The Village of Aksa - Chapter 4

Janaka and Sampa were pretty let down by Taal. They really expected her to help them out and be supportive in their expedition to Aksa or at least help them out in collecting information about Aksa.

“I don’t believe she did this to us. How could she let us down now after we took all the trouble in exchanging information with her? I just hope she doesn’t tell anyone.” said Sampa.

“That’s alright. We will do as much as we possibly can. Let’s focus our energy on Klacken now. I don’t think we should tell him everything about our plan. Showing too much interest in Aksa might put some doubts in his mind especially since he knows so much about the village. For the moment we should just mention our interests in meeting Mr. Khaus.”said Janaka.

“I hope you understand Klacken is not an average kid. He is one of the smartest people I have seen. He would surely want to know why we are meeting with Mr. Khaus before he gives out any information. What would you say if he asked you that?” said Sampa.

Janaka didn’t really know how to answer that question. He was not anticipating that question from Klacken.

“May be you can say that Mr. Khaus came in your dream and asked you to take Klacken’s help to meet him. That sounds justifiable, doesn’t it? And it’s not completely untrue if you actually combine yours and Taal’s dreams.” said Janaka.

“I really don’t want to mess around too much with Klacken or Mr. Khaus. Even though I haven’t heard any evil incidents that have involved them I have always maintained my distance and frequently avoided discussing about them. But I do like your dream idea. I think I might stick to that one for the moment if Klacken asks anything.” said Sampa.

“Well, the dream is not really an idea. It is true Sampa. So don’t trivialize it in anyway.”

As Sampa and Janaka were discussing they failed to realize that they had just gotten out of the boundaries of Ashra into the main street. They didn’t realize until they saw Params cafeteria which was filled with all the teachers. The main street was a single circular street that connected the four schools of Atipu. Bhama and Camili were situated adjacently on either sides of Ashra while Dota was diametrically opposite Ashra.

During the weekends, the street was bustling with people from the schools. Everyone enjoyed being in this street during the weekends as it gave them a feeling of a community. Most teachers would go to Params cafeteria for breakfast to sit leisurely with a cup of coffee. While some teachers would occupy an entire table for themselves by spreading the newspaper others would gather around discussing the local politics of the village. Most teachers left the cafeteria around noon which was when the students would take over the restaurant for their breakfast.

Janaka and Sampa realized they were walking on Main Street as they smelt the flavors of ghee roasted black pepper pongal, masala vadai, rava dosai and ootappam. As their attention was diverted from their conversation to Params their next destination was obvious. The boys took up a table and had a relaxed hearty breakfast.

“It’s probably late enough in the morning. I guess Klacken wouldn’t mind us coming to his room now.” said janaka

“Yeh, I hope he is awake. Let’s just give it a shot.” said Sampa.

After their breakfast, Sampa and Janaka left the cafeteria towards Camili. They had to pass through a row of shops starting with Ali’s Jewelry shop. Sampa was showing Janaka that he got his left ear pierced and got a diamond stud at Ali’s. Then they walked past Frooties that carried ice-creams, popsicles and sherbets. Janaka badly wanted to get some Popsicle from frooties but Sampa suggested they could take Klacken along after lunch. The adjacent store was famous incense that carried some idols of gods and goddesses that were made out of sandalwood and rosewood, about a thousand flavors of exotic soaps and powders and of course incense sticks. Then they walked past the Bookhouse which was a huge book store meant that carried books for school and leisure, calendars for the four schools, dinky bugs and log slates for easy accounting and a variety of board games.

Once they walked past the book store they encountered a huge gate that was adjoined by walls that looked like an entrance to the school. This was the first time Janaka was entering the campus of Camili. It was very different from Ashra. The scenery was a lot drier in Camili with scanty vegetation. The color of the buildings seemed to match that of the sand in the ground adding that extra dryness to the feel. There weren’t too many students walking inside the campus at this time. Janaka felt a bit nervous inside from entering an unfamiliar campus and hoping to see new people and buildings.

“Have you been here before?” asked Janka

“Yeh. I have been here a couple of times to meet Klacken. You sound a bit nervous. You shouldn’t worry too much. It’s very similar to Ashra. It’s all the more better here since we wouldn’t know anyone so we wouldn’t have to worry about Kanth and his gang.” said Sampa.

“How far is Klacken’s room from here?”

“It’s another five minutes walk. Not that far.” said Sampa.

