The tunnel was colder than Gaurav had expected it to be. After around ten minutes of trudging down the icy cavern with pointed stalactites and stalagmites, and cruel looking shadows following Gaurav and strange noises, Gaurav felt eerie. The school could not be nearby, and Chennai never housed such mean temperature.
The noises of something grinding were coming from behind. Gaurav did not understand where they came from.
‘Karunyaye, yaminiye! Om Bhagwane Priyaye! Om... nashtandriye! Karuppadivye! Yaminiye Vibramhate!’some voices echoed down the cavern, as though chants were being made. The cave bended into a curve and the path started moving uphill. Gaurav panted and wheezed, but this path was not an easy route.
The voices disappeared now, and the path opened up into a round pipeline. This pipeline had skeletons of dead mice, rats and other insects like cockroaches. There was a steep rise in temperature. There were homely voices echoing above, ‘Jai Bhagwan Aham Priyam! Jai Bhagwan Aham Priyam! Vishwa janani Durgaye, bananyare Brahmane! Jodhir nashta vipudaye, purvaya nama Shive! Prasiddo samsaaro Vishnave, Padhanti saadhana prakritiye, Saraswati Namostute! Dhanupadiye, ramave Lakshmi namostute! Jai Bhagwan Aham Priyam, aham Ishwar Gurukulamtam, Vardurtaya Chaturbhujam!’
‘Come on, children, repeat after me. This sloka is our academy’s anthem. This means that we pay our homage to all the main gods, and of course, also to our academy. We pay homage to our gurus, and experts, and pledge our loyalty. Now, I want each one of you to make a note that in today’s Sanskrit class, whatever learnt, will owe you! So, Dhanyavaad Tvamev Chatron!’
‘Dhanyavaad Guruvam Priyam!’
These voices... Gaurav knew. They came from Ishwar Academy, he supposed, because the total amount of energy of the song was unthinkable.
He kept on walking, and found out that the path was no longer rocky, but it was becoming sandier, and he was getting nauseous. He kept on walking till he realised that he was drifting, drifting in the middle of the open ocean. He felt a plunging feeling in his stomach, and he fainted.
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The Kailashanath Diamond
FanfictionThe world is much bigger, and millions of celestial beings who were thought to be just that - celestial turned out to be real. And there's a war brimming in the horizon, and mere teenagers are thrust into it. Things don't go their way. If a story wa...
