The Kailashanath Diamond

Chapter 15

Gaurav felt ignored, mutilated, even mistreated at the kind of confusing treatment he was being given at the Ishwar Academy. Every single person there (except Narada, who always nodded as he went past) seemed to feel that Gaurav was somebody alien. First of all, he remembered those PSBBMS students who had gone for an adventure to save the world. (Lucky me, I’m out of the proceedings, he thought).

Every time he would approach Narada, he would stop whatever he was doing and would just nod his head. Every single time. Mainly, the Kartikeya Altar seemed almost foreign to him. The peacock, the lance, and every single symbol of Kartikeya made him feel… confused.

No, rebellious is the word.

Gaurav was brought out of every single class (be it Sanskrit, where he wrote something disgusting on the board, or YogMukta, where he created a havoc during breathing exercises, or Talwaar Vaar where he threw his sword in frustration) and was termed ‘trouble by Ishwar’s standards’. Everyone avoided his eyes, as though he had something infectious, and they jumped really high if they talked to him. Gaurav had to endure all of this, to another notice that caused him to yell at the notice board (which wouldn’t budge).

‘The Ardha-Ishwaras from all the altars except four and five are supposed to assemble at the shore of the lake this afternoon.’

Surely, that would mean something in the water? Gaurav was, to his opinion, the worst hydrophobic case in the world. The sight of water more than five litres was enough to make him faint, or in worse cases, vomit.

Anyway, Gaurav assembled along with other children of Kartikeya at the lakeshore. Narada was there, along with Shri and Jagdish. Jagdish was the head of the Altar Five, and Shri was the head of Altar Four.

‘As everyone assembled knows about the RathSamorav this year, we will be inaugurating this ceremony with these two Ardha-Ishwaras. The shortlisted students for each and every altar are as follows:’

Narada kept on droning about the rules of RathSthan and the honour in being part of designing a Rath for your altar. Gaurav again had a surge of rebelliousness inside him. He slipped away from the lakeside and ran towards a completely remote corner of the campus. This area was considered haunted.

The rebellious part of him wanted to be in this area till the droning ceremony got over. The wise part of him told him to look around and think twice. He chose the rebellious part of his brain as his leader.

Along with this area being rumoured as haunted, there was an old shack over here - more like a haveli or an Indian mansion. This was completely black in colour, with crumbling walls and ivy all over.

Gaurav thrust the old Iron Gate, which creaked in response and walked inside. The once lively lawn was now covered with dead willow trees. He went past the ivy-covered archway which looked like an entrance.

The second he entered the building, all his rebelliousness vanished. The problem was, his wise self also vanished. Mist-- not normal-- but deep grey mist started moving towards him. He stumbled on an old skeleton of a rat.

Maranam taradi chatvam taradi. Yama-vara yama-swaha!

A queer mantra was echoing around a small cubicle in the middle of the hall.

He approached it.

‘AAAARGH!’

The last thing he remembered was slipping through a small black cavern before darkness engulfed him.

******

Gaurav came to his senses when he stopped falling and was woken by a strange hissing sound. Oh no, water! He thought. When he opened his eyes, he saw nothing but a small pinprick of orange light coming from front of him. He got up and felt a weird pain in his temples, like someone had smashed a brick onto his head.