Janaka felt it took longer than that when they finally reached Klacken’s room. Klacken’s room was in a huge building called Mulayam Hall that was much bigger than any building he has ever seen in Ashra. It was big enough to fit students from the entire school. Mulayam Hall was packed inside and Janaka grew more nervous as he entered the building. They got a whole range of looks from suspicious ones, hostile turnovers to welcoming smiles none of which soothed Janaka’s nerves. Sampa looked like he knew exactly where he was going and knocked at the door of Klacken’s room.

“Hey, how are you? I haven’t seen you in so long. I heard you are preparing very hard for the Shorren championships. It’s still a couple of month’s away right?” asked Sampa.

The Shorren championships were held once a year and the ABCD schools competed against one another in various events ranging from literary to sports. Klacken is a fierce competitor in a lot of those events. Klacken took the events so seriously that there were rumors of him preparing all year round. In the last four years no one has beaten him in the ancient history and debate events yet his school came second to Ashra in the last two championships. Sampa had mentioned that his bitterness for Ashra oozes out very conspicuously each time Klacken talked to Sampa about the championships.

“Are you kidding? I just got up from bed. I was just going to go have some lunch. What brings you here?” asked Klacken.

“Have you met Janaka. Janaka, this is Klacken.”

Janaka and Klacken introduced each other. Neither of them was inclined to start a conversation so Sampa continued to talk.

“We are both here for some favor from you. And don’t worry; it is not for the purpose of winning you over in Shorren or anything of that sort. Why don’t we go for lunch and we can discuss it there. How does the canteen on main street sound to you?” said Sampa.

“That sounds perfect actually. Let me just groom myself a little so I don’t look like I came out directly from bed.” said Klacken.

The three boys walked out of Camili. Klacken was showing them the campus as they walked out explaining the ins and outs. Janaka was right about Mulayam Hall, all the students of Camili stayed there and it was purposefully built that way to encourage communication between the different years. Unlike Ashra, the hostels in Camili were not coed and so the girls were in a separate building. The three boys walked towards the canteen that was situated right outside the Camili campus. They found a quiet spot in the corner after placing their orders at the counter.

“So, what is it that you guys want to talk about?” asked Klacken.

Janaka decided to start talking to get comfortable of the situation.

“We would like to meet Mr. Khaus and Sampa said that you might be able to help us.” said Janka.

“Hmm. So why do you want to meet Mr. Khaus?” asked Klacken.

“I do not want to beat around the bush. We wanted to find out how to get to Aksa and Mr. Khaus is the best person to talk to regarding that unless of course you know how to..” said Sampa.

“Well, I do know certain things about how to get there but I am not allowed to talk it with anyone. But why do you want to go to Aksa?” asked Klacken.

“Don’t we all want go to Aksa? This may sound stupid, but I had a dream last night that Mr. Khaus was guiding Janaka to travel to Aksa especially since Janaka and I had been talking about this for a while. May be we can clarify with Mr. Khaus why I am getting these dreams and may be he will have an answer for us. If he doesn’t think we ought to know how to travel then he will let us know. But it would be really helpful if you could help us get to Mr. Khaus.” said Sampa.

“Yes, it will be very helpful and we assure you we won’t misuse any information you give us.” said Janaka.

Klacken was giving a suspicious look at both Sampa and Janaka. He also didn’t seemed to be surprised by the dream.

“Okay, it looks like the dream is not really a dream. It is a technique that Mr. Khaus uses to communicate what he wants without his presence, as you know he is barred from entering Atipu. I will help you to the best of my ability. I can only tell you how I got there last time. But before I can tell you anything, you both will first have to assure me that no one else can know what I am about to tell.” said Klacken.

“We assure you we won’t tell any one” said Janaka who was now being tested for his patience at this moment.

“Yes” said Sampa.

To be continued..

Disco Dancer

A couple of weekends back my friends and I rented out the movie known for its imperfection and unintentional comedy: Disco Dancer. We had been longing to see Mithun Chakraborthy aka Mithunda in action. At the local Indian store in Ann Arbor (Bombay Grocers) we decided to check if the movie was first available or if it was rented out due to high demand. After checking the DVDs in the Hindi movie section at the store we couldn't find the movie and assumed that the movie was rented out. But we decided to ask the store manager just to confirm.

Me: Excuse me. Do you have the movie "I am a disco dancer" on dvd? (for some reason i always thought that the name of the movie was I am a disco dancer. Its probably because of the song)

Manager: Disco Dancer. Haha. On DVD. Ha ha. No way. It might be on VHS. Just check and see if its there.

So we checked and as he said it was there. While renting out the movie he charged us only $1 instead of the usual $2. And when I asked him about the return date, he said I could bring it back at my own convenience. These were not positive signs for a few excited souls to watch a Mithun movie. But we watched it anyway since we trusted our dada i.e. Mithun.

