Ravi Krishnan's Blog

Table for Three

     Sid Miller Subramaniam a.k.a. SMS  stood at the entrance to the restaurant, The Bath, a fancy mid-city adda, a place too early for the times but yet attracting enough firangi-loving traitors of the twenty-first century, that it could pull off an all-nighter in the otherwise sleepy town.

He had his navy blue bomber jacket wrapped around his shoulder that he had picked up on one of his exotic getaways to the western hemisphere. The unnecessarily several pockets, shoulder strips where the potential insignia would go, and the elastic stripped wrist, these were the things that Sid enjoyed, and some would say even loved.

Coupled people walked out holding each other to the warmth. Sid danced around letting the crowd move freely. An act he hated but had forced upon himself. He whistled as the cold air cut through his broken lips.

As another wave of the patrons exited, Sid saw the face he had been waiting for; coming from the opposite direction. It was bobbing in the crowd, trying to get closer.

Sid waved his hand, the face responded with a smile as it slowly emerged out with a complete body, a woman, extra-slim and weary due to lack of sleep.

“Where in the world were you?” asked Sid, as he pulled her inside the warm sanctuary of The Bath.

They quickly navigated the cluster of tables to the corner of the restaurant and settled across each other.

“I’m sorry,” answered Gee as she removed the woolen scarf from around her neck. Sid noticed the neck, red due to the tight self-strangling, staring at it longer than normal.

“Sid?” whispered Gee, embarrassed.

“You know- you shouldn’t wrap your scarf so tight. You are stopping the oxygen from reaching your brain,” said Sid.

“Can’t help it, what are we ordering? I’m starving.”

“Anything; but let it be something that can be brought quickly. I have a lot to tell.”

“But I’m hungry, Sid. I want to eat properly.”

“Fine, just make it fast.”

“Let me just use the restroom before I order,” said Gee as she slid out of the extremely uncomfortable chair.

Sid protested, “Come on, order and then go do your thing.”

But Gee was already half-way across the restaurant. Sid watched her walk away; a slight unwarranted smile crept up. His eyes darted to the woman sitting across, in his line of sight. A pretty face surrounded by over-bent men, trying hard to keep her constantly laughing. She frowned at him. Sid quickly turned back, picked up the menu and skimmed.

He had no idea what to order.

As seconds turned minutes, Sid unable to control looked back at the woman. She was lost in the conversation which ranged from low-end growls to high-end shrieks, all by the men trying to be the jester-of-the-day.

Gee walked into his sight as he quickly caught her eye. She walked back to the table, slid back into the corner.

“Are you ready to order?” asked Sid.

“I just got back, give me a minute,” replied a slightly irritated Gee.

She skimmed the pages of the menu. She went all the way to the end and returned back to the beginning, only to skim back to the end.

“What are you doing?” asked Sid.

“Give me a minute,” replied Gee.

“You already went through that section. If you didn’t like something then why to bother going back?”

“Well, I want to be thorough and I could have missed something in the first glance.”

Sid sighed. This is going to take time. He might as well use the restroom and while he did that he could eavesdrop on the conversation of the bunch behind him.

As he slowly started to slide out of the chair, Gee said, “Well, I’m ready.” She looked at him, “Where are you going now?”

“Nowhere, order two of what you decided,” replied Sid.

Gee put out her hand, waving it hard to be noticed by the waiters who were in their own world. Fortunately or unfortunately, it was the woman from the bunch behind that walked up to them.

“Geetha?” asked the excited woman. Gee looked up at her and shrieked, “Manjuuuuuuuu.”

Gee sprang from her seat into the arms of Manju as they hugged.

“How long has it been?” asked Manju.

“I don’t know, at least a year I think,” replied Gee.

Gee pulled Manju around, faced her to Sid.

“This is Sid,” said Gee.

Sid smiled, all the while the thought going, “Manju? That’s the name on this pretty face?”

Manju looked into the eyes of Sid and smiled back.

“Why don’t you guys join us back there?” said Manju.

“No- We don’t want to be a bother,” replied Gee, “But there is so much to catch up on.”

“I know,” said Manju.

Gee looked at Sid questioningly. Sid smiled and said, “I agree, also we have to leave quickly.”

Manju replied, “Alright then. Give me your number. We will catch up sometime later.”

Gee reached into her handbag, searching for her mobile. Unable to find it she grunted in disappointment.

“Sid, take down her number and give her a call. Can’t seem to find my phone,” said Gee.

Sid, smooth as a penguin slid out his phone and typed the number, chanted by Manju. He called her number and disconnected just as it rang twice.

“Thanks,” said Manju, “I’ll get back to my friends then. You guys have fun and call me.”

“Sure, we will,” said Gee as Sid whispered the exact same words.

As Manju walked away, Gee stared at her, longer than normal.

“Can we order now?” asked Sid,  noticing Gee staring but she was not be interrupted.

“Gee?” said the confused Sid as he went back to the eternal act of choosing a dish, “By the way how do you know her?”

Gee replied, “You don’t want to know, Sid.”

The woman in the bunch behind cracked up the men.

 

Feral – A SciFi web series – Chapter 5

Agumbe had decided against any confession about his discovery to his brother. The whole day was spent doing the usual, collecting the fruits from the nearby shrubs, hunting for the elusive Kargish, hiding under the rocks when the sky opened up and the water lashed down and finally consuming the left over from the hunt. He had kept his composure all through the day even though the strange feeling of guilt made him slow in all the activities. Quite a few times Mani had shouted at him to fasten his pace.

The night fell fast and the darkness enveloped them in a jiffy. As the brothers retreated back into the caves they cleared the entrance leaving no signs of any life. Nobody wanted the naree to sniff them out.

Agumbe kept thinking about the object and the creature hidden inside. Would he see it again and be face-to-face with it?

They settled in their spots as the moonless night spread its cover all over them. The shining light twinkling in the sky was hardly enough to light up the trees; the ground around them was pitch-dark. Agumbe had got used to the darkness a long time back but the fear of the unknown had still not waded out of him. Unlike him Mani had become completely one with the night. Agumbe heard his brother breathe in his sleep and strained hard to get a glimpse of him. He could hardly make out his own limbs. He remembered how he loved the twin moon nights.

He tossed around unable to get the image of the creature out of his mind. He then heard a low growl very close. He froze and clenched his fist. His back was facing the open and he did not want to make any noise turning around. He hoped for his brother to wake up and take care of it but Mani’s rhythmic breathing continued. The growl slowly closed in.

