She and The Sun

Keep her in the shade,

Far away from the sun.

She is too frail.

The rays could burn.

She keeps getting weaker,

She looks pale and thin.

Seal all the windows.

Maybe the sun is seeping in.

She gives up the fight,

She passes away.

The doctor comes in,

Nods his head in dismay.

He looked for maladies,

But there was none.

She was just a plant,

And they kept her from the sun.

Curse of the Cosmos

Once upon a time, there lived a king named Kosm, to whom glory and might were kind. He ruled over a kingdom so vast that the borders blurred into nothingness and no mortal that ever lived had been able to view all the splendour that lay hidden in the ends of his empire.

King Kosm had sired two baby boys through a nameless woman and in due course of time, they grew up to be fine young men. The princes stood tall and broad, their bodies rippled with muscles that spoke of unimaginable strength.

Though they both looked alike, yet if their charm was to be measured then it was prince Spatius, the elder one who was more becoming than the younger one, prince Maare. So exquisite were the features of the elder prince that any maiden who had set her eyes upon him used to blush herself into silence. They were different from men and in those days, what went through their minds no one in the kingdom could tell. But it would be fair to suppose that the maidens longed for his company because in his presence their demeanour shifted to a level of coyness that only passion could induce.

The younger son of the king, prince Maare had a fairly charming face as well and unlike his reticent brother, he was eloquent with speech. A maiden who happened to cross the path of prince Maare usually fell for the wizardry of words that he could spin sans much effort.

Prince Spatius was entrusted with the duties of the space while prince Maare was in charge of the oceans. It seemed to an untrained eye that both these young men had an equal chance to succeed king Kosm one day and to inherit the throne. The decision, however, had been made by their father a long time ago and one of them stood no chance against the other one.

Once the princes came of age their father Kosm set out ten messengers to go in ten different directions to find out a worthy bride for the future king. It took 5 eons of time for the messengers to complete their arduous task but eventually, they found one such maiden called Terra who was not only endowed with bedazzling beauty but was also blessed with a heart that was filled with goodness. King Kosm was pleased with the choice as he could clearly envisage princess Terra as the bride for his chosen son.

A royal invitation engraved in letters of precious metal was sent away to princess Terra. As King Kosm waited for her to arrive, he decided to send for his prime minister who had always given him wise counsel regarding the affairs of his kingdom. The time to officially coronate the next king was approaching and Kosm needed to work his way out in the presence of a revered minister.

It was for an eon of time that Kosm and the minister discussed the situation and at the end of it, it was decided that prince Spatius was to inherit the kingdom as well as the royal bride Terra. And following the custom of their land, prince Maare will be banished to the ends of the kingdom, to the faraway lands of Obliviana, from where no one could ever return.

For some time king Kosm felt a pain within his chest thinking about the fate of his younger son. But he knew that the kingdom needed a queen who was silent and graceful, nurturing and observant. Prince Spatius brought out these qualities in a maiden while prince Maare was equipped with no worldly wisdom and in his company, the maidens seemed to develop a fervour for the wild and the unknown.

King Kosm had made his decision and now he had to play out with care the charade of following the royal protocol to choose the crown prince. For this, the coins, Lunas and Solis were summoned and soon these coins of great wisdom had been fetched to the king’s court.

“I allot a quarter of an eon to you both to travel and see our kingdom,” bade Kosm to the coins. “Come back wiser before our ceremonial toss.”

Lunas and Solis made good of this opportunity and they travelled far and wide, building new friendships on the way. It was the sight of the two coins making mirth that alerted prince Maare about what was upon him. He had known all along that their father preferred Spatius over him. A sense of foreboding filled him up and he put in his effort to befriend the coins, in the hope of forging the grand decision in his favour. Lunas and Solis were both loyal to Kosm and they cleverly declined to have any association with the princes before their duties were done.

In despair prince, Maare mounted his horse and off he rode to the lands where princess Terra lived with her maimed sister Theia. It so happened that prince Maare reached her a little while after the royal proposal from king Kosm had come to Terra.

Prince Maare was received with great hospitality and he took no time to engage in delightful conversations with Terra, who had never heard or seen someone who spoke of all things wondrous, in a beautifully lilting voice. His words soothed her much and even though Terra found him to be wanting in the matters of appearance, she felt herself growing attracted to the young man. Still, she held herself restraint and asked prince Maare for his name. The prince cunningly hid his name and only identified himself as the one whose father was the great king Kosm. At this Terra was greatly pleased for it was known to her that she was soon to be betrothed to the son of the great king Kosm.

