The Cursed Shell

10

Todd Lamb, an African–American Sanskrit scholar and linguist, was sitting on his sofa, waiting for his guests to arrive.

The door–bell rang.

A maid opened the door and welcomed Josh and the two guests with him.

"Mr Dhawan!" Mr Lamb stood and greeted them. His oldness reflected in his voice.

"Mr Lamb," Dhawan greeted him back, "glad to meet you again."

"And congratulation to you, little boy", Lamb turned towards Brute. Brute stood frozen. He had met several celebrities since morning.

"Actually," Dhawan said, coughing to some hesitation. "I hope this phrase does mean something to you. The dead shall sing the ballad of the broken shell?"

Brute raised his eye-brows. He didn't expect Dhawan to go on the topic so fast. Is it how it works? Or the movies and novels just add up to get the story longer?

Dhawan found it weird to explain but he told Lamb everything they had yet found.

Although Lamb was aware of the death of his old pals, he had never thought even in dreams that these deaths were related to the marble stones given to them by their teacher. He took out a cubical glass box containing a lustrous hollow irregular cylindrical marble stone from a wardrobe. Brute and Dhawan were familiar with its top view, as they had already seen it in the black-and-white photo Dhawan found in Broom's house.

It was the first stone from the top–left corner of the broken conch–shell.

"Guru Bhaskar broke the conch–shell into eight marble stones and gave them to his eight students", Lamb said, placing the glass box on the table in front of him.

"Why is this shell so precious, anyway?" Dhawan asked.

"This shell can reciprocate the Amritwa Paan", Lamb said. Lamb knew it was ridiculous to say that. But this was all what he knew.

Brute couldn't believe his ears. Reciprocate Amritwa Paan? Was it even possible?

"Amritwa Paan?" Dhawan didn't understand.

"After the Samudra Manthan," Lamb explained, "the Devas received the elixir of immortality known as Amrit. Drinking that elixir is called Amritwa Paan."

"What is Samudra Manthan?" Dhawan asked, still confused.

Brute eyed him. 'What kind of Hindu is he?' he thought, 'He doesn't even know about Samudra Manthan!"

Lamb exhaled a long breath. "Samudra Manthan means 'churning the ocean'. Thousands of years ago, there was a terrific battle between the Devas and Asuras. Although the Tridev, the three Gods, which includes Lord Vishnu, Lord Brahma and Lord Shiva were already immortal, the other Gods needed the elixir to become immortal or they could be defeated and killed by the Demons. Lord Vishnu suggested the Devas to churn the ocean so that the elixir of immortality could come out of it. For this, lord Vishnu took the avatar of a giant turtle and sat at the bottom of the sea floor and balanced mount Mandara on his turtle–shell as a churning rod with snake Vasuki as the churning rope.

However, the ocean couldn't be churned by the Devas only. For this, the good had to be on the one side and the evil had to be on the other one. Therefore, the Asuras and Devas churned the ocean together. While churning, many matters and elixirs came out to the shore. At first, came a poisonous liquid called Kalkoot. The poison was so hazardous that even its odour could easily kill an ordinary human. To save Earth from that destruction, Lord Shiva drank the poison and stopped it from entering his throat. After this, his throat became blue in colour and he got one of his best known names - Neelkanth. One by one, many materials and beings came out of the ocean. From deadly monsters to beautiful angels, from poisonous liquids to medicinal substances. Some were dangerous, some were beautiful. At last, came the elixir of immortality known as the Amrit. Before the Devas could even touch it, the demons picked the pot containing Amrit and ran away.

To bring the elixir back, Lord Vishnu took the Mohini avatar. Mohini was his female avatar which was the most beautiful lady in the world. The Asuras fell in love with her and gave her the pot containing Amrit. Lord Vishnu came back and gave the pot to the Devas."

"How the conch–shell can reciprocate it?" Brute asked. It seemed really weird to Brute. How could a shell change what happened in past?

"According to Guru Bhaskar," Lamb told them, "this conch–shell was created by Lord Vishnu as a curse for the Devas, when they killed Virochan, the son of Prahlad and a devotee of Vishnu. They did this as Virochan was strictly against the worship of any other God except Lord Vishnu. Although this step by Virochan was wrong, the Devas could take other steps like they could tell Virochan that he was wrong, but they didn't. Therefore, Lord Vishnu created a conch–shell which could convert the Amrit drank by the Devas into the poison Kalkoot."

(A/N  Although the content about SAMUDRA MANTHAN is taken from VISHNUPURAN (a sacred Hindu book about Lord Vishnu), the above statement / belief about the cursed shell is completely fiction. None of the sacred Hindu writings support this belief. It is fictionally created by me to support the storyline.)

"Don't you think that this belief is religiously controversial and may cause debates and religious conflicts?" Brute said.

"That is the only reason why this belief is kept secret from others," Lamb explained. "This, whether it is true or not, should be kept away from public. You can imagine the chaos, panic and debates among the public if this is disclosed."

"Do you even believe it?" Dhawan smirked.

"Can't say," Lamb said. "I did a lot of research about it, but didn't find anything about it in Vedas and ancient manuscripts. But for now, we have to believe this belief to go ahead on this case."

"I'm a detective," Dhawan said. "Detectives never believe, they suspect."

Crunchy rolled his eyes as Dhawan tried to show a heroic attitude.

There was silence for a few seconds.

"But now, we have to inform Mrs Cluster about it", Lamb demanded.

"I've already done that. I've asked her to double the security around her house", Dhawan told him.

"Who else knows about this?" Lamb asked.

Dhawan wondered for a second. "Only I, Brute, you, and your son."

"Actually," Brute interrupted after thinking for a while, "there's a girl in the orphanage where I was brought up. Her name is Krystene. I guess she knows about it. But I'm sure she'll not tell anyone about it."