Agumbe could not hold his terror any longer and turned around to face the threat. All he could see was the dark air next to his face. He scanned desperately to place the predator but to no avail. As his body remained stiff he gathered enough courage to move. As he relaxed and let out a breath; a figure appeared and scared him to death. A small but firm hand pressed hard on his mouth making him hard to let even the slightest of a shrill and then a dark smooth face closed on him and stared right into his eyes. He knew what would happen next.

A little later he was in the middle of the brown pillars feeling cold and scared. The creature that brought him here circled him. The creature reached and slowly removed the layer on its face and revealed itself. Agumbe looked at the smooth skin and the large eyes. The same one from the structure that he and his brother had explored.

The creature now looked at him and then at the forest that surrounded them. It then knelt down next to him and sniffed him. Agumbe froze as the creature moved its little nose around. Agumbe then reached out and held his hand and slowly dropped his head looking down. He scanned the ground and hoped for a truce. He felt a soft touch on the edge of his fingers. An unknown sensation inside him shot across every limb. At this very perilous moment his spirits rose.

Never had Agumbe before felt so much alive before in his life. As the burning sphere rose the following day above the brown pillars and made the dark creatures go silent, Agumbe awoke a new creature, all smiling and ready to face the day. Mani noticed it immediately and came sniffing at him. Agumbe pushed his brother’s face away and ran into the forest. Mani stood wondering what had gotten into his little brother who had been sober till yesterday.

On the very extremes of this forest moved another certain creature, a creature unlike the rest on this planet. He moved more agile and certain of his steps. He moved as if he searched for something. He moved not on his feet but on another object, a vehicle sort. He maneuvered his vehicle dexterously and avoided the brown pillars, the water bodies and the steep mountains. His face showed a sense of urgency, something a friend would consider normal in recent times.

He arrived at a clearing surrounded by dense forest of all the sides and parked his vehicle right in the middle. He descended and walked a few feet away and tapped his feet. The ground shook and land parted to reveal a hole. Dark abyss with secrets held beyond eons. The creature then slowly entered the void and disappeared.

Agumbe sat across Maira, looking into her eyes for indication on what his next action should. He could not look away. The more he saw, the more he stayed. On the other hand Maira rambled on with noises from her mouth as if the world had just been born. He moved her hand frantically gesturing the sky, the brown pillars, the water and the forest. She told him her life story while he gazed unintelligibly at her.

As the burning sphere dropped behind the canopies, Agumbe still sat listening to her but she twitched uneasily. She became careful when the sky turned dark. She got up and pointed towards her home. Agumbe stood up and pointed towards his. For some unknown reason her lips separated and she smiled. Agumbe could hear his own heartbeat. And then at the skip of his next heartbeat she was gone. Agumbe stood staring at the path hoping she would return and then turned around and headed home, the last thing he wanted.

Agumbe stood confused at the spot and looked back at his home. He thought about his brother, his antics and his bravery. He then looked ahead and saw the path that led to where his heart wanted him to go. At this juncture of time Agumbe decided and the events that led to everything else that this world would go through. He followed his heart and went into the path.

Read Chapter 4

Feral – A SciFi web series – Chapter 4

The burning sphere rose every time Agumbe closed his eyes and drifted to another world. It had not missed a single time even if he had missed a meal or to help his brother hunt. He wondered about its tireless journey across the sky as the darkness mirrored it on the ground. He had learnt that everything stuck to the ground had a darkness attached to it and that’s the way it is.

Mani had a special look in his face today. He had cleared up the leftovers on his own and had frowned at Agumbe for littering more. He had signaled that they would have to go on a hike very soon.

As the sphere rose high up, Agumbe left along with his brother on their hike. They left their home behind and crossed across the valley into the deep ravine and along the water body that flowed.

As they reached the end of the path, the scene changed as the water gushed ahead and fell down deeper into another ravine. The sound of the falling water deafened them. Mani held his hand out asking his brother to be careful as he crouched lower and moved along the ground. Agumbe followed suit. They approached the edge of the path as the water nearby folded and dropped. Mani stretched his neck and gazed down. He stared at something unseen to Agumbe and snorted.

The mystery was killing Agumbe as he twitched in his spot. He reached out and touched Mani’s back but his brother was awestruck with something. He let a low shriek. Mani turned around and then carefully moved back and pushed his brother to the edge holding him all the time. Agumbe’s stomach protested the whole excitement. He reached the edge and peeped.

The ravine below was no different from the one where they were perched except for a large structure that was in the middle of the water. Agumbe tried to understand it as he tilted his head sideways and then straight. It was nothing that they had ever seen. The shape was different and the contour forming the object just didn’t fit in the landscape.

He slowly retreated back and looked at his brother. Mani nodded and pointed at the structure. Agumbe knew his brother was about to do something dangerous for both of them. He immediately protested but Mani reacted so wildly that he caved in.

They headed to the ravine below as they climbed down the rocks and roots of the trees sticking out from the side of the mountain. They reached the bottom and walked up to the bank of the water and stood. They watched the structure being washed from all the sides.

As the waves pounded on the sides, Mani stepped into the water and wet his feet. Agumbe had seen his brother do this before but he knew that Mani had other intentions. He growled at his brother but Mani showed him no importance. Mani took another step and looked back his brother and pointed at the structure. He definitely proposed reaching it even if it meant wading through the water. Agumbe did not want his brother to go alone and so he joined him in the water.

As they took steps toward the structure the water rose around them, reaching up to their thighs and then their hips. The current slowly tried to push them but the brothers kept their balance. The structure closed in and the sphere above raced to the horizon.

The brothers now stood very close to the structure and the water was chest high and pushing them hard. Agumbe pressed down hard with his feet gripping the stones on the bed. He saw Mani a step ahead and reaching out for the structure.

The structure now glittered reflecting the sphere now falling from the sky ahead, at the far end of the water. Mani put his hand on the structure and screamed when the cold hit his nerves. Agumbe walked next to his brother and did the same. They stood holding on to the structure for some time, figuring out what to do with it. They ran their fingers along the flat surface and the perfect corners. Everything seemed different about it. As they came around the structure the surface changed a bit and became transparent. Mani immediately put his face close to it and looked inside. His face was stuck to it for some time as Agumbe lost patience. Agumbe pushed his brother and followed his idea.

