivering granzymes via the vertebrate equivalent of the complex. Indrasena: But would there not be numerous peptidase genes in the genome. Somakhya: Yes indeed, but lets look at them in any case; we might be able to find some additional clue in the sequences. After some analysis Somakhya found a series of proteases with a peculiar, common N-terminal domain that was also found combined with some other enzymatic domains. He reasoned that this domain might allow interaction with the MACPF proteins to deliver the toxin domain into the target cell. Indrasena tested this hypothesis with a fluorescent protein construct and showed it to be strongly supported. They soon published this work in a scientific journal. Varoli read that paper with great interest and was inspired by it do some further experiments. She reasoned that the pair comprised of the ciliate MACPF proteins and the protease N-terminal domain might constitute a good system for delivering proteins into cells. So she constructed a vector system, and as a proof of concept and showed that she could deliver a new type of bacterial PIWI protein, which Somakhya had recently described, to mutagenize specific genes in particular tissues. She wrote a draft of a paper and sent it to her sister Lootika to see if it could be extended further. Lootika was greatly excited by this system and did her own experiment of delivering a kinase to a group of cells to activate a signaling pathway. Together they published their results sometime later.

Over the past few years since they had parted ways, Somakhya and Lootika frequently thought of each other but neither contacted the other. Each felt that the other might be harboring misgivings about their respective selves. Moreover, Somakhya had trained his mind not be distracted by women who were beyond reach and generally did not let the thoughts of Lootika linger long. Thus, he had withdrawn from the world of people like a parivrAjaka. Lootika had been approachedby numerous men with various endowments but felt that when they had strong bodies they lacked the shAstra-s and when they had some shAstra-j~nAna it was never as complete as hers. So while socially kept busy she was never really drawn to any of them. Nevertheless, whenever Somakhya and Lootika read each others scientific works they invariably stopped to wonder how much more

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they could have achieved had they been working together as in the past. One of those who had been interested in Lootika was a mlechCha, Dick Shuman, but Lootika kept away from him sociallyas his mlechChAnusara was rather contrary to her ways, being one from a high vipra kula. Nevertheless, she gave him a copy of her recent paper with Varoli and parted ways with him. As these things were going on, Lootika was joined by a student Temlen. Soon after joining, she was in Lootikas office expressing her wish to work on something new and different from the work on the diversity of sex-determination systems of fishes Lootika was working on at that point. Lootika suddenly remembered the E.tarda toxins that Somakhya had identified before they left the shores of the holy land of bhArata and thought it might be a good thing for Temlen to work on. She also thought if it did work out it might be a chance to get back in touch with Somakhya. So she pulled out that material from her old folders and sent it over to Temlen with the challenge: Identify thesubstrates of these three toxin enzymes. Over the coming months Temlen and Lootika worked out the roles of their toxin enzymes and identified their substrates and the mechanisms of their action. They then wrote a draft of the manuscript and sent it over to Somakhya. At that time Somakhya was working out the biosynthetic pathways and evolutionary origins of the ciliate toxinsblepharismin and stentorin, when he wa