I must say, the movie was hilarious. Though it was meant to be a serious movie, watching it 20 years after the release made a big difference. I mean you got to appreciate the alacrity in the muscial prodigy for holding an electric guitar in one hand, drumming with the other and simulataneously dancing and singing thereby exemplifying ambidexterity and multitasking at the same time which no other prodigy has even dreamt of, not even bill gates.

The story was very similar to the 80's movies with a muti-milllionaire villain torturing a fatherless kid and later on the kid taking revenge on the villain. But there are some dialogues that just made me laugh up to the point of me throwing up in front of the TV. As I said before this kid was a prodigy and he grows up to become a great musician. He becomes as rich as the villain. The mom, kid and the villain all meet at an upscale party and the villain (obviously) doesn't recognize the kid (who is now Mithun) unlike Mithun and his mom who are living to this day to take revenge. The villain offers Mithun a glass of wine which the kid does not accept and in return he reminds him of the day (15 yrs ago) when he insulted the kid, slapped the mom and stole his guitar. Saying this, Mithun and the mom leave the party. On their way back home the mom tells Mithun in the car "Son, you have now fulfilled all my wishes in life and I can now die in peace."

In another scene, the villain wants to take revenge because Mithun became a bigger music star than his son and so he wanted to kill Mithun. What does he do? The villain connects Mithun's electric guitar to 5000 Volts so when he starts to play he would die instantly. But his mom heard this plot through reliable sources and follows Mithun to the stage. Instead of just warning her son to play his guitar, she picks it up herself and starts to play ultimately killing herself.

There were other crazy parts of the movie which I do not wish to delve upon but you know where this movie is going. Other minor issues were subtitles. Since my hindi is not very good I had to read the subtitles and so it was like reading a disco dancer novel. They did confuse Laks and millions to be the same in the movie. Wherever laks was mentioned in the movie, the subtitles would say millions but in actuality 10 laks is a million.

Nevertheless, this movie is great to watch. Caution: Never watch it alone. Always get a whole bunch of people and get drunk to watch the movie in order to relish it. Finally, you cannot miss the disco dancer in action dressed up in colored glass suit with mirrors, buttoned down shirt and an electric guitar with absolutely no coordination between the background music and the hand movements on the guitar.

The Village of Aksa - Chapter 3

Janaka slept late that night with the satisfaction of next day being a Saturday. The weekends were always relaxing for the students. There were no classes and the students were generally allowed to use the playground until 5pm unless there was an event or a competition between the ABCD schools. Janaka woke up really early to go to Sampa and inform him about his previous night’s meeting with Bala. But before he could get up he remembered that Bala had warned him of the Katurava curse. For a moment Janaka wondered if Bala was trying to trick him by warning him about the curse but quickly became cautious when he imagined himself as a frog. The desire to find out more about Mr.Khaus’s existence was burning inside him and soon he got dressed to go to Sampa’s room. Sampa was surprisingly awake at this hour.

“Why are you up so early? I was anticipating an ordeal to wake you up this morning.” said Janaka

“I have not been able to sleep well lately. I had a dream that involved you and Mr.Khaus.” Sampa went on to describe the details of his dream about how Mr. Khaus was instructing Janaka on the art of astral manipulation to travel to Aksa. The details of his dreams were very similar to the description that Bala had given him last night. Even though Janaka could see the impeccable similarities between Sampa’s dream and Bala’s description of the travel, he did not mention about Bala's description. Instead he was pressing his curiosity to find Mr. Khaus.

“Where do you think we can find Mr. Khaus? He is not a teacher in Ashra any more. In any case I wanted to ask you if you found out anything from Klacken?” asked Janaka

“I did meet up with Klacken yesterday. As expected he was reluctant to answer some of my questions in the beginning. He assumed that I was going to use this information in some way to get an edge over their school in the history contest. It took me some time to convince him that I was still his friend and would never use his information to harm him or his school in anyway possible. I even bought him a laddu at the canteen. Later during our meeting he mentioned that his history teacher Mr. Saman and he had discussed a lot about Aksa, some of which he wasn’t allowed to share with anyone. But what he did share was that no student of Atipu was allowed to go to Aksa without the consent of Mr. Khaus. It seems to me that Mr. Khaus is one of the most powerful yogis in this village and that everyone seems to obtain his permission in order to get to Aksa. Klacken also mentioned that the reason why our lives are so different from the norm is the result of the events that happened a long time ago. He did not go into too much detail about the events. It is now clear that Mr. Khaus is the person we need to meet.”

“Yes that was precisely my question. How do we meet him? I wonder if Taal knows anything about Mr. Khaus. Let’s go to her room and wake her up.” said Janaka.