Agumbe noticed various objects shaped in different size that he barely could understand. His sharp eyes looked around as the light slowly reduced. He eyes fell on something that immediately caught his attention. On the corner of the interior lay a coffin. As Agumbe strained his eyes he noticed something, he remembered the creature from the other night. He saw the features of a face in the upper corner of the coffin. The eyes were closed and the lips shut tight. Before Agumbe could say anything Mani pulled him and pointed at the darkening sky. They slowly retreated back to the banks and lay on it for a while thinking about what they just saw. The sky changed color rapidly from blue to orange, then to red and then to a pitch black.

The bright objects in the sky appeared and glittered while the brothers feasted on the beauty. The moon’s light fell on the structure and Agumbe thought about the face inside. He contemplated communicating this to Mani and decided against it considering what his brother might try next.

The creatures of the night slowly awakened and Mani nudged Agumbe to get up and head home before they turn the next meal of a hungry “naree”.

Read Chapter 3

Feral – A SciFi web series – Chapter 3

The golden ball of fire emerged from the ground far into the horizon, rose high above their heads, and then silently fell into the other end, all the while animating their darkness on the ground behind them. Agumbe had tried different tricks to get rid of the darkness but it had always followed him, except when he hid inside the caves from where he could not see the burning sphere. With creatures all around setting traps, Agumbe had not wanted to be marked for kill. He had hid inside for an entire period  between  the  rises  of  the  twin  moons  to  full  but eventually  had  to come out when Mani had snarled at him continuously for being unhelpful.

With his head hung and eyes staring into the mud covering his feet he had approached the white area where the sphere had its spell. As soon as he had stepped out the darkness attached to him appeared. Agumbe frustrated with it fell down on the ground beating it with his bare hands only to bruise. Mani had put his arms around him and held him until he had noticed that Mani had darkness around him too. Both of them had been marked and he had nobody to protect him if something happened to Mani. He had held on to his brother tight until Mani pushed him and brought the catch he had found near the shrubs. Rarely did they find a dead animal that they could consume without hunting. Maybe it was the last meal offered by the predator before it takes them out. The demons in Agumbe’s mind haunted him but he learnt to live with them as he survived every day since.

Mani had a newfound strength after yesterday’s battle with the dancing creature. Agumbe had decided against pointing out that it was the water that had defeated it and he had merely run away from it. Mani noticed the doubt in his face and nudged him constantly until Agumbe stood up and enacted the whole scene from yesterday.

He moved into a stand where he stood facing an unknown opponent and danced around indicating the face off but soon he tripped and fell on his back and then stood and ran away from the whole scene. Mani let out a chuckle when he saw Agumbe fall down and then run but stopped when he realized that his brother was mocking him. He threw the bone that he had been chewing at Agumbe and walked away. Agumbe had stood there feeling good that he had thought his proud brother a lesson, a lesson that could keep him alive, in fact both of them.

The burning sphere continued its act and Agumbe waited for the attack to come.

Soon it was time for the twin moons to rise to full and Agumbe prepared his escape as the burning sphere hung high above their heads. Agumbe went about cheerful as he pranced around and Mani kept staring at him little suspecting that his brother had a life of his own.

As the sphere fell into the sea of brown pillars and the green canopies were nothing but a black silhouette, Agumbe settled down to eat their meal. Mani dragged the kill he had made earlier and pushed it in front of Agumbe without making any sound. A strange feeling came over Agumbe as he watched his brother silent and different. Agumbe lost in his own desire for things to move quickly ignored the feeling and dug his hands into the flesh.

Like last time Mani slipped into a slumber immediately and Agumbe found the chance and exited their home. He was soon at his spot leaning on the rocks. He kept his arm close to his body and stretched his legs. The twin moons as usual shone bright to display their art of the dragons and the woman.

Agumbe stared into the abyss and imagined the strange other world he had visited last time. Would he drift into it again or would it be a different one?

Agumbe noticed a particular section down at the valley that glistened white. The twin moons somehow like the sphere had a presence down there. He knew something was going on as he noticed movement down, near the white glistening, of what he assumed to be water again. The water had found its way down there. However, it was not the water that alone moved, another creature had arrived there.

Agumbe crouched forward towards the edge of the crevice and strained hard. The other creature moved slowly like him in the darkness without revealing itself but Agumbe knew where it headed. The creature appeared suddenly from the darkness and touched the glistening white water. Agumbe for the first laid his eyes on it. What he saw brought another strange feeling in his stomach as he saw an image of himself down there.

The creature was nothing he had seen before but wait, he had seen it earlier. It looked like his brother Mani except it was much shorter. Were there more creatures like him and his brother?

Agumbe stirred and a rock slipped out its place and into the valley below making a noise. The creature immediately looked up and caught Agumbe’s eyes. For a moment, they locked their sight and stared at each other. The creature had a different face but something made him not take his eyes off it. But the creature slowly  lowered  its  head  and  head  back  into  the darkness. He watched it disappear unsure what to do.

He came back to his spot, lay back, and remembered the face. It was not long before he was in another world. This time the new creature appeared in it and touched him on his shoulder. He woke up scared and rushed back to the caves much earlier than usual. He had to figure out a way to convey this to his brother even if it meant he had to doing something different.

Read chapter 2

The ending chapters would be published this week.

Feral – A SciFi web series – Chapter 2

Agumbe emerged from the thorny bushes into the clearing that he called home along with Mani. He and Mani had ventured into it a long time ago and immediately fell in love with the place. A place like no other that they had inhabited, it was set in the interior of a series of caves that they had discovered on one of their usual hunts. He still remembered the feeling he had when Mani had ventured into it alone and little later had come out all beaming and declared their new home. Mani had always figured out a way for them to survive.

Agumbe rushed to the cave entrance and into the clearing that appeared just inside. He looked around petrified imagining the worst for his brother but the home was empty. Then he heard the scream again and realized that it was not coming from inside. He rushed back outside and circumvented the cave. His small yet strong feet found the perfect spots to land as his thin frail body cut through the air and navigated the landscape using his arms. His loyal limbs were at their best. He reached the back of the cave and found Mani still screaming his lungs out.

Agumbe had all his concentration on his brother and looked for signs of injury but strange as it may sound, Mani was perfectly fine. He screamed at something that took Agumbe’s breathe away. Just a few feet away from Mani were a strange creature.

