Team #Alphabet Soup
Read the previous part of the story Chapter 23 on Reema's blog
Chapter 24
She
wiped her tears. That must be it. She grabbed her bag and left her room
immediately.
She sent a text to Ravi, Tara and
Sudheeran.
Lets
meet madman ASAP!
She reached the Janamaitri police station.
He was seated inside the station. But not imprisoned. Sudheeran, out of
deep respect towards him, had asked Ravi to just keep an eye on the madman. The
madman had made the station his place of meditation.
As soon as he saw her, he guffawed loudly.
“I was waiting for you. Where are the
others?”
No sooner did he speak those words, the
team reached the station.
“What is it?” Sudheeran asked looking at
the madman and Jennifer.
“He can help us.”
Ravi moaned, “Not again! He has already
caused enough-“
“Just think Ravi! One evening, release the nightingale and she’ll sing her song. He
is the caged nightingale! Aren’t you?”
She looked hopefully at him.
“I am but a Bhranthan (Madman)”
Ravi ran his fingers through his hair in
irritation. “Do you know anything about the temple?”
“I know many things about the temple. Amma
has-“
“Alright! Alright! Let me rephrase it. The
child is missing. Again! Wait! Did you arrange her kidnap again?”
“Hahaha! I was under your observation. How
do you-?”
Tara interjected half sobbing, “My daughter
is missing. She must be inside the temple. Please! Please tell us about the
secret chambers.”
He said, “I know some of the chambers and
passages. But I don’t know how many chambers there are in all.”
Sudheeran was calm again, “Is there any other way we could find that out?”
“The temple has immense powers. More than
you can imagine. There is a chamber in the temple that holds the entire world
within its walls. Come with me.”
*****
They entered the interior of the temple
where the Garbhagriha was. After an
area around the Garbhagriha for circumambulation, the rooms lay. He took them
inside the 4th room from the left.
“These aren’t the secret chambers. These
are but rooms. The secret chambers are hidden within these rooms. That is how
the temple has been built. To normal people’s eyes, these are the secret
chambers. While they are deep within. It is like our mind. We think that the peripheral
thoughts and desires are important. We think that we are our emotions and
actions. While the self, is deep within.”
He asked the priest to open the only chamber inside the room.
“Isn’t this the chamber of scriptures?” the priest asked.
“yes”
“you spoke about the power of the entire
world.”
“Think again! This chamber houses numerous
age-old scriptures, Vedas, Vedantas, Shlokas and Stotras. There are very
powerful Shlokas in here. You utter one word wrong, and you shall be beheaded.
Pronounce them right, with the right intonations, you will attain Moksha. Tell me another chamber as
powerful as this.”
Jennifer felt a chill. Her hands involuntarily went for her camera. But she
stopped herself.
Some
things were better unknown.
She noticed that the madman was looking at
her, hint of a smile on his face.
The scriptures room had never been opened for several years and there was a lot
of dust and moisture in the room. The chamber was big and there were racks on
all the four sides with a small door on one side of the room.
The priest went and got an old torchlight.
He hit it hard thrice and then it lit up the room.
“What are we searching for?” asked Ravi
“The details about the temple
architecture.”
“Are all these in Malayalam?”
“Most of the scriptures are in Sanskrit.
There are a few in Malayalam too.”
The madman went towards one of the racks.
The writings were on dry palm leaves. They were all neatly arranged in piles.
Each section of a rack had six piles of palm leaves. He sat down on the floor
and began leafing through the age old dry leaves on which there were many
writings. He skimmed through one set of writings in a pile, skipped a pile and
reached for another. After around five to six trials, he sat still with a set
of palm leaves in his hands. He poured through them and kept saying “Hm…” as
though he was humming in approval to an invisible voice.
“So, that is it.” The madman looked up.
No one dared to breathe.
“There is a meaning for everything
happening in this cosmos. There are 18 chambers in this temple and 9 passages.”
“Meaning?”
Ravi questioned.
“8
indicating the Ashta-lakshmi – The eight Lakshmis’. 9 indicating the number that cannot be
destroyed.”
“A number that cannot be destroyed?” asked
Ravi. Tara was now becoming restless.
“ Any number multiplied with 9 adds up to
9.
He quickly took out his pen and a small
diary he kept in his pocket always and wrote an equation -
9*3 = 27
> 2+7=9
9*5 = 45 >
4+5=9
“And the 1 chamber?” asked Jennifer.
“This one. The chamber of scriptures
is the last one.”
