2 days & 23 hours later
Akhil’s hands were tied and his legs sore. There wasn’t a single piece of cloth covering Akhil’s body. It was dark around him. Akhil was tied to a tree, beside a small stream. Nobody had gone to Laka to buy cigarettes; nobody had gone to Vineet’s house for the family gathering. Akhil Upadhaya was ‘out-of-office’ on Monday.
Suddenly Akhil heard something move in the water. Akhil was hungry and scared. Men are either, hungry or scared, dependent or independent; men are either men or animals. Today Akhil was everything. He was dependent on Ramdas for his independence, & independent in his mind to get scared. The ‘thing’ floating in the water started getting bigger. He could see three of them now. He was thrice as scared. He could see them more clearly now, hair, hands, legs and finally the bodies. Akhil shouted, his voice echoed through the trees, he cried, but nobody listened.
There were two men. Yes! There were two men. Akhil had to stop crying. His state was like that of a deer whose neck was caught between the jaws of a tiger. He wanted to shout. He couldn’t, he just couldn’t. One of them jumped into the stream, two pairs of eyes watched him. One of the men chanted “Om Namah Shivaay” and the other drank some of his own tears. Akhil looked up, the stars were still up there, they had no mercy.
“Maa…Maa…Maa” Akhil ate his own words. The chanting got louder, the expressions on his face more violent. The man in water rose carrying the third body he had seen, a dead body, the chanting stopped. There were four men that night under those stars, three alive and one dead. Three men alive and hungry, one for food and two for the highest level of enlightenment.
A strong hand came down on the dead man’s stomach, the man didn’t oppose, Akhil’s mind did, but that didn’t matter. A minute later one of the men held the lifeless human body high, chanting out aloud. The prayers were louder this time, the hands and the lifeless body came down and soon, fangs were tearing the flesh apart. There were only two men who were hungry now for Aghoratva. Akhil was gathering the pieces; everything fell in place, Parvati Puncture shop, the Shiva photos there, and Bholegaon.
Akhil was not conscious anymore. He just wanted cigarettes, he wanted promotion, he wanted to watch Vantage point, he wanted to see Deepa, he just wanted to drink some cold beer. All he got was human flesh and unconsciousness.
1 month later
Akhil’s hands were not tied anymore; there were 30 plates of unconsumed food in the room where he was locked, with a window through which he could see Bholegaon. His body was covered with wounds from the lashes they had sustained. The night dawned, all the men gathered at the centre of the village. 2 dead bodies were brought in. A man with a long beard made his way through the crowd and stood to lead them.
“Sadiyon se manushya bhagwan ki paribhasha samajhane ke liye bahut saare pathit paathon ka paalan karta aa raha hai. Par bhagwan ek aisi bala, ek aisi shakti hai jiski parchayee tak pahunchane ke liye manushya ko hazaaron saalon ki sadhana karni padegi.
Yeh poorna sansar brahmanon ki banayee huyi hai, har vastu, har jantu jo iss sansar mein hain woh ek brahman ki maangi huyi vardaan hai. Tabhi yeh itani vismayjanak hai.Bhagwan Shiv ke banaye iss vishwa mein har ek vastu shuddhh hai.Iss chaukhat se kedarnath ke uss shikhar tak ke bikhare har jantu bhagwan Shivji ki hi den hai.”
“Saamne pade in shavon ki taraf dekhiye. Yeh itane hi shuddh hai jitana bhagwaan ka diya hua prasad. Khappar ki simaon ke andar tumhe Shivji milenge. Apne mann ke andar ki bhay ko nikalo aur vishw ki ekata ki kamana mein sharan ho jao. Bhay nahi ho mann mein, paap nahi ho tann mein. Yahi hamara karm hai, yahi hamari aastha hai. Nidar hoke mere saath bolo
‘
The dead body was brought to him, a tray of ash kept beside him. The man took the ash and violently applied it all over him. The whole crowd started chanting “Om Namah Shivaay”. The dead body was covered with a piece of cloth and the man sat on it to meditate.
Akhil knew it was the ritual of transformation, from human to the divine. He had seen it for 30 days now. The chanting went on for ten minutes. The man then stopped and took out a sharp large knife & cut a hand from the dead body. This share of the food promptly went into the pyre for lord Shiva. The rest of it was cut and distributed among the people gathered. The meal was relished and liquor was served in human skulls. Akhil looked around his, a human skull with liquor was lying kept at his door for the last 30 days.
Sometimes life takes you on a ride of its own, a ride beyond anybody’s imagination, one that is beyond our comprehension, one which opens a world of possibilities, one that makes a man shudder, and one that makes a man cry. A ride which can start with a tyre puncture!
2 years later
It was a moonless night. The stream of water today was playing host to a woman’s dead body. Somebody again jumped into the water. Somebody again chanted. The body was brought out, the men sat around the dead body, the men were hungry today, the men ate their ‘food’. Their names were ‘Dhuni Das’, ‘Bhole Das’ and ‘Akhil Das’.
Ramdas came running towards the men.
“Ek aaya hai, Jungle mein mila, pehle ki
“Kamre main baitha hai.”
The three men got up and walked towards the house. Akhil Das held an iron rod in his hand. The men reached the house, two of them stood near the door and Akhil Das went inside the house, he blew the lamp off and hit the person with the rod.
‘Aaaa….’
The voice sounded familiar, Bhole Das got a lamp inside and held it near the unconscious guy’s face.
‘Siddharth’ Akhil Das whispered.