This creature looked nothing like what Agumbe had seen or hunted before. It had no head, body or tail and everything seemed to be merging and separating at the same time. As a hunter, they had learned to concentrate on their prey’s eyes to understand its next move but this one did not have one.

Mani slowly moved his arm around distracting the creature. The creature seemed to be following his movements as it danced around reacting to Mani’s gestures. He still had not noticed his brother arrival.

“Mani,” called out Agumbe slowly crouching forward making sure that the creature is not surprised.

Mani did not react and just signaled using his hand. Agumbe reacted to this with a louder call, “Mani”.

Mani turned his head around, glared at Agumbe, and signaled again to remain quiet. There was water pouring from all over his body, his face, shoulder and his back.  There was strange sensation that Agumbe felt around the creature as his throat parched and his eyes burnt. Just when he did that a gush of wind flowed from behind the creature. The creature grew in size and Mani stepped back frightened, Agumbe let out a quiet shrill.

The creature now had turned red in color, stood higher than Mani and came closer. The grey cloud rose from the creature’s head and touched the sky. He stepped back, tripped on a stone, and fell on his back. Mani shouted at Agumbe and he knew his brother wanted him gone from here.

Agumbe stood his ground and the creature approached Mani spreading its width on all directions. Mani got up and ran toward Agumbe, the creature moved forward menacingly and Agumbe followed his brother. As they ran, they watched the sky turning dark and heard a loud bang. Agumbe knew this from before. The water falling from the sky would soon consume them. Will it be able to fight the creature? They ran for shelter. They did not stop to witness the battle.

As the brothers sped away from the gruesome battle that raged behind them, the sky darkened and the sun shied away to safety.

Back safely in their home they crouched under the protruding rock as the water pouring through the hole above them filled up their home. Agumbe shivered as his body fought hard to stand the weather. Mani on the other hand stared hard at the sky and tried to communicate with the creature that was doing this to them, high above in the sky.

Agumbe pulled hard on his brother and signaled him to lower his head. Mani disobeyed him and pushed him even further back into the hiding. As Agumbe watched, his brother crawled out of the hiding, stood under the pouring rain, and let himself be consumed by the water. Agumbe screamed and cried fearing for his brother but did not go out.

Mani raised his hand and held it above his shoulder accepting the challenge. As Agumbe watched the rain cover his brother, he felt the same feeling in his stomach. He felt as if his inside wanted to come out. He covered his mouth and stared at his brother losing as the rain lashed out. He could not hold it anymore as his body lurched and his inside came out.

As he recovered from the pain in his body, he noticed his brother standing in front of the hiding with his arms on his hips and smiling. The water had stopped pouring and his brother was still there standing. Mani nodded his head continuously indicating his victory over the rain and held out his hand.

Agumbe and Mani couched around the caves and slowly moved to see the fate of the creature. As they reached the clearing where Mani had faced it, they saw it missing. The place was awash and only a small mound of black mud spread across the terrain. Before Agumbe could stop, Mani came out and walked up to where the creature had been before. The black deposit slowly cleared away as the water took it along to the bottom of the valley. Mani bent over, picked up the wet mud in his hand, turned, and looked at his brother. Agumbe still careful watch him as he held up his closed fist toward the sky and then rubbed it all over his body. Then Mani let out a blood-curdling scream.

Read Chapter 1

Feral – A SciFi web series – Chapter 1

Every third night after the twin moons rose above his head to shine bright making the sun from earlier in the day shy of its luminosity, Agumbe stayed up the whole night watching the fight of the Garudas on the smaller of the two moons and then shifting his gaze to the creature that fetched water on the bigger one. He moved his head rapidly, twisting his neck and unblinking to create an illusory effect of the dragons and the woman. His astonishment knew no bounds when he returned every time this event occurred and watched the distant ball of light animate with life.

Agumbe kept a record of the number of times he has done this since the time he noticed it for the first time, about one hundred and fifty four times is what the white marks on the tree next to the spot in which he had discovered this informed him. Funny that to him the count one hundred and fifty four made no sense, neither did the structure that rose sky high around the twin moons or the very brown pillar that he had used to mark his count. Last time he had wondered about this, Mani had made a great fuss about it and continued to stare at him until he stopped thinking about it.

Mani was his older brother. From what he remembered, Mani was his only sole companion and he followed him everywhere he went except on the third day after the twin moons when he quietly slipped away after consuming the food that they had hunted and Mani had closed his eyes. Tonight had been easier than before, as Mani had gone straight to the ground and flat after the last bite that he had pushed down his throat. A loud sound came out of Mani’s mouth and he slid down under the protruding rock and turned his back to Agumbe. Agumbe had held his breathe the whole time and waited for Mani to quiet down. As soon as the shifting of Mani’s body had stopped, Agumbe swallowed the last morsel that had been stuck in his mouth and rushed to the spot.

Agumbe rested his small, dirty palm on the rock next to where he sat and leaned back on another. He stared ahead on to the valley below and the far mountains that hung from the dark sky just below his moons. The quiet whisper of a creature comforted him and he listened to the sound coming from inside his body. That slow rhythmic thumping against his chest had slowed down even more and softly sung his lullaby. He closed his eyes and the cold wind gushing down from behind him into the valley made the hair on the back of his neck stand. He drifted off into what he could only perceive as oblivion.

Agumbe was in another world now. He could not recognize anything  around  him.  The  strange  surrounding  kept  getting stranger as he unwillingly moved through it. It was as if he was not the master of his body. He looked down at his moving feet and commanded it to stop but to no avail. He instead started moving faster towards a blurry vision. As he moved along, he watched the brown pillars move behind him. He saw his brother, Mani sleeping under the rock drift past. He saw the path that he always took to reach his spot disappear behind him and then suddenly he saw the valley approaching and the twin moons becoming a giant. The light from the moons became brighter every step and hurt his skin. He rubbed his body but the pain only seemed to increase. As the crevice approached his body shuddered in cold and fear and then the valley loomed ahead as his vision was consumed by it. He gulped his final breath and fell.

Agumbe woke up in fear and faced the dead of the night in stupor. He tried to move his hand that would not listen to him. He remembered the world that he was in before this, now it was his arm’s turn to disobey him. He looked ahead to see if he was at the bottom of the valley. He had not moved an inch and sat at the very spot he had drifted. The moons now had faded away and a grey screen covered it.