Both Sampa and Janaka went to Taal’s room which was also in the same floor as theirs. Taal took a while to get up to the boys’ wild knocking of the door. Squinting her eyes, Taal slowly opened the door to the sunlight outside her room. Her room was very dark with the windows and blinds tightly shut.

“What do you want this early on a Saturday morning?” said Taal.

“Hey Taal. Sorry for waking you up from your sleep. Do you mind if we stepped in and discussed something important with you?” Janaka behaved as though it was justified to wake her up since he had something important to talk about.

“Yes it is pretty important Taal. Otherwise we wouldn’t be here so early.” said Sampa almost trying to second Janaka. Clearly it wasn’t that important that the two boys couldn’t wait for another hour or two, but they had already planned on coming up with a reason if Taal woke up with a grumpy face.

“How do you expect me to believe that its so important on a Saturday morning? Anyway you guys have already woken me up so there is really no point in me hitting the bed again. But remember this for next time; I don’t want you guys coming up to my room early on a weekend.” Taal pointed her fingers at them in an instructing manner.

The two boys came into the room and closed the door quickly so no one noticed them. Taking their respective seats, Taal put her hands on her chin waiting for one of them to start the conversation.

“It seems like Mr. Khaus is the one that can help us in finding information regarding Aksa. You mentioned that you heard him explain to a student about traveling to Aksa. Where exactly did you see him? I wonder if we can just go there and wait for him.” said Janaka.

Taal noticed the excitement in the two of them and said “Hmm I wish you guys hadn’t woken me up so early. I would have been able to tell you exactly where he was. Too bad you woke me up.”

“What do you mean? I thought you were okay and we assured you that this wouldn’t happen again. Come on Taal.” said Sampa in a frustrated manner.

“Yeh come on and be a sport.” said Janka immediately.

“I was referring to my dream. I was actually dreaming of Mr. Khaus helping the three of us.” said Taal.

Sampa and Janka could not believe what she was saying and showed an expression of disbelief.

“Yes. I am being serious. Mr. Khaus was not physically in my dream, he was only mentioned. It was Klacken who came to my room with both of you and he showed us the way to Mr. Khaus’s house. Before we got there you guys woke me up. Too bad we don't know the location.” Taal said in a teasing manner.

“This cant be true. Are you being serious?” said Sampa.

“Why would I lie about a mere dream? After all it was just a dream. You guys don’t think its true, do you?”

“No, of course we don’t. But the weirdest thing is that I had a very similar dream which did not involve Klacken. It was Mr. Khaus instructing Janaka on astral manipulation. Khaus took Janaka’s hand and sat under a tree. The two of them just disappeared in a little while without much effort.” said Sampa.

“This must all be happening for a reason. And the reason better be a good one. I just hope we don’t get in danger of some sort. For the moment, let’s just assume both of your dreams were true. It seems Klacken may be the crucial piece to start solving our puzzle. This time, the three of us should all go together to visit and speak with him. We must be frank about our visit and assure him that no harm would be done to him or Camili and that the information is solely for the purpose of our travel to Aksa and nothing else.” said Janaka.

“Lets go talk to Klacken after lunch.” said Sampa.

“Better. Lets take him for lunch to the canteen.” said Janaka.

“I think you guys are being hasty. We must think this over before going too fast. I would rather wait for a little while and come up with a plan to meet Mr. Khaus.” said Taal.

“How much longer do you want to wait? Haven’t we waited for the last 11 years? And besides, I really think that both of our dreams say something. Its hard for me to believe that all of it was coincidence.” said Sampa irritably.

“This is not the first time I had a dream like this one. I have had many more. I just haven’t mentioned any of them to you all because I thought you guys would make fun of me. Which is why I am saying that it might be a hasty decision to go meet Mr. Khaus right away?” said Taal.

“But we are not meeting Mr. Khaus right away Taal. We are just meeting Klacken. We don’t even know if he would have the answer to Khaus’s location. But I seriously don’t think there is any harm in trying.” said Janaka.

“Why don’t you guys go meet him and leave me alone on this one? I personally think it’s a little too early to think about all this.” said Taal. Taal’s stubbornness irritated the boys and they got up to leave the room.

“I am Sorry. It’s just that I am not comfortable doing this right now. But I am willing to help in any way I can.” said Taal apologetically.

“Well, thanks for your help.” said Janaka while the two of them left her room.