And in this while there went on huge proceedings in the empire of Kosm to begin the ceremonial toss that would pick their future king. Prince Spatius was bathed and dressed in a gaiment that was studded with stones that fell from the space. Prince Maare was not to be seen for a long time and this pleased Kosm to some extent. His waywardness would make him fall in the eyes of the subjects even before the toss had taken place, he thought. Prince Maare managed to present himself on time though; and he was already robed in the finest attire bejewelled with rare rocks from the depths of water.

King Kosm made a great show of blessing both his sons before taking the centre stage. The minister handed to him Lunas, the white son of Fate. Kosm clasped Lunas within right fist and closed his eyes. He urged the coin to show what the heart of the king desired and then, with great reverence, he threw up the holy coin in air. Lunas rolled in air and fell down at the feet of Kosm with a tinkling note that lingered awhile. And from the spot in the ground where Lunas had touched, sprang up a shower of stars to signify the realms ruled by prince Spatius. The verdict was out. Spatius was to be crowned as the next king.

The royal hall reverberated with applause as Prince Spatius stood up, made a measured bow and flashed a matching smile to all those who had cared to come. Prince Maare bowed down right to the ground in obeisance and to all it seemed like he felt no grief for the misfortune that had come his way.

The toss of the golden son of Fate, Solis was to be held in the next epoch of time and both the coins were allowed more time to explore the kingdom and to keep themselves merry. Now the toss of Solis had no practical significance in the court of Kosm because Solis was supposed to reveal and reiterate what Lunas had already shown. Not once in the previous ceremonies had Solis broken this convention and none had ever expected him to do so.

However this time a distraught princess Terra found out that she was to be wedded not to the prince who had taken her heart but to the brother of the same. And this became the sole reason for her to go twelve times around Solis, requesting him to show the name of prince Maare when his turn to toss came. Solis refused to disobey the king each time so while going around him for the thirteenth time Terra put a spell on Solis that altered his mind.

The toss of Solis was inaugurated amidst much fanfare. This was to declare the prince who will be father to the future rulers of the kingdom. Thus it was obvious that this toss would elect the same prince who would be getting the kingdom and the chosen bride. Kosm spun the golden coin up in the air without any fear or worry in his heart.

Solis turned in air for a dozen times before falling down at the feet of Kosm at the thirteenth turn. A spring of water began to gush out from the place symbolizing prince Maare as the father of the future children of the land.

Absolute silence fell upon the court of Kosm and all turned their heads towards the king seeking reason and meaning of what they had witnessed.

King Kosm never had to face defiance ever and he stood there seething in rage at what seemed to be treachery by Solis. Solis shook in fear as he came to terms with the damage that Terra’s spell had bidden him to bring about.

“It is princess Terra’s doing,” explained Solis to Kosm.

“I command you to take your place in the realm of Spatius,” pronounced King Kosm. “You will burn for eons of time and provide for princess Terra at whose bidding you chose to betray me.”

“Lunas, my faithful coin will be placed in the same realm,” continued the king. “And he will glow with loveliness in the sky without having to burn himself out so that you can see him each day and repent your act of silliness.”

When princess Terra found out what sentence had befallen upon Solis, she took mercy upon him and vowed to go around Solis for as long as she would be there. Thereafter she added that if she were ever lucky to have children of her own, she would make them revere Solis and place him at a rank higher than that of Lunas.

Solis and Lunas took their positions in the sky as decreed by the king and it was time for Kosm to put things in order by announcing the royal wedding.

Prince Maare and princess Terra waited with hope but it was with prince Spatius that the wedding of Terra was fixed. Lunas and Solis were the children of fate and none could alter what they had already pronounced. At this point prince Maare left the royal court and for an epoch of time he lost himself in the forests of the far east where grapevines of the wilderness gave him shelter and food. And since then men, spurned in love, have often turned to seek solace in the sweetness offered by the fruits of the wonder vine.

King Kosm knew that he would not be able to banish prince Maare to Obliviana for it would mean a barren future for his own bloodline. At length it was decided that prince Maare could stay in the kingdom if a maiden chose to take the curse upon herself. Princess Theia, the maimed sister of Terra, came forward proclaiming her desire to offer herself as a sacrifice to the cause of the one she loved dearly. The curse, thus deflected, crushed Theia into myriad pieces which prince Maare garlanded together by a drop of his own tear and put them as a decorative wreath around Solis.