As if his body was rebelling against him, a scream came out of his mouth and thundered down the valley. His eyes bulged and hurt as he tried hard to blink the pain away. He moved his other arm and stood up. The unwilling arm fell down like the log from the brown pillar and hung on to his shoulder. He knew that he had left his arm behind in the other world. A cold feeling lurched up his chest when he thought about helping Mani find food.

Just as he started loathing in his inability he felt a twinge in his fingers and then on his palm. He moved his fingers and lifted his palm. As he slowly gained control over his limb, he felt elated and screamed out in full control. He was the master again.

The twin moons by now disappeared gave way to the early sun light that streaked through the sky illuminating the valley below and then his own spot around the brown pillar. Agumbe reached out for the brown bag made of the creature skin that he had killed earlier this week, slung it around his shoulder and walked away to his home. It had been a yet another strange night.

With every step, that he took towards his home Agumbe remembered the other world that he had visited and the drifting path. He was happy that his path was back in its place and his spot would not disappear. As he came near his home expecting Mani to be still with his eyes closed, he noticed a grey cloud like  object  rise into the sky. He peered hard trying to understand it but could not. At that point, he heard Mani’s scream. He commanded his body to run and so it did.

Technology of spirituality: A flawed and desperate attempt to sell myth as science

With the ever growing popularity of pseudo-science and false faith in the superiority of a civilization’s ancient past, the Indian public is no exception. So much to say is probably the most caught up in the illusion. With the rise of the so called Hindutva campaign and the coming to power of the Bharatiya Janata Party the matter has become worse since a long time. With pseudo-science creeping into institutions like the IITs and the FTII, the new social media has become the playing ground for this infestation to spread. One such video that I came across was the tired attempt by a spiritual guru Khurshed Batliwala’s lecture in the Ruia College, Mumbai. While I have had my own spiritual upbringing and exposure, attending larger than life lectures by gurus and swamis, it has been quite a while since I have been fascinated by charming talks by men/women in earthly colored robes. Real science has been my driving force in life, amazing me in its patience in understanding the truth and its continued effort to push us into new frontiers.

Science and scientific temperament to anything has been a roller coaster ride. My life has changed from looking up at the ceiling of our 2 bedroom urban apartment, praying for a miracle to get me what I wanted the most, to looking inside me, realizing my strength and weaknesses and leveraging them to my advantage. The struggle is ongoing but is more satisfying than the disappointment of the miracles being only in my dreams.

As the great Carl Sagan puts it

It is far better to grasp the universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.

Alright, let’s get on with the real intention of this article. While I am not an expert on many subjects what I really like about science is that anybody can learn, appreciate and even challenge. So here is a small argument of how the Batliwala video is teeming with nonsense.

Batliwala starts with the opening statement of his lecture talking about his education at the very same premises that he is currently lecturing and also mentions his second attempt at the gold medal. While there is no reason to believe that a person who “flunks” would not go on to get the gold medal on the second attempt, this clearly is a marketing strategy to sell him to both the bright and the not so bright. Both the parties would start relating themselves to him. This is only proven when we hear cheers from the audience when he talks about this.

Statement: “After my MS in Mathematics from IIT Bombay I decided to teach meditation to people and make them happy instead to teach them mathematics and make them miserable.”

Mathematics is difficult, spirituality is easy. This is what I get from this statement, so is the use of drugs and alcohol abuse, then why is spirituality any greater than these. As far as I can see, Mathematics>Spirituality since Batliwala has clearly given up. Yay! Teaching science is probably the most divine deed that one can do according to me. Aren’t we all here because of those Science and Mathematics teachers?

At the beginning of his lecture he mentions that he has decided to go into ancient history. Well while we know what ancient history means, it certainly does not include our mythology and puranas. The most ancient recorded history that we have discovered yet so far are the Sumerians and the most ancient in India is no older than 3300 BCE. Remember this statement of his since this would be wrongly conveyed later in his lecture.

Statement: “Have all of you heard about the Varaha avatar? If not which country are you in?”

Wow! I can’t believe he just said that. While on one hand I do agree to the question which country am I in, it is most definitely not because I had missed out on the lesson of the avatars of Vishnu by my grandma but because I see us regressing to where we most definitely did not want to be.

More appropriate statements would be…

“I see a more advanced secular civilization where scientific literacy is the foremost principle, which country am I in?

“I see a united democratic nation which leads the world towards peace and prosperity, which country am I in?”

“While we were ruled by British for more than 200 years we have risen above and embraced our mixed culture, which country am I in?”

OK moving on…

Statement: “Lord Vishnu takes the form of a boar and for some reason the Earth is drowning in water and we don’t know why and how but the boar lifts the Earth up and brings it out of the water.”

This statement is accompanied by him showing a modern picture of the boar lifting a brown earth.

He then continues, “Check out the shape of the Earth, what is it? Huh! It’s round, which means that more than 10,000 years ago we knew that the Earth was round which Europe only accepted when they saw Apollo pictures from space.”

Alright, first of all if I have a master’s degree in mathematics I would most definitely look at a 2D picture of any planetary body and would not call it “round” but a sphere. I would most definitely treat my audience intelligent enough to grasp that. This somewhat tells us that he is going to take the science behind this a little lightly.

That picture of the boar lifting Earth was not drawn when the ancients wrote it. It is a modern imagination of what could most easily have been a fantastical idea at that time. In what authority does he claim that this all happened 10,000 years ago? As I had mentioned before the Vedic civilization is much newer and only dated to about 1500 BCE-500 BCE. That would put it around 2500 to 4000 years ago. This is to clearly misguide the students into believing that what he is talking about is something that we should be amazed. I am amazed at how our minds are so easily carried away by something that is large.

Alright, then we have the statement about Europe accepting that the Earth was “round”, still not a sphere, only after they saw the pictures of Earth from the Apollo mission. The concept of a spherical Earth has been around for centuries now in the western world. Beginning from the 6th century BC when Plato described a spherical Earth as a philosophical concept to a later scientific theory of a spherical earth by mid-15th century. Practical evidence to this was obtained when Magellan circumnavigated the Earth.

Even if we accept the fact that the ancient Indian civilization knew about the Earth as being spherical, so did the Egyptians and the Sumerians, much older than us. This I see as a collective triumph of human civilization rather than a single nation or people achieving something extra-ordinary. Our ancient Indian scientists made use of this knowledge and devised theorems and equations. Where they went wrong is when because of our self-contained life limiting us on innovation, this knowledge was put to use in so called astrology. Astrology rose when the scientists had to predict the King’s rise to power, time of death, possible betrayal etc. etc.