The village of Aksa chapter 2 - continued

Janaka’s room was on the third floor of Bolch Hall. Bolch hall was a coed dormitory for the sixth, seventh and eighth years who resided in the third, second and first floors respectively. There were two sets of stairs that went up from two ends of the lounge area. The lounge area was always packed during the day. Students loved the ornate decorations in the lounge that consisted of lamp shades with golden bars, chandeliers with diamond studs, huge couches and some excellent gigantic portraits of great tantrics and yogis on the walls. As Janaka ran past the lounge, he noticed Kanth and his gang of five sitting there. Before he could avoid them they jeered at him unnecessarily.

“Guess who is having secrets in school. Our man and his two loyal followers are devising a secret plan to do something. Janaka, why don’t you share with us your spicy seeecrrets? We can seek them out you know.” said Kanth that was followed by silly giggles from his friends.
Janaka had always found Kanth’s humor to be very distasteful and he was in no mood to argue and fight back at the moment. Janaka simply ignored his snide comments and fled up the flight of stairs to the third floor.

As he was walking toward his room, he heard funny sounds coming from one of the rooms as he was passing by. The noise had a constant treble of some inapprehensible clutter of words being uttered by a man who was a lot older than he. The odor that was seeping through the gaps around the doors hinted that might have been burning or smoking. He stood a little closer to the door to try and listen to what exactly was going on inside this room. He heard an old man chanting mantras and a boy repeating them at constant intervals. He thought it to be some kind of a ceremony but he was pretty sure that whatever was going on inside was against the rules of Ashra. No ceremonies were allowed in the rooms and lighting fire was certainly prohibited. It didn’t seem like the ceremony was going to end soon so he decided not to waste his time waiting and instead went to his room to find his schedule calendar.

He was glad that his schedule allowed him to visit Bala. He decided to leave right away for Kulch Hall and knocked on Bala’s door.
“Bala, are you free to talk right now? I have wanted to talk to you all day.”

“We just talked last night. Why can’t you be a little patient? I just got started with the homework on advanced Shearometrics. Make it quick whatever it is.”

Taking a seat next to Bala, Janaka said“I wanted to talk to you about how I can get to Aksa. I really want to see dad and mom. And besides, this village seems to be such a mystery I think it would be really exciting to see someplace that’s talked about so much here. Could you tell me how you managed to travel to Aksa?”

“It’s really complicated than that you know. I would prefer talking about this when the four of us are together. When do you want to do it? I can let Kashi and Kanak know.” said Bala

“I would prefer keeping all this confidential. It’s only you who I want to talk to. I heard Kanak is pretty close to Kanth and so I would rather not let it slip in Kanth’s ears.” said Janaka

Janaka noticed that Bala was being uncomfortable to talk to him in the absence of his siblings. Bala raised his eyebrows and then took a deep breadth and closed his room door.

“Listen, this is something I have never told anybody and I have always wanted to share it with you, Kanak and Kashi. But since it is concerning you, you may have a better right to know than they do. And besides, you did make a valid point about Kanth being in the loop.” said Bala

Janaka felt nervous about all this but the excitement of knowing something mysterious took precedence in his interest to sit down and listen to the story.

“It was right after you were born that I went to Aksa. Dad sent a message through a sage who lives close-by that he wanted me to come to Aksa to bring you here. At that time I didn’t have the presence of mind to question the sage of why and how we were supposed to go since I myself was pretty young. The sage took me to Mr. Khaus, who was then a teacher in Ashra and a real master in the art of astral manipulation. Mr. Khaus mentioned that none of the students from Atipu are allowed to do what I was doing but since I was a special case they had obtained permission from the head master. I didn’t bother asking further questions at that time since I was so excited for the travel. We went outside the school, walked about twenty minutes past the main street in the central village corner. He then took me to a secluded area and was very cautious about being spotted. We had to sit down in padmasana and then he instructed me to hold his left hand while he was holding a chain with beads on his right hand. He then asked me to close my eyes and think of something I liked. I could hear him chanting mantras in the background while I was dreaming about Aksa without ever having seen the village. After that all I could remember is opening my eyes in Aksa. I really don’t know what happened in the interim between closing and opening my eyes. Coming back was the same with the only difference being that you were on my lap. But coming to think of it now, I remember Mr.Khaus first pressing your temple for a while before leaving and then he applied some kind of yellow powder on you face. After that he wrapped you up with his cloth and then he instructed me to hold your left hand with my right hand while you were lying in my lap. That’s how we traveled.”

Janaka was already dreaming about how he could get there. It took him a while before he realized that Bala had stopped talking.

“Why did they send me away just like you were sent? Why are there no children in Aksa?” said Janaka in frustration.

