The children - 14

A human body is a mere cocoon within which lies the slimy caterpillar of life - gently growing into a beautiful butterfly.

When the time comes the cocoon is broken off and the butterfly flies out into the horizon. That is the fact of life. But we seldom get it right. Within the small time span we spend in the cocoon, we get attached to it and forget the real purpose- to grow up, break the shell and fly out.

We tend to crouch in fear- fear of losing the cocoon and the numerous other things that come with it and thus prevent our growth.

There are some things in life, which make us forget the illusion of the cocoon, which carefully hint us about the awaiting heaven outside. A smile of thanks, a laugh of a child, and the scene of pure nature to name a few. And the later was what made Thendral’s heart feel at ease now.

It was a sight not to be missed. It was a sight that would induce a kind of elated feeling in every physical body with a soul hiding in it.

It was the ashram. It was situated halfway near the foot of beautifully green hills and a thick silver waterfall trickled down from the left side. Huge fluffs of clouds floated past the ashram now and then giving a surreal feel to it.

With dense clouds floating below the entire structure, it seemed like the ashram was propped up somewhere above the clouds in the sky from Thendral’s view point as they climbed up the hill.

A tall granite temple structure stood erect prominently amidst a long row of low roofed buildings with similar architecture style.

The front yard was filled with all sorts of flowery shrubs and there were some small to big domestic animals roaming about freely.

There were hares and some big looking flightless birds, few fawns and ponies ran around the drive away as they drove past the simple looking gate.

Sean noticed that there was no fence what so ever but just a wicker gate. Damn..some security, he thought.

As a matter of fact the security was next to nothing. The gate was opened by a simple looking man in white cotton attire who came running to the gate as they honked. He didn’t even ask them anything. He simply opened the gate and stood aside smiling.

They went in. Even as they entered Thendral could feel the calmness wrapping her up warmly. She felt the heavy aura instantly. there were people moving about in every direction but the place was reeking a weird kind of silence.

Not the silence that would make you scream 'wtf'? but the kind of silence that would tie up the inhibitions in you and make you calm and relaxed. Sean was new to this and he was a bit tensed to undergo such a feeling.

The main lobby was a wooden structure with white finish to it. No added luxury anywhere, just bare necessities were there. They sat on the square mats on the floor (Sean with a little difficulty) as they waited for their turn. The same man who had opened the door for them had run back to the reception room and came to them.

“anbae sivam(Love is God). How, may I be of help to you sir?” He bowed before them before asking them.

Sean told some coherent lies.

He told him that he was a friend of Ms. Pavithra who was a follower of the guru. He said that he had come to seek advice from the guru for his mental trauma and also to meet with pavithra who is already there. The man in white stood listening to the story with the same smile still pasted on his face.

He then asked them politely to wait until he got back with information.

After a few minutes of pure silence they were interrupted by the soft voice of the man.

“Please follow me sir. Before that, if you have any luggage you may tell me I will fetch it for you”

Luggage? How the hell? Oh pavi must have told him that they were planning to lay low for a while Sean thought with
satisfaction.

“No thanks, we come free of luggage” Thendral smiled at the man.
They then followed him through an annex door.

Now they entered into the section behind the front buildings. The sight stunned her. It was almost similar to ancient day gurukul.

The entire stretch was made of long thatched roof bamboo huts with few modern structures here and there. How the hell would they survive in something like this during the relentless winters? It is not our good old India where all time is good to live in a hut.

Thendral was thinking hard.

“What on god’s name is this place?” Sean whispered in total confusion.

“Ssh..”

They were ushered in to one of the simplest looking huts. Must be a waiting room, Sean thought and he was wrong.

It was the living quarters of someone. Oh really? But there was no bed or even a wooden cot anywhere but just a bamboo mat rolled and left in one corner. There was an earthen plate and a jug near it.

There was a small platform under a window with some papers and books on the side, a reading section. Nice. He thought.

“Welcome my children” An elderly (?) man smiled at them. He wore no shirt but a pair of loose cotton pants and he sat cross legged on a bamboo mat. The light from the window behind him provided a beautiful halo like light behind his head. ‘Nice little magic’ Sean thought cynically as he looked at him.

The Guru smiled at him meaningfully with his eyes twinkling. Sean’s heart twitched at the sight of it and he went silent.

“Sit down my dears” Guruji said.

"Guruji?”

“Guru? Who is guru. I am no Guru” he laughed.

“Then where is guruji?” she asked in confusion.

“In here” He pointed to his heart “up there” he pointed to the sky and then said “But we always think that he is sitting here” he pointed to his head and smiled. Sean thought he was trying to impress them.