Batliwala goes on to describe the use of Zinc in India, the ability to separate Zinc from its ore and the story of how the process was “stolen” from us and sent across the world. Alright, what is the big deal again? We had technology to separate zinc, the Chinese invented the technology of print, and the American’s the technology of everything that Batliwala has used to make this video. Isn’t this what science is supposed to do? Make people’s life simpler?

There is a bit about the star Antares and the twin systems of stars. At that point of his talk this doesn’t seem harmful. He is but giving information about ancient Indians identifying the twin star system. Let’s hold on to this for some time till he decides to ruin the whole awesomeness of astronomy.

Batliwala then has a story about Vasco Da Gama and his discovery of India with the help of a Gujarati. While history is a debatable subject, depending on the writings of the past I don’t see the point of this in a lecture of Technology or Spirituality. Explorations were driven by commerce; hence we have the Europeans and Guajarati, the two probable communities that were involved in trade working together at that point of time.

The whole issue here is the fact that Vasco Da Gama discovered India is wrong and has to be removed. Batliwala subtly suggests renaming the city of Vasco Da Gama as Kanha, the Gujarati who helped Da Gama reach India. Well, who are we trying to prove this point to? Nobody in the west bothers anymore. If to the Indians then the right history lesson should take care of it.

While I don’t celebrate the idea of the Europeans finding their way to India, trading with the west has been going on centuries before this happened. In fact the Europeans had so many civilizations that flourished and fell, they seem to be doing the same thing all over again and again. And I would say that the whole trade imperialism of the mid 15th century and the later warfare of the Zamorin of Calicut with the Portuguese resulted because of the politics of the kingdoms of Calicut and its neighbors. The outcome of the war was decided by the superiority of Portuguese forces in technology and due to the foreign policy adopted by the kings. While it is easy to laugh at the stupidity of the Europeans who went scrambling to find land almost believing that they would fall off a flat earth, we should also see how the trading and policies of the royals ensured the establishment of the Portuguese as the ruling power very soon. Where were the wise patriotic advisers to these kings all these times?

Towards the middle of the lecture he decides to stop giving examples of our ancient knowledge and this is where my observation too would stop. The rest of the lecture is about meditation and pranayama which I have no issue with unless they claim extra-ordinary and that is exactly what Batliwala does.

Statement: “Our ancient scientists were saints, all of them did pranayama, all of them did yoga, all of them meditated. When you have trained your mind, when you have meditated, when you know how to do this and you have done it for appreciable number of years then you are no longer limited by physical instruments. If you want to go into outer space, and then close your eyes and dum, you can go. If you want to get into the depth of the atoms then close your eyes and you get there. And you are seeing it right? So it has to be accurate.”

I am again reminded of a quote by Carl Sagan.

 Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.

When someone is claiming that meditation and pranayama would allow a human bounded by the laws of the physical nature to travel to the Antares twin star system and also into the atoms then I would stand up, hold my hand out and ask for evidence. Not evidence of stories from puranas or from the Vedas but a physical demonstration of the same by someone at present. I do believe a lot of the gurus and swamis practice pranayama; many of them have years of experience in yoga. Can they point out a scientific observation in space or in the atom that our telescopes and microscopes can confirm? If yes then why are we waiting for a cure for cancer? Why are we waiting for ways to mine an asteroid? Why is there so much suffering in this world if these swamis can reassure us that the best or worst is yet to come?

Where Batliwala fails to even slightly impress me is the assumptions that he has about various things. What if the Vedas, the fountainhead of knowledge is only a small chapter in the vast knowledge available to be discovered? What if this so called knowledge was handed down by Sumerians who could have been the original inventors?

The Vedas were considered to be “apaurusheya” meaning not of human origin. Could ancient aliens have given us all this knowledge? Were these ancient aliens Sumerians? All these are equally possible and probable theories as that of our scientists being saints. While we can spend our energies defending these so called myths or we can do actual science devoid of bias and assumptions.

We live in a country where the chief of the space agency looks for Rahu kaala before sending the rocket into space and surgeons leave their last hope to the idol sitting in the corner of the hospital. While these things do not hamper our progress they do make us lazy in our urgency to achieve higher.

As a science fiction writer there is a thick line between what I see as scientific fact and what I see as source for my stories whereas that doesn’t seem to be the case with most of these gurus and swamis. And these are the people who reach the young far sooner than the rational teachers.

Here is a link to the lecture and a suggestion.

Do not accept anything with just words. Question everything. Compare results from various sources and be prepared for your beliefs to be shattered and upgraded.

The Fall of Pritu: Juggernaut

The Fall of Pritu: Juggernaut is Ravi Krishnan’s novel written over an year ago. The self-published novel is now available on Amazon Kindle. To check out the book and look into the first 3 chapters click here.

Reader’s reviews

“If you love thrillers then this book is definitely worth going for. You need to keep your mind open and attentive while reading it. Being a science fiction, this book remains true to its genre.” – Thinker Views. To read full click here.

“Fast paced and lucid, the first of the Juggernaut trilogy is one more in the line of books that have come in the recent past attempting to blend science fiction, ancient Indian stories and a contemporary setting. It is not a bad attempt at all. The book has plenty of truly moving moments and has something for every kind of fiction reader- adventure, emotions, twists, suspense…” – Surya S A from Amazon.IN

“Great narration,crisp details about where and when of the story.Characters are described in an interesting manner such that the reader is able to paint a picture in their mind. It transports you, taking you into another place and time, author has succeeded in creating character empathy.” – Prachi Gupta from Amazon.IN

“I must congratulate the author on his book. It has everything I have been looking forward to. For once so pleased to find most names and places in the book “Indian”. Absolutely loved the way the author portrayed the beginning of the end of the world and leaves me waiting for more and more.” – Kalyan S from Amazon.IN

To read the author’s interview at Thinker Views, click here.

Manjhi-The mountain man, an audio discussion

I and wife watched the movie Manjhi-The mountain man and loved it. This is what we discussed while driving back home.

Fountainhead

Srinivas stood drenched from his head to toe. He held a gun on his hand that was hanging loose from his bruised shoulders. He looked ahead at the frightened woman crawling to the corner of the hut that he had just stormed. She tightly held on to her falling sari and struggled to move her weight. Srinivas wondered why and then noticed that she was pregnant. She trembled in the cold rainy night and her teeth chattered looking at the blood lusting man standing at her doorway.

