The Kailashanath Diamond

Chapter 12

Nandita was not able to sleep at all even when the ship was silent and it rocked its way through the bay. The adjacent cabin, Ashwin’s had its light on, but there was no audible sound. All the other cabins’ occupants were soundly asleep.

Nandita felt a bit uneasy, and she always was a bit scared of the sea sometimes, but she had never felt so uncomfortable. So, she switched on her light, and walked over, went outside, and leaned over the railing, and viewed the horizon.

She peeked inside Ashwin’s cabin through the window, and saw him reading a book in full attention. She suspected if he was deserted of his extra powerful senses when he was reading.

She moved a bit closer, only to find that he was reading is mother’s gift: Hamare Sanskaar va Icchaen. He was too engulfed in its world to observe his surroundings. She wondered of his sudden French outbreak during Swati’s return, and how sudden it had been...

She felt it did not matter much, but she knew that Swati had changed a lot after her claiming and adoption. The chatterbox had somehow turned a bit more subtle, if possible. Swati was a bit more patient and less impulsive. She had inherited her Pitashri’s traits: Vishnu was submissive and gentle, but his anger was really immense: especially the Great Wrath...

She knew that the 2004 tsunami at Chennai had caused the most disaster in Indian history, and she also knew of Vishnu’s children and how they had eradicated their father’s Wrath. Nandita was thinking too much, a bit just more and more...

She was too occupied to notice a strange red light near her shoulder, where she usually kept Trinayan and she was thinking of too many things.

If she had been any observant, she would have noticed that this particular glow spread through her dress like anything, and she was glowing like a lustrous diamond. Until a voice spoke to her, she never knew what was happening to her...

‘Dear child, you have my blessing. I have removed the curse from your academy, and of course, I have entrusted the search of my own diamond to you. You see, child, my diamond is made out of the very things Yama Bhoomi feeds upon: happiness, hope and cheer. If you need to get my diamond, sense these feelings in an extreme around you, and you will find the Kailashanath. If not, I do shudder to think of my despair, and of this country’s, too. You are my only hope, child...’

With that, the calm yet overpowering voice faded, and so did her glow. She was sure that that message was from her very own father. She knew it.

Whereas, Ashwin was inside his room, and Nandita peeped inside, beside herself in anxiety.

‘Ma, how in the world can I pinpoint this location? Firstly, I must go out now and pray to Chandra. Then I must also accomplish your task... How do you expect me to do this?’ he whispered, to a white glow on his book.

Nandita saw it and gasped. It was Saraswati, the goddess of wisdom and knowledge and studies. She looked a bit angry and sad at the same time.

‘Son, you are the only one I feel worthy of this quest. You will have to do it. The throne is very weak without that particular mantra, and the mantra is the holder of all universal truths, out of which only two have been revealed.’

‘But Ma, I have to accompany these people on their quest too. I must not parry with a double burden, it might lead to my failure.’ He said it with such modulation that it felt almost desperate not to leave this quest.

‘I know you are one of the only children of mine who has read this book in my prescribed time: a week after I gave this book. You have done it and proved yourself worthy. You will at all costs, join me and my other children on this quest. You will be the one to seek the power of Gyana, or knowledge! You must alert all your friends of it. You should make sure that you remain faithful in both your quests. Varadam ichhavam Padhanti!’

She said so and vanished.

Ashwin seemed to have got back his extra senses.

‘Nandita! What in the world are you doing here?’ he asked.

‘Thinking of coincidences…’

‘What kind of coincidences?’ he asked.

‘I got a message form Pitashri, and you get one from Ma. How very deliberate it seems...’

‘Oh, so you witnessed it all. Wish I’d closed the window shutters. Anyway, I have to go on another flipping quest to save the Brahmane Shweta Padma. How so unlucky... These gods have made us their very powerful aids,’ he said.

‘Oh, and I have to find Jyoti,’ said Nandita exasperatedly.

‘So both of us have the woes of our parent gods... And the others? It is already nearing dawn, and Swati must wake up to accelerate the ship!’ said Ashwin.

So it was. After around fifteen minutes of brushing teeth, washing up and having breakfast, Swati signalled everyone at the table and swallowed her toast forcefully.

‘Friends,’ Gulp. ‘I have something to tell you. I dreamt last night of something really weird. I saw Lord Hanuman blast an underworld creature to pieces, near a forest, near a huge temple called Angko What.’

‘Surely you mean Angkor Wat?’ asked Ashwin.

‘Yeah, yeah. So I am setting sail for Kambaj right away.’

It was as arranged. They passed a huge island with sprawling acres of forests and a nasty mountain up at the top.

According to Nandita, that looked like someone’s turned up nose. Swati informed it was Barren Island, and she could think of no other way to Cambodia.

‘What about our quests? I mean, Nandita’s quest is too too connected. She gets to find Jyoti, while I have to search for a white lotus made of pure knowledge, and every grain of pollen made from a Vedic hymn.’

Ashwin moaned a lot, but he remained occupied with his gift.

‘What is so interesting in there?’ asked Swati.

‘Oh just facts about gods, us and demons, and we also have a glossary on the main places related to the Bharatiya Samaj.

‘So Cambodia is there in the list?’

‘Of course. The ruler Jayavarman II, the son of Lord Vishnu, built a temple in the honour of the Big Six at Angkor, where he stored his Ardha Ishwara faculties. His empire was lost after his death, and it was covered in the Kanyo and Koulen forests till an excavation happened.’