The royal wedding took place amidst much grandeur and king Kosm did all that he could to canopy the tension that brewed in the minds of his subjects. Prince Spatius ascended the throne and his new queen Terra took place by him. It was time for all to bestow their love and blessings upon the couple while prince Maare hid himself away in the crevices of the empire.

Terra and Spatius began their wedded life although the new queen had Maare in her heart. But as time passed, she slowly began to be charmed by the fetching looks of her husband. And for eons they made love and the flames of their fierce passion could be seen from all corners of Kosm’s empire. This pleased the ageing Kosm hugely as he was expecting the news of a grandchild to happen defying the prophecy of Solis. However no child was ever born to the couple and after a few epochs had passed, their passion began to wane as well. Terra, once again, began to long for the one she had loved at first, Maare.

King Kosm would have never allowed Maare to be the husband of Terra but it was his good old minister who brought him to senses. It was time, he said, to allow Maare and Terra to live as a wedded couple. Maybe then, there will be children born of them, who will continue the bloodline of Kosm.

So it was decreed that king Spatius would remain the ruler of the kingdom yet he would give up his bride to his brother Maare. Terra and Maare began to live together as one and soon life began to stir in the womb of Terra. Grandchildren of Kosm were born and they proliferated fast, nourished by their kind parents.

Spatius who now was the mighty ruler of the empire of Kosm was angry at the betrayal and a terrible curse he hurled upon his own brother and wife. It was pronounced that doom shall be brought upon Terra and Maare by the life born out of their love.

At this Terra and Maare trembled and hugged each other tighter. Kosmic curses cannot be avoided, they knew. Ever since, their love has grown only stronger, for they know in the epochs to come they will witness their inevitable fall, in the hands of their own children.

A Stitch in Time

AD 3478

Ralph chewed onto the last bit of nail on his little finger as he stared blankly at his laptop. It displayed back the compiled code to him. No errors, a few minor warnings and seemingly perfect; yet it was throwing up the wrong output on each run.

There was a light tap on his shoulder and Ralph turned back to find his wife Karen, bending down with a broad smile on her face.

 “Time for dinner honey,” she declared as she proceeded to shut down Ralph’s laptop.

“Hey, I needed to work a bit more on that,” he protested meekly.

“Well, I fixed some of your modules last week and have mailed you the corrected code too,” replied Karen. “You can compile it after dinner.”

She slammed the lid of the laptop and pulled her husband up from his chair.

Ralph was not surprised. Karen had the odd habit of hacking into his system and solving his algorithms for him. It frustrated him. He could not figure out whether she wanted to help him or to neuter him. And that frustrated him further.

“I cooked a small meal,” said Karen as she led Ralph into the kitchen. There was a nice juicy steak with steamed broccoli and baked potatoes on the side waiting for him on the counter.

“Enjoy,” she smiled as Ralph sat down on the high stool.

“You made all of these?” he smiled gratefully as he dug into his meal.

Karen winked playfully. For the next few minutes Ralph ate ravenously while his wife watched him patiently.

“Thanks Karen,” said Ralph as he finished his meal. “You are a terrific cook.”

“Can you guess which meat that was?”

“Umm, seemed like rabbit to me,” guessed Ralph as he ran his tongue along the insides of his mouth to savour the aftertaste.

“Rabbit?” Karen laughed out aloud. “It’s that...what you ‘forbade’ me to explore!”

Ralph’s smile vanished and his countenance curled into a frown as he slowly turned red.

“You couldn’t have,” he muttered.

“Oh yes, I did,” Karen smirked. “And I’m proud of myself.”

“You crazy woman,” yelled Ralph as he got up and began to rampage around the kitchen.

“You won’t find any more of that in here,” Karen stated calmly. “Look, it is perfectly safe. I’ve fed it to rats, to orangutans and even to other human beings before serving it to you. In fact, I have tasted it too.”

“It is not about food safety,” shouted Ralph.

“You are right, this is bigger than that,” Karen sat down and folded her arms. “Because this can help us to solve the world’s hunger issues.”

“There’s not a tiny shred of ethics left in you,” said Ralph as he suddenly threw himself at Karen and linked his fingers around her neck.