“ In total 18. The number again adds
up to 9. This is the 18th chamber because scriptures, and 18
are connected. There are 18 puranas, 18 upa-puranas, the epic Mahabharata has
18 parvas. So does Bhagavad Gita. The temple was built keeping all these in
mind.”
Shekhar quickly asked – “How many of
these chambers and passages do you know?”
“I know 13 of them. And 7 passages. The
directions about the passages or the chambers aren’t given here. We’ll have to
find the rest.”
He quickly added based on his experience, “There is another thing that you have
to keep in mind. Some of these chambers do not have ventilation at all. So make
sure that none of you get stuck in any of these chambers. You will suffocate to
death.”
He gave the team the directions about the
13 chambers he knew. They quickly began the search.
They first tried to find the passages,
mainly to stop Cyrus from leaving the temple. This was the topmost priority at
the moment. They had to find the right chamber before Cyrus escaped with the
child. They decided to guard the known passages with the help of the
Sub-Inspectors and extra constables called by the Ravi. He informed them that
it was an urgent operation. No questions asked. The search continued. They had
strict instructions not to make any noise.
The madman hadn’t left the room. From the
start, his eyes were tied to some kind of a symmetrical arrangement between two
racks. He used all his force to drag one of the racks aside to reveal the wall
behind. It took him a while to notice an outline of a door. After applying
varied amount of force and moving the door in all directions, it opened. He had
found the first chamber.
Apart from a few empty earthen vessels lying around, the chamber had nothing
exciting to offer. He informed the others that one of the unknown chambers were
found. The team slogged continuously for a long time. After what seemed like a
couple of hours, they heard someone scream. They quickly ran in the direction
of the voice.
It was coming from below the 5th room around the Garbhagriha. A
police constable had fallen into a chamber accidentally & was stuck halfway
through. It was a chamber whose door was on the floor. They pulled him out of
the chamber. Two of the constables checked inside the chamber. It was one among
the unknown chambers and looked like an old well without water.
Sudheeran said, “Three more to go.”
Going from chamber to chamber, wall to
wall, Tara and Jennifer met and hit many things but with no luck. They began to
feel dejected. Jennifer began feeling guilty as she entered another room. She
kept blaming herself for involving Cyrus in this. She kept searching every nook
and corner trying to fight against her guilty conscience.
Suddenly an idea struck her, she remembered the pictures Roohi had clicked the
day the idol went missing. Jennifer had spent a lot of time safeguarding her in
this very temple premises. She looked at them and decided to compare the
pictures and the premises. It might take some time. But she would do it so
thoroughly that a second time check wouldn’t be necessary. She called a few
others and told them her plan. She asked them to feel each part of the temple
& search. She had read a lot of books and seen many movies. A picture might
just speak a thousand words.
She took the eastern side and began with
the temple kitchen first on the row.
Kitchen was the usual Kerala Style temple
kitchen with big utensils.
The first room after the kitchen was a kind
of service room. The temple gave Annadaanam – donating food. The food
prepared for the same was kept in this room. Third was a hall with a huge
sitting space. They had small stools everywhere along with a lot of utensils
and mats to sit on. On the right side of hall, it had stairs to go
up. She began climbing the stairs. In one picture, Jennifer saw something
shining on the stairway. She began searching for the source of the reflection.
She climbed around five steps and there she saw it. A tiny loop, towards the
right, almost in line with her eyes.
Who would look for a chamber while walking up the stairs?
She pulled the loop. No luck! Her fingers hurt. She pushed at the wall with
all her might and it slightly moved. Again, she pushed hard with the pent up
anger, guilt and memory of the accusations. It gave away to a room. Extremely
excited, she entered and saw someone in the room. She moved closer to realize
that it was a dummy wearing a kathakali dress. It was the room where the dance
and elephant's costumes were kept. She
was disappointed. She informed the others that there were just two to
go. She continued searching with a renewed energy.
Two more to go
Two more to go
Cyrus! You jerk! Where are you?
She continued comparing the pictures to the
fourth room only to be disappointed further by finding nothing in there.
She went to the next room and looked at the
pictures. Nothing. She looked at the wall. A white mark! It wasn't there in the
image on her camera. She moved closer and sees something stuck to the wall.
Sandal paste? She began to scratch it absent mindedly wondering why it was not
in the picture. She noticed it was shaped well and was just drying.
Why would someone play with the sandal
paste while searching for the chambers?
She removed her finger from the mark. A triangle!
'Triangle means, you're close to me.', she
thought to herself.
Roohi is somewhere nearby!
---end of chapter 24---