“That’s a question that I have been trying to answer all these years. That’s the first time I saw mom and dad. No one is allowed to discuss this in school and I even wonder if the teachers know as much. Mr. Khaus threatened that if I talked anything about my travel to Aksa to anyone else other than you, Kanak and Kashi then the Katurava curse would act upon me and I would transform into a frog for the rest of my life. He specifically warned me not to tell you anything about the village of Aksa and that he would tell you himself when the right time came. I hope you understand my silence about Aksa all these years.” said Bala.

“What does dad look like? Your mom? Have you ever seen my mom?”asked Janaka curiously

“Dad seemed like a very humble person. Sadly, I couldn’t spend too much time with him. My mom had passed away by then and I didn’t see your mom in the one day that I was in Aksa. Its all very hazy right now. Its been so many years and I was pretty youngs when all this happened. It makes me want to leave Atipu and go to someplace where we can lead normal lives.”

Janaka was not really thinking in those lines. All he could think was how he could to Aksa.

“Is there anyone else I can ask or talk to about this? Can I go to Mr.Khaus?” asked Janaka

“Yes, I think it might be worthwhile for you to talk to Mr.Khaus. You will know if this was the right moment he was waiting for. But I really don’t know where he is now. You might have to do some research. But remember Janaka, don’t tell anyone what I have just told you. Please.” said Bala

“Ofcourse I won’t. I have been trying to keep this so much of a secret that I didn’t even want to involve Kanak.”

Diverting themselves from the serious talk Bala enquired about Janaka’s classes and how he liked them. Janaka was answering patiently until he wanted to go back to his room and mull all this information over.

The village of Aksa - Chapter 2

As usual the morning bell rang just after sunrise to wake up all the students. The bell was loud enough to wake up even the soundest of sleepers. As soon as he woke up, Janaka’s head was throbbing with the pain beginning from the furrow of his forehead slowing creeping towards the side near his ears. He got up to look outside his window to catch the first rays of the sun that was split by the golden shrine of the school’s temple hall at about hundred yards away from his room. Catching the sight of his classmates rushing to class made him realize that he too had to be in the appetite for yoga class in ten minutes. He hated the appetite for yoga class because the master, Mr.Roop, would frequently ask Janaka to come up to the front of the class and demonstrate the different postures that were being discussed for that day. Janaka’s small structure allowed him to be extraordinarily flexible but in this particular case played to his disadvantage. Fortunately for him, the instructor decided to demonstrate the postures himself during that day’s class.

Janaka was very restless in class because he wanted to share the previous night’s accounts with his friends Samba and Taal, who were now sitting in the opposite corner to him. It would be quite a while before he can actually meet with them and talk. After this there was just the creative writing class before lunch. He was already preparing a huge list of items to discuss. The half hour creative writing class seemed to extend forever in Janaka’s mind and he felt that words that came out of the master’s mouth were being drawled down to each vowel. When the recess bell rang for lunch, Janaka rushed towards Sampa and Taal to inform them of his meeting with Bala. The three of them walked to the playground cautiously to find a lonely spot.

“The whole thing is still a puzzle to me. It turns out that I am their step brother after all, we have the same dad. But Bala wasn’t clear about a lot of things. He did mention that we were also from Aksa and that he had been there just once. I have wanted to talk to you guys about this but since I came back late last night and got up just in time for class this morning I really didn’t get a chance. I don’t if we can make anything out of all this.”

Taal immediately asked “How did Bala travel to Aksa? I haven’t heard of anyone besides big yogis do that.” This was the first time Janaka saw some excitement in the two of them but apparently they were more excited about the village of Aksa than his own story.

“I have no idea. It must have been a long time ago, maybe when he was a kid. It’s just frustrating that he left me with no details about anything besides the fact that I am his step brother.” said Janaka.

Sampa, in a consoling manner, said “I’m sorry. It must have been hard for you to take all of this in one day. I know of a friend named Klacken from Camili who might give us some insight on all this. He is extremely close to his history teacher, Mr. Saman, who is well versed with the history of this area. But let me first talk to him. He is not a big fan of our school and so I would rather not gang up on him with questions.”

It was obvious to Janaka why Klacken did not like the company of Ashra students, infact no one from Camili liked Ashra. Camili came second to Ashra in the previous two Shorren championships even after having the home advantage for one of the years. The Shorren championships were held once a year and gave a fair opportunity for the ABCD schools to demonstrate their rivalry against one another in a variety of literary and sport activities under the supervision of all the headmasters and judges. The Shorren championship for this year was quickly approaching within the next couple of months and the excitement among students at Ashra was conspicuous as they were going to be the hosts. In the middle of all the rivalry and heat of the championship preparations, Janaka was less hopeful of Klacken in providing them with any information at all.