For a second Karen felt that she would choke but her reflexes were well trained for emergencies like this. She swiftly reached for the pouch of Calmnex in her pocket, tore the wrapper and stuck the button on Ralph’s bare neck. The tall and lanky frame of Ralph immediately went limp and his hands slid off Karen’s neck.

She helped him to their bedroom and laid him down on the bed.

“I am trying to solve the biggest concern of our planet,” she elucidated. “You can choose to be by my side as I go on to be the greatest messiah of all times or you can choose to be a failed scientist. We will discuss this when you wake up.”

She turned out the lights and left as Ralph fell into a deep slumber.

……………………………………………………………………………………..…….

It was hours before the drowsiness began to subside for Ralph. The low hum of the vacuum cleaner woke him up. He peered through half closed eyes. The house boys Xiu and Ming were cleaning the bedroom. Ralph quickly shut his eyes back. Karen paid the boys handsomely and treated them well. They were never going to help him.

Xiu walked up to Ralph and rearranged the blanket neatly over him. He then placed a tray full of snacks on the bedside table when his phone started to ring. Xiu fumbled with the stuff in his apron’s pocket for a while. He had to lay out the bunch of key cards by the food tray before he could fish out his phone. And then, as he spoke earnestly into the phone in fluent Mandarin, Xiu began to walk out into the balcony.

Ming was still scrubbing the bathroom floor and Ralph realized that this was his opportunity to steal the key-cards. He had managed to take a copy of the front door key-card when Xiu walked back in. Ralph fell still. The boys were done after a few more minutes and, despite the silent prayers of Ralph, they locked his bedroom from the outside on their way out.

For the next one hour Ralph lay in the bed, plotting his escape. Karen, he knew, would be gone for a day to attend a conference in a different city. He had some food and waited patiently till Xiu and Ming were gone. And then he went out in the terrace and looked down. The first floor balcony was right below him. He held on to the low guard wall and swung his body out.  He then carefully lowered himself as much as possible before letting go of the rim. It was a small fall and Ralph found himself on the first floor balcony, unhurt. He got up and darted towards the main exit. The heavy door slid back without protest as soon as he punched in the stolen key-card.

Ralph closed the door behind himself and ran out of the sprawling campus as fast as he could.

Once in the main road, he paused and took in a few large breaths. There was only one person who could help him out of this mess. His ex-girlfriend, Jill, whom he had dumped to marry Karen.

Jill was a maverick scientist who now lived a quiet life in her villa close to Elm Avenue. It would be highly inappropriate to ask for her help, thought Ralph. At that very moment a taxi was zooming by and he spontaneously waved his hands to make it stop.

“Elm Avenue,” he found himself saying before hopping in. Ralph told the driver to stop a few kilometres away from Jill’s place. He looked into the meter and clicked the pay-button. A scan of his retina settled the bill before he got off.

Ralph walked along a short-cut route to reach a cliff by the sea. He stood atop the cliff, facing the sea, inhaling the salty air and trying to find coherence in the wild plan that was taking shape in his mind. A narrow stretch of beach was visible with private properties along them. The first house belonged to Jill. He knew exactly how to reach there. If Karen tried to trace his retina scans, she must not find his location right away.

Ralph closed his eyes for a few seconds and recalled his younger years which he had spent doing deep sea diving in the idyllic beaches of Australia. He opened his eyes and jumped straight into the water. The tide was tame and he easily swam across to the beach.

Jill was sitting on her front porch, sipping cold beer and staring at the magical colours of the setting sun when Ralph hauled himself up from the beach, dripping wet, and began to walk towards her.

She continued to stare at him with no hint of surprise. Ever since the break-up she had been seeing Ralph everywhere. So she calmly assumed him to be another figment of hallucination.

It was only after Ralph’s wet fingers held her by the shoulders and gave her a shake that she realized him to be real.

“Ralph?! You came back,” Jill squealed and hugged him tight.

And Ralph felt again within his heart, a sharp twist of self-loathing. Despite her devotion, kindness and undivided love; all that he could manage to feel for Jill was a deep sense of pity.

 “I need your help, Jill,” he managed to say as he released himself softly from her grasp.

And Jill nodded eagerly, her eyes shining in a way that stung Ralph hard.

“You were working on a time travel project,” he came straight to the point.

“It has been marked unsafe by the latest protocol,” Jill shrugged her shoulders. “The grants have stopped.”

