The village of Aksa - Chapter 1

Janaka has been in the village of Atipu for as long as he can remember. At the age of twelve, Janaka was definitely the naughty one out of the four siblings, partly because he was a kid and partly because he was the youngest who was given the most brotherly attention. Bala was the eldest, Kanak and Kashi were twins. The four of them attended Ashra, one of the four schools in the village of Atipu.

Compared to the rest of the students in his year Janaka was small built, short and thin. He had beautiful blue eyes and hair up to his shoulders. He also had a great sense of humor which clearly made him the center of attraction among all the girls of his year. Janaka was in his sixth standard now and he was slowly beginning to take some interest in his studies after Adhikaar, head of the school, warned him that he failed in all of his subjects in the previous year and if that trend continued he would be kept back in the sixth standard for another term. Janaka was quick to realize the seriousness of this situation and started a routine that involved revising his class notes daily. The previous years’ routine was to go to school for name sake, play with his friends, flirt with girls and annoy his siblings. Sixth year was different in the sense that there were more courses included in the curriculum like basic Sanskrit, creative writing and story telling, martial arts in theory and practice, yoga, equality and equanimity and dancing.

Sixth standard was the year when he made most of his friends. This was also the year when realized that he should spend time with people of the same sex too. His closest friends were Sampa and Taal. Sampa, Taal and Janaka spent a lot of time together reading books and gossiping about students from the other three schools i.e., Bhama, Camili and Dota, and together they were all referred to as the ABCD’s of Atipu. During one of their lunching sessions the conversation started off with Sampa casually asking Janaka which village he came from. Janaka immediately said Atipu in a manner that should have been obvious by now.

“That’s impossible. Nobody is actually from Atipu. We all came from neighboring villages into Atipu. Atipu was created for kids like us.” said Taal

At first Janaka thought that the two were playing a prank on him but then realized that Taal was probably correct because he could not think of a single person who was not associated to the ABCD’s of Atipu.

Taal assured Janaka immediately by saying “I’m sure Bala knows where you are from. You should ask him. We are both from Aksa.”

“Where is that?” asked Janaka, who was now feeling abandoned.

“I’ve never been there but have heard it takes more than a day to walk. There are also rumors that some of the greatest yogis can travel there in a flash.” said Sampa. Janaka had some confidence in what was being said because Sampa was always good about getting everyone else’s gossip and share it with him. Most of them tended to be true too.

But all this new information that he was getting made Janaka realize that there might be a whole new world that he was not aware of all these years that he might have actually been a part of at some point. Part of him was mad at his siblings for not telling him these things while another part of him was so curious that he wanted to skip his two afternoon classes and talk to Bala and listen to all his stories. But he couldn’t afford to miss his classes especially since Adhikar had warned to keep him back for a year if he failed. So he forced himself to focus during the class but his mind would uncontrollably imagine all kinds of things ranging from who he really was to how he could travel to his village or that if his siblings had ever been there before and why they hadn’t mentioned anything about this earlier. Once the last class was over, he hung his bag over his left shoulder and sprinted to Bala’s room in the Kulch building, where all the senior year students stayed.

“Bala, I’m hearing all kinds of things from my friends. All of them seem to know which village they are from. WHY DID YOU KEEP THESE THINGS FROM ME ALL THESE YEARS?” Janaka’s eyes turned red filled with rage. Ever since he was five he never liked to be the one who missed out on all the action and stories that his siblings had experienced. This information being so important to him made him really furious.

Bala had just left his door open to get some fresh air. When Janaka entered the room and shouted, it was like being struck by a thunderbolt. Bala’s first reaction was to twitch his upper body and face and then he simply looked at Janaka’s eyes and showed signs of embarrassment. “I..I..I was just waiting for the right time. I was waiting for you to get a little older so you could understand the details. There is a lot more to it than just where you came from.”

“What do you mean by me getting older? Don’t you think I should have known atleast where I came from when all my classmates do?”

Bala was very calm and being his usual self while he let Janaka take his emotions out on him. Even though Janaka treated him more like a dad than his brother, he would sometimes go out of control and take his anger out on him and later apologize for his act.

“It’s a little more complicated than that Janaka. Its not just where we are from but why we are here too you know. If you give me sometime to explain maybe Kashi and Kanak can also join us.”

“So do they also know? How could they be told even though they are only a year older than me?”

“Why don’t we all meet up at the kulch building hall for dinner and we can discuss. I will arrange to get permission for your meals here tonight.”

Janaka was not yet convinced but the idea of eating in the kulch building appealed to him. Kulch had the best cooks in the school and they served their meals with appetizers and desserts which didnt happend at the Milka hall where he was staying.

Janaka left Bala’s room without saying a word. He had an evening class on creative writing and so had to rush before it got too late.

After class he rushed back to kulch hall. There he saw his siblings waiting for him. Kanak had a seriously put-up face which was very unusual since he always liked to joke around and Janaka often felt very connected to him in some respects. Kashi gave the look as though she had rehearsed the sympathetic expression on her face several times before she came there and Bala was as calm as before. They all greeted Janaka. Bala put his arms around Janaka’s shoulders and guided him inside the hall. They sat on the floor in the lounge area facing one another in a circle. Janaka felt very tense with all the seriousness surrounding him. The last time the four of them were so quiet was when Bala fractured his legs after a fight with one of his classmates as part of an examination in the martial arts class. In any kind of serious atmosphere Bala would take the lead and begin his lecture. He proceeded to start the conversation this time too “We are all from Aksa. It’s a neighboring village and takes more than a day to walk there. I am the only one who has been there out of the four of us and I have been there just once to see our dad. He stays at Aksa with your mom. We…we are step brothers.”

All this while Janaka had never once wondered who his parents were or where they were staying. It was almost natural that most kids in Atipu didn’t pay attention to their parents mostly because they weren’t in contact with them since they were born. All this new information made Janaka feel like a different person altogether. He could now sense the distance with his siblings.

“Are the three of you siblings? Was it just me who has a different mom?” Janaka tried hard not to cry. It made sense why they kept these facts from him all these years. They clearly didn’t want to hurt his feelings and make him feel that he was not a part of their family.

“But we want you to know that nothing is going to change between us. We are still siblings and we will behave just the way we used to with each other.”

Janaka didn’t pay attention to what Bala was saying at this moment and simply shot his next question as though it was now his turn to speak “Is there any way I could see dad and my mom at the village? Why haven’t they come to visit me all these years?”

“There are still a lot of details that I haven’t told you. Maybe we should meet up next time since its getting late and the kitchen might close any moment.”

Janaka was very confused after this conversation. A lot of the details were given to him in patches today and he felt like he still didn’t know much about himself. Part of him was embarrassed that he knew so little about himself and part of him was excited to begin a whole new life altogether. Nevertheless he was excited for the food that was served in kulch kitchen. They served steamed rice cakes with cocnut chutney and sambar for appetizers, palak panner, fried oakra, curry fried mashed potato, korma and stuffed kucha for the main course. Janaka stuffed himself with all the food that he could without having to think about the conversation. Finally he drained himself in gulab jamun and mango lassi. Once he was done with dinner and walked back to his room he began to ponder about his family as he lay on his bed. The food felt really good in his stomach and he felt drowsy as he closed his eyes. The tiredness took over him and his thoughts of his family and all he could remember next was waking up to the scream of the morning bell.