While the three were enmeshed in their own thoughts Taal suddenly broke the silence and said “It struck me now. Long time back, maybe more than two years ago, I heard Mr.Khaus, the retired master in the art of flying class, explaining to a student that he wouldn’t be able to go to Aksa without the master’s help. Noticing me eavesdrop on their conversation he quickly changed the topic of conversation. I couldn’t recognize the student but he must have been in his senior year at that time.”

“So that means Bala must have acquired the help of Mr.Khaus or some other person of the same caliber to go to Aksa. I must find out from him today how he got there. It seems like there is a lot that we are not aware of. By the way, where do the students go after their senior year anyway? Could they go to Aksa? I can’t imagine them being here as there is nothing in this village other than schools. They have got to work somewhere.” said Janaka

Sampa interrupted by ignoring the latter part of Janaka’s comment by saying“I think that’s pretty clear that we don’t know much in this matter. Infact I don’t know anyone in our year that even knows as much as we do now. Now that we might be stepping out of boundaries in this matter I would prefer to keep details from here on within ourselves and be very secretive about the whole thing. Be especially careful of Kanth and his group of friends, they are well known to spread secrets and rumors around and sometimes even complain to the teachers. Janaka, it might even be better to avoid this conversation with Kanak as he and Kanth are in the same study group.”

Backing support to Sampa’s final statement Taal said “Yes, beware of kanth. He even hinted to me yesterday after class that the three of us have been seen together a lot lately and asked me what the hottest topic of discussion in school was about. I just ignored his comments and asked him to mind his own business.”

Sampa giggled and Janaka agreed to comply with Sampa’s requests. The three of them spent the rest of the lunch time joking about Mr. Roop’s accent during his sessions on the appetite for yoga. They just had one more class on dance before the end of the day. Janaka found the dance class to be better than yoga as he wasn’t made the guinea pig in class. The dance madam, Ms.Gauri, was very expressive in both the way in which she taught her class and danced. She even gave them insights on the history of the dance pertaining to Atipu. One of the best aspects of going to any of the schools in Atipu was that all the subjects taught in those schools had some innate relation to Atipu or the surrounding villages. The teachers in several classes often pointed out that the syllabi was designed to create interests among students and they believed that that interest was most likely to spark from the topics they bore the closest relation to i.e., the village.

At the end of the day, Janaka walked back to his room in deep thoughts of his schedule to find time to meet Bala and ask him about all the things that were such a mystery to him. His determination to talk to Bala at that very moment was so severe that he galloped back to his room in concentrated speediness like a sprinter trying to reach his destination. When he approached bolch hall and before he could even stop himself from crashing onto the front doors, he felt an external force in him pushing his body forward to travel beyond the closed doors. Even as he consciously decelerated himself to halt, this unknown external force enabled him to travel through the doors and within a flash he was inside the building, without even opening the doors.

He was amazed at what just happened. He tried to relive the moment and thought it perhaps was a dream but then it wasn’t. He was so excited at what just happened to him that he now wanted to get out of the building in the same way. While trying to walk back through the door he banged against the door thereby injuring his nose. A group of boys who were walking across the hallway watched the comical scene and shook vigorously in bawling laughter. He was now confused and was wondering whether it was really an imagination. He was almost certain that he had just walked through the doors a couple of minutes ago and yet it seemed like a mere fantasy.

Looking at the confused expression on Janaka’s face one of his friends Schlapp who was also in the sixth year asked him if everything was okay. But Janaka had too many things going on in his head at that moment and hastily replied back that he was doing fine and that he was just in a hurry. But Schlapp was surprised to watch Janaka walk towards the lounge area rather than outside the building.

(Chapter - 2 to be continued)

Bird Flu

We all know how the avian bird flu virus is highly contagious among birds and humans. There have been three bird flu pandemics (the worst being in 1918) which has taken a huge toll around the world killing millions of people. The cause of bird flu is not clearly known as it is known to occur naturally in birds but what is clear is that it is spreading rapidly among birds and is a contagious virus. It is only a matter of time before a strain starts to develop among humans which could be transmitted easily creating another pandemic. Some of the worst bird flu symptoms are death due to illness, fever, failure to lay eggs, hemorrhages, etc. One strain of the bird flu virus called H5N1 is found to infect humans as well. Over 150 people have been killed by this infection across Southeast Asia (referred to as the Asian bird flu) including Japan, Cambodia, Thailand, Vietnam, etc. Most recently it has affected several parts of India too. Since it has been proven (temporarily) that the virus cannot be transmitted between humans the best way to prevent the virus is pretty obvious, to restrict oneself from eating chicken or turkey. I, after a long period of relishing meat and sea food, have managed to convert into a vegetarian and its been pretty successful I must say. I just had the 6 month annv since I was last tempted by any kind of meat.