“Who are you kidding? You don’t need their money,” Ralph pulled Jill towards himself and looked into her eyes. “Your parents have left you enough to fund your projects.”

“Why would I tell you about it?” Jill snapped. Her eyes glistened with pain.

“I was stupid Jill,” whispered Ralph and hugged her.

“I still love you,” he lied and Jill wept into his shirt. “You have to help me to stop Karen.”

“Brief me about the situation,” said Jill as she wiped off her eyes and took Ralph inside.

 “Remember the times when we watched the sci-fi movies? Remember what my greatest fear was?” began Ralph.

Jill handed a beer can to him and snuggled closer.

“Mine was that I might lose you,” said Jill as she rested her head on his shoulder.

Ralph ignored her comment and kept talking.

“Most of the movies portray the aliens as malevolent megalomaniacs; and it made me wonder if we, humans, are pre-disposed to behave in a similar manner if we ever find ourselves more powerful than the alien life forms.”

“Are you saying that we have found life elsewhere?”

“Yes, lower forms of organic beings have been detected in a host of planets,” said Ralph. “Karen is leading one such projects and she has gotten the first batch of aliens transferred to our planet.”

“Oh dear,” exclaimed Jill. “Is she kidnapping them without any attempt to get their consent?”

“Worse. She is planning to use them as food,” said Ralph. “In fact she tricked me into eating one of them.”

Jill got up and took a few steps back. Her eyes were wide and her mouth open with indignation.

“Don’t hate me Jill,” Ralph begged. “Help me…help me to stop her. All the approved time travel routes are monitored and hence, accessible by her.”

“Don’t run away from this,” urged Jill. “Fight her, expose her to the government, to the world!”

“Karen is a genetically engineered human being,” said Ralph. “She is several times brighter than me. The woman is unstoppable.”

Jill sat down, staring hard at the floor.

“I was thinking that maybe I can go back in time and negotiate with the previous governments. I can get certain files classified. Or, I can talk to scientists and ban proliferation of certain segments of knowledge. I know the details of the work that led to the detection of the aliens.”

“Come with me,” said Jill as she walked toward her laboratory.

She unlocked the door and took Ralph inside. A metallic apparatus took up the most of the space. Jill turned on a few switches to power it up. A whirring sound was heard but nothing else was visible.

“This is my stabilizer,” she explained. “And that is the wormhole generator.”

She pointed to a closed room. A mesh of wires came out through a switchboard and connected to an upright rectangular box, big enough to fit an adult.

“Is that it?” asked Ralph.

“Yes,” said Jill. “The bad news is that my stabilizer is not robust enough to support a wormhole that can accommodate a human being. The time machine is working fine but for smaller animals. I have sent back ants successfully. The biggest that it can support is a dog.”

Ralph raised his eyebrows. “How will it help me then?”

“Well, I’ve built a converter too,” said Jill. “It can physiologically convert you into a lower animal and transport you back in time.”

Ralph sat down and began to rub the sides of his head.

“How much time would you need?” he asked after a few minutes of silence.

“Give me your blood samples,” said Jill. “I can work all night and prepare the data for a safe physiological conversion.”

That night Ralph and Jill had dinner together.

“Ralph, you do know that you can’t come back?” asked Jill.

He nodded in assent.

“I don’t want to lose you,” Jill began to sniffle.

Ralph rolled his eyes and sighed.

“Well, if I stay back, Karen will probably have me killed,” he consoled her after a while.

And then he retired into the bedroom without further conversation.

The next morning Jill started by enhancing Ralph’s endurance with a couple of shots while he brooded over his new plans. He had hoped for sane discussions with people from the past and now his plans veered towards biting the relevant people instead.

Soon it was time for him to enter the time machine. Ralph planted a kiss on Jill’s lips and thanked her before closing the door, forever.

Jill set the coordinates for Woolsthorpe, on the 22^nd of June, 1679, at 10:30am. She double checked every set of data for an hour and then she activated the system.

She leaned back on her chair and stared at her work. The entire process would take 32 hours of time. However, once back in time Ralph will have plenty of time to fix the situation. The only problem was that he would come out in the past as a small Pomeranian dog.

Jill sighed and got up. She knew that Karen will soon be coming. Jill had to hold off Karen from finding the laboratory till Ralph was safely back in time.

…………………………………………………………………………………………………..