Unable to bear anymore fear she cried out, “What do you want?”

Srinivas awoke to her voice and looked at her. He remembered why he had come to this place. He took a step and lifted his hand as the water drained off his sleeves.

“I want it to end,” growled Srinivas.

“What do you mean? I have done nothing.”

Srinivas irritated by the woman’s ignorance shouted, “Not you. Him,” he pointed the gun at her belly, “Your son.”

The woman cried, “What has my child done? It is not even born yet.”

Srinivas ignored the hard-hitting fact because he knew something that the woman did not.

He steadied his hand keeping the gun pointed at her.

His finger froze around the trigger and he looked at the helpless woman and wondered if he was such a cold-blooded murderer. Then he remembered the future, the grim future and the man who caused it.

He said, “It will be born and then it will destroy this world and I won’t let it happen.”

Then he pulled the trigger.

Srinivas woke up wiping of his drool from his cheek. He clicked his tongue and tasted the dry taste that still lingered. He slowly lifted his half dead body and pushed it across the house. He had recently moved into this new apartment, a slightly bigger one from his previous. He staggered across trying to place the bedroom and the living.

He walked up to the front door and opened it. He liked the early morning sunlight and stepped out to get a dose of it. Instead of being bathed in sunlight he stepped on to the milk packet that had been left on his door step, breaking it and spilling it all over.

“Fuck!” swore Srinivas.

He cursed his way back into the house and now focused on getting his morning coffee. He walked over to the kitchen and began looking for the powder, sugar and mug. After a few minutes of hangover antics he managed to finish making his coffee and took his first sip. The caffeine moved quickly through him and triggered the signal. His brain awoke.

He was about to move over to the comfortable couch when his phone rang. A song from the 80s spread across the apartment filling it up. He managed to locate his mobile and answered it.

A woman on the other end said, “Is Mr. Srinivas there?”

“Yes this is Srinivas.”

“Sir, we are calling from St. Anne’s hospital. It is about Mr. Murthy.”

Srinivas wondered when the last time he heard this name was. A long time ago.

“Sir, are you there?

“Yes,” answered Srinivas caught by the word.

“Your name had been listed in the emergency contact.”

“Yes, correct. When was he shifted?”

“Yesterday night, sir.”

“Alright, what am I expected to do?”

“Sir, we regret to inform you that he has very less time to live. Since we do not have anyone else on the contact list could you please inform his loved ones?”

“Loved ones?”

The woman remained silent at the sarcastic remark by Srinivas.

Srinivas realized his outburst said, “Sorry, I am not sure how I can be of help. I hardly know him.”

The woman finding it hard to talk said, “I am sorry sir but we do not know anybody else. Please do come by as soon as possible.”

He found the conversation going in a wasteful direction and said, “OK,” and hung up.

Srinivas lay on the desk strewn with his work papers and drooled on them. The radio played in the back and his glasses hung from his face now stuck to the desk with his own saliva. The lamp shined on him with intensity and burned his cheek and ear. The alarm sounded and Srinivas woke up with few papers still stuck on his face. He slowly removed them from his face and arranged them on his desk. The papers were clearly important since he carefully arranged them in order and went through the equations while doing so.

He looked tired having worked the whole night and not much happy. He got up frustrated and slipped kicking the chair and table with anger. He had been drinking too and stumbled trying to find a balance. Then he collapsed and passed out.

He woke up to the sound of his doorbell. He wiped his face and went across the house to open the door. He opened it and found a few men dressed in a very religious attire standing at his doorstep. Before he could say anything the man at the front spoke.

“Do you believe you are leading a happy life?”

Srinivas surprised by the question thought about the answer.

The man continued, “I mean do you smile a lot? Is there happiness in your life? Have you recently discovered something?”

“No…”

“Hmmm…But you seem to be in trouble. Have you heard of Guruji Vishwas Singh and his quest to travel to the other dimensions? If you think your discovery has to do anything with the Guruji’s, you should come to Koti.”

“No…I don’t think so,” replied Srinivas.

As soon as the man heard Srinivas’s answer he continued, “Ah…then you are not in the right path. Take the three-day spiritual tourism in the valley of Koti under the aegis of Guruji Vishwas and rediscover yourself. He will take you with him to other dimensions and show you things you cannot imagine.”

“I am sorry but…”

“That is not just that. There is more.”

“No I really…”

“Do not decide now. Take this flyer…,” the man turned around to one of his associates who handed him a flyer, and thrust it into Srinivas’s hand and continued, “Read this. Take a look at what we offer and spend some time thinking about yourself and what you can do. Then decide. Is that a lot that I am asking you to do?”

The men all joined together and folded their hands and chanted something before taking leave. Srinivas looked at the flyer which had a picture of the guruji sitting in a serene valley with the Milky Way galaxy on the horizon. Srinivas frowned at the insanity of the picture and closed the door.

Srinivas stumbled across the village grassland falling around the mounds and ditches. It was raining heavily and he could hardly make out anything in the dark. He finally reached the house. He remembered it and crouched next to the wall and waited. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a gun. He clicked open the chamber and checked the bullets. All six of them were loaded. He clicked it back into place and put it back in his pocket.

He waited as the rain poured on him. Then he stood up to enter the house.

Srinivas stood outside St. Anne’s and stretched his head all the way to the back looking at the statue of Jesus Christ. Then once his neck started hurting he walked into the hospital. He found his way to the ICU section and walked up to the nurse standing behind the wing reception.

He asked, “I am here for Murthy Kannan.”

The nurse looked up at him as if she had found someone she had been looking for years. She replied while going through some file, “And you are?”

“I am Srinivas. I was called from here.”

The nurse looked completely irritated with him and retorted, “Yes, yes Mr. Srinivas. Mr. Murthy is in room 3. Please follow me.”

She came around the desk and walked into the hallway followed by the reluctant Srinivas.

They came to the room 3 and the nurse stopped. She opened the door and signaled Srinivas to go ahead. As he walked by her she said, “Do not be loud. Make it quick.”

Srinivas opened his eyes and found him staring at an evening sky. He suddenly heard noises of men shouting and rolled over to his side and looked at the source of sound. A group of men chattered angrily and carried sticks and torches and walked past him. They did not seem to notice him and as soon as they passed, Srinivas got on his feet and followed them. As he tip-toed behind the men he patted his pocket and felt the bulge.