Coming back to the important issue at hand, there have been only hand full of labs that have managed to identify the bird flu vaccines but they are still under clinical trials. The FDA after the trials is yet another battle. But even after all this trouble if the scientists managed to come up with something concrete, it is estimated that only certain amount of vaccine can be produced worldwide at a given time ~to treat 5 million people/week that is 1% of US population, and a fraction of the Indian population. Just seems a little scary but maybe I am just thinking too many steps ahead and there will never be a bird flu pandemic.

On the other hand, there should be a global policy to stem the advancement of the virus. It is going to be challenge to vaccinate all of the birds in especially rural areas where farmers are more concerned about their day to day living rather than vaccinating their farm birds. The importance of vaccination and the spread of the virus has got to be pointed to the rural communities and it has to be a joint effort by global organizations like WHO and the local governmental organizations within each developing nation. Scientists should also think of a way to come up with vaccines that could be used in smaller amounts rather than larger subsequently making the manufacturing and distribution process a lot simpler. Lastly, the developed nations have to bring their support in dsitributing wealth and knowledge to the poorer nations bringing in reform to trade laws to subsidize the costs for these vaccines. In this age of biotechnology and automation, they should not wait for the pandemic to happen like they did with AIDS.

How to waste time fashionably

The invention of the Television was a matter of dispute to start with. Nobody really knows who invented the TV. When TV itself is a dubious product what can you expect of the programs on it? I regret spending so much time watching nonsensical programs on TV when I could do bigger and better things in life such as watch the "O'Reilly factor" on fox. For those who don't know what I am talking about, Bill O'Reilly is this ruthless conservative (maybe a redundant phrase) who hosts this show everday of the week thats called the O'Reilly Factor (talk about self-conceitedness to the public). His creativity is "ingeniously" demonstrated by reciting the world news again while slamming liberals, the LA Times and the New York Times and lets not forget the democrats. He actually said on TV that the democrats and islamic jihads are enemies of the white house. What a genius. This is how he propogates hatrid among americans as Fox TV proudly admits to be the most watched channel among americans. Incidentally, I happened to be one of them yesterday.

The first story was regarding the port deal. I dont wanna delve into it as most of you know whats happenening. But this is what O'Reilly has to say after barbariously criticizing the deal a couple of days ago by linking the 911 hijackers and UAE.
Bill: I think Bush should tell the American public that there is nothing wrong with the dubai port deal. The only people who dont want the deal are Iran and Osama.

Hmmmm..I cracked up listening to that. I was wondering where he learnt to effectively read the minds of the Iranians and osama! If he would have done that 4 yrs ago the world would have been a better place. I should have just changed channels right then but I would regret later.

Later, O'Reilly was interviewing this retired US army Col. David Hunt regarding the abuse in Abugharib. This is how the conversation goes as far as I can recollect.

Bill: So col. what do you think about the new allegations regarding the abuses?
Hunt: I think this is just more publicisized than necessary to create sensitivity among the people. There is nothing wrong in doing "bad things to bad people".
Bill: Forget about the publicity but do you think it was ok to abuse the prisoners in the manner in which they were abused.
Hunt: (mind you, he doesn't say no) I think its perfectly ok to do bad things to bad people. That is what the US army is trained to do.
Bill: Define bad things
Hunt: By bad I mean bad. I mean physical torture.

Thats it. I had to change channels. I seriously don't know how they recruit officals in the army with such an animalistic mind set. I decided to increase my IQ by changing channels to msnbc (another news channel).

Apparently Anna Nicole Smith is in the supreme court fighting for her Ex husbands money worth a billion dollars. I didn't even know who Anna nicole smith was before I watched the news and neither did the judges in the suprememe court. My IQ indicator went negative after that story. Not surprising.

I realized that if the media didn't indulge on wasteful news everyday we could do so much good for the society. So I decided to switch to the BBC channel which is considered a bit better. And guess what the headlines was: Dog trial in romania. So a dog is physically on trial with lawyers on the defense as well opposition sides fighting. The allegation was that the dog spotted a foreigner and bit the man on his thigh. Guess what the man, who turned out to be Japanese, does in retaliation? Sues the dog. So he follows the dog around just so it doesnt go astray and then took it to court. I wonder how they will take the oath for the dog. I was wondering what would have happened if he were in India with the bajillion stray dogs?

I was just too pissed off to watch any more news. I felt like I had better things going on in my own life.

Time for a question:

Guess whats the one item thats not available at Mardi gras?

Will be back later