"Well we thought a Guru would be like"

"Like what? a person with blemish less face and a halo behind?" he asked with the same smile and looked straight in Sean's eyes. They were speechless.

"I will tell you a secret my child, I am not a Guru or saint. I am just another man."he laughed like a child and continued.

"You..are your true guru. May be I will show you where you are that's about what I do. Nothing more"

"Whoa..whoa..you lost me there. I am my Guru? Then why the hell should I come to you?"Sean asked him in confusion.

"exactly my question. Why did you come to me?" he smiled at Sean who thought that the old man had completely lost his senses.

"Then why do people search for Gurus if they themselves are gurus?" Thendral asked him.

"Perhaps that don't know it yet.
Searching doesn't mean you lost something. In fact you have nothing in here to lose. We often forget that."

"But you certainly lost your brains"Sean spat at him in irritation.

"Is that what you think my son? How lovely. How lovely" he laughed with eyes twinkling and said "How wonderful would it be to lose one's brains and live by the heart? We use too much of our brain. We use brains where we need to use our soul and we use our heart where we need to use our brain, that is why we are making lives miserable I think. But as you said, how can I be so sure? After all I lost my mind." he laughed again before asking.

"Tell me Sean, how long has it been since you searched for that light within you?"

"The light?"

"Yes the light. The light of happiness. The one which kept you glowing inside out. You think you lost it don't you? You think your life's happiness is lost with one glass of poisoned drink?"

Sean was taken aback. How the hell did he know about that? Nobody except Thendral knows it.

"H..How?"

" Your light is right around the corner. You will find it sooner than you think. And so..What sort of help do you need from this old man?”he smiled again.

“I ..we..are in need of a”

“Place to stay?”

“Yes.”

“Who am I to say no to you?” he smiled and gestured at the young man nearby to come closer.

“Jana. Give them the basement room to stay. The one shiva used when he was here, remember?”

“Yes ayya”

“It still has all that computers and things there right?”

“Yes ayya”

“Good. Take them there. And ask Manya to get internet connections for those computers immediately. Will you?”

“Yes ayya.”

“Why are you doing that?”Thendral asked him suddenly. She was confused. Why would he ask him to do something like that? How much had Pavi told this man? How much can she trust him who speaks in riddles?

Guruji smiled at her. He gestured at the man to go out and wait and then turned towards her.

“You might want to use them to get information about everything for your son, don’t you?”

“My..s.son...h..how..did Pavithra tell you?” Thendral suspected he would say something like that.Just seconds ago he had dissected Sean's life. Now hers.

“Yes of course. What, you thought I found them by some mystic powers?”he laughed heartily before continuing.

“I have no powers my dear. I only have love towards people. Go ahead with your plans my dear child, You will be given the right direction towards the right path at right time. It always happens. You are a soldier in the big board of chess. This is a very important game and you are a very strong soldier,that I can tell” he smiled.

He got up from his seat and opened the back door which showed off a garden and a thatched roof gazebo with a beautiful 'lingam' of about four feet height in the dead center.

The stream they saw from down there was flowing into the gazebo. In fact the stream made a gushing cold water pool there inside the gazebo, in the middle of which the lingam stood. The gazebo was made in such a way that the stream swept past the lingam without any hindrance to the prayers done from the gazebo floor.

He gestured them to move on and then turned towards the garden to the shrine. He walked with an amazingly fast stride. It looked like he ran but he was walking.



Kevin was perspiring. He had learnt what he shouldn’t have.

It happened accidentally. He had walked on to the cafeteria in the station and was about to make a cup of Joe for him. He noticed that the sugar cubes had run out and so he bent down to the get a new box from the cupboard. That is when he heard them.
They thought there was no one there and went about talking.

“So, are you sure that it is green to go?”

“Yes, that is what chief said. We are just to show off that we are doing this, the real search is done by up above”

“You mean the feds?”

“I donno “

“I heard him talking to someone over phone. We are to do the make believe action of searching her and do nothing. There is something big going on here Dave.”

“Does Sean know about this?”

“Nah..chief sent him on a long vacation”

“huh…”

“And Kevin is to be watched. Chief thinks Sean had left the city. But those people don’t think so”

“What?”

“Yeah. I heard him convince whoever was there on the other side of the phone that sean had left the city. But he was stopped in middle and then he said he will ask Kevin. Kevin is close to Sean and so if Sean is still in the reach Kevin might give a lead.

But the person on other side said something and then chief told that he will not ask anything to Kevin but keep an eye on him.
Do you get that? They are planning to spy and bug a bloody cop. Who do you think they are?”

“I donno man. They feds?”

“How the hell would I know?”

“But why? Who exactly in fed would do this and why?”

