Vidhan Gyatva (II)

“Long down the untraceable path of history, even before the time of kings and queens, the globe was shrinking.”

Vidhatva began. The world at large now seemed silent with all its focus on an old man. The listeners were down on their knees, nervous and curious. It was a history class, not to learn about the past but to pre-acclimatize themselves with the time to come. “Mankind was enraged with war and killings. Like any other war, there were powers that fought either for the good or for destruction. The atmosphere was dark, just like it was minutes ago. Smile was unknown and happiness was simply a myth. Harm and death could come to anyone, anytime. People were safe nowhere. And in the twilight of this bad time was born a boy. Not just any ordinary child, but the one who brought the brightest morning after the darkest dawn.

It was me.

My existence itself made the people near me feel secured. They knew I was special. My aura had a sense of positivity, something they weren’t familiar to. Astonishment became a communicable disease and went viral among all the nearby hamlets. They began worshipping me. By the age of one, I could walk. At two, I could speak fluently. At three, I learned to read and write! But only when I turned five, I realized that I was different. I was extraordinary. I realized that I knew everything, literally everything. About everyone, every secret and what not! The only thing I was unaware of was my own history. I didn’t know how or why I was different. Those who didn’t believe in me said I was cursed, others thought I was blessed. Either way, they stayed with me. The loved ones named me ‘Vidhatva’ for ‘Vidhan-Gyatva’ referring to the one who holds the knowledge for everything.

Time flew by rapidly and I grew up accordingly. Before my birth, the whole of the village population shifted from place to place for safety reasons. But after I was born, we finally settled down. We were no more nomads. During the decade of my 20s, war was at its peak. Various supernatural forces joined the two sides. The Libra bowed in the favor of the dark team, but as we know no matter how powerful evil is, the righteous team always turns victorious. War killed both innocent and guilty but the worst part was, after the two bloods mixed it became impossible to differentiate between them. Life went by and one fine day, the war stopped; a sudden and abrupt end to the era of brutality.

Despite this being a happy news, it came as a shock to all those who had seen the war. How can a red-hot battle stop just like that! They thought about it for a day or two, but then the happiness overcame this curiosity. There were celebrations all around. People sang their happiest song, they danced their happiest dance and the world was overjoyed with joy. We could finally leave our homes safely knowing that our chances of returning alive are a lot more than they were before. Every face learned to smile. But while the universe was busy celebrating, I was still not convinced. I couldn’t digest the fact that I didn’t see it coming! I knew everything and so I should’ve known about that too. I thought about it day and night.

“Is this all a trap? A conspiracy? I need to know!” I felt even more anxious than before. To add to my suspicion, weird things began happening. Birds cooed their mightiest coo, Lion’s roar was audible from miles away, and the dark clouds weren’t hovering around anymore. Everything changed- just like it did now. For the first time ever, an army of monkeys stood at this very place. All this seemed pretty normal to others, but I knew something was still unknown. I started investigating on my own; starting with connecting the dots. Every event, every change, every happening- I could find no connection. Second step was following the animal movements. Never before were they so active!

I started off by observing the birds. Routinely, they met at the huge Banyan tree, chirped for a while and went back to flying! There was no change whatsoever in their behavior.

The domestic animal weren’t a question of suspicion! They had always been more scared of the surrounding than we were. So I just skipped them!

Next were the monkeys. Oh how much trouble they caused us! The notorious gang who stole food and other supplies from the houses- I followed them to their place. I was taken aback by what I saw! This army had a commander. He was pretty huge; almost double the size of the other monkeys. The others served him the food, he ate first and they ate only after him.

The monkeys were devoted to the huge one! For days and days I followed them and looked into the past of each and every monkey, except their leader. For some reason I was unable to use my power to know about him. This was the weirdest part! One day I hid myself behind the bushes to see what the monkeys were up to, but I found the huge guy missing. Something just didn’t feel right! I looked for him all around- The trees, caves, nearby lake – but he was nowhere to be found. His sudden disappearance didn’t seem to bother the other monkeys. They were busy playing, relaxing or stealing. Anyways, I continued my search for their leader. After an hour or two of exhaustive hunting, I took rest under a tree.

“Looking for me, are you?” said a heavy voice from behind me.