AD 1679

Ralph found himself curled up on a vast emerald lawn. It was a nice summer day with a pleasant breeze blowing. He got up and walked about for some time, feeling a bit disoriented. And then he heard human voices approaching. Ralph peered through the trunks of the trees and the sight that he saw almost took his breath away. His idol from childhood was taking a walk with some of his students.

Ralph forgot everything about the severity of his mission and began to run as fast as his short legs would carry him, to meet the legend. Soon he was at the legend’s feet, trying to say a whole of things. But all that came out of him was a series of excited barks along with a vigorous wag of his tail.

But it was enough to impress the legend, who picked him up with a smile.

“Gentlemen, a dog appears just at which hour I wast mourning the death of mine own pet,” he said to his students.

Then he flashed the most beautiful smile at Ralph and went on to tell him, “Thou art a gift from the heaven. I shall nameth thee Diamond.”

As Ralph leaned against the warm coat of Sir Issac Newton, he realized that he had to betray the trust of his new master if he had to save the future.

In the next few months, Newton’s fondness for Ralph increased fast and soon it became a ritual for him to work at his desk in the evenings with Diamond curled up by the fireplace. And then the opportune day arrived when a distinguished guest paid Sir Issac Newton a visit while he was working in his study. As he left the room, Ralph observed calmly the gradually diminishing figure of his master who walked away towards the hall.

Without wasting another moment Ralph leapt up onto Newton’s desk and with one precise kick he upset the lit candle over the wooden cupboard that contained his master’s research work.

Ralph watched in silence, unable to cry, as the lead to alien detection among many other things went up in flames. After several minutes the sound of crackling wood alerted people. The maintenance staff came running along with the master himself.

Ralph crouched in a corner, yelping in fear while the people attempted to douse out the fire. But Sir Issac Newton picked him up as gently as ever and said softly, “O Diamond, Diamond, thou little knowest the damage thee hast done.”

Ralph’s ears drooped and he looked away. Unexpressed guilt tore away at his heart as his mater continued to treat him with affection.

………………………………………………………………………………………………

AD 3478

An entourage of cars stopped outside Jill’s villa. Karen stepped out of her car and began to march ahead.

One more minute and Ralph will have crossed over, calculated Jill as she waited to meet Karen at the gate.

Suddenly there was a spell of dizziness that took over every mortal being on earth and then it passed.

Karen stopped a step away from Jill and took a moment to steady herself. And then she flashed a broad smile.

“I came to invite you,” she said. “For my book launch next week.”

Jill smiled back happily. The alternate timeline had come into play.

“I’ll be there,” she promised as she shook Karen’s hands.

In the new timeline Jill and Karen were friends from school. Jill was a reputed scientist while Karen was a rising author. The new reality began to sink in slowly for Jill.

She chatted with Karen for a while before waving her goodbye.

Jill felt tired as she walked back in. She was the only one who had memories of both the timelines. 

Over the next 24 hours the new reality will completely replace her memories of the past timeline.

She thought of Ralph and realized that she did not want him anymore.

“Wish you find a good bitch there,” she said out aloud and laughed at her own joke.

Jill turned towards the mirror. She looked great. She smiled and ran out for a swim. She felt happy after a long time.

Sins and Virtues

I have been confined to this court room for almost a decade now. Earlier I used to travel a lot along with my master but with the onslaught of internet and technology, he too has started to work from home. That does not mean that I miss going out much; there is always a lot going on in here.

My current home is actually a huge room with intricate patterns engraved on the walls and bright decorative lamps placed at strategic corners. Now do not imagine this room as any one of the led-powered, 200 square feet of cramped spaces, which are popular with the mortals these days. This court room is larger than the largest area that you have ever seen. At one end is a podium on which a wonderfully regal throne made of pure gold and fitted with the softest cushion is placed. Two more chairs made of silver are stationed two steps below this dais and between the chairs is a small fountain called Agrasandhani, gurgling up crystal clear water.

The defendant sits at the left, the jury at the right and my master, Yama on the raised throne at the middle with me parked on the hand-rest. By the way, I am Danda, but you have probably guessed that by now. However, if you have never heard of me before then think of me as the stick from the proverbial carrot and stick. In this court of divine justice Chitra Gupta is the beautiful lady who acts as the jury while the defendant is usually a freshly dead human being.

