AISHA: The Cursed Name

Chapter-19 Unanswered conflicts

Unanswered conflicts

Siddharth quickly hasted towards the temple. Though he left after Aisha and her group, he was alone and in a hurry. On his way, he had seen an event, something never had he seen in the past of Maya Lok. Never had a person before Aisha had tried to stand against wrong when the mistreatment is being done by the high society people. But Aisha did. His self-developed myth of considering Aisha some mysterious miserable girl shattered his feelings as he stood there silently gawking at her. She was strong. Wise. And knew how to influence everyone just by her magical words. She hadn't been longer than a week in this world and she had raised the whole public support by her to dispose of a decade-old Sarpanch in just a few minutes.

After the scene where he did not make his presence even visible, he fled quickly. He had less time and more questions to dig answers for. He reached the temple with the speed of the wind and without wasting any time he called out for the priest. He was standing in front of an old man who had kept his hand behind his back. His orange robes wrapped around perfectly and his green eyes looked calmly into his when he smiled saying,
"So, what is it? You said you have to ask something important, my child."

The priest asked him calmly and offered him to sit on the mat. It was spread out evenly on the floor near the corner pillars where he generally used to sit and meet people. It was a spot illuminated with diyas and a wooden table raised abruptly at the centre of the mat. It was a calm spot where people could simply confess or ask about things bothering them. It had a spiritual aura and the low lighting made it comforting.

"Well, I am curious to know about a thing I... read in a book. But, I am not sure about it."

The priest smiled and said,
"Don't hesitate, tell me. I am supposed to answer the questions books can't."

Siddharth took a while and framed his sentence and said,
"So, I read about eyes. Golden eyes. I mean the eyes which glow golden. Is there something like that seen before? Has anyone had golden eyes? Or, has it been told what have?"

The smile on the priest's face faded away as he started to turn pale. He seemed to look scared and disturbed.
"Are you okay?"

Siddharth asked with concern on his face when the priest slipped away from him and said,
"Yes!... Yes! No...! There is nothing like this. Eyes can't glow golden. It's not possible."

He was restless as he continued,
"Golden eyes do not exist, not in this world. No one has seen them for generations, no one will see them again. And, no book talks about it. You... you should go. No one's eyes may glitter Golden. You have been mistaken. You must have read something imaginary."

Siddharth stood up and stared at the priest for a while when he realised that he was very uncomfortable because of his question. So he slowly walked away and went inside the temple room to worship. It was a large circle in the centre of the building platform leaving out the large veranda.

It was an exceptionally huge, circular, dome-shaped room with a ceiling made out of stones of a reddish shade. The surrounding walls were built of the same brick with a lot of wall carvings of gods and goddesses, inscriptions from holy books and mantras. In the centre stood a large statue of Lord Vishnu, the Supreme form of his. The room had the presence of all the gods and goddesses, either present in the Almighty statue or engraved on the walls. The room was enlightened by the light of the sun which crept in through the little spaces left between the point where the wall and the ceiling met. Thousands of diyas were glowing around so the room was a warm place painted with a red and yellow atmosphere.

Siddharth sat on his knees.

'God! Show me a path that may help me get through this situation. I don't know why, but I want to know her. It feels like, right now, the only thing important is to know her. But, there is no way I can reach the truth. That girl doesn't know that her eyes glow. No matter if I tell her, what would she do, nothing! She already has a bunch of questions to discover, it's no use burdening her with this because once a person would help me or someone else, but no one will help her. So I need to help her, maybe just a little bit.
But the priest reacted so badly. It was written on his face he knew it. But he stayed quiet. Mean! God, show me a path!