Vardaan 1...The Ultimate Boon

Chapter 14: Extraordinary Farmland (Part 1)

"Batuk...Batuk...Batuk..."

Batuk was looking here and there.

"Batuk...Batuk...Batuk..."

Batuk ran after the voice.

Batuk could hear a woman's voice, but Batuk could not see anyone.

"Batuk...Batuk...Batuk...Where are you?"

The voice came again. Batuk's restlessness increased and he quickly climbed into the sky. Sitting on a cloud, he started following that voice while flying.

"Batuk...Batuk...Batuk...How callous you have become..."

"No, I'm not like that...Who are you?..." Batuk stopped speaking, he saw a cloth. Batuk turned the cloud with the help of an oar and quickly went towards the cloth. He was about to reach it when that cloud started raining on which Batuk was riding.

Batuk felt as if he had fallen with a bang.

When Batuk opened his eyes, he found himself on the rocky ground. He started looking at himself and his surroundings in bewilderment. Within a few moments, he remembered that he had left his gurukul yesterday to appear for the final exam and had taken shelter on a mound with his friends at night.

Batuk saw Dev at some distance who was inspecting the mound.

"Got anything?" Batuk asked.

In answer to Batuk's question, Dev made a strange face, seeing which Batuk got confused. His eyes lost sleep when he went to it with agility; five lines appeared on the ground.

"Five lines on barren land." That thought troubled Batuk.

"Rasik come here, Jagdeesh come fast." Batuk called out to them in panic.

Both got up in a huff.

Bleary eyes searching for sleep saw Batuk waving his hand at some distance. Rubbing their eyes both got up and somehow managed to reach him.

When Rasik started asking, Batuk pointed towards the land and showed five lines. Worry appeared on his face too as momentarily as he looked at the lines.

All four looked at each other and went to investigate the mound.

After a long time, all four returned and gathered at one place near the lines. Their dejected faces were telling each other that nobody got anything.

Jagdeesh took the map from Dev. His name was written in the blank space between the two lines.

"Hard to believe guys, but according to the map, the truth is what is feared." Slamming the map, Jagdeesh asked everyone to face the truth.

Till the bitter truth is not told, it terrorizes but does not close the window of hope. When someone tells the same bitter truth, there is no limit to despair. The morale of a person falls in such a way that it will never rise again. Exactly the same condition happened to the other three after listening to Jagdeesh.

"No-no, Gurudev cannot do such a thing....no-no, this...this cannot be true, no I do not believe," Rasik said annoyingly.

Dev-Batuk did not say anything through their mouth, but their consciences also had the same statements.

"Believe it or not friend, this is the truth." Jagdeesh put his hands on Rasik's shoulders and tried to encourage him.

Those words were like breaking the courage of a badly nervous Rasik.

"This is absolutely untrue Jagdeesh; there must have been some mistake. You tell me why would Gurudev give us such an impossible task. Look at the timing, he give us this impossible task when we are in the middle of our final examination. I'm sorry but I don't consider it anything more than a mockery." Rasik completely denied the truth and said.

Jagdeesh could not answer that. Even though he was speaking, it did not mean that his conscience was not sad. Like the rest, Jagdeesh was also wishing that that was nothing more than a joke.

Everyone stared at the lines with closed mouths and restless minds.

Seeing the field in the form of lines, when tears began to form in Dev's eyes, he shook himself.

"So what did you think?... Don't forget that this is not a common exam. It is the final exam of Aryavarta's biggest and most prestigious educational institution." Dev explained seriously.

Dev attempted to lift everyone's spirits with those words, but his method gave everyone a different understanding.

"So you already knew?" Rasik asked shockingly.

"What?" Dev asked back more shockingly.

Batuk-Jagdeesh was seeing Dev with angry eyes.

"Hey No, friends, I didn't know anything about...but I definitely thought that the final exam would be difficult." Dev said to calm them down.

All three judged Dev's body language and calmed down after they found him truthful.

"Dev, If you are on our side, then stop saying it is difficult. This greatest joke of all time must be called impossible," Expressing regret, Rasik reiterated the bitter truth.

Dev bowed his head and accepted his disappointment.

At the behest of Jagdeesh, everyone's attention went to Batuk standing quietly. He was numb with fear and anxiety.

"What are you thinking Batuk?" When Jagdeesh asked, Batuk, came to his senses.

"I didn't tell you guys! But for a few months, it seems as if someone is missing me a lot. All the time someone is waiting for my return. This strange feeling is hollowing me out inside... I thought it would take at most three months and I would return to my home, my village, but this... this...." Batuk said swallowing tears.

Hearing this, the throat of all three also got filled.

"Batuk, your maataashiri is missing you for sure; I too have a great desire to meet my maataashiri. That's why I am also in great despair, but what to do...? This...this is our destiny. The map says that these two lines are my farm and I have to grow crops on this iron-like land." Losing courage, Jagdeesh repeated the truth.

Surrounded by sorrow, Jagdeesh sat down.

"Oh, God...." Words came out of Batuk's mouth when he was looking at the sky.

Everyone was surprised. Jagdeesh stood up in fear. Thirteen years later, they had heard the word 'God'.

"Remembering God as a shishya of gurukul... are you alright friend?" Dev asked seriously.

"Dev, how can I be alright? Do you know why God suddenly came into my mouth, it is because, just now I remembered Gurudev's wording...It may take four months or four years, but without growing crops, we cannot even go home. We have to stay in this place." Batuk gave a valid reason for his indecency which had brought great disappointment.

When Batuk reminded them, all three remembered the pradhanaacharya and his last words. Now even their little courage had gone.

Sometimes they would look at their 'so-called fields' and sometimes at the surrounding wild areas. The more times they see, the more they find themselves weaker.

Dev churned the situation and possibilities according to his nature leaving behind disappointment.

"That's the truth friends, believe it or not, this is our farmland and this mound will be our residence from now on. That's why first of all arrangements should be made to stay." Dev suggested thoughtfully.

Rasik was waiting for that kind of discussion.

"I say, first make arrangements for the food, who knows, then your mind starts working." Rasik also suggested.

Dev immediately stared at the ever-hungry Rasik.

"No, first we need a roof over our heads. There are no trees here and there. As momentarily as noon starts, the sun will become unbearable. That's why we have to make a hut first." Dev explained the importance of the roof.

Rasik did not like that at all, but in the presence of others, he had to agree with Dev.

All three understood and left.