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Sunday, January 20, 2019
Monday, October 29, 2018
The Banished Secret: Chapter Eight
Aditya sat in a corner, feeling out
of place and bored. He and Abhi had arrived at Shyam and Vina’s
house at six and had been ushered into this room. It was a large room
which was already full of people the same age as Abhi and Aditya had
immediately felt out of place. He had found a seat in a corner and
Abhi had stayed at his side for a while before Aditya told him to go
and have fun. Abhi had resisted before gravitating towards his
friends. There were a lot of Aditya’s students among the guests,
and they came over to greet him before going back to mingle with
their friends. Abhi was dancing with a girl whom he remembered having
seen once or twice around the campus. Vina was flirting with one of
the boys from their class named Aakash and Shyam was nowhere to be
found.
He was wondering if it might be
polite to leave and was looking around to see if he can spot Shyam
anywhere when a stranger came and sat down on a chair next to him.
“Hi,” said the man. “You are
Abhi’s brother, aren’t you?”
Aditya looked at the man. He had
never seen him before. He was tall, with a pleasant open face, and
pair of very keen eyes.
“Yes,” Aditya said. “But how
did you know?”
The stranger chuckled. “Easy to
spot the resemblance. I’m Savit, by the way. I’m not from the
college, I’m a family friend of Shyam. That’s how I met Abhi.”
Aditya nodded. “Nice to meet you,”
he said, before relapsing into silence. What did one say in
situations like this? He had never had any skill in making small
talk.
“You’re a professor, aren’t
you? What do you teach?” Savit asked.
“Economics,” Aditya replied,
nearly suppressing a groan. It looked as if Savit wasn’t going to
leave soon.
“I’m a total ignoramus where
that is concerned,” Savit grinned. “Just scraped through with
pass marks in school.”
Aditya smiled faintly, not knowing
how to answer or if any answer was expected.
“You’re not drinking,” Savit
observed.
“I have to drive home,” Aditya
answered.
“Hmm… and your parents are on
holiday, I heard.”
“Not exactly. They have gone to
visit our grandparents.” Aditya wondered how Savit knew about their
parents not being home, but he did not explain that his grandmother
was ill and his parents would not be returning in the near future,
not till she improved anyway.
“I see,” Savit said, smiling.
“Well, nice talking to you, Aditya. Be seeing you around.”
Aditya heaved a sigh of relief as
Savit disappeared into the crowd of dancing youngsters. But the sigh
turned into a groan as Aakash sat down onto the vacant seat with an
ingratiating smile.
"Here you are," an unknown
girl with a bright smile grabbed hold of Aakash before he even
greeted Aditya. With a muttered apology, Aakash went with the girl.
"Enjoying yourself?" Shyam
took the seat.
"Would you feel offended if I
say no?" Aditya was tired of trying to make conversations. At
least with Shyam, he didn’t have to pretend.
Shyam shrugged. "Not really.
Abhi did warn me you were kinda anti-social."
"I'm not, but I'm not
comfortable with people I don't know." Aditya was offended. He
wasn’t anti-social. He just liked his own company or those of his
books more.
“Sounds anti-social to me,”
Shyam teased. “If you’re tired of the party, go and have dinner.
Buffet is arranged outside. You can go home afterwards."
"Abhi planning to stay here
tonight?" Aditya asked.
"I think so. We'll be glad to
have you too, you know." Shyam said.
"I think I'll go. I dread
having to make small talk to people I don't know." Aditya hadn’t
meant to have said it, but he wasn’t regretting having said it
either.
Shyam laughed. "Well, Saina
saved you from Aakash, didn't she? You didn't have to make any small
talk."
"Not with him. But there was no
one to save me from that Savit guy."
"Savit?" There was a
slight frown on Shyam’s face.
"He said he was a family
friend." Aditya said.
"Oh him! Yea. He's a bore. Come
to think of it, he wanted to stay the night too. And so did a couple
of others." Shyam frowned. "I’m beginning to see that we
don’t have enough room. Abhi will need to go home. How am I even
going to explain that?"
Aditya chuckled. "How fortunate
l did not take you up on your invitation!"
"I'm bad at organizing,"
Shyam grimaced. "I will probably need to sleep on the couch too.
Never mind. You go have your dinner. I shall bring Abhi too."
"He won't be happy,"
Aditya muttered.
"No, he won't. I'm hoping
he'll..." Shyam's brow cleared. "I got it! I'll come with
you two. I just need to throw a few things in a bag. How lucky
tomorrow is a holiday!"
"What? But it's your birthday!