They soon reached what looked like the outskirts of the village and a lone house stood. The men walked up to it and banged on the door. It was opened by a woman draped in a sari. Srinivas hid at a distance and could not make out the face of the woman in the dark but the men were shouting at her. They seemed to be threatening her and then after a few minutes turned around and walked away returning back in the same path. Srinivas hid and made himself invisible. The men again walked past him.

Srinivas entered the room and saw the old professor lying on the bed with an oxygen mask fit on his face and medical equipment connected to monitor him. He walked over to the old man and peered. The old man had his eyes open and as soon as he saw Srinivas he started shaking. He pointed to the oxygen mask and Srinivas leaned over and removed it. The old man took a deep breath and whispered, “Come close.”

Srinivas leaned even closer and kept his ears on the man’s lips almost touching it.

The old man said, “This is very important. This is about the device. You remember?”

Srinivas looked at the old man questioningly and nodded. He went back to hearing him.

The old man continued, “I finished it. I built it and tested it but I made a mistake. I put a spinning light source on this end and the door opened up.”

Srinivas listened carefully noting down everything that the man said.

“If the door remains open than anything can go from here and come from there.”

Srinivas looked at the man and said, “What do you mean anything?”

The man coughed and said, “I do not know what is on the other side but it is better to stop it. These people are behind it and if it falls into their hand and then all hell will break loose. I made a mistake and you have to help me fix it.”

Srinivas shook his head and said, “I cannot. I told you this earlier. I want nothing to do with this.”

The old man shook in anger and whispered louder, “It is too late for that. I am in no position to do it and that is why I am asking you. If you do not act now than the world would be destroyed by you.”

Srinivas cursed the man under his breath, “You should have listened to her in the first place.”

The man blinked and a tear rolled out of his eyes.

Srinivas felt the inability of the man and said, “Alright, I will do it. Where is it and what should I do?”

The old man answered, “Come close.”

Srinivas walked back holding the flyer in his hand back into his study. He went to his desk and looked at the papers he had been working on. The strewn papers with the unsolvable equations frustrated him and he banged on the desk in anger. He took out his mobile and dialed a number.

“Hello,” said a voice.

Srinivas replied, “I am going crazy. I am unable to solve this. I need help.”

The voice listened for a few seconds and replied, “Relax now. You will get it.”

“How will I get it? That old bastard made it so complicated. If I have to reverse what he has done then I have to first close the door and in order to do that I have to introduce something to counter the spinning light source…wait,” Srinivas pondered while still on call.

“What happened? Did you find something?” the voice asked.

“I have an idea. I will call you back.”

Srinivas hung up and went to his desk.

Srinivas stepped out of the room and looked around. The nurse was still at her desk. He quickly walked to her and crossed without making a noise. She did not look up and he exited the building without anyone asking him anything.

He walked across the street and hailed an auto. He got in and quickly told the address to the driver who immediately shot out into the traffic.

Within minutes Srinivas arrived at an apartment and walked in. He caught the elevator and reached the ninth floor. He found his way around and came to the apartment numbered 903. He reached into his pocket pulled out a key and opened the apartment.

Once inside he looked around and carefully moved across without touching anything and reached into a room. He pushed the door open and peeped in. The room was filled with books, papers and boards. He carefully stepped over the books and reached the wardrobe. He opened it and bent down. He reached down and moved a pile of clothes and put his hand. He felt the cold metal and then pulled it out using both his hand.

Srinivas waited for the men to go past the hill. As the noise subsided and he saw the torchlight dim away in the distance, he came out of his hiding and walked towards the house. As he stepped away a heavy downpour started. He quickened his pace but within seconds was completely drenched. He moved towards the house.

Srinivas was bent over something and moved about as if a sculptor was creating his art. On his work desk stood a metallic object that was vibrating and making a humming noise barely heard. He brought about another two apparatus and made it stand next to the object. He bent over the apparatus and modified some setting by moving the knobs.

Just then he got a call on his mobile. He looked at the number and answered it.

“I have done it, “said Srinivas.

“Good, finish it and then we will celebrate, the old man would be proud of you,” said the voice, “Make sure you document what you changed.”

Srinivas nodded and hung up.

He went back to his work and then changed few more settings and then finally pressed a button. He stood back. The apparatus lit up and a light emerged out of it and beamed on the metallic object. The object started vibrating even faster and then a bright light spilled out of it blinding Srinivas.

Srinivas walked through the hospital hallway hurriedly and into the ICU section. A different nurse sat at the desk. She looked up at him and frowned questioningly. He walked up to her and said, ‘I need to see Dr. Murthy. He is in room 3.”

The woman looked up and then checked a file. Her expression changed and she said, “I am sorry but Mr. Murthy passed away this morning. He has been shifted to the morgue.”

Srinivas stared at her in horror. He stepped back and the woman said, “Sir, are you ok?”

He turned around and ran.

He bumped into a group of men and then slowly recognized them. They were the same who had come campaigning for the guruji. The same man now at the center recognized Srinivas and helped him back to his feet. Srinivas started apologizing.

The man stopped him and said, “Hope you find what you are running for? Remember our offer. Whenever you are ready, come to guruji and he will help you.”

Srinivas frowned and started running again towards the exit. He caught an auto and reached his home. He went into his study and walked to the object still at his desk vibrating and the apparatus next to it. He looked at it and stood confused. Then his eyes fell on the flyer still on the desk below the apparatus. He noticed something on it that he had missed earlier.

He pulled it out and observed it closely. The serene valley and Milky Way galaxy looked as if they had pulled out from the internet. His eyes fell on the guruji sitting in deep meditation. He noticed the man and his features. Then it dawned on him.

It was him. It was him as the guruji with a flowing beard and a white gown and in deep meditation.

He picked up his phone and texted.

I screwed up. It’s not him but I who opened the door. I am going in to fix it. Goodbye.

Srinivas recoiled when the shot was fired. The sound deafened him and the woman shouted at the top of her voice. She cried out thinking that it was her last moments but then realized that the crazy man had missed his shot. She looked up at the man.

Srinivas stood there still holding the gun and crying. Tears poured out of him as he cried, “Mother. I am sorry.”

Then he pointed the gun at his temple and pulled the trigger.