The multitude of dead mortals is seated in rows behind a glass screen in the same room, awaiting judgment. They silent observe each defendant making their way towards heaven or hell, right after each trial.

A loud gong is sounded to signify the beginning of today’s first trial. Yama immediately picked me up and slammed me down with a huge smile. Sometimes he does it just like that, out of habit. But no, it does not hurt one bit, but it surprises me in a very unpleasant way.

A handsome, young man, dressed in a pinstripe suit came out of the sliding glass door and sat himself down on the defendant’s chair.

Chitra ran her fingers through her long, silky hair as she observed this man and then she knowingly winked at Yama.

 “Dear dead human, tell us your name, age and cause of death,” started Chitra.

The young man looked dazed.

“Aren’t you supposed to know everything about me?” he asked.

“Yes, but we still need an official introduction,” explained Yama. “We’ll add it to your list of sins, in case you lie.”

“Ok sir and ma’am,” said the young man. “Name: Shankar, Age: 25, Cause of death: Accident of office bus.”

“Shankar…eh? Isn’t that another name of Maheshwar?” Yama commented.

This made the defendant grin from ear to ear.

“Yes sir, I knew you’d be pleased to see someone named after your dear friend,” he happily said.

And without any warning, Yama slammed me down with a scary thud. He made an angry frown while Chitra got up from her seat and sauntered up to Shankar.

“You think sharing a name with Maheshwar will help you?”

“We just tried a dead human named Shiv,” roared Yama with another slam. “He even claimed to be your friend.”

“Why aren’t any of you named after the mighty Yama?” Chitra wondered aloud.

“Want to know what happened to Shiv?” smirked Yama. “We sent him to hell!”

“Yess!” exclaimed Shankar and threw up his fist in air. “I’ve often told Shiv to go to hell…am so glad that it finally happened.”

Yama cleared his voice and rolled his eyes.

“Chitra, please load this dead human’s data,” he commanded. Then he stood up and threw me in the direction of Chitra and Shankar. As I spun through the air towards them, I saw Shankar duck and Chitra jump up to catch me deftly. 

She walked up to the fountain Agrasandhani and dipped me three times from different angles. Two spurts of water leapt out and landed as two water drops on Chitra’s hands who promptly began to analyse them. A court attendant fished me out, dried me and ferried me back to Yama.

“Sir, this dead human has 3 terabytes of data in his sins’ folder,” reported Chitra. “And his virtues’ folder is just 3 megabytes in size.”

She climbed up the stairs to pass the drops to Yama’s outstretched palms and said, “I think it’s safe to send him to hell without wasting any more time.”

“Hey, what technology is that?” Shankar whispered as Chitra got back to him. “How do you store data in water drops?”

“You’d have found out, had you been eligible for heaven,” Chitra stuck out a tongue.

“Goodness gracious me,” Yama said as he lightly blew into the drop of sin and swelled it into a bubble.

And we all saw in fast forward motion what a great sinner this dead human called Shankar was.

“Look at this,” Yama slowed things down.

In the bubble we saw a thin young guy from the back, laughing his heart out and paying wads of notes to bribe an officer.

“You stole the engineering seat from a worthy candidate?” Yama paused and glanced at Shankar.

“That’s not me! Turn the guy around,” he protested.

And sure enough when Yama played it again we all saw that the guy was none other than a younger version of that Shiv fellow.

“Chitra, quickly report this to the maintenance team,” instructed Yama. “Information leakage is not to be taken lightly.”

Chitra scurried to her desk to make some notes and Yama resumed the bubble show.

“You’ve also gotten a girl pregnant,” said Yama, as he chewed his lip with a grave expression.

“I certainly did not!” Shankar stood up and his face was all red.

Yama pointed to the bubble and we all saw Shankar pricking the finest of holes into a small, square packet of blackish grey colour.

“Two years back a friend asked for your help at a moment of carnal urgency,” said Yama. “And you gave him tampered material as a prank. His girlfriend got pregnant as a result and they had to marry. Now they are a squabbling couple with a toddler. You turned a perfectly loving couple against each other. That’s abominable!”

Shankar sat down with a whimper as Chitra spoke up, “Shall we send him to hell then, sir?”

“No wait,” Yama said and blew again.

This time we saw Shankar’s parents scolding his little sister Sara while he was tiptoeing out of the room with a smug look on his face.

“So you manipulated your parents into not giving a smartphone to your sister?” Yama asked.

