Paranthaka - I

Arjun sat up straight and buried his face with feverish excitement into the old pages of the book in his hand. The historical novel he was reading had reached its climax. “The battle scene was set, a small Chozha army struggling valiantly to fight off the mighty Hoysalas, trying hard to delay the end of their glorious dynasty. The inexperienced yet determined prince Karikala , guided by the ablest of generals, Paranthaka led the army with great courage. As the two of them were embroiled in warding off swarms of enemy swordsman, a Hoysala bowsman prepared to take aim. The prince was in his sight but Paranthaka was constantly in the way. And then arrived the moment he was waiting for, when Paranthaka lunged forward and out of his line of fire. He pulled back the bowstring in a flash and let the arrow fly. Now, it was not without reason, Paranthaka was the respected warrior he was. His speed, skill and reflexes were quite unmatched and it was his quick anticipation that saved Karikala…..”

“Arjun! Arjun! Are you done with clearing the mess that you call a room? It has been more than an hour since I told you to do that”

Even before Arjun could slam the book shut, his mother entered the room. He tried greeting her with his practiced “no-reply-give-nothing-away" expression of bewilderment and confusion, hoping this would just elicit a second round of room cleaning instructions, sprinkled with a few choice adjectives highlighting his ineptitude, his imperviousness to insults, his despicable laziness and finally the trump card- a threat of bringing the matter to the notice of higher authorities, namely his father followed by a brief description of its disastrous consequences. But he was not to be so easily let off that day. The hawk-eyed observation skills of Mrs. Lalita Shankar were at their best as she noticed the book in Arjun’s hands. Displaying the agility of a hawk (to be confused with the afore-mentioned bird), she swooped on it and snatched it out, as he stood reactionless.

“So this is what you have been doing for the past hour. Now that it is no longer there to distract you, I am sure you can finish your cleaning chore for the day.”

Realizing that silence was no longer an intelligent choice, Arjun screamed “But Mom! Please! I am almost done. I will finish the book in ten minutes and start cleaning the moment I do that. Please don’t take it away”

Mrs. Lalita pondered a while, wondering whether to give in to Arjun with the kindheartedness of a bovine nurturing its calf, or to stand her ground with the ruthlessness of a tigress teaching its cub to hunt. However, being overdosed with animal metaphors, she simply decided to stay faithful to the rules and norms of the pantheon of unreasonable illogical mothers, and deny that ten minute grace period to Arjun with a firm

“No way. If you want this back, you are going to have to earn it. Finish cleaning and come and take it”.

And, she left the room slamming the door shut with a flourish of accomplishment and a smirk of smug satisfaction. Arjun hesitated, thought about using the beg-plead-please-please technique, but the fact that his mother was in her special zone of inexplicable irrationality, made him realize the futility of any attempt to get back his book. So he grit his teeth, clenched his knuckles, took a deep breath, clutched his hair, and desperately tried to drive away the incessant questions that echoed about in his head “What happens to Paranthaka? What happens to Karikala? ”

“Paranthaka is dead. Three cowardly arrows did it. He is dead.”

If this had been a Hitchcock movie, this is when you would have heard the eerie piano chords, followed by a deafening silence and a close up of the startled open-mouthed protagonist. If one were to display a better choice of words and put it more eloquently, this would be the Jajaaaaaaang moment. But this is reality and conforming to it, Arjun took his own sweet time to let the words spoken sink in and as soon as it had, with an unsure smile said

“Karthik? Is that you? Don’t you dare ruin this ending for me! I am warning you! Wait a minute. How did you even know what I was thinking? Was I thinking out aloud again?”

"Karthik? Karthik? Cut the crap man! Come out from wherever you are. Oh! There you are! Bloody idiot!”

Emerging from behind the window curtains, a well built figure stepped out into Arjun’s room.

“Whoa! Who the hell are you? How did you get here? And why are you dressed like that?”

“I am Karikala Chola, blessed son of the great Uttama Chozha, heir prince by birth and humble servant by choice to the glorious Chozha empire.”

After being subject to a veritable barrage of adjectives, Arjun struggled to recall whatever little he remembered of his high school grammar to separate out the subjects, objects, verbs and adverbs and try and make sense of that complex sentence. Once he did that, owing to the fact that he had been the target of one practical joke too many, and the originator of twice as many, he asked the man in front of him,

“Who set this up? Karthik. Must be that dumbass trying to get back for that embarrassing valentine’s day prank call. But I must admit, he has gone through great pains and thought out of his little pea brain to come up with this. Quite impressive. So, are you like a theatre actor or something?”

