The Cursed Shell

43

Nothing was new. It was all what he already knew. Brute kept turning pages one after another and kept translating whatever he read to Krystene. There was no chance to miss anything. And he was pretty sure that he had not missed anything the last time.

The current page was about Pootna, the demon with venomous milk, who was sent by Kansa to kill Krishna, one of the ten main avatars of Lord Vishnu, and the eighth son of Vasudeva and Devaki. According to a prophecy, Vishnu would take birth as the Krishna avatar as the eighth son of Vasudeva and Devaki to kill Kansa, punishing him for his wrong doings. Devaki was Kansa's sister, but after Kansa heard the prophecy, he put her and her husband Vasudeva in a prison in order to kill all of their sons after they take birth. Seven of their sons were killed by Kansa, but Vasudeva had successfully taken his eighth son to Nanda, the king of the cowherders who lived in Vrajabhumi, who adopted him as his own son. The Gods had helped Vasudeva in doing this by making everyone in the prison, except him and Devaki, fall asleep.

After Kansa got aware of this, he sent Pootna to kill all the babies who had recently taken birth in Vrajabhumi by feeding them with her milk.

Pootna went there at once, disguised as a beautiful woman. She breastfed many babies, one by one. And all those babies died the moment when the first drop of her milk entered their mouth. Many kids were dying. The entire Vrajabhumi was now in mourning. No-one knew why this was happening, but what they understood was that only new born babies were dying.

After some time, Pootna heard from a few villagers that a baby was born in Nanda's house who was almost as black as coal and was more adorable than anyone could ever be.

Pootna immediately went to Nanda's house, and after seeing no-one in except the baby, she picked him and went deep inside the nearby forest.

'Adorable indeed', thought Pootna, grinning as she knew that this kid was going to die very soon. 

She started breastfeeding the baby. She was surprised to see that the baby was still alive. Lord Krishna was comfortable in drinking Pootna's milk. And not only this, along with her milk, he drank all the blood from her body. She screamed and turned back into her demon avatar. She soon lost her consciousness and fell down, dead. Later, the villagers found Krishna sitting and playing on the breasts of a dead monster at the mid of the forest.

Krystene was listening to Brute's words very carefully, to ensure that they don't miss anything important to the case.

Many of the thick clouds had faded, but the moon was still hid behind a long, thin cloud. According to the manuscript, the moon should be clearly visible while blowing the shell.

"Keep waiting, Josh," Dhawan smirked, "the clouds are not going to fade tonight."

"As I have already said, Dhawan," Josh turned back, "I have patience. I can wait for the next full-moon."

"You know, I have handled many criminals in my career," Dhawan said, "but you are just the worst. I have never seen a darned Pissing-Booth like you!"

"Oh, I was hurt!" Josh raised his eye-brows.

"Glad to know that", Dhawan said.

"You know the biggest difference between us, Dhawan?" Josh asked, walking towards him, with the TeE still in his hand. "That is our thoughts. I am not talking about what we think. I am talking about the way we think. That is totally different. Okay, now let's just have a question. You must be knowing about the bird Asian Koel, which you Indians call Koyal in Hindi, haven't you?"

"Of course, I have."

"Okay," Josh continued, "so now, the question is, which bird will you prefer to be, a koel or a crow?"

"A koel, of course", Dhawan answered without even thinking for a moment.

Josh chuckled. "That is the difference, Dhawan, that is the difference between us. As I would prefer to be a crow. Although I know why you chose to be a koel, but still, I want to hear the reason from you."

"I chose to be a koel because their voice is very soothing," Dhawan told him, "they are praised for their voice. And the reason for a crow to be hated is their not-at-all charming voice which people never want to listen."

"Okay," Josh nodded, "this is a valid reason. Now I shall tell you why I chose to be a crow. Although koels are praised for their voice, but one fact which is known by everyone, but is ignored, is that koels never build nests for their eggs. They lay their eggs on a crow's nest, and destroy the eggs of that crow. And when the crow arrives at her nest, she doesn't know that the egg she is going to take care of is not her own egg. It is the egg of a wicked koel."

Josh gave a wide smile for a second. "Now tell me, Dhawan, weren't you wrong? You knew that a koel does that, still you preferred her to be better than the crow. Well, that is not your fault. Since our childhood, we are told that a koel is good and a crow is bad. I even remember a poem where the crow is described as the evil and the koel is described as the good. In the same way, since our childhood, we are told that the Gods are good and the demons are evil, and that is what we all still believe. Although we all know how bad Indira is, our first impression towards the Gods is of a kind-hearted being. Although we know how good Prahlad was, our first impression towards the demons is of a scary being with evil deeds. Isn't that true, Dhawan? That is the biggest difference between you and me! There are many reasons to hate the Gods. But we do only what we are told to do, that is, to worship them. Do you ever think why the Gods created the evils if they wanted to destroy it? Why did they create sadness if they wanted us to be happy? Don't you think that this is an enough reason to hate the Gods?"

Josh walked back towards the cursed shell. "This is an enough reason indeed. And that is why I chose this path."

Brute was still reading and translating the manuscript to Krystene.

He read and translated a line to Krystene. "Here, the author is saying that he had the privilege to witness the moment when Lord Rama became the king of Ayodhya."

After Brute translated the line, he crossed his eye-brows and was pushed into a deep thought.

'How the hell did I miss this the last time?' he thought.

"What happened?" Krystene asked.

Brute read the line again and again. He was completely focused on the line which he had just translated to Krystene. Yes, he had read it correctly. He and Mr Todd Lamb had not paid any attention to this line. But now when Brute was aware of this line, he understood everything. This line changes whatever they knew about the cursed shell till now!