“I donno man, but if I were Sean or Kevin I would keep my butt clean off this waste. Wouldn’t want the feds all over me. That would be nasty?”

“I still can’t understand why the feds are involved in a simple snatch and kill case. Is there a cliché?”

“How would I know? Listen, I didn’t hear anything, I didn’t tell you anything and you didn’t hear anything from me. Is that right?”

“Yeah..I get it. Wanna a smoke? Man, I need one right now. Let’s go to Johnny’s”.

Kevin walked with pumping heart into the gas station. It was 10pm and he was expecting a call there.

“Chief?”

“Yes, Kev. I hope you are all right?”

“I am. For now I guess”

“What do you mean?”

“They smelled the s*** chief. They are going to tail me any minute now. Chief please make your alibi strong. Have you done that yet?”

“Yes, I left the bird in the safe nest and have been doing just that from yesterday morning. Now I am about as safe as houses. Don’t worry on that. Now I cannot go back there which would be risky. I am planning to hike a ride there ‘morrow morning. What’s that about tailing you?”

“The loop is getting big chief. They have asked to stop the search on that woman. Someone else is doing that.”

“I saw two of that someone else, day before yesterday in my house.”

“FEDs?“

“Don’t have any idea yet Kev. But this thing is way too deeper that we thought. You please play safe will you?”

"Yes. I will"

"Anything else Kev?"

"Well there is something very important i learned later today. But I am a little hesitant to tell it in a phone chief. I am not so sure and I still have a feeling that someone is already tailing me. I will try to mail you the information to the ashram in confidence."

"Ok. Be safe Kev."

“Aye..aye.. chief"

Kevin felt so scared after learning the fact, that thing which he found from the sheriff's office. Now he felt one hundred percent more relaxed after that call with Sean though he didn't say it to him.

He walked out of the gas station and hailed a cab to the station.

Kevin’s house was a small board house nestled in the deepest crevice of a garden. He had inherited it from his aged granny and had lived there ever since. When he parked his old blue sedan in the garage he felt something fishy and out of ordinary. He then told himself that he was getting more paranoid.

He changed and was fixing himself a drink when he heard the noise, a small dangling.

The small metal spoon wind chime his granny had made. He looked out the door, it was not windy. His hand cautiously went to the draw to retrieve his office glock.

It would have been much better if he hadn’t heard the sound. It would have been much smoother if he hadn’t reacted on that sound. But he heard and he reacted and that made him a liability. A bad one.

Kevin was surprised by the blow. It was strong enough to knock him down flat out.
In seconds blood started to ooze out from beneath his ears.



“So that is it?”

“Well that’s about it. I cannot contact him anymore, at least not in the near future. I need Kevin to be safe", Sean sat talking to Pavithra in the ashram’s cafeteria without knowing what had happened to Kevin.He kept going.

“Me contacting him will only increase the risk in his side. We have got a nice little haven here, where we can sit and do the groundwork. As I said I think it is deeper than we thought. We need to call on some people to know more stuff. I know where to start and remind me to thank your guru for installing internet in the computers, for that is what is going you get us out investigating in the free world without getting into trouble.”

“Oh you would thank another person after some time”

“Who is it?”

“Inba”

“For what?”

“He is bloody fantastic in hacking and cracking open about almost anything in the internet. He says loads about search spiders and stuff like that. He and Thendral was online the whole night and “

“And???”

“They seemed pretty excited when I saw them in the morning during breakfast. They said they had cracked the first shell of haziness. But Thendral did seem a little off”

“Did she start off about going back to her house?”

“Well yes, she actually did. She s..”

“Where is she?” Sean interjected hastily as he jumped up from his seat.

“She..She said she wanted to go to the library. Why?”

“where is it?”

“On the other side of the Ashram”

“Did anyone go with her?”

“Ah..no.. She said she wanted sometime alone for herself, She even stopped Inba”

“S***. How can you be so careless dammit?”

“What??”

“What?? You want to know what? She just sneaked out of your vigilant eyes and at a time like this. people are waiting to hunt her down and you let her walk off. That is what” Sean ran in the direction of the library while Pavithra stood there rooted to the ground. On hearing the end of the conversation Inba too took off behind Sean and they both reached the long library cabin at the same time.

Sean pushed the door open.

The library was cold .. and empty.


Will come…..

 

Dear nithin, malar, sapthu , dee yo and all other readers.

Sorry for the delay on posting. I hate giving excuses even though i have a valid one. It is over now.

I hope this would be my last delay-relay. From now on, you can expect the episodes twice a week Mondays and Thursdays spot on.(the ride might get a little bumpy and i know you need to be on the wheels all the time)

Thanks for your support.

please forgive me.:bowdown:bowdown