At this Shankar looked down and flicked away a few tear-drops.

“Hey, dead human, don’t cry,” Chitra placed her hand on his shoulder to comfort him.

“I bought an i-phone last week,” he sobbed. “And now Sara will be the one who’ll get to use it.”

Then he began to howl like a child.

Yama stood up and began to clap his hands loudly.

“After a long time I’m seeing a truly protective brother. Not only has he saved Sara from stupidity earlier; he’s now crying about not being able to help her further. All these years you got stupid yourself and let her flourish…exemplary! Huge virtue dead human, huge virtue!”

Chitra too raised her brows and nodded appreciatively at Shankar who stopped crying and felt totally puzzled.

“Let’s go for a Duckworth-Lewis system, sir,” proposed Chitra.

“Yes, a straight calculation will take too long,” explained Yama to Shankar. “Instead we’ll review your sins and virtues for the last seven days and announce the verdict.”

Yama threw me at Chitra again and she dipped me into the fountain to extract the water drops containing Shankar’s weekly reports. Once done she passed them to Yama as before.

 “You’re a very colourful man,” commented Yama as he blew into one drop. “I see that you were splitting your hours between two girlfriends.”

And sure enough we saw glimpses Shankar going on separate dates with two beautiful women.

 “For your information, both are in love with you,” Chitra shook her head disapprovingly.

Shankar’s eyes lit up in joy but he said nothing.

The bubble-show kept rolling.

“You have also hacked into your boss’s personal laptop and saved his search history,” Yama was now sitting with an open mouth.

“He gave me an impossible rating last year,” explained Shankar. “I needed something before the appraisal season to set my record straight.”

Chitra looked at the search details and giggled.

“Not all Sins are bad sir,” she said as she showed a muscled man’s clip to Yama. “Can’t we get this J Sins guy up here?”

“Yes certainly,” Yama smiled. “Get that girl too. And fire the apsaras and the gandharvas. Give them 3 months’ severance pay if they create too much noise.”

Chitra made another quick trip to her desk and made two new entries in the projected death table. By the time she was back we were watching a clip of Shankar pouring whiskey into an empty bottle with Cola label on it. And then he got into his car with it. Yama paused and turned toward Shankar.

“Well?” he prompted.

“I had planned to; but did not drink and drive,” Shankar clarified.

Yama resumed the video and we all went in shock to see the rest. Shankar stopped at a petrol pump to refuel his car. He got out with the Cola bottle and in one fateful moment, when he put it down on the ground to take his credit card out, it got exchanged with the Cola bottle of the mechanic.

Shankar left soon but the mechanic went on to finish his whiskey. And right after that he began to fix the braking system of a luxury bus. It turned out to be the same bus that eventually killed Shankar and his colleagues on the next day.

As all eyes zoomed towards Shankar he turned absolutely pale.

“I killed myself,” he managed to mumble with much effort.

“Let’s see for ourselves,” said Yama.

And in the next few slides we saw the luxury bus crash loudly into another huge bus. Within seconds the buses were reduced into a mangled carcass of iron and steel. Every single passenger had died.

“The second bus was carrying 42 corrupt politicians,” informed Yama. “And that’s why I found this clip in the virtues’ drop.”

Shankar rubbed his eyes in disbelief.

“It’s time to feed the data into the calculator,” said Chitra as she placed the two water drops on top of me and threw them into a small fire burning behind Yama’s throne.

For one whole minute we transfixed our eyes on the fire pot as the red and blue flames of sins and virtues danced and competed. And in the end no one won, they simply doused each other out.

“Wow!” Chitra was stunned.

“It’s almost a miracle,” Yama declared. “The verdict is that your sins and virtues are perfectly balanced; and hence you will go back to earth.”

Shankar was too numb to speak but he folded his hands in gratitude. Chitra began to guide him towards a secret exit.

“When you go back, remember to pick one girl and break up with the other one,” reminded Yama. 

“And in future name your son after me.”

Shankar nodded obediently and kept waking.  “I hope I get a daughter,” he told himself.

“I heard that,” said Yama.

Shankar swivelled around fearfully but Yama smiled.

“I don’t mind,” he said. “Just ask your fellow Indians to think more like you.”

That was the last that I saw of Shankar. He was undoubtedly the most remarkable defendant we had in here in a long time. I wish to not see him for at least another 100 years.