“Are we not all actors in some way. He pulls the strings and we dance to His whims. Anyway, I do not have much time. Please listen carefully to what I have to say. The wise Rudracharya speaks about the many worlds that exist at the same time, blissfully unaware of each other. I am from one such world and I have come here solely with the purpose of seeking you out. As I told you before, Paranthaka is dead. But all is not lost as our enemies have suffered far greater damages than we have. If we can hold them off for a couple of more days, the armies of two of our vassal kingdoms will join us and then this battle will be ours to win. Rudracharya says it is destined that we need the services of a general to achieve what is written for us and that general is you. Will you fight for me and my people?”

Arjun put on his most serious expression, which was usually reserved for really grave occasions like when his favorite team lost the game, or even worse when Karthik bought his favorite flavour of ice cream, when it was the last one left at the corner shop.

“So are you saying I am the chosen one? The one who can prevent the end of the Chozha empire? Are you really saying that?”

“Yes. Those are the words of Rudracharya.”

“Okay then. Who am I to question destiny especially when it hands me such a great honour? I should grab it with both hands. Go dear king. Go and spread the word that you have found your general, that too an exalted one, one who does not fall for stupid fairy tale fantasy pranks, that he outgrew when he was just ten. Go tell Karthik, that I wish him better luck next time. Hah!”

Karikala broke into a relieved smile. “I do not understand all of what you say. But I understand enough to know that the great Chozha army has found itself a new general. Be prepared to leave tomorrow, when the moon is full. That is the only time our steeds can get us to where we need to go. If we do not leave tomorrow, we cannot leave until the next full moon, and then it would be too late." Speaking thus, he jumped out of the window and was off before Arjun could say anything in response.

It took a good ten seconds for Arjun's emotional state to transition from the euphoria of having the sharpness to spot a prank and skillfully escape being the victim of it, to the realm of doubt and suspicion. The fact that he heard something sounding uncannily like the hooves of a horse hitting asphalt, the moment "Karikala" left compounded things and put him into a state of supreme confusion. A theatre actor, he could believe but a horse, a whole live horse was too much of a stretch for a prank, a prank from someone with Karthik's scheming abilities. Before he could try to comprehend the events that had passed, Mrs. Lalita Shankar rushed into the room with the eagerness of a shark that had smelt blood(simultaneously changing her behaviour pattern to enable the use of aquatic animal metaphors,helping break the monotony of the terrestrial ones)

"Arjun! Who were you talking to? And why haven't you started cleaning yet?"

"Er...Karikala...Horse...Karthik....Er...I was just getting started. I wasn't talking with anybody. No one is here. I wouldn't be talking to myself. Would I?", said Arjun, prudently deciding to conceal the truth till it was clearer to him.

"Karikala? Horse? What is wrong with you? I could swear I heard voices in here."

"Oh Mom! I was still thinking about the novel when you came in. You are imagining things. Just relax and let me do my chore. I need that book back."

Though Mrs. Lalita left the room, she remained unconvinced, and being blessed with the tendency to worry unceasingly about every trivial issue in life, and a knack of making a Mount Everest out of minuscule molehills, she picked up the phone and called Mr.Shankar at his chartered accountancy firm.

"Hello. I am.."

"Yes. Yes. I remember. I will get the brinjals on the way back from work"

"I din't call about that. I called.."

"Hold on a sec. Swaminathan, Get me the files of AGS & Company at once. Yes. What did the idiot do now."

"Don't say that about the poor thing now. I thing something is wrong with him."

"That's what I have been telling you since he was born."

"Please be a little serious. I was a little harsh with him today about cleaning up his room. I walked past his room a little while later and heard voices in his room, two different ones. I walked in and asked him about it and he said it was nothing. He looked really confused as if he had just snapped out of a trance or something. This is exactly like how it was with my grandfather in the village. He started talking to himself and then went completely crazy. Must be hereditary or something."

"Lalita! Stop overreacting as usual. Your grandfather went senile. The rascal is not old enough for that."

"You always disregard my intuitions. Remember the time I thought he had typhoid and you..."

"Okay. Okay. I don't have time for this now. I will take him to my nephew Srinivas for a quick check up in the evening. He seems to be doing well in that little psychiatry set up of his."

"I am coming along too. I am going to the temple now to do a Puja for him"

"I will be home by 6 to pick you up. Don't let him out of the house till then."

I N T E R M I S S I O N