You can't just leave your guests and go like that!"
"Vina will manage them. She
owes me one anyway. And mum and dad won't mind too much. You did meet
them today, didn't you?"
"Yes, when we came in. Why do
you ask as if they’re strangers to me?”
“Just ‘coz they’ll be asking
me later if you and Abhi attended. They’re not familiar with most
of this crowd, but they know and like the two of you.”
“Well, I haven't seen them since I
came in." Aditya couldn’t really make head or tail out of
Shyam’s explanation.
"Oh, they'll be around
somewhere. They don't enjoy this crowd, but they enjoy parties. I’ll
just go and tell them I’m coming with you, and we’ll all have our
dinner and we’ll go.”
"Well, if you're sure, you're
welcome to come with us." Aditya gave in.
"Thanks big bro." Shyam
flashed him a bright smile.
Saturday, October 20, 2018
Tuesday, October 16, 2018
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Sunday, October 14, 2018
The Banished Secret: Chapter Seven
Arnava stepped into the room
cautiously. He was carrying his bow and arrows, his dagger and his
sword. The room was empty. The entire building was deserted as was
evident from its dilapidated condition. Yet, he had been told to come
here. He pushed open the window, which protested with a creak, but
one pane still opened. One of the panes was stuck, and Arnava
desisted from using force to open it. The slanting rays of the
evening sun filtered in through the half open window. Arnava moved to
the other side and pushed aside the moth eaten curtains. The dust
made him cough, and he lifted his uttariya to his face to cover his
mouth and nose. There was a balcony beyond the door of which had been
boarded up.
He was not certain if he did the
right thing in coming here. Was it foolish of him to just come here
on the basis of an anonymous note? He wondered who had placed the
note on his room and why. Why had he been asked to come here? And by
whom? There was something fishy about it. The note had burned to ash
as soon as he had finished reading, but he still remembered what was
written on it. It had directed him to come here at sunset if he
wanted to save his brothers and his kingdom from disaster. What
disaster? He could not understand, but if any unknown danger
threatened his brothers or his kingdom, he could not just ignore it.
But seeing the condition of the building, and that there was no one
there, he was wondering if he made the right decision. He was glad he
was armed.
He heard a noise and whipped around,
arrow nocked. A hooded and cloaked figure stood just inside the room.
He felt a prickle that might have been fear. He had not heard its
approach. It? He did not know why he thought of this person as it,
but the person was standing so still, and the faint breeze that came
through the window and disturbed the dust and caused Arnava’s
uttariya to flutter caused no movement to the man’s robes. The hood
and cloak were both black in colour and covered the figure so
completely that not even a sliver of flesh was visible anywhere,
face, hands, feet all were covered.
"Who are you?" He
demanded, not lowering his bow. "Are you the one who asked me to
come? How did you get the note to my room? What disaster threatens
us?"
"Impatient," the voice
sent shivers down his spine. It was like no human voice he'd ever
heard; it reminded him of something slithering across the floor. "So
impatient you are, yet, some things are revealed only at the
appropriate time."
"So, it was you who asked me to
come.”
The hooded figure bowed his head in
agreement.
“If you don’t intend to tell me
anything, why did you ask me to come?"
“To tell you of your purpose,”
the voice dropped to a whisper, becoming almost a hiss.
"What purpose?” Arnava asked
impatiently. “Who are you to give me orders, or tasks?”
“Who I am is irrelevant, but the
task you’ve been set is important. Do not question it! It is the
will of the gods!”
“Gods?” Arnava scoffed. “I’m
sure there aren’t any who look like you. If you’ve called me just
to waste my time, I’ll be leaving.” Arnava half turned to leave,
when the figure spoke again, sounding agitated, the inhuman voice
becoming grating.
“The usurper you have taken into
your midst must be killed! You must kill him! Or he will be the death
of you all!"
"What usurper?" Arnava
frowned as he turned to face him again.
"The one named Bhaskara! Kill
him! Or he will kill you all!"
“What?” Arnava was incensed.
“He’s my brother! How dare you!”
“He’s death and destruction!
He’s not worthy! He must die!” The figure took a step forward.
Arnava took a step back, and
released the arrow, fury coursing through him. The arrow passed
through the figure and buried itself on the wall. The hood and cloak
crumpled to the floor. There was nothing underneath. He lowered his
arm and wiped his brow. His heart was hammering. He had no idea what
he just faced, or even what exactly had happened, but he knew he had
to get back to the palace before his father or brothers noticed his
absence.
Thursday, September 6, 2018
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